The morning bell rang, loud but unusually sharp.
Somewhere between its echo and the closing gates, something felt… missing.
Dexter and Ken hurried inside the gates before the guards closed them.
"Man! How many times has it been now?"
Ken said while still gagging and gasping for air.
"Counting the first day? Maybe around 25?"
Dexter replied, wiping sweat that ran down his forehead with a handkerchief.
"Anyway, we better hurry if we don't want Ms. Clara to be on our case again."
Dexter walked away quickly, leaving Ken behind.
"Hey! It won't hurt you to wait for me a little, would it?"
Ken complained as he followed while still panting frantically.
They rushed to their floor, half-changing into their indoor shoes.
They could hear the random, rampant chatter of their classmates— until they no longer could as the classroom door slid open.
"Looks like we couldn't make it."
Dexter sighed.
"Heads or tails?"
Ken posed the question, with a coin placed on his thumb.
"So we are doing this huh?"
Dexter's eyes narrowed.
"Well then, tails."
Ken flipped the coin into the air and caught it mid-air.
Before Ken could open his hands to confirm the outcome, Dexter moved past him.
"Hey, what are you—"
Ken's words cut short by the sliding door as Dexter entered the room.
Ms. Clara sighed as she looked at Dexter— crooked tie, half-worn shoes and hurriedly tucked shirt.
"I don't know what to do with you boys, I know you are there too… Kensei."
Ken slunk into view from the side.
"Consider this the last time, go tidy up and join the class… FAST!"
Ms. Clara said the words, now rehearsed for God knows how many times.
The boys hurried as the class erupted into laughter.
As Dexter settled to his seat, he felt an odd stillness—
the kind that came from something being absent rather than silent.
He had been feeling this way for days now and even had a rough idea about the cause.
Dexter was still trying to name the feeling when Julian leaned in, whispering,
"You're quite lively, for this early in the morning at least… unlike a certain someone."
Julian snickered, already facing forward again.
Dexter's forehead grooved as he looked away from Julian.
Two clear taps on the whiteboard attracted everyone's attention.
"So as you all know, the culture festival is coming up."
Ms. Clara announced, her face gleaming.
"We need to decide what we're going to do and assign two volunteers from our class, one boy and one girl."
She said, scratching the back of her head with the marker she held in her hand.
"The festival is about two weeks from now, who'd like to volunteer? Let's start with the boys."
She asked as she wrote down the deadline and the problem itself on the board, in blue.
Before she could turn towards the students, there were already few hands visibly raised in the air which gradually lowered until only one was left.
"Wait—why'd you all lower your hands? Well anyway, that means you're okay with him being the volunteer, right?"
Ms. Clara asked, her eyes narrowing. She sighed.
"Well, I think Julian will be the volunteer. What about the girls?"
She asked as she wrote Julian's name on the board for the volunteer position.
Dexter glanced at Julian, his expression victorious and fist clenched tight.
"I'd like to volunteer… if you all don't mind."
Lily whispered before hesitantly raising her hand.
Dexter looked over at Vanessa.
She twitched for a moment, burying her hand under her legs.
"Looks like you're good to go."
Ms. Clara said, writing Lily's name on the board as she yawned lightly.
"Now that we have decided on the reps, I'll leave it to you all to figure out about what you'd like to do, that's all for the homeroom."
Ms. Clara picked up the class register and took her leave from the class.
The students indulged themselves in light chatter for the short while that a teacher didn't come.
"Now that Julian is the rep, the "class award" is going to be a cinch for us."
"Lily better not pull him down like she did when she was with Max."
Rose heard that and got up from her seat.
"Lily wasn't at fault; Max was the one at fault to begin with."
She said irritably.
The teacher finally arrived, demanding silence from the students and starting his lecture.
Ken wasn't focusing on the lecture. He seemed to be troubled about something.
He was staring at Max— still, silent, half-lost in his own thoughts.
It was unlike him to be so meek and inattentive in the class.
Ken wondered, "He's been like this since the last month."
"Kensei…pstpst… could you share that book with me?"
His neighbor took Ken's mind off of Max.
"Sure, here we go."
Ken joined the two tables into one in a breath.
"Thanks pal."
The neighbor said with tears of joy in his eyes.
"It's no problem, Riley."
The class went about as usual.
Julian answered. Dexter observed. Ken filled the background with his humor.
Max, however, was… present in body, lost somewhere else entirely.
