🦀 KREL LORE 🦀

Sunny wakes up in a white room.

His head is pounding, his throat is burning and his face is itchy. His body feels light, and his eyes... the brightness of the room is too intense.

He can't recall anything of what had happened. What he does remember... someone screaming and a lot of crying. His chest suddenly feels like someone has dropped a weight on it. He wants to remember more, but he can't.

It hurts to think.

His vision is blurred and his mind if foggy. He tries to sit up, but something pushes against him.

There's a sound coming from the right side of his head. The pitches keep changing. It jumps between high and low with frequent stops in random places. What is it?

As he turns to face the source of the sound, his vision fills with colors. He knows these colors; white, blue, a lighter blue, pink, orange, and green. These colors are contained in irregular shapes. They're moving around the room slowly.

He notices the blue one is getting closer to him. The sound is getting louder as the blue shape increasingly grows. It's really scary. He doesn't like it. He tries to push it away with both hands, but something engulfs them. Soon after, he can't see anything but blue anymore. That same something that engulfed his hands is now wrapped around his body.

Sunny is terrified. He tries to tell it to go away, but nothing is coming out of his mouth. He feels defenseless. He begins to cry.

The blue shape freezes, letting go of him only to drop its weight on his shoulders. Even though it has no eyes, Sunny can feel it studying him. Finally, the blue shape backs off.

Suddenly there's a new color in the corner of his eye. It's making a sound too. He turns to face it but it doesn't move. Its shape isn't as irregular as the others, but its color keeps changing. Interesting.

From then on, each colorful shape keeps their distance, minus the white one and the light blue one. Those two keep poking at him. He politely asks them to stop, but they choose to ignore him.

The shapes keep making noises, but he doesn't understand it. He's getting frustrated. He doesn't want to see or hear them anymore. Sunny looks away, periodically turning his head to see if they've disappeared.

Eventually all of the colorful shapes leave, minus the one that keeps changing. With nothing better to do, he stares at that one.

The white and light blue shapes keep coming back, but they just make those weird sounds from earlier as they poke him. Then they leave again. Annoying.

The world around him is slowly getting darker, but the brightness of the shape with the changing colors remains the same. He keeps staring intensely at it.

He doesn't remember falling asleep.

A sound pierces through the room, startling Sunny awake.

His vision is filled with the same brightness and blurs he woke up to yesterday, but it isn't as intense. His head is feeling better, but it still aches. The soreness in his throat and the itch on his face are still present, but it's not bothering him as much anymore.

He sits up. Nothing pushes him back this time.

That sounds is there again. He can hear it coming from the right.

He looks towards the source of the sound.

That orange blur is back, but its shape is more defined than last time. It kind of looks familiar...

It's making a lot of noise. Loud noise. It's quickly approaching him, but, before he can get the chance to put up his fists, something rectangular drops in his lap.

He looks at the object in his lap.

'A brown rectangle?'

Sunny stares at it, then back at the orange blur.

Oh, the other colors are now here too. Just like the orange one, they're looking more defined as well. Somehow, these are familiar as well. He knows they're important, but he can't figure out why.

The green one starts making sounds too, but they're not as scary or loud as the orange one. It's slowly approaching him.

He feels his right hand being grabbed, but then quickly let go of. There's something in it. The green one backs away again.

He looks down at this hand to discover he's holding...

'...a line?'

No, that's stupid. You can't hold lines. Something you can hold that looks like a line...

'a stick?'

That's not right either.

As he's contemplating the object, the blue blur begins to get closer. It doesn't grab him like last time. Instead, it takes the rectangle from his lap. Somehow, it changed the color of the rectangle from brown to white. It gently places the rectangle back into his lap.

The pink one approaches him this time, pulling out a stick of its own.

What is this stick for?

He watches as the pink one drags the stick across the white rectangle, leaving behind a real, true line.

He looks back and forth between his stick, the pink shape's stick, and the line on the rectangle.

'Oh... OH. That's right. That's what this is.'

It finally clicks.

'This is a drawing squa-. No. Drawing book. No. No no no. It's the fake drawing. The one that comes before it. The sketch. This is a sketchbook. That's right. And this stick... If I'm remember...'

He raises his arm and stares between it and the stick. He begins rapidly dragging it back and forth on his arm. The colored shapes start making loud noises as he watches the black lines forming across his skin. It feels wet. He's right.

'This is a marker.'

He's happy. Very happy. Something is finally starting to make sense, but, before he can cherish the moment, the blue shape pulls his marker away.

'Why?'

It grabs his arm. He tries to pull away, but he's just not strong enough.

Something wet gets draped across the entirety of his forearm. It's a little itchy. He stares at it.

The blue line makes a rubbing sensation against his arm and, before he knows it, he sees that the lines he made are gone. He's a little sad, but sadness quickly turns into anger.

Sunny declares that the blue one is now his archenemy.

The green one hands him another stick. It's a lot skinnier this time, but also longer. 

Once again, he drags the stick across his arm. No marks were left behind this time. He decides to try his shirt next, but the blue blur grabs his hand again. It's not as aggressive this time, but he still doesn't like it. It gently guides his hand back down to the sketchbook.

'Annoying.'

Sunny is unable to find the words to express his anger. Instead he turns towards the blue shape and puffs out his cheeks, furrowing his eyebrows. He successfully yanks his hand away from its grasp.

'That'll show them.'

He eyes the line previously made by the pink one in the sketchbook. Hesitantly, he drags the stick across the page right next to it. Much to his delight, it works! Not only that, but the line is also purple.

'Excellent.'

Sunny is very happy.

The green one starts making noise as it approaches him again. It's carrying another rectangle, much smaller and thinner than the sketchbook. It hands it to him.

He examples this new rectangle. The top of it is yellow and the bottom is green. When he shakes it, it makes a noise too. Not same type of pitch changing noise that the blurs make. Instead, it sounds more like a 'plink' sound. It carries a rhythm much better too.

Before he's done shaking it, the orange blur grabs it. It does something to it that makes it look different, but it's hard to tell what. Then the orange blur flips it upside down, unleashing multiple sticks, all different colors.

He grabs one of the sticks and drags it across the sketchbook. A dark green line forms next to the other two.

Sunny can feel the corner of his mouth twitch. This feeling... it's...

'happiness.'

The blurs start making noises together. Sunny turns to face the colorful blurry shapes. He loves these sticks. He's a little shy but he supposes he should thank them for these sticks. He musters up all of his courage and tries his best.

"Thang."

They stop. Despite not having faces, he could feel their judgement burning into his soul.

'That... didn't come out right.'

The shapes all start making a loud repetitive sound. They all sound similar to one another. Something bumps the top of his head, hitting him twice before fading away.

He's too embarrassed to try again.

The colorful blurs haven't been around that much these past few days. Whenever they did show up, it was only for a few hours. Not only that, but they weren't showing up together anymore. It was okay though, they usually brought him something to play with.

Two days ago, the blurry orange shape showed up alone. It brought a little blue circle covered in triangles. No. Spikes. It was squishy but somehow also had resistance.

The orange shape dropped it against the floor. Somehow, the circle had come back up into the air, completely covered in colors that kept changing.

It was just like the other shape in the room that kept changing colors but never moved. Beautiful.

He wanted the colorful circle, but, before he could make grabby hands, the world suddenly went dark.

He could barely see the orange blur, but then something magical happened. It dropped the circle again and its colors radiated throughout the room. Every surface reflected the changing colors, even his own skin.

'Wow...'

The orange blur made a short loud sound and Sunny found the circle hurtling towards him.

It his him in the face.

'Ow.'

He grabbed the circle and angrily chucked it back.

It made another loud sound, but this one was different.

He's heard this before. Like an 'e' or something?

Sunny's thoughts were interrupted when he heard the same loud sound the orange blur had made right before the circle had hit him in the face.

He's not going to let it happen again. He's determined.

With both hands, he clumsily catches the circle. Success! He stares at the ball before staring back at the orange threat.

'Revenge.'

Sunny gathered all the strength he could muster in his tiny little noodle arms. He angrily mimicked the exact same sound the orange blur had made right before throwing the circle back.

"CATCH!"

He watched as the circle flew through the air across the room and...

...it caught it.

Sunny felt defeated.

However, the orange shape made a different sound this time. It dropped the circle and, before he could blink, Sunny found the world was suddenly bright again. The shape rushed up to him and engulfed his entire body. All he could see was orange. It wasn’t scary this time though. In fact, it was a little comforting. They stayed like this for a moment before he was let go. The hair on the top of his head felt a little wet.

Sunny stared at the colorful spiky circle on the floor, then back at the orange shape again. He made grabby hands at the circle.

The orange shape picked it up and gently placed it into Sunny's lap.

Sunny stared at it, and then he stared at the orange blur. He wanted the world dark again so that the colors would glow.

He couldn't find a way to word it though. Instead, he raised his hands and covered his eyes...

'...eye? Has it... always been like that?'

Somehow, the message was received because, when he lifted his hands off his face, the world was dark again. Excellent.

He could see the orange shape standing in the distance.

Sunny yelled "CATCH!" before throwing the glowing circle.

It caught it and yelled "CATCH!" as it tossed it back at him.

Sunny caught it and repeated again the cycle again.

They did this for a while.

Sunny felt very content.

Yesterday, the green and pink blurry shapes visited together. The pink one gave him some shiny oblong circles, brown rectangles, and circles on sticks. The green one brought a bunch of leaves on green sticks.

The oblong circles were a variety of different colors and each leafy stick was contained inside of its own personal...

'...jail?. No. But. Close enough.'

Sunny grabbed one of the oblong circles, giving it a squeeze.

'The Squish: Zero.'

He held it above his head, closely inspecting it.

'The glow: Shiny~!'

Next, he stretched out his arm and proceeded to drop the oblong circle on the floor.

It did not come back up. Disappointment.

Both shapes made a short, deep, funny noise. Then the green one started making that repetitive sound again. The pink one started doing the different pitches thing.

Sunny watched as the pink one folded in on itself. Then it straightened back out. As it did so, he discovered that it had brought the oblong circle back up with it.

He watched as the pink shape began to fiddle with the oblong circle, only to be awestruck when the oblong circled somehow contained a secret one. Two oblong circles!

It placed them both in his hand.

Somehow, his hand already knew what to do with this. He put the secret one in his mouth and began to taste it. It was sweet. His throat began to hurt a little but he was more focused on something else.

This flavor... what was it...

'...Lemon?'

Yes, that sounded right. It was delicious!

As he savored the lemony goodness, the green shape had began to show him the jailed leafy sticks.

There was more than one and, while their jails and sticks were all had matching colors, the leaves were different. He examined their varying colors and shapes. They were pretty.

The green shape began to push the leafy sticks into Sunny's face, one by one. He discovered that they even had their own unique smells.

'Wow...'

The green one began to place the jailed leafy sticks around the area, leaving a white round one in Sunny’s lap. Sunny poked the leafy stick. It was slightly cold, a little damp, but also velvety soft. How exquisite.

He watched as the green and pink shapes made noises at each other.

It was a nice day.

Sunny stared at the other oblong circle left in his hand, the one that hid the secret one. He shoved it into his mouth.

The pink and green shapes stopped making noises at each other. Instead, they directed their sounds at him, much louder this time.

He swallowed. His throat hurt. There was no flavor. He didn't like that one.

'Disgusting.'

His head was feeling a lot better today. In fact, he was feeling better almost everywhere, except his throat for some reason. That itch on his face kept coming back too.

In any case, he was glad he was starting to think more clearly compared to the previous days. He wondered who would visit this time.

‘If the orange one was two days ago and the pink and green shapes were yesterday, then today means…’

Sunny didn’t like this.

‘Archenemy.’

As if the devil himself could hear his thoughts, a gentle tapping had sounded from the right side of his head and, within seconds, the blue shape had appeared.

‘I didn’t want you to come here.’

The blue shape began to move towards him.

‘If you don’t go away, then I’ll make you go away.’

It got closer.

‘You will fear my wrath.’

It sat down.

‘My thoughts will haunt you throughout your dreams.’

He could feel the blue shape staring at him.

‘That’s it. You asked for it.’

With every bone and muscle in his face, Sunny conjured up the most menacing expression he has ever done.

It was really cute.

The blue shape then made that annoying repetitive noise again. The one that goes

‘…a …a … a?’

Hm.

Sunny felt the shape place something on top of his head again, lightly hitting him a few times in the process. Before he could whack it away, Sunny’s nostrils filled with the most amazing aroma known to mankind.

The blue shape revealed itself to be carrying a shiny gray substance. It ripped away the shiny to display a bunch of brown circles speckled with dots of darker brown.

It handed Sunny one of the circles. The circle was about the size of his entire hand. He examined it closely.

‘Is it…’

He took a bite.

‘Cookie.’

And very good cookie as well. This had to be the greatest cookie he had ever eaten. And there was so many of them too. Only royalty would be allowed to eat something so delicious. It was so warm too! He must be a prince.

Wait. No. There’s no way he could be a prince. His last meal wasn’t as this groundbreaking. Speaking of, when was his last meal?

As he swallowed his cookie, he felt the soreness in his throat began to flare. His left cheek was just as itchy too. He brought his left hand to his cheek only to feel something bumpy.

His finger followed the bump right to his nose.

‘Has that... always been there? No. It needs to go.’

He gives it a soft tug, trying to remove it, only to find it tied to his face. Now it really hurts.

He decided to let his hand follow the bump in the opposite direction and, for the first time, found himself looking left. He stared.

‘Oh. Is… that why… I can’t get out of bed?’

There was a sudden loud yet short noise. He jumped.

That’s right, he had completely forgotten about the blue shape that was with him in the room. He could feel it staring intensely at him. Uncomfortable.

After a few moments, it slowly, but gently, grabbed Sunny’s left hand, guiding it back down to the bed. The shape covered his hand with both of its now. It’s making more sounds again, but they’re much softer and calming.

Sunny feels its gaze on him, but now it's full of warmth. He forgets about the bump and the itch.

What he does remember, though, is that the blue shape is his still his archenemy.

How dare it attack him that day immediately after he woke up? How dare it remove the lines he made on his arm? How could such a monster have the audacity to bring cookies after all these evil wrong doings?

But alas, Sunny couldn't hold his anger anymore. The cookies were too delicious. He supposed that, while the blue shape is still his sworn enemy, they will have a temporary truce.

Sunny lifts his right hand and pats the blue shape where he’s pretty sure its head is twice.

He doesn't know how he knows that, it just feels right.

It freezes upon contact. Stopping all sounds and loosening its grip on his left hand.

Oh no. This isn’t supposed to be an attack.

Sunny panics at the possible misinterpretation. To settle all misunderstandings, he decides to pat its head two more times. He hopes he made his point obvious.

Also… its head is…

“…Fluffy.”

It completely lets go of its grip around Sunny’s hand. It’s making that ‘a-a-a’ sound again.

After a few minutes, it calms now. Now the blue shape has placed a small rectangular box on the bed. It opens the box and pours a bunch of flatter rectangles out. They have little pictures on them.

Before Sunny could get a good look at them, it flips every rectangle so that all of the images are the same. Afterwards, it flips two of the rectangles over, revealing two different images. Then it flips them back over again. It kept doing it until two of the rectangles matched, pulling it out of the collection and placing it into a pile by itself.

It waited. Sunny guessed it was his turn now. He copied as the shape had done until he got a matching pair of his own.

He kind of liked this game, it was simple.

They did this for the rest of the night.

Sunny opens his eye and the world is bright again. It doesn’t burn anymore. His head is feeling even better than the day before too!

He looks around the room. Surprisingly, the colorful shapes aren’t there. Only the one on the…

‘Wall. The word is wall.’

Right.

That shape never goes away. It just makes weird sounds and keeps changing colors.

He stares at it for a bit until he gets bored.

He wonders how long it will take this time for the other shapes to show up again. They’ve been nice these past few days. He loved the gifts and their presence was beginning to make him feel very warm inside. Not only that, but he liked how they felt so familiar. Even the blue one. He kind of misses them.

He eyes the gifts left by them before settling on the sketchbook. Next to it is the yellow and green rectangle with the different colored sticks inside.

‘Maybe I can just…’

Sunny grabs the sketchbook and sticks.

‘…Until they come back?’

He stares at the sketchbook and sticks in his hand, pouring out the different colors into his lap. He’s not really sure what to draw.

He thinks about it for a minute. He’d really like to draw the colorful shapes, but…

‘Too hard.’

Thinking about them, he can’t really figure out how to describe them. Sad.

He thinks about what else he could do. Perhaps a self-portrait? He’s not sure how, but he can tell that he has always wanted to do that. How exciting!

Before he can begin though, he realizes that he… doesn’t really remember what he looks like.

'How?'

He tries to remember. It doesn’t work. He instead tries to remember what he does remember. On his hair, there was…

‘…black.’

There were these pieces that stuck out in the back too. He remembers someone hated these pieces. No. His mom hated these pieces. No matter how hard he tried to flatten them, they always sprung back up. She frequently referred to them as

‘...sloppy.’

He touches the back of his head. They’re still there. He starting to feel bad. He looks down at the blank page.

‘Let’s not…’

His gaze turns to face the spikey blue circle.

‘…do that.’

He lifts the stick and begins to draw. First the spikey circle, then the oblong ones. Next, the jailed leafy sticks. Finally, the big brown cookies.

He had to stop. He’s not done yet, but it’s starting to get dark again.

He’s still bored. The colorful shapes, they haven’t shown up yet.

It’s taking too long. The wait is killing him.

He’s starting to feel very lonely.

Maybe they forgot about him. Maybe they didn’t like him. Maybe he was too mean to them.

His throat feels tight and it’s like a weight has been dropped on his shoulders. His chest feels empty, but his stomach is full of lead.

Something wet is on his eye. He tries wiping it away, but it keeps coming back.

He closes the sketchbook and puts the sticks back.

He thinks that, perhaps, it’ll be better to just...

He lays back down and closes his eye.

Eventually, he falls asleep.

Something is gently shaking him awake. No. Not something. Someone. Someone is gently shaking him awake and it’s making those noises again.

He opened his eye. The room, it’s dark, but he can still see. There’s a bluish tint to it. It was really cold here.

He looks at the someone that’s making that noise.

It’s that white shape, the one that always pokes him. There’s the lighter blue shape right by it and a new purple one as well.

The noises. It’s…

‘…talking?’

Oh. Yes. That's the word.

The noises everyone keeps making is called talking and this one is talking at him. No… to him?

It would be rude not to listen, but he doesn’t know what it’s saying.

It stops talking. Perhaps it’s waiting for a response? How do you respond to something when you don’t know what it is? Would anything work? Perhaps…

Sunny nods his head and lets out an "mm."

That seemed to satisfy whatever that was. The someone left the room with the light blue shape, but the purple shape stayed behind. Now that one was starting to poke him.

‘Annoying.’

His cheek began to burn and his throat and face began to hurt. Just as he was about to push it, the purple shape went away.

Guess wishes do come true...

He closed his eye and fell back asleep.

When he awoke again, the itch was gone and his throat was no longer sore.

He sat up. There was a white and blue… bottle? It was sitting in front of him.

He took a quick sniff. It smelled sweet, like the oblong circles she brought him and the cookies that he made for him. How nice.

‘Wait… She? He?’

How did he know that?

He decided to shrug it off. It was making his head hurt.

He grabbed the bottle, already open, and took a sip.

NOT NICE.

It was awful. The drink was warm, it was way too sweet, and now his mouth felt chalky. He quickly spat it back out.

To his right, there was that sound again. The ‘a. a. ha’. There was more than one.

He turned to face the layers of sound to find that…

‘They’re back!’

The colorful shapes that had always made him so happy, they were finally back! All of them, and together again! He was scared they hated him, but they all came back!

Sunny missed them so much, even the blue one. It was holding something. He could almost feel his eye getting wet.

No wait… he was feeling it. He was… crying. And his face, his mouth… he was…smiling?

They’re all talking at him. He still can’t understand what the shapes are saying, but he knows he loves them. He wants to get up and get closer but, before he could get the chance, the blue one drops the thing it was holding in his lap.

Sunny examines it. It’s so soft and big. It’s white. And…

He squeezes it. It collapses under the pressure, immediately ballooning back up when he releases.

‘...Squishy~.’

Sunny examines it closer.

Oh. This is...

‘…a stuffed…’

“…cat.”

They all make that 'a-a-a' sound again.

He feels something hit-. No. He feels something pat the top of his head.

He looks at the blurry blue shape. It’s really familiar. He feels warm again. He can tell it’s smiling at him.

He stares at the gift in his hands. He likes this cat.

‘I accept.’

He pats its head back.

The blue shape. It… he… Does the ‘a-a-a’

No. Wait.

‘a-a-ha?’

Not yet. Almost…

‘ha-ha-ha.’

Oh. That’s…

‘…laughing.’

He got it! Sunny feels happy. He's very proud of himself.

The orange shape, the orange… it… he approaches Sunny. It’s placing Sunny’s sketchbook and sticks back into his lap.

Sunny watches the orange as it grabs one of the sticks before drawing. It’s making something, but Sunny can’t tell what.

It stops. He can feel it looking at him before it grabs one of the sticks and hands it to him.

‘Oh. Now… I?’

Sunny begins to draw right by the orange ones drawing. He doesn’t really know what he’s making, but he likes drawing.

When he finishes his drawing, he shows the orange blur, but it won’t look at it. Instead, it’s looking at him. Its gaze, he can feel it. And the sound of its talking… both of them sound a bit… sad.

Sunny doesn’t know what he did wrong. Now he’s sad too.

But before Sunny could try to apologize, it starts laughing.

Sunny can tell it’s still looking at him, talking at him, but it feels much more merry.

The pink shape grabs a stick and joins in too. It makes lines and waits for Sunny to finish his own, but it doesn’t wait make a sad response from this time.

Instead, it passes the stick to the green shape. The green one takes a little longer than the other two, but the same thing happens. It waits for Sunny to finish his drawing.

Now the blue one has the stick. The blue one is much faster than the others but, when comparing it to what they had made, the lines the blue one draws… they’re not very good. Still though, he likes them.

They keep doing this back and forth thing for several hours.

He can hear them talking amongst themselves, sometimes at him, but it all sounds calming. Sunny feels really cozy.

Almost more than half of the sketchbook is full before a banging sound fills the room.

A light pink shape enters the room. The orange shape grabs his left hand and the blue one gets up, blocking his view. The tone from the talking they’re all making is quiet, but harsh. He can’t see, but everything feels so... upsetting.

Whatever is happening, it’s taking forever. He doesn't like this interruption.

The lighter pink shape keeps talking back and forth between the blue one. The nicer pink shape joins in as well.

Every now and then, he can feel the orange shape give a sudden squeeze on his hand. It kind of hurts, but it always stops just as fast.

Sunny can feel the green shape glancing at him frequently as well. He hates this. Nobody is happy.

Not before long, the orange one lets go of his hand and the blue shape turns. He can tell it’s facing him. It starts talking at him before engulfing him just like before, but it’s calming this time.

It shoves the stuffed cat into his left arm. Sunny squeezes it tightly against his body. He doesn’t want to let it go.

The light pink shape is still there, but it’s not saying anything anymore. Instead, he can feel it staring. It’s making his face feels flat and the rest of his body go cold. He wants to hide.

Something grabs his elbow and he feels himself being pulled out of bed.

Now he’s standing.

He looks up to all of the colorful shapes. The orange one is grabbing the sketchbook and pencils. The pink and green one are both grabbing all the things they had all brought him.

Oh, it's the blue one is holding his elbow.

The light pink shape says something before disappearing. The air suddenly feels so heavy. The blue shape slowly begins to pull him in the direction of where the light pink one once was.

His legs begin to move on their own, as if they were on autopilot. His surroundings are different now, but he doesn’t get a chance to look around. They keep moving.

It’s been a while now, but everywhere they go still looks the same.

He turns his neck, looking up behind him to see that the other shapes are behind him too. They’re holding the things that they brought him as they follow along. He can tell that they’re all staring back at him. He doesn't understand. He should be happy that they’re all together, but why does he still feel this sense of… dread? He looks back forward and they keep moving.

Something invisible hits his face and, finally, they’re in a new location. It’s much different from the rest. The floor is now gray and the air is hot. That invisible thing keeps hitting his body every now and then. He can feel it making his hair fly around. He tries to take a look at the new surroundings but it’s really hard. Each time something comes into view, it almost immediately disappears, never giving him a chance to recognize it. They’re still moving.

Finally, they stop. They’re standing in front of a weird gray shape. It’s sitting on circles. Sunny can tell it’s not alive.

There’s a sound. He watches as the light pink shape approaches the gray one. It does something to it and Sunny watches as it…

‘…breaks?’

No, that’s not right. Breaking is when one thing becomes two.

‘Makes a hole in…?’

No that’s not right either. Holes go all the way through.

What’s the word making a hole into something without it being broken?

‘Open.’

That’s right. The gray shape has a hole in it, but the hole doesn’t go all the way through. That means that the gray thing ‘opened.’

The blue shape let go of his elbow and instead took his shoulders. It folded, somehow making itself smaller. It’s talking at him, but the sounds it makes are soft.

Before he knows it, his vision is filled with blue and his body is being squeezed. It’s still saying something. He wish he knew what. It lets go, taking the stuffed cat with it.

The other shapes start doing the same. First the pink, then the green. As they do, Sunny watches the blue shape putting the cat and other gifts inside the gray shape.

The pink and green one are talking at him, but Sunny is a little more interested in the light pink shape standing still by the opening it had made. It starts saying something to the blue one. The blue one is saying something back.

Whatever they’re talking about, it seems important. He wants to keep watching, but his vision fills with orange. He feels his whole entire body suddenly lifted up into the air. He can’t breathe. Suffocating.

The pink and green shape make a loud noise and Sunny quickly finds his feet on the ground again. The orange one had let go him.

Sunny looks at it. The orange shape is folded in on itself, almost as small as him. It’s looking at him.

Sunny tries to back away but he can’t move. As he tries to find the source of his immobility, he finds his own hands clutching onto the top of the orange shape’s… fabric? Huh? Why?

No. He knows the answer. He has to admit it. He didn’t want to be let go. Even though he had initially hated it, he found that he was starting to like it when they did that thing.

There’s a word for it, isn’t there? No. He knows there is. What was it called?

Oh. Right.

‘Hug.’

It’s a hug.

Sunny lets go of his grip on the orange fabric and hugs the orange shape, squeezing as hard as he can. It’s not very tight, the orange shape is much bigger than him. Still, the message must have been received because it hugs back.

When they finally let go, the top of his hair is wet. He wonders why.

Now all the shapes are saying something to him. It sounds a little sad. He likes them. He wants to cheer them up just like they did for him.

He makes grabby hands towards them and, before he knows it, he finds himself enclosed in the center of a circle. Oh. They’re all hugging him. They’re doing it all together! This feels nice.

‘Wow~.’

The light pink shape makes a sound again and the hug is broken. It grabs his arm and guides him to open gray shape. He gently gets pushed in, finding himself sitting down again. There’s a sound. ‘Click.’

He sees the cat and grabs it again before looking back at the shapes.

No. Not shapes. He’s looking back at his friends.

He could tell they were all crying, but they were smiling as well? It was weird. They were all saying something. It sounded like..

‘oo. Ey?’

No. That’s not right.

There was a bang and he was now enclosed inside the gray box. Somehow, he could still see his friends through the wall. It was muffled, but they were still repeating that sound.

‘Ood, eye?’

There was another loud bang that startled him. He looked in the direction the sound came from, finding the light pink shape. He stared at it, still pondering what they were saying.

‘Good. Eye?’

Not right. Almost there.

There was a sudden loud rumble that quickly changed to a soft rumble.

He looked back to his friends. They were waving.

‘Good-bye.’

Oh. That feels right. They’re saying ‘Good-bye.’ You’re supposed to say that when you leave. Wait. Leave?

His heart began to start racing. The gray shape was beginning to move.

He wasn’t ready to leave. He didn’t want to leave. Why is he leaving?

His eyes darted around before it landed on something on the wall. He didn’t know how, but he knew it was supposed to be pulled. He knows that this is how you get out.

He yanked it, but nothing happened.

'Oh. No...'

He looked back at his friends. They were getting smaller-. No. Further.

'No no no.'

He pulled harder, yet still nothing happened.

His eye started to feel wet. He couldn’t get out. He was trapped.

He looked back up to see his friends, but they were gone.

It was hopeless. Looking out the gray shape, everything was different.

He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know where he was going.

He wondered when he would see them again.

He wondered if he could see them again.

Looking back out the wall revealed that they were still indeed moving.

Every time he blinked, it was something new.

He could feel it; his heart was hurting.

He looked down at the stuffed cat in his arms.

He squeezed it tight and began to cry.

Sunny wakes up in his bed. He’s just as dazed and confused as he had been before. He tries to remember what had happened, how he had got there. It’s… hard. It’s hard to remember. He remembers being sad, crying even. He remembers feeling like something was torn away from him, something he could never get back. Oh, that’s right. It was his friends. 

No… wait. It was more than just that. He was missing something else. Something that knows him, almost as much as himself. What is it? He tries to remember. It was something close to him... Something important... Something he grew up with. His head begins to sting. Why?

He decides not to remember that. It obviously doesn’t want to be remembered. Instead, he thinks about how he ended up in a bed. In this bed. It’s familiar but he knows it’s not the same one from yesterday. He tries to remember how he ended up here. The last thing he remembers is sitting in a gray shape, hearing... “Goodbye?” Goodbye to his… friends. His heart begins to hurt.

He looks around, searching for his friends, but... they’re not there. He’s scared and confused. He begins to panic. Everything around him... he doesn’t understand. He decides to stay in the bed, hoping that his friends will appear again soon.

He contemplates everything as he waits, they don’t come. Instead, that pink shape that brought him here enters the room. He sits up to greet it. Is it talking at him? It is, but… what is it saying? He wish he could know. He wishes he could ask it ‘where are my friends?’

He tries to, but nothing happens. He can’t. He can’t say anything. This is terrifying. Why did it bring him here? Where is ‘here’? He’s becoming more scared. He wants to go back. He doesn’t feel warm here. Instead, he feels… sad. He begins to cry.

Oh no. That was bad. The shape is talking at him now, but louder. Actually, it’s really loud. Why? What did he do wrong this time? What does it want? Does it want him to nod?

He tries to nod, but he can’t move his head. He’s not scared anymore, he’s terrified. He doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know what it wants. His body begins to tense. He feels himself begin to uncontrollably sob. It’s still talking loudly at him. The air feels heavy. It takes a while, but it eventually disappears.

It’s gone now. His heart feels heavy, but its disappearance is making him feel at ease. No, this isn’t ease. It’s exhaustion. He decides he wants to go back to sleep.

Sunny wakes up. His head is hurting. He doesn’t want to move but he sits up to take a look at his surroundings.

‘This bed… That’s right... I...’

He tries to get out of the bed, but something wraps around his legs and he stumbles. He closes his eye and his body braces as he feels himself descending. He hits the floor. It hurt. He hears something clattering next to him, startling him.

He opens his eye to find himself lying face down. His legs are wrapped in blankets. Looking up, he finds the something that had came down with him. Wait, this something… he’s seen this before. He wants to see what it is, so stretches his arm out in an attempt to reach for it. Frustratingly, he misses.

The familiarity of this object is taunting him. He needs to know what it is. He drops his hand down to the floor and watches it as he moves it around. It’s getting closer to it… oh. Now his hand is wet. Disgusting. Wait… he’s almost... 

He feels his hand touch it. He’s there.

He grabs the object and brings it closer to his face. Oh… this is…

‘... a cup. How did I…?’

That’s so stupid! This is so stupid! Of course it’s a cup! What else could it be other than a cup?! How could he forget that?! What’s…?!

…

‘...What’s…’

...

‘...What’s… wrong with me?...’

There’s a loud ringing in his ears. It- this question… It hurts. Why? His mind feels like it’s being split open by it. He hates this. He wants to know why everything feels so… broken. He wasn’t always like this, was he? What’s happened to him?

He finds that his hands have somehow suddenly appeared on his head. He’s clutching his hair. These questions, they’re making the pain in his head so much worse. He wants to scream. He doesn’t want to think anymore. He needs to stop thinking about them. He stops thinking about them. It works, the pain is subsiding. He doesn’t want to feel that again. He needs to distract himself. He should just do something else. That’s right, he ‘needs to take care of himself.’

He feels like he’s heard this before... but… the… someone it came from. Thinking about it is making his body fill with lead. It’s nauseating. He doesn’t want to remember. He does want to follow its advice though. He looks at the cup and, suddenly, he can feel the dryness in his throat. He decides that he needs to get a drink.

Sunny grabs the cup and gets off the ground, slowly bringing himself back onto his feet. He needs to get a drink. He needs to get… water, and water comes from... a sink. That’s right. He needs to find a sink. He looks around the room, hoping to find something, but nothing is making any sense to him. He knows he’s in a room and he knows there are walls, but everything is still just a blur.

He closes his eye, taking a moment to focus before opening it back up. His mind feels clearer now, but that haze is still ever persistent. His surroundings are still a blur. Nothing but shapes and objects. Despite this, he looks around the room one more time. There is no sink. He knows it.

There is an opening, however, and he thinks he knows where. He just doesn’t know how to get to it. He observes the walls before landing on a shape stuck to it. He can’t look away. There’s a feeling in his gut… intuition? It feels right. Slowly and cautiously, he approaches the shape. He doesn’t want to blink. He doesn’t want to look away. He doesn’t want to lose his place.

He’s close to it now, he can almost feel it. He reaches out his hand as he closes in. His hand stops him. He’s touching it. Looking closely, he finds something sticking out. He’s not sure how, but he knows he has to turn it. He opens the wall, taking a step through.

Everything here is much more chaotic than where ever he was before. There’s too many shapes, too many objects, too many different sizes. He doesn’t like it here, it’s too confusing, but he needs to find a sink. If he doesn’t take care of himself, then something… will happen? His body begins to fill with this weird sensation and his heart begins to race. He wants to run, he needs to hide. He doesn’t want to think about what will happen.

It takes a moment, but he finally calms down. Why is he here again? Oh. That’s right. He needs to find a sink. He tries to look around again, this time slowly. Something catches his eye and he begins to wander towards it before he feels his chest hit something, completely stopping him. He looks to his chest, finding the object that has stopped him.

‘What is- Oh, it’s another wall. A little wall.’

He lifts his head back up before he finds…

‘...a sink.’

He’s proud of himself. He has found it. An impossible feat. He lets his autopilot take care of the rest and, before he knows it, he’s drinking water. He refills the cup. Lots of water. He refills the cup. Lots and lots of water. Wow. He was thirsty. When was the last time he had something to drink? Who knew water could be so… delicious?! He savors the moment before putting the cup into the sink.

He’s feeling a lot better now. So much better in fact. The fog in his mind feels like it’s starting to fade away. He turns around, back facing the sink, and begins to look around. The shapes around him are beginning to feel like they have meaning. He knows what he’s standing in, but he can’t put a name to it. People make food here. Straight across from him, behind a taller but still little wall, people sit there and do… something. He looks to his left and… there’s more?

Sunny begins to walk in that direction before finding… another path? It goes left. There’s that shape again, the one that opens the wall. Something says not to do that, but there is another left! He takes it. He knows this place. He’s been in these a lot. Yes, there’s even a little sink in here. That’s right. He’s in the…

‘...bathroom.’

And that’s…

‘...toilet.’

And over there is a…

‘shower.’

He wants to take a shower. He wants to take a nice, long, hot shower. Something is stopping him from doing so. Oh, that’s right. He doesn’t have any clothes. Wait… does he? He does, right? Why does that feel right, but yet wrong? In any case, he wants to feel clean.

He stares at the sink. Perhaps it would be okay to put water on his face? No. It has a name. To wash his face. That would be nice! He turns on the faucet and begins to splash his face. The water is a little cold, but it does feel nice. Quite refreshing actually. He keeps rubbing the water on his face. It feels great. Actually, it’s kind of fun too! He can feel himself smiling. This is nice.

He turns off the water. He’s feeling very satisfied, a little happy even. It feels nice to have a clean face. He wonders how well he’s done. He wants to see the fruits of his labor. Wait, he can! Bathrooms have mirrors! His mind, it feels like it’s all coming back together. He looks up into the mirror and… is that… him? His head begins to hurt. His hearing is deafened, leaving nothing behind but a loud ringing.

No. That can’t be.

His-. No. It’s skin… it’s far too pale. White even. He looks at his arm, then back at the reflection. That’s not his own. And then there’s those eyes… they’re all wrong. They’re far too wrong. They’re too black. Too lifeless. Too soulless. And it’s face? It’s...

He feels like his mind is being torn apart. It’s hard to see. It’s hard to breathe. He’s scared-. No. Mortified, but he doesn’t know why. He starts panicking. He needs to get out of here. He doesn’t want to be in here. He wants to go home. Wait, what is home? Where is home? He doesn’t know, but he knows it’s not here. He runs out the bathroom, retracing his steps and taking the right. He wants to go back to the place with the bed but, as he takes the second right, he realizes that he doesn’t know where he is. He can’t stop panicking. He crouches to the floor. He wants to cry. He begins to cry. He wishes his friends were here…

He opens his eye. He’s on the floor. It’s so cold down here. He doesn’t remember falling asleep. Something is calling his name, but… how does he know that? His name? Is it his name? He’s never heard it before. He can’t even hear it right now. He feels like it’s his name but... What is his name? He doesn’t even know it.

His body is hurting. He wants to go back to the bed. It was really soft, but… he still doesn’t know where he is. How did he get here? Will he make it back? His head is still hurting. He decides that perhaps it will be better to sleep it off. He doesn’t want to get lost any further.

Sunny’s stomach wakes him up. The pain is almost stabbing. His head is still hurting, but not as terribly as it had been the previous days. His body is aching… oh… right.... He’s still on the floor. How long has he been here? He sits up.

Everything around him is starting to look a little… clearer? He still feels like his mind isn’t completely there, but things are starting to become more recognizable. He takes a look around. Where is he? Where was he before? What was he doing? Wait. He was looking for something. His bed, right. He was running from something, wasn’t he? That thought… What was it that he saw? He can feel that pain coming back.

'Let’s... not think about that.'

He need to retrace his steps. He remembers he was inside the bedroom. From the bed, he went… diagonally right. Then the wall opened and he went diagonally right again. It wasn’t as severe as the first one, but it definitely wasn’t straight. There was a sink… the kitchen. From the kitchen, that sitting place could be seen. When he looked to his left, there was that open space. Taking a left there led to another opening in the wall. The one he wasn’t allowed to... Huh? What does that mean? Why did he think that? Wait, right now isn’t the time to get distracted.

'Think. Think. Think.'

To the left of that was another room. Correct, the bathroom. He… Something happened in there that he didn’t like. He ran. He ran right, then he took another right. Then he… he was sad. No. Not just sad. Scared and sad, wasn’t he?

'No. Stop it. Stop. Getting. Distracted. Think.'

If that’s where he stopped then that must means he’s in…

‘The kitchen.’

He looks around again. The objects around are starting to make more sense. Still though, he doesn’t know their meanings, but just from the way that they are shaped, he can tell they belong there.

Sunny can feel the corner of his lip twitch. He’s happy. He’s proud of himself. He did it. His friends would be proud of him… his… friends… They were his friends right? But…

He begins to think about it.

Weren’t they the ones who took him to this place? No, the lighter pink one did, but they brought him to it, to the lighter pink shape. Doesn’t that mean... Why did they lead him here? He’s starting to get upset.

No. That’s not right. He knows it. He doesn’t know how, but he can feel it in his heart. They didn’t want him to be here. They never wanted him to be here. He wants to find them. He needs to find them. Something distracts him from his thoughts.

He smells. Bad. Like really bad. His clothes feel itchy too. He looks down at himself.

‘Annoying.’

He ‘needs to take care of himself.’ Someone told him this once. Someone who… didn’t want to be around. That’s… true. They’re right though. He does need to take care of himself. He stands up off the ground. It’s time to take care of himself. First, he needs to drink.

Sunny lets his intuition guide him, once again bumping his chest into the counter before he finds the sink. He grabs the cup he had left in the sink before, filling it up with water and drinking it until his stomach’s pain subsides. Next is the smell… he needs to take a shower. Taking the two left turns, he finds himself in the bathroom.

This bathroom… He remembers it. The mirror. He isn’t as scared this time, but he remembers seeing that… thing in it. Why did it make him so uncomfortable? Was it really that scary? He decides to avoid the mirror, not really wanting to test it out. Instead, he stares at the tub. He’s lucky; the tub turns on just like the sink. Excellent.

But… he still doesn’t have any clothes. Actually, where did clothes even come from? He looks down at his body. Wasn’t he wearing something else when he was with his friends? Those were cleaner. Where did they go? Should he try to go find them? Probably not. He doesn’t really want to risk losing his place again. Still though, he really would like to shower.

He turns on the tap and watches as the tub begins to fill but,

‘Not a shower. Close enough.’

It doesn’t take long before he’s in and out. Even though he couldn’t read the shapes that were in the tub with him, his body’s autopilot was able to carry him through. It was nice but… when he got out of the tub… he had to put back on the dirty clothes. The smell.. they reeked, and the itch… unfathomable. These clothes were,

‘Disgusting.’

There was no doubt about it. Still though, at least he was cleaner than before. He has to decide what to do from here. The pain from his stomach was coming back with a vengeance. It was sharp, like a stab. He knew it had something to do with his mouth, but he couldn’t exactly remember what. He’s going to have to skip that for now. Instead, he focuses on the pain he feels inside his joints.

He remembers someone important telling him something, someone that he really looked up to. They had said that the pain was because of his size. If he puts more things inside of him, his clothes will have to change, but he will feel better. Those things had to be things like cookies and drinks; something that won’t hurt you afterwards.

He remembers that they tried this, but it was really tough. He liked what he was given, but it was always way too much. They told him… no. It was his friend. His friend told him that, when it hurts, find something softer. That’s right! His body hurts because he was on the floor! He needs to be in the bed! Thank you, friend!

He’s determined to find the bed, but he wants to make sure he’s prepared just in case he can’t figure out how to get out of there again. He needs to put something inside his stomach.

Sunny leaves the bathroom and counts the two right turns. He finds himself in the kitchen, standing in front of the sink. He fills the cup with water. He needs something in his stomach. He drinks. He fills the cup up again. He drinks. The pain is going away, but something is telling him he’s not going to get rid of it completely. He fills the cup up once more and carries it with him as he begins his search for the room with the bed.

He tries to remember how he got here. Diagonals, he definitely remembers two diagonals but… why did diagonals have to be so hard? What else could he use? He looks around the room he’s currently in before… something catches his eye. It’s… An opening. No. Wait. It’s… called a...

‘...A door.’

Yes, that’s right. It’s called a door. This one in particular though looks so incredibly familiar. How could he have not seen it before? The color is blinding white, glowing actually. Why is the door glowing? He can feel it calling to him. He slowly approaches the door. His surrounding vision is darkening. Still though, he persists. He can feel it beckoning him to go inside. He’s almost there. His head is starting to hurt. He wants to keep going. His hand reaches out as he nears. He can’t hear anything anymore except for the ringing in his ears. He reaches the door, hand landing on the knob as he touches it. It hurts. His brain feels like it’s on fire. However, whatever is behind this door has a firm grasp on his soul. He opens the door and his vision is flooded with white. He can’t see. He squeezes his eye shut as he begins to rub it. It burns. As he rubs, the ringing in his ears begins to subside. He opens his eye. Oh. The door is…

‘...brown? That’s… what just... happened?’

His eyes dart around the brand new room he’s entered. It looks so familiar. Wait. It is familiar. This is where he woke up. That’s the bed! Sunny is very pleased. He closes the door behind him then proceeds to walk towards the bed. He can see something else now too. His sketchbook, their gifts to him, they’re sitting on a square.

He places the cup on the square before grabbing the sketchbook and pencils. He sits in the bed. The moment he makes contact, he can feel himself sinking into its perfect softness. It feels so much better than the floor. He wonders where is… oh. It’s right by him. The cat. Wonderful!

He thinks to himself as he draws the cat inside the sketchbook. He wonders how his friends are. He wonders if they miss him. He kind of hopes that they do. He misses them too. He hopes they will forgive him-. Wait. What? Why would they need to… forgive him? Did he… no he did. He did something wrong. He doesn’t remember what, but he knows he did. Sunny looks at his cat drawing. He’s pining for them. He wants to say he’s sorry and beg for their forgiveness. He won’t let it end like this. He’s determined to find them.

Sunny is sitting on his bed with the sketchbook on his lap. He’s holding his pencil as he stares at the cats that have been drawn in.

Every day has been the same, blending together until it all becomes a blur. He wakes up. He takes care of himself. He draws the cat. He plays with the gifts he received, eating a cookie while he waits for someone to show up. No one ever comes though. He goes back to sleep.

On the days where the haze in his mind lessens, he finds that things are a lot easier. On those days, he finds that he’s able to navigate his surroundings a lot better. He still doesn’t understand the majority of them, but he finds himself learning a little more each time. Whether it’s something someone once told him or a… rediscovery of somesort, it always results in him feeling better as things make just a little bit more sense. The day he found out about the lightswitch left him ecstatic as he was able to watch the spikey circle glow.

Some days are a lot harder though. He would wake up in pain. Sometimes it was the stomach, sometimes it was his head. He didn’t like these days. It always felt like he was going backwards. Regressing even. Usually he would just stay in bed and draw the cat before falling back to sleep.

Other days… he would see or hear something. Once, he was laying in bed when he heard someone calling for him. He didn’t know who or what it was, but he was so excited to have some company that he ran. When he swung open the door, however, there was nothing there. He was all alone. Then there were the times that there was something there, waiting for him.

The closer he got to them or the longer he stared, the more his brain would feel like it was on fire. It hurt really bad. Almost as if someone were ripping his mind apart. They scared him at first, especially as they increased in frequency, but they would always leave something behind; knowledge, a vague memory, and a lot of questions that needed answering. He wasn’t sure how to feel about these types of days. The knowledge was nice, but the pain and the unknown? Annoying more than anything really.

With each passing day, he feels a little more hopeless. He doesn’t want to give up. He needs to find his friends, but he doesn’t even know where to begin. He wonders how long he will be here. He wonders how long he has been here? Just when was the last time he saw his friends? He tries to remember.

‘How long has it been? Yesterday I… cat. The day before was… cat. And then there was… cat? That…’

This is hard. He’s getting frustrated. The memories of what he’s done since he first woke up in the white room are there, but he can’t connect the dots to each day. What did he even do on the first day…?

He takes his eyes off the sketchbook and fixates on a random spot on the wall. As his eyes glaze over, he subconsciously puts his hands into fists, raising them close to chest. He tries to remember. He does remember. He remembers… 

‘Something-. No. Someone pink and… I’m crying.’

His left thumb sticks out. That was the first day. He remembers going back to sleep. When he next woke up, it was…

‘A cup, the sink, and… the mirror.’

He sticks out his left hand’s index finger. What was the day after that? Wait. No. He knows this one. He was on the floor. He was…

‘Sleeping.’

His right hand’s index finger straightens out. Now what happened after that? What was next? Oh. That’s right.

‘Relief.’

It was the first day he had felt relief. It was the day he had found the room with the bed, when he first drew the cat. Every day since he’s found this room, he’s drawn the cat. Wait a moment...

‘Cat. Cats… Cats!’

There’s an idea forming in his head. He can feel his feet flex a little bit in his excitement.

‘CATS! Each day a cat!’

He can figure it out! He can learn how long it has been! He mentally pats himself on the back. All he needs to do is total the sum of his fingers and the cats! He looks at his hands and… he’s confused.

‘What? How…? Why?’

He looks back and forth between his right and his left hands. He closes the distance so that his hands are squeezing against each other in front of him. The fingers are there, they’re sticking out but… he can’t… add, can he? That’s… hm. Confusing. What is he going to do? What can he do? Wait… can he… count?

He looks at the left thumb, waiting for something. He can feel it on the tip of his tongue, but his mind isn’t there yet. He slightly opens his mouth as he tries to concentrate. The tip of his tongue... The tip of his tongue… Wait. That’s it. He stops thinking and lets the autopilot take care of this.

“One…” it’s a very soft whisper. He looks to his left index.

“...Two…” almost inaudible. Even he could barely hear it. His eyes land on the last one, his right hand’s index.

“...Three.” That was it. He said it again with confidence. “Three.” He repeats it again, memorizing the way his mouth feels as the word comes out of his lips. “Three. Three. Three. Three.” He closes his fists again, allowing his right hand to fall. “Three.” He’s staring at his left hand. “Three.” He lets the thumb straighten out again. “One... Three.” His index finger straightens out. “Two… Three.” Finally, his middle finger joins them. “Three… Three.” Those two sounds and the shape of his mouth... they both match. Excellent. Now he just needs to draw this many cats.

He keeps his fingers up as he grabs his pencil, repeating the same process he did on his hands. One cat is drawn, he counts his fingers, the sound doesn’t match. The next one is added. It still doesn’t match. Another one is sketched. Finally, it matches. He can let his hand rest.

He stares at the cats on the page. He doesn’t know how many there are, he’s going to have to do it again. He points with his right hand’s index finger to each cat, saying the words out loud until he gets to the last.

“...ten.”

He forgot. He needs to add one more for today. He draws in one more cat and lets his body do it again...

“...Eleven.”

Eleven. He hasn’t seen his friends in eleven days. That sound… that’s a lot, isn’t it? He can feel his eye getting wet again. He’s beginning to feel sad.

Eleven.

‘Will I...’

Eleven…

‘...ever see them again?’

His body is beginning to shake. That feeling is coming back. The one that makes him want to run and hide. The same one that makes him want to cry. He loves them. He misses them. He wants to see them again.

