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Whenever autumn arrived; Lee Yue’s school would organize their yearly trip to the pumpkin fields where they’d prepare for a big Halloween fair at the school grounds. There was a workplace where they’d carve the pumpkins they’d harvest from the fields and a small shop. Yue never enjoyed these trips, nor the fair her school organized. Unlike her classmates, Yue was shy, insecure and would mostly keep to herself. Because of this behavior, Yue’s classmates bullied her for being significantly different than them.

 

And like the previous year, Yue was sitting in the back of the bus with her headphones plugged into her ears, trying to ignore the obvious laughter of her classmates while they pointed at her. The girl had her long brown hair tied in a messy bun and was wearing her white and navy blue school uniform. The other second year high school students in the bus never failed to make her feel even more insecure, and Yue wondered whenever they would stop pestering her.

A deep sigh left Yue’s lips when the bus stopped at their destination. The other students happily got off the vehicle; excited for their day.
The young girl skittishly looked at her classmates when she took out her headphones and put them together with her phone in the pocket of her jacket. She had hoped the teacher would remember that she would rather stay with her instead of join in with the other students.

“Alright students!” their homeroom teacher grabbed their attention as soon as everyone was gathered, “I’ll divide you in groups of five. Stick with your group and we’ll see each other back at the bus for lunch in an hour!”
With a loud voice, the homeroom teacher called out the names of the students who were in a group together. To Yue’s disappointment she heard her name being called in a line of names which belonged to the classmates who picked on her the most. “This half of the groups goes to the workshop and that half goes to the fields. Enjoy yourself!” The teacher shouted while pointing at them.
The students all shouted “Yes ma’am!” before huddling up in their groups. Like always, Yue was stuck with girls who didn’t seem to like her at all.

“Why are we stuck with Yue?” one bluntly said.
“She’ll be a bother all day!” the other complained. Yue tried not to pay much attention to them and just silently followed them into the pumpkin fields. Her group walked in front of her and seemed to have decided on going to the farthest ends of the fields.
“Hey Yue,” the first girl said with an evil smirk, “Why don’t you go all the way over there and get those pumpkins. We’ll sort out this part.”
“Sure,” Yue muttered, not willing to argue with the girl. As a matter of fact, Yue was quite glad they’d let her be on her own instead of bothering her constantly. But her gratitude would soon turn around.

“Here?” Yue asked when she walked around 5 meters away from the girls. “No, no much more further!” the second girl said, giggling.
“Where do you want me to go for gods sakes?” Yue started to get annoyed.
"Can't you just leave already?" The snarl of another classmate reached her ears as she watched her approach with an intimidating posture.
“Why are you like this?” Yue muttered, backing off a little. The girl didn’t stop approaching her and shoved Yue hard, resulting in her almost tripping.

“We don’t want you here!” the girls started shouting at her while looking over their shoulder to check if the teacher saw them. Yue started to panic. Would the girls actually hurt her? They kept coming towards her and she decided to run, not waiting around to find out if they would. Her feet moved like the wind when she noticed the girls chased her down.
Yue kept running and running until she couldn’t hear her classmates anymore. Wanting to check if they really left her alone, Yue glanced back.