Just like that, two weeks have passed. What am I doing right now? Sitting in my class while swinging with the chair. Fulfilling the condition of the task that makes me be at class every fucking day.

  Apart from that, those three assholes have been annoying me for the last week, but I of course ignored them. For the second one though, they seem to have kind of stopped doing it. I don’t know what is going on with them, people has been saying that this week they are not going to class.

  I didn’t want to get involved with them anyways since that day. Just remembering how Chris was preparing that punch gave me shivers. I slam my desk with my foot. Everyone in the class turned to me after they heard that.

  While I was at that, the principal opened the door and entered the class. Next to him, there seemed to be someone.

  “Class please, listen to me. This girl will be your new classmate. Present yourself.” Said the teacher while pointing at a small girl next to him. The girl made a jump to the middle of the front part of the class and stood there with a big smile and her arms crossed.

  “Hi everyone! My name is Karla Mun. I was born in Germany, but I have lived pretty much my whole life in Ireland so I don’t have any issues with the language! I hope I can get to know all of you better!” Said the girl shouting cheerfully.

  Everyone clapped for her.

  The teacher started looking at a paper he had. “So, Karla, go sit.. let me see. Ah, next to… Mark..”. Said the teacher while looking at me with disgust.

  Karla walked up to the desk next to me with her smile greeting everyone on the way.

  She sat in her place and a second after she turned to me. “Hi! How are you? "

  “F-fine, I guess”. I said

  “What is your name?” She asked me. I wanted to ignore her, I really wanted to, but even I couldn’t. “Its…”.

  Suddenly a woman that was close, calls out to her.

  “Hey, Karla, don’t talk to him. He is a monster that bullies everyone”. Whispered the girl to Karla. She probably thought that I couldn’t hear her.

  “Is he?” Asked Karla. “I mean, I haven’t seen him bullying anyone”.

  “W-well, he used to. B-but he is still dangerous”. Said the girl.

  Karla just laughed and the morning continued. Boring as always. Karla didn’t take that girl’s advice and has been talking to me sometimes. I really didn’t understand this girl. Everyone was approaching her, telling to ignore me.

  It was finally time to go home. I was about to walk out of the school walls.

  “Heeeeeey. Maaaaark!” I heard a voice behind me. I turned to see and there she was. Shouting and waving her hand with a big smile on her face. “Goodbye!”.

  I waved my hand at her, a smile appeared on my face. The moment I realised I stopped. I stopped waving and I just went home. On my way. I kept thinking about something that felt strange. I was uneasy about it, but I chose to just ignore it and focus on my stuff.

  I opened the door of my home and I suddenly got a message from Mon Park.

  “Hey Mark, how are you doing? I have something for you. From this day until the task is over, you will have to run at night at least 20 Km, but it will increase by 5 each week. I will send you now, the path you must follow to complete those 20 Km.”

  “Oh, you can’t be fucking serious”. I said after reading the message.

  After that he instantly sent me another message.

  “By the way, your running time will be from 3 AM to 5 AM and don’t even think about not doing it, because I will know. If you just miss one day or you spend more than two hours to complete it, you will have failed the task. That said, enjoy!” And an emoji smiling.

  I just stood there. I couldn’t believe what I just read. Beeeep!

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  “I forgot, your running starts tonight. Now yes, bye.” Said the last message.

  I looked at the clock. 17:45. I still had time to do what I wanted and what I have been doing for these last two weeks. I opened a closet in my room and took out this kind of punching bag, but with a human body form. They really were precise cuts, as if it was done by some kind of weapon.

  I sighed. I took a notebook where I saw what I had to do today.

  I heard that people practice martial arts for many years to master it. So, I thought that learning one would be beneficial for me. I didn’t have money to pay someone to teach me, so funtube was my best option to learn.