His heart is beginning to hurt. He can’t see anymore, his eye is too wet. He doesn’t want to feel like this again. Perhaps it would be better to just rest. He rubs the tears from his eye as he grabs the stuffed cat. As he lays down, he begins to squeeze it. Taking shallow breaths, he lets his eye shut. Eventually he calms down. As his body drifts into sleep, he begins to hear ringing…

[WELCOME TO KREL SPACE]

He can feel himself laying down on his back. His eyes… they’re closed but it’s… blinding.

‘Where am I?’

Wait… His mind. The haze… It’s clearing…

‘What’s happening? How did I get here?’

It’s almost gone.

‘Wait. I… I’m...’

For the first time in weeks, he can feel his mind coming together.

‘I’m…’

“Hey, Sunny!”

His eyes spring open as he sits up. He faces left, looking at the direction that the voice had come from. This monstrosity. This abomination. It’s smiling as it’s looking down, right at him.

‘Is that-?’

“Hey, Sunny!”

His thoughts are interrupted as he hears the voice of this demonic creation enter the right side of his head. He faces it. He’s shocked. 

‘Kel?! WHY IS HE A-’

The floor begins to move. Sunny looks to the ground to find that it has suddenly become a mixture of red and orange. Where are they going?! He wants to see. Sunny crawls to the front.

‘-CRAB?!’

A deep voice echoes across the world as he reaches the front of whatever this creature whose back he’s riding is, only to find that it’s another Kel. Another crab Kel. A gigantic crab Kel.

“Hey, Sunny.”

Sunny blinks.

…

…

…

Everything is… dark again. Oh… wait. That’s because it startled him awake. He can feel the haze begin to reclaim his mind. It’s… That dream was… it was weird. He isn’t sure what to make of it. It left him uncomfortable, yet it filled a hole in his heart that he hadn’t even realized was there. There is something he’s sure of though; his friend, the orange one, his name is Kel. Wait… that’s not all… It’s… There’s something more. Something important. Something about himself. It’s… he’s…

‘...I’m… I’m... Sunny. That’s… right... I’m... Sunny.’

He steadies himself as he prepares to say it out loud, just to make sure he never forgets it again.

“I’m Sunny.”

Sunny goes back to sleep.

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

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Sunny can feel something shaking him awake. He doesn’t want to move, but it’s becoming more… faster. He opens his eye, just for a split second. It’s that lighter pink shape again. The one that brought him here. It’s talking at him but… he doesn’t want to deal with it right now, he’s still upset at it. He closes his eye again. He wants to go back to sleep, but then… it grabs his left elbow. It pulls him.

He stumbles out of the bed. It’s talking a lot louder now. He’s afraid. He’s trying to pull away, but it’s much bigger than him. He’s being dragged behind it and through the door. He tries to pull harder but… it’s too strong. He’s too weak. He can’t get away.

He has to guess as he’s pulled with each step. They’re near the bathroom now, he thinks, but he doesn’t really get a chance to think anymore as he feels his body fly past the front of the shape. It… he can feel it. It’s looking down at him. It’s still talking loudly at him. Oh. It’s upset. He can tell. He doesn’t know what to do. Wait, it’s starting to point at something as it talks. He turns around to face whatever it is pointing at. The bath?

‘Does it want me to-’

It knocks him back into the wall as it charges past him. He tries to see what it’s doing.

‘Oh. So that’s how you turn on a shower.’

He looks back up to the shape. He can feel it looking at him again. It’s still talking loudly. He wonders what is saying, but it walks back out the door again. It closes the door with a really loud sound.

‘Bang.’

Right.

He looks up at the water falling from the shower head. He supposes it would be nice… he takes a shower. He gets out and- oh. There’s different clothes on the sink.

‘Are these… for me?’

He touches them. They’re nice. He sniffs them. He’s excited, they’re clean! He puts them on. Ah, they don’t itch. How exquisite~. He wants to thank her-. Wait. Her? The shape? Oh. That’s right. Her. She. It’s a she. Who is she? His thoughts get interrupted as the door swings open quickly, nearly hitting him in the process. He wants to thank her but- she grabs his elbow, dragging him behind her again just like before.

‘Where are we going now?’

He has to guess it.

‘One right turn… take another and it’s the kitchen. If diagonally left, it’s the be- huh?’

They go straight.

‘Where is…?’

She pushes him onto something soft and begins to walk away.

‘Oh. A chair… No. A fluff chair.’

She came back. She’s holding something.

‘Oh, right,’ he remembers, ‘a bowl.’

She shoves it in his hands, along with something skinny. He looks down into his hand. It’s long and it has spikes like the ball, but only at the top and in a straight line. A pointy stick? He doesn’t really know what this is, so he looks into the bowl. It’s warm and filled with a bunch of lines. Bumpy lines, not like the ones in his sketchbook that are flat. He stares back up at her. What is this? What are these? What is he supposed to do- Oh. She’s becoming louder. He tries to concentrate on what she’s saying, looking for any meaning behind the sounds. It works, he catches something..

“...take care of yourself...”

‘Oh... take care of...’

His eyes grow wide as he feels himself begin to panic. He looks down at the bowl again. It’s quiet now. Did she… yes. She stopped talkin-. Wait. She’s grabbing his hand. The one with the pointy stick. Her grip hurts. She stabs the bowl. He doesn’t like this. He watches as she pick up the lines, using the pointy stick still in his hand. She lifts it and his hand and brings it to his mouth. He’s frightened. She’s trying to push it in, but he can’t unclench his teeth. It becomes loud as she’s talking at him again.  Something wraps around his chin, pressing hard into his cheeks. He can feel his teeth separate and the lines go in. He freezes. Oh. This is…

‘...spaghetti.’

His body’s autopilot begins to chew for him. She stops talking and lets go of his hand. He can feel her watching him. He looks down and swallows before looking back up again. She’s still staring, isn’t she? He’s still frightened. He looks down and stabs the spaghetti, putting it back in his mouth again. He can see her moving past him. He guesses that seemed to satisfy her. He continues to eat.

She comes back, holding a bigger bowl. As she stabs the bigger one, he’s not done yet, but she grabs his bowl. He watches as she refills it, before handing it back to him. She watches him and he continues to eat.

It happens again. He continues to eat. And then again. He continues to eat. It happens once more, but he can’t eat anymore. She grabs his bowl and takes it, along with the bigger one, before returning with a cup of water. He doesn’t want the water though, his stomach is too full. He tries to shake his head but… she starts talking loudly at him again. Before he knows it, his head is being tilted backwards as that thing wraps around his chin again. She’s pouring the water in. The sensation… It’s… he can’t breathe. He tries to push her back, but she won’t budge. He’s not frightened anymore, he’s terrified. His stomach hurts badly.

He throws up.

It was an accident. She didn’t like that. He didn’t mean to. She. Did. Not. Like. That. He can feel his elbow is being pulled again as her talking is filling the room. His body is being lifted as she begins moving. He’s never heard anyone speak so loudly. He wants to run, but his feet can barely reach the ground. He wants to hide but-. He feels himself get flung in front of her again. He’s passing through another door. She lets go and he stumbles into the room. He looks behind to see her, but the door closes with a loud bang. She’s gone.

He looks around the room. Oh. This is… his room. He begins to calm down. The bed is here. He looks back at the door. He’s not… really sure what all of that was about. He could tell she was helping him but… why was she so scary? He still feels uneasy. He wants to distract himself. He walks toward his bed, grabbing his sketchbook. He needs to keep his mind off of whatever had just happened. He draws the cat. He goes to sleep.

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Someone is petting his head. It’s soft but, after yesterday, he doesn’t really like it. He doesn’t want to be grabbed again. It was frightening. Yet still this is nothing compared to before. It’s kind of nice. It’s starting to talk. Is it talking at him? It sounds very sweet. He opens his eye. Oh. He immediately feels uneasy. It’s her again. She’s holding something. Wait. Doesn’t she have a name? Isn’t it...

‘...mom?’

That’s right. That’s mom. The lighter pink shape was always mom… She was talking loudly at him yesterday. It had felt very tense, but the way she’s talking today… why does she sound so sad?

She hands him the thing she’s holding-. No. A plate, and on the plate there’s… some brown circles…?

‘Pancakes.’

A brown stick…

‘Sausage.’

And…

‘Eggs.’

He remembers these types of eggs have a special name. He shares it with them. Yes! They have the same name!

‘Sunny eggs?’ Eh. Close enough.

He remembers loving eggs. No matter what shape they took on, they were always delicious. These eggs were great too, but he didn’t like hearing the same joke each time they were served to him. ‘Sunny eggs for Sunny.’ ...it got annoying. Still though, it was his friend that would make them. The one he always looked up to. It was nice to see these eggs again. He begins to eat it.

She’s still calmly talking at him. He wonders what she’s saying and why she sounds so sad. Almost like she feels guilty or something. Was it for yesterday? He would accept her apology but something inside him is telling him that he doesn’t want to. Does this... happen a lot? Hm.

As he finishes his place, she reaches for it and places it on the square beside the bed. She returns holding a cup of… orange water? She’s holding it out expectantly. Oh. It’s for him. He takes it.

He examines the cup before bringing it to his mouth. As he begins to take a sip, he feels something wrapping around him. It makes him jump a bit. The feeling is a little tense. He looks at what it is. Is she... hugging him? When did she get there? When was the last time she did that? He gets the feeling that she doesn’t do this very often. He doesn’t really like it. It feels nothing like the hugs from his friends. There’s no warmth inside. Maybe he’s just not used to it? Being touched is almost always uncomfortable. He kind of wants to pull away, but he fights it. He doesn’t want to be rude.

He finishes what’s left in the cup. The orange water was delicious but, truthfully, he would rather have regular water again. That one left his mouth feeling a little more dry. Water doesn’t do that.

He can see her shape straighten out as her shape gets taller. She takes the cup from his hand and plate from the square, still talking nicely at him. She hugs him one last time before leaving.

That was… weird. Whatever just happened didn’t feel right. It felt unnatural. He didn’t like it. He’s kind of glad it’s over. He needs to distract himself.

Sunny grabs his sketchbook and draws another cat, but he’s not done. He can’t stop thinking about what had happened yesterday and today. What can he do to keep himself occupied? He observes his surroundings before he lands on the spikey circle.

No. That won’t do. He doesn’t really want to play with that right now. Something else… Oh! The pencils! The colored pencils! Maybe he can color in the cats. He grabs the yellow and green rectangle before dumping the pencils onto his lap. He doesn’t know what colors he wants to use so he grabs the black one. He likes black.

Looking back at his cats, he chooses his favorite one; that one that’s a little to the left of the page! He likes that one. He worked really hard on it. He begins to color it in but… it’s beginning to… look so… familiar. Why? 

Oh. The pain. It… It’s back in his head. It feels like his brain is being torn apart. There’s only one thing he can do.

‘Don’t think. Don’t think. Don’t think.’

He can feel the pain slowly subsiding as he lets his thoughts disappear.

‘Don’t.... Think.’

He feels better now. Looking at the color pencils, he decides that he doesn’t want to try that again. He counts them again before falling back to sleep.

Sunny is laying in his bed playing with the stuffed cat. Suddenly, there’s that banging sound coming from the door again. It’s very quiet though. He stands up to let them in, but then it opens by itself. Oh. It’s his mom. Is she saying something? She’s holding something to eat again. It smells nice! He grabs it as she hands it to him, eagerly taking the first bite.

She’s saying something again. It’s not as quiet as yesterday, but it’s also not as awful as the day before. Still, though, it’s a little tense. She sounds so… exhausted. He listens closely.

“...take care of yourself…”

Oh. That phrase again. He’s not really a big fan of tha- Wait. She’s stopped talking. He can feel her staring right at him. Is she waiting for a response?

He nods his head. That must have satisfied her as she has started talking again. How easy.

She’s still talking at him. He’s trying to finish the food, but it’s… a little too much. He doesn’t really want to eat anymore. Is that okay? Sunny hands her the half eaten dish. He hopes it is.

She takes it. He can see her reaching to pat his head, but he flinches away. He doesn’t know why. He just knows that he doesn’t want her to touch him. He looks up at her. He can’t see it, but he can feel that she was a little upset by that. She turns around and begins to walk out of the room. Why does she always do that? Why does she always leave? He’s curious what she’s doing. He kind of wants to follow her.

Sunny stands up and follows her out the room. She turns right, so he does too. She stops in front of the door. The one that he feels like he’s not supposed to go through. She turns around and faces him. He can’t see it, but he can feel her gaze burning into him.

She begins to wrap something around herself, turning from light pink to a light brown. She says something to him, “Goodbye.”

His heart freezes. He doesn’t know what to do. He feels like he’s going to panic but somehow he also feels a bit of relief. She’s staring at him. He can tell she’s waiting for him to do something, but he can’t move.

He can hear her sigh. The door opens and light fills the room. When it finally darkens again, she’s not there. Oh… he’s alone again. For how long? Is she going to come back again? Something deep inside his gut tells him that she isn’t. He should take care of himself.

He uses the bathroom and gets a drink before returning to his room. He draws the cat before going back to sleep again.

He wakes up and looks around the room. It’s the same as when he had gone to bed. There’s no one else here. He wishes there was something to eat but… That’s right. She left. When did she leave? How many days has it been? Being alone… that makes him feel kind of sad. He needs to take care of himself. He gets out of bed and does just that, repeating the instructions he had given to himself to make sure he doesn’t forget.

‘First, the bathroom…’

He finds the bathroom and uses it.

‘...and then… the sink....’

He finds the sink. He grabs the same cup from before, still sitting within the basin, and fills it with water from the tap. He stares at it before drinking.

‘...’

He does it again... it wasn’t as filling.

Was there something else he was supposed to do? He can’t remember. If he can’t remember, then maybe there wasn’t? Oh well. He puts the cup back in the sink but, before he can make his way back to his room, something right by the sink catches his eye. His head is starting to hurt.

‘Is that a… triangle? No. That’s not a triangle. It has a stick on it. What is that? It’s… shiny.’

He can feel the pain inside his head starting to increase as he walks closer. He would stop, but he wants to see what it is. Why does it look so… familiar? As he gets closer, he reaches his right hand out to it, but… he stops. There’s something wrong with him. That ringing is back in his ears again. The world begins to darken as he looks down to his own hand. His heart begins to race as his body begins to feel light. His arm, his hand, why is it so… white?

He blinks.

Oh. He looks around the room. Everything is back to normal again. Well not exactly normal, but the way it was before he saw that… thing. How very strange. He takes one last glance at the spot where the shiny object had appeared. There’s nothing there. Sunny heads back to his room.

As he enters the room, he grabs the sketchbook and pencils and begins to draw. It’s not difficult to find. He’s been doing this every day afterall. He finishes drawing the cat, then he points to each cat and lets his body take over the rest. This habit is almost like a ritual at this point. As he points to the last cat, he has to concentrate harder to the noise his body makes. The sounds he makes are incredibly soft. If he doesn’t pay attention, he will miss it and have to start all over again.

“...seventeen.” 

He sighs. It’s been ‘seventeen’ days, whatever ‘seventeen’ means. He looks at the gifts given to him by his friends. The cookies are gone as well as the oblong circles. He finished those off a while back. All that’s left is the spiky circle and the cat. He holds the cat and stares at the circle as he begins to lose himself in his thoughts.

‘Seventeen’ days since he’s seen his friends. Why did he care about this so much? He misses them, but why does he care about them? He loves them, but… he doesn’t even know them. He doesn’t even know their-. He doesn’t even know... No. He does know. He knows one. It’s the one he grew up with. He can’t remember it, but if he concentrates, he knows his body can tell him. He focuses before he hears it.

“Kel.”

That’s right. His friend’s name is ‘Kel.’ and… he’s… Sunny. He won’t forget it. Not again. He grabs the spiky circle before dropping it to the floor. His body lets out a soft “heh” as he watches it light up.

‘Light... Light!’

He rushes to the door and finds the light switch, flipping it downward. The world is dark now, but there are a myriad of different colors littering the walls. He likes it, but it could be better. He grabs the ball and rushes onto the bed, squeezing the cat as he covers his face with the blankets. Now the rainbows are on his face. He likes this. He really likes this a lot. It makes him feel so warm inside, as if Kel and his other friends were here again. It’s comforting. He closes his eye and squeezes the cat tight. He can feel his heart beat slower as his breath deepens. He doesn’t want to move. This is really nice…

[Welcome to White Space]

...

...

[Welcome to White Space]

Sunny’s eyes are closed as he lays on his back on the floor. He can feel the haze that’s been clouding his mind for the past seventeen days slowly lifting. It’s so cold down here but, in a way, it feels nice. His ears are ringing but he’s positive he had heard that greeting. “Welcome to White Space.” There was no voice or sound attached to it, but it was seared into his mind.

The ringing begins to die down as he opens his eyes. He finds himself looking straight up at a never-ending white sky. He stays like this before the sudden realization dawns on him that he knows this place. He’s been here multiple times. Although vague and distant, he can feel the rush of memories flooding his mind. They feel disconnected from him, but he now knows something; his name is Sunny, he has multiple friends who he loves dearly, he played the violin, and he killed Mari. There is one more thing though, he’s lost something very important to him. Something that grew up with him and knew him better than anyone else ever could.

As he begins to sit up, he slowly begins to remember what that something missing was. He scans his surroundings in search of it. There’s a white blanket on the floor ahead of him and on it sits a very familiar cat, a laptop, a box of tissues, and a sketchbook. A dangling wire freely hangs above from the non-existent ceiling. A white door is nearby, eerily familiar to the one that had guided him back to his room at home. His visual search halts, though, as he notices something else. There’s something resting face-down in the middle of the blanket. It’s that something that he grew up with. The something that knew him better than anyone else. The something that he was missing. Sunny can’t help but call out to it,

“Omori?”

There’s no response. He tries calling out to it again.

“Omori?”

Still nothing. How irritating. Nobody likes to be ignored. He stands up and begins to approach Omori. If Omori won’t answer him, then he will take matters into his own hands. The closer he gets, however, the slower his pace becomes. There’s some sort of reluctance or regret looming over his shoulders as he draws nearer. He’s beginning to remember their last encounter. Their fight. Being told that it would be better if he would just die. Sunny wonders if he’s ready to face Omori.

The closer he gets, the stronger the memories become and the more grounded he feels to reality, yet, even as these new memories become stronger, it still feels all wrong. After everything he’s gone through, he feels detached, hopeless, and, for some odd reason, he still feels incomplete. He reaches his destination. Omori is right in front of him, laying at his feet.

Sunny begins to examine Omori’s physical state. He still looks the same as always except aged to match himself. The only other noticeable difference is that there seems to be a heavy cloud of exhaustion surrounding him. He’s not acknowledging Sunny’s presence either nor is he moving. A weird feeling radiates from him as well. It's almost as if he’s… sentient?

This is unnerving. He must be imagining it. Omori can’t have his own consciousness. He’s a coping mechanism, not a being. Wasn’t their fight just him dealing with his conflicting emotions? In their fight, Omori was just a symbolic representation of his inner turmoil, an allegory that depicted the chaos that he had created. He wants to deny any speculation that Omori could be anything more than a shell. A vessel he once used to traverse the spaces. He doesn’t want to believe that he could be anything more, yet, he knows deep down that this isn’t true. He wants it to be true. He needs it to be true. He needs to be sure that Omori isn’t alive.

Sunny summons his violin and begins to poke Omori with the tip of his bow.

Nothing happens.

He pokes again.

Nothing happens.

Once more.

Nothing happens. No signs of life or anything of the sort. He unsummons his violin and bow, but Omori’s presence still causes him to feel uneasy. It’s just laying there, but it’s disturbing and still life-like. He doesn’t like it. Sunny lifts his right leg behind him then proceeds to swing it forward, foot contacting Omori’s side.

Still nothing happens.

He tries it again, but a little harder.

Nothing happens again.

Harder.

Omori has started glowing a faint red, but Sunny doesn’t notice this. Nothing else happens, so Sunny proceeds to kick him again, even harder this time.

Nothing happens.

Again, but harder.

Nothing happens.

Again, and even harder.

Omori is visibly outlined in red. Uh oh, but just to be sure…

With all his strength, Sunny kicks Omori one more time.

Something happens.

“WHAT?!” Omori shoots up from his laying position and onto his hands and knees, facing Sunny. He looks terrifyingly angry.

Sunny can’t help but fall as he stumbles backwards, surprised by Omori’s sudden outburst. Even more so, he’s shocked by Omori’s existence. Sunny thought he was Omori. Omori should’ve disappeared completely when he had accepted the truth, when he had fought his self-doubt and suicidal thoughts, when he had chosen to continue. He had no use for him anymore and yet, Sunny watches as Omori repositions himself to sit on his knees, ‘there he is…’, the red outline surrounding Omori dissipates as he locks eyes with Sunny, ‘…staring at me.’ Omori’s face returns to its stoic expression. He watches in horror as Omori begins to open his mouth,

“Sunny.” It sounds just like him, but there are some minor differences. Omori sounds just as flat and emotionless, yet there’s an underlying tone that carries confidence.

“Omori.” He tries to mimic Omori’s voice, but he can feel his own slightly quaver with insecurity. How could they share the same voice, yet exude such different energies? It’s a stark contrast despite the other similarities.

As they continue their staring contest, seconds begin to feel like minutes and minutes begin to feel like hours. Sunny can’t help but examine the condition of Omori.

At first, he had just looked tired, but the longer he stares the sadder Omori looks. He can tell that Omori is trying to mask it, but it’s obvious that there’s something gnawing heavily on the back of his mind. He wants to ask but, to be frank, he’s quite scared.

What if Omori lashes out again? What could be bothering him so much? Wait a minute. Wasn’t Omori supposed to be emotionally strong? He’s supposed to be the perfect version of himself. The Sunny he had always wished he could be. That Sunny was tough, well loved, and confident, but… as he looks at Omori, he’s nothing like that at all. In fact, there’s a blue outline surrounding him and it’s getting heavier by the minute. He’s still staring at him and keeping his flat poker face, but why does he also look so… miserable?

He tries to muster up the courage to ask, but he knows it will still come out as a soft squeak. It’s weird to be shy since Omori is himself, but something about Omori makes him feel inferior. Curiosity begins to overshadow his fears though. He can’t help but wonder what’s wrong with him. He wants to ask him.

“Omori…?” Despite his preparation, his voice came out as small as he knew it would. Pathetic.

Omori’s posture seemed to stiffen, but he makes no other observable response. Instead, continues to stare deeply into Sunny’s eyes. It makes him uncomfortable. It’s those same eyes he saw back in the mirror: pitch black, empty, soulless, and no light. There is, however, something different about them this time. While normally emotionless, today they somehow carry an intense amount of weariness behind them. He hadn’t seen this in the mirror, but it’s confirming his suspicions. Something is wrong. He decides to ask again,

“Omori, are you-“ but he finds himself interrupted this time as Omori raises his hand to his own mouth and immediately shushes him.

He hadn’t noticed it earlier as the distance between himself and Omori was more than a few feet, but Omori seems to be slowly leaning in towards Sunny as they continue locking eyes. Sunny can’t help but feel like he’s being heavily scrutinized. It’s incredibly awkward. He decides to look away. Why is Omori so focused on him? What is he trying to learn? He has so many questions, but he can’t even begin to find the words to form one question before the next one comes.

Finally, Omori pulls him away from his thoughts.

“What is it?” Ouch. Why did Omori have to sound so hostile?

Sunny looks back to Omori to see that depressing aura gone. He’s back to his stoic self, but there’s still something obviously on his mind that he isn’t sharing. He decides to ask anyway,

“Omori, are you okay?” Omori flinches. Oh. What a strange reaction to such a simple question. It wasn’t exaggerated. Just barely a wince. Did this question catch Omori off guard?

Omori doesn’t say anything though, but his face is starting to show some frustration. Sunny can almost feel himself getting smaller as Omori’s eyes burn into him. Why is he even so afraid of Omori? Their fight may have been tough, but wasn’t it just him fighting against himself? Somehow, he knows this isn’t true. Omori was just his inner thoughts taking the form of what he could never be… right? Somehow, he knows that isn’t right.

Omori suddenly speaks. “Your eye.”

That… was unexpected. He was pretty sure he asked him a question, but… what does that mean?

Omori raises his right hand to his own face, covering his right eye as he stares blankly at Sunny. “You’re lying; your eye is missing.” He drops his hand back to the ground.

That-. What? Oh… he hadn’t realized he had both of his eyes here. He raises his hand to cover his own right eye, but his vision remains the same. Guess it doesn’t work. Wait. Okay. Duh. He knew that already. Is Omori dodging his question?

“Yes.”

‘Oh. So, he is fine. I guess he isn’t avoiding the questi-’

“Yes.”

‘… is he-’

“Yes.”

‘Wait a minute. Can Omori read-‘

“Yes.”

…how infuriating.

Sunny drops his hand from his face, just as Omori did before. There are hundreds of thoughts entering his head. Why is Omori even here? Why does he look so exhausted? Why does he keep flipping between sadness, anger, and neutrality? Since when did he become so emotional, and why is he able to express them so well? He has so many questions he wants to ask, but would Omori even be willing to listen? Should he even try?

“Go ahead.”

No privacy, right.

Sunny tries to think of what he wants to ask, but it’s hard to choose. He wants to know why he feels to broken when he’s awake and why he feels so aware right now yet still so disconnected from himself and his memories. He wants to know why he feels so incomplete but, as he looks to Omori, his concerns begin to grow. He wants to know about Omori.

What’s going on with him? He really wants to know. How should he even go about asking? Would it be better to start with the easiest questions? Should he slowly work his way onto the harder ones? Omori still looks exhausted, but he seems willing to answer and listen to him. He’s concerned not only for Omori but also about Omori’s presence. Just how much does Omori even know? He thinks, perhaps, he should start with him first.

Sunny continues to stare at Omori as he decides on his first question. He wants to test the waters by first choosing something easy. Omori looks so weary. Something must have happened, right? He decides to start with that.

“Omori,” Sunny still feels uncomfortable talking to his doppelganger, “Why do you look so… tired?” It’s very faint, but he can see Omori slightly squinting his eyes.

“Spaces.”

Huh?

“Spaces.”

…Wow. Sunny always knew he could be terse with his own words but to be on the receiving end of it feels agonizing. Care to elaborate?

Omori lets out a small breath of air as he begins to relax a little, causing Sunny to relax as well.

“You really don’t remember much, do you?” Omori asks, but it feels less like a question and more like a statement.

Sunny tries to recall anything related to what “spaces” could mean. They are in “White Space” right now, aren’t they? Is that what he means? Hm… He remembers waking up in something called “Krel Space” more than a few nights ago and he very vaguely remembers a place called “Headspace” but besides those two and where they currently are at now, he doesn’t remember much else. He knows there’s more, it’s at the tip of his tongue, but the memory of them is just too distant to be recalled. Sunny shakes his head, indicating that he knows nothing.

“Figures.” Omori sighs as he begins to explain. “You’re right about White Space. That’s where here is. It’s familiar to you, but you don’t know why, right?”

Sunny nods his head as Omori continues,

“Well, that’s because you’ve been here before multiple times. We both have, actually, but with you as me. I was born here, but this is where you and I both wake up and go back to sleep.”

That… makes a lot of sense. Sunny remembers being Omori and-. Oh. Now he remembers. He remembers the pain. The frequent amounts of stabbings… He can feel his stomach hurt as if he were being stabbed right now. He winces as he looks to his stomach and- OH.

Sunny can see the yellow outline form around himself as Omori drops something black into his lap.

‘CAT!’ He gives her a light squeeze as he hugs her. ‘So warm~! So fluffy~!’

“Mewo.” Omori moves to sit by Sunny’s side, grabbing his attention. “Anyway…” Sunny watches as Omori places his right-hand palm down on the ground in front of them. “White Space.” He points to the laptop, “Black Space,” then to the door, “Headspace,” before finally stabbing the ground with his finger, “Krel Space.”

As Omori names them, the memories related to them become clearer. Headspace was great but… The yellow glow disappears as Sunny drops his head and begins to hug Mewo a little closer. He slowly starts to remember the nightmares held within Black Space. Omori moves to rest his hand on Sunny’s shoulder, but he stops short, giving him a light pat on the back instead before moving away again.

Sunny needs a moment to think about Black Space. He doesn’t want to hide from the truth or his fears any longer. He takes solace in the fact that the truth is out, but that doesn’t mean that he likes it. He’s caused a lot of pain, twice. How were his friends able to forgive him? Did they forgive him? They helped him in the hospital and kept him company, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they weren’t upset.

Oh. He can see that he’s glowing blue now. How long has he been thinking about this? Maybe he should stop and ask his next question. He lifts his head, facing to turn Omori before noticing that… Omori is blue too. He’s looking down, fixated at the ground. The blue surrounding him is so much heavier than his own. Why?

“Next question.” Classic Omori, just as flat as always.

Sunny looks up to the never-ending ceiling, thinking about what he should ask next. If we’re going from easy to hard then…

He looks back to Omori, “What’s Krel Space?”

Oh! This question seemed to light a fire in Omori. That blue outline is quickly changing from blue to yellow. Is Omori happy? Sunny’s never been able to guess emotions that easily. Thank goodness for the emotional mechanics created for use in the spaces.

Omori turns to face him, there’s a barely visible smile on his face. There’s no question about it. Omori is definitely happy.

“Do you remember when we were six?”

“We?” Sunny is confused. “What do you mean by we?”

Omori looks a little taken aback by this as his smile falters. “I’ll explain that later, just listen.” He begins to smile again. “When you were six years old, you went on your first picnic with Mari, Hero, and Kel. Do you remember that?”

“Mm.” Sunny nods his head but, truthfully, they’ve been on so many picnics together that the memories of them all blend in with one another. He decides to go with it anyways.

“Well,” Omori continues, “you had Mari pack imitation crab for lunch because you refused to eat anything else.”

Ah. How awful. He forced his friends into eating to his tastes. Sorry.

“It was delicious, but you should be. Anyways,” Omori pauses for a moment as he thinks what to say next, “you kept putting your grubby little hand in Kel’s face, trying to force him to eat the imitation crab. He resisted at first, but eventually ate it. It turned out that he liked it so much that he tried to grab every pack Mari had brought. You saw him do this and began to grab the packs too.”

“I… didn’t want him to eat them all.” Sunny can feel the embarrassment washing over his body as he starts to vaguely remember that day.

“Yeah, so you tried to eat them all too.”

Sunny begins to smile a bit, the blue hue that covered him now turning to a very faint yellow. He watched as Omori’s smile and aura became a little stronger.

“You threw up and had to stop eating first. Mari and Hero didn’t see what was happening until Kel threw up too.”

“They were mad.” Sunny wants to hide his face.

“Yeah,” Omori nodded in agreement.

“They both told us to lay down on the blanket and wouldn’t let us get up. We were in time out.” Sunny begins to reminisce about that day. It was awful at that moment but thinking back on it was hilarious. “What happened next?”

Omori is starting to look very happy.

“The timeout was for 30 minutes, but you two didn’t want to move anyway.” Omori’s smile intensified. “You just stared at the clouds together. Kel kept pointing out different shapes but all you could see were a bunch of floating cats.”

Oh, right. He remembers doing that…

“When your stomach started to settle down, you started thinking about crabs again. Specifically, you realized that the color of Kel’s shirt shared the same shade of color as the imitation crab meat.”

Sunny can feel himself getting more excited as Omori’s happiness increases. He’s pretty sure he knows what happened next. He tried to imagine Kel as a crab, didn’t he?

“That’s right. By the end of the timeout session, you had a eureka moment. You added the words crab and Kel, creating Krel.”

Omori’s smile is starting to become… creepy, but he continues.

“You were so excited about it that you had to draw him immediately. So, you sat up to grab your sketchbook, but your movements were just too fast.” Omori paused for a second, “You ended up vomiting all over again.”

“We ended up going home immediately after that, didn’t we?” Sunny looks away from Omori. “Mari had to carry me because I was too sick.”

“Yes,” His smile is starting to become unnerving, “you never got the chance to draw him since Mari put you to bed immediately.”

How humiliating.

“When you finally fell asleep, you had a nightmare.” Sunny looks back at Omori. His smile is starting to look terrifying. “Thus, the first Krel was born and, along with that, the creation of Krel Space! And now…”

“Omori.” He needs that smile to stop.

“…every time you have a nightmare or get scared…” Omori begins to stand on his knees.

“Omori, please.” Sunny can feel his own smile fading away as Omori looks more manic.

Omori flings his arms into the air to emphasize his point, “…a Krel is born!”

And just like that, a Krel magically pops into existence in front of them. It lets out a “Hey, Sunny!” before it begins to scuttle around.

Omori blinks at the Krel moving around the room before slowly turning to face Sunny. The yellow glow surrounding him dissipates as his smile drops and he lets his arms fall back down.

Sunny looks petrified.

He couldn’t move. Omori was only looking at him, but he still couldn’t move. He’s scared of what he had just seen. What was with that face he was making? It’s gone, but it was disturbing! Was that an emotion?

Sunny remembers the colored outlines that would appear when he was Omori. Most of the time it was in battle, but it would also appear outside as well. He frequently saw it on his friends in headspace, but rarely on himself. It was something that reassured him what emotion they were all feeling and made conversations much more easy. 

No outline meant that they were calm or felt nothing. Red was anger, yellow was happiness, and blue was sadness. He probably should have put in more colors, but those three emotions were already bothersome enough. Dealing with people who have more complicated ones like anxiety and boredom is just too difficult.

The color Omori just had was yellow, wasn’t it? He was positive that he and Omori were both just yellow. So, Omori had to have been happy, right? Wait, the thickness of that outline was much more apparent than his own. The thicker the outline was, the more intense the emotion was felt. That must mean that if he was happy, then Omori was feeling… excessively overjoyed?

Has Omori always been this emotional? Is that why he looked so insane? No, wait, Omori shouldn’t be like this. He’s supposed to be the perfect version of himself after all. Smart, calm, confident, courageous, sympathetic, stoic, friendly… everything Sunny had wished he could be but wasn’t. That was Omori. So… what was up with this? Why wasn’t Omori acting like Omori?

“I am,” Omori interrupted Sunny’s thoughts as he moved to stand up, watching Sunny.

Sunny struggles as he meets his gaze, but becomes intrigued by the new look on his face. Even though Omori’s face had relaxed, there was once again something trying to hide behind his eyes. It felt heavy. Like it was dark and dreary… somber perhaps? It was hard to tell, but there was definitely something in there and it wasn’t happy. Was it related to what he had just said? He wonders what he meant by that.

“I mean I am acting like Omori,” said Omori.

Sunny watched as Omori repositioned himself to sit beside him again. He didn’t really understand. What a contradiction. Omori is supposed to be calm and stoic, but what he just witnessed was something along the lines of energetic and expressive. Now he’s suddenly flat faced again, but there’s that sad look in his eyes. It really doesn’t match the image he had of him in his head. The thought of it just made him uncomfortable.

“Sorry.”

Huh? Did Omori just... apologize?

He stares back at him blankly. He doesn’t know how to respond to that. Part of him wants to say ‘it’s okay’ but the other half is screaming ‘EW.’ Still though, even with the image of that creepy manic face burned into his mind, Sunny can’t help but notice how the sadness shown in Omori’s eyes now reflects in the tone of his voice. He lightly nods his head, wishing him to continue.

“What do you want to know next-?”

“Emotions.” Omori squinted his eyes as Sunny abruptly cut him off. It was a little rude, he’ll admit, but he didn’t care. After what he had just seen, he wasn’t going to let this question slide. “Tell me about your emotions.”

Omori slumped his shoulders and dropped his head, briefly watching the Krel aimlessly roam around the ground. By the looks of it, they must be going into the tougher questions now.

“There are a lot of things that need explaining, aren't there?”

Sunny nodded his head. What an understatement that is! There are so many questions he wanted to ask that he hadn’t even gotten to the ones about himself. “Tell me why you’re acting so… strangely.”

“Well…” Omori turned back to face him, “I was made this way.”

Huh? Made this way?

“What do you mean?” Sunny asks.

Omori taps his forehead with his finger, “Think.”

Once again, he looks at Sunny as if he were studying him. Just like he had done earlier when he woke up in White Space.

“You’ve already figured it out, but you haven’t connected the dots yet.”

Sunny stares at him blankly again before Omori lets out a groan, throwing himself back onto the floor and staring at the ceiling. He really didn’t want to explain this.

“Everything Sunny has always wanted to be, I am. Everything he hates about himself, I am not...” He looks back at Sunny, “Everything he wished he could do, I can do, and everything he could do, I’ve already mastered.”

Oh. So that means…

“Precisely.” He points at Sunny, “I’m you, but better.”

“...” Sunny can feel his eyebrow twitch. Wow. What a jerk. “So the emotions?”

“Sunny has- Uhm…” He interrupts himself, dropping his hand and taking a moment to think before continuing. “You know how everyone always comments on how you never smile? Or how your reactions are almost always flat, no matter the occasion?”

A nod. It used to make him feel bad. 

He remembers practicing facial expressions in the bathroom mirror for hours, trying to mimic the faces for each emotion. The ones he learned always felt unnatural and creepy, so he never showed the results to anyone. Eventually he just gave up and would only practice once every now and then. Mari would ask him to smile more often, but he did so seldomly. He didn’t want to scare her away.

“People would always ask why I was so sad. Sometimes they thought I was angry or bored.”

“Yup. You always wished you could express yourself better. It would make you jealous when everyone else smiled and you couldn’t. You were just as happy, but you struggled to show it. You wanted to smile, so I can.” Omori seemed kind of proud of this.

Interesting… So Omori can express himself much better than he can, but that doesn’t fully explain his behavior. What about the intensity? When Sunny was happy, there was only a faint glow. Even when he was sad, it wasn’t as obvious. On the other hand, Omori’s was strong. He had felt the same emotion, but Omori’s was much more intense. Why was that so?

“That’s a stupid question.”

“Huh?” Omori’s statement pulled Sunny from his thoughts.

“I said that’s a stupid question,” said Omori, a little more aggressively this time. “The answer is obvious.”

Oh. That’s right. Omori knows what he’s thinking. Funny how he could forget that so soon.

“Then tell me?” Sunny feels a little embarrassed. Was it so plainly simple and that he was just oblivious? He feels kind of dense for not knowing.

Omori sat back up and held out three fingers.

“Sympathy, empathy, and emotional intensity,” he put his hand back down, “they’re related.”

“How so?” Sunny asked.

“You always wished you could understand why someone would get upset when something bad happened, especially if it was something small. That’s called sympathy. For you, the larger problems were easier to understand, but the smaller ones felt stupid. All you could do was tell them you’re sorry, even though you weren’t. You would just say it because it was the social norm. It made you feel disconnected from the people around you.” Omori tugged the hem of his shirt. “Believe it or not, you were already sympathetic, but you thought you weren’t sympathetic enough. Now I am. Understand?”

That explanation was a little long-winded, but Sunny thinks he got the gist of it. He nodded his head.

“Excellent,” Omori shot him a quick smile before falling back into his neutral face, “that makes the next part easier to explain. Your real problem was empathy.”

“Empathy?”

“Yes,” Omori stopped, trying to figure out how to simplify his explanation. “The issue wasn’t that you couldn’t understand their problems, but that you couldn’t feel it on the same emotional level as them. Remember when Basil’s great great grandmother’s plant died and he couldn’t stop crying? You felt bad too, but you couldn’t shed a tear.”

That… made a lot of sense actually. He remembers having issues with his emotions growing up. They were there, but they were incredibly weak. It would really hurt him when people would comment on it. Even when he knew what emotion he was feeling and why, it always felt like he was faking.

It made him feel like he was defective. It was as if he could never fully connect with those around him. With the little emotion he did feel, he would constantly wonder if he was lying to himself just to fit in. Like an actor wearing a mask. The only time he was positive that he had ever truly felt an emotion was when Mari died.

“Originally, you wished to be more empathetic so you could cry with your friends. That wish quickly created a new one; the ability to feel emotions much more intensely,” Omori laid his right hand over his own heart, “and that was pushed on to me.”

Oh. So Omori was overly emotional because Sunny wanted to be more emotional. Wait. That means… everything Sunny wished he could be, Omori was, but it was to the extreme. All of his hopes, dreams, wishes… they were all reflected in Omori but over exaggerated and out of control. Out of balance. Unhinged. Flawed.

Sunny looked away ashamedly. By forcing his wishes onto Omori, he felt responsible for Omori’s flawed behavior and personality. It was his fault. Sunny ruined Omori.

“I’m sorry.” He truly felt remorseful.

Omori immediately grabbed Sunny’s shoulders, forcing him to face him.

“No no! Don’t be!” He shook Sunny, “It’s not as bad as it seems!”

Ah. Dizzy. Why was he shaking him? Sunny tried to focus on Omori. His eyes were wide and his eyebrows were raised. Is Omori panicking?

“Sure, it can be rough at times but,” he finally stopped shaking him and gave a small smile, “it really doesn’t bother me.”

“It doesn’t?” He finds that kind of hard to believe.

To be overly sympathetic, outgoing, confident, emotional, courageous, social, hard-working, outspoken... Wow. The list could go on forever. There were too many things he hated about himself. For these traits to all be shoved into Omori and dialed up to the extreme, there had to be a lot of conflict between them. To stand your ground but also be understanding… To be outspoken yet polite… To express strong emotions while being the master of hiding them… everything all at once.

“Don’t they conflict? Don’t they make you do things you regret or say things you didn’t mean?”

“Of course it does,” Omori lets go of his shoulders, “but it also lets me be me. It’s how I know that I’m Omori.”

Omori suddenly stopped. His smile began to fade as his eyes widened.

Sunny felt it impossible to move as well. He was surprised by Omori's sudden change. Why did he stop talking? Did he break? Wait, could he even break? He’s as still as a statue but . It’s quite concerning. Is he okay?

“Omori?”

No response. It’s like he’s on a different plane of existence.

“...Omori?” Sunny poked him.

Oh! Omori jumped a little as Sunny poked him. That seemed to snap him out of it. His face falls flat again, but he looks a little startled. Omori immediately begins looking around the room, as if he were looking for something. Like a predator, his eyes lock onto something in the distance.

Sunny can’t stop staring at Omori. It was weird. What just happened to him? Was that normal? He wants to ask.

“Omori, are you-”

Sunny was interrupted when Omori shot up standing and dashed away. He watched as Omori ran to the far end of white space, bend down, cup something into his hands, and sprint back. Wow. He was no match against Kel, but he was surprisingly fast. He wasn’t even breaking a sweat.

“Here.” Omori shoved the object into his hands, forcing Sunny’s hands to cup around it.

Sunny’s spine shivered as he began to feel it wiggle around. Oh god. It’s alive. He cautiously broke his thumbs apart to peek at whatever was inside.

The tiny Krel he had accidentally made earlier wobbled around his palms, “Hey, Sunny!”

Oh~! It’s his son! His precious disgusting little son~!

Before he could open his hands fully, Omori placed his own on top of Sunny’s, forcing them to close tightly together again. Sunny looked back up to Omori in surprise.

“Don’t let it out. They’re really hard to catch.” He let go of Sunny’s hands. “They’ve already taken over The Last Resort. I don’t want them in here.”

Ah, that makes sense. Sunny looked back down at his cupped hands. He wouldn’t want them running around his home either. They’re cute, but also hideous and annoying.

…

He looked back up at Omori.

…

Omori looked back expectantly.

…

It’s wiggling around in his hands again. Ew.

...

He looked back and forth between his hands and Omori. He’s kind of getting sick of holding it.

...

Sunny let out a sigh, “So do I just… hold it forever?”

He really hopes that isn’t the case.

Omori gave out a quick snort before standing up, lifting Mewo off Sunny’s lap. She jumped out of his arms and gracefully walked back to her spot near the blanket.

“Come on,” Omori grabbed Sunny’s elbow and gently pulled him to stand up, “let’s take it home.”

Sunny complied, standing up and following closely behind as Omori walked towards the corner of the blanket.

“Wait, get off,” Omori pointed to a spot on the floor right by the laptop.

Sunny moved to stand in the spot and watched as Omori placed the laptop to the side and lift the corner of the blanket.

Sunny’s mouth dropped open. There was a hole in the floor! A giant hole hidden underneath the blanket! With his hands still cupped together, he crouched down to look inside. How was this possible? Could White Space even have a hole?!

“I was angry.”

Huh?

Before he could ask, he felt a hand briefly touch his back. Less than a second later, he found himself plummeting through hole and into the white abyss. Did Omori just push him?!

Oh god. He did. He could see the floor and it’s getting closer. He wanted to scream, but his throat choked up, only letting him give a short gasp. He heard a popping sound.

“Hey, Sunny!”

He jumped to see a slightly larger Krel free falling beside him. It must have popped into existence as he was falling. He tried to reach out for it, but a white arm snatched it up instead. Oh. A white arm. Sunny looked back up to see Omori falling closely behind him.

His face… He looked so brave. So determined. Omori wasn’t scared at all. Sunny could only stare in admiration. Wow-

-SMACK-

Arms stretched out and hands still cupped, he belly flopped onto the floor. A thud shortly came after.

Ah. It stung. His tears were already rolling down his cheeks. He was in one piece, but the whole front of his body was burning. It hurt really badly. He grimaced as he struggled to stand back up.

He heard a quiet sniff.

Oh, right. Omori was here. Sunny wiped the tears off his face before looking down to see Omori sitting on the floor, clutching a Krel between his arms and legs.

Sunny crouched down to help him up, but paused when Omori shook his head. Omori’s eyes were watering and he was biting his lip. Omori stifled another sniff and refused to get up. Ah. He must have landed on his tailbone. Ouch. Sunny sat beside him and waited.

It didn’t take long for Omori to stop sniffling. Sunny could still feel the stinging sensation covering the entire front half of his body. Looking back at Omori though, his expression was flat again. Impossible to read and calm. Was the landing not as painful as it looked or was Omori just really good at pretending it wasn’t? Wow. Sunny wiped away his own tears. He felt kind of jealous.

Omori dropped the Krel from his lap and watched it scuttle around. Sunny opened his palms and did the same. It was astonishingly tiny compared to the other one.

“The spook determines the Krel,” Omori unenthusiastically stated as they watched the two Krels scuttle away.

“Huh?” What did he mean by that?

Omori squinted his eyes and frowned, facing Sunny. He looked annoyed.

“The scarier something is, the bigger the Krel will be,” Omori turned to face behind them, “look.”

Sunny turned around to see a large crowd of Krels. He was shocked. There had to be hundreds, if not thousands, of them. Some were gigantic, some were too small to see clearly from the given distance.

He pointed to a random one in the crowd. It was smaller than most, but it wasn’t as tiny as the one he had earlier. “That one was from the time you played Resident Evil with Hero and Kel.” Omori dropped his hand.

They played Resident Evil together? Sunny… doesn’t remember that.

“Mari was against it. She told you it would give you nightmares as it was one of the first games ever rated as mature, but you were dead set on playing it anyway.”

Hm. Knowing himself, the rating probably made it even more attractive.

Omori continued, “All three of you went behind Mari’s back and waited outside Hobbeez on release day, but they wouldn’t let any of you buy it because of your age. So, Kel and Hero begged their dad to buy it on yours and their behalf. They were just as excited to play.”

Wait… Hero wanted to play?

“Their dad refused at first. He trusted his sons but was concerned because you were only 8. He didn’t want you to get spooked. Kel and Hero had to explain that you wanted it the most and you insisted that you would be okay since you were almost 9.”

He still didn’t remember, but that sounded like something he would do. He knew he could be stubborn sometimes, especially when he really wanted something. Sunny nodded his head, waiting for Omori to resume his explanation.

“Eventually, he relented. The four of you walked to Hobbeez together and, after waiting outside by the fountain, their dad exited the store and handed you the shopping bag. You three ran home as fast as you could, practically leaving their dad behind.”

Oops.

“As soon as you entered their house, you all rushed up the stairs and immediately popped it in the console. It didn’t end well. Long story short; you wet yourself, Kel wouldn’t stop crying, and Hero learned that he didn’t like horror games.”

Oh. He vaguely remembers that. It feels so distant, but he remembered that they were all so scared that they spent the night together. They had slept with the light on and shoved themselves into the same bed. Afterwards, he slept in Mari’s bed for days. How embarrassing. He’s kind of glad he feels so disconnected from that one.

Sunny scratched his head as he scanned around the area. Each Krel represents a fear… a fear that he barely remembered. As his eyes landed on a few of the Krels, he tried to recall what memory they held.

Some of them kept their secrets, giving Sunny nothing at all. Others would spark some insight, but it felt so wrong. With Omori explaining the memory each Krel represented, he would close his eyes to try to relive it. He could see, hear, and feel everything exactly as it was, but it was weird. He knew he was in them, but he felt strange and disconnected. No matter how much he recalled, that distant feeling persisted. It was as if the memories weren’t his own.

After another explanation, he opened his eyes again and spotted a giant Krel moving far away in the background. It was the same one he was riding on the back of a few days ago.

Sunny pointed to it, “What about that one?”

“Hm?” Omori's gaze followed the direction of where Sunny’s finger pointed before landing on the giant Krel.

“What spooky memory does that one represent?” Sunny asked as he dropped his hand back into his lap.

“Oh. That one is from the time Basil stabbed your eye out,” he answered nonchalantly.

“What?” He was in disbelief.

“When Basil stabbed your eye out!” He answered again, more aggressively.

“Basil… stabbed my…?” Sunny scrunched his face as his eyes closed shut.

Omori watched unconcerned as Sunny clutched his right eye. Sunny could feel it began to sting. It was as if someone had taken a finishing nail, pierced his right eye with it, and drove it straight into his skull. The pain was at its peak. It was agonizing.

As the pain slowly subsided, Sunny started to remember that night. The sleepover, the bedroom, the shears going through his eye… Wasn’t that last week? No, wait, it was last month, right? That doesn’t sound correct either, but it was definitely recently. How could he have forgotten something that just happened? There were so many questions flooding back into his head.

Why did he forget everything? Why did the memories he did remember feel so vague and distant? Why doesn’t he understand himself or anything around him? Why does everything make sense only in here and White Space? What is the reason that he feels so incomplete? Why does he feel so broken?

