Chapter 2

The man before me was none other than Callum, my older brother, who'd been missing for years.

When I saw him, my immediate reaction was to freeze up, but it was soon followed by a rush of joy. Just as I was about to run over to him for a hug and vent about how much I'd missed him the last few years, however, he spoke up icily, "You useless trash!"

He was glaring sharply at me.

"W-What did you say?"

Stunned, I stared at him in confusion.

Even after a few years had passed, his appearance hadn't changed much. He was about six feet two, with prominent features and thick brows. But there was also an added touch of ruthlessness in his eyes. He gave off an intimidating presence, like a predator ready to pounce.

"Aren't you trash for letting others beat you up this much?" Callum retorted mockingly, his gaze cold. "I thought you would've grown stronger in the years since we last saw each other, but nope. You still got pushed around and beaten up like a pathetic dog. You've seriously let me down!"

All was silent, save for the sound of running water.

I just stared at Callum, unable to believe that he'd just said those things to me. The joy of finally being reunited with him again was drowned out by those words he said.

Still, I couldn't resist trying to defend myself. "I was heavily outnumbered. There was no way I could win!"

"Trash is trash. That doesn't change, no matter what excuse you give!" Callum declared, his eyes still fixed on me, as if he wanted to see how I would react.

Even though it'd been ages since we last saw each other, I couldn't stand the fact that I was suddenly getting a tongue-lashing. I was furious and indignant, but I didn't know what to say. All I could do was huff in anger.

A question appeared in my head. Why did Callum become the person he was now? Did the years he spent in prison mess with his head?

Callum's gaze dimmed, seemingly from disappointment. He turned his head to the side and said, "Luca, find out who did it. Catch the guy responsible and cut off one of his arms."

Luca?

The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember where I'd heard it.

"Got it."

A man in his 20s stepped out of the crowd behind Callum.

After nodding, the man called Luca said, "You just got out, Mr. Stone. It's not the right time for you to appear in public yet. Leave this to me. Why don't you get some rest?"

"Sure."

Callum nodded and turned to leave without even sparing me another glance. It was as if he'd cast me aside like some unwanted toy.

The men all left with him, leaving only Luca behind.

"Let's go, Elliott. We'll find the guys who beat you up," Luca said as he approached me with a smile.

Probably about 25 or 26 years old, he was clean-shaven and looked pretty handsome. His eyes curved when he smiled, which made him seem pretty easygoing.

Gritting my teeth, I said, "It's fine. I can take revenge myself!"

It wasn't that I doubted Luca's abilities. Since Callum had specifically chosen him, he had to be quite capable. But the tone of Callum's voice and the look in his eyes just now made me incredibly upset.

It was partly my pride and desire to prove myself that made me say I'd handle taking revenge myself, but I'd also come up with a plan already.

"Are you sure about that?" Luca eyed me in surprise.

"I am," I replied with a firm nod.

Luca looked at me for a moment before chuckling. "Mr. Stone hopes that you'd take revenge yourself, too. He only acted that way to push you into it. Think of it as a test. But just in case, I'll tag along. If anything goes wrong, I can help you."

Regardless of what Callum's intentions were, he'd gone too far with the things he'd said earlier. Even though he was my brother, my anger wasn't going to let up so quickly.

"That won't be necessary!" I stubbornly insisted. "I'll handle everything myself. I can survive just fine without him!"

I went back to washing the blood off myself.

Luca said nothing. He just stood there in silence, waiting for me.

I heard the sound of footsteps from behind again. Thinking that Callum had come back, I looked around expectantly—only to see that it was a female classmate of mine.

Startled, I asked, "What are you doing here, Isabelle?"

Isabelle Carter, the young woman who just showed up, lowered her head and mumbled, "I-I heard you got injured…"

She held her hands out. Looking down, I saw a roll of gauze and a bottle of iodine solution. I realized she'd heard from others about what happened to me and came looking for me.

Even though she dared not look at me, her eyes were filled with concern. She was clearly quite worried about me.

I'd known from the start that Isabelle liked me. She was an attractive young woman too, not any less pretty than Shae, but her personality was too timid for my liking.

Still, I didn't want to brush off her kind gesture. Accepting the gauze and iodine solution, I said, "Thank you. I'm fine. You should head back to your dorm. You don't need to worry about me."

