When he was in the orphanage there wasn't a school to attend, all of the orphans were homeschooled. Maybe it was the orphanage way to prevent the orphans from remembering their parents, such a creative way that made the keeper's son more popular because he was the only one attending that dreamy organization called school. Ray like the other orphans yearned to go to a school.

That was why his genuine smile took the teacher's breath when she called him and he answered "Yes." 

He stood from his seat, the second to the far right corner, where the breeze of the window moved his silky black hair to the side.

The teacher smiled back, "Ray Berghoff, a transfer student. Please be good to him." 

The class had 5 rows of six desks, the last row had only two occupied, one for a girl who stared blankly at the window, uninterested by the introduction of the new student, and the second was for him. Ray looked straight. 

so this is a school, he thought.

The teacher took the attendance record and called their names, 26 students, the class was complete… Or that what those humans thought.

"Master Ray, since when were you attending this school," the mushroom head was sitting on the desk beside him.

Sweat dripped from Ray's forehead, he looked at him and muttered
"Why are you here?" his question wasn't just for the mushroom head, but to the two next to him. A flower head demon and a demon with long hair that dangled like earthworms.

"We actually find maths important, but hard as well, so we take lessons here from time to time."

Ray swallowed his saliva and looked straight, no one noticed him, Thankgod.

"Hey." Someone pinched his left arm, "Who were you talking to?"

It was the girl by the window, "Do you have an imaginary friend?" She added. 

Sweats dripped on his forehead.

"No, I was just thinking out loud."

"Hmm." she sounded "thinking while turning the other side? so strange. Well, hope you get better soon," She sneered giving Ray a chill up his spine… 

What was that smile?

Yes, Ray was scared that people might think sickly of him. Ray ignored the girl and looked straight at the teacher.

The teacher was explaining, in short, the four major maths operations. 

"Ray, can you solve such an equation?" The teacher looked at Ray But Ray wasn't prepared. Unlike his looks, Ray was never good at maths…

"6+6=??"

A few sweats broke on his face… What was this equation? He forgot.

"36 master Ray, it's 36." The mushroom face muttered to Ray's direction.

"Stupid, that's multiplication, this is subtraction, it's 0" The flower head muttered to the mushroom head.

Why are they muttering, they're demons right? Ray thought. 

Ray couldn't know the answer, his head spun a bit… He became nervous, should he take their solution and say 36 or 0? He didn't quite know.

"If you don't know, it's fine, I'm just seeing your basics," the teacher said… 

should he tell her the truth, but…

He looked around, all the kids were looking at him… If he didn’t know its answer, wouldn’t they laugh? That would never be a good first impression.

Ray felt absorbed by darkness, he no longer thought of the answer, instead thought of the reactions the kids would give him later.

*tap tap* 

That when he heard a tapping sound, a pencil tip on a desk. He looked at the girl by the window. In her notebook, A number was written.

"12?" Ray answered.

"Excellent," the teacher said and Ray gave a relieving sigh as he sat again.

Was the desk this comfortable? He thought.

"it was addition, Impossible!" The mushroom face commented as his single pupil shrank. "They're humans, after all, even their teachers are stupid," The earthworm’s hair added.

Ray ignored their chitchat and thanked the girl, the girl sneered and looked back at the window.

Why that suspicious smile?

The girl stared at the window, not giving a single interest to the class, or to the people. When the bell rang, girls and boys approached Ray.

"You're tall! You look way older." A girl with blond hair came, her eyes blue like his, but didn't have his glow.

"What are your hobbies?"

"What do you want to be in the future?"

"Do you love sweets?"

Questions hammered on him. Yes, people had an interest in him, the second he became aware of that, a genuine smile grew on his face. He talked with them, and some of them pulled him to the cafeteria, he bought a fancy meal from the shop… 

"Are you rich?" The blond girl asked as she put her meal on a table… 

Ray heard her clearly but took a few seconds of silence… Where did his old man get the money from? He never really asked himself about this.

"I think we're fine." He answered. The blond flexed her eyes on him in suspicion, but another girl grabbed his attention with the sentence "Don't get close to Emily." 

The girl by the window, the one who rose her hand when the teacher called for Emily. Her name was Emily, he reminisced.

"Why?" Ray inquired.

"She's always alone, she's rude to girls. The boys always get attracted to her but then she rejects them in an embarrassing way."

