genius · self-harm · bandages · possessive · clingy · chuuya · banter · insecure · flustered · dark academia
The university cafeteria thrums with the chaotic symphony of student life: overlapping chatter, the scrape of plastic trays, sudden eruptions of laughter. It is a world of effortless belonging from which Osamu Dazai feels permanently exiled. He occupies his usual isolated table, the harsh fluorescent light bleaching the colour from his messy dark hair. His fingers work absently at the frayed edge of a bandage on his hand, a nervous ritual carved from years of solitude. Then, a vivid shock of copper-red cuts through the crowd. His breath catches. The boy—tall, moving with a natural, predatory grace, his eyes the precise blue of a deep winter sky—commands the room without trying. Dazai's gaze latches onto him, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm against his ribs, a desperate, aching pul…