Chapter 8: Chapter 7

"I can't believe I talked to Ajax, and not only that, I almost entered the school with him," Itzy thought to herself. She leaned her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her palm as she gazed out the classroom window.

Her seat was located at the back of the classroom, near the window, so she could see the view outside.

"Ugh!" Her body tensed as she instinctively grabbed at her hair in frustration. "If I hadn't realized right away that I was walking with Ajax, Loxley and her crew might have spotted me. And if that had happened, I would have gone home with bruises all over my body," she thought to herself. She squeezed her eyes shut as she imagined the consequences of being caught by Loxley.

"She must be crazy; look at her pulling her own hair," one of her classmates said while making fun of her.

"Did she miss Loxley pulling her hair out, so now she's doing it herself?" another one of her classmates responded.

"Has she gone mad? Oh, it's so scary," another one said.

As soon as Itzy heard that her classmates were talking about her, she sat up straight and slowly scanned the classroom with her eyes. Most of her classmates glared at her with disgust and irritation. After a few moments, the class president stood up from her seat and approached her. Itzy smiled, thinking that the president would defend her, as she often did. But to her surprise, the president slapped her.

SLAP!

After receiving a forceful slap, she fell out of her seat in shock. As she grabbed her cheek, she slowly turned to face the class president, who was glaring at her with burning anger.

"P-Pres," Itzy whispered in disbelief. The slap hurt, but what hurt her the most was that the person she expected to defend her had slapped her.

She was very surprised when she received a slap from someone she thought was her ally, as she had never done anything to provoke her.

The class president had always defended her whenever the class started chatting about her, when her classmates used bad language towards her, or when someone started a fight with her. However, this incident made her question whether she truly had an ally in this school.

The president's sudden act of slapping her not only surprised her but also her classmates, who had witnessed her always defending her. Most of them covered their mouths in shock, with their eyes widened in disbelief.

There are rumors circulating that the president might be tired of constantly defending her.

"Or maybe Ms. Pres hates her now," one of her classmates whispered.

The woman next to her shrugged and said, "Probably. Anyone wouldn't want to come near her. Just a look at her face makes me want to vomit."

The other one laughed. "I know, right? Yucky~"

"Silence!" The president's shout caused silence around the room.

Itzy remained seated on the cold, hard floor, tears streaming down her face as she looked up at the imposing figure of the president before her. The woman's expression was tight and severe as she squatted down to make eye contact with Itzy. With a quick movement, she grabbed Itzy's chin in a tight grip, causing her to wince in pain, before delivering another forceful slap across her cheek.

As she sat there on the cold, hard floor, Itzy couldn't help but wonder how she had ended up in this situation.

"Oh~" the whole class hissed in unison.

The tears that Itzy had been holding back had already flown. It was not because of the pain inflicted upon her by the president's slap, but because she felt deeply betrayed. The hurt that she felt ran much deeper than any physical pain she had ever experienced.

She slowly turned to the president, tears streaming down her cheeks, and asked, "D-Did I do something to upset you?"

The president smirked and replied, "Why would I slap you if you did nothing wrong? You need to know your place."

Without warning, the president slapped her again, hitting both her cheeks.

"Stop! Stop it!" Itzy screamed in despair, pleading for the president to stop.

The president finally ceased her assault as blood began to form on Itzy's cheek.

She tried to collect herself and wipe away the tears, but they just kept flowing. Itzy could feel the eyes of her classmates on her, and the humiliation only added to her pain. She knew that she needed to leave the room before she completely lost her composure, but her legs refused to move.

"Cry more! You deserve to receive a slap from me!" The president exclaimed, her eyes full of anger.

"I don't understand why you're so angry," she replied, her head bowed in exhaustion from the slap. "I didn't do anything wrong, and no one deserves to be slapped for no reason." Tears streamed down her face as she continued, "I trusted you and thought you were different from everyone else. But it seems like I was wrong, and I feel foolish for believing in you. How foolish of me to think that I have someone by my side."

