Immediately after the math period was dismissed, Yuuki and Adam made a beeline for the hallways. Reaching the array of lockers, the two released a relieved sigh after narrowly escaping the mathematical problem given by Mr. Garrison. The bell rang just in time before they could even ridicule themselves further in front of the class for being a bunch of clueless jocks. Considering they made a ruckus back there, Yuuki could not have been more thankful it wasn't big enough for the two of them to attend detention. Suspension was already a sufficient punishment for him to pay for his (justified) wrongdoings, and adding detention at the table surely would have driven him into insanity; he would miss the chance to practice alongside his coach and teammates for the last time before he'd be gone for more than a week. He would therefore of course prefer a million times participating in his last chance of attending it rather than spending the rest of the afternoon in detention missing the whole session. 

 

           "Well, that was fun, ain't it?" Adam jokingly asked, exactly knowing Yuuki's current thoughts and worries judging by his Asian friend's face. He, of course, when teasing, knew not to cross the line by not mentioning anything about Yuuki's mother and more of his personal issues. He would instead take shots on Yuuki's petty dissatisfaction with his own skills (which are the best in town) as a basketball player and, out of friendly jealousy, make fun of his annoying displeasure towards the power he wields on women. 

 

            Yuuki gave Adam a scowl as he unlocked the door of his locker. "Fuck you, man. It's not funny." That response earned him a light chuckle from Adam. "But it is fun, is it?" implied Adam furthermore to add more fuel to his friend's annoyance. Setting his eyes on the locker interior, there was no sign of any love letters to read and open inside, fortunately… except one. Still, it was a drastic improvement in comparison to Yuuki receiving dozens and dozens in the past. Clarifying he already had someone he liked and sincerely apologizing for it in an approachable and respectful way the previous week (while not revealing this particular person's identity, obviously) and letting this news spread throughout the school campus was a great decision, after all. While it helped stop the majority of the girls, it of course did not exactly stop them from admiring him from a safe distance (and a few giving him death threats caused by salt and unbridled, unrighteous sense of jealousy), yet that was something Yuuki can easily tolerate. Still, he would prefer not being an eye magnet at all, if possible.

 

            "So… love letters. Still got any?" Adam asked. 

 

            "Well, there's one." Yuuki gently drew the only letter out of the locker and waved it in front of Adam's face teasingly before returning it close to his sight to check. It was contained in a small cream envelope fastened in an old-fashioned way with a red wax, likely as a means to make it look formally fancy. By the envelope's appearance, however, Yuuki could not help but assume the sender didn't have any intentions of being romantic or anything related to it. Upon examining it further in every angle, he found a handwritten text at the bottom left of the seal flap that read "A letter of gratitude," neatly written in cursive and with what it seemed to be a thick fountain pen. 

 

            With a respectful smile, Adam motioned to distance himself from Yuuki to give his friend a bit of privacy and search for his own locker (and some snickers), which was on another hallway. He already expected himself to head out to the gym without him. Even when Yuuki didn't have a letter-reading chore (he reads them all since he didn't want to be rude to all those girls), Adam would be sure his friend would still intentionally attend the gym fifteen minutes late and arrive already fully prepared for basketball, uniform-clad and all. Coach Hirsch was not in the least bothered by this as long as his best player arrived. Yuuki would as well choose to hang out on the benches playing either Minecraft or emulated PlayStation games on his phone after the practice before everyone themselves would finish their showering and changing. At some certain times, he would forget the showering part and would decide to walk straight home anyways. Adam, as a best friend, used to find Yuuki's behaviors strange and concerning, as his unwillingness to arrive and shower on time were entirely contradictory to his enthusiasm and determination in practicing to git gud. Although upon asking Yuuki about this, he plainly answered: "It's a traditional Japanese etiquette." Adam, not being academically intelligent nor knowledgeable about any foreign cultures aside from the ones his friend had been teaching him, was immediately convinced. 

 

             Adam patted Yuuki on the shoulder as he began to leave. "I'll let you take your time as always. See you around."  He left as soon as Yuuki gave him a nod of approval.

