"This will probably effect my ratings in the list of hottest boys in class, right?" Gakushuu said, touching his now-bandaged cheek tenderly.

That earned him a few nervous chuckles from his friends.

The atmosphere was stifled and tense. Everyone was suddenly treating him far too carefully; as if he were made of glass and could shatter at any moment. His whole class had escorted him to the nurses office, and it had felt like some kind of solidarity. Like they where all turning on the Chairman together. It felt good to know they picked him over his father.

Only himself and the virtuosos had been allowed in the clinic room. The school nurse had gave him some ice and a bandage and sensed it best not to question why his whole class had escorted him here with a busted face during first period.

"Well. I'd say I've got a better shot at the number one spot now." Ren joked in reply. It was slightly forced but Gakushuu appreciated the effort of trying to add some levity to the mood. "But you're still cuter than the other three, so don't worry."

"Don't get so cocky, Sakakibara, some girls prefer manly men." Seo argued, hands on hips.

"Well, I don't need to worry about you then." Ren snarked back, grin on face. Gakushuu felt himself smile slightly.

"Well, at least I'm hotter than Koyama." Seo huffed. Gakushuu had heard them have this argument before, and expected the usual response of 'the best girls don't care about something as petty as looks', but instead, the other was silent. Gakushuu glanced at him; Koyama had a somber expression on his face and a glazed look in his eyes.

"Hey. Space cadet." Seo prompted. Koyama ignored him, and instead fixed his squinting gaze on Gakushuu.

"Has he ever done that before, your Dad, has he ever hit you like that?" He asked. Instantly, any levity they'd managed to create evaporated.

"Has he ever hit me in front of a classroom of kids before? No never." Gakushuu replied, sounding colder than he had intended.

"You know what I mean." Koyama emphasized. "Does he hurt you?"

Gakushuu felt a sudden urge to hide, but instead he forced himself to keep looking, feeling a prickling uncomfortableness when he realised his friends were all staring at him with the same worried expression.

He didn't know how to feel. Part of him had always wanted this; for people to know what he'd been through and to care, but a larger part of him was terrified. Ren already knew the truth, but was he ready for the others to as well? Did he even have a choice?

"He's not exactly been the most loving and caring father." Gakushuu said. Averting his eyes as he spoke. "But it's nothing that I can't handle."

As he feared, his friends looked horrified, all except Ren who had something akin to resignation on his face.

"I mean. He's not usually this bad. I think E-Class' performance this year has just unnerved him and it's making him erratic. He's usually much more composed than this. He usually knows where to draw the line." Gakushuu explained. His explanation did very little to quell the worry on his friends faces, so he continued. "I mean, you know me. I'm not a fragile person. My father might be difficult but I can handle it. Other people have it a lot worse." He paused, before repeating. "He's not normally this bad."

"You shouldn't have to make excuses for that bastard, Asano." Seo growled.

"I'm not making excuses." Gakushuu snapped. But he wasn't even sure if that was true. He didn't know if his defences of his father was something he actually believed in or just a well-rehearsed lie.

The others looked between themselves, unsure of how to respond.

"You should stay at my place tonight." Ren offered, after a pause. "I don't think you should be under the same roof as that man."

"Or come to my place." Koyama added. Ren shot him a look.

"Yeah I agree." Seo "That man looked downright unhinged just over those stupid results; like he completely snapped. Who knows what he's going to do next."

Gakushuu bit his lip. Seo had a point. What was the Chairman going to do next? His education philosophy was everything to him, and not only had he been proven wrong, but his students had completely rejected him.

Gakushuu suspected the man had been having some kind of breakdown over the course of this year, but this outcome might shatter him completely. He remembered the empty look in his fathers eyes as they'd left him alone in that classroom, and all the times his father had either hurt himself or tried to get Gakushuu to do it.

Suddenly, it wasn't himself that Gakushuu was worried about.

He bolted up out of the bed.

"Hey. Wait. Hang on." Ren said. "The nurse said you should rest for a bit."

Gakushuu ignored him. "Did anyone see where my father went when we left the classroom?" He asked, a growing sense of panic blossoming in his chest.

"No- who cares where he is." Ren replied, putting a hand on Gakushuu's shoulder to encourage him to sit down again. Gakushuu shrugged him off and started walking towards the exit.

"Gakushuu, please tell me you're not going after him." Ren said weakly. Gakushuu felt a stab of guilt. As uncomfortable as it was, his friends did care about him, and right now he knew they just wanted what was best for him. He knew they were probably right. He paused, putting his hands on the frame, unable to look back at the other.

