Within Sirkus Middle School, stalls were set up for the annual Red Leaf Festival, which were handled by the students.
Citizens of the city, young and old alike, flocked to the festival to enjoy the food, gas, and performances.
It was an open house throughout the entire day.
Winter holiday hadn't started at Sirkus Middle School just yet. It usually started one month later than Irio, for example.
Within a book stall, which sold everything from classic novels to children's picture books, there was no activity as everyone just ignored it as if it didn't exist.
Seated by the stall, the bowl-cut boy in a striped shirt was engrossed in a book, unaware of the bustling world around him.
At that mont, one of the stall's poles suddenly snapped in half, causing the pointy-roofed roof to tilt dangerously.
It looked like it was about to collapse.
"Huh?"
Neal looked above, and his round eyes widened in surprise.
"Hey, hey, hey, what is this?"
A rough-voiced teacher walked over with so grease on his lips as he finished eating a atball sub.
"I-I don't know; it just started collapsing suddenly."
Neal stuttered timidly.
"What did you do this ti, Neal? You can't do anything right…"
The teacher rubbed his forehead and then said.
"I'll call maintenance to co take a look at it. We'll replace this stall with sothing that will actually make money. That money goes to the field trip, after all, and we can't afford to have you ssing it up again."
Neal lowered his head, but under his breath, he whispered how unfair it was that he always got the bla.
With his head hanging low, Neal headed back to the school building and had so trouble moving with people flocking in every direction.
Eventually he arrived at the third floor and arrived at the footsteps of a classroom, which held a classic maid cafe.
With the prettiest girls as maids, it was one of the most popular destinations for male students, and at that mont, Neal saw soone who took away his breath.
A fair-skinned, golden-haired girl with bright blue eyes who smiled as she served custors their drinks.
Blushes spreading across the cheeks of the male students, they could barely hold one second of eye contact with her.
She was Neal's classmate, but he had never actually talked to her, as he couldn't gather the confidence to do so.
"Get out of the way, shrimp."
The tall and lanky boy with a baseball cap pushed Neal out of the way. Laughing friends of his followed closely behind and looked at Neal with haughty expressions.
'Travis…'
Neal tensed up as he watched Travis walk over to the gold-haired girl and put his arm around her.
"Oh, hi there, Katherina!"
"What is it, Travis?"
Katherina rolled her eyes with a smile.
When Neal saw that, his blood ran cold, and he knew that Travis had already won her over because he was the only one that was capable of speaking with her normally.
With his flirty and confident persona, it wasn't too hard for him to woo the girl, who was still new and innocent to the concept of romance.
"I'll et you after school, alright? See you then."
Travis said, and then, with a smile on his face, walked out of the classroom, but then stopped by Neal and looked him coldly in the eye.
"Follow , shrimp."
"W-why?"
Neal asked with shaking eyes and saw that Travis friends were distracting Katherina by talking to her so she wouldn't see Travis' true self.
"I am fucking tired of you following Kat around like a dog. You don't even have the guts to talk to her, so you stare at her from a distance instead.
"She is mine, do you understand?"
Travis said coldly.
Neal hung his head low and followed behind Travis. Then his friends finished the conversation with Katherina and jogged after them.
When they arrived at the storage room, Travis grabbed Neal by his shirt and slamd him against the wall.
"Urgh!"
Neal coughed in pain.
Travis drove his fist into Neal's stomach, causing him to double over in agony, and followed with a swift kick to the ribs.
Thump!
"Argh!"
Neal winced in pain as he fell to the ground, gasping for air, but it hurt as his ribs got bruised from the kick.
"Hop!"
A friend of Travis jumped up and landed on top of Neal's stomach with both feet, causing even more pain.
"Hahahaha!"
Laughter filled the storage room.
At that mont, Travis lifted Neal's head up from the floor and looked straight into his unfocused, fearful eyes.
"There is more pain in store if you won't leave Kat alone. I am sure that she feels disgusted by your constant, unwanted advances."
"W-w-what advances? I-I haven't done anything!"
Travis smashed his head down to the floor, causing a nose bleed, and then lifted his head back.
"And you better not do anything. You don't look at her. You don't speak to her. You don't even breathe in her way, do you understand?"
"Y-yes."
"That is a good boy."
Travis laughed, dropped his head back to the floor, and then, with his laughing friends, left the storage room.
"Mmh…"
Neal sat up, his hands shaking, and the blood falling from his nose onto his pants.
"This school sucks… teachers suck… classmates suck… everything sucks!"
…
At the front gate of Sirkus Middle School.
With a bright smile, a girl gave the visiting custors a pamphlet advertising everything that the festival offered.
At that mont, her bright smile halted for a mont, and a pink blush crept up her cheeks as her heart started racing.
"W-w-welco to the annual Red Leaf Festival!"
She said nervously and offered a pamphlet.
"Appreciate it."
Kiernan accepted the pamphlet and looked into the girl's innocent, nervous eyes before asking.
"I am here to et my friend's little brother. Does the na Neal Yoxall ring a bell?"
"I-I think he is in my class. A na does seem familiar. T-third floor, second classroom, we should be hosting a maid cafe over there!"
She said and twirled her hair with a shy smile on her face.
"Thank you."
Kiernan nodded and entered the school's grounds, curiosity piqued as he didn't quite understand why the system wanted him to help this Neal kid.
He wasn't sure whether the system was randomly choosing so random events or people in the world, but he doubted it could be so simple.
There had to be so sort of reason behind it all.
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