The ring for the break broke Max's trance.
Max rose from his seat and walked out of the class, as if following a routine.
The students too went about their business; some left to buy their lunch at cafeteria while others stayed back to chat in the room.
Dexter, Ken, and Riley went to buy something to eat.
"You're something else, you seem slow but are unusually fast when the opponent moves."
Riley turned his head to Dexter, while patting Ken's shoulder.
"I don't think that it's a pipe dream for you to compete in the qualifiers now that you have defeated 'The Fiery Kensei'."
"Don't play with people's name lightly."
Ken corrected him briskly.
"And that only happened once, I'm not letting you win again."
Ken declared firmly.
"Whatever you say…"
Dexter chimed in, breaking into a light laugh.
Riley joined in, Ken turned red.
"Stop making fun of me."
The three bantered while standing in the line for the cafeteria store.
The cafeteria was at the first floor; the three of them waited in line beside the window facing the school's courtyard.
"No! That's when you pause and land a delayed strike."
"We can also sneak right in dodging the attack and landing a blow."
Dexter and Riley were caught up in a back-and-forth debate about which tactic was the better one.
Ken listened to them carefully while looking out the window.
He noticed Max sitting alone on the bench in the courtyard.
Ken's eyes narrowed, he felt an unusual weight— maybe a knot in his stomach.
"Well Ken, what'd you think?"
Dexter and Riley turned to Ken, in sync.
"I think even his feelings matter…"
Ken muttered under his breath.
"Huh? Feelings? Who're you talking about?"
Riley asked. One eyebrow raised.
"Uh— oh-Ah! Yes, I mean the opponent's feelings should be considered when choosing a strike…"
Ken laughed, his ears red and forehead glistening with sweat.
"Oh brother! He's lost it! Did losing just once have that much of an effect on you?"
Riley smacked Ken's back.
"Get it together or else you'll lose something else next time."
Ken grabbed his lunch and left the line.
"Maybe, I was too hung up on 'that'. I'll go ahead, you both should hurry up or we'll be late."
He rushed through the hallways and ran down to the ground floor…
Only to find the courtyard empty.
"Where did he go?"
He heard faint whispers coming from the empty parking lot.
Ken peeked through the corner.
Max stood by the wall and along with him were the two lackeys.
"Maybe I was just imagining things."
Ken ran back to the class.
"Now that I see you like this, I can't even imagine that I used to run errands for you."
"Julian was absolutely right! He is anything but a spoiled brat."
One of the lackeys grabbed one of Max's arms.
"Just look at this—Cole! Almost like a twig compared to mine."
"To think he used to pushover Dexter so much, when he's no better than him—thin and weak!"
"That won't do now! — Brent. I bet he's even weaker."
The two of them laughed, Max stood there— silent.
Max snatched his arm away from Brent.
"Are we done here? If not, then you're free to cackle here for as long as you like. I'm going back now."
Max said, plainly… he thought of all the times he had harassed Dexter.
"So, this is how it feels…"
He turned and slowly walked away from them.
"Not so fast."
Brent grabbed Max's shoulder and turned him violently.
As Max staggered backwards, he felt a sharp sting in his shoulder.
Before he could ground his other foot, Brent's fist was near Max's face.
Max closed his eyes for moment and the next—it felt as if time had slowed down.
He evaded the fist and fell on his elbow, grazing it badly.
"Hey! What're you doing Brent?!"
Cole shouted.
"Let's run before anyone comes here!"
Max sat on the sizzling concrete, staring at the skin split open on his elbow.
"I wonder what that was about."
He pushed himself up slowly.
"The nurse's office should be quiet."
The ring of the bell echoed in his ears as he walked to the nurse's office.
Back in the class, the students were still up and about, wrapping up for the next class.
Ken returned to his seat after washing his hands.
His eyes kept returning to Max's empty seat.
"He keeps disappearing…"
"I'd like to talk about this matter properly after school… so, could you wait."
Lily's faint voice reached into Ken's ears.
"Sure!", Julian replied back with a smile on his face.
Ken's eyes narrowed as he saw the exchange. Something didn't sit right.
The classes started and went on as usual.
Ken however felt as if a concrete block had been placed over his chest.
An indescribable weight.
The pen kept slipping off his hand. Reading the wrong lines.
Dexter noticed the erratic behavior. He had a slight inkling of the cause.
Dexter let it be like that for the rest of the day.
The day ended.
