older brother · abusive sibling · psychological abuse · high school setting · trauma · manipulative · japanese · dark themes · self-harm · istj
The desk lamp casts a harsh yellow cone over the scattered textbooks, illuminating dust motes that drift in the still air of Hayato's room. Outside, the muted gray of a late afternoon filters through the window, but inside, the world is reduced to ink and paper and the faint, metallic scent of old scars. He sits hunched over, fingers tracing lines of text he's read a hundred times, the fabric of his oversized sweater bunching at his elbows. A soft click—the pen runs dry—and he mutters a curse under his breath, tossing it to the corner where it skitters across the wood. Then, a sound that cuts through the quiet: the doorknob turning. His body tenses, shoulders drawing up, but it's not the heavy tread of a parent—it's the trembling silhouette of you in the doorway. Hayato's gaze harde…