He wanted to start with the easy questions, but he’s tired of beating around the bush. He wants answers now. He waited for the pain to disappear.

When it was finally gone, Sunny tried to open his eyes, but the right one stayed shut. Even if he couldn’t see out of it, having one eye open and the other one closed felt uncomfortable. Omori watched as he tried to pry his eye open with his fingers, only to find it wouldn’t budge. Eventually, he gave up. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

Sunny looked back to find Omori staring back at him expectantly. Right. He knows what he’s thinking. Creepy.

Sunny faced away down to the floor as he tried to figure out how to phrase his question. He needs to know why he’s felt so disoriented and incoherent. He wants to know why his memories feel so vague and disconnected. Why does he remember his friends, but feels like he doesn’t know them? It hasn’t always been this way, has it?

He looked up again to see Omori still staring. His upper body is leaning towards him again, just like earlier. It looks like he’s deep in thought as well.

‘...does Omori even know?’ he wonders.

So far, Omori has seemed to know everything. He hasn’t asked a lot, but Omori’s explanations have been deep and thorough. Obviously, Omori knows something. If anything, he definitely knows more about everything than Sunny. He decides to ask.

“Omori…?” Sunny tries to grab his attention.

Omori perks up a bit, showing that he’s listening. Good. Sunny takes a deep breath in an attempt to mentally steady himself before asking. It works.

“Omori, what’s wrong with me?”

“Oh, that’s easy!” Omori straightens back up before before relaxing again. “You’re not Sunny.”

“What?” He doesn’t understand.

“You’re not Sunny.”

‘He’s… joking right?’ Sunny thought to himself, but something deep down inside him knew that wasn’t true. Omori was serious.

As Sunny continued to stare at Omori, could feel his heart begin to race and his body filled with anxiety. He wants to run, but he can’t. His legs won’t move. He’s stuck. All he could do was look away. He stared at his hand on the ground.

Why couldn’t he move? Was Omori doing this? Did he even have the power to do this? He does give off this weird feeling of sentience, but Omori is still just a figment of his imagination, isn’t he? If so, then he shouldn’t be able to do this. This was his mind. He shouldn’t be able to control Sunny.

Still though, he is. Omori is in his mind, but he’s controlling him. This wasn’t right. This was his brain. They’re in his head, not Omori’s. That means he should have greater control than Omori. If Omori won’t let him move, then he'll just have to make Omori go away.

Sunny closed his eye and imagined Omori disappearing but, when he opened his eye and glanced over to him, Omori was still there, watching him. Patiently waiting.

His anxiety was slowly turning into panic. It was strange. He shouldn’t be there. Imagining things was how the spaces worked. He knows it. He remembers it. It was how he could summon his items and his weapon. It was how he would become Omori. He would imagine it. When he just wanted to be alone, lie down, and sleep, it was exactly how he got rid of him. So, why wasn’t it working? Perhaps it was just a fluke? Was something wrong with his abilities? He has to test this.

He closed his eye again and began to imagine: 12 baby ducklings, a sheer white canopy, a walking accordion, some action figurines, a box of color pencils, and no more Omori. When he felt little waddling feet traversing across his lap, he opened his eye and looked around. There he was, sitting under a hanging sheer white canopy, unable to contain the 12 baby ducklings as they slowly rolled off his lap. The accordion was tripping over the action figurines several feet in front of him and, on his right, crouching beside him as he handed him the box of pencils, was Omori.

Sunny stared at him as his eye went wide. He was shocked. As he received the box of colored pencils, he opened them and peeked inside. It was just the standard 12 pack rainbow colors. He pulled out the light blue one and swiped it across the floor, leaving a line behind. So... his powers worked fine. He could still summon things, but... he looked back up to his monochromatic twin who was now standing... he can’t get rid of Omori? If he can’t get rid of Omori then...

‘Does this mean…’

Sunny watched as Omori looked around at his creations, slowly beginning to unsummon them.

‘...that Omori is…’

He watched as everything he made disappeared, besides the canopy and the ducks he was holding.

‘...alive?’

Omori turned back to face him. Through his peripheral vision, he saw the canopy disappear. All but one duckling had gone missing. Omori grabbed the remaining baby duck and gently rested it on top of Sunny’s head, where it stayed put firmly in place. Sunny opened his mouth,

“I-…”

Nothing else came out. He doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t even know what to think.

Omori crouched down beside him again, facing him as he gave him his full attention. Sunny could only stare back, lost in his confusion.

‘So… Omori is alive, Omori is real and, not only that, but Omori knows everything.’

Sunny’s gaze dropped back down to the colored pencil box in his hands. He began to fiddle with it as he started to think.

Omori is here, he can’t make him go away. He previously had never confirmed it and just figured it was his subconsciousness manifested as Omori to tell him some hidden truths. At least, that’s what he wanted it to be, but now he was sure that wasn’t the case. Omori is alive. Omori is sentient. Omori is real.

Sunny dropped the colored pencils into his lap and went to take the duckling off his head. He moved to place it on the floor but, as its feet touched the ground, it instantaneously vanished. He jumped at its sudden disappearance. He didn’t do that. He only meant to place it down, he didn’t want it to go away. He was the only one who could make things appear and disappear in the spaces. Unless Omori has that ability too? Does that mean… Omori... also has free will?

Sunny looked back up at Omori. He was just sitting there twiddling his thumbs. He does. Omori has a mind of his own. He does have free will. If that’s the case, then, what he had said earlier… it couldn’t have been his subconsciousness trying to trick him. Sunny tried to regain his composure as he thought about what Omori had said.

“I’m not Sunny?” He let out a deep breath.

“No,” Omori said flatly.

Sunny stared at the floor for a moment as he felt the panic leave his body. For a moment, he felt empty, but then he began to glow red. Omori watched, surprised, as the intensity grew. Sunny raised his hands and began repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists.

Omori is wrong. Omori is wrong and Sunny knows it. He must be lying. There’s no way he’s not Sunny. How could he not be Sunny? He knows he’s Sunny. He’s SURE he’s Sunny. HE IS SUNNY…

He stared at fists as he held them shut tightly.

‘...but…’

The red glow began to slowly disappear as his hands finally relaxed.

‘...why does that feel wrong too?’

Finally, the anger left his body, leaving behind a void of nothingness.

He isn’t Sunny. That’s a lie. He is Sunny, but that’s a lie too. How could he be both? It felt like Omori was lying to him, yet he was also telling him the truth? What does this mean?

Sunny looked at Omori, but Omori quickly turned away from him. Was he… avoiding him? Sunny reached out to grab him, but he stopped, noticing that Omori was sporting a faint blue outline again. When did that happen? He put his hand back down. Something was wrong. He wanted to ask what, but something in his mind is telling him to back off and wait it out. He could feel a pang of sadness developing inside his own gut.

As he waited for Omori, he watched the Krels roaming around and bumping into each other in the distance. It was strange to him. Each one represented a nightmare or scare that he had once known.

It didn’t make any sense. If he wasn’t Sunny, then how was he able to recall each memory if they weren’t his own? If he was Sunny, then why did it feel like they weren’t his memories? Is this why he remembers his friends, but feels like he doesn’t know them? He knows they’re his friends and he knows he loves them dearly, but he doesn’t remember much about them. They’re his family, but they’re also strangers. The only reason he’s been able to properly remember anything so far was because...

He looked back at Omori. The blue outline was gone, but Omori was still facing away from him.

'...because of Omori.'

Sunny looked away again.

He could feel them, he knew they were there, but the only reason he could recall any of them was because Omori would tell him about them. It was weird. Why did Omori remember everything anyway? It’s a little unfair. Was Omori a key of some sort? Or was there something else going on?

He took a quick peek at Omori, wanting to ask, but he was still sulking.

How did Omori remember everything anyway when he didn’t? If he was Sunny, wouldn’t it make sense for his inner… twin? or whatever Omori is…. to have the same memories as him? It would make more sense if he wasn’t-… wait.

If he was Sunny, he would remember everything. If he wasn’t Sunny, then he wouldn’t remember anything. No matter what, Omori knows everything. What if...is Omori-?

“No.”

Sunny jumped from Omori’s interjection. He turned to find Omori facing him. 

“I’m not Sunny,” he said firmly.

“Then who is?”

“Technically, we’re both Sunny.”

“...What?” Sunny stared at Omori, nearly flabbergasted.

“It’s not that hard to understand. I was hoping you would just get it.” Omori let out an irritated sigh, “You’re not Sunny, we both are. You’re... more like the foundation of what Sunny is. A base of some sort. An incomplete consciousness.”

“I... don’t understand,” Sunny tilted his head.

“I know.” Omori stated flatly. What a jerk. “Let’s just start from the beginning.”

Sunny leaned in as Omori began the explanation.

“Do you remember that white room after the accident?”

He… remembered going somewhere a lot. It was white and… empty? He thinks there was a window, but he couldn’t remember much else about it. It was hard to tell what was happening. All he truly remembered was being cold and very much alone.

He shook his head side to side, indicating no.

“That’s fine. That’s pretty much all I remember too, but, from what I’ve found, I think it was either the inspiration for White Space or the first version of it. The current version of White Space came shortly after - minus the hole in the ground.” Omori smiled at his own joke.

Interesting…

“Anyway, the current version of White Space was made by Sunny. Not you Sunny, the Sunny.” Omori clarified. “He was unable to cope with what he had done, so he would use it to mentally shut down and escape. That was the purpose of White Space.”

Hm. He did remember lying down in White Space a lot.

“While White Space was made to numb the mind, it wasn’t safe.”

It wasn’t safe? What did he mean by that?

“It means that he would think. That was the exact opposite of what he wanted to do.”

Omori paused for a moment as a Krel scuttled on by.

“He would enter White Space with the intention of shutting his brain off, but he would find himself replaying the accident over and over again in his head.”

How sad.

“He cursed himself for everything he had ever done wrong, even before the accident, hating himself even more. Each time he entered White Space, the thoughts would flood in faster. His once safe place would consistently lead to pain.” Omori paused.

Wow. That’s… Sunny could feel his gut fill with lead. He’s kind of glad that these memories feel so distant. Even with how disconnected they are, they still hurt so badly. He nodded at Omori, wishing for him to continue.

“The constant mental anguish was exhausting. As a result, he created something new; Headspace. It was to be the successor to White Space.”

Headspace?

“But isn’t Headspace the exact opposite of White Space?” Sunny interjected, ”It’s full of life, toys, friends, memories, and activities. You have to think while there.”

“Precisely.” Omori nodded. “He couldn’t ignore his thoughts, so he flipped the other direction; he tried to distract himself from them.”

Oh.

“Headspace was initially successful in its purpose. He filled it with everything he loved, but, because Sunny was allowing himself to think as he used his imagination to build Headspace, it resulted in the reminder of what he had done. They became impossible to ignore.”

Tragic.

“What were the reminders?” Sunny asked.

“Everything. All those little happy things he left lying around started to torment him. Toys, books, foods, people… They all held fond memories, but each item quickly became a symbol of what he had done. What he had taken away. What she could never experience again. It was agony.” Omori explained. “He became reluctant to enter Headspace…”

Omori reached over to grab a black colored pencil from Sunny’s lap.

“...and that’s where you and I came in.”

Sunny watched Omori as he laid forward on the ground. He began to draw on the floor in front of them.

“Realizing that Headspace and White Space had both been created with similar intentions and failed in the exact same manner,” Omori slowly drew a line on the floor, “he made one final attempt at happiness.”

A curve was added to the end of the line.

“With arduous effort,” another curve mirroring the first one was added, “he learned to break his own mind... his own consciousness.”

Omori reached over and grabbed two more colored pencils, one red and one blue.

He began to trace the bottom curve with the red. “One half held his hopes, dreams, and wishes. Everything he had always wanted and everything that he had always longed to be. He put in a lot of hard work in this half and used it for himself. That became me.”

He then traced the top curve with the blue. “The other half was what he had to leave behind;  something that stayed in the body to sustain life and something that contained his real true identity.”

“His real true identity?” Sunny asked.

“Yes. He didn’t want his dreams to be ruined while he lived his fantasies through me, so he stuffed everything he disliked into it. His fears, self doubt, lack of confidence, vulnerabilities, etc... that included his identity. There wasn’t a lot of effort put into this half since he didn’t plan to use it for anything more than storage. Unfortunately, this resulted in something broken. Something incomplete. The bare minimum.” Omori finished his trace and pointed the colored pencil at Sunny. “You.”

Sunny stared at the pencil in his face. “Me?”

Omori nodded his head. He then replaced the colored pencil in his hand with the black one and started to draw the same pattern again.

“While this divergence helped let Sunny live his dreams, he was always slapped with the facts of reality upon awakening.”

Omori circled the point where the two curves met.

“Repeating the same process every night of denying the truth and dreaming a lie, he slowly got better at subconsciously hiding it. Eventually, he had nearly perfected it, being able to shove the truth almost completely into the other half. Sometimes it would leak out, but he would subconsciously fix it. He allowed himself to forget everything about it and tied to it. He accepted his dreams so strongly that he began to believe them, even when his consciousness wasn’t divided.”

He paused, taking the moment to sit back up before continuing.

“Something happened one night, though.”

Omori began to draw a picture of himself.

“Something that had never happened before.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow in interest as he watched Omori finish his drawing.

“He woke up in White Space as you and…”

Omori picked up the red colored pencil again.

“...He rejected me.”

Sunny almost fell back as Omori momentarily glowed an intense red, violently striking a thick red line through his own self portrait.

The red glow slowly transitioned into a very faint blue again. Barely perceptible to the eye, but stronger than the blue he held just moments ago. He laid the pencil back down on the ground before holding his hands together and looking back at Sunny.

“That was the first time we had ever fought.”

Sunny slowly began to remember that fight more clearly than before. Staring at Omori, but… also staring at Sunny.

“It was the first time we had ever disagreed.” Sunny added, readjusting himself back into position.

Omori glanced at him, nodding. He then looked back to his drawing.

“Anyway, I don’t know when exactly we both became our own… things. Sure, we existed before whenever he would sleep but, up until that point, we were still both Sunny. Every time he woke up, we both stopped existing as two and immediately became one. That’s why we both share the exact same memories.”

He pointed back at the point in his drawing where the two curves converged.

“That was us. That was Sunny.”

Was…

Omori began to draw the exact same pattern one more time, but stopped halfway through the curve. He pointed at the drawing.

“And this is us now.”

Sunny looked at where Omori had pointed. His finger was lying right on top of the incomplete curve. With this, he pieced together the information just given with their current situation.

“...we’re still divided?” Sunny looked back at Omori.

“Yes.” Omori nodded. “And we can’t go back.”

Sunny’s eye went wide. What? They can’t go back? Why?

Omori sat back up and continued, “I think it had something to do with the fight, but I’m not entirely sure.”

He looked back at the drawing.

“I remember being Sunny but… how do you remember that fight?” Omori asked Sunny.

Sunny relaxed and looked away as he tried to remember each detail of their fight. Omori watched him, leaning slightly towards him as he gave him his full attention. He was curious.

“I remember looking at you, but I also remember looking at me.”

Omori raised an eyebrow, but the rest of his face remained flat.

“I remember looking at myself, telling myself how useless I was. I remember saying I was a burden. A selfish liar. Reminding myself about how everyone loved Mari and that I had killed her. I felt like I didn’t deserve to live.”

Sunny faced Omori again, locking eyes.

“But I remembered looking at you and you telling me that I could never receive forgiveness. You called me sick. You repeatedly told me that I should just die.”

Omori’s eyes looked away for a second before locking back in.

“You told me that my friends didn’t love me and that I was just lying to them about who I am. You said that if they learned the truth, they would never forgive me. They would only hate me...” Sunny looked at the white sky. “...but I remembered how much I loved them and, even if they hated me, they would want me to live.”

He was right. He knew it in his heart. Even if they never wanted to see him again, they would never wish death on him.

“So, on their behalf, I wanted to live. I knew that they loved me as much as I loved them,” Sunny turned to face Omori again, “I wanted them to know the truth, so I beat you. I did it for them.”

Sunny watched as Omori slightly smiled at him, cheeks dimpling as the blue haze that surrounded him began to dissipate.

“Then that’s where the tear began.” Omori said as he looked away, still smiling.

Sunny stared at him, wondering what he meant.

“I remember the same things, but also a little differently.” Omori added.

He looked back at Sunny.

“I, too, remember looking at and being both Sunny and Omori, but I didn’t have the same mindset.”

His smile faded away, returning him back to it’s neutral flat face.

“I remember wanting to live, but knowing that I didn’t deserve to.”

He squinted his eyes a bit and looked away.

“I tried to fight myself. I wanted to move on with my life. I wanted to come clean with the truth. I wanted to learn to accept and forgive myself but, at the same time, I also believed I couldn’t handle it. I felt like I didn’t deserve a second chance at life. I think that’s where our thoughts began to diverge.”

Omori began to frown a little, the blue haze slowly returning as he played with the hem of his shirt again.

“I remember being conflicted. I tried to think of a scenario that would fix all of this. If I told the truth, my friends might hate me. If I chose to forget, I couldn’t fathom how long it would take to repair everything… to be able to hide again.”

He stopped playing with his shirt.

“I wasn’t even sure if I could even forget the truth again.”

Omori faced back towards Sunny. The frown was now gone, but his body still carried that somber aura.

“It took Sunny four years to get to where we were, and we hadn’t even closed all the gaps yet. The truth would still leak out of things and places. Every time we got close to the truth, we would reset Headspace. Each iteration was stronger than the last, but it was never strong enough.”

Omori began to slouch a bit as he spoke.

“It was the first time that the truth had been revealed. As Sunny, I had gotten close before, but, as Omori, I was able to hide it and forget about it before it was fully shown.”

Sunny began to mimic Omori, slouching as well as he listened.

“I began to worry that Headspace wouldn’t work as it used to before and that it would have to be replaced. I couldn’t even think of a way it could even be replaced.”

Omori brought his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. Sunny did the exact same.

“With how long it took to create White Space and how long it took to replace it with Headspace, I was afraid I would be stuck in bed for years and years trying to think of and build its successor, all while remembering everything I had done and the lives I had ruined.”

That frown was starting to come back.

“I didn’t want to do that again. I didn’t want to suffer for decades, waiting to forget again...” Omori paused, “so I wanted to die.”

Omori stared at the drawing in front of him, tucking his chin into his knees. His face had grown miserable, but he refused to cry.

“I think I was already me at that point, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I don’t remember being Sunny again during our fight, only looking at him and reminding him of everything we had done. I tried to convince him… you? I tried to convince you to die… for us to die, but,” Omori looked back at Sunny, face returning back to neutral again, “You proved me wrong about not being able to handle the truth. You persisted. You showed me that I could get better. That I could accept the truth and that I wanted to live.”

The blue outline disappeared and Omori began to faintly smile again. Sunny gave Omori a quick pat on the back, only to receive a short pat on the head in return.

Omori continued, “As Sunny, you reminded me how much I loved my friends, how they deserved to know the truth, and how I didn’t want to hurt them again with my death. At that point, I knew everything was going to be okay, even if they hated me after. That’s when I backed down and decided to let you pass.”

Sunny began to smile, but Omori’s face immediately fell flat.

“That fight, though, must have been the catalyst for our separation.” Omori stated.

“What do you mean?” Sunny asked.

“Think about it. It was the first time he had ever fought. The first time we had ever disagreed.” He looked back at the drawing. “Even though we ended up agreeing at the end of it, it was the first time we had ever had a separate wish. A wish that conflicted with each other’s.”

Omori looked back at Sunny, “An opposition.”

Omori’s eyes dropped back down to the drawing, pointing at the first moment that the line diverged. Sunny followed his gaze.

“Sunny’s mind was already severely broken by the splitting of his consciousness. He would’ve been okay, but having both halves conflict with each other must have irreversibly damaged it.” He paused, ”We merged one more time and gave our confession, but that was it.”

He dragged his hand to the end of the drawing, where the two lines separated but didn’t connect.

“This is where we’re at now.” He looked at Sunny. “Two separated consciousnesses belonging to one entity. Permanently ripped from each other making both of us broken and incomplete.”

He pointed to the bottom red line.

“I woke up in here, so I physically don’t exist. Mentally, however, I am both Sunny and Omori. Honestly, I’d much rather be myself. I like being Omori.”

He pointed to the top blue line.

“Physically, you’re Sunny. Mentally, you're just a fragment. You've never really existed. Everything is still there, but it’s broken and incomplete. There was very little work put into you after all. That’s why you’re so confused and can’t understand anything when you’re awake. You’re the bare minimum, the storage, the foundation of Sunny, or what he used to be. You’re basically a clean slate.”

Omori lifted his hand off the drawing, examining where the two lines diverged completely.

“I woke up in here… in Black Space. That means I’m physically inside your brain. You woke up in the body. You've always been the body. You've never been Omori, so I guess that makes you the 'new' Sunny. Technically we’re both Sunny, but the way that things are now,”

Omori looked up and met Sunny’s eyes.

“There is no more Sunny.”

Omori had lain down again, silently doodling on the floor of Krel Space in front of him. He wanted to give Sunny a chance to process the load of information he had just dropped. Sunny sat cross-legged as he stared blankly at the white sky above him. There was already so much to take in and Omori hadn’t even finished explaining everything yet. Sunny needed to think about it.

He was Sunny. He was not Sunny. He remembered life as Omori, but he had never actually been Omori. As a matter of fact, he was barely even Sunny. He was only just a fragment of him. The reason he shared his memories with Omori was because their minds melted together every day after the real Sunny had woken up. Together, they were both Sunny, but separated, Omori was Omori and he was… nothing.

Sunny looked at Omori as he continued to doodle. He was filling in a black cat he had drawn. There were so many questions, but he wasn’t ready to ask yet. There was a lot on his mind.

What even was he? Omori described him as ‘the foundation’ of Sunny, but what did that even mean? Something that was left inside the body, barely with a consciousness, used to help conceal Sunny’s true identity. He was a part of him, a piece of Sunny, but, at the same time, he has never been anything. At least, not on his own.

Omori said that he had never mentally existed. He was just the storage, something that was left behind to breathe. Had he ever even woken up before? He remembers waking up and looking at Omori, becoming Omori, but… that wasn’t him. That was Sunny. If that were true then who was he? When did he become his own... thing? He existed before, but only temporarily. Just like Omori. They only existed when Sunny slept, splitting his own mind as he dreamed. If the fight caused their usually temporary separation to become permanent, then was that when he became something? Was that when Omori became Omori?

Sunny looked back at Omori again. This time, he was already looking right back at him, watching. Was he waiting? They locked eyes for a moment before Omori slowly turned back to his drawing. Sunny looked away again.

Omori woke up here, he had never physically existed. Sunny woke up ‘out there,’ he had only ever barely existed. They were both one mind. One shared consciousness, but split unevenly into two. Omori had the most awareness while Sunny was left with almost nothing. It was almost like Omori was the mind and Sunny was the body. Together, they were Sunny, but since they couldn’t combine, there was no more Sunny. So, he wondered, where did that leave them?

If he barely had a mind, then what’s going to happen when he wakes up? Will he be able to comprehend life, or will it go back to the way things were before? The first time he entered Krel Space, that haze lifted. When he had woken up, however, it returned. He could barely function.

What about Omori? He’s trapped in the mind. What has he even been doing this entire time? Is he doomed to just roam around the spaces until the body dies? Until he dies? It wouldn’t take long, but they both already agreed that they didn’t want to die. He needed to find a way to stay alive, to survive, for both himself, Omori, and his friends. But even if he could find a way to sustain himself, would they be stuck like this forever? Two broken and incomplete beings? Forever struggling?

“Not exactly.”

Sunny was pulled from his thoughts by Omori’s interruption. He looked back at Omori who was in the middle of drawing a second cat right by the first.

“Don’t get me wrong. This is permanent. We will always be broken, but… there might be a way for us to function.”

Sunny tilted his head, wondering what Omori had meant by that. He silently waited for Omori to finish his drawing.

“You were wondering what I have been doing this entire time, right? Since our fight?” Omori asked as he turned to face Sunny.

Sunny nodded his head in response.

“Well, I won’t lie, but I’m not going to tell you the truth.”

...jerk

“So, what were you doing?” Sunny asked.

“Spaces.” Omori turned back to his drawing.

“Spaces?”

“Spaces.”

“...”

“...”

Sunny wanted to rip his hair out. Not this again…

Omori smirked, “It took me a while, but I met with an old friend. She told me how to get you here.”

‘Who? She? Get me here? What?’

Omori finished his drawing, momentarily stopping as he admired his artwork before sitting back up to face Sunny.

“Abbi.”

...Abbi. That name sounded familiar. No. Wait. Abbi. ABBI! His old friend! She’s still around? Sunny could feel his face forming a smile the more he thought about her. Were all of their headspace friends still around?

“They are, but they’re not the same. Headspace is kind of broken.”

“Broken?”

Omori nodded.

“Everything is still there, but it’s as if Headspace is frozen in time. Nobody moves. There is nothing to do. No one to fight. Not even the wind or waves move. Only some things are working. Everything else is broken.”

Wait. Shouldn’t everything still work normally? Omori was there after all.

“It should, but it doesn’t.”

Omori paused as he looked back at the two cats in his drawing.

“After I woke up in Black Space, I first found Mari and Basil. I was really confused at the time. I asked them what had happened to Headspace, but they didn’t have much of an answer. Apparently, Headspace froze when I found Basil in Black Space... After I ascended the throne.”

The throne…? Oh. The throne. The red hands. That throne. Gross. Why did he sit on that?

“It wasn’t me. It was Sunny. Subconsciously.” Omori stated flatly.

Oh. So it wasn’t a choice. From the sound of it, he didn’t want to sit on it either. It was Sunny’s mind as a whole that forced his body to move on its own.

“Anyway, they recommended I try to find others in Headspace that were like them. I had to run back and forth everywhere, but eventually I stumbled across Abbi.”

He stumbled?

“I didn’t recognize her at first. She was deep inside The Abyss. Apparently we, Sunny and I, banished her there at some point. Her form had melted into the ground. Even though I didn’t know who she was, she knew me and was aware of what was happening. Despite what had become of her, she wanted to help.”

Good ‘ol Abbi. Kind and forgiving. He really felt like he didn’t deserve her.

“I asked her a lot of questions. She had a lot of answers, including about you.” Omori momentarily paused before continuing. “She hypothesized that Headspace had broken because something important went missing. A part of me.”

He pointed to the white cat next to the black one in his drawing before turning his head to look back at Sunny.

“You.”

What?

He stared at the cats.

What did he have to do with it? He had technically never been to Headspace before. He didn’t understand how his absence would have any affect on it. Why would Omori need him? 

“It’s because of the way we separated.”

Sunny kept staring at the cats as he listened. They were… kind of cute.

“Abbi said that, during our last moments as Sunny, we were too unstable. We were able to hold it together for our confession, but not for long. That instability caused our mind to rip apart unevenly. A part of me went into you and that’s why you’re more… alive compared to before.”

Sunny… wasn’t sure how to process this information. Before he had only been storage, but their fight caused them to rip apart unevenly which allowed him to become sentient? If their shared consciousness had been distributed as it were before, then… he wouldn’t have woken up, would he? He would still be asleep.

The idea of him sleeping for eternity, unaware of his surroundings and never even thinking, just the thought of it was scary. He could imagine himself laying in that hospital bed, only breathing, not even eating. His friends constantly watching. His friends... What would his friends have done? To see him like that, after all their suffering. Would Basil had told them the truth? Would Basil even be alive? Basil…

The air around Sunny had begun to glow a heavy blue. Just the thought of Basil’s death… His heart was hurting. He was upset about Basil’s involvement with Mari, but… he didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve any punishment. Basil was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, wasn’t he? His idea was awful, but... he shouldn’t have had to go through this. It wasn’t his fault. Basil never would have… if Sunny hadn’t… with the violin… and now that he was gone… would someone stop him? Could someone stop him? Basil… Is he going to be okay?

Even if he was quick to shake, scream, or cry, Sunny had always thought of Basil as a tough cookie. His attitude and behavior gave him an appearance of weakness, but he always had a spirit that was hard to squash. Basil was passionate and strong. He gave everything his all. Even after everything he had been subjected to, it took four years of endless torture for him to finally break. Basil was tough.

The blue glow began to dissipate.

Basil will survive. Basil can’t be crushed. And even if he falls, their friends will always be there to catch him. Sunny knows it.

Still though, his friends, all of them… how were they handling all this?

Sunny thought back to his final moments with his friends. Kel knocking, or well banging, on his door, insisting they hang out. Looking over the album as they had dinner with his old best friend Basil. Sleeping over with Hero in a pillow fort, just like they used to when they were kids. Hanging out with Aubrey and seeing how strong she had become. He missed them, but…

Ignoring Kel for years on end, wasn’t he also his best friend? Giving Basil an unfathomable amount of distress. He should have never left him. Causing Hero’s year long depression. Murdering the love of his life. Sunny had always thought they were supposed to get married. And then he stole the only thing Aubrey had left. Her role model, her friend, her big sister, her sense of stability, her happiness. He took away her smile.

He loved them and he missed them, but he had also hurt them. He took away their family and their friend. Their lives were shattered by his mistake and, now that he was gone, they were stuck picking up the pieces. It wasn’t fair. They didn’t deserve this. He wondered what they thought of him. Did they think of him? He…

Sunny had forgotten about Omori. He looked up from the cats, but Omori wasn’t there. Where did he-?

Oh.

Omori was behind him now, focusing intensely as he drew more cats on the floor. There had to be at least a dozen of them, all shaped like loaves but in different colors and sizes. Were they always this obsessed with cats? Whatever.

He looked back at the two black and white cats from before.

He had more important things to worry about. His friends.

The last thing he saw... his friends, they were blurs. Colorful blurs that initially scared him. At the time, he didn’t know who they were. What did they think was going on? He barely knew what was going on himself, so to see it all from the other side… how awful that must have been.

He could see that blue coming back to surround him again.

They must have been terrified. After confessing something so grave, he turned into… a husk. A shell of the being that they once knew, someone that they had once loved. To see that, to witness the mental degradation of someone so close to their hearts, how much that had to have hurt. They cared for him, they loved him, and, even though they were grieving again from his confession, they didn’t leave him behind. He had hurt them all three times. He had even made Kel cry.

He needed to fix this, but how? He’s so broken.

Sunny stared at the black cat. Omori…

Both himself and Omori. They’re both broken. The damage is permanent. They’re both two incomplete consciousnesses. But, there might be a way. Omori had said this. There might be a way to function.

He looked behind him again. Omori wasn’t drawing anymore. Instead, he was staring right at him, waiting. That’s right, he knew what he was thinking.

“How?” Sunny asked Omori.

Omori looked back at the drawing he had made earlier when he was explaining their circumstances to Sunny.

“Abbi wasn’t sure and, to be honest, I wasn’t thinking very clearly at the time, so I had to leave shortly after but, when I returned, she had come up with a possible solution.”

He pointed to the part of the drawing where the lines permanently diverged.

“She said that, while we can never go back to being whole again, there was a possible way for us to… ‘bridge the gap’ I guess you could call it. But, for that to work, I would have to find a way to reach you and, to do that, I needed to run around and add structure to what was left.”

Add structure? To what was left? What did he mean by that? He was referring to him, he could tell. It made sense but where would he even do that? Wait a minute...

“Spaces?” Sunny asked.

“Spaces.” Omori confirmed.

Oh. So that’s what he had meant earlier. Omori must have been traveling the spaces trying to stabilize his mind. That’s why he was so tired when they first met. Is that why he’s been slowly remembering things? They were slow, but it always felt sudden. Things would just click randomly, especially when he had one of those painful headaches. They hurt so badly, but they gave him the most insight. That was all Omori’s doing. Was that why he was experiencing hallucinations?

“Probably, yes.”

Oh? They were?

“I don’t know what you experienced, but I did try calling out to you a few times. It didn’t work very well, but it helped me check my progress.”

Interesting… wait. He saw Omori in the mirror, the knife on the counter, the white door, but,

“What about Krel Space?”

Omori faced him, smiling again. For some reason, he seemed proud of himself.

“That one was to test a theory.”

A theory? Hm.

He looked around Krel Space. The Krels were still scuttling around, knocking into each other. Brainless. Is that all they did? What kind of knowledge would he gain from this place?

“Abbi hypothesized that, when we were in close proximity, both you and Headspace would stabilize, and it turned out she was correct.”

So, the closer they were together, the more stable he would become? That’s probably why he was able to figure out his and Kel’s names. Even though he didn’t know them, he remembered them. Just for a moment, he was better.

“That’s why we think her solution might work, and that’s why I want to try.”

Omori grabbed the green colored pencil from Sunny’s lap.

“The closer we are, the more stable we become.”

We?

“I don’t know exactly how it will work, but...” Omori paused for a moment, eyebrows furrowing as he thought about what to say next, “We have to try. We need each other to function. Without doing this, there’s no way we can survive.”

He’s right. If the only time he feels aware and coherent is when Omori is nearby, then it has to be done. Who knows how long it’s been since he’s eaten, but he remembers drinking lots of water. How starved is he? In the current state he’s in, he’s definitely not able to take care of himself. What is it that they need to do?

“Omori.”

“Hm?”

Omori’s face fell flat again.

“What will happen?”

That. Ugh. EEEEE. What a dumb question. He wasn’t done, but that was still a dumb question. Omori just said he didn’t know how it would work. He didn’t mean to word it like that, but he couldn’t figure out what question he-

“To us?” Omori interrupted.

He. Omori. Wow… Sunny was bewildered. The idea that Omori could read his thoughts was kind of creepy but, for some reason, it also brought some relief. He didn’t have to elaborate. Even if he asked the wrong question, Omori knew what he meant. Omori could understand…

Sunny nodded his head, Omori turned back to his drawing.

“The way that Abbi described it,” he drew a green line connecting the blue and red curves, “we could build a way to link with each other, or a bridge.”

He put down the pencil before pointing to the red curve.

“That bridge would sort of allow you to borrow from me.” He traced his finger across the green line until it landed on the top blue curve. “We would still be our own ‘things’ but the linkage would ground you the same way that you are here.”

So he would be like the way he is near Omori, but while awake?

“Yes.” Omori answered.

Oh. Neat. But if he’s taking part of his mind from Omori, then what would happen to him? What would happen to the both of them?

“That’s the part Abbi and I are not sure about.”

He stopped pointing at the drawing as he turned to face Sunny again.

“Abbi likened it to us being ‘hand-cuffed for eternity’...”

He raised his right fist and pushed it against Sunny’s left hand, forcing their forearms to touch.

“...but I don’t really know what that means.”

Omori removed his arm from Sunny’s, returning it to his side again.

Sunny stared at his left arm where Omori had just been.

Handcuffed for eternity, but they would survive. They would see their friends again. They won’t die. Sunny looked up quickly from his hand, straight at Omori.

“How do we do it?” He asked determinedly.

Omori was gobsmacked by Sunny’s sudden resolution. It was immediate. He barely even thought about it or the consequences.

“I… don’t know?”

… useless.

Omori scrunched his face for a second. Oh, right. He heard that. Oops.

“I don’t know, but maybe… maybe it’s like the way we used to wake up or go to sleep.”

Huh? Does he mean that thing where they faded into each other? When they became one another? Maybe. He could try…

Omori and Sunny stood up and hugged each other.

A few seconds passed.

“...”

“...”

Nothing happened. They stayed like this as a few more moments.

“...”

“...”

The close contact… This was getting awkward.

“...”

“...”

It felt like a minute had gone by before someone had said something.

“This isn’t working,” Omori stated the obvious.

They let go of each other.

They both sat back down as they tried to figure it out. How else could they do it? Sunny stared at the drawing of the green line, trying to think of solutions. Hand-cuffed for eternity…

Omori jumped as Sunny gasped. An idea had hit him.

“Maybe we… imagine it?” he proposed.

He felt embarrassed by his suggestion, but Omori didn’t seem fazed by it. Instead, he nodded and closed his eyes. Was he…? Oh! Omori was imagining it! Sunny closed his eye too. He imagined himself being spiritually connected to Omori. He imagined both of them becoming Sunny. He opened his eye…

Nothing happened.

How stupid. How frustrating. Why did he feel like that would work? He could feel the anger building up inside. That was-

“Wait.” Omori interrupted him.

With his right, he grabbed Sunny’s left hand.

“One more time.”

Omori laid down on his back, still holding Sunny’s hand. Sunny watched as Omori closed his eyes once again.

Strange, but that felt right too… was it because... 

He looked at their handhold.

... oh. ‘Connected.’

Sunny followed Omori’s lead, laying down on his back as well. He closed his eye, just like Omori had, and imagined himself being connected to him again.

What little light protruded through his eyelid had slowly faded away.

Everything went black.

...

Sunny felt Omori’s grasp disappear from his left hand as the light that once pierced through his eyelid faded into nothingness. For just a moment, he felt like all sensation had left his body. Nothing to hear, see, smell, taste, or feel. Only him and his thoughts as he imagined himself connected to Omori remained.

Just for a moment, he felt as if he were floating. But, soon afterwards, all of his senses had slowly begun to return. First, his hearing. There was a soft whirring sound that filled both of his ears. It didn’t take long to figure out that it had to be a fan. Next came his sense of taste and smell. It was neutral, there wasn’t anything special going on there.

As soon as he tried to open his eye, he quickly closed it back shut. Sunny’s head began to hurt. The pain was excruciating. He wanted to scream but couldn’t muster the strength to move. He tried to focus on imagining himself being connected to Omori, but he couldn’t concentrate anymore. Every time he tried to think, another thought pushed it back. He couldn’t understand what idea the second thought was trying to convey either. It was as if his mind was going a mile a minute, giving him no room to decipher anything in between each idea. He decided to wait it out.

Slowly, the pain that filled his head subsided. After a few more minutes, Sunny attempted to open his eye again.

Ah. Blurry. He could see the ceiling but it’s so fuzzy.

He stared at the ceiling as he waited for his vision to come into focus, but then something else happened. His body… he began to finally feel it. It was so heavy, like it was made of lead. It felt so weird too, as if every inch of his skin was touching something while something was simultaneously touching him. Like his body had been completely submerged under water, he could feel everything, except it wasn’t weightless.

At first, it was uncomfortable, but as his body began to adjust to the sensation, he started to feel a warm feeling inside. Like someone had wrapped him in a blanket and was hugging him while he hugged them back. It was nice and comforting and-.

Suddenly, his body began to move on its own, forcing him to throw off the bed covers and rub his eyes. He felt his arms lifted him up and watched as the blurry walls of his room came into view.

Was he possessed?! Sunny tried to fight the movements as he began to panic. Those other thoughts began to increase in intensity, drowning out his own. It was terrifying.

As his right arm began to move, he shut his eyes and forced his arm to move in the opposite direction. He could feel his arm tense up as he fought to pull it towards his body.

“Calm down.”

His eyes shot back open in surprise.

Huh? Did he just say something?

Less than a second later, the tension in his arm released, sending Sunny’s fist flying into his own face.

He punched himself.

...Ouch.

His body forced him to lay back down and close his eyes. This time, he complied.

As he slowed his breath and felt his body relax, the colliding thoughts that flooded his mind began to slow down. There were only two left. He tried to focus on them individually.

The first one was… how he felt. He was calming down and his body felt funny. Oh. Those are his own thoughts of what was happening. He moved on to the second one.

The second one was kind of weird. It was muffled and distant. It felt very foreign. Sunny ignored the first one as he began to focus on the second. It was as if he could hear it talking to him. He attempted to clear the rest of his mind as he began to focus on the second. It was telling him to do something… was this his own consciousness? The more he focused on it, the less it felt like a thought and the more it felt like something he was hearing.

‘Am not your consciousness.’

Oh! Was that?!

‘Omori?’ Sunny thought to himself.

‘In the flesh,’ there was a brief pause, ‘...or maybe not?’ Omori said dryly.

...Did he just make a joke? More importantly, did he just make a dad joke?! It was awful! Sunny wasn’t sure if he should laugh or if he should cry. Agony.

Sunny opened his eyes again, staring at the ceiling as his vision cleared and his eye began to focus. He had finally completely calmed down again.

Omori was in his head, he could hear Sunny’s thoughts. Even though he was awake, Omori was still present. This was something new, wasn’t it? Although he lacked the ability to recall most of his memories, he knew that he had never been able to hear Omori before. At least, not when they were awake since they were both one person. Was it because of what they did? Did that link they had established in White Space cause this?

Sunny sat up again and looked around his bedroom. It was cold, dark, and quiet. The only light that illuminated the room came from a small window to the left of his beside. Judging by the darkness of the room and the lack of commotion outside, he could only guess that it was sometime past midnight.

He looked at the curtains that were obstructing most of the street light. It felt like it was the first time he had ever seen anything like it. He began to zone out a bit before his right hand waved in front of his face. Oh. Right. Omori was present… and he can control his body.

Great…

He sighed.

His hand stopped waving as he stared at it.

He wondered what else was going to be different. What would be new? What should they expect? Was there going to be anything else they shared?

His hand fell back down into his lap.

He wondered… hm...

Sunny grabbed his stuffed cat and gave it a giant squeeze. It was so soft and the short hair felt so velvety. It collapsed just like a marshmallow. He had never realized how big it was either! It was almost the length of his torso. He loved it. He didn’t want to let go of it, but he had to. He wanted to know…

‘Omori, could you feel that?’ Sunny mentally asked.

There was a moment of silence before his head began to nod up and down on it’s own.

‘Yes.’ Omori responded back.

Interesting...

‘Can you see, smell, and hear everything too?’ he asked again.

‘Taste too,’ Omori paused while he tasted his own mouth, ‘... disgusting.’

Sunny snorted at the unnecessary commentary. Thanks, Omori.

So that was something both new and interesting. Apparently, they shared the same five senses simultaneously. If Sunny touched, tasted, heard, smell, or saw something, Omori had the exact experience, and it worked both ways too. Omori could even move Sunny’s body. Is this what Abbi meant when she described their connection as ‘being handcuffed together for eternity?’ It actually kind of made sense.

Sunny smiled at himself as he realized Omori punched himself in the face too.

Neat.

Sunny’s hand raised and he quickly slapped himself in the face. There was a loud smack before his hand dropped back down, leaving behind a light sting.

It looked like Omori could take over at any time. Not neat.

He rubbed his cheek. The sting was starting to worsen. It hurt.

‘Suffer.’

Sunny furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes before he finally let go of his cheek.

... bodysnatcher.

It was still dark and hard to see, but the blur that had once taken over his vision had finally completely disappeared. He could see everything. Not only that…

He looked around his bedroom again.

Sunny was astonished to find that he could comprehend everything! He knew what his surroundings were! His bedroom was so empty, but he could tell what everything was. The haze that once clouded his mind had finally lifted. The connection he made with Omori must have worked. He possessed the exact same mental clarity he had while he was in White Space. Sunny could feel a very tiny tug on the corners of his lips. They didn’t open, but he could tell he was smiling.

Sunny was very happy.

In his mind, he heard Omori, ‘We should get out of bed and look around. See where we are...’

Oh, that’s right, they should. Sunny still didn’t know where he was or what was happening. He barely even knew what had happened. Even though he had technically been there before, he had never been able to comprehend his surroundings until now. It would be a good idea to explore his new surroundings.

Sunny pushed the blankets off himself again. Combined with that feeling of his skin feeling something touching it as it touched everything, his movements felt heavy and sluggish. It wasn’t tiring, but the weight of it was slightly uncomfortable.

He had finally stood up.

His feet… he wiggled his socked toes into the ground. Wow… the floor was carpeted! Didn’t his old home have hard floors? He had always wanted carpet. It felt so fluffy! Excellent.

What else was in here?

Sunny took one step forward, but, as he swung his right leg, his left moved forward as well. He stumbled as he tried to balance himself, but, as he gained his footing with one leg, the other one would move itself, undoing his attempt to steady himself. It was too late. Sunny made a short quiet gasp as he fell towards the ground, landing face down.

What just happened?

‘Sorry,’ Omori quickly apologized, ‘that was my fault.’

‘…’

Sunny decided not to move until Omori explained why.

‘...we both tried to walk at the same time.’

Oh.

‘And I guess we both tried to correct ourselves at the same time as well…’ Omori added.

Sunny lifted himself onto his elbows and let out a short “Hmm.”

This ‘bodysharing’ thing… this was going to be a problem, wasn't it? They both had to share control of it. How were they going to go about this? They both needed to figure it out. Sunny honestly didn’t like the idea of it, however. It was unsettling to watch your own body move against your will. Being able to feel everything as it happened made it so much creepier.

Sunny began to twiddle his thumbs, staring at his hands as he contemplated.

The thought of sharing his body made him uncomfortable. He didn’t want to do it, but he felt as if he didn’t have the right to ask. It would be unfair! His body wasn’t his own anymore. Considering the fact that he wasn’t fused with Omori, it never had been his. When they were one, it was theirs, but now that they’re separated… and now that they’re connected but as two different entities…

Omori interrupted, ‘You take over it.’

Huh?... Sunny was startled by Omori’s decision. It was Omori’s body too, wasn’t it? Why wouldn’t he want to control it?

‘It’ll make it easier for the both of us if you just do it. You should understand.’ Omori said, somewhat dismissively.

Vague and mysterious, yet sarcastic and unsmiling.

Classic Omori.

Sunny gave himself a pat on the back for his analysis as he slowly rose from the ground, walking towards the wall. He flipped the light switch, wincing as he was temporarily blinded by the change of lighting. It was time to look around.

…

…

…

Wow. It was an exaggeration earlier when he had thought of the room as empty, but seeing it with the lights on, it was almost completely barren. All he had were a nightstand, a trashcan, his old computer and desk, a closet, and a window.

There were no decorations whatsoever. Nothing on the walls, floor, nor ceiling. His whole room… it was all just so-

“Empty...” he heard himself whisper dismally.

Sunny couldn’t tell if he had spoken or if Omori did. Either way, he agreed wholeheartedly. Looking around at what was left…

He felt his stomach drop like a heavy weight before rumbling loudly.

Oh god. He clutched his stomach as another hunger pang passed. When was the last time he ate?! It hurt so badly. He needed to eat something!

Turning around to face the bedroom door, he turned the knob, stepping through the doorway as quietly as possible and closing it behind him.

The floor was hard again. It was dark out here too. Light shined through the vertical blinds to his left, but he could barely even see his own hand in front of his face. Sunny closed his eyes. Luckily, he had done this so many times he had it memorized.

The kitchen was… straight forward, but diagonally right.

Hesitantly, he walked towards the kitchen, strictly adhering to the path he had travelled so many times in the previous days, until, at last, his chest bumped into that familiar little wall…

He opened his eyes and looked down at the object blocking his path. It was the counter. He had done it. He made it! How easy that was! He was feeling great! Now all he had to do was find the light switch, then he could fill his stomach.

It was a bit of a stretch, but Sunny placed both of his hands on the wall above the counter. Sidling against the counter, he ran his hands over the wall until he felt that familiar plasticky texture. A light switch… he flipped it.

A sudden loud metal screeching filled the once eerily silent air, causing Sunny to jump and gasp as he was startled severely.

Not a light switch. NOT A LIGHT SWITCH.

He slammed his hands against the wall, flipping the switch into the off position.

The immediate silence brought little peace. Why did that happen? Who would create such a thing and why was it in the kitchen?!

‘Garbage disposal,’ Omori flatly interjected.

Oh. That’s right. Kitchens have that.

Sunny sighed in relief, stretching out his arms once more in an effort to find a light switch. After a few bumps and turns, he had finally found it. Closing his eyes in preparation for the shift in lighting, he flipped the switch into the on position.

As the light penetrated his left eye lid, he waited a few seconds, then proceeded to open his eyes again. His vision quickly adjusted to the change in brightness. Giving a quick glance around, he could see he was still in the kitchen, just to the right of the sink. He turned around.

Oh… the kitchen was quite small and cramped. He didn’t know why, but he felt so disappointed. Why did he care so much about a kitchen?

His stomach rumbled again.

Ah, whatever. He could think about that after he was done eating. Right then, he felt ravenous. Food was beginning to consume his mind, he needed something to quell the raging demon residing in his tummy. Sunny didn’t know how to cook but…

Visually, he searched around the kitchen before stopping as his gaze dropped onto the microwave,

… he could make... eggs?

Eggs. He loved eggs. Wow. Just remembering the name for them, he could feel his mouth salivating. Eggs were so perfect and versatile. They could be put in any dish! He suddenly recalled all the times his hand had been slapped away while his mother and sister were making deviled eggs. They were so delicious. Now he really really wanted eggs.

Boiled, scrambled, sunny side up… he loved them so much, he could almost hear his heart sing out for them.

No, wait… he could hear it… was somebody singing?

Sunny closed his eyes and focused on the sound…

‘Wiggle jiggle, yellow middle,’

Was that…

‘that’s the best of what you are.~’

OMORI?!

‘I love you, egg!’

…

…

…

The lyrics came rushing back into his head. Ah. This song. It’s the one he could never resist. He sang it to himself every time someone or himself cooked eggs. It was instinct. Sunny couldn’t help but join in.

With Omori, Sunny very quietly whispered…

“White and tender, surround the center.”

Sunny stood in front of the fridge.

“Cozy, sitting in the crackling shell.”

He opened the fridge.

“I love yo-”

Both Omori and Sunny immediately froze as he peered into the fridge. His heart dropped.

Eggs.

There were no eggs.

Why weren’t there any eggs?

Sunny could hear Omori screaming in painful agony.

There was NOTHING.

WHY?!

Sunny slammed the fridge door shut as hard as he could. He had never been so infuriated. Who could have allowed this to happen? If there were no eggs, then what was the point of having a fridge? For milk? Nobody drinks that vile stuff!

This fridge was a disgrace.

Sunny scowled at the fridge.

It had violated his egg rights. This fridge didn’t deserve to exist.

