Resent

The girl was walking home completely alone.

Her clothes, her shoes, her bag, and her body, all drenched from the pouring rain. However, the girl was to exhausted from what had happened to her earlier during the day. She was too exhausted to stop and get a change of clothes.

So exhausted in fact, that she didn't even bother to notice the water seeping inside her shoes. This is even making her socks wet.

After walking for a while, she stopped and said to herself,

"What was that guy? Is he so cocky that he thinks he should save me? Does he pity me? Did he come to help after he saw me get bullied?"

After a brief pause, she continued,

"...does he like oatmeal too?"

The girl uttered a thought that had no relation whatsoever to whatever she was thinking beforehand. She was shocked.

She raised both of her arms in the air then slapped her hips, then slapped her shoulders, then slapped her cheeks, then shouted to herself,

"Huh?!"

Yes, indeed. Huh. The thought of whether or not the boy had the same interests as her came out of nowhere. Was this infatuation or simple curiosity? Who knows? This is similar to a bird that didn't know if it was eating a bug because it was hungry or because it enjoyed it. The question also remained if the bird could even have thoughts like that. One thing that is obvious however, is that the bird and the girl are both unaware of the workings of their own inner thoughts.

After thinking of such unnatural things about someone so unnatural appearing so unnaturally in her life, she decided that her shoes were too wet and removed them. She walked barefoot and held her shoes in her hands instead.

While enjoying this peace, a supercar destroyed it. The car utterly, impossibly, destroyed this inner utopia that the girl had for a few seconds with an v12 engine roar that could be heard from far away and is rapidly approaching.

She thought to herself,

"Hmm, if I was born like that, I wouldn't rev my engine to show off. It's gonna bother other people. It doesn't make sense to rev a supercar's engine this late."

She believed that if born in a better social setting, she would simply be a better person that those currently born like that.

"If they were born like me, maybe they would realize other people's feelings. You shouldn't intrude on others."

The girl who had grown up in poverty, had experienced very little luxuries in life. 

Each normal thing a rich or middle class person would enjoy would be something extremely memorable to her. It will be something she would cherish as an important memory for a long time.

While lost in her thoughts yet again, she had just realized she arrived home.

Their "home" was more of a tiny shack in some alley. Truly, it was the house of someone who lives in the slums.

"Dandelion!"

a loud cough followed that, followed by another cough, followed by another cough. This person who yelled out the girl's name had not stopped coughing for the next 3 seconds.

"Dandelion! We're glad you came home, but dear, please come home earlier okay? Your father isn't feeling as well as before. Could it be he's unhealthy or could he be going senile or could he just be an old man at this point? Who knows?"

"Haha, so funny."

The girl's father had replied with a straight face to his wife's ridiculous attempt at a "joke".

"Hm?"

The eyes of the girl's father had switched direction extremely rapidly after recovering from his wife's horrendous joke.

The direction his gaze had landed upon was his daughter's clothes.

"Dandelion, I know you didn't have an umbrella. Couldn't you have waited in school and borrowed the school's phone? Or someone else's phone?"

He was asking her with a faint smile.

"I thought you came here using a carpool with friends."

He shrugged his shoulders, as to say that he genuinely believed that Dandelion was fine.

However, he flashed a serious face out of nowhere.

"Dandelion, tell me. What happened?"

"Don't wanna."

"Huh?!"

A loud thump was heard through out their tiny house. It was the girl's father who had hit the table he was leaning on. Since their house was a tiny one in the slums, it was natural the neighbors had heard it too.

"Honey, stop it! The neighbors will hear us!"

"Shut up! They don't care about some random noise!"

What he had said is true, despite an obvious quarrel, no one paid any attention to them. Except for the girl herself.

"Tsk. You're both so bothersome and embarrassing! I don't even know why I have to put up with all of this."

The girl had worked up the courage to speak up despite having sweat drip down her cheeks and forehead from nervousness due to incurring her father's wrath. A wrath that isn't common, but isn't rare either. But despite the frequency, she had not gotten used to this wrath and it still drivers fear into her heart. But something had changed in her, something new and refreshing had happened in her life. She wanted change.

"If only I as born to richer parents-"

"What?! How dare you say all of that when I am working myself to death day after day after day after day just to put you in a school like that!"

He stood up from his shaky, unstable chair.

"Look closely around you."

He raised both of his arms to his side and made the girl look to her surroundings, staring from left to right.

"Look at the place we are in right now."

He repeated, now interlocking his arms. His face is now stern.

"We are members of the low part of society. There is no changing that."

"W-what are you saying...?"

The girl was dumbfounded, she wondered if her father was purposely downplaying their situation just to prove a point.

Before the girl speaks again, the father covered her lips with his index finger. As if to tell her to shut up and let him finish.

"Despite the fact that we are low members of society, I had not lost hope for you. I believe that my time is finished and I have no hope whatsoever to get any richer. But what about you?"

He leaned down. With his index finger still covering the girl's lips.

