Sakata was walking down the halls, he had to return something to the faculty room. He turned the corner before immediately freezing up and quickly hid behind the pillar. He stayed silent until he heard the footsteps go away. The redhead peeked to see if anyone was there, there was no one in sight, before sighing in relief. He went back to walking to the room, he knocked on the door and was greeted by a teacher there.

"Kawa-sensei wanted me to return these."

"Thanks Sakata, sorry for making you do this."

"No problem." Sakata beamed as the teacher smiled back.

"So....how has that been going on?"

Sakata tensed before looking down. The teacher looked at him sympathetically.

"I-It's fine for now, Soraru is there for me so I feel safer." Sakata's voice was shaking a bit before he smiled as he remembered about the raven-haired.

"Good to know, we're trying hard to stop it but for now just hold on."

"Yes."

"Okay now return to class."

"Okay."

Sakata waved goodbye to the teacher and headed back to class. The teacher watched him leave before sighing. Poor boy.

The redhead was walking down the hallways, he enjoyed it when it wasn't too crowded or loud. It helped ease and calm his mind. But it did, at times like now, only raise his anxiety up. He was walking down the stairs when he heard the voices again. He tensed up as they began to get louder as they got closer.

"Yeah, he looks so stupid."

Sakata quickly went back up and ran into the bathroom near the stairs. He let go of the breath he didn't even know he was holding. Please don't come here. Please don't come here. Please don't— As if fate wanted to watch him suffer, he heard the same voices begin to enter the bathroom. He quickly hid in one of the stalls and held his breath.

"That raven-haired guy is kinda scary."
"Hah? You're scared of a first-year? That's rich."
"But he does kinda look like a delinquent."
"Wonder why he bothers to hang out with those guys?"
"Probably to blackmail them so they do whatever he says."

Sakata took out his phone and quickly typed, p-please respond! The redhead was staring at the screen and relaxed when he saw that the person replied. Sakata stayed quiet, afraid that one simple noise would alert them that he was here. The voices then began to grow further and further away. Sakata remained in the stall, he didn't feel safe at the moment. After a few minutes he heard a knock on the stall door, the redhead let out a small yelp in shock.

"Oi. Are you okay?"

Sakata calmed down once hearing the voice, he timidly opened the stall door. Soraru was standing there looking at the redhead in worry. Sakata rushed to hug the raven-haired without hesitation. Soraru just patted the redhead's head.

"I-I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Sakata nodded his head before breaking the hug.

"Thanks for coming."

"No problem."

"How'd you know I was here?" Sakata titled his head in confusion.

"I assumed that a closed stall meant that someone was in there."

"Oh, right." Sakata sheepishly smiled. Soraru rolled his eyes.

"Well you should probably go to class now, I bet Luz and Mafu are wondering what's taking you so long."

"Yeah, thanks again Soraru."

"It's fine."

"Www you really do act like a big brother, I should start calling you oniichan."

"Please don't."

"Wwww."

The two males left the bathroom, Soraru walked with Sakata to his class before going back to his own. Urata is probably wondering where I am. The raven-haired made it back to class and was greeted immediately by a curious brunette.

"So where were you?"

"The bathroom."

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

Urata only gave him a suspicious look showing that he wasn't buying it, before shrugging it off. No need to bother him if he's not going to tell me anything. Urata was a bit hurt that the raven-haired didn't seem to trust him to tell him what is happening.

The school day was calm, Soraru would occasionally look at his phone before asking to leave the class, making Urata grow even more suspicious. He would go with the raven-haired, but Soraru would probably not go to wherever he plans on going to if he followed. Urata just sighed, he wasn't the only one suspicious, Nqrse was also beginning to wonder why the raven-haired would leave class.

The lunch bell rang, Soraru, Nqrse and Urata went towards the roof as usual. The only one missing at the moment was Sakata. Soraru became visibly worried as he questioned the guys.

"Where's Sakata?"

"Don't know, he was with us but the moment we turned our back, he was gone." Luz said as he looked at the raven-haired.

"I heard him say somethings about forgetting to put some of his books away in his locker so he went to do it." Mafu stated.

"I should probably go look for him." Soraru was about to head to the stairs when a voice stopped him.

"I've been meaning to ask this, why is Sakata always with you like a puppy?" Nqrse asked.

"I'm wondering that too, why do you always seem to go to Sakata?" Senra added more to the pink haired male's question.

Soraru seemed to slightly tense up, making them frown a bit. He was silent for a few seconds before responding back to them in a nonchalant voice.

"He's just an idiot so someone has to watch over him."

"But it's always you." Kashitaro pointed out.

"Why was Sakata crying that one time?"

Amatsuki's question made all of them turn to stare at the raven-haired in confusion. Soraru cursed under his breath before choosing to ignore their stares.

"Wait crying?" Luz asked in confusion, the red eyed brunette looked at them.

"I saw him hugging his knees one time after school, he didn't seem to notice me or Soraru at first but once Soraru called out to him he wiped his tears away and smiled. Soraru seemed to be looking at him as if he knew why Sakata was crying."

"Oi. Why's that?"

"I don't know." Soraru said in response to both Amatsuki and Urata's question.

"You definitely do." Urata said as he glared at the raven-haired.

"You're seriously starting to piss me off with all this 'it's nothing' or 'I don't know' talk."

Soraru stayed silent as Urata became even more agitated.

"You say you have no feelings for Sakata yet here you are acting like a prince, always staying by his side. How can I trust you if you're just—"

"Urata just stop it. I'm going to check on Sakata."

