balconies • seventeen

love & letter (3)

Sonicbrat: a matter of time

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"Xu Minghao's a mute loser!!"

The two children laughed, scattering Minghao's books into the puddles of rain water. Minghao was just too scared to move, to protest, even more. Anger was surely welling up inside of him. But he couldn't stand up for himself. He just couldn't.

"He's not even saying anything, it's true that he's mute then!" One of the boys exclaimed, laughter following his sentence.

His books were soaked. The many drawings he had inked, they were all starting to fade away.

"You babies don't have anything better to do than picking on younger kids?" A voice approached four of them from Minghao's back, too scared to turn around. He was sure he's never heard of the voice before. So he probably might not be a classmate.

"J-jun gē," the kids cowered when their eyes landed on the taller figure, fear in their eyes. Minghao flinched when a hand rested on his shoulders.

"Losers," Jun comments, a look of disapproval on his face "cool kids don't bully little kids, idiots."

The three bullies somehow looked hurt when they heard Jun's words, backing away slowly. For the first time Minghao had seen fear in their eyes; those bullies who always picked on him. He felt thankful to whoever this Jun person is, for speaking up for him.

"You don't look like someone who would get bullied." Jun comments, spinning Minghao around to face him. They were almost the same height. Jun a tad bit taller than him. Well, he was in middle school anyway.

"You're tall, y'know? Plus, you've got that fierce look on your face if you stare at people, like what you're doing now." When Minghao hears Jun say that, he quickly averts eye contact, feeling sorry. Jun laughed.

"It's okay, mama told me you're the quiet kid in class, it's the first time I met you. I'm Jun gē." Jun introduces himself, although Minghao knows he was the son of one of the teachers in elementary school. Jun comes to help a lot, he seems to like kids even though he was a kid himself. Both boys and girls adored Jun in so many ways.

Minghao just nods in reply, too timid to say anything.

"You should at least tell me your name." Jun suggests, putting an arm around Minghao's frail shoulder as they walked.

"Xu...M-minghao."

"What? Midget?"

"Minghao!" The younger boy had yelled, louder than expected. Realizing the sudden raise in tone he quickly covered his mouth with his hands, staring at Jun back in shock.

Jun himself was in shock too, but laughed it off soon enough, patting Minghao's head, "Alright kid, I was just messin with ya."

"Don't let any big kids bully you anymore, alright?" Jun looks down at the boy, who was too scared to even meet Jun in the eyes. Minghao nodded slowly, looking down at their feet which were walking in the same rhythm; left, right, left, right.

"I'll take you back," Jun offers, carrying Minghao's small backpack for him "I'll make sure no one's gonna bully little Minghao anymore!"

For the first time, Minghao had laughed towards a complete stranger. For the first time, he felt protected. For the first time, in his whole elementary school life ever; he was able to smile.

That was the last time he had made a friend.

It was announced the next day about Mrs. Wen's leave. He had found out that Jun and his family had moved back to Shenzhen.