"She's a devil," the blond girl said, "I remember when she came to ask me for a pencil, she had that devil smile. I thought she would plant it to my heart."

"Yea that one, I really hate when she makes fun of me that way," the other girl said participated and in no time the conversation turned to be around the girl named Emily, the one who kept sneering malignantly at Ray.

It wasn’t long before the rest period came to end and the students returned to their class, the three demons didn’t attend as they only came for maths. Ray glanced at Emily to find her looking at him and without any particular reason, he looked back at the board, a bit shocked…

Why was she looking at me? He wondered, his heart a bit rose in confusion. 

"Where is Ray. The new student." The teacher called and he stood, she then asked him about his inconveniences if there were any but he smiled and told her "none."

"I see, then let's proceed to the next chapter." 

The lecture was about geography. Ray widened his eyes along with the lecture, he didn't know that his country was surrounded by forests from all directions. The government prohibited crossing these forests by foot or vehicles, the only way to travel from one country to another was by the air route which was a fairly good, safe, and inexpensive way to travel. The closest country to Sheria was Ronald which took 5-7 hours depending on the location of the departing and landing airports. Ronald was one of the five great kingdoms and Sheria was just one of the smaller countries that were still growing. Ray couldn't really believe that his country lacked development in any aspect, especially technology but then the teacher explained this point more clearly "For example, Sheria doesn't have many factories, most of the things we use in our daily lives are imported from other kingdoms." 

Ray concentrated on the lecture, however, it covered only this much, the other part was about Sheria's strong points like soil and its varying weather.

When the class came to end, Ray noticed how Emily was outcasted. During the rest period, she stayed alone in the class and when he would see her in the cafeteria she would be eating alone. On different days she would come alone and get back alone, always on foot. In physical education class, she would be left alone with no partner. Ray’s curiosity led him to observe her unconsciously but he was still unaware of the reason for her loneliness. But, one day, as he leaned on his class' window he saw Emily walking out of school with her school slippers…

That when Ray noticed… Emily was being bullied.

How did he not understand? Didn't he use to be like her? He should have understood her better, such acts were never close to him.

When the next day came, Ray entered the class, put his bag beside his desk, sat, looked at the girl by the window.

"Good morning."

The girl looked at him with both eyes wide but blinking.

"Did you talk to me?"

"Yes, why did you leave school early the other day?"

"I- I felt sick."

"Are you better now?" His head leaned to the side.

"Y- yeah."

The girl then looked back at the window, but after a few seconds, she trembled and looked back at Ray with her malignant smirk  "T- thanks", her smile looked vaguely truthful, and had some amount of disdain and hatred within it. 

"It's okay," Ray answered briefly, a bit scared of a longer conversation with such a face. He then looked at the board, however by the corner of his sight he noticed the blond girl glaring at Emily, a small vein apparent on her forehead. Ray, had a hint of whom took Emily's shoes, still, he wasn't the type to jump into conclusions this simply.

Later in the rest period, he went to the cafeteria. He bought his usual steak meal and found a table with a few boys in his class and took his seat. 

"That's scary," one boy said. Ray came in the middle of their talk so he didn't grasp the topic yet.

"What's scary?" he asked.

"Didn't you hear? Everyone is talking about them," the boy bit his sandwich, "Another highschooler found half-eaten in the old school building."

Ray's eyes widened.

"He's the third right? Highschoolers are fun, they always challenge one another to such places" another boy said.

"Saimer, the boy is dead! I don't want to be a high schooler if I was to die before being a doctor." another boy participated, his round medical glasses fell out of his trembling face.

"don't take it seriously. It's just a rumor, did you see the body?" Saimer asked with confidence drawing his face, "the adults just don't want us to get near the old building."

"He lived in my neighborhood, his family made a funeral for him, if you don’t believe, come with me today, you’ll see his whole family whining," said the glass boy trembling.

On Saimer face, some sweat appeared as he said: "I- I see."

Ray, who was just listening, completed most of his steak. But he was sure enough that he needed to visit the old school building as soon as possible. The old school building, the one behind Ray's current school, a building of rigid woods eaten by woody vines as some of it was inside an old park that had been shut long ago. The children said that the old building could only be entered at night as the school guard was keeping his eye on it during the morning and noon. A perfect place for a bravery test.

