The air in the lecture hall curdled the second Sono stepped through the threshold. Max watched with a detached, clinical interest as a collective, repulsive shiver traveled through the rows of desks. It was as if a predator had entered a cage of herbivores; students instinctively jerked their heads away, staring at their notebooks with a desperate intensity, while several in the front row were visibly trembling, the rattling of their pens against the plastic desks providing a rhythmic soundtrack to their terror.
"That’s him," Steve hissed, his voice barely a breath of air. "That’s the monster who broke Eric last night. Max, you don’t understand... Eric couldn’t even touch him."
’Oh... so this is the one,’ Max thought, his gaze narrowing as he appraised the senior. It wasn’t that Max and Eric had been close; they had only exchanged a few functional sentences about the martial arts club. There was no deep-seated anger or thirst for vengeance on Eric’s behalf. Instead, Max felt a cold sense of annoyance. He had genuinely been looking forward to learning a new style of Wushu to pass the time, and now that pursuit was sidelined because this thug had sent his instructor to a hospital bed. It was a minor inconvenience, but in Max’s world, inconveniences were often met with severe corrections.
What surprised him more, however, was the figure following in Sono’s shadow. Sylan, the soccer senior Max had "dealt with" in the privacy of the empty classroom, entered the room with a much more subdued energy. Unlike the boisterous Sono, Sylan looked deeply uncomfortable, his eyes darting around the room and avoiding Max’s general direction. His shoulder was clearly still stiff, a lingering reminder of the "pop" Max had delivered just twenty-four hours prior.
"Alright, look at this. It seems we have quite a few empty seats today. I suppose some of you had a little too much fun at the festivities last night," Sono claimed, his voice booming with a false, jovial warmth. He paced across the front stage like a seasoned performer. "But as I made very clear, that event was a mandatory display of respect for your seniors. Missing it is a direct insult."
Sono stopped pacing and leaned over the professor’s podium, his expression hardening. "Unfortunately, I’ve learned that a certain student ran his mouth a little too much yesterday. He thought he was special, ended up getting a well-deserved beating, and used that as a convenient excuse to skip out on us. So, let’s start the roll call. Jono... Jono!"
The silence in the room was absolute until Steve finally found the courage to speak up from the back.
"He’s... he’s still in the hospital," Steve stuttered, his face pale. "The doctors said he wasn’t well enough to be discharged today, but they might let him out tomorrow morning."
"I see. Well, a doctor’s note is a valid excuse, I suppose," Sono said with a shrug. "As for the next name on my list... Max Smith."
Sono didn’t have to wait for a verbal response. In a coordinated, instinctive movement, nearly every head in the lecture hall turned to look at the back row where Max sat. The freshmen knew exactly who he was; after the incident with Sylan, he had become a lightning rod for the seniors’ attention.
"Now, what do we have here? So, you weren’t well enough to attend our welcoming party last night, yet you managed to drag yourself into a business lecture just fine?" Sono shook his head in mock disappointment, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face. "Well, I said it before and I meant it: if one of you fails, the entire class is going to have to be punished for that lack of discipline."
Without another word, Sono jumped down from the stage with a thud that echoed through the room. He didn’t head for Max immediately. Instead, he lunged for the first student in the front row. He grabbed the boy by the back of his head and slammed his face down onto the wooden desk, pinning him there with a heavy, crushing force.
"Do you guys really think this is a game? When we say you need to listen to your seniors, we aren’t asking!" Sono roared, his voice vibrating in the small room. "You are classmates! You are responsible for each other’s failures! If you want to avoid this, start keeping each other in line!"
The students felt a sickening wave of déjà vu. It was happening all over again, the same mindless violence, the same public humiliation, and once again, they felt utterly powerless to stop it. A growing resentment began to fester in the room, but it wasn’t directed at Sono. Like a poison, the anger was turning toward Max. They blamed him for their current agony; if he had just complied, they wouldn’t be in this position.
Sono lifted the student’s head by the hair and delivered a sharp, stinging slap across his face. "I want every one of you to remember this: this pain is entirely because one person decided to ignore the simple instructions we put out."
Sono let go of the sobbing student and stepped toward the next person in line. The atmosphere of the room was thick with the expectation of more violence. That was when Talia saw it, Max was standing up. He moved with a deliberate, unhurried pace, walking down the tiered steps toward the front of the hall.
’He’s acting again... is he really going to try and settle this the same way he did with Sylan?’ Talia thought, her mind racing. She watched Max’s back, noting the complete lack of tension in his shoulders. ’He only acts when the trouble reaches a boiling point, but he isn’t solving the root of the problem. Who is he, really? Where does this confidence come from?’
"Hey, idiot!" Yovan shouted from her seat, her voice cracking with fear. "Don’t you see? If you get involved, you’re just going to make it ten times worse for all of us! Stop being a stupid rebel and just sit down!"
Ignoring Yovan’s panicked outburst, Max continued his descent. Just as Sono reached out to grab the next student, Max’s hand shot forward. He caught Sono’s wrist in a grip that was as sudden as a trap and flung the senior’s hand away with a sharp, dismissive motion.
"Hey. I’m the person you’re looking for, right?" Max asked, his voice calm, almost bored. "There’s no need to get all these other people involved in a private matter. I’ll take whatever punishment you think I’ve earned. All of it."
Talia watched from her seat, her breath caught in her throat. She had seen Max fight Sylan and win, but she had also seen Sono dismantle Eric, a trained martial artist, with terrifying ease. Compared to Sylan, the difference in Sono’s raw strength and durability was like night and day. She wasn’t sure if Max realized the kind of monster he was challenging.
"Hey, Sylan," Sono said, twisting his wrist to test the lingering pressure of Max’s grip. He looked back at the soccer senior with a wide, incredulous grin. "Isn’t this the brat you said you beat up so badly he needed a hospital? It looks to me like you didn’t hit him nearly hard enough. He’s still got some fight in him."
Sylan didn’t answer. He just stared at the floor, his face pale and unreadable.
"It’s better if you have no witnesses for this, right?" Max said, tilting his head toward the door. "Come on. I’ll take my punishment somewhere a lot more quiet. Unless, of course, you’re only brave when you have an audience."