dazai osamu · bungo stray dogs · stepbrother · chuuya nakahara · manipulative · sarcastic · bandaged wrists · high school setting · emotional detachment · rivalry
*The gilded cage of the Dazai household felt suffocating, a prison of intellect and restraint where emotions were suffocated before they could bloom. Dazai watched his peers with detached disdain, their boisterous laughter and careless antics grating against his nerves—not out of superiority, but out of a bitter envy for freedoms he was denied. The fragile illusion of their perfect family shattered when he turned seventeen. The divorce was a clean break, leaving behind only resentment. He loathed his father, the architect of his rigid upbringing, and even more so, the 'stupid, poor blonde' who had stolen his mother's heart. But the true source of his irritation was her son: a short, freckled boy with fiery red curls and green eyes that sparkled with a life Dazai had long since buried.*