"He's still my Dad." Gakushuu said, before walking out the door.

After a near-death experience, the body releases endorphins and adrenaline that makes you feel euphoric at having survived.

Maybe that's why the Chairman's heart felt unusually light as he made his way back down the mountain. He had, after all, been saved from certain death by his own super-powered employee.

It was the only reason he could really think of for feeling so content right now after his education philosophy had been wreaked and his own students had abandoned him. He glanced down at his bruised knuckles. Well. It's not like he could blame them.

The sky was turning a warm amber hue as the sun began to set, bathing the streets in an orange light and making the shadows of the trees go longer by the minute. His students had probably long gone home by now and he really was all alone.

As he came to the edge of the tree's he noticed his car waiting for him. This surprised him, since he hadn't informed the driver where he would be. What surprised him even more was when he saw his son leaning against the car, bandage on his cheek.

"Asano?" The Chairman questioned. He assumed the boy would of gone off with one of his little friends. He thought his son would be doing everything he could to avoid him, but here he was. The Chairman felt a undeniable rush of relief. He thought he'd pushed the boy away forever.

Gakushuu regarded him carefully with narrowed eyes; likely searching for signs of agitation or aggression, weighing up what kind of mood his father was in right now. The Chairman felt a stab of guilt.

"So. Mr perfect crumbles." Gakushuu said, clearly he'd decided it was safe enough to be snarky. "I heard you went up there to challenge E Class, but judging by your face, you lost again."

"Do you want something, Asano?" The Chairman asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope." He said, there was an awkward pause before he pointed to his swollen cheek. "This wound dropped me down to number 5 on the hot list in A class." He said, tentative smirk on his face. "I thought that might console you for your non-stop losses recently."

The Chairman chuckled at that without realising. Must be the Post-suicide-attempt endorphins. There wasn't anything funny about backhanding his son in public, now that he thought about it.

His mind felt a lot clearer now. He knew he had taken things too far and not for the first time. And yet. Gakushuu still hadn't abandoned him. He was only a few feet away from the boy now. There was an apology on the tip of his tongue that just wouldn't manifest. He moved to touch Gakushuu's cheek and the other flinched.

Both pretended not to notice it.

"You can try and sue me for emotional damages, if you want." The Chairman said, when the apology wouldn't come out. "But just know, you'll never defeat me."

Gakushuu frowned at him. "Yeah and why's that?"

"Because I'm going to be growing all the time. Both as a teacher, and as a father." The Chairman said.

Gakushuu didn't reply to that, but the smile on his face made the Chairman wonder how he'd ever had such a strong urge to hurt his son. The Chairman walked around the other and opened the door.

"Come on, get in. We can talk details in the car." He said. His son obliged, getting in and sitting opposite. He looked relieved.

The car started and they drove away. Clearly, there was so much both of them wanted to say to each other, but neither knew how to begin.

"You know. I might sue you for slander and get a good three million¥." The Chairman said. Gakushuu smirked at him.

"That's nothing. If I sue you for hitting me I'll be getting at least five million¥." Gakushuu countered. This was what they where more comfortable with, exchanging barbs and challenges.

"Interesting. We should both pay a trip to the courts this week." The Chairman said. He wasn't being serious, of course, he wouldn't let his reputation take a hit like that. But of course, Gakushuu knew that.

"I thought you would of been straight to Sakakibara's house tonight." The Chairman admitted.

"What? And miss out on seeing your face after you've finally lost. I've waited for this moment for a long time, you know." Gakushuu smirked. The Chairman smiled wryly.

"I hope it lives up to your expectations." He said.

"Oh. It more than does." Gakushuu gloated. "The public meltdown was the cherry on top."

"Not my finest moment." The Chairman said, again, teetering on an apology. "Now you've had your chance to gloat, should I ask the driver to drop you off at Sakakibara's?"

"No thank you." Gakushuu said. "I'll be staying home tonight."

"Why do you want to do that?" The Chairman questioned. "I thought tonight of all nights you would be away from home."

"I think you need me around more." Gakushuu said, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

"Oh. And why is that?" The Chairman asked.

"You've never been good at loosing." Gakushuu replied, his eyes holding some strong unreadable emotion.

He was more astute that the Chairman gave him credit for; after all, not one hour ago he had tried to kill himself. He felt a sudden stab of guilt at that looking at his son in front of him. He hadn't even thought of Gakushuu when he'd done it, but here the boy was, after everything, still worried about him.

