Persona 5: Midnight Heist

Chapter 2

3 months later (12th March)

[Tomas]

Observing all of the other Shujin students throughout the courtyard, there seems to be a great range of interests among these students. One group of students shooting baskets; a gossip group observing others in the corner, making snarky comments about most people walking past, which there are plenty; and the group of outcasts, talking with each other, among many other groups.

So what was Tomas doing in the corner, on his own, eating his lunch, with millions of thoughts speeding through his mind like a highway? Well, frankly, Tomas didn't fit into any group, not even the outcasts. He was too much of an outcast. Since joining Shujin at the beginning of the second semester in August, he didn't find anyone like him. Everyone just thought of him as the weird kid that started a semester late and, on top of that, required counselling throughout the months. However, it's not like he never had a group that he fit in. For the last 3 months, he was able to hang out with a group every lunch. It varied each day where he would belong, but he got what he wanted. Too bad it was ripped from him without explanation and afterwards, he returned to the corner.

As Tomas contemplates the large cluster of thoughts, he felt a 'plonk' on the side of his head, followed by multiple others. That's something he nearly forgot about after multiple months of avoiding it: the group of annoying ratbags who throw grapes at first years, especially Tomas. The grapes relentlessly continued, but Tomas remained calm and inactive, despite the slight increase in anger for every grape that hit. It was only when a grape landed directly in his rice that he had enough of it. He forcefully stood up and stormed over, leaving his lunch on the table. As he approached the table of ratbags second and third years, he began the vicious interaction.

"Do you have a bloody problem?" Tomas forcefully spat at the table.

"Sorry." responded the largest kid, the clear leader of this cult of idiocy. "We were aiming for the bin."

Tomas, clearly seeing through the lies, continued. "Do you have anything else better to do?" His anger appeared to rise more drastically than he remembered. Perhaps he wasn't used to this after not experiencing it for multiple months.

"Don't you have anything better to do..." the same kid responded, pausing to come up with an appropriate insult. "...than contaminate our school with your foreign, Australian blood."

Of course, he was expecting something like this. His parents moved to Japan for work no more than a year ago, just like all generic fish-out-of-water stories. While he has somewhat easily adapted to the new country and quickly learned the majority of the language, it still remains the primary excuse to be bullied throughout the year here.

Tomas tried to rebut, but without appearing like a fool for taking too long, he couldn't come up with anything, so he simply said "Just get a life." and began to walk away, very frustrated.

Of course, the others couldn't end it like that, so they continued.

"We're not done here," another kid of the same group shouts as he stands up. Turns out it's a pretty balanced group; looks like there are no leaders here. "You come to this school and end up showing us up, getting your pretty little marks and making ours look even more like shit."

Tomas pauses his walk, tenses throughout his body for a couple of seconds, but manages to hold it in, recontinuing his return to his table.

The first kid decides not to give up, and mumbles under his breath. "It's just like that honour student girlfriend of his. No wonder they fit so well together. They're both shits who make our life hell."

That pushes him over the edge. Tomas sprints back to the group with pure outrage in his eyes and presses his finger against the first kid to speak.

"Don't you fucking dare talk about either of us again like that. You hear me?" Tomas, unaware of the commotion he's stirred, cannot care less of them. He has fire in his eyes and can only focus on the kid's face of fear. But it's not enough to convince him that they've learnt something. "You Fucking Hear Me!?"