As Gakushuu stands in front of the chairman's office, only one thing pops into his mind:

He has never paid attention to how intricately carved the door to the room is.

Of course, he knew that the man commissioned one specially to be made to his own taste, with high-quality walnut wood imported all the way from the United States. He found it quite peculiar back then, for the man to be blowing money on a seemingly mundane object. Still, Gakushuu supposes this is yet another way of his to display power and wealth, a sign that whatever and whoever sat behind this door was not to be taken lightly.

So yes, he was aware of this single valuable piece of... furniture. But to say he has ever stopped to marvel at the creation would be a stretch. Truthfully, he never had the opportunity or reason to – the only times he stood in front of the door were when he was asked for and in those cases, he headed right in, unwilling to spend even a second longer than necessary in the chairman's vicinity.

Yet now, while Gakushuu was waiting for the man to call him in after the mess involving Karma, he had no other option but to focus on the delicate carvings. He traces the shapes and analyses the techniques used, he imagines the hands that were working on them. It calms him down a bit which is great, really, because it's probably the only thing stopping him from violently trashing the whole hallway.

No, seriously. It's not like all of this is just a random thought he got. It's the only thing he can afford to be occupied by at the moment because honestly, if even a fly lands on the strawberry blond at this point and breaks his already fragile composure, he might kick down said door (which would be an incredible shame) and charge right in to tackle the principal while spewing genuine death threats.

Bloody hell, why did the man even tell him to follow him in the first place if he was going to let him wait in front of the office for ten minutes?! Gakushuu needed to go to the hospital and stay with Karma. He has no time to wait for his father to finish doing whatever the fuck he is doing and for him to... what? Give Gakushuu a lecture about ending up second in the exams? Hiding his younger brother's existence for years? For him to play dirty mind games and manipulate him? All of the above?

"You may come in, Asano-kun,"

Fucking finally, the strawberry blond curses, opening the door. He makes little effort to hide the irritation he is currently feeling, de facto adding it to the coldness of his gaze.

"You may sit," his father offers which surprises the boy, since he's never been asked to sit. Their interactions were kept brief and he intended to stick to that rule.

"I don't plan on staying long," Gakushuu declares, not moving from his spot.

The chairman seems unfazed and only insists: "If you're worried about Karma-kun, he's already reached the central hospital and is in good hands," then, he nods towards the phone on his desk: "I personally made sure of that just of now."

That has done absolutely nothing to reassure the boy. If he may say, it's even more worrying to know that his father got involved, especially considering the fact that he is well-connected with some pretty influential people. And hospital directors would probably be one of them.

"That's one scary look you're giving me, Asano-kun. Haven't I taught you before that showing your emotions only creates an opening for others to take advantage of?"

He says it lightly, with a facile smile and the absurdity of it all absolutely vexes the strawberry blond. Here his father was, not only sitting complacently in his chair with seemingly no care in the world but also lecturing Gakushuu about feeling agitated or god forbid clutched about his own younger brother's well-being. Was this man a human? Did he have absolutely no remorse, not even a drop of human emotion in himself? Not even for his own damn family?

"What's your goal? Why did you see Karma yesterday?" Gakushuu demands, completely ignoring Gakuho's reprimand.

The principal leaves those questions unanswered yet his eyes remain fixated on the boy. The silence stretches on until Gakushuu runs out of patience and presses further:

"Is this what you wanted? Him out of the picture? You must be so elated about how this turned out, huh? Having the students do the dirty work for you."

Still, his father doesn't react.

Why? What game is he playing?

"You may not give a single damn about him but I do. And I'm not going to stand and watch if you try to touch even a hair-"

"Asano-kun," the chairman finally speaks up and it's sharp and cold like shards of ice. The unwavering smile he previously wore slips and Gakushuu's struck by the crack in his father's mask.

Silence befalls them again and the tension feels brittle, a bowstring one graze away from snapping.

Then, his father asks the most random and ridiculous thing out of nowhere:

"Do you remember what your brother's favourite book was as a child?"

Puzzled, Gakushuu only frowns. He does recall that they used to be read to but as to what exactly, well, what was the point in remembering that?

"It was The fox and the rabbit," the man answers without a beat. "A story about two seemingly adverse animals becoming friends over time. He loved it so much that he used to ask for it every night while you complained about it. You were fed up with hearing the same thing over and over again."