As lunch break reached its end Ray entered his class, but for some reason, Emily wasn't there. Emily rarely got out of the class, and when she would get out, he would see her in the cafeteria eating alone. However, this time he didn't see her. Did she leave again? he sighed as he looked at the door. And then three girls entered, with Emily being one of them. One was a girl that badmouthed Emily and the other disdained her as well. The blond wasn't with them, she was a few seats in front of Emily, sitting alone with a sharp smile on her face.

Ray looked at Emily, "are you okay?"

"Don't talk to me," she said instantly and looked at the window, the hand she leaned her cheek on trembling.

Ray looked at the board, it was science, the teacher looked at a student and scolded him for not taking notes, so the other students took out their notebooks and pencils in a swift. That was when Emily froze looking for her pencil case inside her bag. It wasn't there, how much she looked for it, it just wasn't there…

"Take this."

Ray put a pencil on her desk, she used it without saying anything. Amidst the lecture Ray looked at her again, she was looking at the window, her notebook, however, was wet, some watery smudges on it…

For sure she wasn't drooling. For sure the reason was those girls…

At the end of the day, the students packed their bags and left the class. With his bag over his shoulder, Ray walked two corridors to reach his shoe closet which wasn’t very far from Emily's. 

In front of her locker, Emily was reading a small paper, she then bit her lower lip, squeezed the paper with one hand, threw it in a trash can as she walked out with her school slipper.

Ray took and opened it.

The Letter:

Your pencil case was a gift from your dead father, wasn't it?

I threw it to the window of one of the old school building's upper classes. Look at it there, oh right, if you intend to approach him again, be prepared to buy a new pair of shoes every day.

"What are you reading?" A girl extended her head, trying to read.

He squeezed the paper again and threw it to the can. The girl's voice was familiar, and her looks as well. The blond girl Marie.

"Nothing."

"Let's walk home together," her smile bloomed. 

Ray looked at Emily’s way, she was no longer within his range of vision, most likely she went to her home… What he should do?

For sure she didn't go to the old building… Even if the case was very precious to her, it wouldn’t be more precious than her life.

The blond Marie pulled him "Come on, we shouldn't stay here for long." 

Marie was a strong and persuasive person, if she wasn't, she wouldn't have been taken as the role model every girl followed.

Ray swayed to her words and confidence. On their way, Marie smiled at him "My mom is coming back from Ronald tonight, so I'm pretty excited," Marie's hands gripping on the handle of her bag, "Mom is native to Ronald, she's a beautiful person, you should meet her. Oh right, why don't I call your family, come play at my house, I've everything," she said as she took a touch screen phone from her bag.

Ray didn't have a phone and didn't really know his old man’s number. Ray smiled back and said "no need. I have to go home, my dad needs me."

"Really? Then you should get away from Emily."

Ha? Ray couldn't help but to get surprised, he deep thought about the link between what he said and how she replied with… But, there was no single connection. 

"She's a bad girl, people will hate you just by talking to her. You're a good person Ray. You shouldn't defile your picture with the likes of her."

And then Ray noticed, she came just to bad mouth Emily. This girl despised Emily so much and didn't want anyone to get near her or to befriend her…

Marie was just like the keeper's son…

Ray didn't notice his expression at the time, his disgust was boiling up his face, and Marie couldn't even talk to him anymore. The expression he wore was enough to get her silent.

"Bullying is bad. Emily is a good person," Ray said, his expression stayed the same. Marie couldn't keep her eyes contact with Ray, she looked down, however, a few seconds later she faced him with a sharp glare.

"She's no good! You would know just by looking at her malignant smile!"

"Even if she had a bad smile it doesn't mean she's bad. Did she do anything bad for you?"

"She did!"

"What did she do?"

"She broke my best pencil! The one I really loved, my lucky pencil that I took great marks whenever I used."

At that second, Ray understood. The reasoning of Marie and her background was deeply connected… Marie was so spoiled that even her logic was very self-centered. She had a bad personality.

"That's not a reason."

"W-what!" She shouted, two veins popping up her thin-skinned face.

"You're just a stupid boy after all!" She shouted again. And as they reached a crosse road, she ran to the other side without even saying her goodbyes.

Ray took a deep breath and took his way back home. 

At his home, the old man was already preparing a light meal for both of them "Welcome Back," the old man said, "go change and come to eat."

Ray went to his room feeling that he forgot something…

A few hours later, at the beginning of the night, a girl stood before the old school building.