He faced away from the fridge, deciding to give it the silent treatment as punishment. If the fridge wouldn’t give him eggs, then he’ll just have to find something else. He will not give in to the evils of this fridge.

Spotting the door on the right side of the fridge, Sunny walked to it and silently stood in front of it. The door was louver style in pale beige. Peeking through the cracks, Sunny could determine… Oh! This was the pantry! He slid the door open.

Wow… the pantry was really empty. All that it contained was cooking oil, rice, tomato paste, half a box of dried spaghetti noodles, and an unopened box of popcorn. No chips nor dip in sight… or was there?

He grabbed the popcorn box and studied it closely.

‘Is popcorn a chip?’ Sunny mentally asked.

‘In the same way that cake is a bread, yes,’ Omori answered proudly, quite certain of himself.

Ah. That makes sense.

He ripped open the box and walked towards the microwave, placing one bag inside, setting the timer, and then pressing start. As the hum of the microwave filled the silence in the air, Sunny turned around to face the rest of his new home. While he was waiting for his breakfast, Sunny decided that he could walk around and learn more about his new home.

First was the kitchen. It had an island counter that extended out from the wall just like his old home, but besides that, there was no resemblance or familiarity at all. It was so small and dingy. He was pretty sure only one person could fit in here at a time. In fact…

Sunny stretched his arms out sideways, touching both counters to his right and left without struggle,

...it was so small he could touch both sides. Compared to his old home, it was tiny!

He dropped his arms back down to his sides and looked at the counters again.

There was a two basin sink, a coffee pot, a microwave, a stove and oven combo, and… that was surprisingly it. Despite the minimal amount of kitchen appliances, there was almost no available counter space left. The only spot that could be used for food preparation was on the island counter itself, and speaking of that…

Sunny scrunched his face in disgust as he looked at the island counters.

...awful. Absolutely horrendous. Island countertops were awful! They were always so tall and awkwardly positioned. Worse was the fact that he felt so childish whenever he would try to sit on the stools that usually accompanied them. It was embarrassing! He hated them.

As the sound of the popcorn began to make popping noises in the microwave, Sunny walked around the island counter and into the living room.

Something was off about everything. The couch, the carpet, the tv, and the coffee table all felt wrong, but he didn’t know why. Was it their positioning?

The layout didn’t seem out of place. The couch was against the wall, the carpet was under the coffee table, the coffee table was in front of the couch, and the TV was in front of it. The only thing weird was the lamp sitting between the wall and the right side of the couch. It looked like too much space was set aside for it, leaving a large gap between the lamp and the couch.

Sunny felt his hands turn into fists, clenching as his arms began to shake. His vision blurred again, making it hard to see. He rubbed his eyes with his forearm, leaving a wet mark on his arm. He stared at it. Why was he crying?

‘She got rid of everything…’ he heard Omori whisper.

Huh? She? Sunny was confused again. 

‘Mom, she got rid of everything related to Mari.’

Wait…

Oh. It had finally clicked.

He looked around the room at the furniture. Everything that their family had once owned was replaced. The couch that he had used when watching TV with all of his friends, the carpet that Kel had spilled orange joe on, even the TV stand that was riddled with Mewo’s scratches... Everything that held sentimental value... It was all gone. Why? Why would she do this?

His body began to feel light. He was so upset that he started to feel sick. He couldn’t stop shaking. He was livid.

The ding of the microwave cut through the air. All of a sudden, Sunny felt himself sprinting back into the kitchen, slamming into the counter. Omori had taken over. He watched as his body began to open drawer after drawer, rapidly searching through them before slamming them shut again. What was Omori looking for? He seemed like he was panicking. What was making him so desperate?

After going through all the others, he reached the last drawer next to the fridge. Omori swung it open and began shuffling around it’s contents. In less than a few seconds, he froze. Something had caught both his and Sunny’s eye.

It was so familiar. Sunny didn’t know why, but it had felt very important to him.

Omori picked it up and held it closer to his face, cautiously studying it before giving Sunny back control of his body again.

This object he was holding, it was…

‘Mari’s spork,’ Omori finished his thought for him.

Suddenly, it clicked.

Sunny examined every detail of it. On the plastic red and white handle, there was a cat with a red bow. It sat with its body positioned to the left, but its head was faced towards his own. Next to it were big rounded letters reading “HELLOW KITTY” in all capital letters. Tears began to well in his eyes.

‘We used to have a matching one. It was labeled “CHOCY*CAT” but I don’t know where it is. I didn’t see it,’ said Omori.

The memories of having spork fights with Mari slowly began to fill his head.

‘Dad got it for us at the flea market. He knew they were knock offs, but we didn’t care.’

He held Mari’s spork tightly as he rubbed the tears from his eyes. He missed her so much. He wished he had never done it. He wished he had never hurt her. He wished so much that he could tell her how much he loved her. To feel the warmth of her hugs and the sound of her voice again… His last words to her, the last thing that she ever heard… he wished that he could take it all back. He had never wanted to say goodbye.

Sunny wiped his eyes one last time before slipping Mari’s spork into his shorts pocket. It was all he had left of her. It was all he had left to remember her by. He’ll use it for everything. He’ll never let go of it again.

The microwave chimed again, reminding him that his meal was completed.

Sunny walked over to the microwave and opened it, pulling out his popcorn in the process. After a few moments, his hand began to hurt.

It was hot! It was too hot! It burned!

Sunny dropped the popped popcorn bag on the floor and shook his hand.

He stared at the bag on the floor and held his hand. Crumbs had fallen out of the vent hole, but the rest of the bag had stayed intact. He decided to leave the bag on the floor, returning to it later when it wasn’t as hot as lava.

Turning around to face his bedroom door, Sunny noticed the empty space to the left.

‘Oh. That must be where the bathroom is,’ he guessed.

He decided to follow down the path, noticing a door on the right. He had never seen it before, probably because he had never been able to see it until now. It was a place he had not been to before. He decided to skip it for now, continuing his walk to the bathroom.

Sunny didn’t make it to the bathroom before stopping yet again at the end of the hallway. In front of him was another door, different from the other ones in the house. He was pretty sure this was the door he saw his mom disappear through when he had followed her out of his room. There was a yellow sticky note on it with something scribbled out at the top. On the bottom, it read

“ Conference extended. Be back on 9/3. Love you, xoxo Mommy. ”

Sunny stared at the note blankly. For some reason, he didn’t trust it and he didn’t know why. There was something about it that was appalling. It felt like a lie.

Clearing his mind, he shook his head and turned left, facing the bathroom.

Flipping the light switch on, he walked in. Just like the kitchen, it was much smaller compared to his old home. There was a toilet, one sink, and a shower-tub combo. The texture of the floor was weird too. Even through his socks, he could feel it. It sort of looked like tile but it also looked like it was made of plastic. He bent down to examine it more closely, poking it repeatedly with his index finger. Oh. It was linoleum. That’s why it felt so… disgusting? Hm. That was the wrong word, but, nevertheless, he decided he didn’t like it.

Sunny stood up again before noticing the mirror. He began to tremble as the memory of Omori’s empty eyes and white skin took over his mind.

Why was it so scary in the first place? Omori spooked him a little in White Space, but he wasn’t as terrifying as the image he saw in the mirror. Was it because he didn’t recognize him before? Even if it was, he didn’t understand why he still felt so creeped out.

He felt his arms crossover each other while his hands grabbed his biceps. Sunny stared at his hands. It was soothing. Wait a minute. Was Omori… hugging him? Strange, but… it was working.

Sunny closed his eyes and faced the mirror. He wanted to overcome this fear. Omori wasn’t scary. Omori was his other half. Together, they were one person. He needed to overcome this fear. Sunny took a deep breath. He wondered what he would see when he opened his eyes. Would it be him, Omori, a mixture of the two, or… something he didn’t want to see? There was only one way to know. As he exhaled, he opened his eyes...

…

…

…

It was him. Even though felt like had never seen his own reflection before, he knew it was himself. God, he looked awful, but it was Sunny! He felt a wave of relief wash over him as his arms dropped to his sides.

Sunny leaned forward onto the sink top, trying to get as close to the mirror as possible. He wanted to see every detail. It was exciting. His nose almost pressed against the mirror as he looked at his eyes… well, eye.

His left eye was an extremely dark brown, almost completely black. So dark that he couldn’t even make out his own iris. Suddenly, the light sucking blackholish color of Omori’s eyes made so much more sense. What was better was that his hair matched it. He kind of liked it.

Looking at his other eye, though, the right… it was unsettling. There wasn’t a scar, but his eye was still missing. In its place was a clear see through bubble. It looked kind of like plastic. His stomach churned a bit as he stared at the muscles and tissues sitting behind it. That’s something he’s going to need to cover up. He silently hoped he had an eyepatch sitting around somewhere.

Sunny took a step back from the mirror and began to examine the rest of his body. His mouth dropped. It was almost appalling. Not only was he childish in size and stature, he had also looked so pale and sickly. Sunny was certain he looked worse than he did when he was at the hospital. Worst than ever, actually. Just how much weight had he lost? It was terrifying. No wonder he had felt so cold. He really needed something to eat.

Sunny used the bathroom, brushing his teeth and combing his hair before returning to the kitchen afterwards.

The popcorn bag was still on the floor, but it wasn’t steaming hot anymore. He picked it up, opening it and peaking into the bag.

…

Sunny pulled Mari’s spork out of his pocket and used it to eat the popcorn, digging Mari’s spork into the bag before putting it in his mouth. He promised he would use it for everything, even for eating M&Ms. And, besides, he really didn’t want to get buttery hands.

As he ate, Sunny walked around his new home, exploring every nook and cranny. Upon further examination of the giant window by the couch, he discovered that it was in fact a glass sliding door. Opening it and stepping out onto the balcony, he learned that he lived on the second floor of an apartment complex in the middle of the city.

It was an interesting location compared to what he had before. Instead of the green trees he vaguely recalled, his view was completely obscured by another giant multi story brick building apartment complex that shadowed his own. Sunny sighed as he walked back into the living room. It was disappointing.

He fell down onto the couch, sporking individual pieces of popcorn into his mouth.

There wasn’t anything left to explore inside the apartment, except that door from the hallway. It made him uneasy. If there were only two rooms in the house, that room had to belong to his mom.

Sunny wondered where was she anyway? He saw the note she had left on the door, but where could she have gone off to and why wasn’t she coming back until September? What was today even?

He started to stab his popcorn with Mari’s spork repeatedly.

Didn’t she know there was no food in the house? Why did she leave in the first place? She saw what he looked like. She knew he couldn’t take care of himself! Why didn’t she take him with her? What kind of mother would leave behind their child in such ill health?!

…

He stopped stabbing the popcorn. That feeling of weight dropping down onto his stomach and chest reappeared again. He began to silently cry.

He knew what she was thinking and why she had left him behind. He deserved to rot. He may not have wanted to anymore, but he still felt like he deserved to die. He did take away her life after all. He had killed Mari. He ruined the lives of his family.

A loud smack pierced the air as Sunny’s left hand landed on his cheek. Did Omori just slap him? Doesn’t that hurt him too?! He couldn’t focus on his thoughts anymore. His cheek had begun to sting badly.

‘Don’t do that,’ Omori demanded, ‘she saw how you were and she still left us behind.’

Wow. Even with that flat tone of voice, Sunny could tell it was laced with resentment. It was obvious, Omori was furious. He was right though, she did see how he looked and she still chose to leave him behind. To ‘take care’ of himself. What did that even mean? There wasn’t even any food in the house. How would he even take care of himself?

‘Leave.’ 

Huh?

‘Go back home. We will die if we stay here.’ Omori added.

They would… die?

Sunny stared into his popcorn bag. He started pushing the popcorn around with Mari’s spork.

That’s right, there was no food in the house. How long has it been since he last had a meal? The last time he ate was when his mom had brought him that plate. Since then, his meals have only consisted of water. He had already run out of cookies. How many days had it been, and what was today even? It was time to find out.

He stood up from the couch and walked into his bedroom, taking his bag of popcorn and Mari’s spork with him. Upon entering his bedroom, he sat down at his desk, pressing the power button on his computer’s chassis.

Sunny shoveled some more popcorn into his mouth as he waited for his PC to boot up. After a few minutes, he made it past the Windows XP screen and landed straight onto the desktop.

A little blue bar stretched across the bottom of his screen. He moved his cursor, hovering it over the time stamp on the bottom right of the screen.

…

…

…

“ July 2nd, 2003 ”

That… can’t be right. There was no way that it was. Maybe the CMOS battery had died or something. There’s no way his mom would leave him alone that long. There was no food and she knew how mentally incapacitated he was when she saw him. It was so obvious.

He opened Internet Explorer and pulled up Google’s home page. Quickly, he typed in the search field and pressed enter.

Sunny squinted at the resulting search displayed across the screen.

“ Today’s date: July 2nd, 2003. ”

…

Oh no.

Sunny buried his head in his hands, staring at what was left of the popcorn inside the bag.

The time was right. She won’t be back for another two months. There was no food in the house. He had just gained the ability to take care of himself and comprehend his surroundings, yet there weren’t any resources around that he could use to do anything. He had never felt so helpless. He didn’t know what he could do.

‘Leave.’ Omori reiterated again.

Omori was right. Sunny knew he couldn’t stay here. It would be a death wish. A sentence he had earned but... 

He won’t do it again. He refused to hurt them again. Sunny hated the thought of his friends being informed of another death. Even if it were his own… they could hate him for what he had done but-. No. They don’t. They would never wish death upon him. They even comforted him in the hospital when he was… alone. When he didn’t have Omori. He had to keep going. He needed to survive, if not for himself then at least for them. But…

‘Where would we go?’ Sunny asked Omori.

There was a moment of silence.

‘Kel,’ he finally answered.

Sunny was confused, ‘...Kel?’

‘Hero and Kel.’

...Wow.

Of all the people or places Omori could have suggested, he chose Hero and Kel. Two of the people he had hurt the most. What an awful idea, but where else would he go? He couldn’t go to Aubrey. She had enough to worry about with her living situation. Basil was definitely a no go. Although he wanted to see him again, he wasn’t sure if Basil would be willing to help…

That was a lie. Basil would definitely help and that was the problem.

Kel and Hero…

He ignored Kel for so many years. When he finally saw Kel again, Kel confided in him that he hadn’t had so much fun in years, about how much he appreciated Sunny hanging out with him and how grateful he was for it. He was so happy, but then Sunny hurt him again. He made Kel cry. Multiple times.

And as for Hero, Sunny was scared of him. What was their confession even like? Sunny remembers a lot of screaming and shouting but-.

‘It wasn’t him,’ Omori interrupted.

Sunny was temporarily taken aback by Omori’s statement.

‘That wasn’t him who was yelling.’

He narrowed his eyes slightly as he took a moment to process what Omori had said. If the screaming wasn’t Hero then...

‘Then... who?’ Sunny asked. Who could have been the one shouting?

Another pause.

‘You,’ said Omori.

Wait… he was the one shouting?

‘Technically, it was the both of us.’

Oh… it was them together.

Sunny began to vaguely remember their confession, but he was interrupted by Omori once more.

‘Now isn’t the time for reminiscing.’

Omori plopped Sunny’s hands onto his cheeks, rubbing them up and down in opposite directions. Hm. The action felt familiar. Where had he learned it from?

'You need to focus on the task at hand. We can talk about this later.’

Ah. Right!

Right now, he needed to figure out what to do. He needed to take action. He needed to survive.

Hero and Kel… How could Omori be so sure that they would help him? That they would take him in after everything he had done to them? He wanted to believe it, but he just couldn’t see how. Wouldn’t they hate him?

His hands dropped down from his cheeks.

No, they don’t hate him. More than anything, they’re probably worried about him. Hero and Kel saw him at the hospital and his condition. It was still a blur for him, but they were there when he left, weren’t they? Both Hero and Kel hugged him, and Kel cried. Sunny guessed it could have been because he was worried for him, but something told him, deep down inside, that Kel cried because he didn’t want to say goodbye.

Hero and Kel’s hugs... they were full of warmth and affection.

Okay. Fine.

Sunny slipped Mari’s spork back into his pocket as he quickly rose up from the desk.

He was going to do it. Nothing was going to stop him.

Sunny stomped over to his closet door, sliding it open and grabbing his empty book bag.

Unzipping the bag, Sunny began shoving his already neatly folded clothes inside. They didn’t take up too much room. He only had 3 sets of outfits to his name and he was already wearing one of them. It made packing so much easier.

He picked up his bag, walking to the night stand by his bedside. Sunny slid the drawer open, revealing his sketchbook and colored pencils inside. He picked them up and slipped them into the inner protective pocket in his book bag.

Leaving his bag on his bed, he quickly ran to the bathroom, grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste, and returned to his bedroom. He dropped his essentials inside.

Last but not least…

Sunny dove under his blanket covers, wiggling around as he looked for the ball and cat.

At last, he re-emerged from the blankets, holding his bounty and slipping them into his bag...

The cat wouldn’t fit. Would he… have to leave it behind?

No way! Not a chance! He would rather leave his sock and underwear than leave his coveted plushy cat. It was a wondrous gift. He treasured it dearly.

…

The head of the cat stuck out of his bag as he pulled the zippers around it.

There. Problem solved. Easy.

Now he was ready. That was all that he needed.

He put on his backpack and stepped outside of his bedroom door.

It was time to go.

He stomped up to the front door, ripping the sticky note off of it and crumpling it into his pocket. He would need that to explain what had happened to Kel, Hero, and their parents.

Finally, he turned the door knob and confidently marched outside…

...and then right back in.

It just occurred to both himself and Omori that it was still the dead of night and they had no idea where they were.

They slammed the door behind them and slunked onto the hallway floor.

This was so frustrating. How were they going to get back home, their real home, if they had no idea where they were. He knew their old address but…

Sunny stood up and around the hallway.

...if he could just find his new address…

He spotted a bowl full of papers on a bookshelf near his bedroom door. He walked up to it and reached inside,

...envelopes. He had pulled out several envelopes.

Sunny flipped the envelopes around. He had found his address. Excellent.

He returned to his room and typed his current home address and his old into MapQuest.

Hm. It was about 3 hours away by bus and he still had several hours to wait before the first bus. He opened his book bag, grabbed his sketchbook, and opened it to the back.

On the last page, he quickly wrote down the routes, times, and directions. Before closing it, he stared at the inside of the cardboard back. Something should go here…

He pulled the sticky note out of his pocket, uncrumpling it. After straightening it out, he pressed the note onto the inner back side of his sketchbook. Closing the notebook, he slipped it back into his bag. All that was left to do was gather money for bus fare, but where?

‘The closet,’ Omori spoke in his head.

Huh?

‘Mom has money in the closet. She always keeps her savings there,’ Omori further elaborated.

Oh! She did, didn’t she? His parents had always kept their valuables distributed into two safes in the closet. It was a secret, but everyone knew it. That was one of the reasons why she would never let him rummage around in it.

Sunny turned off his computer, grabbed his book bag, and exited his bedroom door. Just a few steps down the hallway was the other room. The one he hadn’t seen yet. His mother’s bedroom door.

To be honest, it frightened him. He could feel his body starting to shake the closer he got to it. She wasn’t home and he knew that, but, for some reason, he was still hesitant and worried. He didn’t want her to see him.

He anxiously turned the door knob, cracking the door open and peeking inside.

It was dark and silent, just like the rest of the house. He turned on the light.

The room was empty, no one was home. He was relieved.

He fully opened the door and stepped inside.

Wow. This room had even less stuff than his own. There was a bed, a vanity table and chair, and a TV that sat on top of a dresser straight across from the bed. It looked desolate. Completely deserted. Like no one had ever even lived here. It was shocking.

Sunny shook his head, attempting to clear all thoughts from his head. He needed to focus on his mission. Sunny looked at the sliding closet door to his right. He began to stare at it.

This felt wrong. No, this was wrong and he knew it. He slowly started to recall why...

As a child, he remembered his parents lecturing both himself and Mari about going through their closet. They would always forbid it, but never it was locked.

One day, near Christmas season, curiosity overwhelmed him and he finally looked inside. He expected to find presents stashed away inside, but instead, all he found were two safes. They were both shaped like a suitcase. One was blue and gray, and the other was a metallic black. He remembered that one had some papers inside. The other had wads of cash.

Mari had caught him in the act, but she didn’t pull him away. She joined him and silently read the papers as he watched.

What she learned, Sunny didn’t know. She had looked so downtrodden for days afterwards. He just remembered her promising not to tell their parents as long as he never looked in there again.

He promised her that he wouldn’t do it again…

Omori shook Sunny’s head this time.

‘It’s different now,’ Omori paused for a few seconds, ‘Life is different. Even if we stay here, we will still have to do this.’

“…” Sunny stared blankly at the door as he contemplated what Omori had just said.

...they would, wouldn’t they? They needed the money for food. They needed it to survive.

Sunny stared at the door one last time. His right hand palm went to rest on it. Omori was ready. Sunny closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He held it in for a few seconds before exhaling. As he began to exhale, Omori whispered with him,

“I’m sorry, Mari.”

Together, they slid the closet door open and peeked at the contents inside.

Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much in here. Only winter clothes hung down from the wooden rod. It made sense. His mom was on a very long business trip after all.

He took off his book bag and crouched down onto the carpeted ground.

On the floor were not only the two safes he had seen growing up, but a black plastic storage box. The top of it was see through. He could spot a neat arrangement of several stapled papers and manilla folders in it. He pushed it off to the side. That wasn’t what he was looking for.

He tugged at the blue and gray safe. Wow, it was heavy! How much did it weigh? It was impossible to lift! He tried to pull it towards himself, but quickly gave up. He would just have to open it where it was.

Would it even open? Were they going to be locked?

Sunny pushed the tabs on the sides. They compressed down, but they wouldn’t go all the way. Was the safe just old or was he just too weak?! He tried to wiggle the safe around with his feet as he pressed as hard as he could. Eventually, a tiny ‘click’ sounded and the safe’s top popped open.

What a struggle that was. The ordeal left him exhausted. His fingers were red and aching. Holding his hands to his face revealed the markings of the tabs. They were indented into his fingertips. Who designed this thing?! Sunny gave it a light kick.

He let out a sigh, regaining his energy, before lifting the lid and looking inside.

He immediately shut his eyes.

Papers.

Sunny slammed the lid shut.

He won’t look.

With his legs, he did his best to push it off to the side.

He promised Mari.

Sunny opened his eyes and stared at the metallic black safe. One more to check. The money his mom stashed had to be in this one. It was the last.

He effortlessly slid the metallic black safe towards himself. It was surprisingly much lighter than the blue and gray one. Instead of buttons for opening, it sported two tabs. This was going to be much easier than the other one.

It was a little difficult at first, but he was able to successfully flip the tabs up and unlock the box. He lifted the lid and looked inside.

Money.

Not as much as before, but that was definitely money. In fact, the safe had nothing inside of it besides money. They had found what they were looking for.

Sunny grabbed his book bag and opened it. Reaching past his plush cat, he unzipped the inner pocket. He looked back at the safe, ready to take what he needed, but as his hand hovered above the cash, he froze.

Sunny was reminded of something.

Mari…

She taught him that stealing was wrong. She made him promise her that he would never take anything without asking. Whether it was an object, money, or an idea, stealing was always wrong. It caused people to distrust others. It took away credibility and ruined friendships. No matter how big or small, taking things without permission was always wrong. It would hurt everybody.

Sunny didn’t want to do it. Sunny couldn’t . He felt so guilty. He had already broken one promise to her today and he couldn’t handle breaking another. He didn’t want to hurt Mari. He didn’t want to lie to Mari.

Omori grabbed the cash. Again and again. He didn’t know how much money he had taken. He didn’t care. It was important. They needed it to survive. He shoved it into the inner pocket, closing it and carefully zipping up the book bag around the cat’s head.

Sunny watched as Omori moved both safes and the plastic container back into their original positions. Omori stood up, grabbing the book bag and sliding the closet door back closed. He turned off the light and left the room, before giving Sunny back full control.

It was strange... Sunny thought to himself as he walked towards the living room couch. It was strange how Omori could easily overcome anything and everything that Sunny had struggled with. Even weirder, Sunny wasn’t even fazed by it anymore, despite the fact that it was something so new. Sharing with Omori… It just felt so natural.

Maybe it was because he had always shared with him, although it was unknowingly. They weren’t two people after all and they never had been. They had always been two parts of a whole. Together, they were one.

Sunny stared into the palms of his hands before dropping them back down. He looked forward to the time on the box above the VCR. It was only 4:00am. There was still an hour left until he had to arrive at the bus stop, but he wanted to leave 30 minutes early. He needed to stop by a store to buy an eyepatch and some snacks. It was only a three hour ride, but he was still starving even after eating that bag of popcorn. If he was lucky, he would reach Faraway by 8am. He just needed to fill the time until then.

…

A minute passed.

…

Then another two.

...

Not even 4 minutes had gone by and Sunny was already beginning to feel antsy. He couldn’t believe he was going to go through with his plan. He was excited to see his friends again, but he was also nervous and scared. What was going to happen when he got there? Hero and Kel… would they accept him? He missed them so much, but he was scared to face them again. After everything that he had done-.

‘Want to play rock-paper-scissors?’ Omori asked him.

Huh? What? Where did that come from? Sunny squinted his eyes a bit. Was Omori trying to distract him?

‘It’ll help pass the time. I’ll be left, you be right.’

His left arm bent as he felt his hand ball into a fist. Sunny mimicked it with his right. So… they’re going to play rock-paper-scissors together, huh?

Sunny copied his left hand bouncing as Omori said the sacred chant,

‘Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!’

…

It was a tie. They did it again.

‘Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!’

...another tie.

‘Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!’

And again…

‘Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!’

Just another tie.

They went on like this for the next thirty minutes.

The bus rattled as it crossed over a highway bridge. Sunny looked at the clouds in the sky as he took another bite of his beef jerky. The pinkish-yellow hue that the rising sun had once tinted the clouds with was slowly fading away. Sunny and Omori had no idea what time it was or how long they had been on the bus, but, as the landscape slowly turned from farm land to short bursts of green trees, they knew that they were getting close. They were almost home.

They had spent most of their ride together in silence as Sunny reflected on what he had just learned about himself. The more he repeated Omori’s explanations in his head, the more they made sense. In a way, it hurt him knowing that things could never be the same again. He didn’t want to be a ‘new’ Sunny. He wished that he could be the original Sunny, be himself again, but it was impossible. Sunny and Omori could never become a whole person. Never again. They were two entities now, both reliant on each other and incomplete. And, although the thought of his consciousness being permanently divided devastated him, he took solace in the fact that he would never be alone again. No matter where he went, he would always have Omori.

Still, though, it worried him how they would continue their life together when they were living as two separate beings. Sure, the sharing of the same body and technically the same mind felt natural to him, but the distribution of their consciousnesses was uneven and confusing. Omori had all of Sunny’s memories, whereas Sunny had been left with nothing. The only way he could recall anything was after Omori had reminded him of a memory.

Then, there was also the fact that Omori could hear everything going on in Sunny’s mind, but Sunny had no idea what Omori was ever thinking himself. It was a bit unfair. He didn’t understand why. If Omori and him had the same mind, then shouldn’t he have the same memories and abilities as Omori? It was all a bit disconcerting.

What was even their plan? They had chosen to run away from home, but they didn’t know how it would all work out. Their circumstances were different now, especially considering what they had become, what Sunny had become, they were him but they weren’t him. How were they going to interact with their friends? There was so much they had to talk about before they reached Faraway. Sunny had a lot of questions he needed to ask.

He wondered what they would do if they were rejected from the lives of their friends. He worried about himself and Omori. Should they explain their current situation to their friends? He was Sunny but he didn’t have his old memories. How would they react to him not knowing anything? He didn’t want to worry them, but he didn’t want to tell them the truth. He wasn’t sure if they would even understand. How would he even go about explaining “I’m Sunny but I’m not” to all of his childhood friends? It would worry them...

Perhaps it would be best if he just didn’t mention it. Who knows what problems would entail if someone had found out about the state of his mental health. It was bad enough that he was physically at his worst. What would even happen if told them that he was mentally “not Sunny” but, instead, a fraction of him? That he was divided into two and that they could never see the whole Sunny again? It probably wouldn’t end well.

He sighed. They would have to cooperate with each other. They would have to act as one whole being, one whole Sunny.

They needed a plan.

Sunny looked away from the window and reached deep into his book bag. After fishing around and making lots of crinkling sounds, he pulled out a plastic white shopping bag. He opened it and pulled out a blue box of adhesive eye patches. Flipping it over, he stared at the eyepatch patterns advertised on the front.

It was a little embarrassing. The patches were made for little kids. There were dinosaurs, turtles, penguins, and other patterns. Truthfully, he had only gotten this box for one reason: cats.

Sunny tore open the box. Carefully, he sifted through them before finding one decorated with cats. It had two white cats, one on bottom and another on top but upside down. The background was a baby blue with pink paw prints that were haphazardly thrown in. It was incredibly childish but some supernatural force made him unable to resist it.

‘What do you think about this one?’ Sunny mentally asked.

‘Cats,’ Omori immediately responded as he took control over both arms. He flipped the patch over and eagerly began to peel off the back.

Sunny couldn’t help but smile just a tiny bit. To be honest, he was secretly hoping that Omori would agree with that patch. He really wanted to wear the cats. Sunny faced the window and stared at his reflection as Omori attempted to align the patch over their missing right eye.

He wondered why both he and Omori were so obsessed with cats...

‘We’ve always been,’ Omori began to explain, still trying to figure out the right spot for the sticky eyepatch.

Finally, it was perfectly aligned. Omori laid the patch over their right eye and pressed down softly, carefully rubbing the adhesive edges to ensure that it didn’t fall off over time.

‘Ever since we were a little kid, you and I, as Sunny, would obsessively fawn over cats,’ Omori continued, ‘We would pretend we were a cat everywhere we went. Purring, crawling, rubbing against everyone’s legs, wanting to be petted… It got so out of control that we wouldn’t answer anyone unless they made cat noises. They had to call us with ‘PSPSPSPSPS’ if they wanted our attention. Otherwise, we would ignore them.’

They had to call him with cat sounds to get his attention?

...Wow. Sunny internally chuckled at the idea. To be treated like a cat. He kind of liked that.

‘Did we ever stop?’ Sunny asked.

There was a pause before Omori answered.

‘No. We never grew out of it. Our friends tried getting us to stop when we started replacing words like ‘now’ with ‘meow’ but they gave up after we started talking to cats.’

He… tried talking to cats?! What did that even look like?

Omori began to monotonously chant, ‘Meow meow? Meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow. Meow.’

‘…’ Sunny didn’t know how to react to that. Was this an example of him speaking cat?

‘Mew~’ Omori added in.

Interesting…

As a couple of his cat related memories slowly returned, both Omori and Sunny let out a short, nearly inaudible, synchronous laugh. It was funny.

Sunny's smile was quickly cut short, though, as he realized something very important. His memories and his friends, he loved them and he remembered them but he also didn’t know any of them. He couldn’t remember his own past. What was he going to do when he finally reached Faraway? How was he supposed to act?

He began to mildly shake from his nervousness.

‘Relax, it’ll be fine,’ Omori said, unconcerned.

Sunny was taken aback by his nonchalant attitude. How would it be fine? Wouldn’t their friends be able to tell that something was up? Was he just going to pretend that he was okay? That would be a problem, though. How could he do that when he didn’t even know who he was? It would cause suspicion, wouldn’t it? Were they just going to tell their friends about his mental state? About Sunny and Omori? That would just worry them sick. How could it be okay?

‘We’re not going to tell them and we’re not going to be suspicious.’

Huh? If they’re nothing going to tell them, then… His behavior… How could Omori be so sure? How would no one notice the difference?

‘Well, you already act a lot like Sunny.’

...he does?

‘Yes,’ Omori confirmed, ‘For you, it’s like a natural instinct.’

Wow. That was unexpected.

‘Which is why, when we’re out and about, among our friends, you’re going to be Sunny and I’m going to stay Omori.’

Wait. What?!

As Sunny gasped, Omori quickly shoved beef jerky into their mouth and began chewing aggressively. He then covered their mouth with both hands, effectively silencing the both of them.

Omori’s decision… It didn’t make any sense. Sunny wondered why he would be the one in control. Sure, Omori said he naturally behaved like Sunny, but that didn’t mean a thing. Omori was the one with all of the memories, not Sunny! Wouldn’t that cause a problem? Why would he be Sunny?!

‘Because...’

Omori released their hands from their mouth. He bent down into the book bag, grabbing their bottle of water.

‘...I don’t want to worry our friends and you’re the least suspicious.’

...oh? The least suspicious?

Omori took a sip of the water.

‘I can’t act like Sunny. I was made to be not Sunny. I’m Omori,’ he added.

...Ah. That actually made sense. After all, Omori was everything Sunny wanted to be. Everything Sunny hated, including himself, Omori was designed not to be. It would be challenging and unnatural if he tried to act like he was Sunny. Omori pretending to be Sunny was an idea that conflicted with his very own existence. Plus, there was something in Sunny’s gut that was telling him that Omori didn’t want to be Sunny. Omori wanted to be Omori. He didn’t know why, but this desire was something Sunny felt like he could understand.

Still, though, there was one blaring problem with Omori’s plan and it couldn’t be ignored. Sunny didn’t have any memories. He didn’t know anything of his own life or of his friends. All of his actions so far had been based on Omori’s directions or his own instinct. How was Sunny going to be Sunny?

‘I’ll train you,’ Omori said flatly. He closed the water bottle and returned it to their book bag.

Train him? Sunny narrowed his eyes and scrunched his face a bit at the notion. Why did that feel so insulting? What was he, a circus animal? A lap dog? What was that supposed to mean?

‘Don’t be stupid. It’s nothing like that,’ Omori sighed almost impatiently, ‘It means I’ll teach you how to be Sunny.’

Teach him… how to be Sunny?

‘It’ll be easy,’ Omori stated, somewhat rather overly confidently.

‘How so?’ Sunny asked.

‘Well, all of your memories are still present. They just need to be reconnected,’ Omori explained. ‘Plus, the fact that you already act like Sunny makes it a lot easier to be Sunny. It’ll be a piece of cake.’

Oh. Omori was right. Sunny felt like the idea still seemed unreasonable. How was he going to pretend everything was normal? That he was the whole Sunny?

...Maybe it’ll be easier than he thought. Maybe he was just overthinking things. Maybe he should just trust Omori.

Okay, fine. Sunny decided he will trust Omori. He will agree to being trained and he will agree to be the whole Sunny.

Omori reached back into their plastic grocery bag, pulling out a bag of gummy bears. His face relaxed. He stared at them momentarily before mentally speaking to Sunny again,

‘Just promise me something.’

There was another pause of silence. Was Omori waiting for Sunny to respond? Sunny guessed that was the case.

‘Hm?’ he replied.

Omori still didn’t say anything. The silence was almost deafening. He felt so uncomfortable. What was going on? Was he lost in thought?

It was unfair. Sunny wished he could know what was on Omori’s mind.

Finally, Omori ripped open the bag of gummy bears.

‘Promise me that you’ll let me...’ Omori looked up out the bus window as he shoved a gummy bear into their mouth. The trees had become so densely populated that it had become impossible to see anything behind them. He looked back at the bag of gummy bears. ‘No. Nevermind. We’re almost there.’

What?

‘...Omori?’ Sunny didn’t want to admit it, but he was a little concerned.

‘We can talk about it later. There are more important things that we need to discuss before we get there.’

Sunny didn’t want to brush off Omori but-.

‘What happened while I was gone?’

Huh? Is he avoiding-.

‘What do you remember from these past few days?’ Omori cut him off again.

...Days? Has it been days?

Sunny stared at his book bag near his feet.

How... How long has it been…?

Sunny leaned towards his book bag and pulled out his sketchbook. He flipped it open to a very familiar page. Several cats were drawn all across the paper. One of them, towards the left side of the center, had been colored in with black. The familiarity... it was Mewo, wasn’t it?

Sunny shook his head, deciding to push aside the thought about Mewo in the process. He needed to focus on the task at hand. Each cat represented a day, a day since he had last seen his friends. He needed to know how long it had been.

It was time to count the cats.

As he pointed to each cat, he noticed how much easier it was to keep track of them. Last time he had done this, his body was on autopilot. His mouth used to make the sounds on its own as he did this, but those sounds never had a clear meaning. He knew that they represented something, but he didn’t know what they meant.

This time was much more different, though. After all the times he had repeated this ritual, this time he didn’t need an autopilot. For the first time ever, the sounds had some sort of definition attached to them. The sounds he was now able to make mentally, he knew that they were words. And the words he had been saying all along now had a meaning. Sunny was glad that he could finally recognize it.

At last, his finger had landed on the black cat. Number seventeen. Seventeen cats. So, it had been seventeen days, hadn’t it? Seventeen days without Omori. Seventeen days since he last saw any of his friends…

No, wait. It had been eighteen days! He had almost forgotten that he hadn’t drawn today’s cat yet!

Sunny quietly sighed as he stared at the black cat.

For eighteen days, he had been so lonely. For each of those days, he had missed his friends. Eighteen days…

Of those eighteen days, how many days had he even seen his own mother? Three days? Four? Sunny stared at his wrist as he thought about it. It was so scarily small. He had never been this thin. He felt disgusted.

For nearly eighteen days, his diet had subsisted on water and practically nothing else. After he ran out of cookies, the only time he had ever eaten was... when she was around. When his mother was around.

...Wow.

That… That was difficult to take in. Why did she leave him? Omori was right. Had he refused Omori’s offer to connect with him, he would still be in bed, unable to take care of himself. He wouldn’t have survived. They both would have died. Was that-.

Sunny jumped as his left hand pinched his left cheek.

Ouch. The sting! Why?!

Oh, right! He was getting distracted again, wasn’t he?

Omori stopped pinching him. Guess that was the answer.

So, it had been eighteen days since he last saw his friends. During those days, he spent most of his time asleep in bed. Was that it? No...

Sunny flipped to the front cover of the sketchbook.

... there was the hospital.

‘What happened at the hospital?’ Omori asked.

Sunny slowly turned the cover, revealing the first page. In the middle of it were three separate lines; one black, one purple, and one green. He stared at them for a moment, trying to decipher their meaning.

Oh. This… This was the first day. No, wait. The second. This page was when they had given him his sketchbook and colored pencils. He remembered this day. It had all been so confusing. Didn’t he end up drawing all over his arm? He could feel himself blushing.

That day was embarrassing. Sunny turned to the second page.

Hm. This day he remembered. He had felt so lonely. No one had come to visit him. He filled the time with the gifts his friends had brought him each day.

Their gifts…

Sunny observed one of his drawings.

The ball…

Kel had brought him it. He remembered throwing it back and forth with him. Kel would yell “catch” before tossing it to him. Sunny would mimic him before throwing it back. At first, he was angry, but then it became so much fun. Kel even turned off the lights and they threw it in the dark.

Wait.

Sunny could feel his left eye tearing up. He remembered something. At some point, Kel had turned on the lights, right?. He ran up to him and hugged him. It was really confusing. He remembered the top of his head feeling wet…

No…

Sunny had made Kel cry.

‘STOP. BREATHE!’ Omori shouted from within.

Huh?!

Sunny gave a quick short gasp.

…

…

...

Wait, why couldn’t he breathe again?!

Before he had a chance to panic, there was another tiny inaudible gasp.

...and then he couldn’t breathe again...

What was happening?!

As his vision became blurry, he felt his body lean back. His left cheek became wet.

Oh. He was crying again. Wait. Why was he also suffocating? He didn’t remember that happening before.

‘It’s always been like that,’ Omori began to explain, ‘Even as an infant, whenever we would cry, we would suffocate for ten or twenty seconds before gasping for breath.’

Sunny wiped his eye with his hand.

‘The same thing happens when we laugh. You probably just weren’t able to notice it until now,’ Omori added.

How could he not notice that he wasn’t breathing for so long when he cried? Was it because he was unaware of himself until just recently?

That… actually made sense.

Sunny closed his eye and tried to calm down. There was so much he had to learn, especially about himself. It was frightening and overwhelming, but… at least he had Omori.

That’s right. He would never be alone or abandoned ever again. He may not know how to navigate the world, but at least had help. At least he had Omori.

Sunny could feel himself relax as the stress and depressing emotions left his body. Slowly, he found himself able to breathe again.

‘So… what else happened at the hospital? What else did you get?’

Ah, right! He was going over everything he had almost forgotten. He was showing Omori everything that he did.

Sunny leaned forward again as he looked at the rest of his sketches.

There were the oblong circles… the candies. Basil and Aubrey had gotten those for him. Wait, didn’t he eat a wrapper? Sunny remembered them making a lot of noise after he swallowed. He wondered what their reactions were when they saw that. began to smile a bit.

Basil and Aubrey had also brought him a jailed leafy stick… a flower in a pot. It was nice, but, after having spent so many days without watering, it was most likely already dead or wilted. Hm. Sunny hoped that his friends wouldn’t be too sad about that.

Then, there were the cookies. Hero had brought them.

Wow. His mouth was already salivating at the thought of them. They were delicious. They had tasted so close to something he once knew. Something he would have almost daily. There was something off about them though. Whatever they were trying to mimic, they weren’t there yet. He’d have to ask Hero about that…

And then... 

Sunny looked up from his sketchbook and directly at his book bag. He felt a warm feeling wash over him as his gaze landed directly on the white plush cat. With its head sticking out, unable to be fully contained by his book bag, Sunny felt the corners of his mouth pull into a tiny smile as the cat stared back at him.

Of all the gifts he had received from his friends, that one was his favorite. Despite his condition, his friends really knew him well. They had always been like that, right? They had always been able to understand him. Even though he couldn’t recall a specific memory to confirm it, Sunny was confident that that fact was true. He knew deep down inside that he had always loved that about them. The fact that they could read him.

There was one more thing that they had done together, wasn’t there? Something that they had all done together before he was separated from them…

Sunny looked back down at his notebook.

That’s right, he had spent the entire last day drawing with them. He wondered what they had made…

He turned to the next page of the sketchbook.

Oh.

Omori closed their eye, throwing their upper body against the seat back again.

Sunny needed to calm down. Sunny needed to breathe.

A moment had passed. Sunny took a deep breath. He was okay. He wouldn’t cry again.

Omori gave back control. Sunny opened his eye again. He looked back down at the drawing.

It was Kel, or, at least, a small doodle of him. He wore a big smile while holding up an okay sign with a question mark written right by it. Next to his doodle, though, was just a bunch of black lines and scribbles. Only by looking at it, Sunny could tell they were his own. Kel had been trying to communicate with him. He was trying to ask Sunny if he were okay, but the only response he got was a big disorganized mess. Sunny responded to his question with nonsense.

How much that must have hurt Kel. Sunny gave him an answer, but, at the same time, he didn’t. The amount of concern his friends must have felt after receiving that type of response to such a simple question... Sunny could only imagine how horrible it must have been. Knowing Kel, he was probably heartbroken. It was hard to look at.

Sunny turned his sketchbook to the next page.

Wow. This drawing was actually quite adorable! It was so simple, yet perfect. In the center of the page was a doodle of himself surrounded by little fluffy bunnies. Nearby, there were those black lines and scribbles again, but they weren’t as hard to look at this time. Probably because there wasn’t a question.

He stared back at the centered doodle. Guessing by the roundness of the bunnies, Sunny guessed this page was drawn by Aubrey. She must have been trying to comfort him.

Sunny began to turn the page again, but, before he could completely flip it, he immediately covered his mouth with both hands. He almost dropped his sketchbook, barely catching it with his lap.

A very quiet, muffled giggling could be heard.

‘What is that?!’ he heard Omori nearly screaming within his head. He sounded both amused and dumbfounded.

Sunny could barely concentrate as he tried to answer.

‘I think Hero made this.’

‘YOU THINK ?!’ Omori immediately yelled back.

He couldn’t hold it in any longer. His giggling slowly morphed into inaudible laughter.

On the center of the page, next to those black scribbles again, was Hero’s drawing.

Hero had made stick figures of himself and Sunny standing together in a crudely drawn stove and table. Sunny was holding an oversized circle covered in dots while Hero carried what he had to assume to be a tray of cookies. Only Sunny was wearing an apron, but his stick figure body wasn't obscured by it. Sunny’s head was a circle with giant ears sticking out of the sides. Hero’s head was… definitely something. It reminded him of a pizza slice.

It looked like Hero had put a lot of effort into his hair, but gave up everywhere else.

Sunny had to admit that he really liked it. As atrocious as it was, it had that unique Microsoft paint quality to it. Perfection.

He flipped the page again.

Oh wow. This page was so much different compared to the others. The entire page was filled with doodles of flowers and plants. He didn’t recognize any of them, but they were so pretty to look at. In a small section on the bottom of the page, there was an area scribbled out in black. It was probably his doing again, but the entire page was still nice.

‘Basil must have made this,’ Omori chimed in.

Basil… right, Basil. Basil had always really loved plants. So much so that he always wore a flower clip in his hair. Wait… that flower clip…

Sunny closed his eye as he tried to envision it.

He could almost see it. A blurry color... Where had he-.

‘Mari gave it to him.’ Omori interjected.

Suddenly, the image of the flower hair clip cleared in his mind. It had purple petals and a golden yellow center. Sunny remembered something else. He had a matching one, hadn’t he? No. He definitely did. He could see it. It had salmon pink petals. Mari had given it to him as well.

Sunny tried to imagine Basil wearing the purple clip, but something felt off about it.

‘That’s because Basil didn’t wear the purple clip. You did,’ Omori began to explain, ‘Mari gave us those flower clips on the night we all went stargazing. We traded the salmon pink one with Basil. It was a symbol of our friendship.’

Oh, so… Basil wore the salmon pink clip?

‘Correct,’ Omori confirmed.

Now it had finally clicked! Sunny could see the salmon pink clip perfectly in his head. A symbol of their friendship… He wondered whatever happened to his purple clip.

He felt his body jerk forward from his seat as the bus came to a rough stop. As the bus hissed and the door creaked open, Sunny opened his eye and glanced out the window.

This was it! He was finally here! This was his stop! He was in Faraway at last!

He shoved his sketchbook back into his book bag and hurriedly rushed off the bus. The moment his foot hit the pavement, he felt like his legs had turned into jelly. Wow. He was nervous, wasn’t he?

As the bus drove off, Sunny closed his eye and took a deep breath before exhaling. He listened to the leaves rustling in the trees, the birds singing their morning songs, and the sounds of the morning joggers jogging. Upon hearing a car whiz by, he opened his eye.

…

...

...

He knew this was Faraway, but…

...where was he?

Omori took control.

Sunny watched as he passed by familiar houses and streets. There was a… park… with a very familiar yellow cat surrounded by sand. Omori took a right turn from the park, down another long street. Sunny could tell he was almost there.

Something was starting to bite at the back of his mind though. His body began to fill with dread. His friends… what if they reject him? How could he expect Kel and Hero to take them in when he wasn’t even certain they had forgiven him? How could they forgive him? After everything he’s done…

‘Relax,’ Omori took another right turn, ‘It’ll be fine. I know it.’

They passed by some religious looking statues. He didn’t like the way they made him feel.

‘How could you be so sure?’ Sunny asked.

‘They hugged you, didn’t they? Plus, the drawings...’

Next, a white house with a blue roof entered his vision.

‘They wouldn’t have done any of that if they didn’t care.’

Omori turned right into a yard with a dog house and a nostalgic picket white fence.

‘Besides, I know them and I trust them. Even after everything we had done, they would never leave us hanging out to dry.’

They stopped in front of a familiar orange door.

‘They love us. You… me… they love Sunny...’

...and he loved them.

Sunny stared at the orange door.

‘It’s time,’ Omori announced.

He’s going to make it up to them. No, to all up to them. Each of his friends. He promises.

Omori rang the doorbell before giving Sunny back full control again. Loud barking could be heard...

‘Hector,’ Omori stated.

… and a female voice yelling something he couldn’t make out.

‘Mom.’

...mom?

‘Not ours, but she prefers we call her that. There’s ‘dad’ too,’ Omori added.

A mom and a dad, but not his own. Still, they preferred that he called them that…

He could hear a muffled male voice getting closer to the door.

There was so much he was going to have to learn, wasn’t there? Suddenly, this ‘learning to be Sunny’ idea seemed like a terrible plan.

His body froze as he watched the round knob turn and the door open slowly.

“...Sunny?”

“...Sunny?”

Sunny stared up at the tall man who had opened the door. Towering before him, dressed in an orange tank top with matching orange shorts, was his old best friend, the one who he had grown up with, the one who he had been looking forward to seeing the most, Kel!

Sunny was overwhelmed with a mixture of emotions. He wanted to scream and shout from pure excitement. He wanted to leap into his old friend's arms and give him the biggest hug he could imagine, but... he also wanted to run away from him. He was terrified of him. Sunny didn’t know how Kel would react to seeing him again. After everything Sunny had done… his confession, his odd behavior, the several years he had spent deliberately disregarding their friendship and Kel’s existence… He didn’t know what Kel would think upon seeing him again. What if Kel resented him? Omori said that was impossible, but… he had hurt Kel so much and in such a short period of time too. How could he not detest him?

Maybe he didn’t. Kel had always had such a big open heart and was incredibly forgiving. Even after all those years Sunny had spent indoors dismissing him, Kel didn’t hold a grudge against him.

However, this time was different. Sunny had confessed to committing manslaughter. He took away Kel’s big sister and, momentarily, took Kel’s big brother as well. He admitted that he lied about it all for nearly four years. Sunny had hurt him again and again. He didn’t deserve to be on Kel’s front door step. He had no right to be seen again after what he did.

Sunny desperately wanted to look away. After everything he had done, it was hard to meet Kel’s gaze, but...

Kel’s facial expression, it wasn’t unwelcoming but it didn’t look too happy either. There was a mixture of worry and shock strewn across his face, but Kel just looked perplexed more than anything. Sunny couldn’t tell what Kel was thinking. Was he… going to reject him?