 

             Unsealing the letter, Yuuki hastily pulled it out of the cream envelope. Once again, its contents were neatly handwritten and in cursive. Yuuki was now entirely sure the letter wasn't a romantic letter of confession, but rather, a letter of gratitude… just as the letter's title blatantly describes, anyway.  As he started to read the whole written text, he felt the pang of recollection hitting his head, instantly remembering the moments specified by the letter. Moments that transpired more than a week ago. 

             

                          ***

 

              Yuuki, at that time, exactly eight days ago, was only peacefully walking his way through the near-empty corridors, observing his wristwatch hitting 5:16 PM. He was recently done practicing for two hours in total within the gym: an hour of accompanied practice; and another of voluntary and solitary practice after everyone on the team, including Adam, left for their homes. Aware of this desired isolation, he took his time indulging the shower he took after his satisfying practice, packed up, and decided to get home. 

And in order to do so, for obvious reasons, he would have to make his way through the corridors where the gradually evaporating number of students hung around and walked by. 

 

             Yuuki took his steps with a subtle confidence, believing his day was very satisfying. The majority of those aware of his presence were viewing him as a hotshot celebrity passing by, as usual. And Yuuki did not mind, as usual, and kept on walking.

 

             Turning left upon coming across an intersection, he eventually entered one of the corridors' several deserted areas. He knew one was a shortcut leading to an exit that little to no one in the school used, save for the school's infamous delinquents who would do so as an escape route to cut classes. And it would have been entirely deserted if not for the three muscular guys gathering together just two to four meters away from him, surrounding something near the lockers. It took Yuuki about twenty seconds to see what it was, thanks to their humongous sizes. It was not a something, but a someone; Yuuki was doubting this for half of a second, but it was what appeared to be a girl, slightly shorter than him and around his age with features extremely appropriate to being classified as androgynous. She had shoulder-length brown hair, which was neatly arranged in the most feminine style possible. She wore a golden-colored knee-length skirt accompanied by a pair of white thigh-high socks and pink shoes. Her top was simply a yellow T-shirt that without a doubt screamed feminine. As far as androgynous features were concerned, her facial structure of course did not exactly look female, nor did it look male either, although it leaned nearer in resemblance to the latter just by a hair (not literally; her face is devoid of any hair). Her body shape however was soft enough to pass as the gender she was just expressing with flying colors. She apparently was forced to pin herself against the lockers out of intimidation coming from the three buff men blocking her escape routes. 

 

             "Scream for help or attention, and you'll find yourself tasting blood from your nose three times, okay? Okay… as I was asking, why would you even bump into me? Are the hallways not wide enough?" said the one in the middle. From the looks of him, Yuuki could tell he was Enrico Manriquez, an infamous bully around these parts who would shit on anyone he deemed annoying. It was the first time Yuuki had seen the guy commit the acts he had been known for in person. And the fact that he chose a girl to bully immediately irritated Yuuki.

 

              "I-I'm sorry… please, I beg you… let me go. I didn't do it on purpose. I-It was just an accident. It was just an accident! Please..." the androgynous girl hesitantly begged and apologized, her voice trembling out of nervousness and intimidation, with a voice a bit too deep for a girl to have, and quite too high-pitched to be defined as the opposite gender's. It genuinely surprised Yuuki and urged him to start drawing himself nearer and nearer to the bullies, but caught himself halting in his tracks when the bully spoke up again.

 

              Enrico let out a sigh of both mockery and annoyance. "Well, I don't believe in accidents. It's your own fault, buddy. I guess you were too busy dwelling in your own fantasy world of delusions and denial that you never fucking paid attention to the pathway in front of you. You just can't accept the bitter truth that you'll never, ever be a girl. You think that skirt is going to magically transform your manhood into the opposite? Or do you actually think those pills that you and your fellow freaks are taking would give you a step closer to a goal you'll never even reach? You're blinding yourself with those lies you're feeding yourself because you can't accept how cruel reality is. I guess you're so blinded you failed to even see us big guys our size coming your way. That's fucking sad, man, but you fucking deserve it for lying to yourself and bumping on me. And I also don't wanna be touched by a monster scarier than a Xenomorph."

 

               Wait. Is she…? Yuuki thought.

