The Truth Behind Her Silence
The next day at school felt heavier than the first.
He kept looking at the corridor where she usually walked.
He kept glancing at her classroom door.
He kept hoping she would appear with that quiet smile she always had.
But she didn’t.
Day 1 passed.
No sign of her.
He went home with a strange emptiness he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t love exactly… not the dramatic kind. It was something simpler but deeper — the feeling of missing the only person who ever made the world feel lighter.
The next morning, he tried again.
He walked into school early.
Checked every place she usually stood.
Still nothing.
Day 2 passed.
Still no sign of her.
His chest tightened every time he thought of her absence.
Was she sick?
Was she avoiding school?
Did something happen?
By afternoon, he couldn’t control his worry anymore. He stood outside her classroom, pretending to wait for someone until her best friend walked out.
He hesitated…
then took a small breath and asked softly:
“Why… why isn’t she coming to school?”
Her friend paused, surprised to hear him speak so suddenly.
Then she sighed and looked away.
“You remember that day… when a boy was talking to her?”
His heart already knew where this was going.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I remember.”
Her friend nodded.
“He proposed to her.”
A shock ran through him, but he stayed silent.
“She rejected him,” the friend continued. “She didn’t like him at all. She was uncomfortable… even scared.”
He swallowed hard.
The scene replayed in his mind — the way the boy stood confidently in front of her, making her smile awkwardly.
Then her friend’s voice lowered.
“But after she rejected him… he got angry. He threatened her. He said if she comes to school again, he’ll make her life hell. He even cursed her before walking away.”
His chest tightened.
His hands curled slowly.
“And… that frightened her. She fell sick that night. High fever. Anxiety. She didn’t want to leave her room.”
His heart sank.
Her friend continued, “She hasn’t come because she’s scared he’ll trouble her again.”
He didn’t know what to say.
He just stood there, quiet as always, letting the truth hit him harder than he expected.
After a moment, he asked gently:
“Who… who was the boy?”
Her friend told him the name.
And his entire body froze.
He knew that name.
He knew it too well.
It was one of his bullies.
One of the boys who once pushed him around, laughed at him, treated him like nothing.
His heart pounded…
not in fear this time, but something deeper — something he had never felt before.
He stepped away slowly.
He walked back to his class in silence, but his mind wasn’t silent at all.
Everything inside him was shifting.
Growing louder.
Hotter.
A storm was forming inside him.
Not because of what happened to him…
…but because someone dared to hurt her.
When he sat at his desk, the room around him blurred slightly.
His heartbeat changed rhythm again — strong, hard, almost violent.
His breath grew heavy.
For a split second, the blue glow flickered in his eyes again.
He closed them tightly, trying to calm down.
This was different.
This wasn’t sadness.
This wasn’t fear.
This was something else —
a protective fire rising inside him, triggered by the girl he loved in silence.
He didn’t know what he would do next.
He didn’t know how he would face the bully.
He didn’t know why his body reacted like this.
But he knew one thing clearly:
Her fear had awakened something inside him…
something he could no longer control.
