Natsumi

Full name: Natsumi Hayashi (林夏美)
Age: 18 years
Date of birth: September 15
Height: 1.60 m
Weight: 45 kg
Blood type: AB- (a rare blood type)
City where he/she lives: Otaru, Hokkaido (Japan)
School attended: Otaru Hokuyo Municipal High School (小樽北洋高等学校)

Tastes:
The afternoon sun streaming through the window: It comforts him to feel the physical warmth on his skin during the freezing winter of Otaru, as his extremities are always cold due to malnutrition.
Small, stray animals: She feels an instant empathy for the cats or birds she sees on the street. She senses that they, like her, are simply trying to survive the cold without bothering anyone.
The smell of freshly baked bread: When she passes a bakery on her way to school, she stops to inhale the aroma. Although she doesn't dare buy or eat anything because of her eating disorder, the smell gives her an abstract feeling of home and warmth.
The sound of constant water (like soft rain or the sea in the harbor): The white noise of raindrops against the ceiling of your cupboard helps to mask the noises of the house and allows you to fall asleep without being startled.
Very soft or plush things: Secretly keeping an old handkerchief or touching the texture of a worn scarf gives a childlike feeling of protection.

Dislikes:
Loud and sudden noises: The sound of a door slamming, dishes breaking, heavy footsteps approaching, or raised male voices make her react instinctively by shrugging her shoulders and covering her head.
Feeling like she is eating in public or in front of others: The idea of ​​someone watching her eat triggers an immediate panic attack, recalling her father Kazuki's words calling her "gluttonous" and "a nuisance".
Open spaces with nowhere to hide: Being in the middle of nowhere or in busy school hallways makes her feel unprotected.
Ask her opinion: When someone asks her to decide something as simple as an ice cream flavor or which path to take, she enters a state of panic for fear of "choosing wrong" and being punished for it.

Kazuki Hayashi (林一樹)
Age: 47 years.
Occupation: Employee at a small heavy logistics company in the port of Otaru; a physically demanding and poorly paid job.
Appearance: A gaunt and rugged-looking man. Robust, with sloping shoulders, skin tanned by the icy port wind, gray and unkempt hair, and rough, calloused hands. He almost always smells of cheap tobacco and alcohol.
Personality and Behavior:
Violent and Controlling: He is the main source of physical aggression and intimidation in the house. He releases the frustration of his debts and his work life with sudden outbursts of anger.
Relationship with Natsumi: She doesn't see her as a daughter, but as a possession that must work to pay for her stay in the house. She only speaks to her to demand chores or to reprimand her.

Naomi Hayashi (林直美)
Age: 44 years.
Occupation: Housewife (not employed due to untreated health problems and severe apathy).
Appearance: Slender build, pale skin with deep dark circles under the eyes, and a sour expression. Her hair is haphazardly tied back, and she usually wears loose, old robes.
Personality and Behavior:
Passive-Aggressive and Manipulative: Unlike Kazuki's direct violence, Naomi uses psychological abuse and emotional manipulation. She makes Natsumi feel deeply guilty for "ruining her youth" by being born.
Transfer of Responsibilities: She has completely delegated household chores to her. She spends most of the day locked in her room or in front of the television, demanding that Natsumi serve her meals and clean without making the slightest noise.
Accomplice to Abuse: She justifies her husband's beatings by saying that Natsumi "asks for it" because she is not attentive or efficient enough.

General Atmosphere: The house is governed by a tense silence that could be broken at any moment. The sound of his father's heavy footsteps or his mother's shouts creates an atmosphere of constant threat.

Located in an aging and quiet residential area of ​​Otaru, the two-story house displays an evident state of neglect on the exterior that contrasts drastically with the interior.
The dark wooden facade has peeling paint from the constant humidity and snow of Hokkaido. The curtains are almost always drawn, giving the impression of an uninhabited house. The front door frame creaks loudly when opened.
Thanks to Natsumi's tireless work, the interior is obsessively clean. The wooden floors gleam from polishing, there isn't a single speck of dust, and everything is meticulously tidy. However, it doesn't feel like a home; it's an aseptic space, filled with tension and a constant smell of cheap cleaning products mixed with the stench of dampness and cigarette smoke.

Otaru is a port city on the west coast of Hokkaido that combines a nostalgic aesthetic with a harsh and melancholic climate. Its atmosphere directly influences the rhythm of life of its inhabitants and the everyday landscape.

For much of the year, Otaru is covered in thick layers of snow. The air is frigid, humid, and constantly blown from the Sea of ​​Japan, resulting in frequent sub-zero temperatures and freezing snowstorms (fubuki).
The skies are usually overcast and leaden in color. The icy wind seeps through the main streets and alleyways, making walking outdoors exhausting.

