3 A Dangerous Situation

After those events, Aron was pretty much depressed. His friends and grandparents comforted him and suggested to atleast take a break from college, but he refused.

He already missed a lot of the lessons in his class and though he was considered a genius, he still needs to study and learn to reach the top of his class and the school.

A week ago after the burial, he finally connected to his girlfriend's phone and ask her on why she didn't answer his calls. She said that she and her parents went out to the countryside for an emergency, there was no signal to where they went and thus she haven't received his calls.

He nodded in understanding and told her about what happened to his mother. After he finished on retelling those events, she went silent for a moment. Confused on why she's silent he asked

"Lisa-san? Are you there? Is there something wrong?" Aron asked. Hearing his concern, she finally answered after some hesitation and said.

"Ah.. ehh...uhmm, I'm fine. I was just.... shocked for a moment, I didn't know that happened... I'm sorry.... for your loss..." She said as her tone became heavy.

Aron sighed in sadness. After a moment of silence, he said. "You know....mom said that she was reluctant to leave, knowing that I will be alone here in Japan... But when she found out that I finally made a girlfriend she said she was relieved that atleast I will not be alone here." He stopped for a moment, but then asked. "You won't leave me... right?"

There was silence in the other side of the line, as aron patiently wait for her answer. After a brief silence, Lisa answered. "uhm.... of course... I won't leave you".

Aron smiled in contentment and said, "thank you... lisa". To which she replied by saying. "No problem... I... am your girlfriend... after all." She then hunged up her phone after she finished saying those words.

Hearing the long beep of the phone which signified that the call was hunged up, made aron frown. He looked at the phone strangely but then sighed as he put the phone that was gifted to him by one of his friends after the burial to his pocket and thought. 'Strange, she's usually very cheerful, when we were still friends, she would try to cheer me up whenever I feel down. I wonder if something happens?...I'll ask her later"

He then went to his room to study the things he missed. After a couple of weeks, he drowned himself to both studies and work in order to hide the pain he felt for the loss of his mother, his grandparents also went back to the philippines and told him to take care and call if something happens, he and his girlfriend, lisa also spend their time together at school whenever they're free.

...

Sunday: Nov. 15, 2019; Time: 4: 56 P.M

In a busy street in japan, there was a mascot busy giving fliers and waving his hand to the little children he sees. This is exactly aron in one of his part time jobs, he was now wearing a hot dog bun mascot to attract customers to a nearby food stall. While giving fliers to the people. He would perform a little dance to entertain them and when he turned around to find more people, he accidentally bump to someone.

Feeling sorry, he was about to apologize, when he saw who it was. He was shocked yet happy, it was exactly lisa, his girlfriend.

Feeling surprised, he was about to ask how she found out that he was working here when he suddenly heard an angry voice. "Wtf, man! Can't you see where you going at? Your ruining my date! Hmph! Come on babe, before I trash this mascot to a pulp." Hearing the way he calls her, Lisa frowned a bit, but still listened.

Aron looked behind her and recognized the man as the captain of the basketball club when he was in highschool. He knows, because he was also once a captain of a club, the kendo club to be exact. But it was only for a year when he stopped because they were framed of food poisoning that time, he only looks skinny because of the lack of nutrition his body received.

They were about to go when Aron stopped them. "wait!" They both stopped. Lisa also looked at him and thought he would apologize for bumping into her, which she didn't mind.

But then the mascot asked. "Date? Y-you... you guys are dating?!" He asked stuttering, if he remove his mask, you can see his expression who is now in utter disbelief! The man then said. "Yeah, we're dating! You got a problem punk?!"

Lisa, who can't take it anymore, said to the man beside her as she threatened in a low voice. "Stop making a scene and keep on attracting attention or I'll leave".

The man only responded in a laidback manner. "Heh, we both know you wouldn't do that. Besides, let them look all they want, ain't that such a turn on~? Getting all the attention in public~".

Aron's eyes went bulged! He was enraged.Though they speak in a low voice, aron still heard a few words like "making a scene" and "turn on" which made him connect all the things he found out today and the conclusion he reached enraged him to no end.