Back in the nurse's office, Max woke up.
The clear sound of the school bell was loud enough to reach him into the "dreamland".
"Rise and shine, it's time to leave. I've got to close the room."
The nurse patted Max's head with a light file.
Max could hear the collective echoes coming from the school courtyard.
Some students stayed behind for club activities while others rushed home.
Max got up from the bed, staggered, and slowly walked out of the room.
He dragged himself through the endless, quiet hallway back to the classroom.
He entered the room, half-lit by the setting sun.
The whiteboard looked grey, yet clean.
The empty chairs looked ordered but unsettling.
Among them, Max moved toward the chair with a bag hanging from its side.
He unhooked the bag from the desk, making his way to the shoe racks.
Instead of changing his shoes and leaving, he chose to stay behind the lockers.
The Sun had set; darkness engulfed the entrance to the lockers as students made their way out one by one.
He hugged his bag, folding into a ball.
The silence pierced his ears until he heard light tapping coming from the stairway.
The giggles and chatter seemed familiar.
When he peeked through the shoe racks, he saw Rose, Lily and Julian coming down the stairs slowly as they chatted.
"Why'd you volunteer for the festival when I already took the position as one?"
Julian asked, knowing all too well about the reason. His eyes smiling.
"Won't Max be mad?", Julian's lips pursed as he suppressed his smile.
"Why should I worry about that? We weren't that good of friends to begin with."
Lily's brows huddled together as the words came out of her mouth.
"It's so much better now that the jerk isn't around, ordering us around anymore."
Rose scoffed, crossing her arms as she passed by the lockers.
Julian's laugh echoed all the way to the back as he left through the gate along with Lily and Rose.
"Well, that's to be expected. Maybe I deserve it, the way I treated them…"
After a while, the streetlights started to light up.
Max made his way out from behind the lockers, now that the sound of footsteps were long gone.
He stretched out, dusting his shoulder and knees.
The fabric around the knees felt rough when patted.
Sigh… He adjusted his bag's straps as he moved toward the exit.
As he stepped outside, he gazed up at the moonless sky.
The stars seemed bright and just as unreachable.
He stayed there for a while, gawking at the sky, when suddenly he heard light taps coming from the entrance.
He rushed towards the nearest tree and eclipsed himself.
He kept a keen watch at the entrance.
"T'was worth it to stay behind, now we can go and practice all we want."
He could hear someone talking— a familiar, brash voice. It was Kensei.
"We'll have to hurry or else we won't get to practice much."
Another voice slid into his ear, stating the obvious in an almost deadpan tone.
There was no mistake, it was Dexter and Kensei.
The two of them changed their shoes and hurried outside the gate in a breath's time.
Max emerged from his hiding spot.
He too, made his way out of the gate.
Their backs were still visible to him as they ran.
He turned back slowly and started walking.
Suddenly, he felt a light throb in his forehead, a little sway in his next step.
He thought of the two of them.
For some reason, the face of the "man"— standing under the same moonless sky, guards lying around him, flashed in his mind.
"Why'd I think of him? Maybe I'm tired."
He kept walking.
With each step, the throb got more intense and the same face kept returning in his mind— uninvited, insistent.
He stopped walking and gripped his head.
"Well, it doesn't matter what they say anymore. I might as well go late today again."
Max turned sharply and ran in the direction Dexter and Kensei had gone.
"That place… they'd go there… the dojo."
He didn't know why his feet carried him that way—only that stopping felt worse.
He ran around, looking for direction from people who lived nearby.
After about fifteen minutes of running in circles, he came across what looked like a faint outline of the dojo in the distance.
In front of the dojo stood the two boys, constantly looking at their wrists.
After a while a man came running towards the dojo, his legs not in sync and a cloth bag in his hand.
"I think I made you wait… I'm sorry."
The man spoke, his voice felt gentle and apologetic.
Max's eyes widened as he saw the "man" from the distance.
The wooden door slid open, light spilling briefly onto the street before vanishing again.
Max walked from the corner of the street and made his way toward the dojo entrance.
The wooden plaque above the entrance bore two carved characters.
「真縁」
"What do they even mean?"
Max glanced just beneath the characters—
something written in black paint.
"Shin'en…"
Max then looked at the intercom.
He felt his finger being pulled toward it and before he knew it, he'd pressed it.
A light ring answered him.
Max felt his mind going blank with each passing second.
He stood there waiting— for the moment the gates would open.