One week has passed since the melodramatic and awkward event during the hotel trip came to an end.
The young boy kept on saying sorry to Nanami, and she kept on accepting it, but regardless, she was still afraid of making the young boy mad.
Nanami and the young boy still kept on playing video games together.
Their relationship may look normal, but deep inside, they both feel guilty and seem not to have talked the same way they used to
The young boy was still ten years old, and Nanami was seven years old, so both understood the feelings of guilt all too well. Since they were kids, they kept on hanging out, ignoring the feelings, assuming it would go away.
But the feeling would not go away, not because the world wanted to punish them, but because their actions and mindset are wrong, and it is dangerous, as they lack any idea of the wrongdoing.
This went on for the past three days until the day after.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The Young Boy: "Haoyi....So-mang.....listen, I am not ready to meet the Princess of Valerius."
The Mysterious Boy: "No way...who even is the princess of Valerius.....I was gone for a few days, and now So-mang has infected you, huh....."
There stood Ren, looking all annoyed, but deep down, he was happy
The Young Boy: "Ren!"
Ren: "Yup....."
So-mang: "Hey, the four of us are back together again!"
Haoyi: "Yeah, after all, four is better than three."
Ren's Older Sister "Hey, hey, hey....you four are so rowdy!"
Ren: "Yuna-nee!"
Yuna: "Yes...Yes....Yes....it is me, Yuna-nee."
Riko: "And do not forget Riko-nee."
Sena: "Hahaha, both of you are as funny as always"
Auntie Eunhee: "Yuna, you are in highschool and Riko, you are in middle school, already about to graduate, so you shouldn't make childish poses like that"
Yuna-nee: "Hehehe."
Haoran: "You both are so immature."
Riko: "Huh, hey, we will not have a boy younger than us say that to us!"
Yuna: "Yeah!"
Haoran: "Hah!"
Hina: "Hahahaha! Haoran-nii, you are so funny!"
Haoran: "Hina!"
Haoran then wrapped his arms around Hina and twirled her around.
In-ah: "Ehhh! Is this some love scene?"
So-mang: "Ren, you are going to call me brother-in-law."
Ren: "No! I do not want to be your brother-in-law!"
So-mang: "Come on, Ren!"
Ren: "No!"
Haoyi and the young boy looked on at this whole cast of characters.
So-mang, Ren, Haoyi, Nanami sis, Ningyi, Haoran, Yuna-nee, Riko-nee, Hina, Sena, and In-ah.
Ohhh yeah, Auntie Eun-hee is taking care of them while the parents of the young boy went off to duty, and Auntie Lunette is dealing with rush hour at her job.
Later in the afternoon....
Auntie Eun-hee: "Why are you both just staying indoors and not joining the others to go have fun?"
So-mang: "Because Auntie Eun-hee, my reading buddy here, and I want to just read and not play in the hot sun."
Auntie Eun-hee: "So-mang! ugh, why are you also agreeing to him?"
The Young Boy: "I want to read with my reading buddy So-mang."
So-mang: "Yeah!"
So-mang and the young boy high-fived each other.
Auntie Eun-hee: "You damn brats!"
......So-mang and the young boy sat in an air-conditioned room reading manhwas together while the rest of the kids, along with Haoyi and Ren, were out playing games.
Auntie Eun-hee expected us all to go out in the sun so she could rest and watch her shows, but she had to deal with the young boy and So-mang just hanging out.
With that, Auntie Eun-hee now had to deal with both of them.
The young boy enjoyed his afternoon with So-mang a lot; he enjoyed it so much that he forgot about his friendship problem with Nanami as if he did not care.
It was not that he did not care, but rather that he forgot about it.
Despite all the reasoning presented, forgetting about it and going forward, happy-go-luckily, with the hint of guilt being absent does not justify it, as forgetting about it is equal to not caring.
