It's ok; Wang Linkai [✔]

十六

"You're coming to school with me tomorrow," Lin Kai persisted. He was in a bad mood, due to the fact I was refusing to come to school after a month, and for some other reason too, probably.

"Why? You know how much their words wil-will break and hurt me," my voice broke, tears forming in my eyes.

"You think I don't know that? I've been through it too, love. My mother... she was a prostitute. A young one too, started at the age of 17. She gave birth to me when she was 18, and my dad could be any of those men that had touched her. She abandoned me after I was born, and an old lady found me by the trash bin, taking me in after pitying me. But she died when I was the age of 10. I had nothing to eat, no where to stay, not much to wear. I was on the verge of death. And to make it worse, there was a group of people who were abusing me everyday. But a young girl, around 10 year old too, came to them just as I was about to die, told them to stop. And well, she was pretty. And a pretty, young girl was worth a lot. They took her and left me. I never found her after that day. I nearly died but a couple took me in and brought me up til I was 15, then left me alone after buying a cheap house, that one," he pointed to his current one, "when I was old enough to start working. I then started working as a part time waiter on weekdays from 6pm to 3am, get 3 hours of sleep, before heading to school. On weekends, I had to be a baby sitter, full time. It was tough, I had to juggle between school, and work. I was on the verge of killing myself. It was so tough, so stressful, I couldn't even buy enough food and drinks. I had to ask my friends to bring an extra bottle of water for me, I could only eat a meal a day which only consisted of vegetables and rice, no meat, no anything. Just plain, white rice with a chunk of vegetables. I kept working, and working, for a whole 3 years, and managed to quit my part time job after earning enough. Though I barely have the money now, it still can do. But it was hard. My classmates knew about this, they bullied me everyday. I was weak from insufficient food and them bullying and abusing me made it worse,"

His eyes were filled with tears by now, some spilling out.

"It's just, I thought I was on the verge of death, but I persevered, and survived, you should too, Ai Ci,"

"Yeah... I should,"

"But wait... a 10 year old saved you? It was by the rubbish bin, with around 3, buff, tall guys?" I asked.

He nodded before stopping mid way.

"How do you know it was 3 of them? I never mentioned a number?"

"Well, looks like we knew each other since 9 years ago, Lin Kai,"