I woke up unusually early this morning. I sat up, yawned, and stretched before I went down from the bed, folded my blanket, and fluffed my pillows. I tried being as discreet as possible so that I didn't wake the rest of the kids.

The room was divided between boys and girls. Of course as a girl, I stayed with the rest of the girls. I looked in front of me and saw an empty bed, Karen's bed, and felt a twinge in my chest I decided to ignore. Life was awfully boring without her nagging.

But what could I do? Time waited for no one. Besides, there was nothing waiting for her if she stayed in this little town.

I slowly pushed the door open, careful not to make any sound, and closed it silently behind me. I went down to the kitchen where I knew the Matron would be, just like every other morning.

The smell of soup and eggs wafted into my nose as I approached the kitchen. The Matron was hard at work cutting ingredients in the kitchen.

"Good morning," I said cheerfully, dashing to her side.

"Don't run Lili, and good morning to you too," she said with a smile as she continued dicing a carrot.

I wanted to help her cook, but at my current height I couldn't even reach the counter top. Even if I got a chair, my arms weren't long enough to safely handle anything on the stovetop. Instead, I just settled on sitting nicely at the dining table, waiting for instructions. Besides, I liked to watch experts do their job.

"Are you just sitting there and watching me cook?" she asked.

"Mhm!" I nodded with excitement, "I love watching you cook!"

The Matron stopped her cooking and just stared at me, her eyes somewhat sullen, almost sad when she was looking at me. As she opened her mouth to say something, Erigor barged into the dining room..

"Mornin'" Erigor yawned as he arrived at the dining table, "Here you go," Erigor dropped a basket full of apples atop the table.

"Thank you, Erigor! You're a life-saver." the Matron commented as she picked up and inspected an apple from the basket.

"No problem," he yawned again and sat next to me. He propped his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his fist. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to have gotten worse.

"You still sleepy?" I asked.

"Didn't sleep," he shortly replied.

I just looked at him while tilting my head. He obviously knew from the curious look I was giving him that I wanted to know just what was keeping him up.

"I had a job at night. Didn't get back until just a while ago." he didn't say anything more than that.

"What did you do?" I pressed for more answers.

"It's confidential."

I pouted, "That's a pretty big word for you, Mr. Grumpy."

Erigor scoffed, "I don't know what that word meant anyways, I just figured it was something that they don't want outsiders to know or something like that."

"Well, you're not wrong." I commented. The kitchen fell back into silence, the Matron's cooking the only sound that could be heard.

Before long, the kids gradually began filing in and gathered at the dining table. The Matron finished cooking too, and all of us started having breakfast. Everyone thanked the Matron as they finished eating, and I decided to go read at my usual place while Erigor shambled back to the bedroom to sleep.

As I immersed myself in my book, I was suddenly pricked in the back. I leapt at the sudden stimulus, and I looked back to see that Matthew and the Boyz were all huddled together while giving me side looks, giggling to each other like schoolgirls in love.

I decided not to give them any more attention and went back to my book.

All of a sudden, I saw a shadow looming over me. It was the Matron.

"Lili, will you come and follow me please." her voice was stern and her eyebrows furrowed. I knew at this point that she wasn't really asking as much as she was demanding. So I put my book down where I had been sitting—probably a bad decision in retrospect—before standing up and following the Matron.

She led me to the girls' side of the room and pointed right at my bed, "Lili, did you do this?"

I looked at my bed with wide eyes. The feathers of my pillows were all pulled out, my blanket was dirty and tattered, and my bed was soaked with… something. That wasn't all. There was even a half-eaten apple sitting right on top of my bed.

"No." I shook my head. "Why would I go and mess up my own bed? Besides, the apples didn't come in until after I was already up, and I always go outside after eating so when would I have time to come back in to plop this here?" I waved my hand at the mess, trying to point out as much evidence as I could to prove my innocence.

The Matron slowly nodded. "I see. In that case, is there anything else you would like to tell me?"

My eyebrows bunched together in deep thought. "No, I don't think so."

The Matron knelt so we were eye to eye and held my shoulders, "I hope you know that you can trust me."

"Okay?"

"So if there's anything, anything at all that you want to tell me, please don't hesitate, okay?" she patted my back as if she was trying to reassure me.

I found myself at a loss, so I chose to nod. "Yes Matron."

"Alright, now you can go back to your reading."

"Okay," I went out the door to go back to my usual spot, only to find that the new book I got was all torn and wet.

That was when I realized the Matron was trying to help me with the bullying. But I already tried that, and it didn't help much. In fact, that only seemed to have made Matthew and the Boyz more agitated and worsened their antics.

Of course, I was still very annoyed. Oh well, kids were just like this I suppose. I shouldn't give them too much of a hard time since they were already orphans anyways.

