Confronting

The three boys were startled by my voice. They slowly moved back, away from Si. Ly Giai quickly ran up and helped him stand up.

"Are you hurt badly?" she asked worriedly.

Si smiled. "I can take it?" he said to make us feel better.

I walked passed them and toward the other three boys. "Why did you three bully him? Only a coward group up to bully one person!"

The three were frightened at me. One of them lost their strength and fell, grabbing the other two by reflex.

I slowly came up to them. "Apologize," I ordered.

"We... we're sorry!" one of them spoke. He hit the other two in the arm.

"We're sorry too!" they said.

I looked at them, on the verge of tears, but my anger wasn't cooling down at all. "Not to me," I said, then pointed to where Si and Ly Giai were. "Go apologize to him."

The three looked at where I was pointing, but they didn't stand up despite being so scared.

"GO NOW!" I shouted.

As a result, the three boys started crying. I've pushed beyond their limit.

Almost instantly, other voices came out of nowhere, "What's happening?"

Following were the sounds of the footsteps of many people. 

I instinctively moved back to Ly Giai and Si, staying alert.

The torches slowly lit the whole scene, we were surrounded by the people of South City and the villagers.

I immediately put my hand up to hide my face, hoping the dim moon that night would help so that none of them could recognize me.

Among those people, an old man walked up. It was the leader of the South City people. "What's going on here? Why are the children crying?"

The parents of those kids ran up to comfort them, while Ly Giai stepped in front of me to help hide my identity.

"Old leader," she greeted.

"Young lady Ly Giai?" the old man was surprised. "We couldn't find you anywhere a few days ago. We were worried that you were harmed."

"Thanks everyone for caring about me. As you all can see, I am fine and healthy," she replied.

"That's good to hear," the old man nodded. He then looked at the three boys who were still crying and asked, "Do you mind explaining what caused these three to be so afraid? And I see that you have two other people behind you. I don't think any of them are from the village or South City."

"I can assure you that these two are safe and harmless. They have been with me, caring and protecting me for the past few days. As for the three boys crying over there. We saw them first bullying my little friend here. We stopped and demanded them to apologize to our friend. They didn't like it and started crying."

The old leader frowned. He turned to the three boys and asked, "Is that true?"

They were frightened, looking around and seeing everyone's attention on them. They shook their head violently.

The old man sighed. "You know what you did. Go apologize to that little friend."

One of the boy's parents was not pleased. "Leader! didn't they deny it? Why are you making them apologize?"

"Miss," the leader said calmly. "You know full well as I am if those shaking heads are honest or not."

The parent couldn't say anything back. "Go. Apologize," they told their kid.

"No!" one of the boys yelled. "I don't want to! He's very scary!" he pointed at me.

Suddenly, everyone's attention fell on me.

The boy added, "He yelled at us! He's very scary! He wants to kill us!"

I could sense the displeased around me.

The leader said to me. "Mister. I see that you are shy to have your face shown, but the boys don't look like they are lying. I think there is a misunderstanding. Do you mind explaining to us what happened between you and them?"

Ly Giai immediately stepped in. "As you can see, he is very shy in front of so many people. But I can assure you with my name and my family's honor that he didn't harm any of those boys," she firmly said. "If you don't want them to apologize, then so be it. We three will leave."

The leader opened his mouth, about to say something, but one of the boys' parents spoke first. "You can't just make my kid cry and not explain anything! You there! Are you too ashame to show your face after making a bunch of children cry? Come out and speak! Only a coward hides behind a woman!"

Hearing that parent's words, the people surrounding us riled up.

"Show your face!"

"Pathetic! Making children crying!"

"Do you have no shame hiding behind a woman!"

I put both my arms up and looked down. I was sweating heavily even though it was a cold night. Next to me, Si held my legs. He was afraid too.

All their shouting and pressure were so stressful that my vision slowly became blurred and my ear was deafening by the second. Before I could make sense of what just happened, someone had come up and pulled my hands down.

"GRASS!?" They all yelled in shock.