Chapter 1: Being bullied.

“Hello, is anyone sitting here?”

Ciara was wearing headphones, focused on reading a book when suddenly someone touched her shoulder, making her jump. She took off her headphones and turned to look at the person who had just started talking to her.

It was a very handsome guy, the kind of guy that many girls nowadays like. His most attractive feature was probably his lip and ear piercings.

Ciara glanced around and saw that there were still plenty of empty seats in the classroom. However, without saying anything, she closed her book, grabbed her backpack and moved it to the side, leaving an empty seat for the handsome guy.

Ciara hated sitting with strangers, but she hated talking to overly attractive people even more. Since earlier, there had been quite a few glances towards where Ciara was sitting, mostly focused on the handsome guy next to her.

Throughout the class, neither Ciara nor the handsome guy spoke a single word to each other. This was also what Ciara wanted.

Just as the class ended and Ciara was packing up her things, she was surprised when the handsome guy sitting next to her started talking to her again:

"My name is Enda, what's yours?"

Normally, Ciara doesn't like to talk, but as a matter of politeness, she still told him her name.

"Hm... Ciara, you're a human, right?" Enda looked over Ciara for a moment before asking with a wink.

"Yes," Ciara replied, interrupting the conversation herself. "I still have another class, so I have to go now, goodbye."

As soon as she finished her sentence, Ciara turned and left without noticing the thoughtful look in Enda's eyes from behind.

After Ciara left, Enda lost interest as well. His smiling face suddenly turned cold. He leaned his chin on his hand and looked out the window, seeing two birds flirting on a nearby branch. He frowned slightly, and instantly one of the birds became motionless, falling freely from the tree to the ground.

Seeing the result of his action, Enda felt quite satisfied. A second later, there was not a single person left in the seat where Enda had been sitting earlier...

...

"Ciara, where are you?" A fat aunt stood outside, continuously knocking on the door and calling out.

Inside the room, Ciara had only just managed to close her eyes for a few hours before she was rudely awakened. She fumbled around and put on her glasses before getting out of bed and opening the door.

Before she could even say anything, the fat woman started shouting and scolding her: "What were you doing? Why didn't you hurry up and open the door? Do you know how long I've been standing out here calling for you? You're lazy, all you do is eat and sleep all day long..."

Even when she was continuously scolded by the person in front of her, Ciara's expression remained unchanged. This was all too normal for her - if she didn't receive scolding on any given day, that would be the strange thing.

She turned around and went inside the room, taking the envelope containing money and handing it over to the woman who was talking non-stop without getting tired. Only after seeing the money did the woman's mouth finally shut up for a moment.

The woman took out the money from the envelope and started counting it. She was happily squinting her eyes while counting, but suddenly frowned.

Why is it less than last month?

"Disgraceful, why is it only a little over 900 dollars this month? Have you been hiding some of it?" she asked suspiciously.

It's again.

"No, this month I've been busy studying for exams, so I worked fewer hours than before," Ciara explained.

But the woman clearly didn't accept that reason, and she started stubbornly scolding her: "Studying, studying, studying! All you do is bury your head in books all day long. Have you ever benefited from all that studying? Does it help you buy food or clothes? It's just a waste of money!"

"The tuition fee is earned by myself, I didn't ask for help from anyone," Ciara repeated this phrase countless times without any effect.

As expected, the obese woman became angry when she heard Ciara talking back. She grabbed Ciara's hair and pulled it back, causing a sharp pain that made Ciara cry out in agony.

"So, now you're brave enough to talk back to me, huh? What are you going to do now? Do you want to leave this house? Fine! Go ahead and get out, but don't you ever dream of getting your mother's box back." she said in a threatening tone.

Hearing the woman mention her mother's box, Ciara desperately suppressed her urge to kill the person in front of her.

Seeing Ciara's restrained attitude, the woman felt quite satisfied. So she released Ciara's hair and left with the money in a leisurely manner, not forgetting to say:

"Isn't it better to be obedient like that? You should remember that provoking me will only harm you, not benefit you."

Ciara pursed her lips, she obviously knew that already.

Seeing that it was almost time for school, she turned and went into her room to get ready.

When Ciara arrived in class, she noticed that her usual seat had an extra person sitting there, and it was none other than the guy from yesterday.

She didn't want to sit near anyone too noticeable, so she planned to find another spot. But it seemed like fate had other plans for her, as Ciara looked around the room but couldn't find any empty seats. This class was usually half-empty, but today it was unexpectedly crowded. The only available seat happened to be next to Enda, the same guy from yesterday.

