3 Years later

Dustin(Pov)

It has been 3 years since I met Leila and became friends with her and her brother, I often met them and went out to play with them-playing with them made me remember or made me recall the child inside me that had been whisked away by the passage of time.

A person might have dreams and childlike innocence that are slowly chipped away by the time they grow old-It made me remember a certain chunin character in an anime who was my favourite-someone who can go to any extent for his rolepaying.

The reason I liked him was not because it was funny but because it made me remember my childhood aspirations and how I felt when I was a child, It was a fresh breath of life for me.

I felt like I was slowly changing and becoming less solitary, it's not like I don't welcome change to a certain extent as I understand change is constant everywhere and if you do not adapt to it you are left behind by time but I still do not want to change the core of me that makes myself me.

I thought Leila was amazing, she took care of her family at such a young age and also earned for herself and Adrian but I can never be like her at least I won't take the abuse just because she didn't want to mess things up for her brother.

That's right the reason Leila was taking the abuse of her father was that she didn't want the little brother to live without his father, it was the typical case of how a victim acts in a house where domestic violence is normal.

This also made me remember that I somehow became friends with the other 2 bullies, They came to me and started apologising to me while crying. I got to know the reason they did that was because they learned I saved their friend from his father.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement, It was more like I couldn't believe it but the reason I thought of them as bad was because of my negative viewpoint of the world.

It embarrassed me when I recalled how stupid I acted I mean they are just small kids and of course, they wouldn't know the severity of their actions and most of all they apologised to me just because I saved their friend such kind of loyalty you wouldn't even find in adults.

I recalled my memory of the day I had met them and how exactly things proceeded from there onward.

One day after I had finished my everyday training in the forest I started to come back. I noticed these 2, Jack and Peter, standing near the outskirts of the village that is near the edge of the forest.

They were clearly waiting for me, I thought of running past them but I changed this decision after seeing their pale face and red eyes from crying.

Jack walked towards me after I stopped, his voice was still shaky he said"Dustin", it looked like he was collecting himself to say the next words to me.

"We.... we need to talk"

'"Why-what is it"

I looked into his eyes and said this but he looked away from me, somehow the feeling I got from him was that he was feeling guilty about something.

Peter came forward trembling and said to me "We wanted to tell you we are sorry for everything we had done to you, I-we didn't think much of it but we shouldn't have done it"

Jack came forward with tears in his eyes, I was stunned to see him like this but he continued to get his point through me, I could have ignored them but I for some reason wanted to listen to them.

"I heard that you saved Adrian from his father, I didn't know this was happening to him even though we are friends. I just thought he was different from others just like you, so what I want to say to you will you forgive us"

I now understood what this was about and why he was acting so weird, he had probably seen the signs of abuse on Adrian but he deemed it as a weird behaviour so he felt guilty of doing it.

"So you are apologising to me because I saved Adrian?"

I asked them still trying to process and analyze the change in their behaviour.

"Yes-I mean no, it's true that you saved Adrian but that is not why we are apologising. We realized through this incident how wrong we are in treating you like that!"

Jack awkwardly scratched his head and said to me "Hey- so can we be friends, I promise we will be good friends"

I observed them and seeing them like this I felt that I should at least give them a chance, I am not saying I am forgiving them but it's not like I actually resent them.

After this, we started to hang other together more and more, and I gradually accepted them. I many times felt that I was becoming more and more strange but I dismissed it as a side effect of being in a new body or maybe awakening past life memories, Whatever the case it was somehow affecting me.

I recalled when I introduced games like hide and seek the look of respect on everyone, especially Adrian, while I believe I might have held my face under my arms and screamed if the old me got to know how proud I am right now while standing under the respected gazes of 9-year-old children-The embarrassment and cringe was unparalleled.

We many times played together till the sunset down, I was happy. I can't remember when was the last I had such a sense of achievement, I was always ignored and treated like I didn't exist.

Even after I got a job I still-huh, wait what was my job again?