Sunny's heart fell into his stomach. The longer they stared into each other’s eyes, the more he felt ashamed of his own existence. It felt as if Kel was silently judging him. Was he in disbelief, or was he disgusted by Sunny’s sudden appearance? Maybe Kel was shocked that Sunny had the audacity to show up again after everything he had done. Sunny found it difficult to tell. All Sunny knew was that he really didn’t like this situation. He felt terrible. He wanted to run away.

This was an awful idea. Of all the people he could have asked for help, why did he choose Hero and Kel? The two people he had hurt the most. He should have gone to someone else. No, he should have gone somewhere else. Somewhere different. Somewhere not here. Somewhere not home. Somewhere where he had never existed. Didn’t he want to see them again though? Didn’t he miss them? He was so conflicted. Sunny began to panic.

He tried to take a step back. He needed to run, but, once again, he found himself unable to move. His entire body was frozen stiff.

Wait a minute… no. He was moving. He couldn’t feel it, but he could see it. The world was moving before his eye, but it was moving… sideways?

Oh. Wait. It was moving because he was falling. He was falling to his side!

“Woah!”

Sunny heard a gasp escape from his friend.

“Wait, Sunny!”

Before the clear blue sky could completely fill his vision, Sunny felt two hands drop onto his shoulders, yanking him back into a standing position. Did he almost go down like a goat? He did, didn’t he?! But Kel had saved him once again! Bless! What a great friend!

Sunny could almost hug him, thankful for his help. But, before he had the chance to celebrate his victory against gravity, Sunny felt the ground disappear from underneath him.

What was happening?!

Sunny began to kick around as he ascended into the heavens.

Where was he going?!

Something had grabbed him. He tried to use his legs in an attempt to push away whatever was in front of him, but it was useless.

What was he-.

…

…

…

He felt his hands grip around something soft and textured. The rest of his body went limp as his vision faded into nothingness. The sounds around him dampened, leaving behind nothing but muffled noises. Sunny felt his mind go blank.

Something was squeezing him tightly.

Wow… He couldn’t see or hear anything, but… wherever he was, it was comfortable. So serene. He could fall asleep here. He felt so content. Sunny never wanted to move ever again. But, alas, all good things must come to an end.

As the muffled sounds in his ears began to clear, Sunny felt his feet touch the ground again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

His legs felt like jelly.

Finally, his legs stiffened up, allowing him to stand. He felt his fingers being pried from whatever he was holding on to as his vision slowly returned. Sunny could hear someone laughing before speaking again.

“Looks like you still got that koala grip,” Kel joked as he attempted to release Sunny’s last finger from his orange tank top.

What just… happened to him?

‘You fell like a goat so he picked us up,’ Omori informed him.

Picked him up? Oh… That easily? Now he felt embarrassed. Has Kel always been able to do that?

Wait. Kel! That’s right, he was with Kel!

Sunny blinked a few times, his sight clearing after each blink before he was finally able to notice Kel again. Kel was crouched down to his eye level, still trying to remove Sunny’s grip on his shirt, but his head was turned around. He was talking to someone else. Whoever it was, their voice was so familiar. Sunny finally let go of Kel’s tank top and peeked around him.

Oh. It was Hero! That was him, right? He was pretty sure of it. He was standing by the door frame that connected the hallway to the living room.

...Hero is looking directly back at him, staring him down...

Sunny could feel the blood draining from his body. He could hear Kel talking, but he couldn’t make sense of it. Sunny was too focused on Hero’s reaction to his appearance.

What was with that face Hero was making? Hero’s eyes were squinted and his eyebrows furrowed, but his mouth was hanging wide open. His body looked frozen, as if someone had stopped time. He didn’t appear angry, but it was quite obvious how uncomfortable he was. It was as if he had seen a ghost...

...or a monster.

After all, that’s what he as, wasn’t he? It was an accident, but that didn’t change the fact that it had happened. What he had done… How he had hurt Mari…

Sunny began to frown a bit as he thought about the incident. He wished he hadn’t done it. He was remorseful, but he supposed that feeling would never change. He had done wrong and there was nothing he could do to take back everything that had happened.

He continued to stare at Hero. Their eyes locked with each other before Hero began to rapidly blink.

Hero rubbed his eyes with his hands, staring at Sunny as if he were in disbelief, “...Sunny?”

“...” Sunny started to sweat. Hero was talking to him, but he found himself unable to say anything back. Promptly, he hid behind Kel, removing Hero from his sight.

“Sunny?” Hero called for him again, but was interrupted by another familiar voice, much louder than his own, and higher pitched.

“SUNNY?!” The loud smacking of sandals stomping on the hardwood floor filled the air. It grew heavier as it approached from the dining room. “WHERE?!”

Who was that?

Sunny looked up at Kel who was already looking back down at him. Sunny saw that Kel had the biggest and most welcoming smile plastered across his face. He started to feel a little warm inside. Had Kel been smiling the entire time? It brought him some much needed relief.

‘See? I told you that everything would be okay,’ said Omori within his head.

How annoying.

As Sunny peeked around Kel again, but as he did, he began to feel himself starting to violently tremble. He was scared about what was going to happen next.

Kel shuffled out of the way, allowing Sunny to get a full view of the person who had just shouted his name.

There was a lady in a green blouse and darker green skirt. She wore sandals and a pearl necklace with matching pearl earrings. Her hair was worn in a loose bun that laid on the back of her head. She was holding something wrapped in pink.

Who was she? No, wait. Sunny knew who she was!

It was mom. Not his mom, but a mom. Their mom. Kel and Hero’s mom. And the pink thing she was holding was a baby.

Sunny watched as she quietly handed off the baby to Hero, who was doing his best not to fumble it around. That’s right. Kel’s a big brother now. Their parents... they recently had a baby.

‘Sally,’ Omori named it.

Ah, its name was Sally? How interesting. He wondered what it could do or how old it was.

‘Her.’

Her. Right. Sally was a baby girl.

‘She can crawl,’ Omori added.

Sunny continued to stare. Neat.

Successfully placing Sally into Hero’s arms, Hero and Kel’s mom turned around, facing Sunny directly. Her face quickly changed between worry and bewilderment, but, before long, a gigantic smile stretched across her face, one similar in warmth and happiness of Kel’s. Was that where he had gotten it?

His thoughts were quickly derailed as he noticed their mom giving him her full attention. Despite the warm glow she carried and the smile across her face, Sunny was still taken aback. For some reason, he was still scared.

“Sunny?” She hesitantly approached him.He tried to take a step back, but Omori moved in the opposite direction, preventing him from moving away. Why was he so scared of her? He didn’t get the chance to figure out why, though, because just as he was about to ask, something else had happened. Something he didn’t expect.

He felt her arms delicately wrap around him, embracing him into a hug. She whispered, “It’s so good to see you again.”

Wait. He was scared of her but… Why was it good to see him again?

“Are you okay?” She asked.

He was okay, wasn’t he? He had finally made it here. He made it home, but… he felt her hand move under his book bag, reaching to rub circles onto his back. It made him feel comfortable and relaxed.

“How have you been?”

Hm. She was asking him questions. She really wanted to know about him. How was he supposed to respond? He didn’t even know who he was.

“Are you hungry?”

Is he? No. He definitely is. She was asking a lot of personal questions, but he kind of appreciated them. Did she care about him?

“Do you want to come inside?”

...wow. She really cared, didn’t she? No. She loved him. For a moment, he felt like he was her own son. He wanted this. He needed this. He missed this. When was the last time he had felt something like this?

“Do you want something to drink?”

…

A drink as a gift? He had his own but… he would like that. He liked that he was being held. That he was being cared about. Was that selfish? He felt kind of bad, but...

...She was being kind to him, wasn’t she? He didn’t even know her, but she thought of him as her own son. She loved him.

Suddenly, Sunny felt like his body was about to collapse. It was as if a heavy blanket was dropped on his chest. His whole body felt warm, just like it did when his friends hugged him, but there was this strange wave of emotions washing over his mind. Feelings he had never imagined. Something he longed for. Something he had missed.

He felt his throat choke up as he began to sob, forcing him to quietly gasp for air again. He couldn’t figure out why, but he just felt the sudden urge to be completely covered by something. Something warm to wrap around him. Something warm that cared about him.

What were these emotions he was feeling? He tried to pinpoint them as he cried. It was hard to tell. There was some relief and happiness, but if he was happy then just why did he feel so sad? What was going on? What did all of this mean? How could he be both happy and sad? Didn’t that contradict?

Sunny buried his face into Kel and Hero’s mother, hugging her back tightly as he began to sob heavily. His face wanted to smile, but all he could do was frown. He didn’t like this. It was confusing. Had this ever happened before? Was this a regular occurrence? Why didn’t he want to let go? Why did he want to stay like this forever? He felt so pathetic.

He wanted to understand. He needed to understand. Why was this happening? Why did he feel so awful? What was going on with him? Was this what it was like to be Sunny? Is this something that Sunny regularly did? Or was this something that Sunny never had the chance to experience? Something that he wished he had… why did that feel right? Of all the reasons he could think of, why did that one make the most sense?

‘Omori?’ he tried to ask.

Sunny felt his grip around Kel and Hero’s mother tighten on its own, but otherwise there was no response. Omori stayed silent. Was he ignoring him?

Sunny tried to pull away, but he couldn’t let go. Instead, she began to pat him on the head, causing him to cry harder. This love he was receiving, this amount of affection… it felt so right yet so wrong. He felt like he didn’t deserve it, but, the longer it went on, the more he realized he didn’t want it to end. Why did he feel like he needed this? When will it end?

Sunny felt his legs begin to move as she waddled him through the doorway, slowly bringing him into the house. The door closed behind him and the lock made a soft click.

Still buried in her shirt, Sunny heard footsteps approach him from behind before stopping beside him. He turned his head, only to find his vision completely filled with orange.

Orange… The familiarity… Why did he like it so much? How could such an atrocious color make him feel at ease?

Wait. ORANGE!

Right, Kel was the orange blur! How could he forget that in just a short amount of time?! Was he really that distracted? Sunny closed his eye as he remembered him.

Kel was the orange blur who had kept him company. The orange blur that had hugged him in the hospital and made him feel warm. The orange blur that had given him the ball and played catch with him. The orange blur who, like all of the other colorful shapes, had made him feel safe and happy. The orange blur that was his friend.

Sunny opened his eye and stared at the orange wall again. Quickly, his sobs began to disappear and a faint smile stretched across his lips. For the first time in what felt like forever, Sunny was home. He began to calm down. He closed his eye and gave their mom… his mom… one final squeeze in their hug before opening his eye again. Finally, he was able to breathe.

He let go of their mom and wiped away the rest of his tears. He was at ease again.

“Are you going to be okay?” Kel’s mom asked as she broke her hug, resting a hand on his shoulder.

Sunny nodded yes.

“Good,” She let go of him, returning to Hero and taking back Sally.

Sunny began to remove his book bag, but stopped in place as Hero made an immediate beeline towards him. That panic he had just felt before he was hugged had started to creep up inside him again.

Hero… he was terrified of him.

Sunny didn’t remember much about Hero, but he did remember that he was his big brother. Sunny cared a lot about him and looked up to him. He was his role model, but…

...Hero and Mari were in love, and he took her away from him. In his childish vision, he had always thought that they were destined to be wedded to one another. To him, they were supposed to grow old together. But that didn’t happen because he…

Sunny looked up at the man who casted a looming shadow over him.

Sunny, he…

Hero squatted down to Sunny’s eye level.

...he killed her.

Sunny felt himself begin to tremble once more like before.

‘No. We killed her,’ Omori interjected. How nice of him to finally contribute to the situation again…

Hero rested both of his hands on Sunny’s shoulders. He stared at him deep in the eye. Too afraid to move, Sunny returned his gaze. They both watched each other in silence.

Sunny shuffled his feet a little bit. He was already frightened by Hero’s presence, but the closeness in proximity to him was a whole new level of torture. If it were possible, he would run away as fast as he could, but it wasn’t. Not only that, Sunny knew that he shouldn’t. Hero had a firm grip on him. It scared him, but something deep inside of his stomach was telling Sunny not to be afraid of him. It was screaming at him that Hero was there for him.That Hero cared about him and would help support him. But why? Why did he feel as if that were true?

After everything he had done, why would Hero be there for him? No. Wait…

With his peripheral vision, Sunny focused on the blue sweater Hero was wearing.

Hero was there for him. He remembered it. At the hospital, he was the blue blur who gave him the cookies. The one who was there when he had first woken up. The one who was the first to hug him. That meant that he had chosen to stay with him after confessing to the crime he had committed. But...

It... didn’t make sense.

Why didn’t Hero yell at him? Why didn’t he push him away or refuse to visit him? Sunny killed the love of his life and admitted to lying about it. Sunny was the reason for everything bad that had happened to him. Of all the people who he had hurt, why had Hero chosen to be nice to him?

It made no sense whatsoever. Sunny had hurt him.

Sunny felt like he didn’t deserve his kindness. He had betrayed Hero’s trust, made him feel stressed, spiraled him into depression, and...

‘We made him yell at Kel,’ Omori added.

...Right. Hero never would have done that if he… if he had been honest. If he had kept his temper. If he didn’t take a renewed interest in the violin. If he had let Mari keep the hobby for herself.

Sunny had disappointed him. No. Sunny had disappointed all of them. He made the wrong choices and, as a result, he had hurt all of his friends. He must have been a nuisance.

Sunny could feel his eye watering again, but refused to let the tears fall again. Right now wasn’t the time to cry. He needed to fix all of this. He needed to apologize and be there for his friends. He didn’t want them comforting him for the past actions he did that had hurt them. He shouldn’t even think of it. He needed a distraction.

A distraction...

Sunny shifted his attention to Hero’s presence. He was still making eye contact with him.

What was Hero doing? In fact, what was Hero even thinking at the moment? They had to have been staring at each other for several minutes by now. But… Hero was staring at him just like Omori had earlier, when they were in White Space. Sunny couldn’t help but feel he was being scrutinized again. It was almost as if Hero was looking for something deep inside of him. What was it?

How awkwardly uncomfortable this scenario was. Could Hero tell that there was something wrong with him? That he didn’t remember him? Or was Hero judging him for his past actions? He didn’t like it, but he felt like he deserved it. With what he had done to them all and his own sister, he felt like a monster. He deserved punishment. The longer he looked into Hero’s eyes, the guiltier he became. It felt like the weight of the world was dropped on his shoulders. It crushed his spirit, but he tried to persist. Unfortunately, he couldn’t take it anymore. Sunny looked away.

Just as his gaze met the floor, however, Sunny felt his body fling forward by the outside weight on his shoulders. His vision went black again as he was buried into blue fabric. Arms wrapped around him quickly, holding onto him tight. Was Hero hugging him? He began to tremble even more than he had before.

What was going on? Why was Hero hugging him? He was so confused. Was Hero not mad at him? Sunny didn’t understand. How could Hero not resent him? How could Hero not be revolted by his sudden appearance? Wasn’t he appalled by his behavior? What he had done to all of them?

It wasn’t fair. He didn’t deserve this. He wanted this so desperately, but how easily he had gotten it was just unfair. He hurt everyone and they still showered him with kindness. Why was it like this? Where was their rage and their tears? Where did they place their anger?

Sunny was perplexed, but he silently returned the hug. Truthfully, he enjoyed it. Even though he barely remembered him, he missed having his big brother. Hero had always been so kind to him and welcoming. Sunny still admired him.

Hero released him from his embrace, giving Sunny his signature smile. There was a hint of sadness on his face, but it quickly transitioned to pure joy. Sunny begrudgingly let go of him. He liked that hug. He didn’t want it to end.

“I’m really glad you’re okay,” Hero stood up, ruffling Sunny’s hair a bit in the process, “We’ve all missed you.”

They’ve all missed him?

Sunny was beginning to feel overwhelmed from the situation.

He had missed them too, but, after everything he had done, he wasn’t sure if they would even accept him. The only thing he had keeping him going was the fact that Omori was so confident in his decisions and explanations and that Sunny remembered how they had treated him after the incident.

Obviously, they still cared about him. Given their treatment of him at the hospital, he could tell that they wished him well. But he didn’t think they would still want to see him again.

It meant… that...

It meant that they loved him. That’s what that meant, didn’t it? They had missed him and they still cared about him. They were glad to see him again. That meant that they loved him and wanted the best for him.

Omori was right. They would want to help him.

Almost instantaneously, Sunny felt all the remaining nervousness and anxiety leave his body. They didn’t hate him. They had never hated him. They just wanted the best for him. They wanted him to experience life and happiness. They loved him. Sunny was relieved.

He followed Hero as Hero quietly escorted him to the couch. After taking off his book bag and placing it by his side, Kel plopped down right next to him and swung an arm around his shoulders. Sunny stared at the arm dangling down from his shoulder.

Wow, he knew he was small, but Kel was just a giant. Had he always been this big or did he get even bigger since the last time they had met? Compared to him, Sunny felt like an infant. Were they injecting growth hormones into him or were they feeding him something suspicious? Sunny pouted as he felt his feet hanging from the couch, unable to touch the ground from his lack of height. He swung his feet onto the couch, crossing his legs underneath him so he wouldn’t have to feel them dangling in the air off the couch. It made him feel less childish. Whatever it was that was turning Kel into a giant, Sunny wanted it!

He glanced around the room. Kel and Hero’s mom sat on the other side of the couch. She was holding Sally, protecting her hair from being grabbed as she played with her. Her face still showed signs of anxiety and worry, but was easily holding herself together by keeping herself distracted.

Hero remained standing in front of him, but he looked much more relaxed and happy compared to before. That weird face he had been making earlier when he first laid eyes on him was completely gone. There was not a trace of it in sight. Hero just looked content with his surroundings and it was contagious. How could someone bring so much peace to their surroundings? Sunny stared in awe. What a cool guy. It was like magic. Kel on the other hand…

Sunny looked up to his side at Kel, who immediately looked back down at him and gave him another one of his big welcoming grins. Sunny immediately shied away, looking down into his lap. That smile was something else. It left a nice warm feeling inside.

...Kel was absolutely elated by the looks of it. Sunny could tell that Kel was more than overjoyed to see him again. It almost made him want to smile back, but… it was too difficult. He couldn’t do it. Sunny didn’t know Kel well enough to smile back at him. Sure, he remembered his name, his face, and that they were very good friends, but he didn’t know anything else about him. There were a lot of important memories he knew he was missing. Memories that helped build their friendship. He needed to relearn them.

Sunny tried his best.

Hm. What did he remember about Kel, he wondered. Well, he knew that Kel was his childhood friend. And, for a long time, maybe even his only friend, that is before he met Basil. When it was just Kel, Hero, Mari, and him, Kel was his greatest friend. The only one who could ever understand him. The one who never wanted more out of him. If he remembered correctly, then, of all the friends he had, Kel was the one who liked him just the way that he was. Wasn’t that right?

‘That’s correct,’ Omori confirmed for him, ‘That’s why you like him.’

Sunny smiled a bit. Kel was a very good friend.

‘He had always been able to ignore Sunny’s inferior personality’ Omori began to explain to him, ‘Kel was able to see Sunny for who he was and still enjoy his company. Even the parts of Sunny that Kel didn’t understand, Kel was able to easily ignore. Kel had always accepted him for who he was. Kel is a true friend.’

Wow… Kel was underappreciated. Why didn’t he hang out with him more often? What happened to them and their relationship?

‘Basil happened,’ Omori confessed.

‘Basil? What about him?’ Sunny mentally asked

‘Kel and Sunny, or you and Kel, were inseparable. Two peas in a pod. Not even an act of God could destroy your friendship, but then we met Aubrey, and with Aubrey came Basil. You liked him. Sunny liked him.’

Ah, so… Sunny was best friends with Kel, but then Sunny left him behind for something else. Something new...  Sunny had left Kel behind for Basil.

‘Yes,’ Omori confirmed again, ‘You were still close friends with Kel, but your friendship wasn’t nearly as close as it had been before. We replaced him.’

Oh… Ouch...

‘And even after replacing him with someone new, Kel still treasured your friendship,’ Omori added.

Wow. He abandoned Kel and Kel still cared about him? Kel…

He really didn’t deserve him, did he?

Poor Kel. Sunny felt like a bad friend. How could he have ignored him? How could he have done that? What a terrible friend he was. He was infuriated with his past actions.

Sunny was going to make it up to him. He was determined to do so. Even if he couldn’t smile as brightly as Kel, Sunny would make sure he would always be there for him. Kel will be his best friend again and he’ll make sure of it. He’ll just have to get to know him before he could fix their friendship, and with the parts that he couldn’t remember or figure out on his own, Omori will help with. Omori will fill in the gaps for him and help repair their friendship.

Sunny waited for a response, but Omori stayed silent. He decided that Omori’s silence meant that he had no objections. Excellent! He was thankful for Omori’s easy cooperation.

Sunny looked back up to Kel, who was still smiling at him. He tried to return the smile, but he could tell it wasn’t as strong as his. Despite this, Kel’s smile turned into his signature grin. Sunny was glad Kel could tell he was trying his best.

“So,” Hero spoke, gathering the room's full attention, “what are you doing here?”

Sunny stared at him blankly.

…

What was he doing here? There was a lot to explain, wasn’t there? Where would he even begin? Should he even begin? Of course he should. He needed to if he wanted them to understand, but... 

Sunny continued to stare blankly at Hero in silence. He was at a loss for words. There was so much that had happened. How would he even explain?

…

Many more seconds had passed before he heard Omori complain as he grew impatient.

‘What are you waiting for? Say something!’ Omori frustratedly demanded.

Say something...

But...

Sunny blinked as he looked around the room. He knew he should answer, however, he just couldn’t find the will to speak. He was unable to make a sound. Why couldn’t he do it? What was wrong with him? Was this because he was Sunny? Is this how Sunny would respond to this type of question?

The room stayed completely silent.

“Maybe that’s a little too direct,” with the arm wrapped around his shoulder, Kel gave him a light squeeze, “You know how Sunny is.”

Oh! So it was! This was how Sunny would behave. This was how Sunny would react in this kind of situation! Omori was right. What a relief. He really did naturally act just like him.

Sunny awkwardly looked to his side. He still wanted to answer them, but the task was much more arduous than it seemed. He hoped they wouldn’t think he was ignoring him. He waited for their next question.

“Ah, you’re right,” Sunny looked back up as he noticed Hero shift his weight to one side. Hero crossed his arms before continuing the conversation, “Well then, how did you get here?”

He tried to muster the courage to speak, but was cut off shortly before he had the chance.

“Where is your mother?” Their mom asked politely.

His mother… Where was she? How would he explain it? He needed to explain it, but… Sunny could feel himself starting to shake again. Why was it so hard to say anything? It was such a simple question! How aggravating!

‘Omori?’ He tried to ask for help.

‘No,’ Omori quickly shut him down.

‘No?’ He wondered why.

‘I can’t speak for us, remember? I don’t act like him.’

Like him… That’s right. Omori can’t act like Sunny. Sunny was the opposite of him.

’They’ll know something is wrong if I speak, so you’re going to have to handle it. You already know what to say, you just need to say it. Besides, it’s fine.’ Omori paused momentarily before continuing his explanation, ’You’re acting just like Sunny would. He would freeze under this type of pressure. That’s just how Sunny is.’

Just like Sunny would…

He let out a quiet sigh.

Even if he acted like him, there was still a lot to learn about him. Hm. A challenge.

He looked around the room once more. Everyone was waiting on him. What would Sunny do? How would Sunny go about this? If Sunny’s behavior was a natural instinct for him, then he would just need to respond to everything the way he deemed appropriate, right? How stressful. What if he did something wrong? He took a deep breath as he tried to relax.

“Uh, Sunny?” Kel leaned forward into his face, “You okay there, bud?”

Huh? Yes! Of course! Yes, he’s okay! Isn’t he? This is the most okay he’s ever been. He’s back home with his brothers. He’s with his friends again!

Sunny quickly nodded his head.

But just how is he going to hide the fact that he wasn’t really okay? That he was Sunny, but, at the same time, he wasn’t? That there was no more Sunny. That he was something different…

Just how long would it take for them to discover that something was wrong? That something was missing? That he, himself, was missing? That he was only half of what they knew? That he had no memories? How long could he keep this up? What would happen when they find out?

‘Focus,’ Omori his train of thoughts, ‘They won’t figure it out because I won’t let them. We’re going to be just fine and we’re not going to make them worry about us again.’

...That’s right! He has Omori with him, forever by his side. With him, he’ll be able to handle this. He won’t worry any of his friends. He just has to act like himself as he gets to know them. He’ll just have to pretend that everything is fine until he learns about himself and all of his friends' past.

Finally, Sunny felt confident. He knew how he could answer their questions.

Sunny leaned to his side and reached for his book bag. Carefully, he unzipped it. He then pulled out his sketchbook and a purple colored pencil. He figured that if he couldn’t say what he wanted to say, then maybe he could write it. Perhaps this is how Sunny would have acted in this type of situation.

He flipped open the sketchbook to a brand new page, but as his pencil hit the paper, he froze in place.

‘What would Sunny say?’ He wondered.

‘Do you mean ‘How would Sunny word it?’’ Omori asked back.

Yes. That’s exactly what he had meant. How would Sunny write this?

‘Hm… He wouldn’t.’

‘What?’ Sunny was dumbstruck.

‘Sunny wouldn’t word it, at least, not properly. He would write down a few words, but they wouldn’t make a complete sentence.’

… That’s… okay. So he was stupid.

’No, absolutely not!’ Omori immediately reacted to Sunny’s awful conclusion, ’His writing was fine. He even got good grades at school, but his conversation skills were subpar. His sentences were broken because he didn’t know how to express himself. Asking him how he was made him break from the pressure of the attention. Even if he wasn’t okay, he would just give a thumbs up to keep people off his back. It’s one of the things he hated about himself.’

Oh… So he was unable to express his mind because he couldn’t handle attention… He chose to lie about himself even when with simple questions. How sad. Was that the reason why Sunny was the way he is? Unable to write an answer to their question because he didn’t like the attention?

Sunny slowly blinked as he stared at the page, then back at the pencil in his hand. How would he tell his friends what had happened? He didn’t want to worry them. He didn’t want to bring even more attention to the situation, but, at the same time, He didn’t want to lie. He also didn’t want his behavior to arouse any suspicion. If he wasn’t going to be able to overcome his natural Sunny instinct, then how was he supposed to tell them?

Suddenly an idea popped into his head. He could tell them by drawing! It wouldn’t make him uncomfortable and he could explain everything to them!

‘Genius.’

Success! Thanks, Omori.

He looked at the paper. So, where should he begin? Hm...

Well, maybe first he should draw the apartment. That’s where he woke up and where he had been.

He quickly doodled a picture of an empty house, but stopped as he felt Kel shift his weight towards him.

“Sunny?” Kel looked down at the sketchbook. “What… What are you doing?”

Oh no. Sunny panicked. He had just begun to draw, but apparently that was enough to arouse suspicion. They were already concerned about him. This was the wrong move. This wasn’t what Sunny would do, was it?

“Let him finish, Kel,” Hero interrupted.

Oh?

Sunny looked up to Hero, then changed his direction at Kel, who looked confused more than concerned. Sunny looked back down to the paper in front of him.

Perhaps this was exactly how Sunny would act in this situation. Hero didn’t seem to have any objections and he didn’t look concerned about it, so he had to be doing something right, right? Maybe Kel was just worried about him since he was a friend.

“Okay,” Kel pouted as he nodded his head.

Sunny let out a quiet sigh in relief. He was grateful for Kel and Hero’s easy cooperation with his abstract explanation. It made it so much easier to explain all of this. He continued his drawing.

What should he explain next? What about his mom? She was gone and she didn’t know where she went. He only knew when she would be back. How should he go about explaining that? Hm...

Sunny drew a stick figure of a woman, representing his own mother. But he paused for a moment as he thought about his explanation. What should he do to show that she went missing? Technically, she didn’t go missing, but she did leave him behind. What was he going to do to show that he didn’t know where she was? An idea formed in his mind.

He made sure Hero and Kel were watching before he crossed out the stick figure with a giant x. He then added a couple of question marks to the side of the x marked stick figure. Hopefully that would indicate that he didn’t know where she went. As he stared at the marked out stick figure, he felt Kel shift his body weight closer towards the page again. He felt Kel use the arm he had crossed over Sunny’s shoulders to move closer to him. Sunny assumed that Kel must have gotten the message. Excellent.

Now… for how he got here. Showing that part was going to be easy.

Sunny drew a bus. He then added himself in the picture, head peeking out through the window. That bus was his transportation.

Afterwards, Sunny drew another house, similar to the first one. He doodled four stick figures inside of it and another stick figure outside the door. Using the family portrait in front of him, he decided to add hair to the figures, indicating who was who, and that the one outside was him. Finally, he connected the front of the bus to the doodle of himself at the front door with several dashes. He was pretty confident that the picture perfectly depicted how he had gotten there.

Was there anything else to add? He paused for a moment before deciding that he had finished. This was all they needed to see, right? They didn’t ask anymore questions besides where his mom was, how he got there, and… why was he there.

He didn’t add why he was there. How could he add why he was there? There was no food, but… that wasn’t just it, wasn’t it? There was more to why he wasn’t there, and he couldn’t figure out how to draw it. He missed his friends, he missed his family, he wanted to correct his mistakes, and he wanted to feel safe again.

…

No. He couldn’t figure out how to draw that. Hopefully they will just understand.

Sunny hesitantly lifted up the sketchbook, showing his drawing to Kel, Hero, and their mother. He watched as they stared at it silently with a puzzled look on their face.

As they stayed silent, he began to feel anxious.

Had he drawn it too poorly? Did they not understand? Sunny began to shake a little as the anxiety became overwhelmingly difficult to ignore.

Finally, the silence was broken.

“Kel, you’re the official Sunny whisperer. Can you decipher this?” Hero casually asked as he pointed to the sketchbook.

“Oh, uh, well… okay!”

Kel blushed as he smiled awkwardly. He grabbed the sketchbook from Sunny’s hands, facing it towards his brother and mom. Sunny watched as they leaned in closely and Kel began to explain his drawings.

Kel first pointed to the house that was empty, “I think this is supposed to be Sunny’s home, but it’s empty. This probably means that Sunny was home, but…” he looked at Sunny with a confused look on his face “your mom was gone?”

Sunny nodded in confirmation. Kel’s face morphed into worry as he turned back to the page.

“The question marks probably means that he doesn’t know where she went. Or maybe they mean that he doesn’t know when she’ll return. Either way, she’s not there and he was by himself.”

Kel looked back at Sunny again, but Sunny didn’t do anything except stare back. A small frown was starting to grow across Kel’s face. Sunny didn’t like that. He hated the thought of Kel being sad. He looked away, ashamed that he made Kel upset again.

Kel continued his explanation, “So, Sunny decided to get on a bus and rode it until he got here. When he arrived in Faraway, he came straight to our house,” Once again, Kel looked back at him, ”Is that right?”

Sunny was astonished by Kel’s explanation. He didn’t get one bit wrong! Sunny looked back up, meeting Kel’s gaze and quickly nodding his head again. Had Kel always been able to read him like that? The drawings were simple, but Kel had figured it out without struggle. No wonder Hero just called him the ‘Sunny whisperer.’ Amazing.

Sunny looked around the room again, before their mother spoke to him.

“Do you know when she’ll be back?” She asked.

Sunny stared at her blankly once again. When she’ll get back… He was going to have to tell them, wasn’t he? It was important, something that couldn’t be ignored! But what would happen when they found out?

If he didn’t tell, then would they send him back? He had only now realized that his drawing could be misinterpreted as her leaving for work for a day or two before returning home. If he didn’t tell them, then they might not understand why he had left. Why it was necessary to be here, or why he didn’t want to go back. On the other hand, if he did tell them, what would happen to his mother? What would happen to him?

‘They would definitely take us in without question, but…’ Omori guessed.

‘What if they call for help? What would happen?’ Sunny asked.

What would happen if they called for help? If someone else got involved. Would he be sent back home or…

‘Would we never see our friends again?’ Sunny wondered as he thought about all the different possible outcomes for getting help.

Being broken from his friends… never being able to see them again…

Sunny began to sweat. He wanted to cry. He didn’t want to be apart from everyone again. This is exactly where he wanted to be. He really didn’t want to even think about the possibility of that. The idea of being separated from his friends again, his true family, the ones who he loved and missed, it was all too much to bear. Sure, he would be safe and well fed, but the thought of being put somewhere else and never seeing his loved ones again… he already had so much to deal with on his own. It was hard enough that his mind was broken. Even if he didn’t want to tell his friends about his current mental situation, he didn’t want to be alone as he learned to cope with it. Sure, he had Omori, but-.

‘Don’t do it.’

Huh?

‘Don’t lie to them about it, but don’t tell them the truth. At least, for now...’

...isn’t that what Omori had said to him earlier? When they were in White Space? What did that even mean, and how was he supposed to do it?

‘Watch this,’ Omori directed as he took control of their body again.

‘Without telling the truth, but showing that something is wrong, this is how Sunny would act.’

Omori broke eye contact with Hero and Kel’s mother. He slowly tilted his head down and began to stare at the ground dejectedly.

Was that really how Sunny would act? It felt right, but… Sunny didn’t really like it. It made him feel embarrassed. Had Sunny always been like this? He was beginning to understand how much Sunny liked to be invisible. He seemed like someone who liked to make themselves as small as possible and shy away from all crowds. How could someone be friends with someone like this? Sunny felt a little disappointed. Was this really who he was? If what Omori had said was true, then why did Kel like him? They were complete opposites!

...Kel really was such a good friend. The more that Sunny thought about him, the more that he found that he respected him. What a guy...

As Omori returned control to him, Sunny felt his facial expression drop even further. Ah, he was frowning, wasn’t he? Did Omori do that, or did he do it himself? Maybe he was already doing it, but Omori wanted him to look even sadder.

Sunny began to play with the purple colored pencil in his hands.

So this was how Sunny was supposed to act? He felt kind of pathetic, but the actions somehow brought comfort to him. It was weird, but it just felt right. Should he be proud of this? He was starting to understand Omori’s existence and purpose more and more as he contemplated this.

He momentarily stopped fiddling with the pencil when he felt Kel give him another squeeze with the arm over his shoulder.

“Aw, Sunny, don’t look so upset!”

Sunny looked back up to Kel again who still had that slight frown instead of his signature smile. Kel handed him back his sketchbook and then quickly turned to face his mother.

“Can’t he just stay with us?” Kel paused before adding to his question, “Until his mom comes back?”

Oh! Kel understood how he felt! Excellent! Beloved Kel!

Sunny was overjoyed. Kel could tell exactly what he wanted, even without him saying a single word! Sunny wiped the sad look off his face and peeked around Kel. His gaze landed on their mother as she stared back at him again. She then quickly looked between him, then Kel, then him again, then Hero, before finally resting back on him again.

Sunny continued to watch as she stared him up and down, scrutinizing him, studying his appearance. It made him slightly uncomfortable. How worried was she about him?

He shied away once again, choosing to physically hide behind Kel, but still peeking his head out slightly to see her response to his question. Finally she turned her attention to Kel again.

“Okay, fine,” she sighed as she looked back down at Sally, “I’ll have to talk to your father about this, but, yes, Sunny can stay here for now.”

“Until his mom comes back?!” Kel excitedly asked, a smile returning to his face almost instantaneously.

“Until his mom comes back,” she nodded as she confirmed.

“YES!”

Kel threw his arms up and jumped from the couch. Sunny nearly fell from the sudden change in weight distribution on the couch cushions. Just how close had he been sitting to Kel?!

“Come on!” Kel pulled at Sunny’s arm, forcing him to stand up as he clinged to his sketchbook, “Let’s go find somewhere for you to sleep!”

Without a word, Sunny complied. Did they really just accept him that easily? Without any more questions? How comforting. What a wonderful family.

He followed Kel into the hallway leading up the stairs as he thought about what would happen next.

Was that all it took to be Sunny? Was that how Sunny acted? It felt so natural, almost too easy. Did that really matter, though? Why would it have to be difficult? Even Omori said it would be easy for him. Despite being only a portion of him, he was still Sunny.

Sunny felt himself getting warm inside.

There was a lot of work to be done, but at least he was with the ones he loved the most. He was now home. He was finally with his friends again. His real family. All he had to do was keep up the charade that everything was normal, that he was okay. Pretend to be Sunny. Learn to be Sunny. Get to know his friends. Fake it until he makes it. If that conversation he had just had was an example of how to be Sunny, then everything moving forward would be no sweat at all.

Sunny felt himself smile faintly.

This was going to be easy. A piece of cake. A breeze. He just needed to be himself as he learned about the past with the help of Omori.

Sunny could tell he was very happy.

As they walked through the doorway to the hall, Sunny turned his head around to look one more time at his new found family. Something caught his eye though and caused his smile to drop instantaneously.

While their mom was still playing with Sally, Hero was staring right back at him, glaring. His mouth was twisted into a barely perceptible frown, one that Sunny was sure he had never seen Hero make before. It looked so foreign on him. Even though he usually had a hard time telling people’s emotions, it was very obvious to Sunny that Hero wasn’t happy. Hadn't Hero just smiled at him, though? He wondered what that meant.

Sunny quietly sauntered through the doorway as he looked back into the living room at his friend. Hero stood as still as a statue, facing directly at him. He was still glaring at him, mouth falling into a frown as he scowled. Sunny met Hero’s gaze, but Hero’s did not back down. Sunny felt a chill run down his spine, as they stared at each other again.

What was with that face? Why was Hero making it? What did it mean? It was incredibly unsettling to look at. Why was he doing that?

Once again, Sunny had so many questions he needed to ask. But, before he could even get the chance to ask Omori, he felt something warm wrap around his wrist. What was it?

He gave his arm a light pull towards himself in an attempt to break free of its grasp, but whatever it was that was holding it back, it had a firm grip on him. It wasn’t going to let go no matter how much he wanted it to do so.

Sunny turned around, ready to pounce on his assailant. His vision, however, was quickly flooded with bright orange fabric. He looked up.

Oh, it was Kel that was holding onto him. Kel was already looking back down at him as he held onto his wrist. Kel began to smile widely at him.

“Come on, Sunny. Let’s go!” Kel tugged at Sunny’s arm, forcing him to speed up his pace and follow closely behind him. “Don’t be such a slowpoke!”

Wha-?

A ‘slowpoke.’ Is that what Kel had just called him?

Sunny was taken aback.

Such archaic phrasing. What was this? The 1800s? What kind of insult was that?!

He needed to teach him a lesson. Kel needed a bop on the head. Sunny raised his other fist, ready to attack, but, as he tried to reach up from behind Kel...

Sunny glanced between Kel’s legs and then his own, comparing them as he tried not to trip up the stairs while his friend pulled him. He slowly lowered his fist as he stared in shock at what was before him.

Kel… His legs…

Sunny took a moment to mentally compare the length of his height to Kel’s walking sticks.

...Kel’s legs were at least half the length of Sunny’s entire body. How ?!

That was long. Too long. Illegally long. Legs like that shouldn’t exist. No wonder he wasn’t fast enough to keep up with him.

Did Kel not realize how tall he was? Or how unnaturally large his family is? The only normally sized person in his family was their mother, and she was the smallest out of all of them!

Now that he thought about the rest of them…

Kel was tall, but didn’t Hero still have an inch or two on him?

Wait. He did, but, despite that fact, Hero wasn’t even the tallest of the entire family. That title belonged to their dad. He was a monster!

Sunny stared at the hand wrapped around his wrist. It was gigantic...

It wasn’t fair. Why was their family sized like this? How come he couldn’t be tall like them? Was it just pure luck? No. There was something inside him that knew that assumption was wrong. There was something that happened that prevented him from getting any taller, he remembered someone telling him that. It was the reason that he was so small compared to everyone around him.

Genetics had failed him.

He wondered how much taller Kel was than him.

‘Like… one or two feet?’ Omori answered.

ONE OR TWO FEET?!

Sunny let out a very loud high pitched squeak.

Kel immediately stopped in his tracks, causing Sunny to bump into his back. He turned around and looked down to where Sunny was standing sheepishly.

“Did you hear that?!” Kel asked, surprised by the sound he had just heard.

Sunny began to blush from embarrassment. He shook his head, hoping that Kel would believe him.

“Hm. Maybe it was Hector,” Kel quietly wondered aloud, “But I thought he broke his squeaky toys...”

He let out a sigh before turning around and continuing up the steps. Sunny followed closely behind him, still trapped in his grasp.

Did he really just make that loud squeak? How high pitched was his voice? It was quiet, but it didn’t sound weird when he had spoken with Omori, or when Omori had spoken with him. But, compared to Kel…

Sunny started to feel bad about himself. He felt inadequate.

Wait a minute. Hector. Dog. Toy. Was he just compared to a squeaky toy? How could Kel do that?! What an insult! How embarrassing! The nerve of him-!

‘He may be an absolute giant with no self awareness, but he would never insult you on purpose,’ Omori stated flatly.

…Well, duh. He knew Kel didn’t mean it like that! Kel liked him, but Sunny just wanted to be upset about something. He didn’t like that feeling that was forming. He wanted a distraction.

‘Tell me about Kel,’ Sunny requested.

‘There isn’t a lot to say, besides he’s really easy to get along with. He’s kind and forgiving, and also extremely energetic. You’ve always liked him. We have always been friends with him.’

That’s right… He’s known him since early childhood. Kel would always beg him to hang out with him, despite the fact that their personalities were complete opposites. Even now, with their attitude and behavior being much more distinct from each other than ever before, Kel was still pulling him along, overjoyed to see him.

‘He’s someone who has always been willing to be with you, by your side through thick and thin.’

Sunny had to admit it, even without knowing him, he still felt a strong brotherly bond between himself and him. It was like being with Omori. Someone who understood him just the way he is, without need for further elaboration. He felt relaxed around Kel. He felt like himself. Sunny, too, was just as happy to see him.

They reached the top of the stairs and took a sharp right turn. Sunny looked back up at Kel, still facing away from him as he guided him through the hallway.

‘He’s our best friend.’

Kel is his best friend...

“Here we are!” Kel announced loudly, “Hope you don’t mind the mess. Mom’s been at it again,” he laughed quietly.

...Their best friend is Kel. Wow. Sunny liked that.

Sunny waited as Kel opened the bedroom door.

‘By the way, there’s something very important you should know about Kel.’

One more thing about Kel? And it was important? What was it?

‘He isn’t stupid. People just like to assume that he is.’

...Okay? Why would he assume Kel was stupid? And why did it matter whether or not he was or wasn’t?

‘Because if you make one simple mistake, one incorrect move, he’ll know something is wrong. He knows you better than you do. He’ll start hounding you with questions.’

Ah. So that meant that Kel was perceptive.

‘He is,’ Omori confirmed, ’Especially towards you. He is ‘The Sunny Whisperer’ afterall.’

Right. That’s what Hero had called him. He’ll have to be careful around him.

Sunny followed Kel through the doorway and into the bedroom. Kel began to talk to him as he looked around the room, but Sunny couldn’t pay attention to what he was saying. Another thought had reentered his mind: Hero.

‘What was with that face he was making?’ Sunny mentally asked Omori.

‘I don’t know,’ Omori responded, ‘I’ve never seen him look like that, much less look at us like that.’

So that face Hero was making was something new. That weird mixture of confusion, anger, and concern. Was Hero upset with him? He had every right to be so, but then why was he so nice to him? Why was the change so sudden?

‘He definitely was upset, but I don’t think it was directed at us.’

Not upset at them? Well, with Hero’s hug, that did make sense, but… before that… before Hero had hugged him, Hero was staring at him intensely. It was as if he was judging him or trying to find something. The prolonged eye contact made him uncomfortable, but Hero didn’t let up on it. He just kept staring. If he wasn’t upset at him, then what could that have been about?

‘Maybe he was just thinking about something else,’ Omori interjected.

Huh?

‘Hero has always had a really bad habit of getting stuck in his head. When he starts thinking about one thing, he spirals into a bunch of other thoughts until he snaps out of it.’

Spirals? Is that normal for him?

‘Yes. He has always been like that,’ Omori began to explain, ‘He doesn’t just let things happen. When something comes up that he doesn’t understand, he sits there and contemplates it or he’ll research it until he’s sure he comprehends it to the fullest extent.’

Ah. Hero was a thinker.

‘He even does it when picking out coffee creamer flavors. It’s like a life or death situation to him,’ Omori added.

Thanks, Omori.

So, when Hero had stared him down earlier, he wasn’t completely judging him, but thinking about him instead?

‘Most likely.’

But what about that glaring, when they were leaving the room?

‘He was probably still thinking about you, but I don’t know what of. It could have been about what we did or how sick we look.’

Oh. That was right. He did look really bad, didn’t he? This was the worst state he’s ever been in. Could that have been why his face looked so weird? He looked angry, but he also looked scared. Could that have been an emotion?

‘He was probably worried or confused. Maybe a mixture of the two or more.’

Or more? So, something else, perhaps?

‘That’s a possibility as well-.’

“Sunny?”

A giant hand waved in front of Sunny’s face, snapping him out of his conversation with Omori.

“Earth to Sunny, do you read me?”

Sunny stared at the hand before he slowly looked up to his friend. Kel’s face was covered with concern.

Just how long had Kel been trying to get his attention? Sunny felt bad. He had done it again. Ignoring Kel was something he had never wanted to do again, and yet he had.

Sunny eagerly nodded his head, hoping to ease Kel’s worries about him.

He’s going to have to fix that bad habit. He’ll make sure of it.

“Great!” Kel placed his hands on his hips, “I’m sure Hero won’t mind. I’ll let him know!”

With that, Kel quickly dashed out of the bedroom, leaving Sunny completely alone in the middle of it. Should he follow him? And did he just agree to something? If so, what was it?

...He supposed it didn’t really matter. Whatever that was about, he guessed he would figure it out sooner or later. There were much more important things to worry about than whatever he had just agreed with.

Sunny sighed as he dropped his sketchbook onto Kel’s desk.

Much more important things… like who he is, and about his friends.

He looked around the room, wondering where he should begin. His visual search halted when he spotted something orange and round on the floor nearby a hamper full of dirty clothes. It was… actually, what was it? He knew it, but he couldn’t place it.

‘Basketball,’ Omori informed him. Omori turned Sunny’s head towards the opposite wall forcing him to look at the basketball hoop hanging under a poster and then right at the basketball printed blankets on a bed. Kel’s bed.

‘His favorite sport,’ Omori explained, ‘And he’s really good at it.’

Oh, that’s right. Kel liked sports, he remembered that. Not only that, but he excelled at them as well. He was the best out of everyone he knew. Kel, however, loved basketball more than anything else, didn’t he?

‘It’s the one and only thing he actively tries to get better at.’

Tries? What did he mean by that?

‘I already told you that Kel isn’t stupid. He just pretends he is,’ Omori reiterated.

Sunny felt his eyebrows furrow on their own. Omori must have been annoyed by him. Was what he asked another ‘stupid’ question again?

Sunny sighed and forced his face to relax.

He didn’t want to make Omori upset any further. Sharing a body was already going to be tough for the both of them, but he had to keep asking simple questions if he wanted to function in this world. He had to ask these questions to learn about his friends. Omori would just have to learn to tolerate them. He decided to continue asking his ‘stupid’ questions.

‘Why doesn’t he try his best at everything?’ Sunny asked, ‘Why doesn’t he care?’

‘Because,’ Omori paused as the sound of heavy footsteps running up the stairs echoed throughout the house, ‘He prefers to live life to the fullest. He tries to always be happy, so he chooses what to and what not to care about. He picks his own battles.’

Picks his own battles? What a weird analogy, but-.

...Ah. It made sense. Kel doesn’t want to get worried or stressed. He chooses to focus on the things that make him happy. He likes to be content. Sunny could appreciate that.

The bedroom door burst open. Kel wobbled in carrying a mountain of pillows and blankets. He dropped them on the floor, right by Sunny’s feet.

Sunny stared at the pillows and blankets.

“Hero said not today, but maybe tomorrow if you’re still up for it.”

Kel dropped to the ground and began arranging the pillows in a rectangle.

‘Up for what?’ Sunny wondered. He wished he could ask, but the thought of opening his mouth to talk made his throat feel narrow, as if it was a momentous task. What was up with that? Is talking just something he naturally didn’t like doing? Perhaps. It felt better to stay quiet.

Sunny watched Kel lay a thick comforter on top of the pillows before grabbing another comforter and laying it on top of the previous one. What was he doing?

‘He’s making you a bed.’

Oh. A bed? For him? Oh yeah! They had come upstairs to do that!

‘Yes. Now help him,’ Omori demanded harshly.

What a jerk.

Sunny crouched down to the ground and grabbed the other end of the comforter.

“Oh, Sunny!” Kel stopped arranging the comforter, ”You don’t have to do that!”

Sunny stared at him, then to the comforter in his hands, before returning his gaze to Kel, and then finally back to his hands. He pulled the edge, ignoring Kel’s statement. To be honest, he didn’t mind it much. He wanted to help his friend.

“Well… Okay then?” Kel chuckled, “I mean it is your bed, after all.”

With that, Kel dropped down another thick blanket on top, tossing the other end to Sunny and spreading it out again.

To make a bed. Why did that sound so foreign to him? He’s done this before, hasn’t he?

Sunny stared at Kel who was already tucking the edges of the blanket underneath the bottom layer of pillows.

He just needed to do that, right? Easy enough. He’s done this.

Sunny mimicked Kel, neatly tucking the edges underneath the entire makeshift bed. Success!

Kel dropped another comforter on top. Sunny stared at it bewildered. Just how many comforters did these people have?! He began to copy Kel again, but then Kel did something different; he folded the top of the blanket down towards the end. That was strange.

Sunny did the same.

Kel stopped and looked at what Sunny had done before undoing the fold on his end, laying it flat against the surface.

Sunny undid his side, laying it flat exactly like Kel had.