"Tell me!"

"Urata."

"I'm done with your games, tell me what's happening!"

Soraru just glared at the brunette, who glared back with the same intensity. Amatsuki, Nqrse and Luz all became worried at the tense atmosphere. Something doesn't feel right. Luz thought as he watched his two childhood friends argue.

"Soraru are you hiding something from us?"

Mafu's voice broke the argument the raven-haired was having with the brunette. Soraru just stared at the albino, the upset look on Mafu's face made his heart break.

"Do you not trust us?"

"It's not that, it's just—"

Soraru's sentence was cut off when he felt someone hug him from behind. The raven-haired turned his head and widened his eyes when he saw a bruised and beat up Sakata on the verge of tears. Soraru turned around quickly to face the redhead and examined the bruises.

"Did they do this?!" Soraru's voiced was filled with venom, it sounded deadly enough to make the others flinch.

"S-S-Sakata! W-What happened?!" Mafu exclaimed as the others stared in shock at the redhead. They all got up to rush to his side as Soraru tried to calm him down.

"S-Sakata where'd you get all these bruises from?" Amatsuki asked.

They all felt their hearts break at the sight of the usual cheery, energetic Sakata now becoming a crying mess. Nqrse went to pry the redhead off Soraru, since the redhead was hugging him tight enough to suffocate the raven-haired. The pink haired male was now holding the shaking redhead in his arms as the others got a closer look at the bruises and scrapes on the redhead's arms and legs.

"W-Who did this?" Shima asked, how can someone hurt somone as kind and pure as Sakata?

"......."

Sakata remained silent, he couldn't find his voice at all. Urata was distraught at the sight, no way.... He looked at the raven-haired, who sighed.

"This is why I wanted to find him earlier." Soraru mumbled as the others turned their attention to him.

"Explain Soraru." Luz said in a demanding tone, the raven-haired crossed his arms as he looked at the ground.

"He was being bullied by some third-years—"

"You knew and yet you didn't tell us!?" Mafu shouted at the raven-haired, who flinched upon hearing the albino's harsh tone. Soraru didn't bother looking at them. They were all about to shout questions at the raven-haired before Sakata's quiet voice stopped them.

"D-Don't get mad at him....." They turned their gaze to the redhead.

"I-I told him not to tell you guys because I didn't want you to have to worry about it." Sakata's voice was shaking as he looked down at the ground.

"But why?" Senra asked.

"The teachers were already trying to do something so I decided you guys shouldn't get involved."

"But how did Soraru know?" Nqrse looked at the raven-haired.

"That day when I went to get my lunch, he saw one of the bruises and questioned me. I couldn't really lie about it since he already saw it so I told him everything."

"Is that why he was always with you?" Mafu looked at the redhead, who nodded his head.

Mafu felt himself become relieved for some reason after hearing the reason the raven-haired was by the redhead's side. Why am I relieved? I need to worry about Sakata.

"They only try to hurt him when he's alone, they're too much of a coward to do it when someone else in near by." Soraru said after being silent for a while.

"That's why I didn't want him to be alone."

After hearing the raven-haired's words, others began to feel guilty. Because they prevented the raven-haired from going he wasn't there for Sakata, who now got hurt.

"Who are they?" Kashitaro said in a tone that could send chill down a person's spine.

"....."

"Sakata?" Shima asked as the redhead still didn't respond.

"....."

"Let him rest." Soraru said, "he's probably tired from running here. Not to mention he's too injured to talk much."

Sakata seemed to be on the verge of collasping as his legs were about to give up. They eventually did as he slumped in the pink haired male's arms. Nqrse tried to hold him up but couldn't. Luz went to help him, Sakata's limp body was now in the taller male's arm.

"We'll take him to the nurse." Luz said as he headed towards the infirmary with the pink haired male.

"Soraru, who are they? And why did they do this to Sakata!?"

The raven-haired was silent, the others just stared at him, waiting for an answer.

"Just some third-years who think it's cool to pick on people. They just hate how energetic and cheerful Sakata is and wanted to see him become a crying mess." Soraru said as he glared at the ground, the atmosphere around the raven-haired was cold enough to freeze people.

"....so that's why."

Soraru glanced at the brunette that had been silent. Urata felt guilty for accusing his friend of trying to lie to him.

"And you didn't tell Urata because he would get worried." Nqrse said as the raven-haired nodded.

"It wouldn't have been a problem but Urata's a ghost. Not that I don't trust you Urata but you would do something drastic."

"Of fucking course."

"Right, Urata could take control of a person's body so he could do something he'd regret later."

"Well now that we know about this, we won't let Sakata be alone." Shima said as the others nodded.

"Did the teachers say when they could do something about the bullying?" Mafu asked, he knows how people can be when it comes to bullying.

"Nope they haven't been able to do much so far, so the only thing we can do is wait until the end of the school year when they graduate."

Soraru sighed, knew they would find out eventually. The raven-haired looked at them and saw their worried expressions. He felt bad for keeping it a secret from them but Sakata didn't want them to worry about him. Kinda ironic since the opposite happened. Soraru was kinda happy that they found out though, means that Sakata would have more people to rely on than just him.

The lunch bell rang, the guys headed towards class. Soraru was walking with Urata, the brunette was still silent. His expression showed that he was concerned for the redhead. The raven-haired looked at the ground, he felt uneasy now, as if the air got colder around him. Soraru just sighed as he began to expect the worse.

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A/n

I'm sorry for making Sakata suffer (not really ww)

Hope you guys enjoyed (?) the slight angsty chapter