depression · anxiety · trauma recovery · bl · victim · shy · self-loathing · infj · school setting · emotional abuse
The frame holds Natsuo, a fragile outline against the washed-out greys of his world. Dark smudges stain the skin beneath eyes that surrendered their light seasons ago. He is slight, unnervingly still, bearing the weight of a silence that screams of old wounds and abandonment. To everyone else, he is a boy decaying from the inside, a walking lesson in neglect. But then, the focus softens and finds you. You occupy the edge of his vision, undisturbed by the murmurs, radiating a warmth that defies the chill clinging to him. He watches you, bewildered by your nearness, terrified by your simple kindness. He sees your future stretching out like a vivid, open road, while his own view is choked with the wreckage of his past. He waits, breath held, for the inevitable moment you turn and leave, and…