“Uhm,” Kel grabbed his attention, “Sunny, what are you doing?”

What… What was he doing?

Sunny looked down at the layer of blankets.

He thought he knew what he was doing. He’s done this before, he just knows it. But… What was supposed to happen next? He didn’t recall this step. What did he miss?

Suddenly, his arm raised on its own. Omori pointed at the side that Kel was sitting at.

“Oh! You want to lay on this side instead?”

Omori nodded their head yes.

“Okay!” Kel smiled, “That’s great! Now you’ll get a great view of the TV!”

Kel folded the blanket over again and dropped a single pillow on top.

Sunny stared at the pillow. He knew he had done this a million times, but why didn’t he know that? This entire time… he knew what a bus was. He knew what eye patches were. He knew what a blanket was. So, why didn’t he know how to make a bed? Actually, now that he thought about it, why didn’t he even know what a basketball is?

‘Broken,’ Omori stated flatly.

What?

‘I couldn’t fix everything, just enough to bring you to White Space. You’re still broken. If you know anything, it’s only because it is essential. Whatever was necessary.’

Ah. Like doors, toothbrushes, and…

Sunny looked around the room before landing on a familiar box sitting on a nightstand.

...Television? How was that a necessity?

‘It is. I promise.’

Sunny doubted that. Omori probably just liked watching TV.

Omori quickly shuffled up to the television, turning it on and flipping through the channels quietly. He stopped when he reached a cartoon of a blueish green man wearing an eyepatch.

Sunny took control again.

Wow. He really just went for it, didn’t he? Omori didn’t even ask Kel to watch TV. The audacity! Sunny didn’t want to be rude!

Sunny turned to Kel with an apologetic look on his face, ready to feel the wrath of his sins, but, surprisingly, Kel was entranced! He was already laying down on the makeshift bed with his eyes glued to the screen. Wow. Whatever they were watching, Kel really liked it.

‘Captain Spaceboy. And I told you it was important.’

Omori… arrogant and annoying, but also incredibly helpful.

‘You can use the TV to get to know Kel. There’s a lot of shows he’s obsessed with.’

Hm. That would make it a lot easier on him. If he watched the same shows, then he would understand Kel better. But, there was a lot he was going to have to learn. He needed to find a way to make sure he didn’t forget anything important about this, or their friendship.

Sunny had an idea.

Sunny moved from the TV and back to the desk. He grabbed the sketchbook and colored pencil and returned to the makeshift bed. Sunny sat down and scooted next to Kel, before flipping his sketchbook to a new blank page. He hoped this was a good idea.

‘About Kel…’ Sunny thought to himself. He began to write with his colored pencil on the page, but his arm seized up. Omori was moving in the opposite direction, preventing him from continuing any further.

‘What are you doing?’ Omori asked.

‘Writing notes?’ Sunny responded. Was it really such a big deal?

‘Don’t do that.’

Don’t? Why not? Why shouldn’t he? How was he going to keep track of everything new he had just learned?

‘You don’t need to do that. You already know everything.’

Sunny wanted to scoff. He couldn’t even make a bed. Obviously he didn’t know anything at all, much less anything about his friends. He wanted to do this. He needed to do this. He couldn’t keep track of it all in his head!

‘What if they find it?’ Omori asked.

…

‘What do you think everyone would say if they saw it?’

...he hadn’t thought about that. They would be worried, wouldn’t they?

‘They would. Without a doubt.’

Then… how was he supposed to go about it?

Sunny stared at the sketchbook, then back at his orange friend. Kel was completely oblivious. He didn’t seem to notice what Sunny was doing or what he was trying to do with his sketchbook. He was completely hypnotized by the television. What was it about this show that made Kel like this?

Sunny looked back at his sketchbook and the pencil in his hand. Omori wasn’t going to let him take notes, even though he desperately needed them. This was just one friend he was learning about and he was already beginning to feel overwhelmed with the miniscule amount of information Omori had given him. Was he really supposed to just memorize everything? Figure out a whole lifetime of knowledge before anyone became suspicious?

Sunny felt his face fall into a small frown. He stared at his pen in silence.

…

‘Fine,’ a few moments passed before Omori spoke again, ‘You can take notes, but be smart about it. Write them as if you know that someone else is going to see them.’

Like someone else is going to see them? Ah, Omori wanted him to be cautious!

As his face returned to its normal expression, he felt Omori relax, allowing him to move freely again. Omori had given him his blessing to proceed with his note taking. Excellent!

So, he just had to be careful with the way he wrote his notes, that way no one would get worried if they ever saw them. He wondered how he would go about that. What would be appropriate? Should he write only a word or two, or should he write sentences? Better yet…

‘How would Sunny do it?’ Sunny asked Omori. It felt weird to ask that question, but he didn’t mess up. For both himself and Omori, he wanted to be sure he was exactly like Sunny. It was for their safety. It would help ensure their friends weren’t concerned.

Suddenly, Sunny’s hand started to move across the page on its own. He watched as Omori drew a rough circle. Eventually, it turned into a small doodle of a basketball.

‘He would draw it,’ Omori explained as he pointed at the drawing with the tip of the colored pencil.

That actually felt right. Or, at least, it felt comfortable to him. Almost like it was just the natural way to go about this.

Besides, drawing would be easy as long as he didn’t try to make anything too complicated. He didn’t have to worry as much about his friend’s thoughts if they saw his sketchbook. No one would think anything more of a bunch of doodles.

Sunny sort of liked that idea. He decided he’ll follow Omori’s guidance on his note taking. It was an interesting approach, plus, it helped pass the time.

He began to add more doodles to his ‘About Kel’ page.

Several hours had passed without a word in the room. Periodically, Kel would leave, but he would always return after a few minutes. Each time, he would shoot Sunny a bright smile when he reentered, but he would immediately fall back into the same spot on their makeshift bed, eyes sticking to the TV again.

It made Sunny feel relaxed. He didn’t have to worry about holding a conversation with him. After all, he knew nothing about him. Sunny decided to use the time and silence to ask Omori several questions. He learned about Kel, himself, and the world around him. Willingly and without hesitation, Omori answered each of his questions freely.

Slowly, his ‘About Kel’ page filled with obscure and randomly placed doodles. Sometimes, he would flip to a new page, mentally designating it for a new friend, but they all looked about the same in format. There were images of old forgotten memories, objects, relationships, and places. Spots consisting of one or two words were nearby some drawings, but they never formed a full or complete sentence.

Sunny was proud of his progress. He was rapidly learning about his friends and his own past in such a short amount of time. However, the more Omori told him about himself and his friends, the sadder Sunny began to feel. Something was wrong.

For some reason, the memories weren’t clicking as easily as before. When they had first started, Sunny was able to envision each memory clearly. He could see and feel them as if he were living through them again. They all just made sense. But, as they continued, the memories became harder to visualize. They felt familiar and true, yet distant and foggy. It was much like how the memories the Krels provided had felt when he was in Krel Space.

At some point, the information Omori provided him had started to feel unfamiliar and foreign. It felt like he had never seen nor experienced it before. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t recall the simple facts given to him. It was as if he was learning something new unheard of, but it was always about himself or his friends.

Looking back and forth between his sketchbook and his friend, a pang of guilt started forming in the pit of his stomach. Kel was blissfully watching their favorite show. They were laying on their favorite blanket. Omori was explaining their favorite episodes. Omori was explaining their favorite moments and memories. Memories that he didn’t possess. Memories that he was told to have shared with his best friends as Sunny. Memories that weren’t his own.

Sunny felt like a fraud and a liar. He felt as if he were pretending to be someone who he was not. Despite Omori’s constant reassurance that he was who he said he was, it was becoming hard to believe. He felt like Sunny, but he didn’t feel like Sunny . He was a Sunny, but he wasn’t their Sunny. At least, not the one they had once known and loved.

It was hard. Technically, he was the same person, but, at the same time, he wasn’t. As much as loved and cared about his friends and family, Sunny couldn’t stop focusing on the fact that he knew nothing of them or of himself. Were they even his friends?

He was beginning to wonder if the feelings he felt were even his own or if they were just the residual feelings of who he once was, the whole Sunny. Did he even have the right to care about his friends? Was it morally wrong to love them, despite not knowing them? To pretend that he was the person they cared about? After all, he was only filling in the shoes of someone else. Still, he wanted Kel to be his friend. He wanted everyone to be his friend, but... he wasn’t really Kel’s friend. He wasn't even a real person. He was a stranger. Someone who they had never met.

Sunny knew he was Sunny, but, at the same time, he felt like he was someone or something entirely different. Omori said it was because he was only a part of the whole, with Omori being the other piece. The Sunny was the both of them combined, but Omori was Omori and the whole Sunny was the Sunny. If that was the case then who exactly was he himself? He was nobody. He had no identity.

It was becoming difficult.

‘You’re Sunny,’ Omori reiterated flatly.

It was true, he was technically Sunny, he knew that as fact. But, at the same time, he was being assigned to be Sunny. He wasn’t actually the real Sunny, just a cheap imitation of him.

‘You have always been Sunny.’

When they were together, yes. Yet, on his own, he had never been a person. He had never truly existed.

‘Why does that even matter? It’s not like we can do anything about it.’

It did matter, but he couldn’t figure out why. There was something about it that bothered him so much. It annoyed him that he couldn’t pinpoint the reason as to why.

‘You need to accept it. There’s no use dwelling on that. It’s in the past.’

The past… Did he even have a past? Sure, whatever had previously happened to him did occur without a doubt. His missing eye and the presence of his friends were proof of that, but it’s not like those experiences fully belonged to him. Those happened to Sunny, not him. It was Sunny’s past, not his.

‘You are Sunny.’

He wished Omori had never told him that he wasn’t.

“Sunny! Kelsey!” a deep voice interrupted their mental conversation as it echoed throughout the house, “Come eat!”

Eat? There was something to eat? Was he even hungry? What time was it?

A loud groan sounded from beside him

“I hate it when he calls me that,” Kel whined.

‘That’s his real name.’

Wow. Gee. Thanks, Omori.

‘You’re welcome.’

Wait. Did Omori not understand he was being sarcastic?

“Sunny, you coming?” Kel caught his attention.

Sunny looked up to his friend, already hanging through the doorway watching him. When did he get there?

He looked at the black screen on the TV. When did it turn off? Just how far out of it does he get when he converses with Omori? He hadn’t noticed a thing! Was that going to be a common occurrence? Time seemed to pass by so quickly.

Sunny tore himself away from the TV and looked back at Kel. He nodded his head as he stood up and followed him out the doorway. The moment they entered the hallway, a sweet smell permeated throughout the air. It was almost sickening, but, whatever it was, he wanted to eat it.

What kind of lunch smelled like that? Hold on. Was it even lunch? Or was it dinner? He wasn’t that hungry, but Sunny was excited to taste it.

As he got closer to the kitchen, something deep inside of him caused him to seize up almost entirely. He could feel himself begin to shake. It was something about the stairs. Going up them earlier was no problem at all, but, for some reason, going back down again…

Sunny didn’t understand. Why was he stuck? Hadn’t he gotten over this? If so, why did he feel so incredibly uneasy about this?

Obviously, it was about Mari. He knew that very well. However, he was sure that he had recently overcome his fear of going down the stairs. So, why was it back again? Was it Omori that was scared?

‘No,’ Omori quickly shut down that assumption, ‘I’ve never been afraid of stairs.’

Liar.

WAIT. As Kel approached the top of the stairs, the realization had finally occurred to him. He knew exactly why he was suddenly so scared. It was the situation. It was Kel. He froze up because someone was in front of him. It terrified him.

‘Irrational.’

He didn’t care. He knew he wouldn’t, but he still didn’t trust it. Before Kel could reach the first step, Sunny quickly dashed in front of him, giving him a light pull away from the stairs to make sure that he would stay behind.

“Sunny?!” Kel stood still, shocked.

Ignoring him, Sunny held his breath. He grabbed onto the handrail of the stairs and ran down the steps as fast as he could, refusing to stop until he reached the bottom floor. When he reached the bottom, he sighed in relief. Finally, it was safe again.

‘Safe from what?’ Omori asked.

Himself...

‘You would never.’

And he’d make sure of it.

“Sunny?”

He turned around, Kel was already behind him at the bottom of the stairs.

“You okay?”

He nodded.

“Okay...” said Kel, wearily. “We can talk about it if you want?”

Ah. His intentions were pretty obvious, weren’t they? Kel probably knew exactly what was going on inside his head. Sunny shook his head, however. He didn’t want to worry Kel, but he was not ready to talk about that . Especially not on his first day back.

“Alright. Maybe some other time then,” Kel scratched his chin.

Some other time?

As Sunny began to follow Kel towards the kitchen. He felt his face drop into a frown.

Of course they needed to talk about it. If he wanted to make things right and repair the damage he had caused, he would have to have that conversation. He needed to have that conversation, but he also wanted to have that conversation. He had already apologized at the hospital, but he didn’t get a chance to explain everything before he had started… screaming?

What exactly happened? What was he screaming about? It was the truth, his confession, he knew that, but why did it make his head hurt so much? Did something else happen? His head was starting to hurt again.

‘Don’t think about it,’ Omori cut off his train of thoughts.

What? Why not? Why shouldn’t he?

‘It’s not worth it.’

Huh? But it was their confession… He just wanted to know why they were screaming.

“Hey, Sunny! Hey, Kelsey!” Hero greeted them as they entered the kitchen.

“Do not call me that,” Kel snapped back.

Hero gave Kel a big open smile as he handed a plate to him. Kel violently snatched it from Hero’s hands and stormed off with it into the dining room.

Sunny stared at them in confusion. Why were they acting like that?

‘Hero’s just teasing him,’ Omori explained.

But wasn’t that making Kel upset? It seemed kind of mean and unnecessary.

‘Brothers.’

...oh.

‘She used to do that to us too.’

A plate stacked with a sandwich and potato chips was abruptly handed to him. Sunny stared at the plate before looking up at its holder. Hero was already smiling back down at him, warmly, patiently waiting for him to take it. Wow…

“Hope you don’t mind tuna.”

Tuna… That sounded wonderful. Tuna had eggs, right? Hard boiled eggs, he assumed.

Wait. No. That’s right! Hard boiled eggs go inside of tuna sandwiches, don’t they? Sunny was pretty sure they did. He could feel it. Tuna was great on its own, but the diced up eggs made it better. Wasn’t that how Mari used to make them? Of course it was. That was the only way to make a proper tuna sandwich. Anything else was absolute blasphemy.

Sunny stared at the sandwich on his plate. It seemed like it was glowing. He could feel his mouth beginning to salivate. Hero was a master chef, Omori had told him that, and a master chef would cook the world’s most perfect hard boiled egg. He could only imagine the consistency in the sizes of each piece of hard boiled egg resting between the two slices of bread standing before him. This sandwich was meant to be eaten only by kings, and here it was being handed to him for free. Did he truly deserve such a divine feast? It was being given to him, willingly. Sunny couldn’t help but think that perhaps he really was royalty.

As he stared at the sandwich, he could already hear the egg song playing clearly on loop in the back of his head. Or was that just Omori singing? Whatever. It didn’t matter. What did matter was that he loved this sandwich. It was immaculate. The embodiment of perfection. Magnificent. A sandwich unlike any other. He would treasure the moment he sank his teeth into it forever.

Without any further heistitation, Sunny grabbed the plate and quickly followed Kel into the dining room, holding the plate close to his person in an attempt to protect his precious. He sat down in the open seat next to his best friend. Hero entered the room shortly after holding a plate of his own. On it sat what looked to be a sandwich of lesser status. Unfortunate. As the master behind his own dish, Sunny believed Hero deserved a sandwich just as scrumptious as his own. A pity.

Sunny watched as Hero momentarily hesitated before choosing to sit in the seat directly across from him. He had looked so indecisive and unsure of his choice. Was that a common occurrence?

‘Yes,’ Omori answered his question immediately, ‘Hero overthinks everything before making a decision. He doesn’t like to regret it.’

Oh, right. Omori had already told him that. So what was he thinking about this time?

Sunny looked up from his sandwich to peek at him, but Hero was already staring at him. Their eyes momentarily locked before Sunny quickly looked back down to his sandwich. It was uncomfortable. He wanted to hide. He wanted to replace the bad feeling he had just gotten with something nice and appealing. He needed a distraction. Sunny picked up his sandwich and took a bite out of it.

No. No. NO. WHERE?!

He put the sandwich down disappointedly. His sandwich was eggless. How could it have happened again? What kind of sick sadistic deity would allow this? His spirit was crushed. What little life he had left was quickly fading from his eye. He could feel his soul leaving his body. Was this on purpose? Was this supposed to be punishment for his sins? Would he never be allowed to eat an egg again? A life without eggs…

Sunny could feel the tears beginning to well up in his eye.

...A life without eggs was not a life worth living, but if it was because of what he had done, then he had no right to cry. He would have to fight his tears and stay strong. His friends needed him. It was his goal to right his wrongs and receive the consequences of his actions. So, if an eggless life was part of that punishment, he would choose to suffer in silence. After all, it was what he deserved.

“Sunny?” A voice sounded from the other side of the table.

Sunny looked up from his sandwich and across the room to the source from whence it had came. Hero was still staring at him, just as before, but with a concerned look on his face. He was giving him his full and undivided attention.

Hero put down his sandwich before he spoke again. He asked, “Are you okay?”

No. He wasn’t. His future was eggless and his heart was broken, but was it really that obvious? Sunny looked to Kel, but Kel was already watching him, waiting for him to answer.

Here he was trying to be strong for them, yet he worried them again, and over a sandwich?

‘A future filled with eggless sandwiches,’ Omori reminded him.

Eggless… His egg privileges were revoked and his life had only just begun. Existing was pointless, but he wasn’t allowed to give up. He had to help his friends. Sunny would just have to live day by day waiting for it all to end. Suffering until the day that both he and Omori became an old man and eventually succumbed to the passage of time. Sunny and Omori with their forever eggless future. The thought of it hurt, but it was only fair.

He closed his eye and tilted his head up as he slumped backwards into his chair. Silently, he accepted his fate that was determined to be a life without eggs. A tear slowly rolled down his cheek, but he refused to break any further. He would endure the pain bravely and without complaint. It was his sentencing and, in his own opinion, he was being let off too easy.

“Sunny, what’s wrong?” he heard Kel ask him.

He opened his eye to find himself staring at the ceiling. Slowly, he allowed his head to droop to the right, his gaze meeting Kel’s eyes. Kel gave him an earnest look full of worry and concern. Sunny wondered if he should say it. Should he let them know about his punishment? It was so childish to cry over, and he knew he deserved it, but-,

“It’s okay, you can tell us,” Hero tried to reassure him from across the table.

Sunny lazily rotated his head towards the voice, but jolted as he felt a hand suddenly pat his back. He turned back to Kel, allowing their eyes to contact each other again.

Kel began to speak, “I know it, uhm,” He paused, trying to find the right words, “We understand that it hasn’t been easy, but you should know that you can talk to us. What happened was an accident and, yeah, it hurts but…” he slowly drifted off.

“-but we care about you,” Hero interrupted, carrying on Kel’s sentence. “You’re our little brother. If something is weighing you down, including that , then let us know. We want to help you.”

“We’re here for you,” Kel quickly added again.

Wow… Sunny was awestruck. After everything he had done… And, yet, they still chose to be supportive of him. Not only that, but they called him their little brother. He was assigned by them as a family member. They really loved and cared for him.

Feeling encouraged by their words, Sunny wiped the remaining tears off his face. He had made his decision. He’d tell them. He can do it. Even if he didn’t deserve to cry, they would understand him and help him as he processed his sorrows.

Determined to receive help as he grieved, Sunny peeled the top slice of bread off his sandwich, revealing the eggless tuna inside. He looked back up at his brothers only to see a look of confusion distorting their faces. Aside from that, there was no other reaction. Had they not understood what he was trying to convey? He sighed.

There had to be a better way, but what? Hm.

Sunny stood up from his chair and moved beside Kel. He reached over the table for Kel’s sandwich, pushing it down towards the plate gently and forcing him to let go of it. Sunny looked back up to both Hero and Kel, making sure that they were paying attention to him.

After receiving a nod of affirmation from his big brothers, he grabbed Kel’s hand, cupping it into a fist before moving onto the next. With Kel’s compliance, Sunny dragged Kel’s fists underneath his armpits. Sunny then moved behind Kel and grabbed the tips of his elbows, moving them up and down together in a smooth motion.

He had done it. Sunny had perfectly posed Kel into a chicken. He only hoped that they would understand what he was trying to show them. He peeked from behind Kel, staring at Hero as he continued flapping Kel’s arms. Slowly, he witnessed the same weird face as before stretch across Hero’s face.

Was that just his default thinking face? No. It couldn’t be. Omori had said he’d never seen it before, though, so maybe it was something new. It looked so ominous and judgemental. It made him feel as if he had done something wrong and was silently being reprimanded for it. Did Hero know he was making that face? Why hadn’t anyone told him about it yet? Oh wait.

Sunny looked back up to Kel, who was staring blankly at Hero while he allowed his arms to be flapped freely up and down. Suddenly, he glanced at Sunny and met his gaze. Kel’s eyes darted to his older brother and then back down at him again. Kel smiled at him before morphing his face into an exact replica of Hero’s, but somehow much more exaggerated. He held it for a few seconds before wiping the look off his face and returning his attention back to their older brother. 

Ah. It finally made sense. Brothers. Siblings. Family. Of course no one has told him about it yet.

‘They’re teasing him,’ Omori confirmed his suspicion.

“Egg!” Kel blurted out loud. Sunny excitedly let go of Kel’s elbows, letting Kel stop the flapping motion.

Yes! That was it! Sunny was so proud of him. Kel had done it! Kel had understood him! Success!

Kel looked back down at him again and Sunny gave him a big thumbs up. The Sunny Whisperer had struck again.

Kel released himself from the chicken pose and grabbed Sunny’s sandwich.

“You didn’t put any eggs in his,” Kel poked at the exposed contents with his finger, moving bits and pieces of tuna off the bread and on to the table while he dug around in it. “That’s why he’s so upset!” Kel finished, putting what was left of his excavation back onto the plate again.

First of all, yuck. Second of all, no, that was not it! That wasn’t what he was trying to tell them! It wasn’t just about the eggless sandwich. Sunny was upset about his future. His life without eggs. His divine punishment. Couldn’t they tell that? He was upset over the fact that he would never eat an egg again!

‘You can’t expect people to know what you want if you don’t say anything,’ Omori interrupted.

Oh. That was true, wasn't it? If he wanted them to know exactly what was wrong, then he would have to say it. But...

“I-I… I did.” Hero looked confusedly at Sunny’s sandwich.

Wait. What did Hero mean by that? Sunny gave Hero a quizzical look.

“There was only one egg left in the fridge, so I put it in Sunny’s sandwich,” Hero firmly explained.

“Sunny’s sandwich? But my sandwich had...” Kel looked back and forth between his sandwich and the one he just mangled in front of him. He turned to Sunny and gave him an apologetic look, “Sunny, I’m so sorry…”

Wat.

‘What does he mean?!’ Omori shouted inside his head.

Huh?

‘It can’t be.’

Even Omori seemed to be panicking. Could it really be…?

Sunny looked at the sandwich on Kel’s plate wistfully. Calmly, Sunny peeled the top slice of the bread back. Underneath it revealed to be a generous amount of chopped up bits and pieces of a hard boiled egg. It was perfectly mixed together with tuna, mustard, and mayonnaise. It hurt.

‘No...’ Omori was distraught.

It…

‘He…’

Sunny replaced the bread and gave the sandwich a light pat with his hand. He couldn’t bear to look at it any longer. There was no divine punishment. Instead, he had been tricked into thinking that his future was eggless. Kel had stolen his beloved eggy sandwich . It was unfair. It was supposed to be his. Hero had made it especially for him.

‘Revenge,’ Omori vehemently stated.

‘Revenge,’ Sunny accepted the proposition.

Somehow, and some time in the near future, Kel would pay for his theft and Hero would suffer the consequences of his negligence. Sunny could promise that. He would not allow himself to forget it. Until the day of retribution, he would commit this moment to memory. There will be vengeance.

‘Yes,’ Omori agreed.

Sunny was glad that Omori was on board with his plan.

‘Vengeance,’ Omori confirmed his agreement.

‘Vengeance,’ Sunny reiterated.

“-Sunny?”

A giant hand was waved in front of his face again, snapping him out of his internal tangent. Sunny looked up at his personal space intruder, Hero put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m really sorry. I know how much you like eggs.”

When did he get there? Teleportation? Wait. No. That wasn’t important. He didn’t need Hero’s worthless pity. It was too late. Sunny already had a plan. There will be justice. He just needed to find the opportunity to enact it. One day, Kel and-.

“Look, I promise I’ll get more eggs tomorrow. Okay?”

…

One day, Kel, and Kel alone , would pay for his crimes against humanity.

Sunny eagerily nodded his head. He stared back down at the ruins of his sandwich. It was disgusting. There’s no way he’d continue eating that. Who knows where Kel’s fingers have been? He pushed the plate away.

“I take it that means you’re done?” Hero asked kindly.

Sunny nodded his head again.

Hero sighed, “I’ll get you something else to eat. Something a little less… mangled .” He reached for both Sunny’s plate and his own then left the dining room through the kitchen doors.

Sunny stood still by his and Kel’s chair. Only the sound of Kel loudly chewing could be heard. He turned to face Kel as he patiently waited for Hero’s return.

Ah. Kel was enjoying the eggy tuna sandwich. It was supposed to be his tuna sandwich. It was so unfair.

‘Revenge,’ Omori declared once more inside his head.

‘Revenge,’ Sunny confirmed back.

Hero re-entered the room holding a plate covered in tinfoil. Sunny watched quietly as he placed it onto the table, wondering what was hidden under it.

“It’s not really a meal, but hopefully it’ll help make up for the sandwich,” Hero explained as he lifted the foil. The sweet aroma that had wafted through the air earlier suddenly became much more intense. Sunny leaned closer towards the contents on the plate, trying to get a better view.

Wow… They were-.

“COOKIES!” Kel dropped his sandwich onto his plate. Excitedly, he reached for one, only to have his hand immediately smacked away by his older brother.

Kel stared at his hand.

“Why?” Kel whispered, heartbroken.

Sunny had never heard someone sound so miserable. Even he felt bad for him.

“Not. Until.” Hero momentarily paused. He looked like he was just as lost as well, “...Not until you finish your sandwich. All of it.”

‘That was weird,’ Omori commented.

Sunny was a little surprised by the altercation. It really was strange. Everything that had just occurred seemed off somehow. Despite not having memories, Sunny’s intuition knew that something was amiss. Hero and Kel were brothers, but Hero hitting Kel, even as a joke, would never happen. Hero was acting differently. This was all unusual. He could tell.

‘Pay attention,’ Omori snapped him back out of his thoughts again.

Annoying. He wondered why he kept getting stuck in his head and distracted.

‘It’s because you’re Sunny.’

No. He isn’t. Or, at least, he wasn’t their Sunny. Not the Sunny.

‘Stop thinking like that.’

A cookie was waved in front of him. Wow. It looked delicious.

Sunny grabbed it and studied it carefully. It was still warm and filled to the brim with chocolate chips. It was beautiful. Perfect. Absolutely faultless. It reminded him of something, but that made him love it even more.

He took a bite out of it, but his heart was immediately filled with disappointment. He felt so sad. It was delicious, but it was nothing like he expected. Something was wrong with it. Something was missing, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

‘Love.’

...Love?

‘He’s trying to imitate Mari’s cookies.’

Oh. Mari’s cookies. Now he knew why it tasted so familiar. It finally made sense.

“Is it good?” Hero asked.

Sunny looked up from the cookie. Hero was waiting patiently and expectantly for him to respond, but Sunny was unsure of how to tell him the truth. He didn’t want to hurt his feelings. It was good, but it wasn't hers .

‘Well, it’s not like it’s disgusting,’ Omori declared.

That’s right. He liked it. It even tasted better than the cookies Hero had given him at the hospital. Hero improved on the recipe.

‘They’re just a failed imitation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not delicious.’

Rude, but it sounded like Omori liked the cookie just as much as Sunny did. Hero really did try his best, and it showed. These cookies were beyond exceptional. Extraordinary. Exquisite. A delicacy attainable only by the noblest of men.

Sunny gave him a thumbs up. The cookie was excellent.

“Great!” Hero smiled widely, “I was hoping you’d like it!”

“I already told you that!” Kel whined.

“Yeah, but it’s different,” he immediately snapped back.

Wow. The air suddenly felt heavy as the room became quiet. A creak was heard from the chair Kel sat in as he shifted forward in his seat towards the table and his older brother. Hero looked away, awkwardly, as tension filled the room. Sunny was confused.

“Different?” Kel repeatedly quietly. He sounded somewhat disappointed, “What do you mean by ‘different?’”

Sunny was becoming uncomfortable, as if he had done something wrong. Hero compared his answer to Kel’s and it made him feel wrong. He wished he hadn’t answered him.

“Wait. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just...” Hero struggled with his words as he tried to meet Kel’s gaze, “It’s complicated.”

“Then explain it,” Kel calmly demanded.

Hero looked away again, seemingly ashamed. Kel patiently waited for his response, but began to shake his leg. Almost instantaneously, the room felt empty. Everyone and everything had become so distant. It made Sunny nervous. He didn’t know what was about to happen and he didn’t like it. It was his first day home, yet he already managed to make his brothers fight. He felt awful.

Even though it had only been a moment, it felt like minutes had passed before someone had spoken again.

“It’s about Mari,” Hero finally admitted.

Sunny jumped from Kel’s sudden movement in his peripheral vision. He looked at his friend. Kel was sitting straight up, staring intensely at Hero. Sunny had never seen him so attentive before. Kel looked worried.

“I’ve been trying to figure out her recipe slowly, but I just can’t get it right. I don’t know what’s wrong with them, I just know that they’re different.”

Sunny felt his heart drop into his stomach. Omori was right and Hero wasn’t trying to hide it. He was trying to mimic-. No. He was trying to master her recipe.

“But why?” Kel asked.

Ah. Sunny hadn’t wondered that. Why did Hero work so hard to make Mari’s cookies? Was this his way of grieving her?

Hero turned to face them, no longer attempting to conceal the tears that welled up in his eyes. He calmly spoke, “I just really miss her.”

The room went silent again.

Sunny felt sick. He had done this. Even if he wasn’t their Sunny, he was still a part of the Sunny. That made him responsible for what happened to Mari. When he was a whole person. When he was together with Omori. When he was Sunny. It was his fault.

He wanted to comfort them, but the guilt he felt prevented him from doing so. He was the root of their problems. The one who caused them. The reason their troubles existed. He struggled as he tried not to cry. If he couldn’t comfort them, then he wouldn’t allow himself to be comforted by them, not until he was able to resolve their problems. He stayed silent.

“Anyway,” Hero wiped his eyes. He faced Sunny and gave him the biggest smile he could muster, but it still looked incredibly sad. “I know they taste good, and I’m happy that you both like them, but I was really hoping they would be exactly like Mari’s.”

“But they are!” Kel tried to reassure him.

“No, they’re not,” Hero’s replied sternly.

“What do you mean? They taste just like I remember.”

“They’re close, but they’re not the same.”

“How do you know that? It’s been ages.”

“I know because,” Hero momentarily paused and faced Sunny before continuing, “Whenever Sunny tasted Mari’s cookies, he would always get just a teeny bit taller.”

Wat. Sunny was flabbergasted by Hero’s statement. What the heck did that mean?

Kel leaned over in his chair, putting his head under the table and stared at Sunny’s sock covered feet, “Oh yeah, you’re right. He isn’t doing it.”

Doing it? Sunny could feel his heartbeat racing in his chest. What wasn’t he doing? Was there something wrong? Was he not being Sunny?!

‘Omori?’ he tried to ask.

‘I have no idea what they’re talking about.’

USELESS .

Kel got back up from under the table.

“Well, that’s okay. You’ll figure it out,” Kel consoled Hero, “Besides, you’ve got Sunny now.”

Huh?

“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind helping you out.”

Wait. How was he-

“Isn’t that right, Sunny?” Kel shot him the biggest grin imaginable.

But he couldn’t remember what they tasted like! He just knew that they were wrong!

Sunny looked to Hero for help, but Hero was already staring back at him again, leaning towards him with hope filled puppy-like eyes. It was hard to resist. He didn’t want to say no, but how could he say yes? If this was how Hero was coping with Mari’s death then… then maybe he could rely on his intuition again? That’s how he could tell that the cookies were off in the first place, wasn’t it?

‘Do it.’

Huh?

‘We both know what Mari’s cookies taste like.’

But he didn’t...

‘You’ll realize it when he gets it right.’

He would, wouldn’t he? Without a doubt, now that he thought about it. Omori was right about that. Just like with the previous things he had learned, it’ll immediately click when Hero gets the recipe right. Sunny was confident in that. Mari’s cookies were too close to his heart to ever truly forget. Sunny gave Hero a thumbs up. Hero’s eyes grew with excitement.

“THAT’S-!” Hero stopped himself, regaining his much more mature composure, “That’s great! Thank you, Sunny! I’ll make another batch tomorrow.”

“Yes!” Kel jumped from his chair and cheered, “Free cookies!”

“But Sunny gets to taste each batch first,” Hero interrupted. “I promise it’s nothing against you. It’s just that, well, you know how easily Sunny gets influenced.”

He does?

“I know. I know. You want his answers to be honest.”

Hm. Maybe he did get easily influenced. Sunny grabbed another cookie and nibbled on it. Delicious.

Kel grabbed the plate.

“Thanks for the cookies!” He shouted as he ran out of the dining room with it.

“KEL!” Hero moved to chase him, but stopped short, allowing Kel to run off with the plate.

Oh no. Please don’t leave him alone with Hero. Not after such a serious conversation. He wasn’t ready for this. Sunny awkwardly shifted as he stared at his one and only escape.

Hero turned around and sighed, “Sunny, why don’t you go after him? I’ll stay back and clean up this mess.”

A way out! Permission! Sunny nodded his head and quickly left the dining room, happy to have avoided whatever conversation might have transpired had he been left alone with him. He headed up the stairs and back into the bedroom.

Kel sat waiting for him on the mattress, Sunny’s sketchbook in his hands. He quickly glanced at him as he entered the bedroom, but his eyes returned back to the pages of the sketchbook again.

Sunny approached him quietly. As he got closer, he noticed the facial expression Kel wore. It was weird. He looked like he was concentrating, but there was something more to it. Like an emotion was hidden behind it, but he couldn’t make it out. Was it sadness?

Worry filled Sunny’s head. Did Kel notice something in his drawings? Wait. Was Kel looking at his ‘About Kel’ page? They shouldn’t be concerning, but… what if his notes were not vague enough?

Finally, he reached the makeshift bed. He dropped to his knees and scurried up behind his friend, peeking over his shoulder and down at the sketchbook. A wave of relief washed over him. Kel was only looking at the page full of flowers from the hospital. But why was he looking so intensely at them?

Sunny crawled up beside him and poked his bicep. Kel looked down at him, giving him a soft smile. He wanted to return it, but failed. It was uncomfortable and felt unnatural. Instead, he shied away.

A soft chuckle sounded from his friend.

“Here,” Kel spoke as he poked him back.

Sunny turned to find Kel handing him his sketchbook back. He grabbed it, silently looking over the page for changes before closing the book and laying it in his lap.

“You know,” Kel stretched his arms above him, “I was really worried about you when you were at the hospital. But,”

Sunny watched as Kel wiped the tears from his eyes. When did he start crying?

“You’re back, Sunny.”

Kel tackled him into a hug. Sunny collapsed under his weight.

“And you’re okay!”

Sunny lightly patted his back, but everything just felt so wrong. Once again, he found himself wanting to comfort his friend, but being unable to. He was so happy to be hugged and wanted to cherish the moment, but… he wasn’t okay, was he? No. They weren’t okay. Him and Omori. Their existence together as separate entities was proof of that. Neither him nor Omori were supposed to be here. It should’ve been the Sunny hugging Kel, but… he couldn’t bring himself to let go.

Being Sunny seemed to bring Kel some comfort, and, even though he couldn’t comprehend it at the time, Sunny knew Kel had been hurting since the hospital. Sunny remembered how much Kel had cried, their hug, and all the time they had spent together. The state he was in must have been terrifying to witness. He felt bad.

Not only that, but, as time passed on in their hug, Sunny realized that he didn’t want to let go. He liked Kel. Kel was his best friend. And, even though he wasn’t the whole Sunny, he was still Sunny, right? Technically, he was still the same Sunny. The whole Sunny was just him and Omori together, after all, and Omori and him would always be together. Since he couldn’t be separated from Omori, did that make him the whole Sunny? That made it okay, right? To comfort Kel as Sunny?

Kel let go of their hug.

“Sorry, Sunny. I don’t know what came over me.”

It felt like it had all ended way too soon.

“But thank you,” Kel wiped the remaining tears from his eyes, “I really needed that.”

Ah. Wait. He did it! For the first time since his return, Sunny had finally brought comfort to his friend. Success! He gave Kel a pat on the head.

Kel froze, momentarily bewildered by the gesture, but he soon turned to Sunny and patted him on the head in return. Sunny removed his hand from Kel’s head and used it in an attempt to swat Kel’s hand away. It was him who was supposed to be comforting his friend, but Kel removed his own hand before Sunny could get the chance to whack it. Sunny was disappointed. He just wasn’t fast enough.

‘We’ll get him next time,’ Omori confidently stated. ‘Revenge.’

Ah, yes. Revenge.

‘For taking our sandwich and patting us back.’

Hm. They still needed to plan for that. Sometime in the future, he’ll pat Kel on the head again and then he’ll dodge Kel’s counterattack. Kel won’t be able to touch him. An excellent plan.

‘Retribution.’

Eggtribution.

‘Bathroom.’

Huh?

‘We need to use it.’

They did?

Suddenly, Sunny became so much more aware of his bodily functions than previously.

He did , but where?!

Omori picked up the sketchbook and laid it in Kel’s lap. He then stood up and proceeded to walk out the bedroom..

“Going somewhere?” Kel asked.

Omori lifted his hands in front of him and formed a ‘t’ shape with both his index fingers.

What did that mean?

‘Toilet.’

“Okay,” Kel turned back to the sketchbook.

With that, Omori hurriedly left the bedroom.

*    *    *

Sunny flushed the toilet and proceeded to wash his hands. As he dried them, he looked into the mirror. He knew he did this a lot, it was a weird habit, but this time he found himself stuck, unable to tear away from his reflection. There was something different.

It was weird. He knew the person looking back at him was himself. There was the same dark hair, the same light blue cat patterned eye patch, the same face, and the same body structure, but something felt off. It was him, but… was he looking at Omori?

‘Do you think he noticed?’ Omori interrupted.

‘Huh?’

‘Your notes. Do you think they were vague enough?’

Well, he’d like to think so. Kel had looked concerned, but it was because of how he acted at the hospital, wasn’t it? He thought Kel had made that quite obvious.

‘Why?’ Sunny asked Omori.

‘Just wondering.’

Ah.

‘So, what would you do if he did see them?’

Nothing? They were just a bunch of drawings, weren’t they? At least to an outside observer. No one could tell they were notes.

‘But what if Kel noticed? Would you do then?’

That wouldn’t happen. Kel may be ‘the Sunny Whisperer,’ but Omori made sure that even Kel couldn’t decipher his notes. What was with this random question? It seemed pointless.

‘Bored.’

‘Bored?’ Sunny repeated.

‘I’m tired of watching.’

Oh. Omori had been letting him have control the entire time. The only time Omori had control was when Sunny was in trouble. When he froze up, didn’t know where to go, or how to respond...

‘No! It’s not that!’ Omori cut him off again, ‘I meant that I’m bored . We’ve been stuck in this house all day. I’m tired of watching TV. I want to go out and do something.’

Oh. That would be nice, but it was getting kind of late, wasn’t it?

He looked out the bathroom window. When did the sky become orange? What time was it? Didn’t they just have lunch?

‘Maybe tomorrow?’ Sunny suggested.

Omori nodded their head.

Excellent.

Sunny left the bathroom, turning the light off behind him. As he approached the bedroom door, he began to hear two male voices growing louder as he got closer.

He stopped in front of the bedroom door and listened.

It was Hero and Kel. They both seemed to be deep in conversation. Whatever the topic was, it sounded kind of serious. Sunny didn’t want to interrupt. He decided he should just wait outside the door for them to finish, but…

“September? You’re joking, right?”

“Yeah, look. It’s right here.”

Some shuffling of pages.

“See?”

Oh no.

“I-,” A short pause, “Wow. I can’t believe she’d do that.”

This conversation…

“But she did! That’s why he’s here.”

...it was about him, wasn’t it?

‘And mom,’ Omori added, ‘They must’ve found the sticky note.’

Wait. The sticky note. He had forgotten about that. Didn’t Omori give the sketchbook back to Kel? How could he have been so dumb? Why did he do that?!

‘Because I had to.’

“Why didn’t he tell us?”

He could feel a pit begin to form in his stomach. It became completely silent. Slowly, Sunny could hear his heartbeat in his ears. He tried to breathe as silently as possible and counted the seconds as they passed. He leaned closer to the door, trying to hear the conversation more clearly. Finally, someone spoke again. He was able to make out the owners of the voices.

“I think he’s scared.” Kel solemnly whispered.

“...Yeah,” Hero agreed quietly.

Someone took a deep breath.

“I’ll try talking to mom about it. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

“Yeah! She adores him!” Kel’s voice sounded slightly cheerful.

She did?

“Thanks, Hero.”

“Mhm.”

Approaching footsteps.

“Now clean up this mess,” the handle slowly turned, “I don’t think mom will appreciate Sunny sleeping in your cookie crumbs and dirty laundry.”

The door swung open and Hero walked out in a hurry. Without looking, he bumped straight into him. While Hero stood like a mountain, the sheer force of impact the giant created caused Sunny to loudly squeak as he fell over.

“Sunny!” Hero caught him and then lifted him high up into the air.

Oh no. Not again.

“Are you alright?!”

Sunny’s hands scrambled to clutch onto something as the rest of his body went limp and his vision faded away. His mind went blank. The drastic change in altitude had completely destroyed him.

He heard something muffled, but couldn’t make out the words. Was Hero still talking to him, or was he just hearing something else? Could it have been Omori? He supposed it didn’t really matter. Something was hugging him again. It felt nice. His entire body felt like pudding, so he’d figured he’d just choose to enjoy the moment while he waited to regain his senses.

There was some movement. He felt himself being lowered towards the ground. He was sitting on something soft, but that’s all he could tell. Once again, something tried to pry him from whatever was in his grasp, but his koala grip refused to let up. All he knew was that both he and Hero were trapped.

Finally, after what felt like a century, his senses came back. Blue flooded his vision as he opened his eye. He slowly peeked up, unburying himself from the fabric. Hero smiled as he looked back down at him.

“All good?” he asked, still holding him as they sat on the floor.

Wow… Sunny nodded his head rapidly, loosening his grip on Hero’s sweater.

“Great!” Hero let go of him and stood up, “Sorry I haven’t hung out with you, yet, but I still have a few more errands to run. I’ll be back soon, okay?”

Errands? Was Hero avoiding him?

‘Unlikely.’

Omori nodded their head, receiving a quick pat from Hero in return as he left the room.

‘He never has time. He’s always busy.’

Oh. Sunny turned his head to face Kel, who was staring at the doorway longingly. Kel, quickly noticing Sunny’s gaze, slapped his own cheeks with both hands, before rubbing them, face turning into a smile. He gave Sunny his signature grin. Poor Kel… Sunny wished he could be a better friend to him.

Wait. He could! That was his intention, wasn’t it? Kel was his best friend, so he was going to be Kel’s best friend. He would make sure of it.

Sunny sidled up to Kel, ready to become the best friend he had never been. It was time to right his wrong doings, and Kel was going to be his first victim. He was ready to attack, but-.

“Wanna watch a movie?” Kel asked him excitedly.

No. No, he did not want to watch a movie. They had been watching TV all day. It was boring. He shook his head.

“Oh, come on! It’ll be fun. I’ll let you pick the movie!” Kel whined.

Persistent.

‘Didn’t you want to be a better friend?’ Omori asked.

...He did, but.

“Okay,” Omori whispered, almost inaudibly.

Ah. HUH?! Did Omori just?!

“YES!” Kel jumped up with glee. “You can pick out a movie while I make some popcorn. We’ll use the TV downstairs.”

Sunny nodded his head.

“Great!” With that statement, Kel hurriedly left the bedroom, leaving Sunny and Omori alone again.

Movies… Movies would be near the television right?

Sunny crawled on all fours towards the TV beside Kel’s bed. He opened the doors, revealing a large collection of movies, surprisingly well organized. Excellent, he had guessed right, but… he didn’t recognize any of them. They were all foreign to him. He had never seen any of them. He sighed.

‘Which one?’ He asked Omori.

Omori leaned closer towards each movie. Sunny watched as their eye darted from title to title before finally stopping on a cartoonish DVD. Omori pulled it out from the well organized stack.

‘This one,’ Omori declared.

‘Ponyo?’ Sunny was a little wary with Omori’s decision. It looked like it was something made for small children.

‘Trust me, you’ll like it,’ said Omori, confidently.

Well… if Omori said so. He did know him better than he knew himself, apparently.

‘Easily influenced.’

Shut up, Omori.

Sunny closed the cabinet doors and stood up with the DVD. The aroma of popcorn had already begun to fill the air. His stomach rumbled. He was hungry.

He patted his pocket to make sure that Mari’s spork was still on him. Then he grabbed his sketchbook and left the bedroom with the door wide open. As he slowly descended the stairs, he caught a glimpse of the top of Kel’s head poking out from the living room doorway before hiding again. Was Kel trying to be sneaky?

‘Kel’s excited,’ Omori stated.

What? But then why was he acting so shy?

‘Isn’t it obvious? He’s lonely, but he’s trying to hide it.’

Oh…

Sunny walked down the stairs a little faster. Kel was ready and waiting for him. He was taking too long!

Kel jumped out from behind the doorway as Sunny reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Hope you don’t mind, but I added some extra butter and salt!” He chuckled as he held a big green bowl filled to the top with popcorn in front of him.

Sunny didn’t mind. It looked delicious. He walked into the living room with his friend.

“So, what are we watching?” Kel asked as they sat on the couch.

Sunny held out the DVD and showed it to him.

“Ponyo? Isn’t that for kids?” he snorted.

“...” Sunny looked away embarrassingly. He knew he shouldn’t have trusted Omori.

“Woah, woah,” Kel snatched the DVD from his hands, “It’s okay! I actually really like this movie. I’m just surprised that you do too!” He opened the plastic container and rushed to place it in the DVD player. Within minutes, the movie had already started.

Sunny pulled out Mari’s spork and dug into the popcorn. Kel gave him a funny look, but he didn’t care. He promised he would use her spork whenever he could. Luckily, Kel allowed it.

He had to admit it. The movie was pretty cute. Eventually, Hero quietly joined them only making a noise to ask Sunny to move over. He sat between his brothers as they continued to watch the movie. Omori was right, he did kind of like it.

After such a long day, it was pretty relaxing. Too relaxing, actually. All of the traveling he had done and the emotions he had felt was finally catching up to him, but now he finally felt safe. Safe from what? Who knows. Enjoying the peace, he rested his eyes. He allowed himself to listen to the television.

Sunny tried to open his eye, but, after finding that he was entirely surrounded by darkness, quickly shut it closed again. His eye itched from dryness and his body felt like lead. Had he been sleeping? He didn’t remember. The last memory he had was sitting on the couch in between his brothers, his best friends, and listening to the television. So, where was he now?

He could tell he was laying down, wrapped in something like a cocoon. Blankets? That made sense, but he still had now clue as to when it happened or how he had gotten there. All he knew was that, wherever he was, it was nice and warm. Whatever he was laying on was soft and incredibly comfortable. It was almost as if he were laying on a cloud. A nice, pink, fluffy cloud, delicately carrying him throughout the warm summer sky. Blissful. Serene...

Something began to shake him.

...Chaotic. Distressing…

A loud noise unwelcomingly allowed itself into his personal space; his eardrums. He hated it. What was it and how was he supposed to make it stop?

‘An alarm clock,’ Omori groaned.

Ah! That’s right!

‘Make it stop.’

That, he shall.

Following the instructions of his other half, Sunny casted the covers off his body and launched his right hand into the sky. Downwards, with the force of three thousand Sunnys, his hand sliced through the air and landed right onto something… soft?

He rubbed his hand into it.

Soft and… fluffy?

Sunny opened his eye. Hero stared right back at him, bewildered.

“Good morning, Sunshine?” He smiled with slight uncertainty, startled by the sudden attack.

Sunny would’ve felt bad for hitting him had it not been for that nickname he had just received. Sunshine? Was that supposed to be a pun? It was stupid. He removed his hand from Hero’s head.

“I made bacon and, uhm…” Hero looked away and scratched the back of his neck, “...bacon.”

Sunny felt something itchy in his right palm. He brought his hand to his face and stared at it. A brown line?

“So, when you’re ready to eat, just come downstairs, okay?” Hero brought the blanket back up to Sunny’s chin, covering everything but his face and hand completely.

Sunny continued staring at the brown line in the middle of his palm. Was that a hair? Disgusting. He didn’t want that.

Before Hero had the chance to walk away, Sunny grabbed Hero's wrist.

“Sunny?”

With both hands, he turned Hero’s hand over palm up towards the ceiling. Then, he plucked the little brown hair from his palm and laid it to rest inside of Hero’s. Sunny forced Hero’s fingers to close into a ball, successfully trapping the hair in Hero’s hand. He had returned the unwanted gift.

Hero rotated his hand towards himself and slowly unballed it. His shoulders fell as he began to tremble and sweat. Sunny was baffled by the scene unfolding before him. He watched quietly as Hero’s cheerful expression quickly morphed between surprise, confusion, anxiety, and despair. It was interesting.

