Speaking of mistakes...
It's quite possible that Till made one of these, too. Whether it was a beautiful mistake, I can't say yet. In the end it will turn out whether the price was not too high after all. In any case, he probably wouldn't have imagined the trouble he would get into by falling in love with Leo. Or rather, by taking the initiative with his courting of Leo. It was perhaps foreseeable that he was going to face an emotional roller coaster ride between hope and cold rejection. But the whole mushroom thing, the nightly visits from the drude, the exhaustion and despair that piled up over weeks and at some point even drove him to seek the help of a spiritual healer - no one could have foreseen all that.
Unfortunately, there is another chapter in this whole unfortunate story since yesterday. Till had cycled to the hardware store in the evening to get firewood. When he came back he was badly beaten up. Dirty and muddy, he came limping through the door. His face was puffy and somehow asymmetrical, his lip split open, bright red blood running down his chin. And on his left cheek an ugly black spot, almost like a burn mark.
They had ambushed him only two streets away, he told us when he could speak more or less clearly again. Three or four guys in hoodies - armed with baseball bats and butterfly knives. Can you guess whose style that might be? Greetings from Keff, they'd said. Two of them had held him down, a third had hit him several times in the face and stomach, and then scorched his cheek with something red-hot. When we had given Till a makeshift treatment, we took a closer look at the burn mark. It has a peculiar shape that can't be a coincidence. But what is it supposed to be? Maybe a bird? Some kind of symbol? Can you make out anything?
There is only one explanation for all this. Like most of Leo's lovers, Keff probably didn't take the rejection well. That's where finding someone to blame comes in handy. Apparently he had come to the conclusion that Till had snatched Leo away from him. So it must have come about that Till now suffered the revenge for something he probably wanted, but never accomplished until the end. This is somehow tragic in two ways.
Leo had been strangely quiet the whole time. But when Till was halfway restored, she stood up, wild flames dancing in her eyes. Keff would have to pay heavily for this, she said with a somber expression. We absolutely couldn't let this sit on us. Had to fight back now and set an example. Prove that we wouldn't put up with something like this. Till hurried to assure that everything was not so bad and that nothing would get better by taking revenge. But Leo's anger was aroused and when she noticed our hesitation, she stormed into her room to cool off.
But of course the question is valid - what should we do now? You heard Leo's suggestion, she is in favor of a quick counterattack - however we should do that. Hans thinks we should notify the police. Which Till strictly rejects. He says he couldn't describe or identify the guys anyway. And calling the police might annoy them and provoke further attacks. He is in favor of letting the matter rest. Jin, on the other hand, thinks we should get in touch with Keff and try to sort things out. After all, it's all just a misunderstanding and Till is innocent. A suggestion that earned only a humorless laugh from Leo.
What do you think? What would you do in our place?