The afternoon is almost ending as Yuna, Riko, Sena, and Haoyi came in looking tired and red-faced from the heat.
So-mang: "Welcome back, everyone!"
Riko-nee: "Do not 'Welcome back, everyone' like that with a smug expression, So-mang!"
Haoran: Brother So mang
Yuna: "Leave it alone, Riko."
Riko: "But! Yuna nee san....!"
Yuna: "No buts, Riko, now then we have to tell them."
Riko: "Yeah."
Yuna: Listen, you two.....we were planning to go on a beach trip the next day, and you both are the last people to invite."
So-mang: "Why are you the last to....?"
Haoran and Riko-nee: "Because you both stayed at home reading and sitting down in an air-conditioned room all afternoon!"
Yuna-nee: Hey the both of you, stop shouting!"
Riko-nee: "Yuna-nee san, you are shouting too!"
Haoran: "Yeah....you are so biased."
Yuna-nee: "Stop watching television too much, Haoran!"
Riko-nee: "But isn't watching considered part of his job because he needs to learn and see the results of his labour?"
Yuna-nee: "Be quiet, Riko!"
Riko: "Yuna-nee san, what did I do wrong?!"
So-mang laughed so hard, but the young boy stared at them and smiled. He could not laugh, as there was this nagging feeling that he should not be laughing now.
The Next Day came in a flash, and the young boy, having continued to forget about the incident with Nanami, fell asleep easily, ate his breakfast, and went out with Haoyi, Ren, and So-mang, who came to pick him up, as he was the last person they needed to bring since the young boy overslept.
Haoyi: "You like to sleep a lot, huh?"
The Young Boy: "I like to sleep, though."
Ren: "Hey, sleeping too many times is not good, Riko-nee says, if you sleep too much, you will become a zombie."
So-mang: "What?!"
The Young Boy: "Huh?!"
Haoyi: "Why?!"
Ren: "I do not know Riko-nee said you would feel wobbly and stumble as you have not used your legs for a long time, then you would groan while walking because of something called a headache, then you would stay in bed and sleep so much that the dead cells would still be stuck to your body, infecting your other cells and your bed."
Notice: Taking a morning bath helps remove dead skin cells that build up while you sleep, throughout the night, as your body sheds dead skin, as well as oils and bacteria accumulating on your skin. A bath will leave your skin feeling cleaner and fresher for the day ahead of dead cells, sebum (oils), and bacteria that build up during sleep, leaving your skin cleaner and fresher for the day.
This is indeed a fact, you can look it up, sorry to the OCDs and germaphobes.
This intention was a joke and for educational purposes.....ahem.....well then continuing forward.
The four boys managed to arrive at the bus station where everyone was waiting for them, and then they headed off to the beach.
When they arrived at the beach, they all set up each of their stations.
Haoran, Ningyi, and Riko-nee
Ren, Yuna-nee, and Hina
So-mang, Auntie Eun-hee, and In-ah
Sena-noona, Haoyi, and Nanami
The four stations make up twelve of them, plus the young boy being the thirteenth member.
Auntie Eun-hee: "Hey, young man, come here, I need to apply sunblock on you!"
The young boy stayed with Auntie Eun-hee under the parasol that was planted at each station.
Riko, Yuna, Hina, and Ren went off to prepare the beach ball and net
Haoyi, Haoran, and Ningyi were sitting by the sand making sand castles together
Sena and So-mang were out swimming in the seawater
So-mang: "Noona!.....my eyes hurt!....wah!"
Sena: "I told you So-mang not to swim here, it is salty!"
In-ah: "So-mang hyung is kind of silly sometimes."
Nanami: "Yeah, he is In-ah."
Time passed so fast for the young boy as the next hour began.
Ren and Haoyi were playing beach volleyball against Yuna-nee and Riko-nee, who were losing so much because both Yuna and Riko-nee were athletic and older than them.