 

               "Whoa, whoa, dude. That's a mouthful," said his friend, the biggest one, in surprise. His name was Barry. "And where did that even come from?"

 

                Enrico shrugged with a smirk. "I hate people who lie to themselves. I hated how my mother stuffed so much lies to herself that they overflowed to affect my father. And it cost him a lot. A lot of things that money cannot fix."

 

               "Shit," Yuuki cursed internally. Now he knew why the girl looked particularly a bit out of the norm. She was a trans girl. And it did not take a genius that Enrico was going too far and too deep with his words. Her head was bent low, with her long hair drooping down, concealing her face, but he can see how her body trembled, likely as a result of tanking Enrico's barrage of insults. Enrico grinned in satisfaction upon witnessing her reaction. "Well, how did that feel? The truth hurts, doesn't it?"

 

                The way she was acting, Yuuki already anticipated a series of sobs coming from her. However, that was not the case. In fact, the behavior she was about to convey completely contradicted the one she had shown just a while ago.

 

                 She raised her head to glare at the bully, showing a face of anger and total defiance. "You don't know anything that I've been through," she coldly stated.

 

                 "And…?" taunted Enrico. "Am I supposed to care?"

 

                 "No… you're supposed to understand. But then... I'm not expecting that to happen to a thick-headed jock who wouldn't be surviving if he wasn't being spoon-fed by his dad five times a day. If your dad was a bit better as a parent and a person, your mother wouldn't have ditched you, and you wouldn't have been the self-centered asshole you are now," she calmly answered.

 

                 Abruptly, Enrico's head reddened as they heated up in rage. The veins on his temples threatened to pop as he digested his victim's rebuttal. 

 

                  "What… what did you just say to my face?" he asked in a tone that indicated he planned on torturing and murdering… no… slaughtering her in the most painful way possible. His eyes were flaming in pure anger, and she could have sworn she saw her reflection in his irises being burned at the stake as she shrieked in agony. Regardless of this, she never gave in to the wave of fear the angry bully had given her. Her body was still trembling, likely in a mix of fear and anger. And still, she was able to hold her own, thanks to the rush of adrenaline.

 

                  "You heard me," she said. "But the truth hurts, doesn't it?"

 

                  That earned her a smile and genuine respect from Yuuki, who somehow still had his presence unnoticed. 

 

                  Enrico's visage of murderous intent darkened furthermore. His arms seemed to move on their own, both gradually creeping towards the victim's neck, closer, and closer. With the intimidating size of his hands, he could be guaranteed to crush her neck like a toothpick. The two henchmen were now concernedly calling his name while asking him to stop. The act alerted Yuuki which immediately urged him to try to stop by calling hi—

 

                  Before Yuuki could even fully part his lips, and before the two henchmen were even able to make a move to physically stop an act that would go drastically awry, the bully fortunately realized doing something like that would be going much more overboard than simply insulting her personally. With lucidity and rationality winning against his urges, he quickly moved his bulky pair of limbs away, putting one behind his back and the other to idly limp on his side. He took one deep breath, then another, and another, each time helping him calm down. As a result, his Super Saiyan veins were no longer visible, his face reverted back from expressing a dangerously violent intent to calm smugness, and that anger was successfully suppressed. He ended the series of breathing with a heavy sigh, before proceeding to let out an amused laugh that both annoyed and scared the trans girl. 

 

                There was a pause between the two that lasted for about ten seconds. A trickle of sweat ran down her forehead. Each passing second was completely nerve-wracking for the poor victim. 

                 "Alright. You got me," he confidently admitted with a shrug, breaking the silence. "Yes, the truth does hurt. Reality really is disappointing at times. This at least is something we can agree on. Which is why… you have to embrace it. Freely and openly, without anything to cover it. And right exactly now… I'm gonna help you do that."

 

                A grin of sadism formed in his mouth. "Grab his arms. Get him to hold still." And so the two thugs, Barry and Carl, complied without any hesitation nor breaking a sweat, instantly striking terror into the trans girl. Enrico proceeded to fish something out of his pockets as fast as he could: a white cotton handkerchief. Before she could even attempt to scream, he quickly stuffed it into her mouth. "Now, now. Let's see how little Junior is doing, shall we?" 