Isabelle's lips parted. It looked like she had something to say, but in the end, she simply hummed in acknowledgment before leaving the washroom.

As her footsteps faded away, I started cleaning my wounds again. As I applied the iodine solution, I thought about how I was going to get even with Harvey.

I was definitely going to get back at him. I'd never been the kind of guy who'd let others push me around and swallow the humiliation without fighting back.

Once I'd pretty much formulated a plan, I left the washroom.

"It's fine. I'll just stay close behind. Holler if you need anything. Oh, take my number. Remember to give me a call if anything happens…"

Luca had followed me out of the washroom and trailed about 20 feet behind me. Nodding, I kept walking until I reached the dorm building.

Luca didn't follow me to the entrance. He hung back at the nearby flower patch and waved at me.

When I entered the building, many people were still walking around in the hallway. They all had complicated expressions when they saw me. It was obvious that word got out about the attack on me earlier.

Once I calmly entered my dorm room, my three dormmates turned toward me.

Without saying anything, I got in bed and pulled up WhatsApp on my phone. I scrolled until I found the name "Daryl" and sent a message. "You busy?"

Daryl Lewis and I had grown up together. We'd been in the same class all the way back in elementary school and even got into the same local university. We were the best of friends.

He was a decent fighter, and he'd hung out with the local thugs ever since he was a kid. Even now, he was acquainted with quite a few gang members. With his help, I was certain I could get back at Harvey!

Daryl loved gaming, so he was probably at a gaming lounge at this hour. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten beaten up right on campus. To avoid disturbing him in case he was in the middle of a ranked match, I messaged him and waited for him to get back to me when he could.

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Daryl called me to ask what was going on.

After I explained what happened earlier, Daryl became hopping mad. "Harvey, that bastard! Just you wait. I'll ask around to see where he is right now. I'll message you later, and we'll go after him."

Once the call ended, I let out a long exhale.

Surely things would go smoothly with Daryl's help. Harvey was in for a good thrashing!

…

Seeing that my mood had improved quite a bit, my dormmates started talking to me.

Four of us shared a dorm together, and they were all pretty decent guys. Even though they couldn't be of any help in a fight, they were always quick to lend a hand when it came to things like grabbing meals for each other or helping out with class attendance.

Each one of them was definitely the average guy who'd been a "good kid" all his life.

One handed me a cigarette. Another made me a cup of instant noodles. The last one fumbled around awkwardly before slipping a card into my pocket, whispering, "This masseuse is pretty good, Elliott. She knows quite a few tricks, too. I wouldn't tell just anyone about her…"

After about half an hour, Daryl called me.

"Do you know why Shae hooked up with Harvey?" Daryl asked knowingly.

"Yeah. His family's pretty well-off, right?" I didn't think much of it.

"Yes, but that's not all," Daryl said. "Harvey has gotten an internship with the marketing department at Drakeway Group."

Drakeway Group was a well-known company here in the city of Avendale. It was famous for its high salaries and great benefits.

As college seniors, we were all busy lining up jobs for ourselves. Once I heard that Harvey had gotten into Drakeway Group, I felt pretty jealous.

Still, I feigned indifference, saying, "So what? I can easily get it if I apply to that company, too."

"You sure know how to talk big. Not more than ten people from our school manage to get into Drakeway Group each year. Only the best of the best qualify. Why else do you think Shae rushed to latch onto him?" Daryl said with a laugh.

"I've arranged to meet up with Harvey tomorrow morning at Duke Hill. We'll head over there with a few of our guys."

"Do you think it'll go as planned?" I quickly asked.

Chuckling, Daryl said smugly, "It'd be a piece of cake for me to teach him a lesson! Do you think I spent all those years hanging out with the guys for nothing?"

"Alright. See you tomorrow then!"

Relieved, I felt my body relaxing. I could almost imagine Harvey getting beaten to a pulp by me. I couldn't wait to see him tomorrow.

I was also going to prove to Callum that I wasn't useless trash!

When I looked up, I could see out the window and saw Luca standing outside. He smiled and waved at me.

He was still here?

I waved back at him, signaling to him that I could handle Harvey myself. He could head home and get some rest, too.