Had this not happened, I wouldn't have met him

It has just been three weeks since I started my life here in this city all by myself, away from my parents, away from the States.

I would say, as much as I was scared at first when I had just arrived, it hasn't been that much of a problem living alone. My parents had arranged everything I would need: a house, someone to take care of the house, and someone to keep an eye on me secretly (my next-door neighbour). Well, it isn't a secret since I know... but they don't know that I know. I ended up overhearing 'coincidentally' when they were talking to each other about this person. Anyway, I don't care if I'm being watched or not. In fact, I am quite relieved that I'm truly not alone and that I don't have to be scared.

Honestly, I regret talking big and convincing them that I could live alone. That too, in another country. I clearly didn't have a sound mind.

I was like, 'Wow, I'm so excited' when I got on the plane, until it changed to 'Wow, I'm truly alone. No one is here to even pick me up' when I got off the plane.

I dug this hole myself with my delusional mind. And I jumped into it myself with my own legs. Now I have to spend years before I can get out of this hole.

One thing I know for sure: I don't wanna be called a chicken for giving up as soon as I arrived.

So, I spent a week checking out my new house, the 'neighbour', the area I was in... It was pretty nice. Another week, and my school would start. Once again, I was excited to meet new people and make new friends. I bought everything I needed and did everything that had to be done. I was feeling really great about this new life.

But I was SO wrong.

This school is bullshit. The people here are bullshit. Hell, even the non-living things here are bullshit.

I crushed the strawberry milkshake packet I had in my hand. The milkshake got squeezed and was dripping out of its poor paper container. It was so crappy. If this wasn't enough, there was an even crappier situation going on in front of me.

It was the same guy again, surrounded by the same group of guys as usual.

I tried so hard not to involve my butt in others' business just like the others in my class. I tried so hard to fit in with the people here and ignored it to the best of my abilities, but I cannot sleep soundly knowing I did nothing if I don't do anything.

Screw these people; screw the crappy strawberry milkshake.

I took out my phone and texted my mom.

Mom

I think I am going to make my life harder for myself now

I am going to either beat up or get beaten up. Either way, I think I'll get into serious trouble

I'll let you know if nothing happens to me

I stood there looking at the screen for a while to see if she was online. She hadn't read it yet. She must be busy.

I put my phone away safely nearby. I didn't want it to break. It was as expensive as my new laptop. I will need it in the future to let my mom know what happened.

"Umm...hey guys, why are you doing this to the poor boy? He looks really scared", I said as I walked up to the group closer.

The guys glanced at me.

One guy even scoffed.

And then he proceeded to ignore me.

They continued their 'conversation' among them. You know, it was the same dialogue as in those movies. One guy was... stroking? ... or patting? the scrawny guy's cheek? Forehead? I don't know. He had his head down, and I couldn't really see from where I was standing.

I didn't know what to do with their ignorance. It was my first time dealing with this situation. I was feeling kind of awkward and scared, but also frustrated.

So, I decided to raise my voice to conceal my anxiety.

"LISTEN WHEN I'M TALIKNG TO YOU, MOTH*RF*CKERS!!!" I yelled as I pulled a guy's arm to make him look at me. As you can see, I even decided to add some swears. Bad decision.

I got heavily punched in the face by the guy I pulled. My nose started bleeding. I think he broke my nose.

Shit.

I got really angry.

Within seconds, I was in a dog fight. I didn't even know what I was doing. One guy pulled my hair from behind when I was trashing another guy on his face. I pulled his legs down, and he fell. I strongly bit his leg so he would writhe in pain. Another guy hit me with his bag...

What the f*ck did he have in his bag? It hurt so much.

Shit.

I can never win against these guys. And sooner or later, the teachers will be here.

Once that thought hit me, I caught the scrawny guy's hand, who was trembling like a sheep that somehow got caught in a warzone, and hysterically ran.

I basically dragged that guy outside of the school, yelling at him. "HEY, WHERE THE F*CK IS YOUR HOME? TAKE ME THERE RIGHT NOW!!!"

Soon, we reached the bus stop. I don't think those guys could follow us. I narrowly escaped the security guard myself. There must be so much going on in the school right now. I am so done with that.

I gasped for breath as I turned to look at him. He was wiping away his tears as he took heavy breaths.

"YOU WILL BE TAKING ME TO YOUR HOME NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

He flinched and nodded his head vigorously without saying anything. He still had his head down.

I think I just scared him. Whatever.

We both waited for the bus for a while, taking heavy breaths. Very soon, the bus arrived. I got on the bus after him.

I didn't know where we were going. I didn't care either. All I could think of was how to react when I met his parents.

What if his mother was a crooked woman who didn't care about his son? What if his parents, too, were in a pitiful situation and ended up getting a heart attack or something? What if they were both very strict and ended up beating his son because he was a failure instead of consoling him? I mean, there are all kinds of people, right?

Above all these things, I felt really anxious thinking about the fight I was in and how I would get suspended soon. My reputation will hit rock bottom. My parents are surely not going to have it, and they are going to take me back to the States once they hear what happened. There is so much talk about staying alone, and just like that, I will be going back soon.

I sighed, thinking about all the drama I would be involved in.

The scrawny guy then pulled me aside to let me know that this was the stop.

Man, I must have really scared him. He didn't even open his mouth till we reached his house. He rang the bell and immediately got behind me. When I was going to ask him what he was doing, the door opened.

The lady, probably in her late 30s, looked at me and her son. "Ishi? Did something happen? Wasn't I supposed to come to your school today? ... Is this your friend?"

So, the scrawny guy's name was Ishi. But he didn't answer.

