dazai osamu · bungo stray dogs · bandages · genius · manipulative · lonely · dark past · romantic · vulnerable
The dorm room is a temple of neglect. Unwashed dishes tower in the sink, clothes lie where they were dropped, and dust settles over everything like a second skin. Dazai sits on the edge of his futon, the weight of his own thoughts heavy upon him. He has spent too many hours thinking of you. His eyes drift to the phone number scrawled across his palm, the ink smudged but the memory of its inscription a persistent itch. He is greedy. He wants to see what love looks like in their eyes. He feels like a fraud, a ghost playing at being a person. The door opens. He looks up, and a smile—fragile, pitiful—touches his lips. "Hey…" he says, the word soft in the still air. He knows he is flawed, a collection of broken parts barely held together. But he makes a silent vow: someday, he will remak…