Love Came With Terms of Services

August Lenor, an emotionless perfectionist who strives to make other people proud. An overthinker who believed that their loved ones no longer love them. All August ever wanted to do was to make their parents proud.

They stayed up underneath the midnight sky to study, knowing damn well it wasn't just because they wanted to get full marks on tests all the time. It was all a distraction to escape reality. Organized notes. Pens. Papers. Everywhere. They were going to make their parents proud, and they know it. They were going to be the valedictorian of their graduation year, and they know it. They will do everything within their power to make them proud.

"You're so smart," they all say. And August truly believed them.

And then one day, they get a test back from Mrs. Blaine. They got 89%. They wanted to shed tears. They wanted to cry. They wanted to sob, even, because they thought they weren't going to be loved because of a singular test score. Because of that, they were afraid to show their test scores to their friends. They were afraid to admit that they didn't get full marks that time. They stayed silent. They stayed soundless. Until they arrived at their room to silently cry on their pillow.

They thought the world was going to fall because of one little mistake. They thought their friends would stop talking to them because they had flaws, just like everyone else. And it reached the point where they fully convinced themselves that it was true. They wouldn't feel loved anymore. They would have to earn it in order to feel loved again.

Back then, their parents always made them believe that in order for their parents to be happy, they must try their hardest, even pushing their limits to the ceiling, and all of that, in order to make everyone happy. So that was what August did. For nearly five years.

That lie only harmed others around them. That only made their parents more disappointed. August continued to set higher expectations, all for the sake of love. Up until the point where they weren't able to do anything anymore.

August was tired. Stressed. Angry. Depressed. They wanted something to stab themselves with. They wanted a shoulder to cry onto, yet they didn't have any because they've lost all their friends by then. It wasn't because of their scores, but rather because of their attitude.

Which left them exhausted. Drained. Done. With everything.

And that... quickly led them to want to...

disappear. From this universe.