TEARS IN RED STRING

MISTER L

LOVEFUL

The bulletin board was placed on the front side of the faculty building, so I need to walk a little bit farther because our headquarter was far from it. Only a few students were passing by because it was still class hours. We, the Student Councils, were excused from our classes. Some students that I saw walking are wearing their varsity jackets, some were just in school uniforms.

The field that was just plain before has already various nets for volleyball and sipak takraw. When I was getting closer towards the faculty building, I saw 3 male students. One of them, who was just wearing his school uniform, was kneeling. The two, who wore sleeveless shirts was around him---they might be players.

"You don't belong here!" said the man in a blue shirt while pointing his fingers towards the other man kneeling on the ground.

"You better get away from this school. Such a waste of a slot." the other man in a red shirt said. The two were way more muscular than the one they trash-talked with.

When the man in a blue shirt lift his fist and was about to hit it on the man's face, I shouted, "Hey!"

The man's arm was suspended in the air. The two immediately looked in my direction with their eyes widened, mouth gaped---except for the one who was kneeling. He was just looking on the ground.

"What are you doing?" I coldly asked them while slowly stepping my feet towards their direction.

"M-Miss Curchi," the man in blue shirt stuttered as he slowly dropped his arm. "T-This weak man... he was b-blocking our way." he continued, pointing to the man kneeling.

"Y-Yes, we just give him a lesson." said the other one.

I mentally laughed. They looked like a puppy right now. How could they act so brave towards that man but they stuttered as they answered me?

"Do you think what you did was right? That's so childish." I told them as I looked in their eyes, few inches from them. "And you are fighting in front of the bulletin board. What if it would get damage? Will you repair?"

They both looked down. They seemed to find some words but end up saying nothing.

I folded my arms. "Well, I don't care about your fight or whatsoever. But choose your place. We have a wide open field there, as you can see. Fight there, and not here." I said to them. Then a smirk emerged from my lips. "You two are brave, aren't you?"

The two sit straight and looked at me. "Yes, of course." answered the man in a red shirt.

"And you said a while ago that this man is weak, isn't he?" I added and they both nodded. The man who was kneeling just remained silent. I couldn't see the reaction on his face.

"He's so weak and he doesn't belong here!" the man in blue shirt said firmly. I couldn't determine what grade they are because they did not wear school uniforms but based on the way they act, they seemed like an elementary student.

I suddenly shook my head on my thoughts.

"The true brave would only fight with a brave man. The weak one would only fight with the other weak one." I said and they both looked stiff. "And the fact that you are arguing and fighting with the "weak one"---as you said---then that means..." I smirked. "...you are also weak."

Their mouth gaped as I said that. Tsk. They really act as elementary students.

"But---"

"You better transfer to the open field," I said, stopping the man who wanted to reason out. "You are free to fight there. Weak versus weak." Then I mockingly smiled.

They suddenly glared at the man who was still kneeling on the ground. Their fists clenched.

"I said, go. I have something important to do with the bulletin board. Stupid fights are not welcome in my eyes." After I said that, the man in the blue shirt throws an empty bottle on the man's head and after that, they walked out.

I shook my head repeatedly. Those kinds of attitudes are something cringy. They were acting like a kid, contradicted to their masculinity.

I then moved closer to the bulletin board to assess its condition. I saw some cracks and scratches, and also the paint was a little bit faded. The bulletin board was quite big and it took how many minutes for me to examine its overall condition.

On the board, a piece of paper, that was pinned on it, which contains announcements and gratitude caught my attention. It says that our school won a Gold medal in the inter-school Olympics in the field of Basketball. The MVP was---

"T-Thank you..."

My shoulders shrugged when I heard a voice behind me. I immediately turned my back to face him and a familiar face come into view.

He looks fine now than a while ago. His hair was fixed, divided into half. He looked down while touching the bridge of his nerdy eyeglasses. Based on the color of the tie of his school uniform---which is orange, we are on the same grade level. He was taller than me for just an inch.

"Why are you still here?" I blankly asked him. He was the man who was kneeling, and the same man who I bumped with a few days ago. I thought he already walked out as well.

"I j-just want to say thank you for helping me," he said, without looking into my eyes.