With no other choice, she sat down next to him. Ciara couldn't skip the class either, as that would cause her to lose her scholarship.

"Finally, you're here." Enda was still looking out the window absentmindedly, but as soon as he saw Ciara approaching, he changed his attitude immediately.

Ciara didn't understand why he was so cheerful. She just nodded in response to his greeting.

Throughout the class, just like yesterday, neither of them said a word to each other. However, sometimes Ciara felt like Enda was silently observing her. But, whenever she turned to look at him, he seemed to be intently writing down every word that the teacher said without missing a single sentence. Every time this happened, Ciara thought it might be because of her lack of sleep that made her hallucinate.

After the class ended, it was time for lunch. Normally, Ciara would make her own lunch and bring it to school to save money. However, due to the incident this morning, she hadn't had time to prepare her food. So, she had no choice but to eat at the school cafeteria.

"Oh my, is there a storm today or something? How dare this weird little kid come to the cafeteria?"

When Ciara was chewing on her slice of bread, a few girls suddenly came closer to where she was sitting. Hearing that voice, she didn't need to look up to know whose it was.

Martha, the bully who always picks on Ciara since high school.

Why? Even Ciara doesn't know. And the bullies don't need any reason, if someone catches their eye, then that person becomes their victim.

But, perhaps it's because Ciara comes from a poor family, is an orphan, and lives with her aunt who doesn't do much besides shouting and bothering others.

Ciara tried to avoid the Martha's group as much as possible when she went to college, but it seems that she cannot escape forever.

As Martha and her group sat down at Ciara's empty table, one of them noticed the amount of food left in her tray and began to mock her with laughter:

"Oh my god, why such a small amount of food? Are you broke or something?" The person said, mocking Ciara's meal.

"Ha ha ha, isn't that obvious? But why say it out loud like that, our poor Ciara will feel embarrassed."

Then, a burst of laughter erupted from the rest of the girls in the group.

Their laughter was so loud that it immediately drew the attention of other students in the cafeteria who were present at the time.

Ciara didn't show any reaction, as she was too accustomed to the tactics of these bullies. She knew that the more she resisted, the more intense the bullying would become. Therefore, she chose to treat their words as if they were just empty air.

Back in high school, Martha would get bored and move on to another target if she saw that Ciara didn't react. But it seems that in college, she can't freely bully people as much as she used to, so when she encounters Ciara, she still satisfies her desire to belittle others regardless of whether or not Ciara reacts.

Martha began to play with Ciara's lunch, pouring her milk directly onto Ciara's tray. When she saw that she couldn't eat her lunch anymore, Ciara still didn't react at all. Ciara just wiped her mouth with a napkin and pretended like she finished eating, planning to stand up and leave.

Seeing that Ciara was ignoring her, Martha became even more furious. She pushed Ciara back to her seat and slammed the tray of food on the table in front of her, commanding her with a sneer:

"Eat it all up for me!"

The people sitting at the nearby tables noticed that something was about to happen, so they stopped eating and looked towards their direction.

Realizing that Martha might not let her go, Ciara began to think. While she was considering whether or not to throw the tray of food straight into the faces of those girls, Enda appeared out of nowhere like a godsend, parted the group of girls, put his arm around Ciara, and smiled brightly as he said:

"Here you are, I've been looking for you since earlier," he said before turning his gaze towards the group of girls and raising an eyebrow as he asked, "Who are these people? Friends of Ciara's?"

Upon seeing a very handsome guy appearing out of nowhere, Martha's group began to quiet down. One of them hastily spoke up:

"We are Ciara's old classmates! We just want to have lunch with her."

"Oh..." Enda pretended to understand, but his gaze remained fixed on the tray of food filled with milk, showing that he didn't believe their words.

Martha felt uneasy and wanted to explain, but Enda interrupted her with a firm tone:

"It seems that Ciara has finished eating. I need to talk to her about something, so she and I will go ahead and leave. Goodbye."

After saying that, Enda pulled Ciara to her feet, leading her out of the cafeteria.

After walking for a while, Ciara stopped, causing Enda to stop as well. She turned around and spoke solemnly:

"Thank you."

"Ha ha, it's a small matter." Enda shrugged and put his arms behind his head. Ciara nodded, planning to find a way to repay his kindness later. Little did she know that his next sentence would stop her in her tracks: "You've been constantly pushed around and bullied from home to school, why don't you fight back?"