So-mang read his book under the parasol in his station, to which Sena and Auntie Eun-hee sat with the young boy in between them.
Sena: "What is he, a girl?"
Auntie Eun-hee: "Do not say that.....that is insulting to other girls who are more active than he is."
Auntie Eun-hee kept on making glances at Yuna and Riko dominating the boys in beach volleyball.....this is a friendly game and nothing else.
Ningyi was sitting by the shore and making sandcastles alongside Hina, In-ah, and Nanami. They all four laughed happily together, to which Sena proceeded to take pictures of them.....Auntie Eun-hee mentioned something along the lines of sis-con to Sena, who kept on muttering Ohhh, my sweet yeodongsaeng is making friends with other girls her age and not irresponsible and immature trio that is Ren, Haoyi, and So-mang.
The Supposed Irresponsible And Immature Trio: "Huh?!"
Auntie Eun-hee: "Ohhh, they seemed to have heard her and are not running at her."
Sena: "Wait! You three, I was just kidding."
So-mang: "Noona! Why did you say that?"
Ren: "Haoyi! let's attack Sena-nee!"
Haoyi: "Yeah! bury her body in the sand, leaving her head sticking out of course."
Ren: "I have this game called melon splatting."
Sena: "You three brats are sadists ahhhhhh!"
The young boy looked on and started to feel happy as he went off to run with the three boys.
He enjoyed his time at the beach, feeling so happy.
This was the first time the young boy went to the beach....not that his parents refused to take him there, but they were always busy, and this beach was far from where they all lived.
The bus ride had some of the younger ones napping on the older siblings.
He enjoyed himself so much, running on the sand was fun, feeling the water washing to the shore was nice, he enjoyed eating the watermelon that they all broke, Sena managed to dodge the four of them by simply dragging her to....well, the boy did not understand what the word meant but all three older siblings went to talk with his guys.
Auntie Eun-hee: "Oooooo, they all look so handsome, I can not believe my eyes, the diligent and stone-faced trio are actually flirting with those guys and showing off their natural beauty to them."
Auntie Eun-hee said the word again, flirting....what does flirting mean to me, and why are they talking to older guys so precious to look at."
Auntie Eun-hee: "Ahhh! Young love, it is so nice to look at."
The Young Boy: Auntie Eun-hee!"
Auntie Eun-hee: "What?"
The Young Boy: "What does flirting mean?"
Auntie Eun-hee, who was drinking water, began to choke and cough violently while smacking her chest.
Auntie Eun-hee: Ummm, maybe when you are older."
Older? Why did she not want to tell him not? Is flirting some kind of grown-up word? The young boy racked his brain and could not think of an answer.
Flirting did happen in the movies, but the young boy did not understand or remember those moments, as you mostly remember the cool action scenes in those movies.
The young boy enjoyed his time at the beach with his new friends and smiled at this feeling as Auntie Eun-hee looked at him.
Auntie Eun-hee: "It is nice to see you having fun, young man!"
The Young Boy: "Yeah, it is fun."
The atmosphere and the warm feeling were great, and the young boy felt so happy; however, it would not last long.
The Next Hour Began.
Ningyi: "Hey!"
In-ah: "Hyung, why are you not feeling guilty!"
Hina: Nii-san, you are horrible and mean to Nanami!
Nanami: "Hey, no, you guys stop now!"
In-ah, Ningyi, and Hina stood over the young boy who was sitting down alone as Auntie Eun-hee went to deal with something called a problem over at where Yuna, Riko, and Sena were.
That was another grown-up problem the young boy did not understand.
The four little girls who each act as a young sister to the four boys, despite Nanami not being the young boys' blood-related sister, stood over him at his station, looking mad.
Nanami looked like she was afraid and tried to stop them from yelling at him.
Ningyi looked down at the young boy, angry.
In-ah looked disappointed rather than angry.