I sighed. "I did not help you. It was just I don't want to witness childish fights, and I am concerned about the bulletin board." I said to him and slowly divert back my attention to the bulletin board.

"But still, thank---"

"Okay. You may go." I cut his words short.

I heard him sighing and after a while, the surroundings fell silent. After a while, I continued what I was doing.

~•••~

I WAS NOT only checking the bulletin boards but also the training areas as well if there were something harmful to it. I carefully examined all of them so that no harm may occur when they start their thorough practice, and so that we would find a solution to it if there is any.

I found just a little harmful just like nails on the woods in the basketball court, big rocks on the field, and such minor defects. I record all of the things I saw as a potential threat.

By 9 AM, I am done with my business. The school uniform that I wore at the moment was a little bit wet because of my sweats. I then decided to go to my locker room to change clothes because except for the fact that I am sweaty, my school uniform is smelling bad because I was walking under the heat of the sun.

While I was heading my way towards the locker area, I suddenly felt the eyes again. I am getting pissed by it over and over again. It was very annoying to feel. I don't know if I was only being paranoid or what. I was experiencing it constantly.

I tried to shrug it off. Whoever that person was, I am sure that I will find him or her soon.

Minutes have passed, I reached the locker area. The lockers were grouped into 5 with subgroups A and B. And each locker in a group was aligned in 5 rows with 10 lockers. I immediately went to the last row of where my locker is.

Halfway through, Lawrence came into my view. His brows raised for a while and then he stopped. "Oh, Curchi? Hannah informed that you shall check the bulletin board but we only have one bulletin board, right? What took you so long?" he asked. He put his hand inside his pocket.

"I've also checked the training areas. If you go to the headquarter, give this to Mrs. Ho, I'll just change my clothes." I responded, giving him the paper. "These are the defects in the training area. It needed to be fixed right away."

He accepted and his brows knitted as he looked at the paper. "Okay." he nodded and put the paper inside his pocket. "I gotta go," he said and walked past by me.

"Wait," I stopped him before he could take a step farther.

He turned his back. "Yes?" he responded with a smile.

"What are you doing here, by the way? Your locker is on the other side." I asked him and I stared at his facial reaction.

His mouth slightly moved as he heard it. It confuses me as to why he's in the locker group 5A where in fact his locker was in group 4B.

"Uh, I was looking for you. Mrs. Deh ordered me to look after you because as I said, you took so long. She was worried if what already happened to you, given your situation a while ago." he explained. "Why did you ask?" he asked back.

I shook my head. "Nothing. You may go."

"You're really weird," he muttered, chuckling.

Once again, I gave him a death glare and he just raised his hand then walked away, leaving my sight. I then continued to walk towards my locker on the fourth one and as I opened it, letters came into view. Again.

I used to receive letters every day. The contents were mostly the same like, 'You're amazing', 'I admire you', 'Don't forget to eat', and such cringy words. I don't have time for these shits. I don't know why the school designed our lockers to have a small hole on each door---enough for those letters to get in.

As usual, I get all the letters and throw them into the trash bin. But when I was about to divert my sight away from the letters, something caught my attention. It was one of those letters but I feel strange. It was different.

I picked it up from the trash bin. Unlike those letters that were written on paper or any art materials, this one was on a leaf. A leaf that looks like a small envelope. The effort was very evident.

I read the word written in front of the leaf. It has a wonderful font, which I don't know if it was printed or hand-written. I also noticed that there are no fold marks be seen, unlike those papers that were obviously being folded for it to fit in the hole.

From Mr. L

That was what was written. I then opened the envelope and get what's inside. It was still a leaf but the shape is a heart. I thought the content of it is as long as the normal letters but I was wrong. Only 4 words greeted my eyes.

'I like your smile.'

My brows knitted. He just wasted his time and effort to make this unique letter with trashy content. I immediately crumpled it and put it back in the trash bin together with the other letters.

Later on, I get a shirt in my locker and went to the dressing room to change. I was really smelly. After a minute, I went out of the dressing room and I suddenly got confused as to why some of the people are running and shouting.

"WAAAHHHHHH!"

I immediately left the locker area. What's wrong with them?

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