  So, returning to what I was doing. I decided between many and I chose to learn kickboxing. I saw that kickboxing has many stances. First, the set up stance. Right foot forward. Guard up elbows tucked in. I get in front of the dummy, one arm length away from him. I focus on having a mental vision of my target. I’m completely focused. I set a mental image of Ryan. He seems real, I can see his mocking smile. I frowned and I clenched my teeth.

  I shift my weight from the rear leg to my lead leg by taking a small 1-inch step with my lead leg at a 45-degree angle. It impacts cleanly. Huge sound from just the impact. The dummy leaned to the side and went back to neutral. I put my foot back and I take the set up stance again. I just have to take this anger and focus it on my leg.

  I continued practicing. One hour passed and I was a bit tired, but if I didn't want to suffer again I had to train harder. I didn't know if I was doing it okay, but it was everything I could do for now. WIthout a proper professional teaching me I didn’t really have high specs and all I was doing was repeating one same technique each day of the week.

  Another hour later, my feet started to itch and my speed decreased, for a moment I looked at it and I had a purple bruise. I didn’t care and continued hitting it. I just hit continuously, just one thing on my head. Break that fuckers leg.

  After more time passed it reached a point I couldn’t really lift my leg. I tried lifting up with more struggle and I managed to do one more low kick. Then, I fell to the ground. My heart was racing, I was also breathing heavily and I couldn’t really get up. I turned my head to look at the clock. 21:05. I get up the best I can, leaning on the chair and table I had close. I took the notebook and I looked for the page of low kicks.

  I closed my notebook, lay on the ground and I stared at the ceiling for some seconds after I fell asleep. When I got up, I had tears in my eyes and I was feeling tired from the training. I tried looking at the clock, but I couldn’t really tell what time it was until I rubbed my eyes.

  The moment I saw it, I tried getting up fast and I ran out of the house. It was 3:30 AM.

  After I saw the way, I could only think of one thing.

  I started running right away, but it was difficult. My right leg hurts.

  20km, I had to do that in 1:30 minutes. An average person can run 15 km/hour. So technically it is possible to do. I can even do it with my leg like this. The real problem is that the path I have to follow gets into the suburbs and the zone with some of the most dangerous streets in the whole Irland. Tallaght. Known for its gang fights and incidents. There is one special gang that is always to be avoided. Everyone in Ireland knows them. The Shatterfists.

  I continue running, breathing heavily since the start and struggling to set my foot on the ground. I run until I reach the entrance of the suburbs.

  It was the sun and day. On the part I was. There are normal buildings, shops, restaurants, and we have street lamps. It's a normal street just like the other ones. Not too wealthy, but also not poor.

  On the other side though, they don’t. I could only see darkness, broken windows and industrial buildings. People were sleeping on the street, the sound of sirens. I was actually scared of this place. I may be a bully, but a gang is too much.

  I try to calm down and catch my breath. I was tired, too tired. My leg feels like it is about to break. I take out my phone. I was really nervous and trembling. But, I need to show him that I can do it.

  I stretch a bit, getting ready to run. I start running. While I ran I kept my guard always up, watching everything and being aware of every space. I could really feel eyes looking at me while I ran.

  15 minutes have passed and I haven’t encountered anyone dangerous, just some homeless men. I was actually running pretty fast, because I could see the exit of the street. I tried increasing my speed, but my leg wouldn’t let me. As I was about to approach the final straight. I stopped abruptly.

  In front of me was a guy, he seemed like a high schooler probably my age. On his neck I could see a finger tattoo. If I remember correctly that gang was divided in ranks depending on how many fingers had tattooed. It is said that the boss has two fists, one at each side of the neck.

  “Hey, you fucker. Do you know whose territory you have entered?” Said the guy. He was keeping his hands in his pockets, so I was afraid that he could have a knife or something.

  “I don’t want any problem, I just want to get out of here”. I replied.

  “I don’t think that’s possible”. After saying that he started running at me. He took out of the pockets his hands and I saw that he had no knife.

  I thought for a second and an idea came to my mind.