After a very tiring day, it was now time for them to go home. Rhianne needs to meet with Calvin today and Francis can't accompany her because he still has to finish his research papers, so Keith decided to give Rhianne a ride. While waiting for Keith in the car park, Rhianne gave her mother a call to inform her that she will visit Keith's house to meet with Calvin and do their homework.
"You think you are that great just because you are Lancester?!"
When she followed where the voices were coming, Rhianne saw Keith being surrounded by seven boys from their class. Rhianne quickly hid and eavesdropped on their conversation.
"What are you talking about?" Keith asked.
"Stop pretending! You always act cool to gather the attention of others. Don't think that we did not know that you are just a freak!" A chubby boy said.
"That's right!" A tall and skinny boy added. "Why are you wearing a contact lens? We all know that you different from us."
"So what if your family is an elite one? You are just a monster in hiding! If I were you, I will just hide inside my room all day."
Keith did not say anything. He just simply looked at them. Rhianne knew that those boys are touching Keith's bottom line right now. She remembered that Calvin told her the story of why Keith hated his eyes.
When he was young, Keith was bullied because of his eyes. Those kids either beat him or will throw hurtful words towards him. Sometimes, Keith will go home dirty and full of small wounds. At that time, their parents were busy abroad doing their business while Calvin was busy with his thesis and often stayed in the dormitory.
When the maids asked Keith about his wounds, he will just reply that he was being careless while playing outside. Since he's still a kid, others thought that it's normal. But these continued for the whole month. And that was when Calvin started investigating the truth. He learned that Keith was bullied by his classmates. Of course, Calvin immediately made an action to stop it, but the impact of it was already planted in Keith's mind.
From an adult's perspective, it was not really a problem since they are still children. But Keith was still very young at that time. He is still innocent and believed in those children's words. Since then, Keith has tried to avoid meeting with strangers and always wear a contact lens to hide his eyes.
Rhianne was about to show herself and stop those bullies when someone spoke behind Keith.
"Are you trying to give him advice or you are all simply jealous of him?"
They saw Andrew walking towards them. His hands were in his pocket and wearing a small smile.
"Are you not afraid that the Lancester family will take revenge when they learned that you are bullying him?"
When the boys heard it, a chilling fear crept in their chests. They are still young, but their family already taught them basic knowledge when it comes to business. Of course, they already know that Lancester is the most famous elite family and currently has the largest business in the city.
These boys just want to release their frustrations and jealousy. They targeted Keith hoping to make him lose some confidence. And since they already started it, they can't stop it and just continued with their acts.
"So what if he's a Lancester? That freak is just using his family name as a back-up."
"And who knows if their family will go bankrupt one of these days and they will lose their fame and money."
Rhianne suddenly had a headache when she heard those boys' rebuttal words. The Lancester is famous for its ways of handling its business. The word 'bankruptcy' will never exist in their dictionary. Those boys are really stupid. She suddenly got concerned about their future.
'Naive. Mr. Protagonist will never let that happen. And even if he experiences that, Mr. Protagonist will always have a way to turn his bad luck into something good.'
"I am using my family as a back-up? Aren't you the same as me?" Keith sneered at them.
"Shut up!" One of the boys shouted. "Just wait until I inherit my family's business. I will make sure that your family will be losing everything!"
"You speak as if you are pretty sure that you will inherit your family's business." Andrew suddenly interjected. "I heard that your father has a lot of children outside your family. Who knows if you are the only one capable of handling your business."
Rhianne's heartbeat increased when she heard what Andrew had said to those boys. That character is too different from the Andrew that everyone knew in their class. Of course, Rhianne knew this already, but experiencing it in real life is still a shock for her.
"You...!"
"If you do not have any interesting to say, then we will leave now."
"You scumbag! Don't act so high. You are just a nouveau riche who wants to be a part of high society!"
Andrew's steps suddenly stopped. Andrew did not speak so the boy thought that he suddenly touched Andrew's soft spot.
"Heh. I bet that you just insist to be here to find a rich girl that will lift you high in our society. Obviously, poor people like you love to dream of having something that they can never have."
Andrew lifted his head to stare at the boys. He is not saying anything. This made the boy irritated and mad.
"What?! Say something, you scumbag!"
"Nothing. I am just wondering how did you survive until now having that kind of brain." Andrew said.
Those words made the boy lose his rationality. He suddenly threw a punch on Andrew's face. Together with his friends, they kept on punching Andrew and Keith everywhere. They obviously did not want to lose so Keith and Andrew also fought back. This suddenly causes a huge ruckus in the car park.
Rhianne knew that she could not stop them. So she ran and called the school guards and some teachers to ask for help. Fortunately, the two guards and the teachers quickly followed her to stop the fight. When Rhianne returned with the guards and their teachers, Keith was already laying on the ground.
The chubby boy was about to kick Keith on his back so Rhianne ran towards the chubby boy and pushed him. Being pushed by someone, the chubby boy also wants to take revenge so he pushed Rhianne. She lost her balance and fell on her knees. Since the ground is made of bricks, its rough surface scraped Rhianne's knees.
The chubby boy still wanted to kick Keith when someone grabbed his collar and gave him a hard punch on his nose. It was Andrew who punched him. Andrew was still not contented and gave that boy a hard kick to his stomach.
With the help of the adults, the fight finally stopped. The guards brought Andrew and the other boys to the detention room. Andrew doesn't have any injury so he does not need to go to the clinic immediately. Because Andrew has a reputation as a good student, of course, they will ask him first the reason for this ruckus. Some teachers also helped Keith and Rhianne to go to the clinic.
As they slowly walked to go to the detention room, Andrew turned his head to look at Rhianne who was being assisted by a female teacher. His gazes lingered on her figure for a while until she's out of his sight.