Chapter Text
By the next few days, Daniel was heading out the door of his and his mother's shared home to move into his new place.
Upon arriving to the small yet decent place, he'd gotten a call from his mother to check if everything was alright. He'd just grumbled about how he "wasn't a kid anymore, mom! Everything's fine!" and headed out to change himself for the better.
He'd started his journey off by getting a new haircut which admittedly made him look hideous (quite like a dictator hailing from the North, really) and a lot of people whisper and point at him in terror but he was just oblivious to it all — ignorant, even. So much so, that when he'd been bumped into by a pretty girl with double braids and a petite face, all he'd done was smile like a pervert at her courteous apology, thinking that she liked him.
The girl currently stared down at him from where he was half-sprawled out on the ground, smiling up at her as he thought of how kind she was for sheepishly apologising about how she'd bumped into him.
"Oh! I'm really sorry for bumping into you! I wasn't looking where I was going!" were the words that left her lips; stained a light pink and shining with a layer of what looked like lip gloss. Her big, doe eyes glittered in the sunlight overhead and her cheeks were tinted with a rosy hue. Her chocolate hair was divided and done into two long braids, each resting on their respective shoulders that were covered with a t-shirt that was a bright, sunny yellow. 'Wah, so pretty! Wonder if she likes the way I look! Probably does, heh.' was all his dumb brain managed to conjure up.
"Oh, heh heh. It's really no problem, beautiful." he said loudly, not realizing that it — a) made him sound like an absolute sleaze and b) grabbed the attention of her boyfriend(?) who just so happened to be nearby. It also made the girl grimace in unconcealed disgust but hey, what was new?
Said boyfriend was currently coming towards them in strides, calling what seemed to be the girl's name.
"Mira? Mira where'd ya go-? Oh. There you are." he called out in a somewhat-deep voice. But then his eyes fell onto the both of them and his face seemed to scrunch up in disgust as he cut himself off to say the last bit. Daniel couldn't say he was surprised. Most people he met had the same reaction.
It didn't take the male long to come over to where they were. It was then that Daniel took notice of just how tall the man in front of him was as he towered over his short, pudgy frame at what looked to be a remarkable 6'0. He had his inky hair gelled back under a white baseball cap that he wore backwards and was dressed head-to-toe in branded streetwear. Daniel could also see black ear studs on him. He made for a pretty attractive sight had it not been for the severe stink eye and prominent look of disgust that marred his (objectively) attractive face. To think that it was directed at Daniel, too.
"Who the hell is this, Mira? Is he bothering you?" the tall one spat while looking down at him. He was clenching his hand into a fist and was gearing up for what Daniel recognised as a punch.
'Mira', who had gone from shifting uncomfortably to an exasperated panic now tried to tug the taller one away.
"Zack, please, don't start a fight here! I just bumped into him on accident!" the tugging and the tone seemed to have worked because 'Zack' finally turned his head and with it, his whole body away from Daniel, who nearly sagged in relief.
Zack immediately softened his expression upon looking at Mira and started to leave while holding her by the hand but Daniel just had to open that stupid mouth of his! What else could he do? He could have sworn he saw her look back at him with a lovestruck stare while she walked away. He could have also sworn her boyfriend had an intimidated look on his face! And this was his chance to show the world the new him!
And so he did.
He marched right up to them and put on a co*cky expression. "Hey, sorry for the misunderstanding back there! How about we go out for coffee sometime? Just the three of us."
He saw Mira start to shift uncomfortably and give him an annoyed look as if to say 'What the hell are you doing?! Go away while you still can!' but unfortunately, it was too late. Zack had turned around this time with a renewed face of anger. Fury, even. His brown eyes were nearly black and anyone could see the storm brewing within them. Daniel included because he wasn't that ignorant, ladies and gentlemen!
"What the hell did you just say..?" he grit out as he quite literally ducked down to be at eye-level with the shorter one.
Daniel recoiled visibly and stuttered a frantic "Oh, uh, I just- I thought we could- y'know..." he trailed off but he couldn't dwell on it for long because the very next moment, he felt his vision turn sideways at a dizzying speed, bringing with it a searing pain that bloomed from his jaw all the way to his temple.
His ears rung; high-pitched and incessant. His eyes were blurred with tears and he could feel the drool gushing out of the corner of his mouth and sliding down to his neck. His glasses had fallen somewhere around him, out of reach from his scraped palms. God, he hoped they weren't broken. It was the last thing he needed right now.
"ZACK, NO!" Mira shouted and it was what brought Daniel out of his trance. The ringing in his eardrums stopped and was replaced instead by the hum of the audience that had managed to somehow gather all around them in a circle, the clicking of cameras and his own inner monologue that mixed into a horrifying cacophony.
The punching just wouldn't stop. His face hurt like hell and he was pretty sure the boy that was currently holding him by the collar had broken a few bones in his nose. Zack had beat him until he was satisfied with the results - those being Daniel lying on the street, bloody and battered with an entire crowd of people snapping pictures of his broken form with glee and posting them all over every platform they could manage.
He'd then "hmph"-ed; much like how Logan often did and tugged a now angry Mira away from the scene, leaving the whole mess behind him as though he were a saint walking away from the pits of hell itself and leaving a path of holy fire in his trail. A shame, really. For our main character, at least.
That evening, Daniel had limped back to his shabby place under the orange hue of setting sun. Night was beginning to fall and people were beginning to wind down in the neighborhood. Some were even beginning to wind up for the night.
Not that it mattered because the pain kept Daniel from noticing all that around him. No, not the physical pain — he's had plenty of that and he's quite used to it, thank you very much — the psychological one. The kind of pain that made his aching heart bleed. Why did he deserve to get treated like this? For not looking good? For not looking how society wanted him to look? What was it about him and all the others like him that just made people kick them around?
'I'M HUMAN TOO!' is all Daniel thought about that evening as he sobbed his heart out with his phone beside him, its cracked screen lit up with the video someone had shot of Zack punching him in public which boasted many comments like 'LOL deserved!!' and 'haha fat piggy!!!'
This, no matter how gruesome, would mark Daniel's first ever encounter with Zack Lee.
He needed a change. And he prayed like hell for one, too.
