New beginnings (Pt 2)

"Keo-heok!"

Luke groaned in pain on the ground while Miguel's glare remained frigid and murderous.

Yet that didn't satisfy him so he shoved Luke against the wall before asking his question.

"Just who the hell is that punk for you to be acting like this?"

The wounded luke breathed heavily and painfully before spitting out saliva mixed with traces of blood on the ground. He then raised his head, his expression one of fatigue.

"He was the strongest guy in my middle school." Luke answered

".....??" Miguel tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"Did I hit this bastard too hard?" He thought to himself. It was a well-known story that Luke and his gang had completely conquered his middle school. However, he shook his and waited for Luke to continue.

"....He's someone we can't touch.... so I was worried that something would happen, so I read the situation and interfered." Luke added with a serious expression.

Initially, Miguel wondered what kind of bullshit this was but Luke's expression was far too serious for something like that.

'Son of a b*tch... He's being serious?'

But, that couldn't be.

If there was a scary bastard like that, then there was just no way that a rumour wouldn't have gotten around.

The name of that brat is Ethan

Miguel lived in this neck of the woods since his elementary school days, but he had never heard of that name before. Besides, what could a pretty boy like that do to him, anyway?

Miguel's rage raised beyond his limit after realizing that Luke dared to make him look bad in front of others just because of a punk like that.

Bang!

Miguel's full blooded punch caused Luke's head to spin to the side. Now another injury have been added to Luke's already messed up face.

Miguel had apparently learned boxing since from a young age, and perhaps because of that, his arm strength couldn't be treated as a joke.

However, what Luke feared was was something else.

It was when he silently endured the fierce barrage of attacks from Miguel. He discovered "that"

'…..!!!'

Miguel stopped throwing punches only after spotting that Luke's eyes had widen in surprise. Curious, he followed Luke's line of sight and looked behind him.

The source of the problem itself, Ethan, stood before them.

Maybe it was because of Luke's prior warning, even Miguel who would normally attack first and think later quickly took a couple of steps back and warily glared at Ethan.

Although not short, when compared to either himself or Luke, this punk wasn't all that tall. His physique also seemed exceedingly ordinary.

From his coloured hooded jacket which he wore on top his uniform, Miguel guessed that Ethan had a slender build so he didn't think he had trained professionally or something.

The more he looked at him, the less Miguel believed Luke's words.

Ignoring the bullies as if they didn't exist, Ethan stepped closer to Luke and studied his messed up face.

"Tsk." Ethan clicked his tongue as if he felt rather rueful about this matter and then addressed the boy.

"Yo, Luke."

"....Yeah."

"Let's say it was you this time too. If it's this, then it can be counted as self defense, right?"

Luke unhesitatingly nodded his head.

"Okay, let's do that."

What were they trying to pretend here?

Miguel listened to this exchange with a puzzled expression etched on his face, but that soon morphed into an anger.

As he reached out to grab Ethan's shoulder to turn the punk around, a sudden light flashed before his eyes.

The unconscious Miguel fell hard to the ground. Almost at the same time, the two underlings guarding the leader's back also blacked out, as well.

Thud, thud!!

"What the f*ck?" Luke could only watch in utter horror and disbelief. If it weren't for his excellent dynamic vision honed through exercises and training, then he wouldn't have been able to perceive Ethan's sudden movement.

A swift punch on Miguel's face and one hit each in the vitals of the two underlings – Those attacks were precise in their accuracy yet savage like a wild predator and all of these happened under the span of five seconds.

Back in the past where he tried to riled up Ethan, he ended up wondering whether such power could actually belong to a human being or not.

But after that, his middle school life became quite stress-free, contrary to his initial expectations.

Miguel's nose was broken while his underlings had their bones broke.

'Well, then....'

Once more, another notch had been added to his records of victories.

Since this was a win someone handed over to him, Luke couldn't help but feel embarrassed about this whole thing. As he remained swimming in several complicated thoughts, Nathan walked closer to him and extended his hand out.

"Now that things have come to this…. please take care of me."

Luke sheepishly scratched his cheek before wordlessly shaking the offered hand.

Well... It wasn't such a bad deal.

***

"Are you serious? Luke took on those three?"

"I thought his aura was really something else when I first saw him, so it's no surprise."

"I heard he learned judo since he was young and he was pretty famous in his neighbourhood."

The news about Miguel and his goons getting shipped off to a hospital had spread like wild fire and thanks to that, the atmosphere of the entire classroom had become rather heated real fast.

More than that, Luke is now being treated as a hero even, after it emerged that he was trying to protect another kid who graduated from the same middle school as him.

Although it was the start of a new school year and the kids all felt a bit awkward and unsure of each other, this topic worked wonders and broke the ice nicely. Even then, Ethan was just dazedly staring at the sky outside all by himself.

The end of the school day wasn't that far away, and the blue sky above was gradually dyeing in the hues of rich amber.

For some reason, yawns kept threatening to break out so he was having a hard time suppressing them.

"….I'm bored."

Indeed, he felt bored and restless.

Recently, he often yawned for no discernible reason and felt bored more frequently than before.

He doesn't expect much in life, not that he wasn't confident in himself but rather there was nothing that could interest apart from sparring with his dad. He was confident in getting good grades so I wasn't worried about his graduating with good grades. He didn't have any friends he could hang out with since most people just avoid him, but he was already used to that and he preferred to be alone.

And there was this vague, distant feeling that there were something that would make his heart race and surprise him at every turn. Whenever he was beset with such feelings, it became harder to endure against this sense of boredom.

Suddenly, the door to the classroom slid open. The gazes of the kids all shifted over to the rear door. Luke display much of a reaction and returned to his assigned seat.

Ohhh-!

They were looking at his wound-filled face with gazes of envy and respect. Without a doubt, Luke has become the top dog of the class.

"Hey, hey."

Ethan's was brought back to reality by someone poking him on his back. He looked behind him to find a fair skinned girl with wavy blonde hair with bangs swept to the right and a medium-length hair strand resting on her left shoulder, light blue eyes, freckles around her nose, and pale pink lips while wearing glasses.

Only one word came to mind when looking at her.

"She's cute." Ethan thought

"Your friend came back looking like that, so aren't you going to go and say hello, at the least?"

"Already did."

"Oh, okay."

She got embarrassed by this exchange and hurriedly opened her textbook to hide her face. Meanwhile, he reverted his gaze back to the skies outside.

"Damn! I'm so bored."