My teacher and I walked slowly down the hall. My hands were still tied, and I was embarrassed. But still, I just needed to go back to class. My grades were already beginning to slip, and if I didn’t go, I would be behind.

“How about we go to the principal’s office, Yuna? You won’t have to face the class like this, and you could talk to him about what happened.”

I shook my head. “Let’s just go to class,” I muttered. Even if facing my class would be embarrassing, I didn’t want to face the principal. Wouldn’t he try to pry as much information out as possible? Even if he could suspend or expel those girls, they won’t be exiled from the country; therefore they would still be able to torture me.

I looked at the floor as I walked, and my teacher sighed. I knew she wasn’t taking me to class, anyways.

We began to approach Eddy and Koharu’s class, and I hoped that they wouldn’t see me as I walked by. They would be too busy, right?

Wrong!

Just when I thought I had walked by safely, I heard the teacher in the classroom say, “Where do you think you’re going?” and the swinging of the door.

“Yuna!”

It was Eddy.

I turned my head slowly, but I wouldn’t look him in the eye.

He walked over to me, speechless. He let out a frustrated sigh as he wrapped his arms around my neck and put his forehead on mine.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,” he said, his voice breaking.

I didn’t know how terrible I looked, but I must be through.

Koharu walked out of the classroom, with the same protest of the teacher, who followed her outside. Eddy pulled away from me so that Koharu could see me, and she immediately embraced me with her head buried in my neck and began sobbing.

“Koharu, it’s not your fault,” I assured.

I felt so horrible. What have I done to my friends? I wondered. Because I’m weak, I let them become my bodyguards, and for that, they feel guilty when I’m hurt.

That wasn’t the kind of relationship I wanted when we met. So why had it come to that?

My mother came to pick me up. I kept telling her it was fine, since I only had one class left, but she told me that she was coming and there was nothing I could do about it.

As soon as I walked into the apartment, I walked right into my room and laid down. But my mother wasn’t going to let me rest right away.

“Yuna, if this was still going on, why didn’t you tell anyone? I thought you said they stopped.”

“I don’t feel like talking about it.”

“Yuna, you need to tell someone what’s going on or it’s not going to stop.”

“Mom, if I tell anyone, they’re going tell the whole school about what happened… back then.”

She gasped. “Why would they do that?”

“Because they’re cruel.”

She sighed, as if saying Well, obviously and came to sit next to me and she ran her fingers through my hair.

“They won’t do that honey. I don’t know anyone that would.”

There was a knock on my bedroom door.

“What?” I asked sleepily. It woke me up.

“I already said four times before, Yuna, dinner’s ready.”

I sat up. Why is Eddy here?

Well, duh, he’s always here.

I got up and went to the door to eat dinner, but when I opened the door, Eddy was still standing there.

“What?”

I didn’t feel comfortable since the situation that last happened between us in there made me uneasy, but he still wouldn’t budge.

“Yuna, are you okay?” He put a warm hand on my face.

“No.” I closed my eyes. I could sleep in that position.

“There was an announcement after school. They addressed the bullying issue. They don’t know who it is, just so you know.”

I nodded. “Maybe if they don’t mention who it is, they won’t go around spreading rumors, but hopefully they will stop.”

Then he sighed again and kissed me. “Let’s go eat, okay? You look a bit pale.”

Dad strangely hadn’t gotten home yet, but Koharu had, and she helped to cook dinner too. Luckily, she wasn’t the only one cooking or we would have to starve. She can’t cook to save her life.

To keep conversation light, her and Eddy kept it on positive topics, like how Eddy taught her how to make my favorite okonomiyaki, which thrilled me since I love the stuff. And how Ichiro’s plans for the Sports festival was going well. And then Tomi gave us the greatest news that night.

“I got accepted into WashU.”

We all dropped our forks. Well, except Koharu. “What’s that?”

“It’s a college in St. Louis.”

Then she got excited. “Really?! That’s great, Aniki!” She got up to go hug him excitedly, and I got the sparkling juice from the fridge to celebrate. Tomi was going to a well known college in America.We couldn’t be any happier. But before we really had a chance to celebrate, Dad walked in.

“I’m HOO~OOOME!”

Mom and Koharu ran to the door, and Eddy, Tomi, and I rose up slowly so not to bump into them.

As we made our way to the door, I heard Mom and Koharu’s mood change.

“Honey, what were you doing after work?”

“Father, you can’t let Yuna see you like this.”

Still, we walked into the scene. Dad was a mess. His hair was wild, his tie was on his head… he looked like the typical drunk.

“Yuna, how are you, hon’?” He stumbled my way to give me a hug.

He smelled strongly of beer.

“Get off of me,” I said weakly.

“But honey, I missed you, and I want to know if you’re okay.”

“No, I’m not okay! Get the hell off of me!” I pushed him away and ran into the bathroom, emptying myself of the dinner we just had.

Koharu ran into the bathroom and pat my back. “Yuna, are you okay?”

Does it look like it?

When I was done, I washed my face and mouth. “What the hell is wrong with him?!”

“Yuna, he’s stressed, that’s all. Don’t be so upset…”

I glared at her. “Did you smell him? Did you see him?”

“Yuna…” Koharu tried to reach out to me, but I swiped her hand away.

In the living room, I heard Tomi and Mom arguing with Dad, scolding him about how he couldn’t do that, how it could bring me flashbacks, which is exactly what happened.

I rubbed my head in frustration.