I sighed and got to work picking up the torn pieces to dry them off. Perhaps if I dried them enough I could just glue them back together. No big deal. It wasn't like they burned the book to ashes, and besides, I didn't waste any money on this, the Matron did. Plus, I read this book already, so it was no great loss.

Little did I know that my passive reaction only fueled their antics.

"Hey, what's that?" Matthew snatched my chocolate bar out of my hand. "It's mine now!"

I looked at him, unenthused. "Could you give that back to me?"

"Bug off!" he unceremoniously ripped the wrapper open and shoved half the bar into his gaping maw. That was quite the sight and not in a pleasant sense.

He chewed happily for a few seconds before he thought to look at my reaction. Naturally, I was mildly disgusted at how he had just stuffed an entire half bar of chocolate in his mouth and was now chewing with his mouth wide open. I could see melted brown goop coating every inch of that big mouth.

Ugh. Kids. This was why I didn't go into pediatrics.

"What are you going to do?" Matthew taunted. "Gonna cry?"

I raised an eyebrow. "No, but I might throw up." Indeed, I was feeling a little queasy after getting such a close view of his mouth.

"You calling us disgusting now?!" the boy scowled and 'menacingly' took a step towards me.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It was hard to take any of this seriously, but even I knew that too much would probably get me beaten up.

"No," I tried to calm him down. "I'm just feeling a little sick, and I hope you don't get sick from eating that chocolate that I was touching. With my hands."

His eyes widened in shock. "Y-You're trying to kill me?!" he quickly threw the wrapper to the ground and looked at his trembling hands in fear. "Am I g-going to get sick too?"

I shrugged. "That's none of my business, but you should probably stay inside and rest, you know? Just in case."

Matthew looked at his two cronies who were backing away from me. "Yeah, Matthew! Let's go back inside so we don't catch her cooties!"

He slowly nodded and turned to run back into the orphanage. Hopefully, this will cause them to stop bothering me for a while.

Hm. I felt like a parent who was tricking their kids so they could get more alone time. Except in this case, they were my bullies. And I wasn't a parent. Maybe my analogy wasn't very accurate…

I looked at the half-eaten chocolate on the floor and frowned.

The book I was okay with, since I had managed to successfully glue all the bits back together. Almost framing me for stealing apples was a little more frustrating, but my general good behaviour got me out of it. But this? This was too much.

There was one thing that I hated the most, and it was wasting food.

It all boiled down to my previous life's habit. As a general surgeon, you never knew when you were gonna get called for an emergency. You ate what you could, when you could, and dealt with emergencies when they happened. Everyone at the hospital I worked at knew not to touch food unless it was their own.

I clenched my fists, as anger started to build up. It seemed that my passive behaviour had made me an enabler, and it needed to stop for good.

But how? I wracked my brain. How could I make it so that they couldn't retaliate…?

The only figure of authority that they recognized was the Matron, and her scoldings only resulted in more bullying.

If I sternly talked to them, I doubted they'd take it seriously. Interns were scared of me when I was a doctor, but then again, interns were scared of every licensed doctor. In my case, I seriously doubted Matthew and the Boyz would listen to little old me.

Maybe I could ask the guards from that kidnapping incident for help. Make the boys realize that their actions have consequences. Hm, that might get me in trouble with the Matron though.

I needed to make them stop harassing me, not get myself in trouble, and satisfy my own pettiness. What? We're just a bunch of kids so there was no problem with a little turn about right?

But first I required a little bit of preparation.

The Boyz were in for it.

"Good morning!" I cheerfully said at the next day's breakfast table. I beamed, tiny white perfect teeth on full display. I still sat next to Erigor, but instead of just talking to him, I decided to make conversation with everyone else. I tilted my head to the side for the maximum cute effect and curiously inquired after my peers.

"How did you sleep?" I smiled at the fellow brunette next to me.

"O-Oh," she looked at me oddly. "I slept okay..."

A few moments passed before she hesitantly returned my question. "Did you sleep well too?"

"Mhm! Thank you for asking!" I nodded vigorously. "Oh is that a new ribbon? It looks so adorable on you!"

Ribbon girl blushed, "T-Thank you! Mom gave me this last time."

"You look so pretty!" I complimented. My head tilted to the side, and I smiled a big smile with my teeth displayed.

And as soon as I dropped the bomb, the shockwave followed.

"What about me!" one girl slightly older than ribbon girl asked me. She pointed at the bandana she was wearing.

"Ehhh? Lili isn't sure she recognizes such a pretty lady." I said, filling my voice with innocence.

There was a muffled shriek and my eyebrows rose in surprise. I mean, I knew I was an adorable kid, but I didn't think it'd make someone scream like that.

"Lili, you're so adorable! I knew there was a reason why Karen hung out with you a lot," the bandana girl squealed and hugged me tightly out of nowhere. One moment the girl was gushing and the next I was wrapped around her.

