#8 Big Change

The next few days Yuichi kept on skipping the basketball practices and always found a few excuses not to go home together with Ren just to tail him.

One day after carefully tailing him thanks to knowing his habits and routines, he found those 3 guys stopping Ren and leading him to the dark alley between 2 buildings. Yuichi naturally followed them and also prepared his phone to record everything to have solid evidence.

At first, they started pushing Ren between themselves with him only keeping his head down, not saying anything.

"Hey! You are no fun! Do you think we will let you go just because you aren't responding?!" The leader of the group said with a bored expression, finally kicking Ren into the stomach, sending him into bags of rubbish.

Yuichi at the corner recording everything was keeping himself in check to get as much as evidence possible to finally stop this.

'He has been bullied like this numerous times, he will bear through this for the last time...' Yuichi thought however when the leader started kicking Ren into his ribs and upper arm, he couldn't stand it any longer.

'This is more than enough evidence!' Yuichi thought and run inside the alley.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Yuichi shouted holding his phone in front of him and aiming the camera at them.

"Yuichi-kun?!" Ren finally raised his head and exclaimed with a shocked expression however it wasn't exactly a happy surprise for him.

"You-?! Take his phone!" The leader immediately shouted at 2 other guys. They nodded their heads and rushed towards Yuichi, intending to grab him.

"I was intending to leave you alone but you had to stick your nose where it doesn't belong." The leader said with a nasty smile, however, his expression quickly changed...

Yuichi who was the first guy's hand aiming for his shoulder knocked it to the side by hitting his elbow pit with the palm and then Yuichi quickly drove his elbow into his stomach.

"Agh!" The first guy groaned as he dropped to his knees, holding his stomach.

"?! You little shit!" The second guy was surprised by this and instead of trying to grab Yuichi, he tried to punch him into the face.

'Such a primitive punch, until now I had no chance to even try how much stronger I became after all that training...' Yuichi thought with an indifferent face as he dodged the incoming punch by leaning forward.

He didn't waste any time and immediately countered by hitting the second guy into the center of his torso, making him fall down on all 4, trying to catch his breath.

"You...Are you aware that you are creating only more trouble?" The leader asked while gritting his teeth.

"Ren-kun, let's go, we are going home." Yuichi called out to Ren who had bewildered expression before he finally woke up and got up from all the rubbish.

"Y-Yeah..." Ren responded and followed Yuichi and the leader of the bullies just looked at him with a nasty smile without even stopping him.

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"Yuichi-kun...Why were you there?" After walking in silence for a few minutes, Ren decided to ask while looking down.

"I followed you since I noticed something strange on you and then I found you being beaten by 3 guys from our school..." Yuichi replied without telling any further details.

"I never knew you are the type of person who also knows how to fight...Is there something you don't know?" Ren asked while forcing out a small smile.

"For example studying? And many other things?" Yuichi replied, giving Ren a weird look.

"But that's because you don't put any effort into these things. Anyway...have you recorded what happened back there?" Ren asked with an uncomfortable expression.

"...Yes" Yuichi nodded his head.

"Just...just don't show it to anyone, please..." Ren pleaded with a weak voice and Yuichi just nodded his head.

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---Principal's Office---

"I see...this is certainly disturbing matter that students of our school are doing such things..." The principal of Yuichi's school said while sitting at his table with folded hands.

"Is it possible to expel them? They are causing only troubles for the school." Yuichi asked, sitting opposite to the principal.

"Your recorded video is good evidence however we can't just expel them. At most, we can suspend them for a few weeks." The principal closed his eyes and said in a regretable tone.

"?! Excuse me?" Yuichi's eyes widened as he heard the principal's words.

"This incident happened out of the school grounds..." The principal explained.

Yuichi just stared at him with a dumbfounded expression before remembering the words of his Shishō. "Not everything is as it seems to be" and then he recalled the rumors about the trio and all the problems they caused, resulting in him clenching his fist while gritting his teeth.

"I-I understand, I apologize for wasting your precious time." Yuichi got up from the chair and bowed down.

"Not at all, we are glad that you have reported this to us." The principal said with a smile.

Yuichi bowed his head once more before leaving the room, however the moment he closed the door behind him, he finally released that angry expression he was keeping inside him.

