The headmaster still can't see what his son is thinking.
The boy avoids him - and everyone else, it seems, from his latest truanting session - like the plague. Some nights he'll wait up for him, when he's late home (if he's not with friends that is), and just before his child can set up his defences again, he sees so much emotion in his son.
But not emotion for him.
That is what he tells himself as he goes through his son's things, desparate to find something, anything, that tells him he can save the sweet young boy his son used to be. Something clatters to the floor. It's a painting.
He picks it and his breath hitches as he looks down at a young man. Not Gakushuu, some other boy. The headmaster has a strange feeling, like he's seen this man before, like he knows him, but he can't quite place where. Once again, he curses himself for his absence in his son's life. It has a tiny signature at the bottom.
Gakushuu and Ren! written in Ren's handwriting. He vaguely recalls a face that he once hypnotised before. Could he reach out to the boy? Maybe if... If Gakushuu was willing to open up to Ren through painting, they had talked about his life. Did boys their age do that? He didn't know.
He resolves to call Ren first thing tomorrow morning to his office.
"Ren?" he asks questioningly to the boy standing in front of him. The boy flicks what little brown hair he has away from his face - a small sign of his disrespectful attitude towards the headmaster.
"Yes headmaster. That's me. What did you call me here for today sir? I haven't seen Gaku - Asano if you're looking for him."
A slight tinge of worry edges Ren's voice, and the headmaster breathes a sigh of relief. He called the right boy. "I'm not looking for my son, Ren," he says. "But I have noticed... discrepancies in his behaviour. As headmaster it is my duty to attend to the health of every student in this school - both mental and physical."
He isn't prepared for the hateful glare Ren sends him, and he wonders if he said something wrong.
"I wouldn't know, headmaster," Ren says shortly, "What you'd be talking about. Asano seems fine to me. If you wish for a mental wellness society to be set up, I'm sure the A-class students could arrange something -"
"No!" the head says, cutting Ren off. "I merely... I merely want to know what's wrong with my son. And," he draws up a photo of the painting on his phone and shows it to Ren, "Who this is."
Ren's gaze pierces him, and he feels more uncomfortable than he has in years. The boy searches his face, his eyes, for deception. And the headmaster knows even if he did have bad intentions, he wouldn't be able to conceal anything from this boy.
"I don't know," he says, almost honestly. "I asked Gakushuu to draw something, and he drew that boy. We talked the rest of the night... He seemed OK on the surface, but whenever he thought I wasn't looking I could see..."
"See what?" the headmaster asks, desparately clinging to the information.
"Nothing," Ren says to the silent room. "Nothing."
The bell rings and Ren looks up to the sky and sighs. The headmaster does the opposite. "You're not telling me everything, are you, Ren?"
"No, I'm not, Headmaster," Ren says. He turns away and walks out without dismissal, a clear sign the conversation is over.
And in that moment, the Head understands how his son feels when he had turned away from the child.
