The boys 03

"So, what do we do now?", Suijin asked.

"We go to his home. Since this is just a case of "doing something stupid and then being too embraced to show your face to the outside world" it should be pretty easy. We don't even have to help him because the girl he confessed to was probably not from this school."

"How do you know that?"

"Simple, if she was from our school, this would be in everyone's mouth. Especially because he did not come to school after that day, people tend to speak about other people's problems to make themselves feel superior to them".

"That's not -

I looked at him with a gaze that screams "You are just embarrassing yourself by saying what you are trying to say" and the pause means he realized what I said was true.

"-entirely false".

He sighed and then I said,

"Let's start walking already, there's quite a bit of distance to cover."

It took us half an hour to reach his home. It's 4 km to the east of A.R high. Still not as far as my home.

We walked our way to his home. We rang the bells and his mother came to answer,

"Hello. Who is this? "

I told Suijin to do all the introductions.

"Hi, I am Yoshino's schoolmate, we are here to give him his notes and talk to him".

"Oh, please come in".

Katsuo's mother looked pretty young. She looked closer to Ms. Hitomi than a 43-year-old, wait maybe I can tease Ms. Hitomi with this. She told Katsuo to come out.

But seeing no response he decided

She made us sit and started asking us about school.

Suijin asked," So, why did he stop coming to school? "

"I don't know. He just one day said that he no longer wants to go to school. It's been almost a week. I tried to get him to get out of his home but he won't listen".

I asked her," was he by any chance bullied in middle school? "

She said," No, he did not get along with everyone in his school but he was never bullied, he also had a few friends too. Among them, Ryuuji and Tatsuo came to A.R high school with him".

I told Suijin to go and try to talk to him. Suijin agreed and went to the front of his room.

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Suijin walked up the stairs and when he reached Katauo's room he knocked on the door. Seeing no response he decided to mimic Mrs. Katsuo's voice. He thought to himself, 'Finally, this skill is going to have some use'.

He copied Mrs. Katsou'voice and said,

"Yoshino, open up, I want to talk to you about something".

Katsuo replied," Mimicking my mom's voice is not gonna work".

Suijin thought to himself,' well, it failed. But he at least talked to me.'

So to further continue the conversation and quench his curiosity, he asked,

"How did you realize it was not Ms. Katsuo".

To that, Katsuo replied," Mom always calls me Yoshi-chan".

'Great, the conversation is going on.'

So he asked," Why are you not coming to school? "

Katsuo replied," none of your business".

"Katsou, tell me the problem, I want to help".

To that, he replied," You can help by going away.

Suijin thought to himself, 'this is going to take some time'.

Suijin then said, "You know, your friends miss you".

"I am sure they would do just fine without me, everyone moves on, and most of us would mostly split up during college anyway. It's a normal thing in life to move on".

"But you will miss them too."

"I will move on too".

"But think of the fun moments you would miss

if you do not go back."

Suijin knew it was a childish thing to say but it was all he could say.

"I am having fun by reading manga and playing video games here too."

"Please, come to school, you can't just hang on to something that happened in the past. You need t let go of all the embarrassment you feel, otherwise, you will ruin-

"Leave", Katsuo screamed.

"I -

"Get the fuck out of here", Katsuo said without even listening to him. He sighed and waited for a few minutes then, he wrote his number on a piece of paper and then slid it down the gap between the door and the floor.

He then said, "Call me, if you ever think of opening up or asking me for help".

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After Suijin left, I started talking to his mom.

I asked her, "How was he before he became like this?"

She talked about how he wasn't into playing sports, he still watched football. I then asked her about his hobbies.

She said he was mostly into anime, manga, and video games.

I asked him about his academics since elementary school. She said he was well above average in his studies. The reason me asking about him was to make her feel comfortable around me. Of course, asking alone wouldn't work, you need to phrase your questions just the right way and talk in between the questions for it to have any effect.

I told her,", I asked about his friends in his classroom, and he had quite a few. it seems he has some communication skills, his friend Tatsuo told me he actually developed them by trying hard to make friends".

Of course, the last part was a lie but she felt proud that her son was making friends. Her son was introverted and shy after all, so it was good to hear that her son had friends and enjoyed their company.

Then I said," But he might lose the closeness he has with them if he does not go to school soon. It would make his high school life harder if he doesn't have any friends to enjoy it with. "

She looks worried. My plan is working.

Then I told her, "Ms. Katsuo, our school has a policy that says that a student absent for more than two weeks without proper reason would get expelled".

She looked shocked. I told her, "I am worried about him, he is my schoolmate after all. If he gets expelled from a school like ours for something like that may hinder his ability to get into a good university. It will also hinder his studies, he might have to repeat a year in another school to catch up, which would mean it would be even harder for him to make friends if any at all".

"Why?"

"Not all school students are as accepting as us. He might get bullied by students of that school or they might isolate him for being a year older than others".

She looked even more worried. I then saw Suijin coming back, just what I was waiting for, I asked Suijin about what happened. He told us from start to finish.

I then said to him out loud with the intention of Ms. Katsuo hearing, " He reacted like that? I think it might be something really bad."

Ms. Katsuo asked in a worried tone, "Bad, how?"

Oh, how I love mothers! They are so easy to understand and break. All you need to do is convince them something bad might happen to their son and then make them think doing what you are trying to get them to do would benefit them.

I said, " It could be clinical depression or anxiety".

She looked like she was about to cry.

I then told Suijin out loud, " We need to do something".

IAh, gaslighting is the best.