Chapter 4

“Are you stupid? That’s not how you defend yourself from getting punches.” Aaron yelled angrily upon seeing the way I blocked his punch using my right arm.

“But...”

I didn’t get a chance to argue back because he cut me off, “If you do it like that, your opponent can easily punch you in your stomach with his/her other fist.” He explained. He let out a huge breath before he continued, “How many times have I already told you? And you keep doing the same mistakes. Are you dumb?”

I fell silent as he scolded me. I didn’t dare to argue back. I knew I was a slow person. It took me quite some time to get things right. But there was no need for him to yell that I was stupid and dumb.

“Okay. That’s it for today.” He said coldly. I bowed my head down, didn’t dare to look at him. I could tell he was walking away. Was I that bad?

I lifted up my head. I saw Aaron was now sitting on a bench in the side of the room.

This wasn’t right. I was tired of being scolded. I should talk to him. Maybe he would be nicer if I talked to him. I already knew about his past. He was just lonely. Maybe I should start talking to him.

I walked towards him. I took off my boxing gloves and I sat down next to him. I placed the gloves on my lap.

Aaron didn’t seem to care so much about my presence. He didn’t even look at me. He wiped off his sweat with a towel.

“Hey Aaron!” I called him. Be brave Guigui. He didn’t bite and he wouldn’t bite. He was a nice person according to Calvin.

Aaron didn’t answer nor look at me which made me extremely nervous. I didn’t know why I was even nervous at a time like this.

“Are you alright?” I asked him. Gee Guigui, that . Was that all you could say?

Aaron turned to face me. I looked at him nervously as I had never talked to him so close like this before. We only talked while we practiced. It was never a good talk anyway. It was always him scolding me.

“Do I look not alright to you?” He asked coldly before he looked away. He could still keep his coldness. How cool was that?

“I heard you that you are the best boxer in this city.” I said confidently. Okay, that was much better.

“Not anymore.” He replied. I could feel the coldness he let slip out of his voice.

“How come?” I asked curiously.

“It’s none of your business.” He said in a cold voice and with bitterness. What was with the attitude? Was I not nice enough? Maybe it was a wrong idea to start talking to him. But I felt pity on him. I just wanted to be friends with him.

I stood up from where I was sitting and stood in front of Aaron. He took a glance at me before he took a big gulp from his bottle of water.

“You seem lonely.” I said. Why did I say that? I rubbed my head before I continued, “You know what? You can always tell me everything. W-we’re friends.” I flashed the warmest smile at him. Okay, that came out wrong.

I felt a little embarrassed. Aaron raised his eyebrows and looked at me curiously. I supposed he was wondering what crap I was talking about right now. Actually, I didn’t know what I was saying either. All I knew was that I wanted to talk to him.

We broke into an awkward silence. I really didn’t know what to say. I didn’t expect things to become awkward like this.

“GUIGUI!” Someone yelled out my name, breaking up the silence between me and Aaron. I instantly turned around to see who it was.

My eyes widened upon seeing the culprit who called my name. “A-CHORD!!” I was surprised to see him here. But I was happy at the same time. He ran towards me. “Why are you here?” I asked as a smile crept onto my face.

“Surprise!” He pulled me into a warm hug then he gave a warm peck on my forehead. I’d missed him terribly. We had not seen each other ever since I moved to this city.

“You-- you’re supposed to be here in two months.” I said. True. We were going to attend University together.

“Shouldn’t you be happy that I came earlier than I had planned to? Did you miss me?” He asked with a charming smile on his face.

“Of course. Wait! You have many things to explain.” I said. Of course he did. We had a lot of things to catch up with.

“Can we talk somewhere else? In a café maybe? I’m hungry.” He made a pouting face which made him look so adorable.

“Okay. I’ll go get my stuff.” I said happily. I was about to walk away to get my stuffs when suddenly I remembered that I was having a talk with Aaron. Ah, silly me. “Aaron…” I called him softly.

He gave me a cold glare as if he was waiting for me to say a word.

“Uhm… Aaron, this is A-Chord, my boyfriend. A-Chord, this is Aaron, my instructor.” I introduced them to each other.

“Hey man, what’s up?” A-Chord greeted Aaron nicely with a friendly smile on his face. Aaron didn’t reply. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even smile at my boyfriend. He only took a quick glance at A-Chord.

“Aaron, do you want to join us? We’re going to grab a bite.” I asked nicely.

Aaron stood up from where he was sitting. “I’m not interested.” He said coldly as he walked away from us. Gee, that was so rude.

“What’s wrong with him?” A-Chord asked softly as Aaron walked away.

I shrugged my shoulders as I watched Aaron walk away. Why was he still so cold? I had tried talking to him. Hadn’t it been four years since that incident? Sigh. I thought too much.

~~

Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world. The street was quiet as it was already late in the evening.

I was walking home back from sending a late dinner to my mom. This was the first time I had to send dinner to mom. Not that I didn’t want to, but she was working in a pub. I hated the fact that she was working in a pub although she was working there as a singer.

