More bullying in this chapter, though it is very mild. Enjoy the new OC.

Chapter 3: Friends

The girl was gone. She was no longer in his dreams despite everything going so well a few weeks ago. Instead, he was in a room all alone, sitting in a chair. It felt like an eternity. He didn't understand. Apparently, he and the girl were friends but in the end, he was alone. Too many emotions were flooding into his mind. Had he saved her? Was she well? Had he made the right choice? He felt like he had lost her. Time continued to pass without end. Sitting in a chair, waiting, waiting, waiting...

Waking up from his dream, Mono immediately felt tears rolling down his cheeks - emotions from the dream were still buzzing in his head.

It was August. About three weeks had passed. Sighing, the boy rubbed the bothersome tears from his face. Why would he dream of being alone? He didn't like to be alone! Also, why couldn't his dreams go in an orderly fashion? Why must they jump around inconsistently? It made things too confusing! He didn't even understand the feelings he had felt when he dreamt of that.

Getting out of bed, the boy did his daily routine. Early strolls around the Orphanage had become a habit of his whenever his dreams left him feeling frustrated. It kept him distracted. After exiting the basement, Mono started to absentmindedly walk up the stairs. Without a destination in mind, the child was wandering aimlessly to the cafeteria until something caught his attention. Light. There was a faint trail at the end of the hallway next to the cafeteria. Following the trail, the boy's wondering eyes looked up to see a room. There was light underneath the door. Someone else was awake.

Curious, Mono decided to approach the door. If he remembered correctly, that room hadn't been occupied for a long time. He was pretty sure it was a room meant for one child. Unlike the rooms on the second floor designed to house four children, this room, and his basement, housed one occupant. Suddenly, the door opened, shining light into his eyes. Not expecting the intensity of the light, the boy's hands instinctively went up to cover his face. He didn't see a tiny box on the floor and tripped. Mono yelped as he shut his eyes, expecting to fall face-first on the floor. Except, he didn't.

Opening his eyes, the boy realized someone had caught him by his arm. Their grasp was firm but gentle.

"Are you okay?" a soft-spoken voice questioned.

Looking up, Mono saw an older girl about twice his age. She had long, wavy golden hair decorated in three four-leaf clovers and vibrant green eyes. She was wearing a simple white nightgown and a silver shawl wrapped around her. She was sickly pale, but her face was full of concern. The boy blinked. It felt very odd for an orphan to talk to him while looking concerned for his wellbeing. Most of the orphans, new and old, would ignore him or look at him with scorn and contempt. It was something he had gotten used to, so this was surprising.

"Y-Yes." Mono answered.

The girl still looked over him to make sure before smiling, "That's good."

Taking a peek, the boy had a quick glance of the girl's room. At the moment, it was bare aside from the basic necessities, with lots of boxes. A few weeks ago, Mono had seen boxes at the front entrance. So this girl must be a new orphan who had just moved in, it seemed. Taking the box off the floor, the girl took it into her room. Making sure her doorway was cleared, she looked down at the child.

"It's a bit too early for you to be up," the girl yawned. "You should be in bed, as should I. See you."

After she closed the door, Mono was engulfed by the dark again. He stood there, stunned. Aside from the Director, this girl was probably the only other person who'd held a pleasant conversation with him. It felt nice. Unsure what to do, the boy decided to return to his room. Looking at the giant clock at the top of the staircase, he had about thirty minutes before eight. He wouldn't sleep, but he would rest a bit.

~oOo~

It had been a while since Mono had been bullied despite his active attempts to avoid the bullies. At first, he thought Quint got bored with him and had taken a break. Or maybe the teenager was cautious, not wanting the young child to tell the Director. That wouldn't make sense since the older orphan had threatened him with that vial of suspicious liquid and Mono had given his word to not tell the owner of the Orphanage. While the boy had hoped he wouldn't get bullied any more, that was just wishful thinking. Today was just a day where all thoughts and possible reasons were thrown out the window.

Mono was on his way to do his chores early like usual, until Quint and his friends had found him, deciding to start their free time early without doing their chores. Immediately, he ran into the library despite the room was already discovered by Quint as a refuge a few weeks ago. In the library reading a book was that girl. Hearing him running into the library and making loud noises, she turned to look at him in annoyance before her expression softened at his panicked state.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Help?"

Not fully understanding the situation but not denying the boy's needs, the girl gestured for him to hide under her chair. The library seats were designed to have the sides and the back covered. The front was to store items such as books so there wouldn't be a dangerous stack and to keep things tidy and neat. Once Mono had hidden underneath, the girl put a few books to cover him before sitting back down on her chair, pretending to read her book. Eventually, footsteps could be heard noisily entering.