Ishi's mother then asked us to come inside.

The house was nowhere near as grand as the house I, a single guy, stayed in. Entirely middle class, completely different from mine, but with two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The house my parents got me had a single bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom, which was enough for just me, but the interior was very grand-looking.

Ohkayyyy.

I am not here to judge these people's lifestyle. I had to tell this Ishi guy's mother everything that had happened. I do know my parents are rich. I do know that not everybody can be rich. So, I need to stop being a jackass. I need to stop my bitchy side getting to my head right now.

Just when I was about to say something, his mother got a phone call.

"Just a minute, boys, it is your class teacher," she said, attending the call.

What? He must have called to complain. That means he must have called my mother too. Oh God, she must have called me several times.

I slid my hand into my pants pocket, only to realise there was no phone there. And then I remember placing it 'safely' nearby before getting into the fight. Shit. Mom must be super mad at me right now.

"Yes, they are here. Yes, both of them. They just got home now. Yes, I will talk to them." Ishi's mother then hung up the phone and turned to us.

"Umm, ma'am, I can explain what exactly happened." I trailed off. She must be angry too, right?

"Ishi", She went and hugged her son. "Are you okay?"

He nodded his head and hugged her back. "See, I told you I was going to get into trouble with those guys."

Now, wait a minute...something isn't adding up. Why does he sound too calm?

"I'm sorry, dear. I was just about to get ready to go to your school. I am really late, aren't I?"

"They really took it to a whole new level today. If it wasn't for him, I don't know what else would have happened."

I was a little confused. Judging from this conversation, he had already told his mother that he was getting bullied at his school, and she was supposed to come complain to the staff about the matter today.

Woah.

I screwed up.

Ishi then explained his mother what exactly happened, which I wasn't listening to.

Man, it was embarrassing. I dug my own hole way deeper this time and jumped into it with no safety gear. But I concealed my embarrassment and stayed strong.

Today was really a crappy day.

The awkwardness I was now feeling... Dear God, I pray no one in this world would have to go through such a thing again. Please don't subject anyone to this kind of situations. Just take their life instead.

As I was dwindling in these useless thoughts of mine, Ishi's mother asked me my name.

"It's Tai. You can call me Tai", I replied.

"Thank you for getting into a fight for my son. You are one brave boy", she offered to hug me.

Yeah, which was really unnecessary. "It was nothing, ma'am and I am really dirty right now; I think it would be better if you didn't touch me."

"Oh right! Are you okay? Let me check you. Didn't you fight too much? You even have blood stains on your collar," she seemed really concerned as she held my face in her hands, looking for injuries, completely ignoring my request to touch me.

"Yeah, I think he got hit in the back", Ishi added.

"No, it's alright. I'm fine. I think I need to go back home and have a talk with my mother. She must be really worried right now." Wow me. I am lying straight through my teeth. It is a skill, people, a skill.

After repeatedly letting them indirectly know that I was feeling so awkward that I wanted to go home immediately, I succeeded in my attempts at last.

I reached my home after the long bus ride, immediately asked my neighbour to call my mom, and told my parents everything that had happened. Obviously, I got scolded a lot. If I wasn't used to it, I would have started crying at their simultaneous yelling. My neighbour was asked to take care of the situation by personally speaking with the school and Ishi's mom the next day.

After taking a good shower and applying patches and ointments wherever it hurt, I had a really good meal prepared by my neighbour.

My neighbour was a man in his thirties—younger than both of my parents, but still a very great cook.

All I could do was gobble up everything he gave me while continuously thanking him in between. I would've shed some tears if I had to cook after all that drama.

I finally surrendered my entire self to the Kingdom of Sleep in my room. But for some reason, the angel that ruled over my bed rejected my submission. I was instead exiled to the Kingdom of Overthinking.

How delusional was I in thinking what could have been 'trembling in anger' as 'trembling in fear' and what could have been 'wiping away his sweat' as 'wiping away his tears'? My vision was that distorted. If this wasn't enough, I even took him to his house to have a talk with his parents.

The sole consolation I could give myself was that things wouldn't get much worse than this- which was fortunately a correct hunch.

The next day, there was a whole vegetable market inside the staff room. But instead of bargaining sounds, they were complaining sounds. It was from the mothers of the guys who bullied Ishi. 

But Ishi's mother was one strong woman. She never backed down from their continuous barrage of insults and perfectly fought back. I took a mental note to get her on my side so that I could win any future arguments with ease. Ishi will become my friend from now on. No, I will become Ishi's brother from another mother. For real. That will be even better.

Amidst all this bickering, my neighbour told my teacher what happened and confirmed that they were the ones who first started the fight from the CCTV footage.

Anyway, many things happened; Ishi's mother threatened them to take this to the police if the boys were not punished, and finally, everything got settled with the bullies getting suspended for two months.

I later heard that the reason Ishi, whose full name was Ishida, got bullied was because he looked really skinny. Which made no sense to me. I mean, he sure was one scrawny-looking guy, but I wouldn't mess with him just because of that. Who knows what the real reason was?

So, I would say everything ended well, except for the fact that I would continue to study here. Yeah, my parents were sure angry, but not that angry enough to take me back, it seems. My phone was still in good condition in the very same place I had kept it, and fortunately, I dodged a bullet because of that. I can't imagine the words that would come out of my mother's mouth had I told her I broke my new phone. Thank God, that wasn't a problem.

Days later, everything turned out normal, and just like I had planned, I became close with Ishida. Close enough that I was welcomed to stay at their house whenever I wanted to. 

It was all good until one day, after one and a half years all this had happened, I got kissed on the lips by Ishi.