The Wild Challenge From Both Lives - Chapter 4: Just a Clear Warning (part one)

Just a Clear Warning

( POV by Proof-read)

Three lessons went like a slow slide, but Hikaru barely heard them. His mind was elsewhere—on the weight of the stares, the whispers, the way the air in the classroom felt different from the beginning of today.

For the longest time from being bullied to this day, he had been invisible. A shadow at the edge of everyone’s sight, ignored, dismissed, forgotten. But now?

Now, people were paying attention like they are seeing celebrities who don’t care being watched.

He his mind gone at Ryuji, whose hand was caught by hikaru few minutes before, just few minutes. Now hikaru think the possible aftermath. The bully is relaxed, arms crossed behind his head, a lazy smirk on his face as if nothing had changed. As if this morning had never happened.

But Hikaru knows better.

That freaky Ryuji is thinking. Calculating. Deciding how he will going to respond after school.

Now on the other hand, he thinks about Daiki, because Daiki was really surprised when hikaru did ‘that’ thing. Every now and then, Hikaru is thinking the possible response of Daiki after school in his way, like an animal planning to call it’s pack to just catch a single prey.

It is not a fear. Not yet.

But it was acknowledgment.

Now Aoi sighed, “You’re overthinking again, Hikaru. ” quiet enough to just let our main man hikaru who is sitting behind her, listen her.

*How she know I am thinking the possible outcome?*, this question almost sound like ‘am I being heard by her all the time?’

Hikaru also sighed you know. “Maybe.”

But he couldn’t afford to stop.

Because for the first time in a long time… he had a reason not to fade into the background.

Yet, The few hours just dragged on, yet the shift in atmosphere never faded. Even during mid-breaks, just mid-breaks🤏, Hikaru could feel the subtle difference—glances lingering a bit longer, whispers that stopped when he passed by.

It wasn’t anything overt. No one confronted him, yet. No one said anything outright. But there was an undeniable shift in how people saw him.

And yet, Ryuji and Daiki acted as if nothing had changed, like they don’t showing any reactions of what hikaru.

During lunch, Hikaru sat by the window, eating in silence. Aoi was nearby, watching him between bites of her own meal. She hadn’t said much since their earlier conversation, but he knew she was observing, but intensely.

The silence was just for seconds, because she spoke. “You seem… more alive.”

Hikaru didn’t look up. “Do I?”

Aoi leaned back, crossing her arms. “You do.” She tilted her head. “Less… resigned.”

He paused. She wasn’t wrong.

Before, he had accepted everything—every insult, every punch, every humiliation—as something inevitable.

But now?

Now this person, he have proof that he will change.

That the world didn’t have to remain the same.

That he didn’t have to remain the same, Weak-ass.