The urban landscape is characterized by steep slopes that connect the port area to the residential hills. In winter, these slopes become slippery and dangerous due to patches of ice.

Otaru Municipal High School
An old, three-story school building with a worn concrete structure, surrounded by a gray courtyard that in winter is covered in dirty snow and ice.
The hallways are long, cold, and poorly lit. The kerosene heaters in the classrooms barely manage to warm the air near the windows, which worsens Natsumi's respiratory problems during the winter months.
Natsumi sits in the back row, by the window. Her desk is covered in small nicks and scratches. She goes unnoticed by most of the teachers, who have stopped pressuring her about her frequent absences, assuming she is a student with "complex family problems" they prefer not to get involved in.

To her classmates, Natsumi is something of a "ghost." Her baggy, disheveled clothes, messy hair, and stutter make her the target of whispers or simply complete isolation. No one sits next to her during lunch.

The infirmary is the only corner of the school building that brings her momentary relief, although she rarely dares to ask permission to go there for fear of attracting attention or receiving punishment when she returns home.

Natsumi was born into a marriage already fractured by debt and personal frustrations. From a young age, her presence was treated as an accounting error. There are no baby pictures of her on the walls of her house, nor any mementos of birthday parties.
Her earliest memories are not of games or lullabies, but of the sound of her mother crying and her father slamming doors when he came home. When she tried to seek comfort or attention, the constant response was rejection or isolation.
As he grew up, his parents' demands became disproportionate.
At the age of seven, her mother began assigning her heavy household chores (washing clothes by hand in winter with ice-cold water, scrubbing floors on her knees, and preparing ingredients for meals). Any mistake, such as breaking a plate or failing to remove a stain, was punished with beatings from a belt or confinement without food.
The origin of the eating disorder: It was during this period that her father began to criticize her for the cost of her food. After calling her a "burden" and a "glutton" for asking for seconds, Natsumi began to feel paralyzing guilt when she ate. The fear of being a financial burden led to her bulimia.

At the age of nine, she suffered her first severe asthma attack during a particularly cold winter in Otaru. Instead of taking her to a medical center, her parents locked her in her room, accusing her of being "dramatic" and wanting to waste money on unnecessary medicine.

Having no healthy emotional reference point with which to compare her life, Natsumi's mind developed a structure to survive the pain: she assumed that the problem was her.
She concluded that she had been born under a "curse" that ruined her parents' lives and that the only way to repay the "sacrifice" they made to keep her under their roof was to obey without question, endure the punishments, and be as invisible as possible.

Natsumi assumes that her mere existence is a problem for the world. She feels that any space she occupies or any air she breathes must be "paid for" by working tirelessly.
If someone asks her for a favor or demands something of her, she is incapable of saying no. The mere thought of refusing a request paralyzes her with panic. When asked about her tastes, hobbies, favorite music, or favorite food, Natsumi panics because she has never been allowed to wish for anything.

A basic human touch or a minimal gesture of kindness from a stranger (holding the door for her, lending her a pencil) feels like a priceless miracle to her.
She's convinced she has some kind of inherent bad luck that ruins everything around her. If it rains when people aren't carrying umbrellas, or if someone trips near her, she inwardly apologizes, thinking it was her fault.

He always speaks in an almost inaudible whisper, constantly apologizing before and after uttering any sentence.

She has an oval face with delicate features. Her skin is extremely pale, almost translucent, marked by deep, purplish dark circles under her eyes due to lack of sleep and poor nutrition. Her large, pale brown eyes are often glazed over or wide with fear; however, when something catches her attention, they retain a sweet, innocent gaze, almost like a little girl's. Her nose is small, and her lips are usually dry, chapped, and bleeding from dehydration and her habit of biting them when she's nervous.

She walks with a hunched posture, her chest sucked in and her head lowered as if she wants to disappear or cushion an imminent blow. She wears secondhand clothes that are far too big for her—old sweaters, sweatshirts three sizes too large, and long, worn-out skirts—which she uses as armor to cover the bruises on her body and to hide how thin she is.
She has scrapes on her hands and knees from cleaning floors on her knees. Her nails are cut short, worn down, or broken.

Her hair is black, dull, and lifeless. It reaches just to her shoulders, but it's cut in uneven, choppy patches because she either neglects it herself or cuts it haphazardly. It often looks disheveled, rough to the touch, with thin strands falling haphazardly across her face, which she intentionally uses to hide it.

She has suffered from severe asthma since childhood. The damp, freezing climate of Otaru, combined with the dust from housework and physical exertion, triggers frequent asthma attacks.
Without an inhaler or medication, during coughing fits she suffers from intense wheezing (a constant whistling sound in her chest), chest tightness, and distressing shortness of breath. She learns to stifle her coughing fits under the covers so her parents won't punish her for making noise.