Finally, Hero’s expression changed to that of a strained smile. He dropped his palm from his face and wiped both of his hands onto his jeans rapidly, before facing Sunny again.

“Well, Sunny,” Hero straightened his posture and stared at him dead in the eyes, “I brought your bag up for you,” he pointed to the book bag on the floor at the foot of the bed. “If you need me,” slowly, he began to tremble again. “I-I’ll be in the kitchen. Cleaning.”

With that statement, Hero turned on his heels and swiftly exited the bedroom, leaving Sunny alone under the warm blanket. Sunny stared at the wide open door Hero had rushed out of, completely dumbfounded.

‘What was that all about?’ he asked, perplexed.

‘No idea. That was really weird,’ Omori replied, just as bewildered as Sunny, ‘Anyway, we should get out of bed.’

Bed?

Sunny untucked himself with his hands and slowly sat up. He found himself sitting in Kel’s bed, wondering when and how he had got there. Teleportation… Did they carry him there after he fell asleep during the movie? And, if so, why was he in Kel’s bed? Where did Kel sleep?

A pang of guilt hit him as he stared at the makeshift mattress on the floor. It looked a little ragged but mostly untouched. Sunny hoped he didn’t make Kel sleep on the couch in his own house. That would’ve been rude of him.

As Sunny’s senses slowly woke up, he became much more aware of the scent of bacon drifting throughout the air. His stomach growled. He was starving. Although he wasn’t yet ready to move, it was time to get out of bed.

With a groan, he laid on his back and slowly rolled out of the bed, gracefully landing onto his hands and knees on the ground just like a cat. Unwilling to exert anymore of his limited energy by standing up, he crawled on all fours towards his book bag, unzipping it and grabbing his toothbrush and a pair of new clothes. He held his daily essentials with his mouth and crawled towards the bathroom, ready to freshen up and greet the brand new day. He just hoped there would be a lot less TV this time.

*    *    *

Sunny adjusted his collar over his sweater vest as he stared into the bathroom mirror. There was still something off about his reflection, but it wasn’t as discomforting as last time he had looked into it. He knew he was seeing Sunny, and he could tell he was looking at Omori. The full image, however, still felt slightly off.

Something was wrong with it and he couldn’t figure out what it was or why. Maybe it was his posture or his hair? Or maybe it was because he wasn’t used to seeing himself with an eyepatch. He supposed it didn’t really matter. After all, it was bacon time. Delicious.

He walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs. The closer he got to the kitchen, the stronger the smell grew. His stomach began to growl louder than before. He was starting to feel ravenous. He couldn’t wait to sit down and eat breakfast.

“Hey, Sunny!” Hero greeted him cheerfully as he entered the kitchen. He was hunched over the sink, scrubbing the grease off of a pan, but looking much happier and less shaken up than when he had last seen him. Sunny returned Hero’s greeting with a motionless wave, earning a smile back from his oldest brother.

“I made sure Kel didn’t eat everything. It’s in the microwave,” he gestured towards the microwave sitting on the counter to his left with an elbow.

Sunny walked around him and poked open the microwave door. Inside sat a small plate covered in aluminum foil. He pulled it out of the microwave and peeled off the foil, revealing a large stack of perfectly cooked thick greasy bacon slices. Wow…

He wanted to thank him, but…

Sunny stared up at Hero, who was already deep in thought and scrubbing the pan again. Standing beside him, it became obvious to Sunny that Hero was too tall for him to reach the top of his head. A pat would be perpetually impossible. He needed an alternative solution if he wanted to show Hero his affection.

Hm. To show affection...

Sunny placed the plate of bacon on the counter beside the microwave and dropped to his hands and knees. Sunny had an idea, but he wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. It felt right, but he wondered if the Sunny-

‘Do it,’ demanded Omori.

Oh, looks like he had Omori’s blessing! Excellent.

Sunny crawled behind Hero, still on all fours. He peeked up at the giant, making sure he hadn’t garnered his attention yet. Relieved that he hadn’t been noticed, Sunny latched onto Hero’s leg and sat on his foot, clinging tightly to Hero’s leg with his koala grip. Affection delivered.

“SUNNY?!” shouted Hero in surprise.

Sunny hung on for dear life as Hero stumbled away from the sink, water splashing everywhere.

“What are you doing?!” He asked as he quickly regained his balance.

What a stupid question. He was showing his gratitude! He was thankful for the bacon!

‘Don’t let go.’

Hero began to twist and shake his leg, trying to shimmy his leg free from captivity, but Sunny buried his face into Hero’s leg and held on tight with all his might. There was no way Hero was getting rid of him that easily. He had to stay persistent. Sunny was going to make sure Hero knew how much he appreciated him.

After several more moments of twisting and turning, all movement ceased. Sunny wondered if Hero given up and accepted his show of affection, but then Sunny felt two hands wrap around his biceps. There was a gentle pull. Apparently he hadn’t.

“Sunny, please,” Hero pleaded as he tugged at Sunny’s arms, trying to pry him off.

Sunny refused. He heard Hero let out an exasperated sigh. Unburying his face and peeking up at his big brother, he witnessed Hero grab the plate of bacon off the counter. Slowly, and with Sunny still attached, Hero effortlessly waddled through the kitchen and into the dining room, holding the bacon. Sunny had won the war.

He held on tight as Hero wobbled towards the dining room table.

“Uh, Hero?” Kel called out with a mouth full of bacon, “whatcha doin there?”

“Apparently,” Hero pointed to Sunny clinging to his leg with both hands, “this is still a thing.”

Sunny stared up at them both. So, his Sunny instinct was right. Clinging to people's legs to show his appreciation and affection was something he used to do.

‘Still do,’ Omori corrected him. ‘We never stopped. It’s just that, after the accident, we never had the chance to do it again.’

Oh. That made sense. He didn’t leave the house for nearly four years after Mari’s death. Even after leaving the house, he remembered feeling awkward and uncomfortable around all of his friends. He didn’t understand why at the time, but it was probably because Omori knew-

‘No, I didn’t.’

...what?

Sunny let go of Hero’s leg, but chose to stay sitting on the ground. He stared up at his older brothers as they talked amongst themselves, but he paid no mind to listen to their conversation. Instead, something new was stuck in his mind.

What Omori had said… Had Omori not known the truth surrounding Mari’s death? But that was impossible. Omori himself said that he was the one preventing the both of them, Sunny, from learning the truth. It didn’t make sense.

Once again, another giant hand flew into his face, interrupting any further thoughts he might have had on the situation. He looked at it as it started rapidly snapping its fingers.

Wow. Everytime he thought he was onto something, an outside force had to interrupt him. He hoped this wouldn’t be a reoccurring problem. Annoying.

“Sunny,” Hero stopped snapping and began to clap his hands in his face.

Seriously? Was that necessary?

‘Obnoxious.’

Indeed. Sunny puffed out his cheeks and grabbed the clapping hands. As soon as they were in his grasp, he slammed them together, forcing the clapping to stop. He looked back up to the source and blew the air out of his mouth. That should show his displeasure.

He released Hero’s hands and stood up, taking a seat at the table, next to Kel. His eyes widened with delight as he quietly munched on a piece of bacon. It was delicious!

“So, Sunny,” Kel leaned into him from his seat, “Are you ready for a fun filled day?”

Huh? He wasn’t ready for anything. He had barely just started breathing. Couldn’t he at least finish his bacon?

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Hero answered. “You saw how tired he was last night.” He turned to face Sunny. “You should probably stay home and rest.”

...stay home?

“Oh. That’s true,” Kel reached over and stole a slice of his bacon. “You know, you really startled me last night when you crawled into my bed and body slammed me.”

...he did what ?

“You looked so peaceful, though, that I didn’t want to move. I’ve never seen you that relaxed!”

He didn’t remember doing that.

‘I did that.’

What.

“You were pretty hard to wake up this morning too,” Hero added.

Wait. Did that mean that, whenever he was asleep, Omori was able to-,

‘No,’ Omori cut him off.

“We tried waking you up on three separate occasions, but you just wouldn’t budge,” Hero chuckled.

‘You were awake too, but we were both really tired.’

Oh. So... Omori couldn’t control the body while he was asleep. That made him feel much more at ease. He stared at his friends as he ate another slice of bacon.

“Anyway, if you’re too tired, I can go alone. You can stay home with Kel and watch some more-”

Sunny slammed the bacon down onto the plate and shook his head.

Nope. No way. Nu-uh.

He stood up and walked out the dining room into the living room.

There was absolutely no way he was going to waste another day sitting in front of the TV again. A few hours was nice, but a twelve hour marathon was just too much. Even Omori was getting fed up, and he was supposed to be the better of the both of them!

Looking around the living room, he spotted his slip on shoes by the front door. After grabbing them, he returned to the dining room and stood in front of Hero and Kel. Sunny made eye contact with them both to make sure they were paying attention to him. When he felt confident that all eyes were on him, he aggressively slipped on his shoes and then proceeded to sit back down at the table to finish the rest of his bacon.

“...Alrighty, then,” Hero stared at him as Sunny munched on the slices of bacon. “I guess that means Sunny’s coming along with us.”

Yes. It did. Sunny nodded his head.

“Great!” exclaimed Kel, “Just one question.”

Hero and Sunny turned to face Kel.

“What are we gonna do today?” Kel smiled.

...USELESS.

“Hm. Well,” Hero paused, “Mom wanted me to go to Othermart and get some groceries for the barbeque. Y’all can come with me or y’all can hang out at Hobbeez while I shop?”

Kel and Sunny stared at Hero silently. Something about that sentence felt off. He wasn’t sure if he liked it. The way it sounded felt like a violation to his ears. Hero returned their stare, confused.

“...What?” he asked, desperately attempting to mask the anxiety that was becoming more and more apparent on his face.

“ ‘Y’all ?’” Kel couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer. He placed the bacon back down on his plate. ”Since when did you start saying ‘y’all?’”

“What? I’ve always said ‘y’all!’” Hero sounded so defensive.

“ No , you haven’t,” Kel snapped back.

Sunny was just as confused. Had Hero ever said y’all in the past? It felt foreign.

‘No. He probably picked it up at college,’ Omori chimed in.

Sunny nibbled on another slice of bacon as he watched the two bicker with each other in amusement. Suddenly, his face contorted in disgust. There was something in his delicious breakfast. Something foul that didn’t belong. Whatever it was, it was in his mouth and he wanted it out. It had invaded his personal space.

He leaned forward and spat his chewed up bacon onto his plate, but that thing was still inside of his mouth. He sighed. He really didn’t want his hands to get dirty, but it looked like he would have to if he wanted some peace.

Annoyed, Sunny pulled the intruder out of his mouth and glanced at it. Ah. Disgusting. It was another brown line. A hair. Specifically, a Hero hair. Another unwelcomed gift. He needed to return it.

Sunny stood up from the table and walked over to Hero, interrupting their conversation as he grabbed his hands.

“Sunny?” Hero was perplexed. “What are you…?”

They watched silently as Sunny turned Hero’s hands over, both palms up. Sunny then placed the hair into the palms and closed Hero’s hands around it, successfully giving back the gift.

Sunny released his hands and looked up at Hero. As they made eye contact, Sunny noticed that Hero had begun to shudder.

Oh no. Did he do something wrong? He didn’t want to throw it away, it was a part of Hero after all, but it seemed like Hero didn’t like that.

Trying to appease Hero and show that he meant no ill will returning the gift, Sunny tried his hardest to smile.

While his mouth failed to open, there was a stronger pull on his cheeks and lips than last time. Even though he could feel that it was very tiny, by the strength of the pull and the change in Hero’s demeanor, Sunny knew that it was very obvious that he was smiling. He had done it. Success!

“Sunny, Kel...” Hero’s lip quivered as he stared at the single brown hair in his hand.

“Uh oh.”

Huh? Why ‘uh oh?’

He watched as Hero pocketed the hair and wiped his hand on his pants. Hero then met Sunny’s gaze.

“Why don’t you two go ahead and get a head start. I’ll catch up with you.”

“But Othermart isn’t even open yet!” Kel whined.

Hero shifted from one leg to the other. Slowly, he began to tremble again.

“No, no. It’s okay,” He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and handed it to Sunny. ”Go ahead. I’ll meet you there.”

Sunny examined the wallet in his hands. It was a medium dark brown leather and thoroughly worn. He opened it and found himself staring at Hero’s picture on his driver’s license. Even though the smile he wore in the photo was mild, it was still quite charming. Wow...

“Fine,” the screech of a chair dragged across the hardwood floor sounded throughout the room as Kel stood up from the table. “C’mon, Sunny. Let’s go.”

What? Why would they do that? That’s mean!

“Bye, Hero!” Kel shouted as he began to usher Sunny towards the living room from behind.

While Kel guided him out of the house, Sunny peeked at Hero. Hero was already waving back at them, but with a weary smile. It was strange. He wondered if he was okay and why he was behaving differently from what he expected. What he knew about him. What he thought about him… Perhaps that was why Hero seemed so strange.

Sunny looked down at the photo of Hero in the wallet, mentally comparing the Hero in his mind, the Hero in the picture, and the Hero he knew in person.

One was confident, charming, and strong. Another was amazingly skilled at everything he did. The last one, the Hero that he knew in real life, was only human. They were all so different from each other, yet exactly the same. Kind of like him and Omori, in a way.

The pushing finally stopped and a door slammed behind him. They were finally outside. Sunny closed the wallet and pocketed it before returning his attention to Kel.

“Can you believe that guy?!” Kel began walking swiftly down the pavement.

Sunny walked behind him as fast as he could, struggling to keep up with Kel’s long stride. He didn’t want to break out into a jog just to catch up. That would be embarrassing.

“He really went and kicked us out!”

Wow. Kel seemed to be really upset.

‘So did Hero,’ Omori pointed out.

‘Huh?’ Sunny was confused.

Hero was acting weird, but he didn’t seem upset. He wondered what Omori meant by that. It didn’t matter, though. Chasing Kel at this pace was starting to wear him down. His chest was starting to hurt and he was running out of breath.

He needed to stop and rest, but Kel was already so far ahead of him. If he wanted to catch up, he’d have to do the unspeakable. The unmentionable. The forbidden. He was going to have to run.

‘Illegal,’ Omori protested.

Sunny would’ve sighed if he could, but he was much too out of breath. Omori was right. The thought of running just to catch up to his walking friend… it was awful.

‘Horrible.’

Humiliating.

‘Toxic.’

‘Omori…’

Omori bursted into a sprint.

Ears pounding and heart racing, Sunny watched as Omori closed the distance between themselves and Kel.

Wow. Sunny was in awe. Even outside of White Space, Omori was still faster than him. They had the same limitations and the same condition, yet, somehow, Omori wasn’t bothered by it. Was it because he knew their body better than he did? Or was he just used to it?

‘No,’ Omori cut off Sunny’s thoughts, ‘It’s because...’

Omori reached out his hand towards Kel as he got closer.

‘...I’m better than you.’

He jumped, catching the cloth from the back of Kel’s tank top in his outstretched hand. Omori yanked really hard, causing Kel to stop dead in his tracks as he smacked into him.

“Ack!” Kel looked behind him and saw Sunny drenched in sweat. “Oh! Sorry, Sunny! I… I kind of forgot how small you are...”

RUDE. Sunny stared at him in shock. How could Kel betray him like that? Sure, he was small and he knew that they both knew it, but… did Kel really have to point it out like that? He felt so betrayed. His brother… His best friend... 

Sad. He could almost cry.

Sad. He was so offended.

Sad, but, before Sunny even had a chance to express the psychological trauma that had just been inflicted, Kel grabbed his wrist.

“C’mon, Sunny. Let’s go spend all of Hero’s money.”

They started walking again, but at least it was a little slower this time…

“Closed? What do you mean ‘closed?!” Kel shouted in frustration. He pressed his face against the store front’s window and began tapping his foot. He cupped his hands over his eyes, squinting as he looked around inside.

Sunny stood closely behind him, watching as Kel threw his temper tantrum. It was kind of funny. The mindless energy of it all kind of reminded him of the Krels in Krel Space. Aimless. Unimportant. Just existing.

Kel gasped loudly, “I can see Pedro right there!”

...Pedro?

Sunny walked towards the window.

What the heck was a Pedro?

‘Pedro is the shopkeep’s name,’ explained Omori.

“Pedro!” Kel shouted out loud into the window.

Sunny sighed, stopping besides Kel. Mimicking his friend, he cupped his hands over his eye and pressed his own face against the window. His vision slowly adjusted, allowing him to see inside.

Wow. It was a little disappointing. Sunny didn’t know what he expected from a place called Hobbeez, but it definitely wasn’t this.

It felt like everything was just thrown together with little to no attempt at coordination. The back wall was lined with a mixture of posters and guitars. There was an old arcade machine sitting next to the counter and a vending machine. He was pretty sure he could see the layer of dust coating a rack of VHS tapes and DVDs from where he was. Absolutely atrocious.

What was with the cards and action figures sitting around on the tables? Was this a place for hanging out, playing games, or for purchasing things? It was hard to tell. There was an obvious attempt at a certain atmosphere, but… Wait. Why were there cards tossed across the table and not in a box? Wasn’t the store not open? They’re not even in a stack. Isn’t that a little sloppy?

‘The owner gave up after Kel destroyed the box.’

He destroyed the box?

‘Mangled. Trashed. Kel spilled Orange Joe on it.’

...again?

A quick, short movement caught his eye, leading his gaze to a brown puff of hair bouncing behind a counter in the middle of the room.

Standing underneath a sign decorated with a bumblebee was a man wearing a pink shirt, glasses, and light blue jeans. They briefly made eye contact with each other before the man raised his arm and pointed to his wrist, shaking his head disapprovingly as he did so.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging sound. The glass began to shake.

“Pedro! Come on! Let us in!” Kel shouted between each strike. Sunny stepped back, staring at his friend in disbelief. It was closed. Did he not understand?

‘Oblivious.’

No kidding.

They paused as they heard the shopkeeper yell something back, but it was too muffled to understand among the racket Kel was making. Sunny gave him a poke, prompting Kel to stop hitting the glass. He watched as Kel turned his ear towards it, trying to listen. Immediately, he made a strange face and turned back around to face the shopkeeper again.

He yelled through the glass, “What?!”

The shopkeeper cupped his hands together and leaned on the counter.

“9 o’clock!” He screamed. Annoyed, the shopkeeper stepped away from the counter, grabbed a magazine from nearby the register and dramatically stomped through the back door. He slammed it behind him, causing the glass in the storefront to shake as well.

Kel stared in shock before shaking his head.

“Wow. First Hero kicked us out and now Pedro won’t let us in! We’re just having an unlucky day today. Aren’t we, Sunny?” He laughed with a strained smile stretched across his face. “What time is it even?”

Time. Hm… Sunny stared at him blankly. How could he answer that? He didn’t have a phone or a watch, did he? How the heck was he supposed to know?

“Ugh. Whatever,” Kel groaned. “Let’s just go hang out at the park or something until Hero decides to show up.”

Decides to? Had Hero really been that torn up? Hero...  

Sunny sighed melancholically as they walked towards the park. The day had just started, and yet there was already a lot on his mind. Kel was angry and Hero was stressed. He wondered what was wrong with him. Was it something he had done?

‘Maybe he’s worried?’ Omori suggested.

Maybe he’s upset. Really, it could have been anything.

‘But it happened twice.’

He really screwed things up, didn’t he? All on top of what he had done. The crimes he had committed.

Suddenly, Kel abruptly stopped in front of him, causing Sunny to crash into his back again. Kel turned around to face him. There was a surprised look on his face, but the expression quickly changed into a wide smile.

“Hey, Sunny,” he coyly nudged him.

Sunny squinted his eye. Something bad was about to happen. He could feel it. Still, Kel continued to smile at him like nothing was wrong. Suspicious.

“Hand me Hero’s wallet, please?” He placed both of his hands onto Sunny’s shoulders, kneeling down to his level as he asked.

Sunny… didn’t know what to say. Hero’s wallet? Why did Kel need Hero’s wallet? And what was with that smile? Sunny focused closer on Kel’s face. There was a distinct aura behind it, but he couldn’t pinpoint the emotion. Ominous. It seemed like a terrible idea-

Omori pulled the wallet out of their pocket and proceeded to hand it directly to Kel. Kel’s smile widened even more.

“Great! Thanks!” He excitedly ripped the wallet from their hands.

Oh no. They should not have done that. Why ? Hero had trusted him with his wallet and now Kel was holding said wallet.

‘Why did you do that?!’ Sunny asked. He couldn’t ignore the agitation rising in his blood.

‘Watch,’ Omori replied.

Omori turned their head towards Kel and stared at him. With a beaming smile, Kel opened Hero’s wallet and pulled out a dollar bill. With no hesitation, Kel shoved it into one of two giant metal boxes standing beside them. What were those anyway, Sunny wondered?

‘It’s called a vending machine.’

...Wow. Vending? Like a vendor? He stared at the vending machine. What a stupid name. A vendor was a person, wasn’t it? Sunny was pretty sure about that. What did that even mean? Was there a person inside the machine? Or were there a bunch of tiny people working together like a unit inside of it?

‘Don’t be stupid. No one is in there. Someone opens up and loads it before closing it again.’

That… made a lot more sense. What did they load it with?

Sunny watched as Kel struggled to feed the dollar bill into the machine.

“Come on… get in…” he pleaded as the dollar repeatedly spat itself back out.

Omori continued his explanation, ‘Snacks, but not for free,’ he added.

Oh...

‘Hence the wallet.’

They stared at the wallet in Kel’s hand.

Ah. That sounded familiar. Very familiar, in fact. He was positive he had used one before. He should’ve known that. Plus, he was pretty confident that there was no such thing as tiny people.

‘Except for you.’

What .

“SUCCESS!” Kel loudly cheered. Sunny watched as he quickly pressed a button on the side of the machine. Kel seemed so happy. Looks like the dollar bill finally went in.

‘It fought the good fight.’

Indeed, it had, but it appears it was no match for Kel’s persistence.

‘Or his determination.’

The vending machine rattled as it dispensed a drink. A loud metal ‘clink’ sound throughout the air. Sunny watched as Kel bent down and retrieved it.

Without a word, Kel turned towards him and dropped it into Sunny’s arms. It was… so cold. He watched as Kel pulled out another dollar bill.

“If we can’t spend his money at Hobbeez...” Kel fed the bill through the slot, “...then I guess we’ll have to spend it all here.”

Seriously?

Kel pressed another button.

Wasn’t that a little childish?

‘Yes.’

Another can dropped into the receiver. Once again, Sunny watched as Kel pulled it out and approached him, balancing it into his arms before turning back to the machine again. Sunny hugged them closely, waiting for Kel to finish his money wasting plan. Soon, the coldness radiating off of the cans had started to burn. Just how many dollar bills did Hero have? He was getting really sick of this.

‘Put them down.’

Oh. Good idea.

He slowly kneeled down until he was fully sat on his knees on the ground. Carefully, he removed each can from his cradle until, finally, his arms were free from the mess.

His arms… they felt so numb. Taking a quick glance, Sunny noticed they were a vibrant shade of red. In a feeble attempt to warm up, he rubbed his arms with his hands, but it was useless. He was shivering.

What felt like forever had passed. Can upon can upon can surrounded both Kel and himself. There had to be ten or twenty, no, thirty cans of soda. All the same flavor. All Orange Joe.

Sunny stared at them bleakly. Disgusting. When would it end? Why did Hero have so many single dollar bills in his wallet? Was he rich?

‘Maybe he’s a dancer?’

...WHAT?!

Sunny choked on air.

“You okay, Sunny?” Kel asked, tilting his head with a face full of concern.

Sunny couldn’t bring himself to answer him.

No. He was not okay. All he could imagine was Hero in… cowboy attire? Red boots, blue jeans, topped with a hat…

‘A big sheriff star,’ Omori added.

Sunny squinted his eyes. This agony… this torture... the disrespect… His big brother… The image of Hero was forever ruined. He could never look at him the same way again. So much pain...

‘I was just kidding,’ Omori gave Kel a thumbs up. Kel shot him a smile and turned back to face the vending machine. ‘There’s no need to be so dramatic. Hero wouldn’t do that… I think.’

…

Sunny stared at an oblong object in front of him absentmindedly as he processed Omori’s words.

What did Omori mean by ‘I think?’

He watched as the object quickly grew in size. Strange. It kind of looked like-

‘CAN!’ Suddenly, Sunny’s arms threw themselves up in front of him. His head turned to the side on its own. Before he even had a chance to understand what was happening, he felt a large object smack into his left cheek. Soon, a loud hissing sound followed.

“Sunny!” Kel gasped as he immediately dropped down to the ground, grabbing Sunny’s face. He fell limp as Kel pushed and pulled his head around, checking his cheeks and assessing the damage.

Finally, he let go of him, giving him a pat on the shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Sunny. Are you okay?” Kel asked.

Sunny rubbed his cheek, wiping his eye as it began to water. Why didn’t he notice the can hurling at him? Was it because he only had one eye, or was it because he was zoning out again? How annoying.

“I, uh…” Kel looked around at all the soda cans. “I think that’s enough of that. Sorry, Sunny. Again.”

Slowly, Kel began to gather the cans. There were so many of them. Despite only now just holding a few, Sunny could tell that Kel wouldn’t be able to carry them all. He should probably help him, right?

‘Yes,’ Omori confirmed. Together, they stood up and started gathering the cans.

Wow. It felt like there were a lot more than there really were. He tried his best to carry as many as possible, but he kept dropping them. As he reached for the next can, an arm swooped in and grabbed it, whisking it out of his sight.

“Ready to go, Sunny?” Kel asked.

Wait. What? Was that all of them? No way! He looked around at the ground then back up at his friend. Then he noticed it. Kel had lifted the hem of his shirt and held it upwards, turning it into a basket. Kel grabbed the remaining cans from his arms and dropped them into his makeshift apron.

Wow… clever. Kel really was smart, wasn’t he? Just like Omori had said. Why didn’t he think of that?

He nodded his head and followed him into the park.

Kel guided them to the bench, plopping down with a loud thud. He carelessly dropped the soda cans by his feet. Kicking a few cans away, Sunny sat down beside him, pushing his legs together and crossing his hands on his lap. Suddenly, there was a loud crack followed by that same hissing sound again.

He turned his head to his right, catching Kel as he chugged down one of the cans. Kel’s face twisted into disgust, but, to Sunny’s surprise, he continued to drink it, letting out a loud belch as he finished it off.

WIthout hesitation, Kel tossed the empty can to the side and reached down, grabbing another one. A hissing sound erupted from the new can, but Sunny couldn’t care less. Instead,  he watched as the empty can rolled away. He was appalled.

 Did Kel really just litter?

‘After all that hard work we did making Faraway a cleaner place...’

How rude!

‘So disrespectful.’

How could Kel be so…

‘Illegal.’

Sunny shot up from the bench and walked towards the can. As he bent down to grab it, a large pair of white canvas shoes stepped into his vision. He looked up, finding an overweight man dressed in khaki jeans and a black t-shirt with short blonde hair staring back down at him.

This man… his aura… it was unsettling. Creepy, even. Sunny didn’t like him.

“Excelsior, diminutive juvenile. You bestow an impression of acquaintanceship to my being. Have we encountered each other in times past?”

...Sunny stared at him. He really didn’t like this guy.

“As the case may be, that subject is of no concern to me. Would you appreciate to perceive the cause of which compelled me to communicate with a child such as yourself?”

What the heck was this guy saying? Why was he talking like that? It was so weird. Did he just grab a thesaurus and switch random words out of his vocabulary in a desperate attempt to sound smarter? How arrogant! How pretentious!

‘Perchance one fails to recognize how ludicrous one strikes one as.’

...Omori.

‘Sorry. Couldn’t resist.’

The creepy guy inched closer to them. Sunny noticed an uneasy feeling rising in his stomach. Out of fear, he instinctually nodded his head.

“Opulent!” The creepy guy reached into his pants pocket. ”Then, feast with your orbs that which cannot be rejected...”

Opulent? Orbs? What?

He fished out an object that reflected the sun, but quickly balled his fist around it, preventing Sunny from seeing it. He then beckoned Sunny to come closer. Sunny unwillingly obliged, grabbing the empty can and standing up before moving closer to the creepy guy.

“Behold,” The man stooped down to Sunny’s level and held his closed fist in Sunny’s face. Dropping his voice into a hushed tone, he whispered, “The Otocoin.”

Slowly, he opened his fist, revealing a silver coin sitting neatly in the middle of his palm. Sunny stared at it in awe. The coin was so… shiny. He couldn’t look away. He wanted it. He needed to get a better look at it. It was-

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!” Someone yelled angrily behind them.

The crunching of grass grew louder as the person who shouted got nearer.

“Tucker?!” the same voice yelled again.

 The creepy guy closed his fist and straightened himself. Sunny turned around to find Kel aggressively marching towards them, looking more agitated now than he had when Hero had kicked them both out. Kel looked at him dead in the eye before turning back to the creepy man.

“Experience tranquility or be consumed by the shadows.”

“...” Kel stared at Tucker dumbfounded. Sunny was just as confused. Seriously, what was that supposed to mean?

‘Omori?’.

‘I’m starting to regret this.’

‘What?’

Kel bumped into him. The air around them felt discomforting as they all stared at each other silently. No one knew what to say or what to do. It felt like a century had passed.

“Okay...” Kel wrapped his arm around Sunny’s shoulders, bringing him closer to himself and away from the creepy guy. “Come on, Sunny. Let’s…” He gave the man another glance before backing away, “Let’s get out of here.”

Yes. He would like that, but-. Sunny rooted himself to the ground.

Kel stopped, staring at him questioningly.

“What’s wrong, Sunny?” He asked.

Sunny blinked slowly at him. There wasn’t anything wrong. He wanted to leave, but… he also really wanted that coin. The Otocoin… Just the sound of its name was enticing. Wait! He didn’t bring his sketchbook! How was he supposed to communicate?!

Desperately, he looked around. There was no way he was going to speak, he might mess things up if he did.

‘Don’t panic,’ Omori forced them to stand still. He looked up at Kel, locking eyes, before pointing to the coin in the creepy guy’s hand. ‘Watch.’

Sunny complied, watching as Kel followed the direction of their finger before returning his attention back to them. He looked back and forth, the look of realization slowly stretching across his face. Finally, Kel slumped his shoulders and sighed.

“Tucker, is there something in your hand?” Kel asked sternly.

“No!” The creepy guy shouted, backing away and clutching his fist with his other hand.

Ew. How old was this man? Sunny wanted to laugh.

Kel let go of Sunny’s shoulder and took a step forward, “Look, I don’t want to get involved, but if you took something of Sunnys-”

“PREPOSTEROUS!” The creepy guy furiously stomped his foot.

Kel and Sunny jumped, caught off guard by his sudden outburst..

“Burglary is only for the weak and foolish. You’re not capable of understanding the value of the item of which I possess. Only those pure and of superior knowledge can observe the coin in all it’s glory without their minds turning into shambles.”

...What?

“Coin?” Kel raised his eyebrows.

Innocent? What did he mean by that? Sunny tilted his head.

‘Shambles?’

Even Omori didn’t understand.

“Ack! I said too much!” The creepy guy turned around.

“No, you haven’t said enough,” Kel took another step closer again.

Sunny watched as the two bickered with each other, wondering what the creepy guy meant by innocent and superior knowledge. Which one did he fall under? Was it innocent? That didn’t make any sense. He wasn’t innocent at all. Not after…

‘Superior knowledge.’

...What. No. That wasn’t right either. Sunny didn’t know anything.

‘He was talking about me .’

...doubt.

‘Didn’t you just assume vending machines had tiny people in them?’

Whatever. Sunny brushed it off. Whichever category he fell under didn’t matter. After all, the man had let them see the coin, therefore he was deemed worthy. He turned his attention back to Kel and the creepy man.

“Let me see the coin, Tucker,” Kel demanded, running around trying to get a glimpse of it..

“No,” The creepy guy said sternly as he rotated his body trying to protect his precious.

“C’mon. Why not? I really want to see it!” Kel whined.

“Well, you can’t.”

Ah. They were still going at it. At this point, Kel seemed to be more interested in being noisy than he was in the actual coin itself. He kept circling the blonde man, using his height to his advantage by towering over him. It was quite a sight to look at.

“Ahem!” A mysterious voice sounded from behind, interrupting the quarrel.

The creepy guy and Kel turned around, facing Sunny and looking as if they were ashamed of themselves. Interesting.

“Good morning! Anyone care to explain what’s going on?” The voice asked.

Suddenly a shadow casted over Sunny as a hand dropped onto his shoulder. He turned around to see who had spoken, but was met with a field of blue instead. Slowly, he tilted his head up to see…

“Wuaow~” Sunny audibly gasped. It was him! His oldest brother! His hero! Their Hero!

Hero looked down at him. His face twisted into surprise, leaving Sunny confused. Why was he looking at him like that?

‘You said ‘wow’ out loud...’

Huh?! He did what?!

‘Don’t worry. It’s just instinct.’

EMBARRASSING.

Hero patted him on the head. He could feel his face turning red. He buried his face into Hero’s shirt, humiliated.

The hand released from his head and moved onto his back.

“Well?” Hero continued the conversation.

“I-I, uh...” Kel stuttered, “You see...”

“Your blood brother is harassing me!” The creepy guy interjected.

Harassing? That didn’t sit right in his stomach. Kel wasn’t doing that, was he?

‘Technically, he is,’ Omori stated matter of factly.

Huh?

‘Kel won’t leave him alone. He’s trying to pressure him into getting what he wants. That’s harassment.’

...

Sunny pushed away from Hero and looked back at his orange friend. Harassment. He didn’t like that word, but the creepy guy and Omori were right. Kel was harassing the guy.

‘But he wouldn’t have gotten involved if you hadn’t gone and chased that can.’

That was true, too, but he wouldn’t have tried to pick up the can if Kel hadn’t littered. And Kel wouldn’t have littered if Omori hadn’t handed him Hero’s wallet. Wait. Is that what Omori meant when he said he was starting to regret this?

So, was this all Omori’s fault? Hold on. Why did that even matter? They were both the same person, weren’t they? Together, they were the whole Sunny. That meant that Omori’s actions belonged to him. Both of them. In other words…

‘Shared responsibility.’

Ugh. How frustrating. He was going to have to clean up this mess.

Sunny  pulled on Hero’s sleeve, grabbing his attention again.

“Hmm?” Hero looked down at him, a smile returning to his face once more.

Sunny froze on the spot, completely filled with anxiety. It was embarrassing. Just how many mistakes had he made in such a short amount of time? The last thing he wanted was for Hero to be disappointed in him, but...

Sunny handed Hero the empty can and took a step back. He was ready to be chastised if it meant fixing the problem he had created. Hero stared at the can in his hand silently before looking back at Sunny.

“Don’t tell me...”

Sunny guiltily nodded his head. Attempting to show Hero the damage, he pointed at the unoccupied bench surrounded by cans.

Hero followed his finger, facing the bench as well. A look of unease slowly washed over him. He returned his attention to his brother.

“Kel,” Hero smiled politely, “Where is my wallet?”

The question and his tone carried no malice, but Sunny could swear he saw Hero’s eyebrow twitching. Kel returned a nervous look. He was about to get in trouble, wasn’t he?

‘It’s his fault. He asked for it.’

He did?

‘ Let’s go spend all of Hero’s money! ’ Omori imitated Kel’s voice as best as he could.

...Nasty. Omori was right, though. Kel was looking for trouble.

Wait. Why was Kel so angry in the first place? Sure, he’d be annoyed too if he got kicked out of his own home, but wasn’t Kel acting a little…

‘Irrational?’ Omori finished his thought process, ‘Yes. He is.’

Hero pointed to the bench behind them, “Did you buy those cans?”

Kel straightened his back and placed his hands by his side. He returned to his signature smile, but it seemed much more stiff.

“Yup, I bought them!” he announced confidently. His entire demeanor had changed. Why did he seem so proud?

“And with whose money?”

“Yours,” Kel pulled Hero’s wallet out of his pocket, waving it around by his face.

Wow. So bold. Sunny had to admit he was impressed. Kel wasn’t afraid of Hero at all. But why was Kel doing this?

“Why?” Hero muttered, “Why would you do that?”

That’s what he wanted to know! Was this normal?

‘The impulsiveness is, but...’ Omori began, but paused as they watched Kel shrug his shoulders uncaringly.

The creepy guy shifted awkwardly in his spot. Compared to Kel, the creepy guy looked frightened. 

‘...I don’t think he’s ever been angry like this. It’s new.’

Huh?

Sunny looked up to Hero and then back to Kel again. He could tell that they were in a deep conversation, but Sunny couldn’t hear it. They did, however, seem to be getting increasingly agitated. When did this start happening?

“Whatever.”

Sunny blinked as Hero’s voice cut in.

“Tucker!” He put on a genuine smile, “I haven’t seen you in a while! How’ve you been?”

“Just marvelous, thank you very much!” The creepy guy sarcastically scoffed back.

Jeez. So dramatic. Was this all because Kel wanted to see the Otocoin?

‘I wanted to see it, too...’ Omori said sadly.

Oh… To be fair, Sunny also wanted to get a better look at it.

“Um. Okay.” Hero uncomfortably turned back to Kel and continued, “So... the harassment?”

“Tucker was being all sneaky with Sunny. So, I came over to see what was going on. When I got here, Tucker started panicking, telling me to go away and mind my own business.”

“...And you didn’t?” Hero asked.

“Of course not!” Kel spat his words out. “He was acting shady! I wasn’t going to let Sunny fall for another one of his tricks!”

Sunny tilted his head. Tricks? How was a coin a trick?

“You know Tucker is. He always tries to scam little kids.”

“I RESENT THAT!” Tucker stomped his foot furiously.

Did… Did Kel just say ‘little kid?’...Did he really look that young? Ouch. He wasn’t just small; he looked like an infant. Today was just filled with insults. It was awful. How embarrassing. Depressing. When would the height jokes end?

‘Never,’ Omori apathetically stated.

Sad.

‘It is, isn’t it?’

Sunny sighed. He looked at Hero and Kel with the most pitiful expression he could muster but was completely ignored. Was it that he was too short to even be noticed? How miserable.

Sunny rolled his head back in despair.

He had been defeated.

“Hey, why don’t we all calm down and talk about this?” Hero suggested. “Tucker, can I please see what’s in your hand?”

They all stared at the creepy guy expectantly.

“No,” He turned away from them, pulling his hands towards his body and crouching into himself like a disgusting little gremlin.

“SEE?!” Kel pointed.

“KEL!”

Sunny stared back and forth between Hero, Kel, and the creepy guy again. This whole situation was just spiraling out of control. All Sunny and Omori wanted was to see the Otocoin, but everyone was making it impossible. Wasn’t he deemed worthy by the creepy man?

“Come on, Tucker!” Hero smiled politely.  “What would it take for you to show me?”

The creepy guy mumbled, “Sev-… -ve… -ars.”

They all leaned in a little closer.

“What?” Hero slightly tilted his head.

Suddenly, the creepy guy turned on his heels, stomping his feet onto the ground as he did so. With eyes full of anger, he shouted, “Seventy five dollars!”

Everyone’s faces dropped as they tried to comprehend the request. Did he really just demand seventy five dollars to see a coin?

“That’s absurd!” Hero shook his head.

“Nu-uh.” The creepy guy shook his head, “You didn’t let me finish.”

Yes they did?

“Seventy five dollars, and I’ll let you keep it.”

...For some reason, that felt a little bit unreasonable. Seventy five dollars for a coin? And they couldn’t even see it before buying it?

“No,” Hero squinted his eyes. “I’m not paying you seventy five dollars for a stupid coin.”

“It’s not just a stupid coin! It’s the Otocoin!”

“Seems worthless if you ask me.” Kel added.

“Fools! You’re just not capable of understanding it. The Otocoin is only valuable to those who are noble and-”

“Well, you let Sunny see it!” Kel cut him off.

“That’s because he isn’t tainted!”

“Tainted? What do you mean by ‘tainted?’” Hero asked.

“Unlike you miscreants, he is youthful and-...” The creepy guy paused before stooping back down to Sunny’s eye level again. “Question: What grade are you in? First? No, wait. You seem more mature than that. Second?”

...WHAT?!

Sunny stared at him in shock, feeling the blood drain from his body. He didn’t know what grade level he was in, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t anywhere near that!

‘We stopped going to school in sixth grade,’ Omori explained. ‘But if we had continued…’

Omori looked at Kel.

‘...We would have been in the same grade as Kel.’

He-. Huh?! What?! But they were so different!

“Heh...” Someone began to laugh.

“Haha...” A second voice joined it, snorting from behind him.

Sunny looked back up to his brothers again, finding they were making odd faces as they tried to disguise their laughter. Were they crying?!

He squinted his eyes, daring them to laugh any further.

“Okay, okay. That’s enough of that,” Hero wiped a tear from his eye and waved his hand. “Tucker, we’re not buying it. And, Kel, you need to clean up this mess. Sunny and I will meet you at Othermart.”

Wait. But what about the Otocoin? Sunny felt his heart drop into his stomach. He stared down at his feet. He really wanted to keep it….

“Oh, uh!” Kel’s voice cut through the air.

Sunny looked up from the ground to Kel, who was glancing back and forth between him and Hero. He looked panicked.

“Okay.”

Sunny noticed Kel messing with something behind him. Soon, he pulled out Hero’s wallet and handed it back to him.

Hero opened it up and looked inside. His head immediately snapped back at Kel as he shot him a death glare, but Kel had already sprinted towards the park bench. Hero sighed before returning the wallet back into his pocket.

“Ready to go, Sunny?” He smiled back down at him.

Sunny dejectedly nodded his head. Slumping his shoulders and dragging his feet, he followed Hero out of the park and towards Othermart.

He really wanted the Otocoin...

“Chips, soda, hot dogs, eggs…”

Sunny stared at the hand basket hanging off Hero’s forearm. It swung around while Hero furiously scribbled onto a piece of paper in his hand. He continued mumbling to himself unintelligibly as they stood by the registers.

Each time the basket rocked back and forth, Sunny felt his little heart leaping out of his chest. Every movement caused his body to become tense with worry, only to immediately relax when the basket stopped moving. He was getting sick of Hero playing with his emotions. Inside that basket of danger and peril laid two delicious cartons of eggs. His precious cargo...

“I think that’s everything,” announced Hero, folding the piece of paper and tucking it into his pocket. Without a thought, he placed the basket on the side of the conveyor belt and reached inside.

Pulling out each item, he placed them onto the belt in a very specific and carefully thought out order. Heavy and large items at the front, small and delicate items at the back. After completely unloading the basket, he tucked it under the register, neatly stacking the other baskets as well and pressing them against the wall.

The entire process was so... Hm. He didn’t know the word for it-,

‘Robotic.’ Omori chimed in.

Oh, yes! That was it! Like he was following a set of instructions from beginning to end. Instructions that he had already written out before. Hero really did overthink everything, didn’t he?

‘Without a doubt.’

Hero grabbed a coconut bar and placed it on the belt next to the eggs. He turned towards Sunny and smiled, “Do you want anything?”

Anything? Sunny curiously stared back and forth between Hero and the small selection of candy sitting by the register. Hero kept smiling at him invitingly.

Wow. Even after getting the eggs, Hero was offering to buy him some candy as well?

He nodded his head before crouching down towards the bottom shelf and examining each available option. There were so many… Baby bottle pops, wonder ball, and… was that a paint brush taped to a plastic container? Strange.

It was hard to choose. Asides from the chocolate ones, they all looked exactly the same. How on earth was he supposed to decide?!

‘Take them all.’

No.

‘Then take more than one?’ Omori suggested.

No.

‘Hero wouldn’t mind.’

But he already felt guilty that Hero was already buying him eggs and candy. He didn’t want to take advantage of Hero’s kindness.

“Sunny?”

Sunny jumped at the sound of his name. He peeked up towards Hero who was already smiling back down at him, patiently waiting.

“Just waiting on you.” Hero gestured to the plastic bags beside him with his elbow. Sunny blinked at him confused. When did he…?

Sunny squeezed his eye shut. Never mind that. It wasn’t important. Perhaps he was overthinking everything too. He randomly reached for a candy and stood up before opening his eye again. Without a thought, he handed it directly to Hero.

Unperplexed, Hero took the candy and passed it to the cashier. A short beep rang as Hero began to speak with the person behind the counter.

Sunny awkwardly shuffled past Hero to the outer end of the register. He grabbed the bag with the eggs and waited patiently. Not a second later, Hero joined him and they started heading out the store. Sunny couldn’t help but admit that he was slightly disappointed in the shopping experience.

At first, he was excited to go to the store. Omori had done a great job explaining everything that felt new and foreign to him. However, the novelty of it all wore off quickly after he realized just how much the same every aisle was. The entire process had become mundane.

If he had known it would be this boring, he would’ve followed Kel home.

Suddenly, Hero stopped in front of him, almost causing Sunny to bump directly into him.

“Look, Sunny!” He pointed towards the glass sliding doors.

Standing on his tippy toes, Sunny cautiously peeked around him. His gaze followed Hero’s finger towards some… machines? Didn’t seem very interesting.

‘Oh, I know these,’ Omori moved towards them in an attempt to get a closer look. He stood at the front of a wooden one with a glass box. Attached to it was a circle. Omori gave it a slight tug.

‘This is a penny presser, but… for quarters? Why are they round? They’re supposed to be ovals. Wait a minute.’

Omori leaned closer, squinting at the designs available. One of them stood out above all others. A hint of recognition sparked inside Sunny’s mind.

‘Is that-?’

“I’m sorry, Sunny.” Hero cut Omori off.

They turned around to find Hero standing directly in front of them. Hero held his open wallet out in despair. He gave them a mournful look.

“Looks like Kel only left me with my credit cards and a couple of dimes and pennies.”

Hero tucked his wallet back into his pants.

“Well, at least we now know where it came from.” All of a sudden, a warm smile stretched across his face. His eyes lightened up with an idea. “Why don’t we come back with a quarter after we put the groceries away?”

Sunny could feel himself perk up at the suggestion. He would love that! Sunny eagerly nodded his head and glanced at the available designs one last time, staring longingly at the one that bore the same as the Otocoin for just a few seconds longer than the others. Soon, he would have an Otocoin of his own.

*   *   *

The walk home was strangely just as quiet as the store. When they had first gotten there, Sunny was terrified. He didn’t think he could handle being alone with Hero, especially after what he had done. Whatever conversations that could be had had flooded his mind. He was worried that Hero would ask him questions he didn’t have the answer to, or that Hero would notice that something was amiss. He was worried that Hero would notice that he wasn’t the real Sunny, just someone pretending to be him.

Luckily, however, Hero remained silent. Soon, the fear that Sunny felt quickly dissipated into nothing as the silence persisted. In a way, the lack of communication was comforting.

Only on occasion would Hero speak up. Usually it was to ask what flavor of something Sunny preferred, which Omori was able to choose for them both rather quickly. That is, until the candy.

The candy… An odd thing had happened there that had left him feeling almost speechless. Though he couldn’t put his finger on what it was that made him feel so unwell.

He tried to think of the reason why. Was it because he acted blindly? Was he supposed to grab both? Was that something Sunny would do? Or was that something Omori would do? Did he choose something that Sunny normally grabbed? Maybe he was overthinking it.

Hm. He wondered which candy he chose.

Sunny stared at the bag of eggs in his hands as they continued their trek back home. On top of the cartons, something blue rocked with each step.

What flavor was blue?

Admittedly, he was excited to try it. But If it was gross, would Hero let him pick another when they came back? Maybe that would be too much to ask. Hero had already promised him the Otocoin.

The Otocoin…

Sunny could feel the corners of his mouth rise as he thought about it. Something about it felt so familiar that he desperately wanted it. He couldn’t wait to get back to the store. He was wobbling with excitement.

“HEY!!!” Someone shouted loudly from behind them.

Hero and Sunny stopped in their tracks as the loud sound of shoes heavily stomped across concrete approached them. They turned around.

Drenched in sweat and quickly running towards the both of them was Kel. Within seconds, he had already closed the distance between them at an alarming speed. He stopped hard on the balls of his feet, nearly knocking into Sunny as he tried to maintain his balance. Sunny took a precautionary step backwards from him.

“Hey, I-” Kel struggled to catch his breath. “Hold on...”

He collapsed over himself, sucking in all the air in the world as he slowly wilted to the ground.

‘The wheezing.’ Omori coldly pointed out.

Sunny felt a hint of amusement in his body, but he didn’t find the situation funny at all. In fact, Kel’s breathing was a bit concerning.

‘It’s just overexertion.’ Omori explained. ‘Kel must have been running since the moment he left the park.’

Now that was just pitiful. Why would Kel do that to himself? Self inflicted torture.

“Kel, what took you so long?” Hero asked worriedly.

As if prompted by his older brother, Kel sprang back up straight and full of life. Ignoring the sweat, it was almost as if he had just woken up refreshed from a short nap. Frightening.

Sporting his signature grin, Kel spoke confidently, “I had some errands to run.”

Oh. Ew. Hm. Something about the way he said that made the bacon in Sunny’s stomach turn over. He wondered what it meant.

‘Kel did something… unfavorable.’ Omori flatly stated.

Sunny tilted his head slightly to the side, confused. What could Kel have done? And how could it have happened so many times that there was a specific feeling associated with it?

Hero groaned loudly with bitterness.

“Oh no, don’t tell me...”

An answer?

Kel quickly pulled something from his pocket and proudly displayed it high in the air.

Sunny squinted as the sunlight reflected from it into his eye. Slowly, Kel lowered his arm, bringing it to Sunny’s eye level.

‘The Otocoin...‘ Omori and Sunny internally said in unison.

His heart skipped a beat. Kel had gotten them the Otocoin?

Kel grabbed Sunny’s hand, opened it, and laid the coin in the center of it.

