When Flowers Wither

chapter 3

Takeshi’s POV

Anger.

I heard the alarm go off and got up reluctantly.

I’ve always hated school. I’ve always found it to be a pain in the ass.

All you ever did was sit and listen and go through formality after formality. All stuff that would never really help us with our future. All that crap wouldn’t teach us how to survive in the real world.

How is it possible that a world full of corruption and hate expects school to be important, when it’s the adults themselves who betray you first? They’re all pieces of s**t who take advantage of your weaknesses.

Everyone pretends to be your friend, just to stab you in the back.

I speak from experience — everyone’s a snake. Trust me.

Even my mother fell for it. She thought love was real and that people were good, that’s why she married my father. But not even a year in, he turned out to be a complete asshole who just used her for her money. Now every time he wants cash, he threatens to kill her.

Humans are terrifying. You never know when they’re being genuine or not.

I’ve never trusted anyone.

Not even my friends. Rekka, Mika, Hikari, and Matías.

They’ve never done anything bad to me — actually, they’ve always treated me well — but I still find it hard to trust people 100%.

I trust them about 70%. Even though we’ve known each other our whole lives, it’s only 70%.

I dragged myself to the bathroom to wash up. The only good thing about the day was that I’d get to see my friends — if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have even gotten out of bed.

I put toothpaste on my toothbrush and started brushing, praying with everything I had that I wouldn’t run into Professor Makoto. I hated him, and apparently, the feeling was mutual. For some reason, that man held a deep grudge against me.

Last year he even tried to flunk me because of my “tardiness” and other things he made up.

I got dressed and fixed myself up properly for the ceremony. That day had always felt like a total waste of time.

I walked toward the kitchen to have breakfast. I heard shouting.

The black man was back.

I rushed into the kitchen and found the black man and my mother. My mother was shielding her face with her arms, and he was screaming at her.

I froze.

“Give me the money, Yuki!” he yelled. “Or you know how this ends.” He grabbed her wrist aggressively.

“No! I’m tired of your games, get out! I’m not giving you anything anymore!” my mother shouted through tears.

“I know you don’t want me to hurt you, so give me the f*****g money!” he shoved her into the table where we usually had breakfast. “This is your last warning.” He stepped closer, ready to leave some bruises.

I saw red.

“Try touching her again, and you’ll be the one walking out of here bruised.”

He froze and slowly turned toward me.

“Well, look who decided to show up... the hero,” he said with a mocking smile as he came closer.

“Souta, d—” my mom tried to stop him, grabbing his arm, but he shook her off violently, and she stood there, terrified.

“Trying to act all grown up, huh? But where were you all those other times I beat your mother to a pulp?” he bent down toward me.

“You just stood there, watching your mother scream for help like a coward, never did a damn thing. You like to talk big, but when it comes to actions? You’re pathetic.”

“Leave him alone.”

I started shaking, my breathing was shallow, but I tried to hide it with everything I had.

“You’re just a coward pretending to be a fake hero,” he whispered in my ear. He said that word like it was the most humiliating thing a man could be called. Like I was a worthless piece of s**t who deserved to die.

And the worst part? He wasn’t totally wrong — and that terrified me. Every time he hit my mother, I just stood there, frozen, watching.

Coward.

How could I ever help her?

“Maybe with a few beatings, you’ll finally become a real man like me,” he said creepily, lifting his arm. I froze.

“No!” my mom screamed, and my father turned toward her.

“I’ll give you all the money you want, just don’t touch my son.”

I saw him smirk.

“Now we’re talking,” he said, turning his back to me.

“How much do you need?” my mom asked.

“10,000 yen.” He didn’t even hesitate to ask for that much, but what could you expect from someone who drinks like he breathes?

My mom went to the living room — that’s where she usually kept her purse.

He cracked his knuckles, satisfied with the deal.

“See, Takeshi? Violence gets you everything you want. But you still don’t get it. Living with your mother’s made you soft.”