Hina looked at him, crossing her arms and saying hmph at him
It was cute to look at, but the young boy could not find the appeal of these four girls, who each treated him as a big brother by yelling at him.
Ningyi: "You shouted at Nanami last week!"
Hina: "Yeah!"
The Young Boy: "Nanami, I thought I apologized!"
Nanami: "You did, but they said that you looked like you were not really sorry for what happened with you and me last week. I am sorry, big bro."
The young boy was not mad....how could he be mad....he did not even consider being mad as he was just in shock at the sudden yelling.
In-ah: "Hyung, I thought you were different.....I thought you were kind.....I thought you would be not like Haoyi who likes to use me, Ren who likes to play games, and So-mang hyung who enjoys reading more than.....than....than....playing with me! Wah!"
Ningyi: "Look! Now you made In-ah cry!"
Hina: "Apologize to In-ah...ohhh and to Nanami as well!"
The Young Boy: "What?"
Hina: "Say it nii san....if you were really sorry to Nanami for what happened, then apologize to her."
Now this would be simple to resolve if the young boy was like Haoyi, Ren, and So-mang who would comply without complaint or if the young boy was not young but in his early teens and later teens who would apologize to them over and over and over again while crying but this was the young boy during his younger days and he was just scared that he froze.
In-ah: Wah! Hyung! I knew you were a bad brother!"
Ningyi: "You are the worst!"
Hina: "I hate you!"
The Young Boy: "What?"
Nanami: "Stop, please, you guys!"
Suddenly, now Ren, Haoyi, So-mang, Sena, Yuna, Riko, Haoran, and Auntie Eun-hee came over to them because of the three girls shouting at the young boy while Nanami was telling them to stop.
Ren: "Hina! What are you doing yelling at him!"
Hina: "But big brother he...."
Haoyi: "Ningyi!"
Haoran: Sister Ningyi, why would you....."
Ningyi: Brother Haoyi and Brother Haoran...."
So-mang: "In-ah!"
Sena: "In-ah.....tell noona what is happening?"
In-ah: "Hyung.....Noona.....Wah!"
Yuna: "Hey, little bro, why are they yelling at you?"
Riko: "Do you know why?"
The Young Boy: "No! I do not know why!"
The young boy was in a state of fear, and in that state of fear, the normal response for humans is to deny and respond on instinct.
Ningyi: "He is lying!"
Hina: "Yeah, lying....lying.....lying....he is a liar!"
Riko: "Hina, what are you saying?"
In-ah: "Last week.....Nanami told us what happened during their trip, and he.....he.....he...he yelled at her, saying things such as 'how dare you Nanami!' or 'I will never forgive you!' or.....sniff....sniff.....sniff....' I will hit you for this!'....wah!"
The last part was not real, and the young boy knew that, but the ability to retort was gone as eyes were on him.....they were all glares...he never knew he would be scared of the glares from the same people he laughed and had fun with.
Haoran: "Is that true?....because if it is the you should apologize."
Ren: "He is correct, you know."
Riko: "You should say sorry now....come on, say you are sorry."
Her voice and tone are gradually rising into anger.
Despite Nanami's efforts to defend him, Hina, Ningyi, and In-ah drowned her out with their louder protests, insisting that her words were merely a reluctant effort to appease the angry young boy.
Nanami tried to stop this, but it was of no use.....she did not want the young boy to hate her even more.
Nanami kept on thinking that he would for sure shout at her and hit her....hit her....big brother will hit her?
Nanami: "Wah!"
The mind and imagination of Nanami have twisted her view of the young boy.
Haoran: "Nanami is crying!"
Ningyi: "Say sorry to her now!"
Hina: "Just say sorry, and if you do not, I will hate you forever."
She did not mean it, but she did the same to Ren, Yuna, and Riko, and it worked, but she was naive.
Sena: "Hey, is it really true? Tell us now! If so apologize to Nanami!"
Sena tried and failed to be the older sibling in this since she lost to emotions and yelled out of panic.