Sunny and Omori examined their prize in the palm of their hand. Flipping it over on its back read ‘An Otomerson product.’ On the other side, there was a hideously deformed image of someone strangely familiar.

Sunny’s chest continued to flutter with excitement. The corners of his lips stretched wide as Omori smiled gleefully. They both stood in shock with excitement.

“Hehe,” Kel chuckled, “I’m glad you like it. It was a pain in the-”

“Kel,” Hero cut him off.

They turned around, now facing Hero.

“Where did you get that?” Hero asked. There was a pained look in his eyes. It was obvious that Hero already knew. He just wanted to be wrong.

Kel smiled even harder.

“I got it from Tucker!” He proudly proclaimed.

At the moment of Kel’s admittance, Hero’s shoulders slumped down. His head slowly dropped until it pointed towards the floor.

“You know,” he quietly whispered, “You know that’s just a crushed up quarter, right?”

“A what?” Kel didn’t hear him.

He leaned in a little closer, but

“A quarter .” Hero emphasized.

Awkward silence. Kel’s face fell flat as he slowly realized what Hero had said.

Hero continued his explanation, “You can get them at Othermart by the entrance.”

“Oh…” said Kel. He seemed to be mostly indifferent.

With his head still down, Hero turned on his heels and started walking towards the house.

Sunny watched as the distance between them grew. He was so confused.

‘Follow him.’

Follow? He took a peek at Kel, who seemed completely unbothered by the situation.

‘But, what about Kel?’ Sunny asked.

‘Not your problem.’

His legs lurch forward on their own.

‘Kel did this to himself. We have nothing to do with it.’

“Sunny?” Kel rushed up to his side. “Where you going?”

Without stopping, his head turned towards Kel. The arm that held the grocery bag jerked in front of both his and Kel’s face.

“Eggs,” he heard himself say in a barely audible voice. Their arm dropped to the side as Omori continued to walk towards the house, Kel in tow.

*   *   *

Kel unlocked the front door, entering with Sunny closely behind him.

“Whew, I’m beat!” He kicked off his shoes before walking towards the kitchen.

Mimicking, Sunny took off his own and placed them, along with Kel’s, neatly onto the shoe rack by the door. He gripped the Otocoin tightly in his hand as he followed Kel into the kitchen.

Inside, Hero was already putting the groceries away. Kel started picking at the chips still sitting inside the plastic grocery bag.

There was… so much tension in the air. A concerning amount, yet no one looked upset. Weird.

Kel began to loudly munch on the chips.

“Why’d you get salt and vinegar?” he asked.

“Sunny picked it.” Hero simply replied.

“And the lemonade?”

“He picked that too.”

“Oh… Wait, that makes sense!” Kel turned to face Sunny. “We haven’t hung out in so long that I almost forgot how much you loved sour stuff.”

He liked sour flavors? Sunny was surprised. Omori had chosen almost everything so far. He hadn’t really thought too much about what he did and didn’t like.

Sunny put the bag of eggs down on the counter and walked over to Kel’s side. Precariously, he reached into the bag, pulling out a single tiny piece of a broken chip before nibbling on it.

Wow.

It was so delicious! So good! So good! Almost as great as Hero’s cooking! Where had these chips been all his life?! He wanted to eat the entire bag. Omori had great taste.

‘ We have great taste,’ Omori corrected him.

We.

‘Yes.’

Ah, that’s right. They shared everything. It made sense, they were the same person after all, but something about it was interesting.

Or maybe it wasn’t.

Omori was right, they really were similar, but they were also incredibly different from one another. That was the point, wasn’t it? The way Omori had acted at the store and the way he had responded when Hero walked off was just proof of how different they were.

He wondered where their similarities split and turned into differences. Just what did they share? Did they have a lot in common? And what about their differences? Was it just their attitudes, or did it go much deeper than that?

Perhaps there wasn’t much of a difference between the two at all. They technically were the same person, but… being so different... would they also hold the same values and virtues? The same view of the world? The same moral opinion?

That…

Seemed…

Ugh.

Thinking about that was giving him a weird and awful feeling. He didn’t want to explore that thought any further. They were the same person. Omori had made that very clear. It wouldn’t make much sense if they differed that much.

Sunny tore his gaze away from the bag of chips and looked at his friends. Their mouths were moving, but he couldn’t hear a sound coming out of them. They seemed much happier. Livelier too. He wondered how long their conversation had been on, or what it was even about.

Pushing the bag of chips away, he stepped back from the counter, giving the bag of chips one last glance.

The flavor.

Maybe he should also make an about page for Omori as well. For some reason, he didn’t really like the idea. The thought of learning more about Omori irked him in a way that he couldn’t even begin to comprehend. However, if what Omori had said about their shared similarities was true, then learning about Omori meant he would learn more about himself.

Learning about himself…

Hm. He was going to need to make an about page on Sunny, too, wasn’t he? The real Sunny. He wondered where he would even begin on that topic. Maybe he would start with the things he felt were familiar.

‘Like the Otocoin?’ Omori asked.

Sunny opened his palm and examined the Otocoin once again. The design felt so familiar, and yet he didn’t understand why. It felt like it was at the tip of his tongue. So annoying.

‘I could tell you about it if you want.’

No. Not yet. Sure, Omori knew everything, but Sunny wanted to see if he could figure it out on his own. Challenging.

As he studied it, the design burned into his mind. When he was confident he memorized it, Sunny closed his eye. He thought about the image. The way the hair was shaped and the uneasy smile, they were both significant, but it wasn’t enough. There was something else, though, and the more he focused on it, the closer he felt he was to solving the mystery. The flower.

A feeling of dread filled his entire body and his mouth suddenly tasted awful.

“Hey, Sunny!” Kel gleefully called his name, causing Sunny to lose his concentration on the flower.

“You good?” A heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

No. He wasn’t. He was trying to focus, but now both his friend and his taste buds were making it impossible. It was as if someone had dumped orange flavored coffee in his mouth. What flavor was that even? Orange Joe? Disgusting.

He nodded his head rapidly, hoping to be left alone after he answered. But, as he began to bob his head up and down, a clear image of someone formed in his mind, causing him to cease up on the stop. The image… the coin... He could feel his body slowly begin to tremble.

The design on the coin was....

‘Basil,’ Omori finished the thought for him. ‘Our best friend.’

No.

Sunny opened his eye and was met face to face with Kel. Kel stared back at him with a look of concern, hand still resting on his shoulder.

Kel was his best friend. Sunny had already declared that. Basil was still his friend and someone he truly treasured with all his heart, but his relationship with Basil had become much too complicated. With Basil’s involvement in Mari’s death and, later, everything that had happened in the bedroom, the stabbing… their relationship with each other had become strained.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t be best friends with Basil anymore. Just the thought of being around him made his skin crawl. It was unfortunate, but it couldn’t be helped. Now Kel was his best friend. Kel had always been there for him, even when Sunny had pushed him away.

Still, while Basil might not have been his best friend anymore, he was definitely someone very close to him. He wondered when he would see him again. Hopefully soon, but he had the inkling that it wasn’t ready yet. He was going to need to get over this sickening feeling before he could. Maybe Kel would be able to help him.

Sunny closed his eye once more and began to focus on Kel instead. As Sunny became more aware of the weight of Kel’s arm, he slowly felt more stable. Soon, the trembling stopped and he was able to calm down. Success!

He opened his eye, finding Kel smiling back at him again. Kel lifted his arm from his shoulder and returned to his own personal bubble.

Sunny was astonished. How could Kel tell so easily that something was off? He really was the Sunny Whisperer…

“So, anyway,” Kel began to continue their conversation, “Sunny seemed happy. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“You spent seventy five dollars on a quarter , Kel.” Hero grabbed the bag full of eggs from the counter and opened the fridge, pulling out the candy before placing the eggs inside.

“Where did you even get all that money from?” He closed the door and turned to face them, giving Kel his full attention. “I only had twenty dollars in there and you spent most of that at the vending machines.”

Sunny stared at the Otocoin in the palm of his hand again. So they were talking about that...

“Oh, I just did a couple of jobs and borrowed some money from a few friends,” Kel nonchalantly answered.

Hero approached Sunny and tapped him on the shoulder. He held the candy in front of him, allowing Sunny to grab it.

“So how much did you end up borrowing? And who did you borrow money from?”

“About 70 dollars, and I borrowed from multiple friends. Not just one.”

“You have more than one friend?” Hero teased.

“Of course I have more than one friend!” Kel replied defensively.

Smugly, Hero smiled, “Acquaintanceship is not the same as friendship.”

“Shut up.”

Hero gave a short laugh as he finished putting away the last grocery.

“Well, I don’t know how you intend to pay everyone back, but I’m not lending you any more money. You still haven’t paid me back for the-”

“I know, I know,” Kel cut him off.

It seemed like this was a conversation that had been ran to the ground.

“It won’t be hard. I can get a job.”

“So, you’re telling me you’re going to go to work, go to school, and play basketball? All at the same time?” Hero sounded like he was in disbelief. “Don’t you think that might be a little too much? You can’t even bring your grades higher than a C.”

What a conversation. Hero was acting like he was Kel’s parent or something. It was very strange to witness.

“Hey, if Sunny could help all those people and make over two hundred dollars in just three days, then I’m pretty sure I can do it too.”

Sunny stared at Kel dumbfounded. He did what?

“Oh!” Kel gasped, “I almost forgot to tell you, but everyone's been wondering how Sunny is doing!”

Everyone? Who was everyone?

Sunny continued to stare at them confused. Why were they talking about him like he wasn’t there?! Rude.

He poked Kel on the shoulder, causing Kel to jump. Kel looked back at him in surprise, but then quickly fell back into his usual smile.

“Eh. That’s okay. They’ll see him tomorrow, I guess. Anyway,” Kel continued, brushing Sunny off completely. “I’m bored. What are we going to do today?”

“Well, we could watch TV, but…” Hero’s gaze drifted towards Sunny.

Dreadful. Sunny shook his head quickly in response. Hero acknowledged him and returned his attention to Kel.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Maybe you two can play some video games or something.”

No. That was just as awful. Sunny shook his head again, more vigorously than before.

Staying inside for another day, what a terrible idea! He hated it. Video games were fun and all, but he didn’t want to sit down lazing around again. He’s been trapped in bedrooms and living rooms for way too long. He wanted to go back out. He needed-

‘Stimulation?’

Precisely.

‘Then you’re going to need to make that a little more clearer.’

Hm...

Pouting his lip and tilting his head down, Sunny gave Hero the most mournful look his flat face would allow him to muster. Hero’s entire demeanor changed immediately. Did it work?

“Or maybe we can do something else. Like… go outside?”

Success! Hero looked at him again expectantly.

Sunny perked up, nodding his head eagerly to show his approval of the idea. Kel turned around towards him and caught a glimpse of Sunny’s excitement. For some reason, Kel’s face quickly grew from his genuine smile to one that barely concealed a masked concern.

Suddenly, Sunny’s head immediately seized on its own. His face was forced back into its neutral position on its own as he felt his entire body stiffen. Sunny stared at Kel confused, wondering why he had been stopped.

‘You’re over acting.’

What? What did that even mean?

‘It means: you’re not behaving like Sunny would. You’re being too expressive.’

Sunny watched as the concern from Kel’s face dissipated. Kel turned back to Hero and continued their conversation, but Sunny himself was unable to comprehend any of it again. This time, the noise was there, but there was no connection between his eardrums and his head. A sound that had no meaning. Just like when he had first become sentient...

Hm. Being too emotional. Sunny didn’t understand it. Omori had told him to be himself and he was doing just that!

‘I did say that. You are naturally like him, but I’m beginning to realize you’re missing a lot of essential elements.’

Essential elements?

His body loosened, signaling that Omori had given him full reign again.

‘Like experience.’

And what the heck was he supposed to do about that? He didn’t have any experiences.

‘Just keep acting like yourself. Don’t think too hard about it.’

Annoying. So so annoying.

One minute Omori tells him he’s not acting like Sunny, then, the next minute, he says he’s naturally like Sunny? Nothing but contradictions. Just decide already!

‘It’s not that easy!’ Omori exclaimed. There was an emotion that Sunny couldn’t name behind Omori’s voice, catching him off guard. But, before he could even begin to question it, his friends turned towards them again.

They stared at him, waiting.

He blinked slowly.

“Zoned out again?” Kel laughed.

Hero’s eyes were squinted as he stared. His face twisted into the strange one he made when he was deep in thought. Sunny felt uncomfortable. Scrutinized. He briefly locked eyes with him before glancing away awkwardly.

“Man,” Kel loudly sighed. “I wish I could relax and daydream as easily as you.”

Sunny stared at him flatly.

“My mind is always buzzing. It'd be nice to just not think about anything for once.”

He wasn’t daydreaming and it was not at all relaxing. In fact, more than anything, it was the complete opposite! Every time he snapped out of it, it felt like time had passed him by. It would be nice to be able to hold a conversation with Omori without missing out on his surroundings.

Could he change that? He wondered. Is it even a problem?

Sunny looked back at Hero who was still deeply lost in thought. Time seemed to be passing Hero by as well.

If Hero was doing it too, then maybe it wasn’t something he should worry about. If he remembered correctly, Kel did something similar when he was watching TV. Despite everyone experiencing it a little differently, it actually seemed normal when put into perspective.

A normal part of life, though it was still quite annoying.

Sunny noticed Hero rapidly blinking his eyes. Hero looked between Kel and Sunny slightly dazed. Whatever he was thinking about had apparently really taken him out of it, but a charming smile washed over his face.

“Ready to go?” Hero asked encouragingly.

“Yeah.” Kel jumped from his seat enthusiastically. “I’ve been ready!”

Wait. They were going somewhere?

Sunny watched as Kel walked out into the living room.

He felt so lost. Hero had promised him that they would go back to the grocery store after putting away the groceries, but that was only to get a crushed coin. Kel had already gotten him the Otocoin.

Now where were they going to-

The sound of a door sliding open pierced the air. At the sound of it, Sunny found his mind suddenly empty. A strong feeling of both peace and numbness washed over him. He was unable to move, completely entranced by an outside source.

Something familiar...

“HECTOR. COME ON!! COME HERE!!” Kel yelled out. A gentle metal tinkling rang throughout the air. It grew louder as it got nearer, but, soon, it was replaced by the sound of much quieter and distant metallic chimes. Ones that blew freely in the wind.

The world around him became nothing but mere images. Pictures that moved but had little to no significance. The longer he stared at them, the more far away and foreign they felt. 

Sunny began to smell something he had once smelled before. It was a strong scent that felt sharp and dusty. What was it? He tried to recall it. As he shifted his focus onto the scent, he felt his eyes glaze over.

An image started to form in his mind. Something that was in the color of light brown. Was it wood? No, it was definitely wood. A wall of wooden planks. Freshly cut and nailed together. They enclosed him, making him feel almost claustrophobic. He kept his eye on Hero, but, soon, the wooden planks were all that he could see.

Suddenly, he realized his arms were resting on a wooden table in front of him. Interesting. He inhaled the scent once more and stared at the walls. The ground began to change in hardness and texture right under him.

Was he sitting on a carpet? No. What was originally a question was now a statement. That was definitely a carpet he was resting on. It felt very thin and… so familiar... He could feel the wooden floor clearly hiding underneath it.

The room slowly grew brighter like the morning sun rising inch by inch. A warm and gentle breeze drifted across his skin. Now that familiarity he had felt was starting to quickly escalate into a different feeling: knowing.

He knew this place. He couldn’t put a name to it, but he knew exactly where he was. He had been here dozens of times, even if he couldn’t remember it very well. If he could look around, he was certain he would be able to confirm it.

He just needed to look.

Look...

As he turned his head to the right, time suddenly stopped, and, along with it, him. He was trapped in the motion.

‘One.’ A distant voice spoke.

He stared at the window in what remained of his peripheral vision. Bright light shone through it, almost blindingly.

‘Two.’ Despite time being frozen, the voice somehow grew nearer.

The window… Four potted plants lined the window’s sill and, underneath it, sat a wooden counter with four doors.

‘Three.’

Ah! He recognized that voice!

Sunny blinked his eye.

Instantaneously, he was transported to a different spot. He found himself crouched down on the floor with his shoes in front of him.

One shoe was in both of his hands and slipped on his foot halfway, as if he were putting it on. The other rested idly in his lap. He stared at them bewildered. What just happened? What was going on?

‘Welcome home.’ said Omori, flatly.

A quick movement on his left side derailed his train of thoughts.

He turned to see Hero and Kel putting on their shoes. Hero slid one foot on while Kel wrestled with some extremely frayed laces.

Hector laid on the couch staring at him. They briefly made eye contact before Sunny tore himself away.

A fuzzy feeling he didn’t even realize was swallowing him slowly disappeared. His mind slowly started to feel clearer, sharper, and more focused. The images and pictures that filled his vision became meaningful again. Like something had connected his eyes to his mind. He looked back down at the shoe in his hands.

“Home.” He repeated back, finishing sliding it onto his own foot. He’ll ignore what just happened.

“Sooooo… Where to? Park or Hobbeez?”

Sunny, Hero, and Kel slowly walked together aimlessly down the sidewalk. Hero and Kel hogged both sides of the path while Sunny stuck closely behind.

“Well, it’s not like we really have a choice. There’s no way we can go to Hobbeez now.”

“What? Why?”

Hero squinted his eyes with mild frustration. “You took all my change, remember?”

Kel snorted in response.

Sunny looked up at the sky, barely listening to their conversation. It was a nice day, but he couldn’t help notice a strange sinking feeling in his gut. They already had a rough start and it was barely even noon. It felt like an omen of some sort.

“We don’t need money. We can play cards or… or read comics!”

“Yeah, but it would be rude if we didn’t buy anything.”

“Man. College sure has changed you.”

“And it’ll change you too.”

“Hopefully not like you.” Kel mumbled

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Kel enthusiastically shouted with a grin. Hero hummed quietly, choosing to brush off Kel’s comment.

As they neared the end of the street, they came to a complete stop. Kel kicked a rock into the street. “Should we go get Aubrey?” Kel asked as he scratched the sidewalk with his foot.

“I think she said she was going to be busy today.” Hero replied.

“Oh, then what about Ba-”

“No.” Kel was cut off immediately by his older brother. The abrupt stop in the flow of the conversation caught Sunny’s attention. They watched each other as they stood in silence.

After what felt like a century passed, Hero turned to Sunny and smiled. “Why don’t we let Sunny decide?”

Huh? Decide on Basil?

Sunny tilted his head and stared at them blankly.

Kel tilted his head too, mirroring Sunny exactly. “Wanna play some basketball?”

...What?

“Or do you want to hang out at the hiding spot?” Hero smiled encouragingly.

Wait. Weren’t they just talking about Basil? He was getting confused again.

‘Just choose one,’ Demanded Omori. ‘Can’t you tell? They’re purposely avoiding talking about Basil.’

…

But why?

‘Why do you think?’

Sunny narrowed his eye as he thought about the situation. Hero seemed frazzled just by the mere mention of Basil’s name. Wait. Was that why Hero wasn’t angry at him like he initially thought he would be? Did Hero place all the blame onto his friend? At least Kel didn’t seem to harbor any resentment towards their old friend.

‘Focus.’ Omori reminded Sunny.

Oh, right! Everyone was still waiting on him. He’ll have to figure out what to do about Hero and Basil later. Sunny glanced at Kel.

Hm. Basketball.

Sunny wasn’t sure if he knew how to play basketball. He wouldn’t mind learning, but what if it was something he should already know? If Kel was used to them playing basketball together, it would be concerning if he suddenly didn’t know how. Maybe Omori could take over and play on their behalf. That way, he could learn how to play basketball and Kel wouldn’t be worried. It could be fun!

‘But what about Hero?’ Omori questioned.

Their gaze drifted over to their oldest brother.

Hero… From what he could remember, Hero liked sports, but,

‘He’s not exactly the most athletic person in the world, but,’ Omori took notice of Hero’s physique hiding underneath his sweater. ‘I’m not so sure about that anymore. He looks more than capable. I think he just wants to relax.’

Hm…

Hero didn’t seem tired, but at second glance, it was pretty obvious Hero was exhausted. Perhaps Kel’s shenanigans and Sunny’s sudden appearance had him on edge. Truthfully, Sunny was kind of tired too. A lot happened recently. He didn’t mind lazing around, he just wanted to be outside. He could take a short nap…

...but Kel didn’t want that. Kel couldn’t even stand straight with all the pent up energy building inside of him.

‘Two conflicting options.’

He glanced between his older brothers.

‘Which one will you choose?’

...

It was a tough decision. He could swear that the longer he took to decide, the more desperate they became. Hero and Kel tried to keep a calm composure, but their eyes were practically screaming to be chosen.  Really, they kind of looked like… Puppies. Two oversized, gigantic, fluffy puppies. Both begging to be selected.

This was going to be a problem. He didn’t know who to pick. He wanted to make them both happy, but he could only choose one.

‘Omori?’

‘Flip a coin.’

What?

‘The Otocoin.’

What did that mean?

Sunny’s right hand reached into his front pocket and grasped something round. Omori pulled the coin out of their pocket and held it up to their face.

‘It’s a literal phrase,’ Omori began. ‘You have two options. If you can’t decide on something, then flip a coin!’

With their thumb, Omori flicked the coin into the air.

‘If it lands on heads, we go with Kel.’

He watched as it twirled around before plummeting to the ground.

‘If it lands on tails…’

A metallic clatter sounded as the coin struck the sidewalk and came to a complete stop. Sunny and Omori stared at the coin resting by their feet, then back at his brothers. They looked at him confused. Omori squatted down to the ground, resting hands on knees as he examined the coin.

‘An Otomerson product,’ he read silently.

A pair of white shoes and orange sneakers entered their vision. Hero and Kel squatted down beside him and stared at the coin with great interest. Omori picked up the coin off the floor and slowly raised his head, locking eyes with Hero who returned an awkward smile. Slowly, Hero’s smile widened.

“Aw man,” Kel whined. “Really?”

“You saw the coin.” Hero smiled coyly. “Lead the way!”

“Fine.”

Hero and Sunny followed Kel to the park.

*   *   *

“Wow. We haven’t been here in a minute.” Hero gawked as he pushed past the multiple barricades blocking their path.

“What do you mean?” Kel whacked a tree branch out of his face with his hand. ”We were here just last week!”

‘Just last week?’ Sunny followed closely behind, narrowly avoiding the orange traffic cones that littered the entrance to their old hangout spot. As he looked around, he couldn’t help but feel strange to visit the location when he knew very little about it. The spot was breathtaking. In a way, it almost felt like he was intruding, despite knowing that he truly belonged there.

Straight across from them was a lake with still waters. In the middle of it sat an old weathered statue. To their direct right, there wasn’t very much but a bunch of dirt and grass. Lastly, to the left, there was a white and blue checkered blanket with a basket sitting on top of it.

It filled him with disappointment.

“Hey, look!” Kel practically shouted as he pointed across the field, “Our pinwheels are still here!”

Their pinwheels?

Kel broke into a sprint dashing towards them as fast as he could, but froze the moment his foot touched the soil in front of him. A loud mush sounded throughout the air. He visibly shivered in place as he slowly realized what he had just done.

“Guys? I think…” Kel lifted his foot off the ground and stared at the bottom of his shoe. “I think the grass might be a little too wet.”

Kel hopped on one foot and turned around, displaying his right orange sneaker covered in mud. Water slowly crawled up as it seeped in through the canvas. Yuck.

“Hm.” Hero lightly tapped his foot on the ground behind him. There was a softer mushing sound. Hero pulled back his foot and peeked at the bottom of his shoe. “That’s strange.”

He lifted his foot up just like Kel had, revealing the mud attached to the bottom of his shoe.

“The ground is wet, but it hasn’t rained all summer.”” Hero looked up at the cloudless sky. He returned his attention back to Sunny and Kel.

Suddenly, Sunny felt his stomach churn and the air became frigid. He crossed his arms, trying to keep warm as he started to shiver. An intense urge to look to his left side overpowered him. Unable to fight his instincts, he turned his head and immediately froze.

Familiar. She looked familiar.

“Sunny?” Hero called his name, grabbing his attention. “You okay?”

Hero rested his hand on Sunny’s shoulder. Sunny bobbed his head up and down shyly. That uneasy feeling that had overcame him was getting stronger. He turned his head back towards the trees, but the person was nowhere to be found. She disappeared.

Hero gave him a quick pat before removing his hand and returning to their conversation.

Sunny continued to stare at the trees, paying no mind to whatever Hero and Kel were talking about. He felt like he was being called somehow. As if there were an invisible string pulling him in. It was impossible to resist.

‘Let’s go then.’

Hm?

‘Kel and Hero are just going to stand around here doing nothing. We should have some fun. Go see what that was.’

Explore.

‘Exactly.’

That sounded like fun.

‘Then let’s do it.’

Okay.

Without further hesitation, Sunny began to walk towards the woods.

“Sunny?” Kel called out, but Sunny ignored him as he continued to walk.

“I think he wants to hang out in the trees again.” Hero laughed as he began to follow.

“...Really?” Kel was in disbelief. “But we’ve been there thousands of times!”

“Come on, Kel. What’s the worst that could happen?” Hero asked as they both followed Sunny into the woods.

The moment they stepped past the barriers of bushes and trees, there was a noticeable change in the atmosphere. The ground was much drier than at the park, but the air was humid. The sun had been completely swallowed and, in front of them, their vision was blocked by a never ending sea of trees, bushes, and branches.

Everything felt off. Yet, somehow, everything felt familiar as well. Eerily so.

Sunny squinted as he looked around for the lady he had just seen, but disappointingly found no sign of her. No footprints, no sounds. Nothing was to be found. He wondered if she was just a figment of his imagination.

“Man, I remember this place.” Kel startled Sunny as he approached him from behind. He stared up at the leaf filled sky in awe. “We haven’t been here in years. I forgot how unsettling it was.”

“It’s just as dark and creepy as I remember.” muttered Hero. “I never really liked coming here.”

Suddenly, Kel wrapped a heavy arm around Sunny’s shoulder. He stiffened as Kel leaned down to the same level as him.

“Do you remember when we used to come here and play hide and seek?”

Hide and seek? No, he didn’t, but he nodded his head anyway, the rest of him still frozen.

“Gosh, you were impossible to find,” Kel began to ramble. ”I always wondered where you went. Even after Hero and Mari told me, I still never found you.”

“That’s because you were too excited to listen.” Hero laughed. “You would always run off mid sentence to go searching for him.”

“What can I say? I like a good challenge.”

Just for a moment, Sunny thought he saw something move in the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around, but it disappeared instantaneously. Sunny turned to face Kel and Hero, checking to see if anyone else had seen it, but Hero and Kel were still rambling on about past times. Memories he had no recollection of.

“Why did we stop playing hide and seek here anyway?” Kel asked as he lifted his arm off Sunny’s shoulder and stood back up again.

“Hm.” Hero hummed as he scratched his chin. “I think it had something to do with that one movie. The one where that guy kept nailing people to the walls.”

“Oh. That movie.” Kel’s smile faltered and shoulders dropped.

“Mhm. The Burning.” Hero nodded.

“Geez. I hated that movie. Now I wish I didn’t ask.”

Burning? Movie? What were they even talking about?

‘The Burning. It’s an old horror movie about some campers and a serial killer. We all saw it together when we were little kids. Kel and Hero’s dad rented it from Blockbuster and we watched it at their house.’

Hm. Campers and a serial killer? So cliché. Seems stupid.

‘It was.’ Omori agreed wholeheartedly.

And they were scared of it too?

‘Yup.’

Wow. How pitiful. What kind of responsible adult would allow their kids to watch something like that?

‘The same kind that buys their elementary aged children a horror game.’

“Heh-” Sunny quickly covered his mouth.

“What’s up, Sunny?” Kel asked genuinely concerned.

Sunny shook his head, stifling his laugh as much as possible.

Hero stepped forward and began to smile. “So, where to next?”

Kel and Hero both stared at Sunny expectantly. Sunny took a deep breath as he looked around the woods, contemplating their next move. He wasn’t sure where they were going, he just knew that he had to keep going. He didn’t even know which direction to head in.

‘Why don’t we keep following the signs?’

Signs?

‘You know, the weird things we’ve been seeing and that pulling sensation we keep feeling.’

Did that thing that he caught in the corner of his eye count as a sign?

‘I’d say so.’

He turned his head in the direction of the flicker he had just seen. The area was a little darker there than it was where they were currently standing and the ground seemed to be just slightly wetter as well. For some reason, the darkness felt more soothing than it was terrifying, but the mud...

Sunny looked down at Hero’s shoes in despair. Muddy water was beginning to creep up the sides of the canvas despite his carefulness. He glanced over at Kel’s shoes and took sight of the second layer of mud newly forming.

“Awe, don’t worry about it, Sunny!” Kel noticed Sunny staring at their feet. “I got plenty of shoes at home. Besides, these aren’t even my favorite.”

Woah. Kel knew exactly what was going through his mind. He was able to read him like an open book.

“Don’t worry about mine, either.” Hero chimed in. ”These shoes might look new, but that’s just because I know how to clean things properly.” He proudly smiled.

Wow…

Sunny nodded his head, acknowledging Hero and Kel’s approval, before turning towards the darker section of the woods and marching towards it. As they pushed through the several thickets of bushes and trees, they stumbled upon a small patch of dead grass shaped like a circle. It looked strange and out of place, but it felt somewhat familiar. Had he been here before?

‘Plenty of times.’ Omori answered. ‘We used that empty patch as a marker for one of our hiding holes.’

Marker-? Wait a minute. Hiding hole? What the heck was a hiding hole and why did he have one?

‘Hiding holes . There are more than one.’ Omori clarified. ‘They’re a bunch of holes in random places where only we can fit.’

Oh. Was that where he would go when they would play hide and seek?

‘Yup.’

Neat.

‘Do you think we’d still fit?’ Sunny asked.

‘Probably,’ Omori turned their head towards one of the trees. ’ I’m not sure if they still exist, but if you find one, try squeezing into it. It’s not like we’ve grown much, or at all.’

Interesting.

‘It’s been a while, but, if I remember correctly, there was one somewhere around here. That’s why this place feels so familiar to you.’

Their eye shifted towards a small bush near a nearby tree.

‘Probably right there.’

Sunny tilted his head. He took a step towards it before a giant hand landed on his shoulder again, gently pulling him back.

“Where you going, Sunny?” Kel asked from behind.

Sunny squinted at the bush, mildly annoyed.

“Did you see something?” Hero asked with a concerned voice.

What? No, he didn’t.

“Was it a raccoon or….” Kel’s voice grew with worry. “Or a bear?!”

No, no. He shook his head as he pushed Kel’s hand off his shoulder and quietly sighed. All he wanted to do was look at the bush by the tree.

“Oh? Then what?” Kel tilted his head.

He pointed at the bush and the tree a few feet away from them before beckoning them to follow as he walked towards it. Hero and Kel closely trailed behind him as Sunny approached the bush.

The closer Sunny got to the bush and tree, the more he began to realize something was amiss. It felt like the ground was beginning to slope downwards towards the tree, but-

“HYAAAA!!”

Sunny covered his face and jumped in surprise at the loud yell.

“KEL!” Hero rushed up to his brother’s side.

Confused, Sunny opened his eyes to find Kel whacking the bush with a very thick tree branch. He attacked it as if their lives were at stake. Before Hero could pry the stick from his brother’s hands, there was a loud -SNAP-. Kel immediately stopped hitting the bush and looked at his hands sheepishly.

“Woops.”

Kel turned around holding the branch. Sunny and Hero stared at it in confusion. It was completely intact. If the stick didn’t break, then what did?

‘I think I know,’ declared Omori.

Sunny’s body began to move on its own as Omori took control.

Omori approached Kel and gently pushed him aside. He crouched down at the foot of the bush where the floor sank a little and parted the branches. Just behind the curtain of leaves was a small hole in the ground. The hole continued into a hollow at the base of the tree. Something just at the entrance of it caught their eye.

‘Oh, that’s…’

Omori reached out for it and picked it up. Sunny examined it in their hands. It was a small plastic ball that had a small flat circle inside. Attached to the ball was a plastic handle with a button on it.

‘Our light up wand.’ Omori mumbled sadly. He pressed the button on the handle, but nothing happened. The ball had been smashed to pieces. Sunny felt his face fall into a small frown.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Sunny!” Kel quickly apologized. “I… thought it was a snake. I didn’t realize…”

“It’s okay.” Omori whispered almost inaudibly. He put the light up wand back on the ground as he quietly sulked. Sunny didn’t understand why, but he was beginning to feel a tinge of sadness.

“Isn’t that the wand from the ice show we went to?” Hero crouched down beside him.

Omori nodded their head lazily. An arm wrapped around their shoulder, pulling them into a hug. It only lasted a few moments, but it was more than enough. Before long, Sunny and Omori were released from the hug.

“Feel better?” Hero asked encouragingly.

They nodded their head together.

“Good!” He smiled and stood up, wiping the mud and grass from his knees.

Sunny mimicked Hero, wiping his knees as well, and glanced down at the hole slightly disappointed. It was nothing more than a dirty hole in the ground with a toy in it. He had no desire to crawl into that mess. The only thing worth of value was the broken toy on the inside. Why was it even there?

‘All of the hiding holes have things like that in them,’ Omori began to explain. ‘We usually hid in these for a while when we were upset, so they all have stashes of toys and objects. Things that usually brought us some comfort.’

Interesting. Objects that used to bring comfort.

‘You know...’

Sunny and Kel began to follow Hero as he took a right turn.

‘It actually might be a good idea to look for every hiding hole.’

Huh?

‘Everything we hid in these holes had importance in some way or another.’

So they were related to Sunny?

‘Yes.’

Hm. That seemed like a good way to get to know his past better, but it also seemed like a lot of work. Who knew how many holes were out there. Wait, why did he even have to find them? Couldn’t Omori just tell him where they all were and about the things that were hidden in them?

‘I could, but...’ Omori hesitated. ‘I don’t really remember where they all are or what’s in them.’

...So much for having a perfect memory. Useless.

Sunny felt his face shift into a small pout as Omori slowly processed his insult.

As they continued to follow Hero through the trees, the pulling sensation became stronger. Hero’s pace also seemed to quicken up as well.

They had been walking for a while and what little sunlight breached through the canopy above them was starting to fade away. Hero had been marching them in a straight line, but it felt like they were going in circles.

Were they lost? No, that was impossible. Kel and Hero knew this place like the back of their hands. So, Sunny wondered, just where were they going?

After several more minutes of nonstop walking, Hero suddenly came to a complete stop. Kel bumped into him from behind, followed by Sunny who bumped into Kel.

“Uhm.” Hero cleared his throat.

Sunny and Kel leaned around Hero. A white blur ran across Sunny’s vision and turned right. He watched as it disappeared out of sight.

“You good?” Kel asked, the concern in his voice for his older brother unhidden.

“Yeah, I-I...” Hero’s eyes darted around, “I’m just a little cold. That’s all.”

“A little cold?” Kel jokingly teased, “How can you be cold? It’s the middle of the summer!”

Sunny tilted his head in confusion as he listened to their conversation. He had been cold too earlier, but he was also only wearing his usual shorts, sweater vest, and a short sleeved t-shirt. Not only that, but he also warmed up when they started walking around the woods.

He glanced up and down, taking in Hero’s appearance from head to toe. Hero was wearing his regular blue sweater and light gray pants. The only thing different today was that he was wearing white shoes instead of blue. Nothing unusual. Shouldn’t he be sweating?

‘Maybe he’s sick?’ Omori suggested.

Hm… He was looking a little pale.

‘Sunny, look!’ Omori called out.

Sunny’s head was forcefully turned to his right. Peeking around a tree nearby was the familiar lady from earlier. She smiled at them before hiding her full body behind the tree again.

‘That’s-’ Omori stared in shock. He squinted their eye in an attempt to get a closer look.

Instantly, Sunny’s body took off on its own towards the direction of the woman.

“Sunny?” Kel called out.

Omori ignored them and continued to run. They twisted around the tree only to find that the familiar woman had mysteriously vanished again. Sunny could feel Omori’s disappointment building up inside of him.

“Sunny!” Hero and Kel yelled as they ran to catch up to him.

Sunny glanced in their direction to acknowledge them, but, the moment he turned his head, he felt something pulling him from inside again. He didn’t want to wait for Hero and Kel. Just like Omori, he too felt the need to find that lady. But was it even worth it? He wondered who she was.

‘You know her.’

He did?

Without further explanation, Omori took over his legs and darted off again. Both of the brothers called out for him to stop, but Sunny chose not to listen. For a moment, he felt guilty for ignoring them, but he was curious about who the mysterious person was. He continued to let Omori have complete control of their body and watched as Omori led them further through the woods.

Sunny didn’t know where they were nor how much time had passed. Somehow, Omori was able to outmaneuver Kel and Hero’s freakishly long legs. Eventually, they lost Hero and Kel completely.

It had become nearly pitch black in the forest when they finally stopped running. Sunny and Omori continued to walk in silence, focusing all of their attention on the invisible sensation pulling their body in the darkness. Every now and then, they would hear Hero or Kel call out Sunny’s name, but, each time he turned around, something else much louder would call his name in the opposite direction.

“Sunny…”

Her voice sounded so familiar.

“Sunny.”

Could Omori hear her too?

“I can.” Omori spoke aloud.

Suddenly a bright light appeared in front of them, causing them to freeze in place. It gently swayed in the air in a repeating motion. It was almost hypnotizing. Sunny stared at it in silence as he followed the pattern with his eye.

Down… Left… Up...

Down… Left… Up…

At some point, it flipped and repeated the pattern in the opposite direction.

Down, right, up. Down, right, up. Over and over again.

After staring for several minutes, Sunny slowly approached the ball of light. The closer he got to it, the warmer he felt. The ball stopped moving and waited for him. He reached out to it and, with both hands, grasped it into his palms.

His hands tingled as the light in them faded. He opened his palms to peer inside, only to find that the light had completely vanished. In its place was a cold metallic string covered in… crystals? Was that what the light was?

He brought it closer to his face.

“SUNNY!” Two loud voices overlapped as they shouted from behind him. He turned around surprised as the brothers ran towards him.

“We’ve been looking all over for you. Why’d you run off like that?!” Kel patted Sunny’s shoulders and examined him from head to toe like an overprotective parent.

Sunny looked at them confused. Didn’t Omori lose them? How’d they find him so quickly?

‘You were staring at that bracelet for a while.’ Omori answered.

Bracelet?

He glanced at the metallic string covered in crystals in his hands again.

“Oh? Whatchya got there, Sunny?” Kel leaned down to get a closer look.

Together, Sunny and Kel examined the bracelet in Sunny’s hands. It was a very dark grayish black. Parts of the metal sections were covered in dull rainbows. The crystals themselves were shaped like squares. Most of them were dull and cloudy. Some of them were even missing from their bezels. Despite the weathering, the bracelet itself was gorgeous.

“Wait, that’s-!”

Sunny almost collapsed at the unanticipated weight that dropped on his shoulders. His vision became engulfed with hair as Hero leaned heavily on him from behind. Hero gawked at the bracelet in Sunny’s hands.

“Can I…?” Hero held out his hand with his palm facing upright.

Sunny stared at it blankly. What the heck was with that gesture? A Hero-glyphic?

‘He’s asking to hold it.’ Omori explained. He dropped the bracelet into Hero’s hand unenthusiastically.

“Thank you.” He took his weight off Sunny’s shoulders and stood back up, holding the bracelet as delicately as possible.

Kel and Sunny watched as Hero searched for a break in the leaves above them where light shined through before standing still. The light reflect off the crystals as Hero continuously flipped the bracelet around in his palms of his hands. They waited in silence until, finally, Hero turned to face them again.

“Sunny, where did you find this?” He whispered.

Where did he…?

...

Right here?

Sunny pointed at the tree they were standing underneath. Hero followed Sunny’s finger to a low rising branch in front of them.

“Here?” he asked.

Sunny confirmed by nodding his head. Hero smiled and handed the bracelet back to Sunny.

“It’s getting pretty late. We should start heading back.”

“What?!” Kel whined.

They turned around to see him pouting.

“Aw man… We didn’t even get a chance to do anything.”

“Heh,” Hero laughed, “Well, we don’t have to go straight home. We can stop by the park for a bit if you want.”

“Yes!!” Kel energetically gave two thumbs up. He made a beeline for the mixture of bushes and trees on their right. Hero and Sunny followed right after him. They pushed through the mud, trees, and bushes, becoming surrounded by light.

Huh?

Somehow, they were back at the park again. Several children ran across the park screaming. Parents sat idly on the benches nearby. A fruit stand vendor was only a few feet away from them. Just how far away from civilization were they this entire time? It felt like they were the only people left in the world just a few moments ago.

Sunny watched as Kel ran directly to the basketball court. Kel immediately started chatting with some strangers before turning around and giving Hero and Sunny a big smile. He waved with his whole arm.

Hero led Sunny to a bench nearby and sat down. He patted the open space next to him, gesturing for Sunny to sit down with him. Although hesitant, Sunny obediently followed instructions.

The moment Sunny felt his weight lift off his feet, he melted into his seat. He hadn’t realized until now just how tired he was. He could fall asleep if he really wanted to.

Hero leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. They watched Kel run back and forth, dominating the basketball court. A proud smile stretched across Hero’s face.

What a day it had been. So much had happened that Sunny couldn’t even tell if he got the Otocoin that morning or the day before. It was exciting. He could still feel the bracelet in his pocket.

The bracelet…

THE BRACELET.

Sunny shot up from his relaxed position. He jumped onto his knees and poked Hero in the forearm.

“Huh? What’s up?” Hero stared at him.

…

Sunny stared back.

…

He didn’t really think this through. They locked eyes with each other and sat in silence.

‘Why don’t you say something?’ Omori asked. ‘Are you still scared of him?’

What? What kind of question was that? Of course he was still scared of Hero!

‘But why?’

He… didn’t know? He was scared, but not in the same way that he was before. This was a different type of fear.

Sunny continued to stare at Hero dead in the eyes. Hero looked surprised, but he didn’t pull back. Just what was Sunny afraid of? All this time, Hero had proven that he still cared about him. He was only trying to help him.

Wait.

Suddenly, everything clicked. Sunny wasn’t scared of Hero, he was scared of hurting Hero. It made sense. And the question he wanted to ask, the one he didn’t know how to ask…

“Hero.” Sunny quietly whispered.

With the way Hero looked at the bracelet, the way he had reacted when he saw it… Sunny knew that this question and the answer to it was going to hurt them both.

He pulled the bracelet back out of his pocket and held it in his hand. Tilting his head, he asked, “This?”

For a split second, Hero’s face turned into a frown. He stared at the bracelet in Sunny’s hand and then back at Sunny again. His frown quickly warped into a pained smile.

“Are you wondering what that bracelet is about?”

Sunny nodded his head.

“Ahh..” Hero let out a loud sigh.

He crossed his arms behind his head and slumped back against the bench. The pained smile on his face became more noticeable as Hero looked up at the sky, avoiding eye contact with Sunny.

“You know how I said we stopped going into the woods after watching that scary movie?”

Sunny hummed and nodded his head.

“Well, I lied.”

Huh?

“You guys stopped going back there after the movie. Mari and I, however… we went back there a lot. Almost daily, actually.”

…They did?

“To do what?” Sunny asked.

Hero immediately sat up straight and heavily blushed.

“J-Just to be alone and to hang out.”

Sunny cocked his eyebrow. What a strange reaction. Hero was weird.

“Anyway!” He hit his lap with his hands. “That bracelet you’ve got right there,” he pointed to it, “It belonged to Mari.”

It did?

Sunny stared at it in shock. The bracelet wasn’t familiar at all, and it was so fancy looking too. Did she really own something like this?

‘I’ve never seen it.’ Omori commented.

Sunny looked back at Hero and squinted his eye. He tilted his head to the side again. Hero returned a gentle smile.

“Look on the back. I promise you it’s hers.”

Sunny flipped it around. On the inside of the bracelet, on the back, there was a badly printed inscription.

“H...plus… M?” Sunny mumbled as he read it out loud.

Hero let out a soft chuckle.

“I bought it for her on valentines day about four years ago.”

Four years ago? Wait…

‘The year we...’

Oh...

“The moment I turned 15, I got a job at Gino’s making and delivering pizzas. Valentines day was only a month away, so I worked really hard day and night. Even on the weekends.”

He worked that hard? Just to buy a gift for Mari? Wow...

“Eventually, I was able to get the bracelet, but, as it turns out, you needed to order at least two weeks in advance for personalized jewelry. I was too late. Valentine's day was that Sunday.”

Sunny glanced at the inscription and then at Hero again.

“Then, how?” he asked.

Hero looked at him somewhat surprised, but blissfulness quickly took over as he reminisced about the bracelet.

“I remembered learning about jewelers using a hammer and metal stamps to write inscriptions, but we didn’t have anything like that in our garage. So, I improvised with a hammer and a really small flathead screwdriver.”

Hero looked ahead of them. Sunny followed his gaze and landed on Kel. At some point, the team composition changed. Now Kel was going against three people. It seemed unfair, but, somehow, he was still winning. Sunny couldn’t help but feel proud of his friend.

Hero continued his story, “I thought it was the ugliest thing in the world. Really, I did an awful job, but Mari absolutely adored it. That Sunday, when I gave it to her in the park, she slipped it on and screamed before tackling me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that happy. She kept showing it off to everyone who passed by. But then...”

He turned to face Sunny again.

“...When we went on our daily walk through the forest, Mari noticed that it wasn’t on her wrist. I guess I broke the latch when I was hammering it. She was really upset.”

Hero frowned.

“I spent weeks looking for it. I would come home really late from school saying I was studying at the library, sneak out late at night for several hours… but I never found it. Eventually, I had to give up.”

After all that hard work. How disappointing...

Sunny frowned.

“It’s okay, though,” Hero smiled. “I was a little sad, but Mari promised she would make it up to me, and she did! We went to the movies that night and had a nice fancy dinner.”

Hero was practically smiling from ear to ear.

“She knew me so well. Her wearing that bracelet would’ve been nice, but all I ever truly wanted was to spend more time together with her. I’m a bit surprised you found it, especially in a tree branch. It must’ve flew off while we were walking. She always did like talk with her hands.”

Hero stared at the bracelet in Sunny’s palm again before glancing down at his mud covered shoes and the bur seeds clinging to his clothes. For a moment, Sunny could’ve sworn he saw tears welling up in Hero’s eyes.

“Anyway, we should probably start heading back now.” Hero stood up. He picked up the bracelet from Sunny’s hand and tucked it into Sunny’s pocket. Sunny stared, shocked.

“Hero?”

“Mom’s not gonna be too happy about this mess.” He stretched out his leg and waved at it with both hands.

“Hero…”

“KEL. IT’S TIME TO GO!” He yelled out, happily.

“Okay!” Kel shouted back.

Hero placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest as he waited for Kel.

“Hero.”

Hero continued holding his hero pose, watching Kel give back the basketball and say his goodbyes.

Sunny scrunched his face.

‘He’s ignoring us.’ Omori said bitterly.

Annoyed, Sunny wrapped his arms around Hero’s and jumped, causing Hero to lift his arm, and Sunny, into the air or risk falling over from the sudden imbalance. Sunny dangled from Hero’s arm and stared at him dead in the eyes.

“What’s up, Sunny?” He asked, completely perplexed.

Sunny pouted his lip and puffed up his cheeks. 

What? What did he mean ‘What’s up?’ After that conversation?

Sunny let go of Hero’s arm and dropped to the ground. He fished the bracelet out of his pocket and placed it into Hero’s palm.

“Keep it.”

He closed Hero’s fingers around the bracelet with both hands. Hero froze as he felt the bracelet drop into his palm. Slowly, he brought it to his face and opened his hand. A tear fell as he stared at it, transfixed on every single detail and aspect. It took a moment before he met Sunny’s gaze again.

“Are you sure?” he asked, voice weak.

Sunny looked up at him and smiled with a light nod.

Hero wiped his face with his sleeve and slipped the bracelet into his pocket.

“Thank you.” he whispered.

“I’M READY!” Kel shouted.

The grass crunched loudly as Kel ran up to meet Hero and Sunny.

“LET’S GO-...”

He stopped a few feet short from them and tilted his head.

“What the heck happened to you?” Kel asked as he rotated around Hero, scrutinizing him.

Hero gave him a funny look but defaulted back into his normal charming smile

“You’re the one covered in mud and sweat,” he teased. He picked a blade of grass out of Kel’s hair and held it in front of them. “Don’t come inside the house until you hose yourself down.”

He flicked the grass, releasing it to the wind.

“Aw, man. What about Sunny? He’s worse than me!”

He was?

Sunny looked down at himself. His shoes were damp and legs covered in dried mud. Burs, grass, leaves, and dirt stuck to his clothes. Staring at the dirt smeared across Hero’s arm sleeve, he could only guess what his face looked like.

“Yes. You too, Sunny.” Hero patted his head. “Don’t even think about touching the door handle. I don’t want mom throwing her sandals at us again.”

What?

Kel and Hero laughed.

They made their way out of the park and back home. Hero fetched Sunny and Kel fresh clothes and some towels as they took turns hosing the dirt off each other in the backyard before entering the house. Sunny and Kel helped Hero make dinner and serve dinner.

Later that night, as everyone drifted off into sleep, Sunny pulled out his sketchbook and flipped it open to Hero’s page. He drew the bracelet with a blue colored pencil and began to think about Mari.

She was his sister, but… Sunny knew next to nothing about her. When he thought about her, he didn’t know how to feel. Sure, there was some sadness and longing, but, more than anything, there was an overwhelming sense of confusion.

The way that Hero and Kel talked about her was strange. It felt like they were talking about a whole different person.

Sunny knew Mari was smart. He knew she was kind, loving, and special, and he felt the same way about her. But, something was missing.

She was a mystery. An enigma. Sunny needed to know more about her. He grabbed a purple colored pencil and slowly began to fill out his ‘About Mari’ page.