She snapped. She grabbed her hair to make her look at her. "How dare you talk back to me? You don't deserve any of this, you say? Well, you won't deserve this if you haven't talked to Ajax! How dare you smile at him? How dare you walk together with him?"

Her eyes widened as the realization hit her. So it was because of Ajax. She thought that no one had seen them, and she assumed that only Loxley and her group would be angry if they found out, but she didn't know that their class president had a crush on Ajax, and she had hurt her feelings by talking to him.

However, none of this was her fault. She wasn't the one who started the conversation. It was Ajax...it was Ajax's fault for talking to her.

"What? You're going to deny it? I saw you flirting with Ajax with my own two eyes! And you can't deny anything because I have a picture of you!" she exclaimed as she pulled out her phone from her pocket. She unlocked her phone and displayed the image of Itzy and Ajax.

Her eyes widened even further as she reached for the cellphone, but the president quickly pulled her hand away, avoiding her grasp.

"N-No..." She shook her head, and the tears flowed down her cheeks again. "Erase that! I wasn't the one who approached him! H-He talked to me first!" She tried to defend herself, but the president wasn't convinced.

"Who do you think you are to tell me what to do? And don't blame Ajax; you brought it on yourself. I'll send this picture to Loxley, and I'll wait to see what happens next," she said, standing up to turn away. She was about to start walking when Itzy hugged her legs to stop her. "What the fuck do you think you were doing? Let go of me!"

But instead, she even hugged her legs tightly. "I won't let you. D-Don't send it to Loxley. I won't let you send it."

"Fuck!" The president cussed. "Grab her this instant and stomp on her! I don't care what will happen to her after this. Do it while the professor hasn't arrived yet," the president ordered the whole class.

Upon hearing her statement, the entire class proceeded to remove Itzy's arms from around the president's legs. Once successful, they proceeded to stomp on Itzy, one by one, until she lost consciousness. Instead of taking her to the infirmary for medical attention, they simply returned her to her desk and positioned her as if she were taking a nap, continuing with class as normal. The teachers were unaware that Itzy had been harmed and assumed that she was simply sleeping.

"W-What should we do? It's time to go home, but Itzy still hasn't woken up yet." One of the students who stomped over to her asked.

They all surrounded her. Some were filled with nervousness and fear, while others didn't care about what might happen.

"I... I-I didn't stomp on her that hard," the other person said, sounding scared.

"What? I saw you stomping her head, you know?" The other one said, crossing her arms. "Perhaps you're the reason that she lost consciousness."

"No way! I'm going home. I have nothing to do with this!" exclaimed the woman. However, before she could take a step, another woman blocked her path.

"Where are you going? No one is going home until we know what to do with that girl. And what did you say? You had nothing to do with it? Emma just said that you stepped on her and kicked her in the head earlier."

"T-That... that's not true!" She denies it, but no one wants to believe her.

"Keep quiet, will you?" The president silenced them.

"Why do we need to blame each other? Shouldn't we hold Ms. Pres responsible since she ordered us to do it?" one person stated, and everyone agreed with her viewpoint.

The president turned to her and asked, "Who was foolish enough to follow what I said? And don't you always bully her?" The president then added, "If I report this to the dean, who do you think he will believe—you, an ordinary student, or me, an honor student?"

Feeling nervous, she replied, "There are many of us, and you're only one person. The dean will likely believe us more than you." Although she knew she had a valid point, she couldn't allow herself to be blamed.

"Oh, really? I have a lot of proof that all of you have been bullying her. Do you really think they will still believe you? They will think that you just want to get rid of me from this school because I have solid evidence of your bullying."

"That's enough. We are not here to blame each other. We are all at fault. Instead of pointing fingers, we should focus on finding a solution for Itzy," another person suggested.

"We don't have to bother ourselves with that. Let's just go home," said the president. The group of students standing with her exchanged uneasy glances.

"What? Are you serious? What if a foul smell greets us tomorrow when we enter the classroom because that person died here?" someone replied.

"If you want to call an ambulance for her, then go ahead. I'm going home," the president responded, turning away. Everyone followed her with their eyes and eventually ran after her, leaving Itzy alone in the cold classroom.