Riko: "Hurry up and apologize or else I will get mad.
Riko nee is getting even more emotional over this, losing all sense of rationality, patience, and the ability to forgive and forget, as she was bullied for during her last year in elementary school, and old feelings seemed to resurface now.
In-ah: "Wahhhhhhh!"
Ren: "Hey, dude, just say sorry to Nanami!"
Yuna: "Ren and the rest of you stop shouting at him!.....he looks like he is about to cry!"
So-mang: "You got mad at her for what, huh!"
Haoyi: "So-mang! enough! Stop it now!"
So-mang: "No! Haoyi! If he did something wrong, then he needs to apologize for what he has done wrong!
Everyone is so loud, shouting and screaming at him.
The young boy felt his heart racing and then...then....then.....in front of all of them.
The young boy sat there, tears flowing out of his mouth, forcing themself to be shut...he sat there with this indescribable sense of pain...it was out of anger but out of intense guilt and fear.
The loud and noisy attack from all sides pierced his body and made him bleed so much that it hurt him so much.
The young acknowledged that he did something wrong, but deep he did not mean any of the bad things.
Why was he being treated harshly like the mean kid who people would antagonize referring to them as the troublemaker and the brat?
Many movies show the bully who likes to verbally or physically abuse others, which makes the audience root for the main character and his friends, and want the kids to get justice for them or to at least be able to beat up the kid.
The bully characters in kid and teenage movies are mostly one-dimensional because of there being some plot point to keep the plot going or as a way to make the main characters struggle more, but the young boy knew that some bullies had their circumstances after all.
Bullying is a case in which it doesn't just negatively affect the victim but the bully himself.
The bully in those movies would be the popular cool kid who either everyone fears or everyone admires, depending on the type of person they are.
Bullying can cause negative physical, mental, and psychological effects to the victim of the bullying, resulting in them ending up gaining this new trauma that changes their character.
Most of the bullies in these movies get their justice, and everyone cheers for their downfall.
Despite all that, not many people would pity the bully, and if they did, it is called being soft or kind to a fault, but in all honesty, why would you antagonize and wish ill on a young kid, regardless of them being in whatever grade level they are.
Why do people have to be so scary?
Humanity cherishes people who do good following the word, examples, and works of God and Jesus, and humanity antagonizes people who commit bad acts against many others.
Is it actually fair to just wish them ill? Sure, they are brats and are mean, but it is scary to just wish not just the bully but the villain and antagonists in those stories.
Wouldn't it be normal for a person to feel pity for them?
Hating these people despite them being just characters is normal because they do bad acts, and it is good that being too forgiving and not punishing them is considered being kind to a fault.
So with that in mind, it is now a different story when being labelled the villain.
Every media, such as novels, manhwas, mangas, and manhuas, are now doing it.....reincarnated as the misunderstood villain or villainess character in their favorite novel, manga, manhwa, manhua, or game, and redeeming the character to be beloved by many people, such as the people that lived in the world and the audience reading the piece of media.
In the eyes of the audience, they understood that the supposed bad guy was actually misunderstanding, committing a villainous act for the right and reasonable reasons; the main protagonist and the audience both agree on that, too.
This whole explanation is not meant to say all bullies are good or misunderstood beings, but being labelled as a bully is very hurtful to the victim, as the victim in this is not the accuser declaring they were bullied, but the victim being the one being accused off.
The whole explanation and idea in summary for the young boy was that it was not fair, he said sorry, why are people yelling at him now.
Yuna and Haoyi both know deep down that yelling at him will not solve anything, and with the huge amount of pressure, the young boy sat there looking down and teared up.
The young boy was being attacked on all sides by the noise, the noise that embodied the rising negaitve feelings within the boy began to grow, the noise was the enemy of peace, the noise was the tool of pain and torment, the nagging and noisy sounds make tranquility shake and break....the endless noise that filled the young boy began to take shake turning his fear into a scary imaginary future.