Gakushuu doesn't have any recollection of that. Taken aback by those words, the strawberry blond searches for any clue as to what the chairman's aim in this anecdote was. Yet the man's face remains stoic as he recounts the past:

"One day, the book disappeared and simultaneously, your brother stopped asking for it. At first, I thought you chewed him out and hid the book, but you were quite a good and tolerant child and even a better older sibling. And for the most part, you complied with his demands. If anything, he was the one more likely to do something like that. So I searched and I found it under his mattress. Turns out he learnt to read in secret and flipped through the book by himself in order to not bother you. He was barely four back then. Can you imagine that?"

He doesn't remember that. While the story itself was intriguing, Gakushuu's more taken aback by how tenderly his father told it. Before the boy could even utter a word, Gakuho carries on:

"You started speaking at 10 months old and quickly started forming sentences too, which was in fact very impressive, but we didn't know that back then. So we expected your brother to do so as well. But he took longer, 14 months to be exact, and we were so worried that we tried everything to help him. Then, one day as I was pointing and naming objects around the room and exaggeratedly pronouncing every syllable, he put his little hand over my mouth and said 'Please stop. It's weird.' He went from mute to exasperatedly telling me to shut up. Your mother didn't believe me for a week, that was until he told her that he doesn't like the yoghurt she made. She screamed and dropped the bowl, by the way."

Gakushuu stares in shock, at a loss for words. He never heard of this. He never knew when he or Karma started talking, let alone about their parents' efforts and worries. His father was anything but sentimental and never brought up the past or their mother. To witness him do so now caused an uncomfortable pressure to build up his throat and it threatens to spill into something pathetic like a sob.

Then, the principal does something even more uncharacteristic. He calls Gakushuu by his first name, despite being at school, despite the fact that it was the man himself who established that distance between them: "You seem to be greatly misunderstanding something, Gakushuu-kun. Do you think I would keep those kinds of memories of someone I felt indifferent about?"

He doesn't know.

"Everything I do is in order to make my students stronger and help them build a brighter future. My students - and even more so my children."

That... he realizes... well, somewhere deep inside. Because, in a way, his father was right. Gakushuu did become stronger. His future shined brighter than anyone else's, all thanks to the way he was brought up. In his own twisted way, this could have been Gakuho's proof of care. Is that what care (or god forbid, love) meant to his father? The strawberry blond found that hard to believe, despite the implications behind the stories he told. After all, the methods practised to reach that point of excellence were merciless, sans any compassion. The word love did not belong there.

Yet, the man keeps on breaking every single notion Gakushuu has about his father: "So to answer your question, I visited Karma-kun to invite him to class A and allow him to be with you. No need to keep your relations secret or to stay apart. He's my son too, even if he doesn't want it."

Out of everything the strawberry blond expected to hear, this wasn't one of them... But when he thinks back on the conversation he and Karma had before being interrupted, the word "transfer" did drop.

Gakushuu digs the nails into his palms in an attempt to calm the whirl of thoughts in his head. "How did you find out?" He starts from the beginning.

At that, his father looks amused: "You disappeared for a whole night after the sports festival. Do you think I wouldn't notice? Or wonder where you stayed? After that, I just needed to look deeper into the reasons for your absence. Your lies are good, Asano-kun, but you gravely underestimate my awareness of you. I'd know that your intensive library study sessions were in fact a farce because you haven't studied in libraries since you gained popularity and couldn't shake your female classmates off. Or that your eating out in the evenings till 10 pm was a lie, because the place you like to frequent closes at 9."

"How do you know-" the boy gasps, eyes wide in disbelief. He never told his father about his favourite restaurant or about disliking libraries. Honestly, he didn't think the man would even care, let alone notice those facts.

"How would I not? I have to admit though, your texting codes were quite a challenge. I tried to run every decoding system I knew but it didn't work, only fried your phone," the chairman shrugs.

Ah. So that's why his phone has been unusable.

"I was going to call you in, regardless of what happened. Both you and Karma-kun, actually, because I expected him to come over today to talk to you." The man confesses.

"Really? And did you expect the students you brainwashed to attack him too?" Gakushuu snaps, accusation seeping through.

At that, the man's expression turns back to frigid and all the traces of tenderness disappear as if the whole conversation they had over the last ten minutes never happened in the first place.

"I'll make sure to take care of that problem. Can't have students disrupting the hierarchy and laying hands on the number one student, can we?" The principal jabs at him. "Not to mention how they faired in the exams. And you. I'm quite disappointed that you placed second, Asano-kun. It's a disgrace. Nevertheless, it won't be an issue. As long as it's an Asano and a class A student at the top, the rest doesn't matter."

