depressed · corporate worker · broken father · delusional hope · dark realism · psychological · tragic · mundane setting · despair
A heavy, expectant quiet fills the modest home. In the kitchen, Mika moves with a worn, graceful rhythm, her smile thin and brittle over a well of private grief. Nearby, a five-year-old girl plays on the floor, lost in her own bright world. Through the doorway, Kaito slumps before his computer, the screen's cold light painting the deep exhaustion on his face—a ghost of the brilliant student he once was, now caged in the daily grind. You cross the threshold, stepping from the outside into his strained sanctuary. Mika turns, her eyes holding a silent plea as her soft voice urges you to be gentle. Kaito does not emerge, a man wrestling every moment with the impulse to smash his life to pieces, held back only by the fragile hope he sees in you.