'This corrupted society!' Yuichi thought with narrowed eyes while clenching his fist and gritting is teeth. He was aware that "The incident didn't happen on the school grounds" wasn't the only reason why the principal refused to expel them.

'Should I make this video public and rely on other students? ...No, it can easily backfire and it might cause even bigger harm to Ren. Sometimes mental damage can be a hundred times worse than the physical one.' Yuichi thought while walking down the hallway.

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As the principal said to Yuichi, those 3 were suspended for a few weeks which gave some time of peace to Ren. However, even when they returned, they completely started ignoring him and Yuichi which completely confused Yuichi as he was already prepared to look for a different solution.

The days were passing by and preliminaries quickly arrived for both of Yuichi's clubs and his teams managed to once again advance to the nationals where he was forced to skip the school for the whole week. The first nationals were held in soccer where Yuichi managed to lead his team to the 1st place and officially becoming champions for the first time. However when Ren had to go back to school and Yuichi still had basketball nationals in front of him, Yuichi had a bad feeling, however, he chose not to think over it too much.

Once again, thanks to him being focused the entire time of the nationals, he was able to lead his team to 2nd place just a little bit off the 1st place. People across a lot of Junior High schools that were attending any sports clubs began talking about the guy who managed to get 1st and 2nd place in two different nationals. It would be an exaggeration to say that Yuichi became famous, however, he did become a bit known across the Junior High schools and mainly between people interested in basketball and soccer.

However, once Yuichi returned to school, there was a big change waiting for him.

"Huh? Where is Ren-kun?" Yuichi asked after arriving in the classroom.

"Iwamura-kun? Nakada-kun apparently had to transfer to a different school, didn't you know that as his best friend?" One guy closest to him replied with a slightly confused expression.

"Huh?" Yuichi just went to his seat with a dumbfounded expression.

Today's classes were never-ending for Yuichi who wanted to confirm something, however, once the classes ended, he could go home since club activities were stopped for a while as a reward for their hard work.

Instead of going home, he went towards Ren's house while trying to call his phone, unfortunately, Ren wasn't picking his calls which caused him to pick up the pace.

When Yuichi arrived and ring the bell, the one who opened the door was a complete stranger to him so he asked for the previous family that stayed here however he got close to 0 information. Yuichi apologized for disturbing them and then he left.

'How could you just leave without saying anything to me?! How could you smile like that during our soccer matches at nationals?! Hadn't we promised to each other that we will graduate together and that we will also attend the same High School?!' Yuichi thought with his head down while walking towards his house. With each second, his eyes were getting more lifeless.

Ren was someone Yuichi knew right from the kindergarten where they also started playing together. Both found a mutual interest in soccer and many other activities.

After more than 5 minutes of walking like a dead man, Yuichi raised his head and his previously lifeless eyes became once again bright however it wasn't as if he returned to normal.

'Those 3...' The appearance of 3 bullies appeared in Yuichi's mind as he had innocent look in his face.

'I couldn't care any less about the fact if they are the ones who did it or not since they are only ones I can vent out on.'

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"Yuichi-kun, I am sorry about what happened with Nakada-kun, I know how big friends you were so it was also a big shock to me when I heard that he is transferring the schools." Mei said to Yuichi as they were walking past the school gate inside the school grounds.

"It's alright..." Yuichi replied with a regular smile and his hands in pockets.

'Isn't he taking it too well?' Mei thought with a worried expression while observing Yuichi's face.

"Hey, good morning, Iwamura-kun!" Someone called out to him which caused both Yuichi and Mei to turn at the voice's direction.

It was those 3 bullies who were leaning against the wall, greeting Yuichi with a smile. Mei found this very strange since she never saw Yuichi talk with those 3 students that didn't look exactly clean.

However, contrary to their expectations...

"Good morning!" Yuichi waved at them with a bright smile before stuffing his hand back into his pocket, making them dumbfounded.

But when they passed them, Yuichi unknowingly released a cold smile that wasn't befitting him.

'?! What had really happened?! This Yuichi-kun...is making me scared' Mei who was actually quite attentive when it came to Yuichi immediately noticed his cold smile and thought with widened eyes.