Rin hesitantly walked along the top of the fence.
"Sensei," she said, and he looked down at her. He had his elbow on the window ledge, and his head rested in his chin.
"Yes, Rin?"
"Why are people so judgmental?"
Len raised his eyes to the sky and pushed up his glasses deftly. "Well... I think they would be jealous, or frightened." Rin looked slightly depressed, and Len hastily realized his mistake. "Er...Of course, Rin." He tapped her head. "You're very pretty and people are jealous of that. So they judge you for everything else."
"You're very kind, Sensei..." Rin mumbled, wobbling on the fence. Len reached out.
"Careful, Rin."
Rin's heart fluttered, and she blinked up at him. "Sensei..."
He knew that look: A rant was following.
"I don't understand. I wish people wouldn't judge me. I wish that I had friends in this school, because it is very lonely walking all by myself to classes. People ignore me. They don't talk to me. They think I'm strange, and alien-like. All I really want is to get along with people, Sensei. But the only reason they'll ask me anything is if I'll let them do things to me. But I don't want them to do that sort of thing to me, because it makes me feel dirty. And really..." She broke off, balancing very still on the fence. "It makes me feel rather sad, too."
Len listened, his heart heavy. The troubles of this girl, really. It was ridiculous. People preached against bullying, but what Rin was enduring was a whole different sort of bullying...
Why, he wondered. Why won't anyone talk to her?
She got pushed off of the fence.
As soon as he turned back into the classroom, he heard a horrible cackle, and her sharp cry. He stuck his head back outside to see her lying, in a crumpled mass, on the side, and the shoes of the culprits flying away.
He was out of the door before he could even begin to process what had happened.
.
.
"Rin?" He shook her gently, crouching beside her. There was no evidence of blood, thank god. "Rin? Rin?"
How much affection, love, he felt for this girl, it was enormous. Almost silly, how much he cared for her. The anger at how much people tried to break her.
"I'm okay, S-Sen,,,sei." A light groan as her soft blue eyes looked up at him. "I'm fine..." Another sound of pain when he moved her arm.
"No, you're not."
She gave him a pain-filled smile. "This kind of thing happens all the time anyways, Sensei." Her breath caught as he gently scooped her up.
He almost cried.
He took her back to the room.
He sat her on his desk, handling her like he expected her to burst into tears in any moment.
He almost wished that she would cry.
Lips pressed tightly together, Rin extended both her legs to show him that they were fine, but could not do the same for her arms.
"Ah...It's probably a sprain. A pretty bad sprain, but nothing majorly serious. You should go to a doctor," Len reprimanded her, gently pulling up her sleeve. "How do I contact your parents?"
"I don't have any," Rin said, quite bluntly. It wasn't like her to sugarcoat things anyways. "They're both dead. Car crash."
"Oh..." Len said, in a sort of shock. "Who pays for..." He waved his hand. "All this?"
"My aunt is very wealthy, so I'm told. She pays for everything. I've never really met her."
Bandaging her arm tightly, Len whisked her into his arms and gently set her back onto the floor.
"Class is about to start in a few minutes. Just put your stuff down on your desk and sit for a while."
She actually smiled at him, a sweet, small, sort of smile.
"I'm happy that I have you now, Sensei."
He knew she didn't mean for class.
"I'll always be here for you."
And he would.
He loved her, loved her so much that it hurt. Hurt because he could never have her... Hurt because hecould never take away her pain, or her past scars.
"Class..." Len had seen the shoes- The shoes of the person who had shoved Rin off of the fence. And now he cast a discreet look over the shoes in his class, and was pleased to find that they were, indeed, in his class. And, look, that person was looking straight at Rin, who had her head resting in her hand and a faraway look on her face.
"Yes, Sensei?" They chirped. All these kids had had a part in Rin's torment. For high-schoolers, he could have sworn that they'd never matured.
"Let's talk about Newton's third law, hm? Now, the third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, yes?"
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Here's a few examples. You push your foot against a step, and the step pushes back against your foot. If you sit on the ground, the ground pushes back against you. Or..." Len stopped beside the desk of the boy. "If you shove an innocent girl off of a fence..."
Rin's eyes snapped up, but Len looked straight at Shu, who was staring ahead. His face slowly paled.
"...You'll get suspended." Len murmured in so quiet a voice that no one but him heard it. Confused eyes followed Len as he forced half a smile back onto his handsome, young, face.
Rin shyly averted her eyes back to her desk, tracing random doodles all over it.
"All right...For the time being...Work on this worksheet." Len gave Shu a look. "You can come up here, Shuzune."
"Y-Yes...S-Sensei." The terrified individual made his way up to Len's desk.
Rin lazily looked up to see herself at the central point of vicious glares. Hastily, she checked herself to see if she was wearing something, doing anything wrong that would piss these people off. She felt like shrinking against their looks, but she bit her lip and resumed doodling.
Shu returned to his desk, his eyes dark and unrestrained.
"Everyone. Eyes on your own paper." Sensei was so nice to her...
But...She wondered...Had he just made everything worse?
But no matter what...She wanted him. She loved him. She just didn't know...
She ran.
The school were like a maze.
Terrified, Rin darted into a small hallway and clambered on top of the locker bay, hiding against the wall. Wedging herself tightly, she held her breath. The small braid she'd had was starting to come undone and Rin gripped the wall.
"Where is she? That piece of... She got me suspended for two days!"
Her heart beat like a drum gone haywire. She fervently hoped they couldn't hear...
"I don't think she's here."
Rin exhaled. Suddenly, her phone slipped from her pocket and hit the surface with a loud 'crash.' Rin squeaked, clapping her hands to her mouth.
"We found the rabbit," sang a sinister voice. They were all boys. Rin wedged herself deeper, but one boy climbed up and smiled at her evilly.
"Down you go," he sang sweetly, gripping her around the waist and swinging her down into the arms of one of the waiting boys.
"Let me go, let me go-" Rin kicked around, thrashing as they dragged her into the abandoned Home Ec. Room. Suddenly, Rin knew who to call for.
"Sensei!"
"He won't come, so shut up. He already left." sneered one of them.
"I'll always be here for you."
"Sensei!" Rin yelled again in desperation.
He would come, he would come, he promised.
But they locked the door and turned to her, and fear took over Rin.
He's not coming.