I Won't Let Him

Taking A Small Break

MARI slowly creaked open the door to her room as silently as possible, doing her best to remain stealthy as she peeked inside.

There, she could see her little SUNNY busy being engrossed in his GAMEKID as he sat on his bed. His back was faced toward the door, too concentrated on the game to notice she had arrived.

MARI smiled mischievously to herself.

Perfect.

Using the sounds from the game to mask her footsteps, she slowly entered the room and tiptoed all the way to her little brother as quietly as possible.

By the time she reached behind him, she quickly pulled a surprise attack on him!

"Guess who!" MARI cheered, hugging SUNNY from behind.

SUNNY made a cute little yelp as he jolted in her embrace, his fingers instinctively pausing the game as he turned around to see who attacked him.

When he saw that it was only his favorite big sister, SUNNY breathed out in relief before fiercely hugging her back, "MARI!"

"Bingo!" MARI chuckled, holding her little brother's head against her as she set her chin on top of his hair. "Did you miss me, little brother?"

SUNNY chose not to answer verbally, instead hugging her even tighter as he nodded.

Enjoying the hug for a brief moment, the two finally released each other as SUNNY gave her a sad frown.

"You promised you'd be back by six to play with me today... I've been waiting for hours..." SUNNY murmured disappointedly.

MARI gave a guilty smile, "I know, I'm so sorry... I've just been so swamped with work and practice. I completely misjudged when I figured I'd be done. Will you forgive me?"

SUNNY looked away, mumbling, "You're always so busy nowadays... I never get to spend time with you anymore."

"I'm here now, aren't I?" MARI consoled, before smiling encouragingly, "I promise I'll make it up to you. What did you want to play? I'll spend the rest of the day together with you!"

SUNNY looked at the clock in the room before sighing, "Rest of the day doesn't mean much at this point... I'll need to sleep soon to wake up early for school tomorrow. Otherwise, Mom and Dad will get fussy."

"Oh..." MARI muttered, realizing just how late it was when she finally got home.

She really did spend a lot of time focused on her studies, didn't she? Even though she promised she'd make time with her brother today.

Shrugging her arms off of him, SUNNY lamented, "I wanted to go out with you and have another picnic today... It's been so long since we had one together where it's just the two of us. But we never have enough time to do anything together anymore..."

MARI sighed remorsefully, "I... I know. I'm sorry SUNNY, but these things just can't be helped. I need to focus on my grades as much as possible so that I can get into a good college. After that, I want to make sure I master the piano to make our parents proud. There's a recital at the end of September that I really want to make sure goes perfectly. You understand, don't you?"

SUNNY closed his eyes tightly while facing his head down. For a moment, MARI could see her little brother clenching his hands to fists. It was only for a second though, as SUNNY relaxed a moment after and looked back at her with a depressed expression, "Yeah, I do. I know how important it all is to you. It's all so that you could have a successful future."

Despite his words, MARI knew that he was still upset. He always had that habit of keeping his emotions suppressed so that he didn't worry other people.