"...I believe you are mistaken." Ian finally came back to his senses from the brief shock he experienced from the unexpected words of the girl before him.
Gracie arched her brow.
With just that one action, many thoughts flashed through Ian's mind, simulating many situations and calculating end results based on his understanding of Gracie.
Ultimately, this was what Ian chose to say.
"Nevermind."
Ian chose to proceed this way for a reason.
As mentioned before, Ian had found out a lot of information about the students of this school as well as their family background. Through the grapevine, Ian had actually heard about Gracie.
Gracie Heller, the eldest daughter of a nouveau riche. Not a lot of power, but a lot of wealth. Could be considered a lower-upper class family in society.
With a cheerful and upright personality, she has a lot of friends. Her popularity is considered high among the students. She is good at sports and average in academics.
Because she is fairly loved in her family, she is given a lot of pocket money which she uses to treat her friends from time to time.
She also likes to meddle a lot.
She doesn't take "no" for an answer.
Her train of thought goes round and round, making it hard for others to unravel.
Overall, not very useful in Ian's books. If anything, she's an obstacle with her upright personality that likes to meddle with other people's business and seek justice.
The point in this situation is, Gracie won't take no for an answer. So no matter how Ian continues this conversation, she will bring it back to her point, going around in circles until the other party gives in. She will justify herself in countless ways and somehow make her words sound reasonable, which would eventually convince whoever her conversation partner is.
That is, if her conversation partner is not Ian.
Ian could get out of her dead end circle, except that he finds it too troublesome and meaningless to do so.
She can insist on being his friend. But that's just her side of things.
He can choose to ignore her and let her continue her play as a one-sided friend until she is satisfied or bored and leaves on her own.
It makes no difference whether she is around or not. Anyways, Ian will only be seeing her at school.
Therefore, Ian felt no pressure to end the conversation just like this.
Anyways, words are just words until action is applied to them.
Just because she says they're friends doesn't mean they are truly friends.
"Great!" Gracie exclaimed. She then grinned, slapped him on the shoulder again, and left for her next class just as the bell was about to ring.
Ian watched her departing back as he touched his slightly aching shoulder.
Time passed like water rippling in a river.
In the next few months, while Ian was at school, Gracie popped up from time to time to bother him with talks of "friendship" that Ian was not interested in but still patiently listened to because he still maintained his gentle and polite demeanor.
Although everyone at school had already seen the viciousness underneath his skin, Ian had no plans on unmasking himself permanently. Moreover, this gentle mask has long since integrated into his flesh and bones; in a way, what's fake has become true to some extent.
Furthermore, even though others had heard of his cruelty when he sent Manl and his boys to the hospital, no one personally witnessed his methods. Only tall tales and exaggerated stories were spread of what happened since Manl and them are still recuperating in the hospital.
Most of the fear the students felt towards Ian came from his background. They were afraid of what would happen to them and their families if they did something wrong, so they avoided Ian.
So, Ian calmly continued his gentle act as though it was never penetrated.
This day, Ian had just finished using the bathroom and was walking back to class when he heard some noises coming from the back of a stairwell.
The sound was particularly prominent in the quiet and empty hall.
After walking some more, Ian's steps smoothly changed direction.
Ian's footsteps made no sound as they tapped the floor gently, so the two parties currently quarreling with each other behind the stairwell did not notice him approaching.
Surprisingly, Ian knew the two parties involved.
With her fiery red hair swaying in an unruly manner as she gestured and pointed with her fingers and arms, Gracie was about to blow up with the amount of anger stored inside her.
The culprit of her anger?
Manl and his boys who were recently released from the hospital. The majority of their wounds healed, but most of them still had casts on their broken arms or legs. Even then, they had enough energy to come back to school again and bully their fellow students.
With an air full of arrogance, Manl and his boys took turns to beat up the injured student on the ground covered in footprints and bruises. They cursed and laughed as they took pleasure in venting their anger on the innocent student since they couldn't do anything to the actual culprit of their anger and grievance.
Yet unbeknownst to them, had Ian not at some point dispelled Angus's attempt to dispose of them one way or another, by now they would've either been buried alive and suffocated to them or swallowed up by sharks with no trace left except for the red in the ocean.
