New Classmate

"Uh. I don't know. Anyway, let's do this." Zayd said as his excitement overpowered the exhaustion.

"You are a freak." Mr Kaiju said.

"Is that good or bad?"

"Depends..."

"Okay," Zayd replied.

"First things first. The kicking I do is different from the one you learned from Hanzo. He learned Taekwondo, and I learned my kicks from a kickboxer." Mr Kaiju explained.

"Next, considering I'm teaching you the kicks, we will not do anything other than Boxing and Kicking from now onwards."

"First kick is the roundhouse kick. You know this one already. With the roundhouse kick, you can go for the body or the face or even the legs."

---

Zayd left the Gym with his legs feeling tired out. His shins had blasted against the heavy bag so much that it hurt thinking about it.

'Is it meant to hurt when I walk?' Zayd thought to himself as he trudged towards the School gate to leave.

---

It was the morning. As Zayd sat in his seat, Homeroom began. Himari's eyes met Zayd's as her eyes contained a peculiar hint of mischief.

"Okay, class! Settle down! We have a new student joining us, so I want everyone to be kind and polite. Don't leave a bad first impression. I think they will be arriving any minute now..." Himari said.

Almost the moment after she finished speaking, the door slid open.

A figure that could only belong to a male entered the room with a nonchalant expression on his face. He was a fierce-looking guy with sharp eyebrows, and his nose was quite pointy. His black hair and brown eyes were not unique. However, he had a distinct feature.

His right ear was deformed slightly, having the shape of a cauliflower.

As he entered the class, he stood at the front, receiving curious gazes from his new classmates.

"Hello. My name is Kai Tanaka. Nice to meet you. Call me by my first name." Seeming calm on the outside, this all changed the moment Kai got told where he was sitting.

"Kai-san, you sit next to Zayd-san. I'm sure you two are familiar already from Middle School." Himari said with a wide grin as she witnessed the two meet once more.

Kai's head turned as his gaze locked with Zayd's. Once they met each other's eyes, a flame seemed to have been ignited within the room as they stared at one another from afar.

"Yeah, this is perfect!" Kai said with a hint of a sarcastic tone. Himari glared at him, but he ignored her. He seemed to want to bore through Zayd's skull as though he had heat vision.

"Why are you here?" Zayd said with a low grumble as his mood took a turn for the worse.

"Zayd-san! Give Kai-san a tour of the School later, please. If you want, you can have all the time you want during lunch break." Himari said.

Kai sat down on the seat next to Zayd grudgingly.

Zayd and Kai knew one another since Zayd was younger. When Zayd started going to Elementary School, Kai was the first person he met at Elementary School. It was safe to say that Kai was the person closest to being Zayd's friend.

However, due to Zayd's personality and cold exterior, he never got along well with Kai. Kai was adamant about Zayd reciprocating his wanting to be friends, but his wish never came true.

As such, Kai and Zayd created a challenge game they played with one another. Wrestling.

They wrestled with one another, and if Zayd won, he did not have to be Kai's friend. If Kai won, Zayd had to be his friend.

Up to Middle School, Kai could never beat Zayd. Their relationship ended in the first year when Kai left the Middle School due to personal reasons.

Zayd never felt sad- instead, he felt as though a burden had been removed off of himself and felt his School life was better too.

For Kai, that was a different story.

Now that they had met, the fury Kai felt at Zayd not being his friend reignited. It was a regret he had, and now he could solve it.

"Zayd. We need to have a wrestling match. Where are we going to have it?" Kai kept speaking to Zayd, who kept refusing the match.

"Kai, will you please, for the love of God, shut up! It's been four minutes! Four minutes! You said the word wrestling fourteen, no- fifteen times. Stop talking to me!" Zayd whispered over in an outburst, full of frustration.

"Accept the challenge, you coward!" Kai did not control his voice, and the whole class heard him, causing a wave of silence to cross the room.

"Kai-san, quieten down, or I call your mother." Himari's eyes narrowed, and she smiled 'kindly'.

Listening to Himari's words, Kai did stop bothering Zayd.

There was something Zayd did not want to admit. He was scared of Kai's mother when he was younger. It was an inherent feeling of terror instilled by Kai's mother's intimidating demeanour.

'That woman...' Zayd thought as he gulped. Memories from the past flooded his mind, including when he had to stay over at Kai's house one time. Aunt Naomi could not take care of him due to work, and she met Kai's mother when she began to pick Zayd up from Elementary School.

Thinking back on it now, Zayd realized that his Aunt's job was insanely flexible, considering the circumstances of having to take care of a kid.

'It must have been tough.'

The moment Lunch came around Kai, was there nagging Zayd non-stop.

"Zayd! Accept the challenge!" He roared as Zayd stopped speaking to explain the areas of the School. Kai's loud voice garnered attention from all the other students who stared at Kai weirdly.

"Kai, we're not kids anymore. Stop asking me to accept your challenge!"

"Accept the challenge, and I will stop asking!" Kai thundered on.

"Kai, this is the last time. I will punch you in the face. Shut up. Please!"