Those words immediately ring an alarm in Gakushuu's head. An Asano and a class A student? Karma was neither. Well, the former may be, theoretically speaking, but no one knew that.

"What do you mean?" the strawberry blond demands, dread etching into his bones.

And rightfully so, because his father puts on the fabricated smile that Gakushuu has seen countless times and considers an omen to look out for, a precursor to a scheme that no one can counter.

"In a week or so, your brother will be returning to our family." Shivers run down his spine, as he hears the man explain. "The adoption application is in the process of being approved and after that happens, his surname will once again be Asano. He can keep the made-up first name, it actually grew on him. But with that, he'll be enrolled into class 3-A under my authority as both his legal guardian and the chairman of this school."

Gakushuu bolts towards his father's desk and slams both hands on it: "You can't do that, even if you have ties in the court, you can't. Mother got custody of him. His legal guardians are the Akab-"

Neither the gesture nor the objections faze the chairman: "Yes, she did, didn't she? And what portion of his childhood was she part of? Where is she now?" he inquires, brows arched in a wretched curiosity. "Where are the Akabane elderly couple he's supposedly staying with? Definitely not at home looking after him - an underaged boy. That's called neglect, wouldn't you agree? In Japan where children are greatly treasured, this is considered a form of child abuse, which warrants the loss of custody, at the very least."

It's not even the fact that Gakuho knew so much that jars him, or that he's been arranging all of that behind their backs for who knows how long, but rather the condemnation in his tone that sounds too genuine. The strawberry blonde's resolution falters because his father was right - even Gakushuu has had that thought before and criticized his mother for her lack of accountability for Karma. All those years he had to worry about his little brother alone in the house, of sneaking out to check on him and help where he could... how could he deny that?

Seeing the crack, his father doesn't relent: "Had your brother stayed with us, he wouldn't have had to endure years of abandonment. He wouldn't have strayed from his path and taken such a rebellious turn."

"He wouldn't like it. He wouldn't be happy," Gakushuu opposes, though even that is brushed off with ease.

"Maybe he wouldn't, that's on him to decide," the man admits. "But he wouldn't be alone. Say, Asano-kun, have you ever felt destitute or displaced in my household? Have you ever felt like you were left to fend for yourself? With no safety net to fall on?"

It scares him that when he actually thinks about the answer to those questions, it reads No. Their home was disunited, the two of them barely a family, but Gakushuu would be lying if he said he didn't find a sense of rapport, maybe even support in that relationship. Prior to the discourse regarding the E-class this year, he actually shared many opinions and values with the man. And throughout his youth, no matter how harsh the path, he didn't achieve his successes in spite of the chairman - he did so because of him.

"Don't you think your brother deserves the same?"

Defeated, Gakushuu retreats from where he previously slammed his hands, taking a few steps back. He knows this isn't right but no matter what he says, his father counterpoints him. Besides, the strawberry blond isn't even entirely sure of what he should fight for anymore.

Isn't this actually all he wanted? For him and Karma to be together, an actual family that didn't have to hide and lie in fear of being exposed? In fact, isn't that what his little brother yearned for too? Acceptance? He surely hasn't learnt about the things Gakushuu heard from their father just a while ago either, but when he does - what would he say? Would he be that opposed to being taken in?

The principal finally moves from his seat and stands up, turning his back to the boy. He gazes at the view out of the window and Gakushuu recognizes that with this, their conversation is over. "You're dismissed, Asano-kun. Return to your class, I'll pay a visit to other classes first and then follow up with yours to properly educate you and your peers. And after we're done there, then you can go visit your brother." The man says, at last, his words absolute.

The strawberry blond grits his teeth, despair flaying him to the bone. He leaves the room and walks the familiar route to his class on autopilot. The tears welling up in his eyes threaten to spill as he wonders, is there even anything he can do at this point? Could he, a mere fifteen-year-old teenager lacking knowledge of the legal processes even stop such a complicated matter as child custody?

And more importantly, should he?


Ayee this chapter was actually kinda tricky to write because I didn't want to stray too much from canon Gakuho (and his ruthlessness) but at the same time needed to convey that in his own, twisted, very-difficult-to-see way, he cares a lot for the boys. They may not be aware of that love (though the thought did cross their minds, they just don't want to believe it) but for Gakuho, actions speak louder than words and he doesn't need to be understood or acknowledged by them, as long as it grants them a good life.

Unexpected? Maybe. But it's not exactly untrue either because we know that his philosophy was born out of grief and as WandaVision once so nicely said - What is grief, if not love preserving?

Next update: Sunday 2nd July, because I am stressed, depressed, lemon zest.