I Won't Let Him

Happy Birthday, SUNNY!

MARI waited patiently in the elevator as it took her to the floor that held her little brother's room.

The remnant memories of her dream last night, while mostly fuzzy at this point, still seemed to be bothering her for some reason...

She couldn't really understand why. From the bits she could still remember, she was mostly just having fun with her old friend group alongside SUNNY.

It was the regular comfort dream that allowed her to forget her real-life worries, if only temporarily. It was the reason why she hasn't gone insane yet.

But for some reason, she couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad happened near the end of the dream...

BASIL was angry at her, wasn't he? About... SUNNY...

Hm... Well, it makes sense, she supposed...

Her guilt over what she did to SUNNY must have transferred over in the form of an angry BASIL trying to torment her in her happy dreams.

No doubt, it was something she deserved. She had no right to complain or argue.

Still, waking up from a dream with a bad ending always made her feel so tired in the morning... Even now, her eyes felt heavy and her mind felt foggy. If it wasn't SUNNY's birthday today, she would have probably spent the early hours laying in her bed to keep resting. Then after that, she'd probably-

...

Probably just... keep resting.

Waiting.

...

The elevator stopped earlier than where she was going as it picked up another straggler.

Entering the elevator and standing away in the opposite corner was one of the giant POTATO BEETLES that she fought in her dreams.

It was floating in place patiently while reading the daily newspaper.

She blinked a bit, staring at the interestingly mundane sight.

The POTATO BEETLE in front of her seemed to notice her staring as it shifted uncomfortably.

"Well... This is awkward..." It mumbled.

"Yeah..." MARI responded back dumbly.

Clearing its throat, it went back to reading the newspaper and minding its own business.

After a while, MARI turned away to do the same, pretending that she never saw it.

The elevator ride to SUNNY's floor took a painfully long time... Especially with that stupid love song playing as she waited.

Eventually, the elevator stopped again, still nowhere near where SUNNY's floor was.

"Uhp, this is my mom's floor." The POTATO BEETLE murmured, politely nodding his head goodbye at MARI as he hovered away, leaving the elevator to herself.

Once the door closed and she was back to being alone, MARI had to rub her eyes clear as she wondered if she didn't just hallucinate all of that.

God, she should've used the extra hours to sleep before coming here.

No use complaining about it now.

--------------------

"KEL?" AUBREY muttered in confusion.

"AUBREY?" KEL asked back, equally surprised.

The two childhood friends stared at each other in shock, never expecting to see the other one showing up in SUNNY's hospital room today.