OMORI - Love Letters (Sunburn)

2 - A Lonely Afternoon

Many hours had passed, but it felt as though it could have been days, or even weeks. Since homeroom, Sunny had been keeping to himself like usual, but he had found himself receiving dirty looks from Miguel in the hallways as they passed to their separate classes. Sunny was sure that they must have something planned for him - but tried to find comfort in the fact that it likely wouldn't be today, as Miguel was busy with his afternoon soccer game and wouldn't be around to torment him.

Classes had been... uneventful, to say the least. Sunny had spent most of his time doing what he loved doing best - which was staring out of the window and daydreaming. He didn't daydream about anything in particular - sometimes he would simply watch birds fly from the mahogany tree that dominated the school's main entrance - and other times he would space out and think of nothing at all. But the subject that his mind seemed to wander to the most out of everything, was his old life in Faraway Town. He would often think to himself as his Math teacher wrote meaningless algebraic equations on the whiteboard, or while his Literacy teacher yelled out for the fifteenth time about the importance of metaphors - was this the life he really wanted? And as he thought this, he began to miss his old friends more than ever - so much so that, on days where his emotions ran high from the relentless bullying of Miguel and his gang or when he would lie alone in bed waiting for his mother to come home, he even felt a tear well up in his eye.

It was times like these when the guilt of what happened on the day of the recital would all come flooding back, and he would miss Mari more than ever. Above all, he realised that Mari was akin to glue that held everyone together - she was the reason they had all become friends in the first place; the catalyst, so to speak. And for that, Sunny was as eternally grateful as he was eternally guilty. Sometimes, he wondered how things would have went if Mari hadn't passed away, and felt a twinge of sadness when he realised he would have still been living happily in Faraway Town with his friends, with Mari being happy and alive and smiling like she always was. But he also knew not to dwell on these things - Mari wouldn't have wanted him to spend all his time wondering about impossible things. When he felt like this, he tried to take comfort in the fact that Mari was in a better place - but he knew the phrase that was etched onto her gravestone was right. The sun shined brighter when she was here.

Before long, Sunny found himself sighing deeply aloud. He often didn't attempt to express his feelings externally like this - but the truth was that his thoughts were becoming too overwhelming to ignore. In an attempt to calm himself, he laid down gently onto the grass and stared blankly up at the sky, which was decorated with fluffy white clouds. Looking at them like this suddenly reminded him of a memory from his childhood - in which he once thought that clouds were made of cotton candy, and that, if he reached up high enough, he could take some of it from the sky and eat it. Of course, he knew now that such a thought was silly and lacked sense - but he couldn't control the small smile that crept upon his face as he remembered Hero and Mari gently reminding him that clouds weren't, in fact, made of cotton candy.

In an instant, his previous thoughts of sadness and guilt about Mari's death melted into the innocence of that memory, and he began to gently cry bittersweet tears, even though that smile was still lightly etched onto his pained expression. It felt strange - he hadn't cried in so long, and yet it felt so natural to him. Already, his eyes were becoming puffy and pink from the extent of his crying, as he recalled both sad and happy memories of Mari and all his old friends. He missed them so much. Why did things have to be like this? He just wanted everything to be okay... He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, and yet he also wanted to be comforted and distracted from them. Everything felt so confusing in that moment - which is why what happened next was the worst thing that could have possibly occurred for Sunny.

"Hey, punk!" A familiar voice called from across the field. Sunny ignored them. It was lunch time. Shouldn't everyone else be watching the game right now? He had purposefully snuck out early so he could avoid it - he hated crowded events such as those.