I always told my mom that I wanted to get a job, so I could at least help her in making some money. But she never let me to have one. She wanted me to focus with my study. This was summer and I had nothing to do. University had not even started yet.

It was really boring. I spent almost all my time in the academy. I had to practice boxing and kick boxing every day. Why did it have to be boxing? Why couldn’t Calvin be my instructor? At least, he was nice, friendly, and gentle. His charming smile gave me a very warm feeling. Why did it have to be Aaron? Why? Why? He was cold and rude. Although I knew what made him so cold, I still got irritated with his attitude.

Frowning, I closed my eyes, setting aside all distracting thoughts. I took a deep breath before I opened my eyes again. I continued walking while enjoying the night breeze.

“Let me go…” I could hear someone shouted. “Help! Someone, help me!” She shouted. Oh my God! Who was that? Should I go and check? I knew it was coming from the alley there.

I walked silently towards the alley. I tried not to make a sound. I hid behind a big trash can. I took a peek towards where the sound came from. A girl was trapped between two girls. What were they doing? I couldn’t help myself from being curious.

“No one is going to help you, b**ch! Now give me your money!” The tall one with short hair said threateningly.

The girl who was trapped cried, “I already gave you my money. Can you just let me go?”

The girl with long hair gave a smirk, “You think it’s enough? You should know that if you’re passing our territory, you need to pay!”

Okay, this wasn’t right. They were obviously bullying that poor girl. They were stealing! No, robbing!

Maybe I should just leave. What if they saw me and asked for my money? Hello, I got no money.

I was about to walk away when I heard the girl started to cry helplessly. I took a peek once again. My eyes widened. The two girls were now hitting and kicking the poor girl. She was lying on the ground in pain.

Oh God! What should I do? I could not let her being bullied. Poor girl. I needed to help her.

I began to get nervous. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t be so heartless to just leave, could I? What if this was happening to me and no one helped? Gosh, that would be sad. I should help her.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Okay! I knew could do this. I knew some boxing technique. I should be able to kick their asses. Yes, I could do this. Just remember everything that Aaron had taught me. Okay.

“Hey! How dare you bullying a poor girl at this time? What a shame!” I came out from my hide and yelled at them bravely. I didn’t know where and how I got the guts. I could only hope they wouldn’t go after me now. Please, go away.

Those two girls stopped hitting the poor girl and looked at me instead. Okay, this wasn’t good.

“How dare you interrupting our business?” The tall one with short hair asked. She looked furious. Her eyes were glaring at me.

“Business? Stealing money is what you call business?”

“Hey little kid, just go home! Your mom is probably looking for you right now!” The girl with long hair laughed. Did she just make fun of me?

“I’m not a little kid!” I shouted. “Now, let her go!” I said as I pointed to the girl who got bullied.

The girl with long hair smirked, “So, you’re not afraid of us huh?”

“Why would I be afraid? You guys are nothing but useless people! If you need money so bad, then go find a job instead of stealing from people and threatening them!”I shouted gruffly. WOW! I was cool. I never thought I would say something like that.

Those two girls made eyes at each other before they looked at me. I felt something bad was going to happen.

They walked towards me.

“What do you want?” I asked as I began to get scared. Oh no! What were they going to do now? “I’m telling you I know some boxing, so don’t you dare doing something bad to me!” I said threateningly.

They were now right in front of me.

“You shouldn’t have said that we were useless!” The girl with long hair said before she gave a slap on my face.

The girl with short hair kicked my stomach making me fell on the ground. I felt a bit pain in my stomach, but I didn’t cry. It wasn’t that bad.

“Show me what you got! Where did you boxing skill go? Oooooooh… I’m scared, she knows boxing.” They laughed out loud.

That was it. You were asking for it. I got up and stood in a boxing stance. I took a small step backwards with my right foot and rotate my feet 45 degrees to the right. I brought up my hands, protecting my chin, ready to punch them.

They made eyes at each other again before they burst out laughing.

“So scaryyyyyyyyyyyy…” The one with short hair said sarcastically.

“So, are you scared?” I smirked.

Their faces turned into a serious expression.

“Never ever look down on us!”

The girl with the short hair slapped me. The other girl also gave a slap on my face. Then they started hitting and kicking me. I fell on the ground. They kept kicking me. Why was I that weak? I knew some technique. But why was I so stupid? Why couldn’t I just punch them?

Pain. Pain. I started to feel pain as they kicked me. One of them was kicking my leg. The other one was kicking my upper body. I wanted to cry. Maybe I was just that weak and stupid. No wonder Aaron loved scolding me.

“What are you doing?” A could hear a gentle voice. His voice was like a melody. I knew this voice. It was him. I couldn’t turn my face to look at him. I was in pain. I hardly could breathe. Suddenly, those girls stopped kicking me.

“Aaron!” One of them gasped. They knew Aaron?

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Long chapter :D

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