the MC made a little speech/warning to his mother about that re her currrnt shitty relationship, too, so you know the author understands that concept. But of course the MC began taking care of his shitty father anyway because, it's his father. Vomit.

Despite all their history, he cannot just walk away from alcoholic abusive drunkard father when he was tossed drunk into garbage. The father--who is given a breadth of depth just by the fact we Know he's been trying and seeing him from an adult's perspective, he's really just an unfortunate, cowardly, weak-willed man who even though he abused his son-- he does love his son and want the best future for him, and his son loves him. It's lovely to see this complexity not only here but also with his remarried mother, who he recalls only distantly because she abandoned him. It's bittersweet and a little heartbreaking to contrast how younger self vs MC have different relationships with their parents, and I think really such a strong theme to this story is parenthood--and the different people who raise us and how we transform to become the people we are.

Because we learn bits about him at a time just like MC, but it's such an appealing (the knife playing, the subtle moment in the car that MC observes, etc) because there's so much SHOWING rather than just telling (thank u writer bless u longevity) that shows up in bits and pieces as the story progresses. Again this duality of experiencing the people you saw before as a child vs. Now as an adult--different faces depending on the situation or people (not hypocritically, but you know, just like a reg person where you can't hope to know everything). Story is so good about the jarring juxtaposition, and the appeal for me is just that ML deliberately chooses to be KIND and so good to his students and not even being married in his fifties :"0 I wonder why and I just rly want MC and ML to get together I ship them so bad sksksksk