"You have yet to reach the pinnacle of your own future! I want you to experience a fruitful adult life!"

He looked at the sky. With his index finger still covering the girl's lips.

The girl thinks that his father should remove his finger from her lips anytime now.

"If I personally can't achieve it anymore, I want you to experience it! Dandelion, you may not understand it now, but you will in the future. You will discover that all papa wants from you is to experience your best life."

"..."

The girl decided to keep quiet.

"Now tell me, you're getting bullied aren't you?"

"...no"

The girl's face flushed red and looked the other way. 

The girl, now with her lips not covered by her father's index finger, decided to speak.

"You're so bothersome! I don't wanna! This is my life and I want to decide how I wanna live it!"

She ran away.

Despite walking along the dread of rain with no umbrella, she ran away.

"Tsk, why do I have to keep putting up with them?! They're the ones who put me in this situation anyway. If you're sorry, then work harder!"

Of course, she didn't voice these thoughts. She kept them to herself.

"Sigh..."

The father had placed his hand on his face while sighing.

The mother, who had come back from cooking their dinner, unaware of the exchange between her daughter and husband has asked,

"Hm? Where's Dandelion? Did you want to play with her? Of course you probably did! Haha! You're like a child too after all! Haha!"

Despite saying another horrendous joke, she laughed her heart out.

However, the father paid no mind to this and just replied with,

"Haa, when will she ever learn...?"

...

Somewhere, farther from their house, a ball of resentment was brewing beside a store beside the street.

"Girlie, when did you get here?"

"..."

"Don't you wanna go home?"

"Shaddap I don't wanna"

The store clerk, who had been fixing the commodities she had been selling, had sighed

"Look girlie, I can't take you in cause that's kidnapping, I don't wanna be branded a kidnapper ya know?"

The clerk said this while flashing a faint smile.

"..."

The kidnapper, or clerk had sort of an understanding of what happened.

"Girlie, is your name Dandelion?"

"Huh?"

"Oh like I told ya, I ain't a kidnapper or a stalker. I just have an idea of your name because your mother frequents here a lot, she loves you, ya know?"

The girl had wondered what her mother had been saying behind her back but...

"She really loves you because you're all she ever talks about. It's almost like you're her entire world or somethin'"

"Why do you keep talking like that? It's annoying."

"Oh, did you figure out my accent is fake? Haha, I just like talking like this since it's fun"

The girl was visibly frustrated at this store clerk at how annoying she was, at least to her. 

She decided to stand up and dust her butt.

"Oh? You're going home already?"

"..."

"Well, have fun!"

The store clerk waved at her and flashed a wide grin. 

The store clerk cannot currently see the girl's face right now.

But if she did, she would be bursting laughing with tears.

Because the girl's face was flushed red again similar to a while ago. Her face seems to turn in to a tomato each time someone says something sensitive about her. She doesn't seem to know why.

"Ugh, what do I do..."

The girl says to herself while arriving home.

To her shock, her father is visibly irritated while her mother is teary eyed. It could be from an argument or something, not that she really cares.

She decided to pay them no mind.

This is not a first time Dandelion has done this.

She decided to lay on her bed. Or it would be more appropriate to call it a blanket on the floor. She decided it was time to stop thinking about bothersome things and get ready for school the following day.

"No matter what I do, what has been done has already been done. I'll just focus on tomorrow."

The girl said this while now sitting upright, looking at her bag.

"Oh... Oh no!"

She stood up and frantically rushed to the place of her bag.

"Oh no, all my stuff are wet! What do I do?!"

She slumped to the ground with her knees covering her eyes.

She started to get teary-eyed.

"Mama and Papa could barely afford to pay for this, I shouldn't trouble them anymore..."

But then, she realized that sooner or later, her parents will discover her soaked bag. After all, they still sleep in the same bed together.

She chooses to avoid accountability and hid her bag

"I... I have to hide this for now. Sorry Mama, sorry Papa, it wasn't intentional"

She stood up and hugged her bag under the blanket in hopes that her parents wouldn't discover what happened.

After which, she decided to brace herself for whatever it is to come tomorrow. As she herself, is also unsure if she will meet the boy named Ulysses again.

...

In a mansion a district away from Dandelion's home, a another ball of resentment was also brewing.

"Tsk! That bitch has favor from Ulysses?! How dare her..."

The boy threw his teacup on the floor.

His butler spoke up.

"Young master, please control yourself."

After saying such, the butler picked up the pieces of the teacup broken by the boy and handed it to the maids waiting outside the door in order to clean up whatever happens.

After all, this boy had a short temper.

The boy talking was Francis.

___________________

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hello everyone! Sorry if I couldn't keep my promise of updating Dandelion Ba twice a month. But I'm busy, I really am! I'm a college student trying to pass, so for now, I decided to just update the story if I feel like it.

Also, Francis is back! I wonder what he'll plan to do on the day Dandelion goes back to school?

Please look forward for the next chapter! Thank you for reading everyone!