You are nothing but a disappointment

(A couple of months later)

Natsuo's eyes nearly closed from boredom that threatened to make him fall asleep. He leaned back on the uncomfortable chair, yawning without even trying to suppress it, and tried to stay awake. As he looked out the window, he saw a number of other students loitering around the school area, chatting and laughing before classes began again. Lunch break had started a while ago, but he was trapped indoors, entirely against his will.

As fall slowly approached, the leaves began to turn yellow and orange. Most flowers in the garden had started to wilt and were losing their vibrant colors. The weather was dull and gray, matching the mood inside the school counselor's office.

"Your grades were excellent before," the counselor stated as she flipped through Natsuo's previous diplomas, furrowing her eyebrows.

"But your results have been poor for the past few months. Is there something wrong at home?" she asked as she looked up from the papers, directing her attention towards the student concerned.

Natsuo sighed as he thought about what to say.

"Well, Masashi works most evenings, and Noriko does what she does, such as cleaning and cooking. She is pretty boring," he said nonchalantly.

"Does your mother still work for the city council?"

"I don't know, ask her," Natsuo snorted and gazed out the window, when the blandness of the outside scenery provided a much more interesting view than the room he was in.

He watched birds fly across the sky, flapping their wings in complete harmony as they traveled towards the horizon. He imagined himself flying with them, sailing through the clouds as he broke free from his troubles - no more rules, no more demanding parents, nothing to hold him back.

"Why don't you count these for me?"

The counselor gave him a piece of paper containing math problems from a higher-level course. Natsuo laughed stiffly as he took it, quickly calculating the correct responses in his head as he read them.

"Why bother? It won't change anything," he muttered, his tone becoming more bitter.

"Can you solve them or are they too difficult for you?"

Natsuo narrowed his eyes at her, wondering what tricks she was trying to pull. He had been through the same thing countless times, with teachers and tutors trying to get him to invest his energy in something that would never matter in the end.

"I will let you go early if you do them."

Natsuo stretched his hand and gestured for a pen, fidgeting his fingers as he waited for her to hand him one. Perhaps he should make her eat her words, he thought.

The counselor handed it to him and watched as the student scribbled the answers to every problem in no time, moving the pencil like it was dancing across the page. When he was finished, he tossed the sheet and pen onto her desk.

"I'm leaving then," he announced.

"You did a very good job," she said, nodding approvingly as she double-checked the equations.

" - but wait a minute."

Natsuo cursed under his breath when he was at the door, already holding the doorknob as he heard her voice. His eyes returned to her, visibly irritated, as he waited for her to finish speaking.

"This is math taught in senior class. You should have passed the mathematics in your course, but you didn't. Why is that?"

For a moment, Natsuo stared at her in silence, letting the counselor's gaze drill into him, as it could uncover some hidden truth.

"I know," he then said quietly, before turning his back and leaving the office.

He closed the door with a sigh, contemplating how troublesome it was to constantly prove himself to people who should already know how capable he was. Everything was just useless.

A student coming around the corner accidentally bumped into him. Their shoulders collided, causing both of them to stumble backwards.

"Watch it!" Natsuo grunted, making the shorter boy to bow apologetically. He couldn't help but smile in return - it was the little ghost from the swings, trembling slightly in front of him.

The boy had a timid, meek demeanor that made him look like a mouse. Once again, his jet-black hair was properly combed into two parts, and his neat school uniform was tucked in accordingly. He was too nervous to look his classmate in the eye, so he kept his gaze fixed on the ground, and clutched his books tightly to his chest.

From the moment he walked into the school as a new student, he was an outcast. It was like he was a forgotten soul, called a little ghost, lost in a sea of other students who refused to acknowledge his presence.

"S-sorry," the boy mumbled, almost whispering.

"It's pretty brave of you to stumble into me like that. Maybe you should apologize better so that I can consider forgiving you," Natsuo smirked at him, thinking he could entertain himself at the boy's expense - there was nothing unusual about it.

The little ghost fell to his knees and pressed his head to the floor - and just then, their classmates walked out of the classroom and burst into laughter. They ridiculed him and pointed their fingers at him, causing the little ghost's neck to flush red. Natsuo snickered at him and grinned wryly.

"You better watch yourself, Jiro, or you might end up in trouble," he said, calling his name for the first time.

(Later that day)

The wind blew through the schoolyard as the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. The students began to leave the campus, some in groups of friends and others walking alone - including Jiro, whose head hung down as he made his way out of sight.

"Hey, is that your father?" one classmate asked and pointed to Masashi's figure, which emerged from a black car.

Natsuo's eyes widened as he saw his father there so unexpectedly. The grim look on the man's face made him feel a knot in his stomach, as if something serious was about to unfold. He wished his classmates goodbye before approaching Masashi, who gestured for him to get into the car.

"What is the reason I have this honor to be in your company?" Natsuo asked, arrogant as ever, as the car drove away from the school's parking lot.

"Your counselor called today. You have been acting up and failing your classes on purpose," Masashi stated in his usual strict voice, keeping his focus firmly on the road.

Natsuo rolled his eyes, realizing he should have just played dumb, but the thought of getting out of the social worker's office faster was too good to pass up.

"You won't return to that school anymore. We will arrange for you to attend a boarding school."

The knot inside Natsuo's stomach suddenly tightened. He shifted in his seat, for the first time looking at the man pleadingly and hoping for a chance to explain himself, but the stern look in his father's eyes made it clear that his fate had been sealed.

"No, no - please, I will do my best now - "

"Quiet. You will leave tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!"

Natsuo's heart raced as he heard the man's words. In an instant, hot tears pricked his eyes, so he quickly wiped them away to keep his father from seeing how much he was hurting.

Even though he tried to keep up a facade of coolness and confidence around his schoolmates, deep down he liked the feeling of being accepted and appreciated. His peers' approval and admiration were important to him, since he had never been given that kind of recognition at home.

He had been raised to believe that anything less than excellence was unacceptable, but his father never seemed to love him, regardless of how well he did. As a young child, he had been outstanding in all his subjects, but it still didn't satisfy him. The man always demanded more and relentlessly pushed his only son to improve - in his words, there was always another goal to achieve, another bar to raise.

Natsuo had never been like other children, with no playtime or friends to spend time with. His birthdays and Christmases never included presents or special treats - instead, he was given more books to study and chores to do. He always did his best, just to earn a hint of approval from the man he admired so much, but his worth was never truly acknowledged.

So, after years of feeling like he wasn't good enough, he simply stopped caring. He had reached his breaking point and deliberately failed his exams, hoping that his father would eventually take notice of him, and realize that he couldn't be pushed beyond his limits, but that only angered the man. Beatings and threats became a regular occurrence in the boy's life - but every whipping only fueled the fire within him, pushing him further away from submission.

The car pulled up to a pristine house with a manicured lawn. Natsuo stepped out and looked up at the building he had lived in for fifteen years - everything suddenly seemed so foreign and strange, like he never had a home there.

Natsuo longed to break away from his father's chains, live a life without expectations and restrictions. He wished to have a family who liked him for who he was, who would be proud of him - not beat him or disregard him day after day.

Masashi grabbed his son by his arm and dragged him inside.

"How dare you make me look like a fool!" the man shouted once the door closed with a loud bang.

"You are nothing but a disappointment. You are not my son, have never been, and you never will be," he growled, pushing him away with such strength that the boy fell to the ground - and with that, the fire in his blue eyes was extinguished by the water that finally broke free and streamed down his face.