Lisa glared at the man fiercely as she rolled her eyes in annoyance. She was about to apologize to the mascot this time for the inconvenience, but was surprised when the man slowly remove his costume in front of them.

There you can see the sweated body of Aron standing in front of them with a mixture of anger, disbelief and confusion on his face.

Lisa, seeing her boyfriend right in front of her, went pale as a ghost. She was very shocked that her boyfriend was here and was panicking greatly as she hurriedly said. "T-T-Th-this is not what you think! I SWEAR! Aron! Listen!"

But for Aron? He felt like each and every word she said, all worth a shit. He was so angry right now as he has no time to listen to her reasonings.

He was originally a prideful man afterall. Though not to the point of arrogance, but he was still a prideful man. He set aside his pride and worked hard in order to give his mother a better life, but all that was lost.

Now he still choose to disregard his pride and wore costumes on some of the part time jobs to receive extra money in order to finish college. But it's not like he look down on this kind of jobs, it helped him many times afterall. He also thought of maybe marrying his girlfriend in the future and live a luxury life, but now... This?! He was actually being cheated the whole time?!!

The man beside lisa also asked in an angry tone. "What are you stuttering about?" The man look at aron and then said. "Heh, one of your boy toys? Nothing remarkable at all, look at him! Even a rat when soaked was more attractive than him! Hahahaha". Lisa, hearing that, was so angry that she unhesitantly slapped the man right on his face.

*Pak*

Being slapped right in front of so many people enraged the man to no end, so he raised his hand and was about to land a slap on her face.

When suddenly, he was hit to his guts by a half a meter wooden stick by aron who found it lying nearby. Followed by a fast movement, he struck the man's head which made him dizzy and for the final touch, he kicked him to his chest and knocked him down as he then said "I think your the only one who would find a rat attractive". He said with no emotion behind his voice, to the point that you would think of his earlier expressions as a facade.

The people around watched with curiosity and enthusiasm. It was rare for this kind of drama to happen after all. Lisa who was about to be slapped was shocked as she looked at Aron who had a blank look, without any emotion on his face.

She was about to explain something to Aron, but he cut her words by saying. "Your lucky... Your a woman... My pride won't let me hit you. But do remember... that from now on... we're strangers."

He look at her in the eye and said coldly. "You made me realize how foolish I've become... so I'll let this slide, but the next time you show your face in front of me and talk about us.... I won't even hesitate to hit you." Finished saying those words with no emotion, he then throw the wooden stick he was holding to the side, then picked up the costume to give it to the owner in the nearby stall and apologized with a bow.

Lisa who heard his words, shook uncontrollably as she then kneeled down to the ground and cry right there in front of so many people.

Meanwhile Aron started to think of his actions before. Based on his observation, aron thought that she might have a reason, but he's not having it... The fact that she betrayed him was enough to end it. He walked away and thought, 'Mom, wherever you are, I'm sorry for dissapointing you, but I will try not to be lonely and continue to live. I promise'.

Now that the adrenaline rush he felt at that moment went out, he just feels his body sore in pain. His body was not used with those types of movements anymore. He was just tired, and empty, he feels like he was alone in this world but immediately dispelled that feeling.

He then made his way home and in order to arrive there quickly, he choose to go for a shortcut in a dark alley, it was now 6 p.m so he need to hurry home. He just wanted to rest this tired body of his.... But, that's when he heard footsteps behind him, not just two but many more. When he looked back, he was surprised to see familiar faces there.

'These people were the collectors of our debts' he thought. But then he was confused, It was not time to pay yet, why are they here? His questions was answered by the skinny man who had his hair dyed red, he was also holding a bat in his hand.

"Yo! mama's boy!" His words was followed by the laughter of his friends. Aron frowned and ask, "why are you here?". The man then said " Huh?! Us? Nothing much, we actually planned to go to your apartment today, and collect the money." Aron then said "it's not the time to pay yet, why would you collect it now?" The thug then raised his bat in front of aron's face and said "because we like to, you got a problem with that?!" He then continued " and if you don't have money, we plan to have your mother for tonight! Ahahahaha". They then started to laugh.