 

                 Panic already overcame her, instinctively causing her to keep on squirming and kicking. Kicking...? Wait. The locker behind her! She could kick it in order to at least produce a noise. Kicking the bullies in self defense wouldn't obviously work, but hitting the lockers could be loud enough for someone to hear. And thus she did exactly that, one, two, five times before both of her legs were grabbed by Enrico with a terrifying strength. "That's not gonna work anymore, buddy. Almost everyone in school is out. The chances of anyone, teacher or not, passing by or either hearing the racket you're making is low… well, unless you scream, of course. Plus, we're in a conveniently good spot where we can have a bit of privacy to settle things so that we can get over this quickly." 

 

                 He began removing the skirt. Like a pair of faucets left on, tears were now flowing out of her eyes, perfectly mirroring the terror she was currently experiencing. Despite the futility of it, she attempted to scream continuously, pouring all the strength she could muster into it, only for her throat to produce muffled and suppressed noises, causing it to sharply hurt. She attempted several consecutive kicks to hit Enrico's punchable face, but he managed to block them all before his two henchmen grabbed each leg with their free hands, completely rendering them just as immobile as her arms were. The overwhelming strength of the three restraining her had left her helpless, demanding her to give in and stop resisting, the same way people were telling her to "be a man" and stop pretending to be the opposite gender; to hide her true self from within and wear a facade she fully knew didn't define who and what she truly was. The pain of being a cat trapped within a cage for a dog, and being labeled as the latter, was utterly unbearable. She didn't have to be reminded of how her physique contradicted what her soul is. The world didn't have to see it… especially when she had recently done something to it. They mustn't see it. They mustn't see it. They must not see it. She must not see it again, if ever. Unfortunately, the odds were never in her favor to begin with. Never were. Never will be. And now, they will see it, and there is nothing she could do to stop it. Maybe I should've stuck to my final option of escape, after all, she thought. And I will. If there was nothing but pain awaiting me in this world… leaving it should be the best decision. Just one last day to endure, Alisa. And it'll all be gone… forever. 

 

                "That's enough." 

 

                While in the midst of unfastening the skirt's belt, Enrico was forced to pause and turn his attention to the one who held his shoulder with an iron grip and spoke. Enrico amusingly was having trouble taking off the skirt thanks to the belt and his unfamiliarity with female clothing. He could have threatened to rip it up for the sake of convenience, but he somehow did not do that. As to why, who knows? Maybe his cruelty had a fathomable limit, after all. 

 

                 "Well well, if it isn't Mr. Hotshot himself," Enrico announced. "A pleasure to meet you. Perhaps it isn't necessary to give you an introduction to know who I am any longer. Being infamously feared around these parts has its perks, after all. It seems like you're planning to join the fun, huh? Well, I appreciate your participation. After all, the more the merrier."

 

                  "Let her go," demanded Yuuki. "You're going way too far."

 

                  "'Her'?" Enrico exclaimed humorously. "Are you actually buying these freaks' delusions, too?"

 

                  "Whatever, amigo. Male, female, in-between, none, et cetera, who the fuck cares? You're not gonna expect me to tolerate any shape or form of bullying, especially when it crosses the line. Bullies like you are what I despise. And I can easily take the three of you on when necessary." Yuuki explained whilst walking between the bully and the victim to face the big guy appropriately, their faces getting closer until they were only five inches apart. Enrico, without a word, only stared back at him with a smirk.

 

                  Enrico let out a laugh of enjoyment upon seeing the Japanese guy's absence of fear. "You certainly live up to my expectations. You ain't called a hotshot for nothing. Gotta give you credit for that."

 

                  "I'm warning you—" said Yuuki, but was abruptly cut off by him.

 

                  "So, I'm warning you…" Enrico's words trailed off, seemingly forgetting his sentence. He fortunately recovered quickly. "...I'm only giving you a warning this time: don't fuck with my fun, or you'll find yourself crying on your Mom's lap." 

