By Spring - Vol. 2 Ch. 9 - It’s hard being poor

[Cloverfieldo]

Time to learn russian

 

[GuitarLegend]

@Cloverfieldo or give us a week for next chapter hahaha

 

[cheetah160841]

"I bet he is taking a dump disgusting"
This triggers me so much.
The fuck is his on about? He said it like he never took a dump in his life before.

 

[SleepyAbra]

Omg I’m surprised how sane Souta is. Considering all the bullying and guilt trips his mom takes him on. You would think he would have some sort of outburst.

 

[triforce]

Man what issues does those "adults" have? Just leave the real man alone to allow him to finish up a real job. Smh. 😤

 

[karasong]

I can't read the mother at all, but she is clearly best girl.

 

[GeneralOuki]

The average age in here must be low, too much lack of empathy in this comment section. The mom is already having a hard time to pay rent and put food on the table for both herself and her son. She has to go into prostitution just to be able to make enough to sustain themselves. She wants her son to help her out just so they can survive, and its not a bad idea either to teach your kid early on how to make money. Yeah i know, kids should be allowed to have free time and play, but life is unfair and thats the reality of the situation they live in right now.

 

[ch0si]

@GeneralOuki But the mother's motivation for giving souta a job is to keep him from playing around, not poverty. She doesn't give him a lot of money for the same reason. It's all just to keep souta to be her idealized version of a 'good man'.

 

[Airwave2k2]

@ScrewYouTakenUsername "I think it's more like that for reasons yet unknown she doesn't want him to have that much money on him" - I guess reason will be revealed in some backstory after the climax in a search of himself or something.
Well I said MC would run, but he could also snap and blow of the built up steam or he does in fact break and has to be rescued by the not better of heroine? So there are many paths the story can climax. Hopefully we get more of this angst and suffocating atmosphere. Author-san is so far on a nice way.

 

[Mephyy]

@Nitrorare

Fuck off Incel. Take your garbage words with you.

 

[Trashtaste69]

@Mephyy

Just like him you are just throwing buzzwords around.

 

[GeneralOuki]

@ch0si I think its fair that she wants him to use his free time to help her out instead of "playing with cats". They don't really have much money to begin with so its totally understandable that she's barely giving him any allowance. As for wanting Souta to be a "good man", my guess is that she just doesn't want him to be like his father who probably left them (NTR?).

 

[stilgar]

@GeneralOuki she didn't get him a job just so he can help out with living expenses, she got him that job so he would have to be home immediately after school and have to spend all day at home. It is to control him and make him wholly dependent on her as his only form of emotional support. If he would have been coming home right away she would not have gotten him a job. But now because of it he will be completely isolated. She is not a good mother or a good person and no matter what the reason for her actions will make up for what she has done to her own son

 

[Buraindo]

aaaaagh, this one is eating at me just because it's one of the situations i always feared while growing up, thankfully never got that bad but damn

 

[Khansolo]

Holy shit, I don’t want the teach getting involved cause I feel like he might make a home visit and get involved with the mom.

 

[Tamerlane]

This poor kid (literally.)

His "reward" is less than what people in sweatshops make. (For comparison, average earnings in Vietnam are $.26/Hour and in Bangladesh it's $.13/hour on average.) For making $0.73. (So he got 1 hour of pay)

Making 1 yen per capsule, his mom gets 80 to 100 yen (let's say his hourly wage is 90 by averaging the two out.)

So, considering how we know he worked from the time he got home at around 3:30 to Midnight consistently at this rate, he had 8 and a half hours of work per day as a conservative estimate. (We know he worked on them at school and the like.)

So as a lowball estimate, his mom got 2,295 Yen. In reality, likely a little bit more but it's about $23 bucks. (90 balls/1hour x 1 Yen/1 Ball x 8.5 hours/day x 3 days) For 8.5 hours of work a day. He got less than that for doing most of it. His hourly rate is more like 3.13725490196 Yen. So yeah, he's making less than someone in a sweatshop does. Hell, he's making less because even some the sources say that the lowest some can earn is about 3 cents and hour and he's earning $0.029 an hour being generous. As a minor. When his mother is probably at least making 100,000 Yen an hour as a prostitute. @Stickerparty @blablablub @Alfredzex @Mirzak007

She shows all the signs of having a Jocasta complex, as I posted on last chapter. Pity MC because he's probably going to be assaulted and probably will contract some venereal disease at this rate from his own mom. @justforthelulz

Also, who harassing someone for having the shits is not only a dick move, but a really weird thing to do in general, but these are middle school bullies so they probably have an IQ ranging in the room temperature.

"Home visit" might have other implications. Especially if he was one of her customers... @Khansolo


THAT'S THE POINT. The tragedy of his character is that he's so poor and mistreated/neglected by everyone around him that the closest thing he can get to a healthy, meaningful relationship is by giving a couple of cents to a random high school girl for some small amount of skinship because everyone else in his life wants to use him, abuse him, or treat him as an object that is rightfully theirs in the case of Yuri and his mother. It's meant to show how desperate he is for the most basic level of human empathy and connection. Hell, the closest thing he has to a friend is an old man that gives him porno mags and pays his mother to have sex with him. It's meant to be pitiful and sad. @Nitrorare

 

[justforthelulz]

@Tamerlane
MC's Mom is clearly committing 'covert incest' aka 'emotional incest', which ironically (and thankfully for our MC's dwindling sanity) does not involve actual incest.

Covert incest is described as occurring when a parent is unable or unwilling to maintain a relationship with another adult and forces the emotional role of a spouse onto their child instead.
The child's needs are ignored and instead the relationship exists solely to meet the needs of the parent and the adult may not be aware of the problems created by their actions.

Of course, that she may also be harboring a Jocasta Complex is entirely possible, given the slippery slope that is emotional (co)dependency.

 

[Tamerlane]

I think that's what is so insidious about the relationship.

The job isn't for the money, it's just a cover. What she really wants is him to be alone with her in the house and so she can have him all to herself and not have to worry about the "corrupting" influence of the other men outside or for him to get ideas about other women.

She earns more money from her other two "jobs" than she does from this one. It's such a small amount of money that it's basically worthless. It's clear she's just trying to keep him from spreading his wings.

Kinda reminds me of what happens to Pink in The Wall where after his father died, his mother became overly protective and sheltered him which is what ended up transforming him from a sexually repressed teenager into an adult who basically exploded and ended up having major emotional issues because of it. @justforthelulz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX3uCuFKlqw

 

[Astronema]

Yuri is another can of worms that haven't been opened up yet. Just wait.

 

[WeeBDestroyer]

@Tamerlane i read your comments... never thought of it that way....i´d like to see more off your constructive comments next time