You really can't help but see the worst in people.
There was really nothing that had prompted it or set you on the road of pessimism. The teasing might have been part of it. A little too clean, a little too soft spoken, a little too shy for young boy to be. But really, what kid didn't get roughed up a little when they were younger? It builds character.
Or something.
You could call it a gift, or a curse maybe, but people are just so terribly transparent to you.
The politician only does good to stroke his own ego, the stranger giving out candy is a child molester, the other kids only talk to you to copy your homework, people who attempt suicide are only looking for attention, the one who smiles the brightest has suffered the most, controlling types area almost always psychopaths, the quiet ones are usually evil—
Or maybe you're just imagining it.
Yeah.
Look for the small hopes you have to remind yourself. Or else you'll turn into Itoshiki-sensei.
You remember the first time you met your teacher. Itoshiki Nozomu… Zetsubou-sensei…
It all kind of went downhill from there.
Although you suppose not all of it was bad.
There was that time in the library.
Someone was throwing a general fit over Kudou, who was very pointedly not listening, and you had somehow gotten dragged into the conversation as the unfamiliar boy kept looking to you for agreement. Somehow that constituted friendship in the other boy's mind and he had always greeted you heartily in the hallways ever since.
That was how you met Kino.
Then there was that time in the gym.
Some kid ran into you, literally, and there is no way someone can fall like that accidentally. No way. And if that wasn't enough, that look, there is no word on earth that could have described that look except perverted.
No wait, depraved works pretty well too.
And that was how you met Haga.