 

                 With those last remarks, Yuuki's left eye and right arm twitched, and his left hand trembled which lasted for a few seconds in response. "Well, I'm warning you too… God, your breath fucking stinks... I'm warning you not to fuck with anyone ever again."

 

                 Enrico smirked. "Hmph. Fat chance, buddy. Good luck with that." He withdrew himself from Yuuki, walked past him and continued where he left off: taking off the victim's skirt. He managed to remove the belt successfully and quickly. Without the essential aid the belt offered to the skirt, the garment hung so loose it threatened to fall off. 

 

                 "Why you…" Yuuki lunged forward as fast at him as he could, charging with his shoulder. The force pushed away Enrico, who was caught off guard. Next thing the bully knew, his bulky ass was on the floor, at least a foot away from his original position. Witnessing the sudden assault, Carl and Barry instinctively removed their grip from the victim's arms and prepared to pummel Yuuki as an intent of protecting their friend, leaving Alisa collapsing to her knees, spitting the handkerchief out, shaken and in tears, not even bothering to fix her skirt anymore. 

 

                 Barry grabbed Yuuki by the collar, his other hand packed into a fist, steadily aiming at his enemy's face. Enrico immediately rose up, composing himself. Despite the predicament Yuuki found himself stumbling into, he was not in the least fazed even up to this point, where he could easily lose a few teeth and gain a broken nose thanks to this big guy restraining him. 

 

                 "Let me go," demanded Yuuki, completely disregarding the fact that he was at a disadvantage here. "Or you can throw that at my face first if you wanna quickly regret accompanying your stupid boss for the rest of your life."

 

                 "Yeah, Barry. You heard the man," Enrico mockingly said as he approached Yuuki. "Hit him. He's apparently so fed up with girls flocking around him on a daily basis he decided giving himself an ugly mug would solve the problem."

 

                 That statement raised Yuuki's eyebrows in surprise, forcing a sigh out of him two seconds later. "Was my lack of enthusiasm really that evident?" 

 

                 "Don't know, don't care. The rumors just reached me. So I guess it's true, then? Because if it is, I can only think of two possible reasons as to why: one, you're fucking gay. And two: you're completely straight, just that you've already got your eyes on a certain girl. So, which one is it? I'm even willing to bet there's a big chance you're indeed gay."

 

                 "Like hell it's relevant to our situation right now." Yuuki confidently retorted, strategically avoiding to answer the question. "It's either Hulk here punches me or not. Just get this over with." His attention right after however, was focused on the girl after seeing her in his peripheral vision. She never bothered to get away nor fix her skirt. She simply stayed there on her knees as her tears flowed. He wanted to call her, to tell her to run as fast as she can away from here, but he thought it would be a bad idea. For one thing, all three's attention was now on him (including Carl, who was just standing behind Enrico, watching the show and waiting for orders like a dog). Calling her would most likely avert the bullies' attention to her. Even sending her a non-verbal message wouldn't work as well, seeing her head was bent low, tears forming a small puddle on the floor, there was no way for her to see the signals he would be conveying. Besides, at the moment, he did not exactly have any idea what to say to lift her spirits up; he was afraid to hurt her feelings more. It did not help that he never had any experience in dealing with transgenders at all. 

 

                 "Okay then, Barry. Make him spit a tooth or three. I'll take all the blame if we get caught, as usual."

 

                 "And you'll likely be expelled if you get caught in the act or if someone reports you. You know that, right?" Yuuki asked sharply.

 

                 "Suspension, expulsion, like I give a fuck anymore. It's not like I wanted to be here, anyway. Only thing that kept me sticking here is playing Football. And thanks to one asshole, I got kicked out of the team a few days ago." 

 

                  "Whoever that 'asshole' is, now you're going all out, picking on people way harder than before as a way to expel yourself? That's pathetic. There's tons of more convenient options for you to do the trick. And hurting people isn't one of them."

 

                  "Oh, yes. I could cause property damage here and there, or violate more established campus rules too, but I won't. Where's the fun in that? I prefer stepping on people's faces and hearing their pained cries. 'Cause… I don't know, it just feels good to me." 

 

                  "Okay, fair," said Yuuki sarcastically, before focusing on Barry again. "Now, are you gonna land that hovering fist or not?" 

