Smile, even when it hurts

“Listen,” the old man rasped, his voice brittle like dried leaves crushed beneath booted feet. “This world is not fair. It never was. But remember this—smile. Always help others, even when the world bares its fangs at you. Guard your goodness, boy. That’s all that makes you human.”
The little boy, Ryuji, gave a radiant grin — too pure for a world soaked in rot. “I promise, Grandpa. I’ll smile. I’ll help everyone… even if I have to fight the whole world.”
The old man smiled back, but it was a weary thing, drawn tight across decades of disappointment. He knew what Ryuji carried — the gift of seeing the rot behind a smile, the lies beneath kind words, the cruelty hiding in eyes, and the sorrow buried deep in a soul. “You have a gift. Use it. Maybe… just maybe… you’ll save someone with it.”
---
“DAMMIT!”
The mirror shattered beneath a bloodied fist, shards embedding in raw knuckles. Crimson rivulets slithered into the sink like serpents. Ryuji collapsed to his knees, sobbing under the flickering fluorescent gloom.
“I want to kill them…” he snarled, voice ragged, eyes manic and bloodshot. He stared at his mutilated hand—then it hit him.
“No… no…” A memory. A boy’s promise. “I’ll always smile… I’ll always help others…”
He forced his lips upward—a grotesque mockery of a smile. “Everything’s fine. Just a little longer… just a little longer...”
The phone rang. -Boss- flashed the caller ID.
He gripped it with trembling fingers. “HOW LONG ARE YOU GONNA STAY IN THE DAMNED TOILET? GET TO YOUR DESK, YOU WASTE OF SPACE!” The call cut.
Ryuji stared at the blood swirling in the sink. His reflection, fractured, looked less human and more ghost. “Just a little longer...” He washed his wounds and returned to fluorescent hell.
---
“Hey! Nakamura, you good, man?” A coworker. Bright-eyed. Clueless.
“I’m fine.” Ryuji’s lips peeled into that same smile. “Back to work.”
“Don’t burn yourself out. It’s already 11:30 PM!” The coworker laughed.
Ryuji sat at his desk—a rat in a corporate maze. No overtime pay. No escape.
A supervisor approached, chewing a cigar. “Here. Keys.” He tossed them carelessly. “Don’t leave until you’re done. Lock up.”
Ryuji caught them with a smile. “Gladly.”
“Tch.” The man sneered and walked off.
---
2:03 AM
Ryuji shut off the computer and leaned back, bones aching, eyes bloodshot.
"Alright, May-chan... I'm coming home with a gift today."He smiled as he unlocked his phone.His wallpaper: a four-year-old girl beaming with joy—his daughter, May
He glanced at the time. 2:03 AM.“I’ll be early next time,” he muttered, forcing a grin.
He stood, stretched, locked the office, and stepped into the lonely night.
Tokyo slept restlessly. The streets were nearly empty—just another neon graveyard.But Ryuji walked with purpose, clutching that smile like a shield.
He ducked into a 24-hour convenience store, bought a bag of chocolates, and checked his watch.2:23 AM.
“I am late!.”
He sprinted to the station, lungs burning.After some desperate searching, he found a station staffer.
“Excuse me! Sir!” he panted. “Any trains left for Kawaguchi?”
The man blinked, peering from his booth.“Kawaguchi? It’s almost 2:30, man. You’re too late. No trains till morning.”
He paused, then softened.“I get it… late shift? Overworked?” He sighed. “Sorry. I wish I could help.”
Ryuji nodded, shoulders heaving.“No, it’s fine. Thanks for being honest.”He bowed. “At least someone talks kindly.”
Then he turned and started walking—home, to Kawaguchi—on foot.No food. No water. No sleep.Just a bag of chocolates. Just a promise.
---
3:20 AM – At Home
"Mama, when will Papa come?" May asked, staring at the clock with wide eyes.
Her mother, Sayaka, looked exhausted. “He’ll be late again, sweetheart. Let’s go to bed.”
“No!” May pouted. “He promised he’d be home early tonight. I know he will!”
Sayaka crouched beside her, voice trembling. “May, please…”
“But Mama—”
“STOP!” she snapped. Her voice cracked. Tears welled up.
Mia flinched. “…Mama?”
Sayaka pulled her close.“I don’t know what he’s doing anymore… But I don’t want you to keep waiting for a man who keeps breaking your heart.”She sobbed into her daughter’s hair.“I just want you to be happy. That’s all.”
---
4:12 AM – Outside the House
Ryuji finally reached his home, gasping, soaked in sweat.
He grinned through the pain. “I made it, May-chan…”
He opened the door quietly. “I’m home.”
Silence.He tiptoed in and placed the chocolates on the table.Then he saw her—Mia, wide awake, sneaking out of the bedroom.
She ran toward him.“Papa!”
He dropped to his knees and hugged her tightly.