Huh, that made sense. Although I did like to think that Karen had fallen for my maturity, cuteness made more sense.

"Now, now, go back to your seats, and let's eat breakfast shall we?" the Matron clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

Meanwhile, Erigor just looked at me, completely weirded out by my change of behaviour.

"I'll tell you later," I mouthed to him. He gave me a weird look before shrugging and focusing on his food.

As we began eating, everyone started sharing and passing around what was on the table.

"Hey, can someone pass me the jam?" one boy outside of the Matthew and the Boyz clique asked. The jam was right in front of me, and I wasn't about to miss this opportunity.

"Un!" I chirped as I grabbed the jam, climbed down the chair, and ran towards the boy who had asked, "Here you go, onii-chan!"

"Thanks Lili." he gave me a head pat that I rubbed into before replying.

"Lili loves to help!" I skipped back to my seat and climbed back on it

"Wow, this pie is delicious!" another girl said.

"Oh, Lili knows, Lili knows!" I raised my hand up in the air, "Lili read in a book that the reason sweets are delicious is because they have sugar!"

Another muffled scream tore through the air, and I blinked my big bright eyes.

"Lili is so smart and cute!" someone gushed out loud.

"It's because Lili have excellent nii-chans and nee-chans!"

Squeals ensued.

Smiling even brighter, I put on my biggest smile to display my dimples.

Phase one complete.

"Lili, are you sure you don't want this?" the bandana girl turned the chocolate over in her hands. "I thought you really liked these."

"That's because!" I bounced up and down. "This is Lili's favorite candy, and and, favorite stuff should be shared!"

The bandana girl clutched her chest with an intense pained expression on her face.

That... that was a really exaggerated response, but maybe the culture here was just like that.

"That's so nice! Who told you to share your favorite stuff, Lili?" she asked as she rubbed my cheeks.

"No one told me! I figured it out myself!" I beamed.

"How did you figure it out?"

I inwardly smiled.

"Well… the other day Matthew and his friends took my chocolate, and that's how I figured favorite stuff should be shared!" I smiled happily, phase two in progress.

Immediately, bandana girl frowned, "Matthew and his friends took your chocolate?"

"Yeah! I was eating it the other day, and he just grabbed it out of my hand and ate it. He said that I should share, so that's how Lili knows!" I placed my hands on my hips as I nodded proudly.

Sprinkling some white lie in progress.

I was playing with bandana girl and her clique of friends, and I, of course, said all of this out loud for everyone to hear. I saw the looks on their faces darken slightly. Bandana girl rummaged through her pocket and gave me a candy.

"Well, since you're such a nice girl for sharing. I'm sharing my favorite things too. Here you go!"

"Eh? But why?" I tilted my head, "Matthew and his friends told me that I should be the only one sharing?"

I can see everyone's faces frown and their rage growing.

Finished seasoning the dish marks the completion of phase two. Phase two complete.

Now, onward to phase three. But phase three was a little bit difficult…

I swung my legs back and forth on my chair as they fed me their candies one by one.

"Lili, try this one next!"

"After you try that one, you need to try this out okay?"

"And mine too!"

"Okay!" I chirped.

Words of what I had publicly said before seemingly reached their ears, and now everyone in the orphanage knew that Matthew and his group were doing something unsavory to me.

I saw from the corner of my eyes that Matthew and the Boyz were watching from the sidelines while eating their own snacks. It was a bit creepy, but since I wasn't alone this time, they didn't scare me in the slightest.

Deciding to just get this showdown over with, I broke their staring contest and spoke out.

"Hello!" I chirped and waved at the three of them, smiling happily as everyone around me was giving Matthew and the Boyz the stink eye. The Boyz just stood there waiting for Matthew's instructions, not knowing what to do.

And just as easily as that, Matthew had entered into phase three all by himself.

"Freak." he said out loud.

I resisted the urge to smile and tried to contain the rising corners of my lips.

"What's a freak?" I looked up and asked bandana girl with faked curiosity.

"Nothing good." She scowled at Matthew. "Ignore Matthew. He's just a jerk."

"I can't believe you dumbheads." Matthew looked at me scornfully. "Can't you tell she's just pretending? She didn't even act like this until a few days ago."

Ah this is simply too good. Too perfect to be true.

"Maybe be-because you were bullying her..." ribbon girl quietly spoke up.

"Yeah, what Anna said!" another girl agreed. "Lili was probably too scared to say anything!"

"You better apologize right now before I beat you up." Bandana girl cracked her knuckles. Wow, it looked like she had quite the rough side.

Matthew scoffed, "Why should I apologize? She's just a brat. A stupid brat at that."

Finally, my turn had come.

At his words, I promptly burst into tears and noted with satisfaction that everyone was taken aback. "I-I just w-wanna b-be f-f-friends…" I started crying and made sure I looked positively pitiful. My nose leaking, my eyes rimmed red, all of it to make my act that much more convincing.