"Hey, new girl, did a boy come by here?" Quint inquired. The girl ignored him, which quickly irritated the teenager. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Annoyed, she retorted quietly, "This is a library and I'm trying to read. So be quiet."

"So? Newbies have a day to themselves before their first day in class. You'll get to do all those boring things tomorrow. So, where is the boy?"

"Don't know," she replied nonchalantly as she flipped a page. When Quint and his friends weren't moving, she started to have a coughing fit, startling the older orphans. Reaching for her bag and pulling out a cherry, she consumed it. Suddenly, the bullies were stepping back - away from the girl.

"Y-You're the one... with the illness!" Quint gasped.

While hidden, Mono became confused. Why was his tormentor sounding so... scared? Was this illness contagious? Was that why Quint was afraid? Should Mono be afraid as well? The girl finally turned to look at the teen who was two years older than her before an idea came to mind. Getting out of her chair, she took a step towards the boys. They stepped back.

"I advise you leave now if you are so afraid of catching my illness. It's not a pretty thing," the girl warned. "As for the boy, he already left while you were talking to me."

With the false information, the bullies left without hesitation as the girl sighed. Despite that she was playing with their fears, she was upset that even the people in this Orphanage would make assumptions about her sickness. Looking at her chair, she pushed the books away to let Mono crawl out of his hiding spot.

"Thank you," he meekly muttered.

"You're welcome," the girl replied, crouching down to get to his level. "That boy was horrid. Was he bullying you?"

"I'm used to it," Mono mumbled.

The girl paused to look at him, frowning. Shaking her head, she mustered a smile, "My name is Tria. What's yours?"

"Mono," he whispered.

"As you heard and you might have figured, I'm new here. But I think chores were supposed to be around this time?" Tria questioned as she looked at the clock.

"Yeah."

Seeing the boy's downcast face, she got up, offering him a hand. Looking at the girl and then at the hand, Mono took it and he got pulled up to his feet. Packing her books into her bag, Tria began to suggest, "Maybe I can help - with your chores."

Bewilderment and disbelief were written on the boy's face, "Why?"

"Because I want to. Plus, I could need help so I won't be clueless tomorrow," Tria simply answered. "But um... it'd be nice if I have someone I can talk to."

Mono felt something in his chest. Was it possibly... happiness? Could it be possible that she was seeking to be his friend? He wasn't sure, but it felt like that was the case. Looking at this girl, Mono felt himself smiling. Tria is a nice person...

~oOo~

Exiting the library, Mono began to show Tria around. At the bottom of the central clock on the second floor, there was a cabinet with tiny drawers. There used to be about forty children, but since half of them had been adopted, only twenty drawers had a name and a list inside. New orphans who are not six years old wouldn't have their names added until their sixth birthday. New orphans who had passed their sixth birthday and were older, like Tria, would have their names added the day after they moved in. Pulling at the drawer with his name, Mono took out a folded piece of paper. There were only three things for chores: clean the erasers, set out canned food for the next day, and wash the classroom desks.

Peeking over the boy's shoulders to read the list, Tria frowned, "That's it?"

"The numbers vary but if you make a mess, it would count as a chore despite it not being written on the paper." Mono explained, pushing his drawer back. "And everyday, the chores are different."

Getting up, the boy went to fetch a bucket from the boy's bathroom and filled it with water while Tria waited outside. When he had returned, he was surprised when the girl offered him a rag. Mono gratefully accepted as he showed her where the classroom was. Soaking their rags, the children began to wipe the desks. Mono took the front desks while Tria took the back.

As he scrubbed the desks free from pencil marks and other... questionable stains, Mono found himself feeling a sense of peace. It was odd. To have someone helping him doing his chores. Ever since Quint and his friends bullied him, the child never found doing chores to be fun. He found them almost like an obstacle that got in the way between him and safety. But with Tria, she made chores more... tolerable - almost enjoyable, even.

"Mono?" Hearing his name being called, the boy looked up to see Tria looking at his desk with a frown on her face. "Who did this?" She pointed to the writings.

"It's nothing."

"It's not! These words are terrible! Was it that boy? Did he and his friends do this?"

"It's... normal," Mono replied as he resumed his chores.

The girl's frown deepened. She'd gotten her answer and she wasn't going to push Mono for more since it clearly bothered him. It's not right. This isn't normal! Sighing, Tria tried to scrub the ink from Mono's desk. The black words weren't coming off! No matter how hard she rubbed, those horrid words still remained. A thought suddenly struck her.

Is this... is this permanent ink?