My mom came back from the living room, drained, holding the money. It was a big amount for us. She handed it to him, and his face lit up. What a rotten person. Since I was a kid, I promised myself I’d never turn out like him.

“Thanks so much, Yuki,” he kissed her on the lips. She stayed silent.

“You know I love you, right? I’d never hurt you. Let’s keep things like this,” he said, turning to me with a wicked grin.

“See you in a week, family,” he said as he headed for the door. “Love you guys,” he added, waving the money he just scored.

There was a moment of silence until we heard the door close.

My mom ran to me.

“Takeshi, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

I shook my head, expressionless.

“I’m sorry you had to see that. Next time, stay in your room,” she said, grabbing my arms and hugging me.

I said nothing. Just stood there while her warmth slowly reached me.

Whenever he came to visit, I felt different — like all my emotions disappeared. I became numb. I didn’t understand why it happened. It just did.

She pulled away.

“Alright, go get ready. It’s an important day,” she said, starting to walk toward the living room but suddenly stopped.

“Remember the rules,” she said in a sharp, stern voice.

“You know what happens if you go around telling people about this.” She kept her face barely turned toward me.

“Yes.” Over the years, I’d learned the rules well.

1. Don’t betray the family.

2. Think about the family’s reputation.

3. Don’t make dad angry.

They’d drilled those into me since I was four.

I wouldn’t have said anything anyway. What would that make me look like? A coward who can’t even defend himself?

Family mattered.

Reputation mattered.

My phone buzzed.

Matías:

You ready? I’m super excited to be back!

Takeshi:

Only you could be happy about this kind of thing.

Matías:

😅

I put my phone down.

1. Family

2. Reputation

3. Dad

I thought back to his words. Coward.

Coward. Coward. Coward. Coward.

I felt my stomach boiling with rage. I could barely breathe. Coward. Coward. Coward. What kind of man was I? I couldn’t even fight.

I felt something weird in my stomach, like someone was twisting my insides. It was unbearable, f**k.

I screamed and punched the wall.

I froze. Looked at my hand, stunned.

What had I done? Why had I done it?

A memory came rushing back — he had done the same thing. The black man had punched the wall just like I did.

I looked at my hand. It was red. Red like his. The adrenaline had kept me from feeling any pain. I felt like throwing up.

I was becoming like him.

No. That wasn’t true. That wasn’t me. It had been someone else.

I would never do something like that.

I was a good kid.

Sometimes I got angry, but I always held it in.

I rushed to the bathroom to rinse my hand.

I hoped with everything I had that my mom hadn’t heard anything. She couldn’t see me like this.

I felt my phone vibrate. I quickly dried my hands.

Matías:

Everything okay?

Takeshi:

Yeah, want to come early? The girls are probably still taking their time.

Matías:

Be there in 5.

Takeshi:

👍

I needed a distraction from all of this.

Matías showed up exactly five minutes later. He was a perfectionist.

“Hey,” he said as I opened the door.

I smiled.

He came in and took off his shoes. He acted like it was his own house by now. But every time he came over, I had this constant fear that my father would show up and ruin everything.

If he found out, he’d hate me. He’d humiliate me and throw me away like everyone else.

“You haven’t had breakfast yet,” he said, breaking through the storm of thoughts taking over my head.

“No.” With everything that had happened that morning, I hadn’t had time to eat.

“I’ll eat later.” Right now, food was the least of my concerns.

Matías opened his tote bag and rummaged through it. I watched, confused.

He finally pulled out a small plastic pouch.

“Knew you’d say that. Here,” he handed it to me. It was a dorayaki.

I smiled. It was my favorite snack.

I accidentally took it with my injured hand, and he noticed, worried.

I tried to hide it.

“It’s nothing,” I said quickly.

1. Family

2. Reputation

3. Dad

My stomach clenched, and I swallowed hard. If he ever found out...

Matías noticed something was off right away.

He put a hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry — if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay,” he said softly. He was a really caring guy. I thanked him with a nod.

“Shall we go?” he said, walking toward the door.

I followed slowly, unable to shake the feeling that he might find out at any moment.