Whether this ignorance is a fortune or a misfortune remains to be seen.
All that is known presently is that these notorious school bullies have not learned their lessons and are still targeting those who are weaker than them.
Just because they were in a bad mood, they started beating someone up.
But the victim wasn't someone random.
In a way, if they were a shop, this victim could be called their "regular."
Because he doesn't fight back no matter how much he is bullied, they would go to him whenever they were in a bad mood. They would only stop when he gets beaten unconscious or when they get bored.
This behavior has continued for about a year since it first started.
Even when other students heard what was going on, rarely ever did anyone step in and help the beat up student.
Even during the rare times that someone did step in, they couldn't persist until the pressure of Manl and his gang and eventually could only leave and ignore it.
The teachers at S High School are very lax when it comes to student management in order to satisfy and let the precious sons and daughters of good families have the highest level of freedom, so unless someone reported the bullying incident to them, they would not care or even know about it.
Moreover, most of the reported cases wouldn't get anywhere even if the victim themself or a witness reported them. This is caused by a lack of background on the victim's part.
The bullies at S High School had tough backgrounds compared to their victims, so most of the time, the school turns a blind eye to their actions.
Even the special class was no different. Not to mention that most of the students in the special class come from poor and disadvantaged families. They have no ability to stand up to their oppressors.
Just like last time when Manl and his gang called Ian out to the back of the school. If it was anyone else, they would've been given a beating and then nothing would've happened to Manl and his gang.
No one would find out.
No one would care.
Unfortunately, they met Ian.
What would've been a suppressed incident blew up.
Now that they are back, they are back to their old ways.
Habits die hard, and apparently, the brutal beating by Ian could not wipe away the filth ingrained in their bones.
Manl and his boys had been hospitalized for the past few months.
During that period of time, besides recuperating, they were taught a severe lesson by their fuming and frightened parents.
Even Manl, with confusion on his face, got slapped in the face by his father.
It took two weeks for the swelling to go down, not even icing it did anything. Then, it took a little over a month for the bruise coloring to fade.
Manl had trouble controlling his expressions because a slight twitch can cause him unbearable facial pain.
Nevertheless, the bruise eventually healed and Manl and his gang of boys were later discharged from the hospital, only needing to go back for occasional check-ups on their mending bones.
Today is their first day back at school.
They had already been warned repeatedly by their respective parents to not mess with Ian.
They dared not mess with him either after hearing about Ian's background.
The reason why their group of troublemakers can continue to make trouble and let the school condone them was because they understood who they could mess with and who they couldn't mess with. No matter how much they dislike someone, they would not target them if the other party's background is tougher than theirs.
They underestimated Ian and overestimated themselves because Ian is a part of the special class of S High School. They thought Ian was like their other victims who had no backing, so they made this mistake.
Yet they did not reflect on their behaviors. They didn't think they were wrong to prey on the weak; they regretted that they didn't check clearly before messing with Ian.
That's it.
They feel no remorse at all for their actions.
As could be clearly seen right now.
Since they couldn't take their anger out on Ian, whose brother is too powerful, they can only redirect their emotions to someone else.
And who better could that person be other than their "regular" who could not and would not speak up for himself?
Not long after they returned to school, they pulled him to the empty stairwell and started beating him up. Using him as their emotional vent.
Soon, ugly bruises appeared on the other party's unnaturally pale skin.
Anyone who sees this sight would feel distressed.
Anyone except Manl and his gang of bullies.
They would only continue to mock him. Insult him. Degrade him.
As if he was the trash on the floor and they were cleaning him up for others.
Whenever he would make a sound or grunt in pain, they would make fun of him.
This was the scene that Gracie accidentally stumbled in on.
As well as the scene that Ian saw.
Watching the girl with her fiery red hair and face reddened by anger loudly arguing with the arrogant Manl and his gang, Ian remained silent with a gentle but indifferent smile on his face.
His eyes swept from Manl and them to Gracie.
'Like I said, meddlesome.'
Ian narrowed his eyes coldly.