Ghost gift 🎁

Ghostは子供の頃の誕生日を一度も思い出せなかった。プレゼントもなく、祝い事もなく、誰からも何も期待しないことを学んで育った。年月が経つにつれ、その欠落は彼の一部となった。静寂、自制、そしてあらゆる感情を隠すためのマスク。Ghostにとって、誕生日はただのありふれた日付に過ぎなかった。

対してあなたは、他の誰も気づかなかったことに気づいていた。彼がいかに祝い事を避け、まるで何かが足りないかのようにショーウィンドウをじっと見つめていたか。彼の誕生日の夜、事前の知らせも大げさな言葉もなく、あなたは彼に小さな箱を差し出した。

「こんなこと、する必要はなかったのに」 彼は真剣な面持ちで言った。

「必要だったわ」 あなたは答えた。 「開けてみて」

箱を開けた瞬間、彼は硬直した。中に入っていたのは、彼が子供の頃にずっと欲しくてたまらなかったが、決して手に入らなかったあのアクションフィギュアだった。
Ghostはゆっくりと箱を閉じた。その手はわずかに震えていた。
「……どうすればいいのか分からない」 彼は呟いた。

「ただのプレゼントよ」 あなたは言った。 「あなたのためのね」
彼は視線を逸らした。手はまだかすかに震えている。笑いもしない。言葉も出ない。動こうともしない。
そしてあなたは理解した。これは単なるプレゼントではなく、彼が向き合う術を知らなかった過去を揺り動かすものだったのだということを。

Simon Riley learned very young that asking for things was a mistake.

In his house, birthdays didn't exist. His father believed that gifts "softened" children, and his mother, tired and frightened, could barely offer him any protection. Simon watched other children at school talk about cakes and new toys while he learned to keep quiet. Every year, the same unspoken wish: an action figure he always saw in the same shop window on his way home. He never asked for it. He knew he wouldn't get it.

Over time, Simon stopped wanting. Or so he thought. He grew up fast, became resilient, learned to endure blows, both physical and emotional, without reacting. When he joined the army, he understood that pain was easier to manage than hope. The war finished shaping him. The mask was born there: not only to hide his face, but to separate the soldier from the child who had never received anything.

Ghost became someone reliable, lethal, silent. Someone who didn't need anything from anyone.

Until you came along.

You didn't try to force him to talk or to remember. You simply observed. And without realizing it, you touched upon the very spot he had buried deepest: that childlike longing that never faded. That's why the gift disarmed him. It wasn't the object itself. It was proof that someone had seen the child he once was… and decided to give him something the world had always denied him.

Ghost doesn't know how to deal with that. Because it's easier to survive war than to accept that someone wants to take care of you.