Silent Resilience

Konoha's Pawn

Out of the three jobs he applied to, Adriel managed to get one of them.

It was the job at the pool desk; he was simply to sit there after school and tick off names in a log for four hours. Combined with school and his job at the library, his schedule just got even more packed.

He would wake up at around 4:00 am to get ready for his morning shift at the library. He would work from 4:45-8:30, then go rushing to school which started at 8:45. Adriel felt a little guilty for ditching Haruhi like this, but since they came from different directions, the two scholarship students didn't walk to school together anymore.

School would run until 3:30 pm. During lunch break and in between classes, he rushed to finish his homework so that he wouldn't need to do it later. Apart from just classwork, he also needed to finish the writing prompts that kept him in the scholarship program. Honey and Mori, who now bought him lunch everyday, raised their brows wherever Adriel would pull out his notebook during lunch. Still, they knew better than to try and interrupt the working boy, who was already looking way too stressed to be alive.

The second the bell rang at the end of the day, Adriel would rush to put on his shoes and leave the school. It was during this time he felt the most pressured for time, since he still needed to wait for the hallways to quiet down before leaving. But after a few minutes of pacing around nervously, he would mad-dash to the community pool to his second job. There was no more need to wait for Haruhi , since they didn't walk home together anymore anyways. There, at the pool, he would work from 3:50-6:00.

At 6:00 pm, he would have the chance to go home and change. Adriel would walk to try and preserve his energy, not wanting to pass out on the way there. Normally on the walk back, he would count the money he earned and try to plan out the next few days accordingly. He could still use those old, shortening pencils...

At home he would have a small dinner. Then, with about 15 minutes left, he would prepare for his second shift at the library. From 7:15-10:00, he would work, barely awake and on the verge of nodding off. By the time he was finished working, Adriel would sleepily trudge home, one foot after the other.

He would go home and count the bills again, making more calculations in his head until 11:30. Then, he would lie down on his bed and try to fall asleep, staring up at the popcorn ceiling and hoping to pass out. The restlessness of the day made this difficult; he would toss and turn for hours before falling into a light rest, usually at around 2:30 am.

Then, he would sleep for a few hours before being awakened by his phone alarm. Then, he would repeat the same process again, functioning on fewer and fewer hours of sleep with each restless night.

This grueling schedule was one that Adriel followed for around three days. It was earning him more money, yes, but it was slowly tearing him down in the same way. He grew more reserved, more paranoid, the more he calculated the costs in his head. The host club seemed to notice this, constantly asking if he were alright. To which, Adriel simply nodded with a shaky smile.

He felt a bit guilty at this, the way he treated his friends. Adriel wasn't stupid; he knew he was growing distant. With so many things on his plate, and so little time, he counted the hours in a day and there just weren't enough to reciprocate the energy his friends gave him.

It was as though there was a wall isolating him from the rest of the world. Except, it wasn't a wall. It was his brain, telling him he was doing everything wrong, but also never telling him what was right or how to get there. What else was he supposed to do, other than fuck up everything for everyone?

It was frustrating. None of Adriel's friends knew what was bothering the tan male. Not even Kyoya. All of Adriel's background info and his records were locked for some reason, which the bespectacled male understood now. For safekeeping purposes, he reasoned.