I looked up and saw Eddy in the doorway.

“Yuna, what the hell is happening?”

Without a word, I stood up and pushed my way passed him.

I walked right passed my family and out the door.

I walked right into an open elevator, despite the calling of my name.

As soon as the elevator stopped at the ground floor, I ran out the door.

I rode my bike as fast as I could. I didn’t have a particular place I wanted to go to, but I just wanted to get as far from home as possible.

I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go back after my ride.

Soon, I found myself at the old abandoned park. Was it safe to rest there?

I parked my bike at a bench and walked blindly to the tree. The cherry tree that I used to go to whenever I felt down, even though I hadn’t been there for years.

And to my surprise, Shuta was there.

“Yuna, hey.”

“Hi.”

I sat next to him and, without thinking, laid my head on his shoulder. It was just like when we were kids.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

He laughed. “Isn’t it obvious? You’re being bullied and nothing’s being done to change it. I’m worried about you.”

I looked at him with a weak smile, and I felt his arm reach behind me so he could put his hand on my waist and bring me closer to him.

“My Dad came home drunk today.”

He nodded.

I sighed. He didn’t understand, I know. He didn’t understand what the smell of beer meant to me.

Shuta looked at me. Our faces were centimeters away from each other.

“Yuna… do you know how much I missed you?”

“I guess.”

But he shook his head, and I saw his eyes start to glisten. “No, Yuna. I didn’t just miss you as a friend who hadn’t seen you for years. I was scared.”

I sat up and looked at him closely. “What do you mean?”

Shuta looked at the ground, then back at me and sniffed. “Yuna, in case you didn’t know, I know what happened before I left. I know that you hadn’t just gone missing.”

I looked down. “What do you mean?”

“I know you were kidnapped Yuna. I know you hadn’t just run away. I was here long enough to know that.”

I looked at him, his tears rolling down his face endlessly.

“Shuta…”

He waved his hand and shook his head, letting me know he wasn’t done. “I don’t know the whole story, but when my family moved, I was scared. And for all these years, I thought you were dead. We moved to England because my family thought it would happen to me, but I wanted to stay because I wanted to see you again. That’s why we’re back. I needed to make sure I was wrong.”

He had to stop talking because his crying was getting in the way of what he was saying, and I hugged him.

“Shuta, it’s okay, I’m alive, so you don’t have to worry anymore.”

“But Yuna, you’re different,” he whispered.

I pulled back. It reminded me of all the times I’ve heard it, from my family, Koharu, Eddy… Especially Eddy. And now Shuta.

But I didn’t get it.

“What do you mean? How am I different?”

Shuta looked up at me and pulled himself together. “Yuna… you used to… hmm.”

“Just spit it out, I’m tired of everyone saying that.”

Shuta looked as if he didn’t want to say it because it might offend me, but I really wasn’t in the mood for all that anymore.

“Yuna, you were very strong. Even if kids were teasing you at school, you would stand up for yourself. You were more outgoing and didn’t care what people thought of you. You always had a zillion things to talk about, and now you can hardly talk. You were a leader. And you always said that you wanted to help others by using your experiences.” He looked me hard in the eyes. “But now you’re different.”

I wanted to say that people change. We hadn’t seen each other since what happened in fifth year of elementary school. I wanted to say that we were kids and I had to learn things when I got older. Then I began to wonder if I had said all that. It sounded more like Koharu, anyways.

But I couldn’t say all that. Because he was right. That was all me. It was who I used to be. Even after I “completely healed” it was me again. That’s why I was able to talk to Eddy the year before. It was why I was in the top of my English class. But it was always the secret that had me off guard.

“Shuta, I’m trying, but you don’t understand.”

He put his hand on my cheek and said, “Yuna, I miss you.”

Then he kissed me.

I didn’t kiss him back, but even when I should have, I didn’t stop him. Yet when he pulled away, I wiped my mouth.

“Shuta, I have a boyfriend.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“I think I love him, Shuta.”

“I think he loves your family more. Isn’t he always over your house?”

I looked at him then stood up.

“I gotta go back home.”

“Okay.”

“But… thanks, I guess. I feel a little better now.” Because I got to talk to him, or just be with him. not because of the kiss.

I walked back to get my bike, and rode back to the apartment. When I got there, it was quiet. No one was home. Because I didn’t feel like talking to them, I just took a bath and texted everyone before immediately turning off my phone and going to sleep.

I was able to walk into the school and change my shoes without being touched, but they were staring at me, those girls, some looking angry and others looking smug. It was a bit odd.

Esumi came up to me after what I saw was an inward conflict of whether or not she should.

“Yuna…” she said nervously, “Yuna, I’m so sorry about what all happened to you. I admit, I do have a crush on Eddy, but I know that my actions that resulted from it were unacceptable and that I don’t deserve your forgiveness, so if there is anything you want me to do, I will do it for you in a heartbeat.” She bowed. She was shaking and was trying to keep from crying.

“Esumi, let’s just go to class. We can talk about it.”

I walked, and she came behind me. We walked to class quietly, but there was a commotion going on in front of our classroom.

When I reached there, it was crowded, and I initially had a hard time just getting to the doorway until the students saw me. They moved away, some of them looking at me in disgust.

“What the hell is going on here…?”

Then I saw it.

All over the chalkboard.

Newspaper clippings.

About me.

I hope this update was okay. Well, yeah, it but I hope it gets more interesting in the last few chapters.

Please give me feedback or let me know why you liked it... if you did lol