A young teacher trying to encourage a 17-year-old to return to school ends up effecting change after he assaults the student, which sets him on a new path.
Strangely, they end up together in what seems to be a happy, comfortable relationship. The teenager was dealing with past abuse from his father. There’s a lot of fish imagery in this. As boys, they both wanted to keep fish but could not, and in the final scene we see them through their fish tank. At a glance it seems happy, but I don’t know how happy either of them is or can be with the other.
I would probably need to re-read this a couple of times to take in all of the detail but I don’t know that I want to.
Mizusoko ni Sumu Kodomotachi