Matthew growled in frustration, black eyes flashing dangerously, "Stop faking it!"

"Matthew, enough!" the Matron snapped, bending down to scoop me up from the chair. I started wailing harder at the Matron's appearance. She cradled me in her arms while she looked disapprovingly at the three boys.

"B-But M-Mom!"

"But nothing." she seethed, "I am beyond disappointed with your conduct and how you treated your fellow friend."

"She wasn't even my friend!"

At this, I cried louder, receiving a gentle back rub from the Matron.

"That was a horrible thing to say." the Matron admonished Matthew. "You and your two friends can stay in your rooms and reflect on your actions for the rest of the day. Oh, and forget about candy or going outside for the next three months!"

"Mom, she's faking it!" Matthew jabbed a finger in my direction. "She just wants to get us in trouble."

"You're the one bullying her though." Ribbon girl astutely pointed out.

"Indeed Anna," the Matron patted the ribbon girl's hair. "Lili has done nothing wrong. Why, she still wants to be your friend despite how you've treated her."

"L-Lili is s-sorry if s-she did a-anything to make you h-h-hate..." I purposefully left my sentence unfinished as I 'sobbed' again.

"You're such a jerk, Matthew." Bandana girl looked at him like she was looking at moldy trash.

"Yeah, like what the heck? Bullying a four year old girl?"

"No wonder you don't have any friends."

"Y-You…!" Matthew gritted his teeth. "I have friends!" He turned around and looked at his two cronies. "Right guys?!"

The two boys shuffled their feet side to side and avoided his gaze. "Um...I think you're doing too much Matthew, sorry," one of them said.

"Wha-What!" Matthew grabbed the boy's shoulders and shook him. "You! You helped me bully her too!"

"Matthew, let go of him right this instant!" the Matron firmly grabbed Matthew's arm and pulled him off the boy. "You ought to take responsibility for your own actions instead of blaming your friends!"

"M-Mom!" Matthew squirmed in her grip. "You have to believe me! She's really faking it!"

"I have had enough of this." The Matron firmly said as she let me down. "You all take care of Lili. I will have a long talk with Matthew about his actions." She gave Matthew a hard look. The young black haired boy gulped in fear.

Grabbing some tissue, bandana girl proceeded to wipe my face and patted my head.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll give you Matthew's share of snacks. Afterall, he took some from you. How about that?" she tried to comfort me, giving me, the softly hiccuping four year old, a smile.

I shook my head. "I d-don't want his snacks. I j-just wanna be his friend.."

"How could he bully such a nice kid..." the other girls around us whispered.

"It's okay, Lili." Bandana girl reassured me. "Just take one. The jerk deserves at least that much."

"O-Okay..." I slowly nodded as I wiped my eyes balefully.

This was way too easy. Like, ridiculously easy. They ate up everything I said. I felt a little bad, but I wasn't doing them any harm at the very least.

Kids, am I right? So fickle. I had entrenched myself in the orphanage with cute grins, fluttering brown hair, giggles, dimples, and my invincible childish charm.

With this, there was no way Matthew and the Boyz could make another debut.

"What did you just say?" Erigor raised an eyebrow.

"I asked if you still wanted to know why I was acting 'weird'." I made air quotes with my fingers.

"Yeah." he nodded. "That was all a really… bizarre experience."

"Well," I began my story for the second time. "Matthew and his cronies pissed me off. Now hear this, they took my chocolate bar, and if that wasn't enough," I leaned closer towards Erigor, "They ate half of it and tossed the rest on the ground! Could you believe it?!"

"Uh huh." Erigor gave me a weird look. "They did worse stuff from what I've heard from you."

"Na, the rest I could deal with." I dismissively waved my hand. "I just can't stand people wasting food."

"I see. So how does that explain why you were acting all weird?"

"Alright, this is the good part." I smirked. "So you know how telling the Matron just made them act up more right?"

"Right." Erigor nodded.

"So I thought about it, and I figured if I couldn't beat them up or give them a good talking-to, I'd just make them seem like these big bad guys and have everyone hate them."

"And being cute accomplishes that?"

"Oh, you have no idea." I began gushing. "I just have to act my age and everyone just falls into the palm of my hand."

"...I see." Erigor seemed a little freaked out for some reason.

"So I act cute, make friends with everyone, and then of course Matthew tries to bully me in front of everyone anyways." I crossed my arms triumphantly. "And of course everyone hates Matthew now for bullying lil 'ol me." I flipped my hair. "Even his two cronies don't hang out with him anymore."

"I just… wow." Erigor put a hand on his forehead. "Anyone tell you that you're a scary kid?"

"Scary?" I scrunched my eyebrows together. "People have been calling me cute all morning."

Erigor shook his head slowly.

"Scary..."

...