Ryu-chan is cool

Ryu-chan, you’re so cool! Every day, you look more like your daddy!”

“Tch!”

…She’d said it.

Ryuuji mutely closed the front door, and then instinctively looked up at

the sky. His vision spun around and around; he felt as though a deep

whirlpool surrounded his feet, drawing him downwards. He hated it. No, he

thought, no, stop it.

That was the one phrase he never, ever wanted anyone to say to him.

Especially on a day like today.

You look like your daddy.

It seemed Yasuko couldn’t understand how much that fact troubled

Ryuuji. It was the whole reason he bought that magazine and tried out softer

bangs.

On the way to school, Ryuuji’s face twisted into a sullen expression. His

high school was well within walking distance of their house, but he still

moved at a fast clip, taking long, straight strides.

He sighed and unconsciously pulled on his bangs. He hid his eyes out of

habit. Yes, his troubles lay in his eyes.

They were bad.

It had nothing to do with his eyesight.

It was the way they looked.

Though his facial features had rapidly grown more masculine in the past

year, that hadn’t made him extraordinarily handsome, or given him out-ofthis-world good looks. Well, he wasn’t bad-looking, either… Not that anyone

would say that out loud—but he thought he didn’t look too bad, at least.

His eyes were appalling, though. They were so awful, there was no way

he would ever be considered handsome.

He had angular sanpaku eyes. The kind of eyes ringed by white on all

sides. On top of that, his eyeballs themselves were huge; the blue-tinged

whites threw off an intense, garish light. His dim, small black irises moved swiftly, as if trying to cut straight through whatever was unfortunate enough

to be the target of their gaze. Despite Ryuuji’s intentions, his eyes seemed to

possess the ability to strike panic into anyone that saw them… He understood

that. He understood it all too well. It was so bad that even he had become

flustered after seeing a kid with an absolutely livid expression in a group

photo—until realizing he was looking at himself.

It wasn’t just his eyes, though. Thanks to his curt personality, his way of

speaking probably also came off a little rough. Sometimes he got high-strung,

too. More than that, though, was the fact that he was the type of person who

struggled with the fine line between jokes and sarcasm. Because he lived

alone with a woman like Yasuko, he’d probably also lost any innocence or

meekness he once had… Really, he considered himself the real parent out of

the two of them.

But even so, scenes like these kept happening…

“Wh-what, Takasu? Are you disobeying a teacher?! S-someone hold him

back! Hold him back!”

You’re mistaken. I forgot about part of the presentation, so I just came to

apologize.

“S-s-s-s-sorry, it wasn’t on purpose, I bumped into you because he p-p-ppushed me.”

Who would get angry from just being brushed on the shoulder?

“I heard that damn Takasu guy crashed another school’s graduation in

junior high and holed himself up in their announcement room.”

I’m not that bad an apple.

“…I guess I should start being more proactive about clearing up

misunderstandings,” Ryuuji said, sighing at the bitter memories he’d

unearthed.

His grades weren’t bad. He was never late or absent. He’d never hit

anyone—he’d never even had a heated argument with anyone before. Long

story short, Takasu Ryuuji was a very ordinary young man. But, simply

because he had a fearsome look in his eyes (and maybe because his only

parent was in the bar business), everyone believed he was a terrible

delinquent.

If anyone stayed in the same class with him for a year, those stupid

misunderstandings would eventually be resolved. But a year wasn’t short,

especially not to a high school student, and today he would have to start all

over again. On top of all that, his attempted image change had been a failure.

Nonetheless, he looked forward to the class rotation. There was someone

in particular he wanted to share a class with. But when his thoughts started

running through the hardships that lay ahead, his hopes seemed to whiz away

and deflate to half their size.

It was all because of that unwelcome comment Yasuko had made… No,

that wasn’t right. It was all because of the unwelcome genes branded into him

by his father.

“Your daddy’s in heaven, now. He was so cool—he had a coif with

shaved sides, and he wore these really pointy patent leather shoes that he

always shined… And on his neck, he had a gold chain, like thiiiis thick, and a

baggy suit, and a Rolex. Oh, and he always layered a weekly magazine over

his stomach. When I asked him what that was for, he said it was so he’d be

safe if he ever got stabbed. Ahhh! He was so exciting.”

He remembered Yasuko’s enchanted expression when she recounted all

that. Afterwards, she’d shown him the only picture left of his father.

His father looked exactly as Yasuko described.

He stood posed with his legs spread arrogantly wide. He had a carrying

case under his arm. He wore a white suit with an incredibly showy open-neck

shirt, several gold rings glinted on both his hands, and a diamond stud

adorned one ear. His lower jaw was ****** out, as though jeering towards the

camera. One of his hands groped at the ****** of a younger version of

Ryuuji’s mother. She held an enlarged stomach, and her carefree laugh was

almost audible from the picture: “Ha ha!” His father’s front teeth were gold.

He was really kind, and sincere, and never raised his hand against a

civilian even once, and on and on Yasuko would go. Yet, a person who was

kind and sincere wouldn’t join the yakuza to become a mobster, nor would

they get what had likely been a much younger high school student pregnant.

Beyond all that, however, were those sharp eyes of his.

They were eyes that would make you drop your wallet without a fuss if

ever they stared straight at you. Just his gaze by itself threatenedunreasonable violence. An unpleasant thought had risen to Ryuuji’s mind:

That same look is stuck on my face… Ordering people not to get the wrong

idea was probably impossible. After all, even Ryuuji imagined his father as a

scary man, and he had no memory of him.

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