 

                  The three guys seemed to be very confident of their advantage in numbers and sizes that they let all of Yuuki's limbs free, finding it bullshit that he'd be able to smack all of their asses down. Thus when Barry's wrecking ball of a fist began to travel towards his face, Yuuki braced his legs to jump up and—

 

                  We're no strangers to love.

 

                 You know the rules, and so do I.

 

                 A full commitment's what I'm thinking of.

 

                You wouldn't get this from any other guy.

                

               I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling.

               Gotta make you understand.

               Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you—

 

 

               "Oh, sorry. It's my phone," said Enrico apologetically as he fished the ringing phone from his pocket and answered the pending call, instantly cutting off the ringtone that forced everyone to stop whatever they were doing due to surprise.

 

               "Hello, Dad? … Okay, what happened? … Wait. He… he what?"

 

               Enrico's face of smugness contorted into that of an extremely worried boy. "I-I'm heading there as fast as I can."

 

               He sighed, sweat running down his temple. Yuuki could easily guess he was certainly worried about something. But whatever this was, Yuuki knew it saved his time dealing with them. 

 

               "Barry, Carl. Just let Mr. Hotshot and the freak go. You're both coming with me, stat. Let's go!" Enrico turned his back from Yuuki and started to walk away. The two thugs trailed behind him. Just a second after, however, he looked at Yuuki again. "Don't fuck with my fun again next time, just to remind you." And with that, the Three Stooges were gone. 

 

               Now with them out of the way, he made his way to the girl. He settled himself on the floor beside her to at least make a decently friendly and respectful connection to her when communicating. "Hey there. You okay?"

 

               Her cry had now come to a stop, although her face was still excessively moist with tears. Her eyes were steadily focused on the floor directly below her, just as still as the rest of her body currently were, as if her soul left her body to undergo a quick spiritual meditation as a form of coping mechanism for the recent event that almost went wrong and undoubtedly had shocked her intensely. Had it not been for Yuuki, she would have been in a worse state. He took his own handkerchief out, he openly offered it to her. "Here," he said, patiently waiting for her to acknowledge his presence. After a few moments, she at last had shown movement by raising her head to intently gaze at Yuuki. Upon noticing the handkerchief, she received it with her left hand, albeit hesitantly. "T-thank you…" 

 

                Yuuki smiled in satisfaction and relief. "Don't mention it. I'm glad you're all there now." He stood back up as the girl wiped off all the tears staining her face. "Also, I'd fix that skirt of yours if I were you."

 

                "Oh…" upon realizing this, she proceeded to pull the skirt up, fastening the belt properly right after.

 

                "Now get up already. You can't just stay there on the floor forever," he asked her, lending his hand generously, waiting for her to take it. Without a word, she took his hand obligingly. Yuuki effortlessly managed to pull her to her feet. 

 

                "So, what's your name? Mine you probably already know, being the popular bastard I am. If you don't, well that's perfectly fine. And either case, I'm still going to introduce myself, anyway. The name's Yuuki. Yuuki Yoshioka." 

 

                She paused for a while, before deciding to answer. "Alisa."

 

                "Nice to meet you then, Alisa. Now, as a proper apology for not coming to your rescue sooner, which I could have, I'm treating you if you still have enough time to spend. Well, may I ask, do you?" 

 

                "N-no, you don't have to bother. I'm good, thanks. And I don't see why you'd be apologizing for that. It's fine." 

 

                "Hey, don't be shy. I kinda felt like you've been through a lot. You at least deserve a little gift from people like me every once in a while for surviving."

 

                It may have sounded promising with the way he put it, but there was no way Yuuki was changing Alisa's mind. To her eyes, her life was already beyond redemption, and this incident was enough for her to fully see it. It made her realize how weak and helpless she truly was to even make the slightest changes to the life she never even wanted to have. A life where the world is against you for being… different. And if the world is your enemy even after your countless attempts of reconciliation and never retaliation, you would very much be forced to leave it. However, if she was to end it all later, she might as well spend a bit of a good time. 

 

                  "... Alright," she accepted his offer. "I do have the time... and it's perfectly just enough."