“I waited! I waited for you!” she said, teary-eyed but smiling.
“I know. I’m sorry.” He smiled. “But I brought you something.”He pointed to the chocolates. “Your favorite.”
Mia squealed and hugged him. “I love you, Papa!”
“You should sleep now, okay? School tomorrow.”
She nodded and ran back to bed.
Ryuji stood there, smiling to himself.Maybe… just maybe… it was worth it.
---
6:28 AM
Sunlight. Pain. A body that barely moved.Ryuji groaned and stumbled out of bed.
His wife stood in the kitchen.“Good morning,” he muttered.
She didn’t look at him.“Where were you?”
“I missed the train,” he said. “I walked home.”
Sayaka turned to face him. Her voice was trembling.“You do know you have a family, right?”
“I—”
“No. Shut up and listen!”Her voice cracked like glass. “Do you know how many nights she waited for you? How many times I lied to cover for you? You call yourself a father?”
“I’m trying!” Ryuji yelled back. “I’m killing myself out there just to keep you both smiling!”
“And we never asked for that!” she screamed.“She just wanted you to be there, Ryuji! Not work yourself into a corpse!”
She picked up the bag of chocolates and threw it across the room.
“These damn chocolates aren’t what she wanted. She wanted you. Her father.”
Mia peeked from her bedroom door—tiny, scared.“Mama… Papa…?”
Ryuji turned toward her, but Sayaka kept going.
“People think you’ve got another woman! They see you coming home late, always gone. You’re a ghost in your own house!”
He clenched his fists. “I’ve never cheated on you. You know I haven't.”
Her voice dropped to a cold whisper.“But I have.”
Ryuji froze.
“I was lonely,” she said. “And you weren’t there.”
A pause. A beat of silence so heavy it broke something inside him.
“…Then what the hell was I working for?” he whispered.
“You tell me,” she said, eyes wet. “You said this was for us. But we were never in your plans. Just ideas you were trying to protect.”
He stepped forward. “We can fix this. I know I’ve made mistakes, but—”
She recoiled.“No. I’m done. You want to work yourself to death? Fine. Do it alone.”
She walked to the door.
“Sayaka…” he called, hollow.
“I’ll file the papers tonight. You can keep your job. I’ll take Mia.”
Mia whimpered from behind the door. “Papa…”
Ryuji walked to her slowly and knelt down.
“I’m sorry, Mia… I tried. I really did.”He hugged her one last time.“You won’t see me again.”
--
The trial was swift. One accusation led to another, and before he could even speak, Ryuji was branded an abusive man.
The media swarmed him like vultures, spitting slander. Strangers on the street stared with contempt. His daughter was taken from him. His job was gone. His name, smeared.Even his own parents cut ties in disgust.
A man who had given his all—reduced to a monster in the eyes of the world.
There wasn't a soul left who pitied him.
At grocery stores, cashiers avoided eye contact. People kept their distance, whispering behind his back like he carried a disease.
“What a world,” he muttered, climbing the hill alone. “This world really is fucked up, isn’t it?”
And yet… he smiled.“Maybe I’ll be better off without it.”
At the hilltop stood a single sakura tree, its branches barren, its petals long since fallen.
“Aren’t you lonely too?” he asked, placing a hand against its trunk.
Below, the city moved on without him. People bustled about, unaware, uncaring.
He stepped up onto the railing.
No fear. Just quiet acceptance.
With a sigh, he pulled out a folded slip of paper and scribbled:
To the world—You won

He tucked the note into the crook of the tree’s bark.
As he raised his leg, ready to step off—
“Papa!”
A small voice rang out.
His heart stopped.But the motion was already in motion. Gravity didn’t wait for regrets.
He smiled faintly.“…This world be damned.”
Then—
He fell.
Time stretched. The world twisted. He felt no pain. No fear. No guilt.Just silence. Like sinking into the dark belly of the ocean.
No air. No screams.Only the abyss.
And then—He couldn’t breathe. Pain tore through him as black goo coiled around his body, swallowing light—swallowing thought.It forced its way into his mouth, oozed from his eyes and ears, and when it pierced his chest, his heart stopped. Then the real pain began.
Memories surged.
Every wound. Every betrayal. Every moment he had buried behind a smile. He saw it all—how much he had suffered, how he had hidden it from the world, from his own family. And for what? Nothing.
His fists clenched as the black ooze devoured him from the inside out. The memories kept coming, dragging him through agony he had long tried to forget.
“I’m done being nice,” he whispered, voice raw and trembling. “I want them to feel wrath—to feel pain no one else could ever understand.”
Then—
Everything vanished.
Until—
Birds chirped.
Eyes snapped open.Towering trees loomed above. Sunlight filtered through thick canopies. A foreign sky.
Whispers stirred from the forest around him.
His breath caught. His body tensed.
Where was he?Why was he here?And most of all…What would become of his daughter?