Aron, hearing that was enraged. But before he could say something, the thug then said. "It's a pity she's dead, I heard she has a problem on remembering things?! Then we should really have tasted her back then! And she won't even remem-" but before he could finish what he was trying to say, he was punched to his face.

Aron who was enraged charged at him again and hit his face, over and over again. The thug who put his guard down a little didn't expect this, for he thought that this kid was just another wimpy nerd who would cower in fear.

Realizing that their friend was being beaten black and blue, the other thugs then moved and tried to grab aron, but the keyword was 'tried'. Aron who saw their movements hurriedly took the baseball bat that was on the floor and swung it full force to the face of the closest thug that tried to hold him down. The thug then fell down unconcious and dropped his knife in the process. He hurriedly counted his enemies while crouching down and noticed 7 of them, one who he just punched and the other one that he bashed, there were only five people remaining, 3 who aslo have weapons with them.

Feeling his back ache due to that swing, he showed an opening a bit, giving the thug behind him a chance and hurriedly got a hold of his right arm which hold the bat. Seeing this, the other thug then tried to hold his other arm while the one in front who had a knife tried to stab him, but thanks to the thug who's intending to hold his left being careless, he easily kicked him to the groin which made him whimper in pain and kneeled, aron then release his grip to the bat on his right and catch it using his left, holding the weapon, he swung it to the other thugs wrist, who lost the grip on his knife. After that, aron headbutted the one that's holding his right which made them both dizzy, but aron bit his tongue and gave the thug a powerful blow on the head with the bat. Seeing the thug fall down, he then carefully took a stance and look at the 3 remaining thugs. The 3 have weapons, one holding the knife, the other holding a 1 meter wooden stick whille the last one had a brass knuckles on.

Panting... He feels like he was about to collapse anytime soon, but he refuse to faint without beating the hell out of this bastards. The thug who was holding the knife then yelled at him. "You m*****f*cker! Do ya know what yer doing aight now?! We can sue ya for attacking us ya b*st*rd!"

Hearing this, aron just smirked while looking at them. Seeing this, the man who had the knife got angry and charged at him while shouting " WHAT'RE YA SMIRKING AT! YA B*ST*RD. Seeing this, his two thugmates(I'll just call them this) also rushed, intending to end this once and for all.

Inhaling a breath of cold air to calm his tense nerves, he thought 'It's just to Do or Die!' Then waited for the first thug to get close. When the thug got close enough, he then unexpectedly made a swing motion like he was about to throw the bat he was holding, well he actually did throw it high upward. This confused the man with the knife and his two thugmates. This then made the three thugs unconciously divert their attention from him and look at the baseball bat above. Aron then took out a knife behind his back, which is the same knife the thug he first bashed dropped,. He wasted no time and slash the arm of the one who's holding the knife, which caused him to drop the knife again. Aron kicked the knife out of the way and while the man was focusing his attention in his bleeding arm, he then punch him to the face, followed with a kick in the groin.

He then got hold of the man and covered him with his body then made a slashing motion in which actually didn't slashed anything. But to the two thugs point of view, it looks like Aron ended their friends life with that slash of his knife. Controlled by their fear they lost their momentum which granted Aron an opening and took advantage of it, so he then used a roundhouse kick to the man with brass knuckles, to which it hitted him squarely to the face knocking him down. Aron was left open that the man with the wooden stick thought that it was his chance, but when he was about to strike, he then heard the sound of something behind him so he looked behind him to which Aron wouldn't let the chance slip upon and took the brick nearby to bashed his head. The last memory of that thug before falling down was the scene of which the baseball bat was still bouncing a little which was the effect from falling high up above.

"Damn! I'm lucky I was right!" He said out loud then thought. 'Base on my observation earlier the last two thugs looks so young, so I bet they haven't killed anyone before and I just use their fear towards it to destroy their momentum... that was a gamble'. He then mumbled "didn't know those skills thought by my father would be used now *pant *pant, I would still not forgive him though..." Aron, while panting and close to losing his conciousness look at the baseball bat and mumbled "I almost thought I missed the timing *pant *pant *pant, guess my calculation was still right on the spot" he said, clearly glad, proud and tired.