Excusing herself for a moment, Tria exited the classroom to return to her room. Throwing her bag aside, the girl began to open her boxes. She still hadn't unpacked. After searching the last box, the preteen smiled as she got the item she needed. Closing her door, Tria returned to the classroom. Mono had already finished his front half and was about to start on the desks that Tria hadn't done yet. However, she stopped him.

"Hey, do you want to see a magic trick?"

The boy gave her a confused look. He looked conflicted, debating if he wanted to see a trick or not, but slowly, his expression changed to curiosity. He watched as the girl walked to his desk, gesturing for him to come closer. Mono took a few steps until he stood next to her.

Tria took out her rag and squirted out some toothpaste. Putting the rag on the surface of the desk, she gently rubbed and to the boy's astonishment, the ink was coming off! How? How was it possible when Mono had tried soap and water? He didn't know toothpaste had the power to remove something as permanent as ink markers. Eventually, his desk was free from those nasty words. With a wash of water, the surface was completely clean!

"Wow!" Mono exclaimed in awe, looking up at Tria with sparkles in his eyes. "How can something like toothpaste do what soap can't?"

"It's a little magic trick," Tria giggled as she grabbed the erasers.

Opening the window, she started to clap the erasers to get rid of the chalk dust. Once the erasers were clean, Tria helped Mono with the remaining desks. Two of the chores were done. Leaving the classroom with the bucket of dirty water, the duo emptied the bucket before going to the cafeteria to finish the last chore. Entering the back room, they quickly stacked the cans for tomorrow. It was quick and much easier with a helping hand. The last chore was done in about ten minutes!

Huffing, Tria looked over at the food laid out on the table. Since it was close to dinner time, why not bring a meal back with her?

"Mono, are you hungry?"

The boy was frowning as he replied, "I - maybe?"

"Which do you want?" the girl asked, looking at the canned food for tonight.

"I can't eat mixed food," Mono muttered quietly, looking down in shame.

He just couldn't. Ever since his first bullying experience, mixed food had been ruined for him. Even if the food wasn't disgusting and the mixes complemented each other, he just couldn't bring himself to eat it. That also included sauce. If food was smeared with different sauce that made it tasty, he still wouldn't be able to consume it. Really, it was a shame. Mono knew this. Had he never been bullied, he could have enjoyed some of the food judging from the images that were plastered on the cans. It really limited his food options and his experience with trying delicious-looking meals.

"Um... okay," Tria began to search for something that would satisfy the boy. No mixed food, huh?

The girl frowned. Did that mean Mono couldn't eat things like vegetable soup, desserts with fillings, noodles with tomato sauce - those kinds of mixed foods? That was hard when most of the cans contain different varieties of food combined together. Finally, Tria picked out a can. It looked like spaghetti and meatballs.

"How about this one, Mono?" she inquired. The boy looked at the can before giving her a questioning look. Before he could speak, she insisted, "We can share. If you want, you can have the meat and I'll have the spaghetti."

Truth be told, Mono never had tried spaghetti. He usually was one of the last children to pick so he'd never tried any of the cans that had a slightly better quality of taste before. Looking at Tria, he finally gave an answer, "It's okay."

Smiling, Tria took the can in one arm and held Mono's hand with the other. Immediately, the boy gleamed at the intimate touch. It felt nice, to hold hands with someone. Together, they exited the back room and were a few steps away from the cafeteria until -

"Oh, look! There's little lonely Mono!"

Hearing that familiar, vile voice had Mono frozen in place. His legs wouldn't move. Why? Why now was he paralyzed in fear? He would normally run during this moment of flight or fight responses. So why was he freezing?

"Mono?" He could hear Tria's voice but her concerned tone didn't reach him as it was overrun by his panicked thoughts.

Since he had stopped, she had done the same too. Why? Why had she done that? It was because he was with Tria that he'd frozen, wasn't it? When he was alone, he would flee. But now that he was with someone, he froze. What should he do? If he didn't hurry up, Tria could get bullied too. He didn't want that. But what could he do? Quint and his friends were getting closer, however, they stopped a fair distance away from Tria.

"Hey, new girl, beat it. I want to have a talk with friendless Mono," Quint ordered, earning a glare from the girl.

The little boy kept his eyes locked on the floor. He wasn't registering anything, lost in his own thoughts. He wasn't even aware that a few of his tormentor's friends were pointing at him, snickering at how he was frozen like a statue. Without warning, someone had thrown a paper ball at him and his body reacted. So much was happening. Clutching his head, Mono ducked down, still freezing.

"Haha, Quint! He's still a weakling as always!"

"Little Mono cannot fight back!"

