Side story: Aurum's childhood

Aurum was not always the kind of guy who fights with other guys right away. He was once a naive young boy like any other kids out there. Although he was born in a mediocre household, he still loved the way how they lived. His parents would always pamper him even if they were tired. However, every time he goes out of the house, he would always end up being bullied. However, he didn't let that prevent himself from going out.

Be that as it may, the bullying only got worse. At first, kids of the same age would only make fun of him. The next thing he knew, they bullied him physically. Until, they finally threw some rocks at him even if he did nothing and was just passing by.

Aurum, who was kept being bullied, finally went to his parents and told them about it. When they heard what happened, they were furious and immediately went to confront those parents whose children bullied their son.

After that incident, the bullying was immediately stopped. However, whenever he went outside, all of the other children would avoid him and look at him with a disgusted look. Still, he felt indifferent towards their attitude towards him.

Whenever he come back to the house, his parents would always ask if he was bullied again, but he would say the same answer every day.

"Don't worry mum and dad. I'm alright, nobody bullied me," he would assure them both with a smile on his face.

However, whenever his parents saw that smile, they could only helplessly nod back. They can see that his smile wasn't that of a satisfied young kid, instead it was a smile of a person who was lonely.

Aurum went to his room every time he comes back from outside.

"Lior, what are we going to do about this?" her mom asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, Vyvyan. I'm sure that our son would be alright. Let me go talk to him, okay?" he replied while trying to ease the worries that she has.

After assuring Vyvyan, Lior immediately went to Aurum's room right away. When he was about to enter the room, he saw Aurum sitting in a corner, curled up while crying. Even though he didn't know what happened and just happened to see him dry for a moment, he couldn't bare to see him cry alone. So he came inside his room without telling him.

"Hey buddy, is there something wrong? Why are you crying?" Lior asked sincerely.

Aurum, who didn't expect his dad to show up in his room, tried his best to brush off his loneliness immediately. However, he couldn't help but still cry in front of him.

"I-it's nothing dad..." he replied while sniffing his nose.

"Come on now, little buddy. You know you could tell your dad here what happened, right?" Lior reminded him.

"Its just that nobody would play with me outside and they always look at me with bad expressions on their faces, it's disturbing me," he said.

"Alright, son. Daddy is going to talk to the other pare--"

"NO! DON'T DO IT DAD, PLEASE!"

Before Lior could finish his sentence, he was already cut off by Aurum's pleading voice.

"Please don't do that... it will just make things worse, so please don't. I'll figure out something, okay dad?" He pleaded as he was looking at Lior while tugging his arm.

Lior was pretty surprised when he heard what Aurum said. He never expected that Aurum would want to do it by himself instead of relying on them. He could helplessly smile while looking at him with a warm gaze. He rubbed Aurum's hair while saying 'Little buddy don't forget you can rely on us' before he left.

When Lior got out of the room, he was immediately met by Vyvyan, who was pacing back and forth in front of him. Whe Vyvyan saw him, she immediately went to him and asked what they talked about.

"Our little boy is being ignored by everyone at his age. I guess he just felt really lonely, you know. It's normal for kids to want attention from other kids," he summarized everything they talked about earlier.

"So, did you tell him you would help him?"

"I told him I was going to talk to the kids' parents, but told me to not do it. Our little boy wants to earn the respect of the other kids by himself. He ought to rely on us more..." Lior sighed softly.

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The next day, Aurum went out again to try and make friends with other kids. However, as soon as he would try to walk towards one of them, they would immediately back away from him. It was clear that the other children doesn't want to get involved with Aurum as he might complain again to his parents and they would get some scolding.

Aurum could only put his head down while walking towards an empty bench. He sat there looking so lonely and didn't do anything other than watching the other kids play.

"I wonder how good it would be if I have friends playing with me..." he thought inwardly.

He blamed himself for telling his parents what happened to him, because right now nobody would even dare to talk to him anymore.

He would always try to make friends with others by building a sandcastle, crossing a monkey bar without falling, riding a swing wildly and many more things that makes other kids notice him.

However, he still didn't get any attention from the others. He kept on doing this repeatedly, but still end up miserably. Sometimes even the kids would give him a annoyed look whenever he is approaching. Aurum dejectedly sighed and he didn't care any longer.

"What's the point of doing all of this, when they don't even want to recognize me?" he thought.

He was about to leave when he heard a sweet voice calling him from behind. He turned around and saw a gorgeous young girl looking at him while smiling gently.

"Hey you! What's your name?" The girl asked without any hint of hesitation or unwillingness from her.

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Afterword

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Oh me, oh my. A side story, finally!

But I have to say, I apologize on behalf of the author for making the first side story short. He's pretty busy at the moment, but after he's done with his business, I'm sure he'll fill up those empty holes in the story that everyone's been asking about.

Anyways thank you for your support to the author and the novel, this afterword is also short, since there's nothing much to talk about with you guys.

-Sic Parvis Magna