The gang had gathered like always—but this time, Tamil wasn't smiling.
He leaned back in his chair, arms folded, eyes locked on David. The cafeteria buzzed, but around their table, silence pressed in like a fog.
"During the fight with Mathew,", Tamil said slowly, "he looked at you and said it was going to be a 'double win.'"
"As if… he already knew you."
David didn't react. Not at first. His eyes stayed unfocused, hands idle. Then he exhaled, long and steady.
"Stop," he said. "You guys started to think the wrong way here's the truth"
"Flashback – The David No One Knew"
"I had a family once," David began. "A beautiful one. A mother who laughed like sunlight, a father who never let fear through the door, and an older brother who stood like a wall between me and everything bad."
"What was his name?" Shyam asked.
"Thomas,". David said, his voice colder now. "Thomas never backed down. Never bowed his head. He believed in one rule—
'if someone touches what's yours, you make sure they regret it.'
Then came "them".
The Matthews !!.
Street rats with no rules, no lines. One day, they cornered my mother on her way home. Harassment. Threats.she was both mentally and physically hurted .
Thomas found them before the police did. My brother smashed all of them. I felt so proud of him. And it was a message to Matthew's
But Mathew didn't take humiliation lightly. Days later, he came for Thomas. Matthew himself got here to fight Thomas, but my brother dint flinch
The fight was brutal. By the end, Thomas never walked again. A week later, he stopped breathing.
David paused. Swallowed. David's eyes widened, he started to breath heavily , he started to sob down in tears.
"That broke my family. My mother never left her room after that she died from the worry My father died a weak later after my mother due to heart attack.
I was raised after that by my uncle—a man "feared" in the streets, a name whispered behind locked doors.
"He begged me to let him take revenge. But I said no." Because I'm not involving anyone else in my own battle !
David looked up now—finally. His eyes were sharp, but hollow.
"Violence didn't protect my family. It destroyed it. So I learned to fight—not to hurt... but to protect."
The Tension Erupts
Everyone sat in silence. The story hung heavy in the air.
Then David stood up.
From then I protected people that was vulnerable and can't protect themselves and I realised only later that the Matthew's are the reason behind every chaos in this city so "Join me," he said. "Not to fight meaningless wars—but to protect the ones who can't protect themselves. With my uncle beside us, we can make sure what happened to me never happens again."
The table murmured. But Tamil didn't waste a second.
"I refuse." He said
, his voice firmer than it had been all day.
"Might isn't always right. We don't protect people by raising our fists. We protect them by refusing to turn into the monsters we're trying to stop."
David looked at him, unreadable.
"I won't force you. But don't stop me either."
Forget what happened here and don't let the other class members know it I don't like when others look pity on me. I will be as usual tomorrow , And I expect everyone to be the same. And he left
Tamil nodded slowly. Then turned to the others.
"Leave us. All of you. Except Shyam."
None raised a question because they know which Tamil is speaking now.
Shyam stayed behind. Tamil was deeply thinking between him .
"Do you trust what he said?" Shyam asked.
Tamil didn't answer immediately.
"I don't trust anyone in this world but you."
He leaned closer.
"Find out if it's true. Everything. The brother. The uncle. The story."
Shyam nodded without hesitation
Later that evening, as Tamil passed the office window, something stopped him cold.
*A figure* stood near the entrance. Broad shoulders. Upright posture. Not speaking. Not moving. Tamil could only see his back—
but something about it made the air feel heavier.
Then, the boy turned slightly. Just enough for Tamil to catch the outline of his face—still blurred, still out of reach.
But that presence?that felt so strong!
And the real war hadn't even started yet.
To be continued