"Damn it!"
Kaito slammed the classroom desk. Eyes turned toward him.
Leo calmly asked, "What happened?"
"Nothing," Kaito said dismissively.
Sora watched with concern. Kaito's anger had been exploding frequently lately.
After school, the three faced each other in the club room.
"Kaito, let's talk," Leo said.
"There's nothing to talk about."
"But continuing to explode with anger isn't good," Sora said gently.
Kaito fell silent. After a while, he sighed.
"I don't understand it myself. I snap over trivial things suddenly. Can't control it."
Leo said observationally, "What do you feel the moment anger explodes?"
Kaito thought. "My mind goes blank. My body gets hot. Then I realize I'm yelling."
Sora wrote in a notebook. "That's a physiological response."
Leo explained. "Anger is an evolutionarily important emotion. A defensive response to threats."
"Threats? Nobody's attacking me."
"Not just physical threats," Sora supplemented. "Psychological threats, like wounded self-esteem."
Kaito realized. "True, I get angry when I feel disrespected."
Leo continued. "Anger has stages. First, small irritations. They accumulate, and when they exceed the threshold, they explode."
"Threshold?"
"The breaking point," Sora explained. "Imagine water filling a cup. The last drop makes it overflow."
Kaito understood. "That's why I snap over trivial things. Because I was already at the limit."
"Right," Leo acknowledged. "The surface cause and the real cause are different."
Sora asked, "Then what should we do?"
Leo suggested. "First, notice the precursors to anger. Recognize bodily signals."
"Bodily signals?"
"Heart rate rises, breathing becomes shallow, muscles tense," Sora listed. "Before exploding, these changes occur."
Kaito was listening seriously.
"At that stage, pause," Leo said. "Deep breathing, leave the scene, count to ten."
"Does that really work?" Kaito doubted.
"Not perfect, but it increases the chance of preventing explosion," Sora answered. "Emotional waves have peaks. With a little time, they naturally decrease."
Leo added, "And you need to address the root cause."
"Root cause?"
"Why irritation is accumulating," Sora asked. "Sleep deprivation? Interpersonal relationships? Pressure?"
Kaito thought deeply. "Maybe all of them."
"Let's address them one by one," Leo encouraged.
Sora made a practical suggestion. "How about keeping an anger diary? When, what, how much you got angry."
"What would that reveal?"
"Patterns emerge," Leo explained. "Specific people, situations, times of day. You can develop countermeasures from that."
Kaito became a bit more positive. "I'll try it."
Sora said, "Anger isn't a bad emotion. It's important as a warning system."
"Warning system?"
"A sign that something is wrong," Leo supplemented. "Like boundaries being violated, or receiving unfair treatment."
"But the method of expression is the problem," Kaito understood.
"Yes," Sora nodded. "Feeling anger and exploding with anger are different things."
Leo said finally, "If you learn to communicate assertively, you can use anger constructively."
Kaito smiled for the first time. "Can I still change?"
"Of course," they both answered simultaneously.
Sora said gently, "Becoming aware of your anger is already the first step."
Leo added, "You don't need to be perfect. Just gradually expand the range you can control."
Kaito took out his notebook. "I'll start recording now."
"Good," Sora encouraged.
The three sat quietly. Anger won't disappear, but you can learn how to deal with it. Kaito's journey began today.