It's one thing to get depressed and emotionally broken by stories about suicide, rape, bullying, and cheating. These are generally recognized as typical cases where it's not that hard to empathize with the emotions involved.
But the story here resonated with me in such a degree that I'm a blubbery mess by the end of chapter 8. Not everyone can fully contemplate the gravity of emotions involved in this story. Four classmates that betray you one after the other after treating each one decently. I daresay not many people know how it feels to open up your heart only for the other person to stab it, and this happens multiple times. Then a stepmom and a stepsister that refuses to believe your side. Nowhere to run to, no friend at school, no family at home. You'd think anger would be his primary motivation. But no. The emotion he has here is terror, and I feel that. He's afraid of doing... anything, of saying anything to anyone, hence his overly formal speech patterns.
The story also shows the ugly truth that sometimes, the apologies we make are really to make ourselves feel better. It's incredibly insulting.
I get that people think this is an exaggeration, and yes it is. But what they don't get is that a lot of stories are an exaggeration. It's called a premise. You're supposed to buy the initial premise and take it at face value. You're not supposed to overanalyze and reject the premise from the onset. Otherwise, you might as well not bother reading stories at all.
If you do read this with the intention of trying to genuinely relate to the MC, if this doesn't break you by the eighth chapter, then you have serious empathy problems. To the author, thanks.