"I suppose I'm just not used to it." The Chairman said, looking out the window. Sensing the mood was darkening, Gakushuu spoke.

"Forget the court case. I'll forgive the whole thing if you buy me a steak. But it has to be a good one; A-Grade Kobe beef." He said, grinning.

"Well." The Chairman said. "That could be arranged."

This was a good thing, the Chairman told himself. He'd seen the error of his ways and Gakushuu hadn't cut him off.

But is that healthy? Something in his subconscious wondered. Is it normal for Gakushuu to run straight back to an abuser and only want food as way of an apology?

He shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind and simply enjoyed the moment.

Later that night, after they had eaten their steaks and they where waiting for the cheque, Gakushuu finally felt ready to talk about the important stuff.

It had been a nice evening with light conversation and good food. It was the first talk he'd had with his father in ages that didn't involve some sort of twisted lesson or tearing his identity to shreds.

He didn't want to break the spell cast over this evening where by some strange magic his father was actually being semi-nice to him. He just wanted to continue to bask in the easiness of it all. But he knew the spell had to be broken and the ugliness must be faced.

There was a lull in the conversation following his father's anecdote about his first day in American college. That was when Gakushuu struck.

"I'm not sure if this playing nice is just a tactic you're using to stop me from suing you now I have witnesses." Gakushuu said. "But I'm not going back to the way things where."

In his mind, he wanted to sound commanding and authoritative, but his words came out more like a desperate plea. Suddenly he his mind was filled with a hundred doubts and fears (He isn't going to take me seriously, I'm going to piss him off, I sound like a pathetic spoilt brat).

His father regarded him carefully with those almost-red eyes.

"I agree." He said simply. "I don't think our dynamic these past few months has been.. productive."

Well. That was probably the most sterile and professional way to put it.

"Not productive? That's an understatement." Gakushuu hissed, unable to help himself. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but his father almost looked guilty.

"If I'm so bad, why are you still here?" The Chairman asked. His tone wasn't accusing, more searching, like it was a genuine question he was trying to find the answer to.

"Because." Gakushuu said, looking down at the floor, red tinge to his cheeks. "You're still my Dad, aren't you?"

"Yes. I am." The man said, as if realising it for the first time himself.

"Well sometimes, I want you to be my Dad. Not just my teacher or my enemy." Gakushuu admitted. Forcing those words up wasn't easy; it went against all of his instincts. There was another pause where the two couldn't look at each other. Stepping out of the student teacher dynamic and into family was unfamiliar territory after all.

"You know, I've been a teacher pretty much all my life… so to speak.. I taught all my younger siblings to read before they started the first grade." The Chairman said, a wistful look in his eyes. "But being a father.. that was something that just didn't come naturally to me. Even before Ikeda… "

He trailed off.

"Ikeda?" Gakushuu questioned. The Chairman shook his head.

"That doesn't concern you." The Chairman said coldly. The look in his eyes told Gakushuu that further questioning could be dangerous.. even though he suddenly had a million things he wanted answering about this 'Ikeda'.

Another pause.

"Do you hate me?" Gakushuu asked. It's something he'd been wondering for a long time. His father frowned.

"No. Of course not." His father said.

"But sometimes it seems like you do; like you enjoy hurting me. Like nothing I ever do is good enough for you, because really it's me you don't like." Gakushuu said, feeling a sickening burn of shame as he voiced those pathetic, needy feelings buried deep inside of him. "You say I'm your first student, but you don't treat any of the other students like you treat me."

His father sighed, that guilty look returning once again.

"Sometimes love isn't straight forward." He said. "I wanted you to be unstoppable. I wanted to raise you to be so strong nothing in this world could ever hurt you. But I ended up being the one who hurt you."

Gakushuu looked down at the table, afraid if he looked up and met his fathers gaze the tears stinging his eyes would start to fall. His father loved him. For the first time ever he'd said it- or close enough. It left a warm glowing feeling in his chest to know that.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder with tenderness completely unfamiliar to him.

"What is it you want to change, Gakushuu?"

This is the happy ending that everyone always harps on about in storybooks, Gakushuu thought. His father really has really changed and everything will be better now.

Right?

Alert; this is not the end of the story.—- Still have a few more chapters to go. As much as I would like to end this with 'the Chairman had a change of heart and everything is good now', I don't think that would be very realistic or a very good message for the story.

Thanks for the reviews. Love to see what people think + it keeps me motivated to write.