They all hate him.....they all hate him...they all hate him...why...what did he do wrong.....he said sorry.....he said his sorry.....why is everyone treating him like he was the villain.
The audience must be praising the young boy to get his justice.
The tears turned to sniffles, then the sniffles turned to hiccuping, then to redness in the face, then to pain in the heart, the head feeling woozy till finally the breaking point....the crying which silenced them all as the moment they realized the young boy cried hard.
"Wah~!"
The cry was so loud that the young boy was both scared and pushed around by the noise.
The crying and shouts from them all were silenced as the young boy cried....cried.....cried....cried......cried so hard that he wanted to be saved.
"Mommy!.....Daddy!.....I want to go home!.... I am so sorry! Please stop, I want to go home....wahhhhhhhh!.....Mommy!...Mommy!...Mommy!
Auntie Eun-hee: "Hey, you guys! What the hell did you do!"
Yuna looked at them madly and began to lecture them all
Nanami, In-ah, Ningyi, and Hina's negative emotions began to go, and new emotions came up.....guilt and shock as the young boy kept on weeping, calling for his parents....he lay on the blanket, lying out with the parasol blocking the sun's UV rays.
Haoyi then came to the young boy
Haoyi: "Hey, dude, you doing okay?"
The Young Boy: "I am so so so so so sorry.....please do not be mad!....what did I do wrong?!...Wah!"
The young boy kept on crying while Haoyi stayed by him, and Yuna made them all go away from him.
The rest intended to convince him to apologize so there will be no more fighting and no chance of a friendship or relationship between each other be ruined but then they ended up ruining their friendship with the young boy as the young boy began to fear everyone beside Haoyi who kept on being by his side, Yuna who went off to buy some candy to cheer him up, and Auntie Eun-hee who just wrapped her arms tightly.
Auntie Eun-hee: "It is okay, I am here, look, they are not here yelling at you.
Being falsely labelled as a bad guy without having the courage to fight was the most painful thing one could exprience especially when you have apologized to the victim.
The Next Hour Began.
Haoyi and Yuna walked with the young boy to the bus station
Auntie Eun-hee went to talk with the rest of them.
Their intentions were not at all bad, but the way they did it was not at all good, as it caused emotional trauma and pressure to a ten-year-old kid.
The ten-year-old boy was ganged up on by older kids, kids of the same age, and younger kids.
The number of people to defend him was only three, and he felt grateful.
"Hey, ummm, dude, you feeling okay?"
"No.....I just want to go home and see my mommy and daddy."
"Okay, come on, I will take you home."
Haoyi and Yuna were the eldest sibling who took care of them and made it a habit to be understanding since they can not just choose sides with their younger siblings....Sena was also the eldest, but failed to be understanding to her feeding the emotional part of her.
Sena was always serious and had to listen to her own gut feeling
The reason part of her was lost to the emotional part.
Sena now felt guilty and wished that she had not done that.
Yuna: "Hey....listen, my younger siblings have experienced bullying and teasing before, so do not hold it all against them, okay?"
The young boy remained silent as the bus arrived, and he sat between Haoyi and Yuna.
The young boy grew scared of all of them now, besides Haoyi, Yuna, and Auntie Eun-hee.
The young boy was now afraid of all of them being mad at him.
The young boy did not hang out with any of the others other than the three.
The young boy had his own turn to experience the full gravity of the turning point.
Karma at its finest, people would say, but all of this was the cause of another cause and another cause and another cause since the cause of their anger was because of the failure of the Ningyi, In-ah, and Hina to be kind, and this happened because they wanted to protect Nanami, who talked to them about the trip. After all, she was having a hard time finding a way to fix the relationship between her and the young boy, which started because of her ignoring him the whole summer vacation, because of her making him mad by accidentally spilling water on the book lent to him by So-mang.