The short-haired girl, caught mid-ambush, stared at her restrained arm in shock. She turned to look.
An Asian boy stood beside her, his head turned toward the ongoing fight. His words had been directed at her, but his eyes never glanced her way.
The dismissiveness infuriated her. She thrashed her arm, trying to break free of his grip.
No matter how hard she struggled, his hand didn't budge. If anything, it tightened, the pressure making her wince.
Giving up on escape, the girl noticed he still wasn't looking at her. She suddenly raised her foot and stamped down hard at his instep.
Whether by intention or reflex, the Asian boy shifted his foot at the last instant. Her stomp came down hard on bare concrete instead.
She'd put everything into that stomp. The impact with the hard ground sent a jolt of numbness shooting up her leg. She lost her balance, lurching sideways—
Panic flashed through her. She reached out to grab anything that might steady her. The Asian boy beside her was the obvious choice. Her hand shot toward him—
But Bryan, seeing her grimacing, off-balance form, released her wrist without hesitation and stepped smoothly aside. He had no intention of helping her.
The moment he'd seen her trying to blindside Sarah, something had ignited in him. The fact that he hadn't beaten her senseless on the spot was restraint enough. Help her? Not a chance.
The girl never expected this. Her grasping hand caught nothing but air, and she pitched forward.
As she fell, her flailing hand snagged on something. In her panic, she grabbed hold without thinking, clutching it like a lifeline.
Rrrip!
The sound of tearing fabric cut through the noise of the scuffle, sharp and distinct. Despite the chaos, everyone heard it. Heads turned toward the sound.
A girl lay sprawled on the ground, clutching a strip of fabric in her hand.
Beside her, a heavyset boy stood with both hands clamped over his lower body, staring down at her with a mixture of humiliation and fury.
Even with his hands covering himself, there was only so much he could hide. Everyone could clearly see the flash of red underwear beneath his desperate grip.
"Hahahahaha—!"
After a moment of stunned silence, the crowd erupted into laughter. The scene was just too absurd.
"You..."
The heavyset boy heard the laughter and wanted to crawl into a hole. He glared at the short-haired girl on the ground, a curse on his lips—but he couldn't bear the burning stares directed at his exposed state. Without another word, he bolted toward the boys' dormitory.
"All of you! What's going on here?!"
Just as the crowd was still howling over the spectacle, a harsh shout boomed from beyond the gathering. Every heart skipped a beat. The laughter died instantly, faces draining of color. Even the fighters froze mid-motion.
Some turned to look. A uniformed man was striding toward them from a distance, bellowing as he came.
Bryan's lips curved slightly. He slipped into the circle and whispered a few quick words to Sarah, Allen, and Dick. Then he scooped up the prone Amir, and the four of them quietly slipped away, vanishing before anyone noticed.
One of the thugs caught sight of their retreat and felt a chill of unease. He glanced at his companions—every one of them sported fresh bruises and swelling. Anyone could tell they'd been fighting.
They'd never been caught before, never faced consequences. He didn't know exactly what punishment awaited them, but it obviously wouldn't be good.
"Run!"
"Go, let's go!"
"..."
Without hesitation, he warned his friends and pushed through the crowd to escape.
His warning set off a stampede. The thugs fled first, and then the spectators scattered too.
The onlookers weren't worried about punishment—they'd just been watching—but everyone knew how easily innocent bystanders got blamed in situations like this. Better to be somewhere else entirely. Combined with herd mentality, once some people started running, everyone followed.
Within moments, the courtyard was empty.
The uniformed man approached the now-deserted scene and simply stopped. He watched the fleeing students scatter into the distance without making any move to pursue.
...
A Quiet Path Elsewhere on Campus
Bryan gently lowered Amir onto a bench beside the pathway. Looking at the pain written across his roommate's face, he carefully lifted the boy's shirt.
The dark skin made injuries hard to spot, but he quickly found the bruised areas. Fortunately, Amir had protected his vital areas—though he had plenty of bruises, with proper rest he'd recover quickly.
Relieved that the injuries weren't serious, Bryan turned around. His gaze cut toward Sarah and the others, his expression thunderous.
"Getting pretty confident, aren't we? Three against eight? Impressive."
Under that glare, Sarah's eyes darted away. She hung her head guiltily, though she couldn't help muttering, "They were bullying him so badly... I couldn't just stand there and watch. I wanted to... teach them a lesson."
"You think that's what I'm upset about?"
Her quiet words reached him clearly. Bryan's eyes narrowed. "What I'm saying is that you acted too impulsively. This isn't the wilderness. Out there, we had no backup—we had to handle everything ourselves. But now we're in a school. A lot of things don't require us to personally step in. Like what happened back there—you could have just reported it to the administration. Even if they didn't want to deal with it, once someone files a report, they'd have to at least stop it."
"And even setting that aside—even if we were out in the wilderness and encountered something like this, wouldn't you at least assess the enemy's strength before blindly charging in? You got lucky today—those guys couldn't fight worth a damn. But what if you'd run into people who actually knew what they were doing? That kind of recklessness doesn't just get you killed. It gets your teammates killed too."
Bryan walked over to Allen and lifted his shirt, revealing the bruises mottling the younger boy's torso. He pointed at them, his voice hard as he looked at Sarah. "Today it's fists. Someday it could be knives and bullets."
The words hit Sarah like physical blows. She felt the ground giving way beneath her. She'd charged in on pure emotion, seeing injustice and acting without a second thought.
Looking at the marks on Allen's body, guilt flooded through her. She hurried to his side, her fingers gently tracing the bruises. Watching his face twist with pain at her touch, her head slowly bowed. "I'm sorry..."
Seeing her stricken expression, Bryan felt his anger soften. He let out a long sigh but said nothing more. He'd made his point. He could only hope she'd actually listen.
Life inside the quarantine zone might be relatively safe, but outside these walls, one impulsive moment could cost lives—your own and those of everyone depending on you.
Giving Sarah space to process, Bryan turned to Dick. He reached out and ruffled the boy's hair, his expression warming. "You did well. You recognized your physical limitations and chose ranged attacks instead. You avoided direct confrontation and used the crowd as cover to block the enemy's pursuit. Smart thinking..."
His gaze slid briefly toward Allen, who was still touching his bruises and wincing. "Unlike certain people who just charge in head-first, only figuring out they need different tactics after watching someone else. Absolutely hopeless."
Basking slightly in the warmth of the large hand on his head, Dick's cheeks flushed pink. He was delighted that someone had praised him.
Allen, meanwhile, heard the thinly veiled mockery directed at him. He puffed out his cheeks in annoyance but didn't argue back—just turned his head away, clearly still not convinced he deserved the criticism.
Looking up at the darkening sky, Bryan told Sarah and the other two to head back to the library and retrieve the books they'd left behind.
Then he turned back toward the bench where Amir lay half-dead, preparing to wake him and take him back to the dorm to rest.
Just then, Sarah mulled over what Bryan had said earlier. After thinking it over, something suddenly occurred to her. She asked, puzzled, "What you said earlier... about the school not wanting to get involved—what did you mean by that?"