They were causing a scene. Many other orphans who were on their way to dinner stopped to look, tease, or ignore the sight. As for the adults? They did nothing to stop it. Suddenly, more paper balls and shoes were being thrown at the child. The poor boy couldn't really do anything other than curl up while shielding his head as he was pelted by flying objects. Tria was shouting at the bullies to stop, but of course they didn't, shoving her roughly to the side.

Hearing their relentless, malicious laughter stirred something in Mono's heart. He had been nothing but kind, so why did the world and its people seem to hate him? Why? Why did everyone seem to hate him? What did he do? So much screaming and laughter was ringing in his ears. It was annoying. Infuriating! Anger and frustration started to boil inside of his head! He had tolerated previous bullying - trying so hard to evade it, but sometimes, it was getting harder to resist the dark thoughts of wanting others to have a taste of their own medicine.

Clink! Clinnnkkkk! Creaaakkk...!

No one noticed that the glass windows were cracking, being strained by an unknown force. Before it could be strained any further…

Smack!

Silence filled the main hall. The laughter stopped and the bullying ceased. Breaking from his frozen state, Mono looked up to see Tria in front of Quint and the teenager's face was turned to the side. He immediately understood what had happened, but it was very shocking. Quint and his friends were also taken aback, the teenager was even more surprised with his mouth hanging open.

"You and your friends are wrong. The weak one I see here is you," Tria seethed quietly. With the silence in the room, her words could be heard very clearly. "You must feel so threatened that you needed to feel above him. It's pathetic!"

With his ego challenged, Quint argued in a deadly, calm voice, "And who are you to determine who is strong or weak?"

"I can say the same for you."

"You know nothing, girl. I heard about you. You live in that room over there because of your deadly illness. In this place, I am favored. People will listen to me, so I suggest that you stay out of my way and no one will have to know about your dirty little secret."

"Unlike everyone here, I'm not afraid of you. If you think you can threaten me to give Mono up for your fun and games, you are crazy!" Tria hissed.

"Fine. Have it your way." The teenager glowered. Raising his voice, he addressed everyone in the room, "Everyone, stay away from her or you'll catch her sickness! It's deadly and that's why she has a room all to herself!"

Mutterings and whispers filled the air very quickly. Many children were backing away or were running off to gossip, including the bullies. Seeing the reaction and feeling validated, Quint smirked at her.

Tria wasn't deterred by the reaction at all and glared at him, snarling, "You're disgusting!" Walking back to Mono, she pulled the stunned boy up to his feet, taking her meal in one arm. "Let's go, Mono."

~oOo~

Invited into her room, Mono sat down at the edge of the bed while Tria was getting bowls out of her boxes. Honestly, he was still surprised, not knowing what to say. No one ever defended him before. The way she wasn't intimidated had Mono looking up to her in respect. How very gallant of her.

However, with newfound respect was also great concern. He wasn't scared of this illness that Quint was referring to, but he was scared that Tria would now get bullied. The boy chided himself for being concerned for his safety back at the library when the topic of her illness was first brought up, however. Hearing the lid being peeled, Mono looked up as Tria poured the contents into a bowl, offering him all the meatballs. With a faint smile, he accepted the meal that was offered to him.

"Thank you."

"Did you find it surprising?" Tria suddenly asked. "My illness?"

"I..."

"Believe them or not, it doesn't matter to me," the girl continued. "I'm done trying to set the record straight. It's only human nature to judge someone based on what they see or hear without actually knowing the person. I won't blame you if you don't want to be near me because of my deadly illness."

"No," Mono spoke. "You're a nice person, Tria. You're kind and pretty..." As he said this, Mono felt his cheeks burning. He'd never talked about someone so fondly before and complimenting a person felt embarrassing. "And I want to stay with you..."

The girl looked a little stunned at first before smiling warmly, reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair. She sat with him and together, they ate their meals. Once dinner was done, Tria decided to share a little fact.

"While it's true I've had this disease for about a year now, it doesn't spread. So you don't have to worry," she assured.

Mono was curious at how Tria got her sickness. He wanted to ask, but chose not to in the end. He didn't want to be intrusive. Especially with how much she had helped him today. Plus, earlier in the classroom, she didn't pry too much about his bullying experiences. So he would respect her wishes and not inquire about the girl's past.

A strange feeling settled in his chest. Was this warm feeling friendship? He wasn't sure. For so long, Mono had wanted to make friends. And now, he thought he could make friends with Tria. It felt nice and the prospect of having someone for a friend made him feel giddy inside. Experiencing friendship was so new. It felt refreshing.

"But there's nothing here that I enjoy," Mono commented.

"Well, I think that will soon change," the Hypnotist replied.

Recalling his conversation with the Hypnotist had the boy reconsidering everything.

If Tria will be living here for a while, then... I don't think I'll mind staying here, he thought with a smile on his face.