If only he didn't.

LIVING IN THIS WORLD (HERO's POV)

The day starts now, the sky a beautifully-dreamy purple, the snake gives me daily CLAMS, that's a peculiar currency, that's right! OMORI is always in his room, I wonder what he's doing there, hopefully nothing weird, but still makes me think about it! For your information, OMORI is MARI's younger brother, he always seems upset, so it's normal for AUBREY or KEL ask him if he's okay, but OMORI usually doesn't reply, he's really quiet! Silent, even!

After waking up, we usually meet up in the NEIGHBOR's ROOM (if we're not already there), it's called so because it's the room next to OMORI's room! Get it? That means we're all neighbors! Then when we meet up, we wait for MARI, play cards, try to stop AUBREY and KEL from arguing, or wait for OMORI to get out of his room, nobody forces him to get out but it just makes him feel bad if he doesn't, I think.

We also sometimes go outside to explore or visit MARI! Thing is, KEL keeps hitting his head on the stump when exiting our room, so we sometimes have to let him stay inside for a bit or give him a helmet. I guess we all kinda live next to the PINWHEEL FOREST but, there are trees, a playground and MARI's picnic. Speaking of MARI, her picnics always make us really full, she has a lot of different snacks, like her DELICIOUS cookies, nobody can make cookies like her!

MARI and I might have a romantic relationship, BASIL and the group keep thinking that me and MARI are in a relationship, I do not know if she's like- you know-...Okay of it, but we joke around the rumor, I want it to be true, I truly love her and I never want to lose her because if I ever lost her, I don't think I'll recover from that no matter what happens.

When OMORI comes out of his room, he's, like I said, silent but we have fun adventures together! He always makes me "it" by tagging me whenever we're next to a shop or going to MAILBOX. Kinda weird, but it's alright, I think. OMORI likes to sleep on MARI's lap, it must be a comfortable lap then, I suppose. AUBREY and KEL play with OMORI while I talk with MARI, she's extremely tidy and smells like lilies, we have to be careful when talking, if not, then everything that we would hear would be "oOOoOOoOOoo, MARI and HERO are two looove-biiirds."

I looked at my hand for like a minute or two cause it kinda hurt, but suddenly, I heard a soft voice and calm voice...I believe it was MARI? I looked up to see A BUG?! DID A BUG EAT MARI? IS IT GONNA EAT ME?! Eugh...I hate bugs a lot, especially SpIdErS...

 M: "HERO...You're making that face again, hehe, such a scaredy cat! You know, you're so funny when you're scared."

H: I calmed down "Ha...Ha, you're okay then, right? I thought a big bug was gonna give me a kiss and then eat me, but it's just you!" I smiled, MARI makes better flirt jokes than me, did she even understand it?

M: She smiled "You're cute, HERO. But I'm not a big bug, I won't eat you, but I might give you a kiss, but only IF you cook me yummy food! " She understood the joke, did I sound desperate? I hope I didn't..

H: "Ah..Haha! Of course I'll cook you yummy food, MARI! Since you gave me a beautiful apron, I just can't wait to cook for you with the apron on!" The apron says 'What's cookin', good lookin'?' Fitting, isn't it?

M: "I'm so happy that you liked the apron! OMORI gave it to me for you! He said he had it in his little room and you're the grand chef in our group, HERO! You don't even have to think about it, obviously it was meant for you!" She...Complimented me?

H: "Well, I cook yummy food, for you and the group! It's basically my only purpose, MARI.." The group likes my cooking, MARI often bakes while I cook, maybe it's a perfect relationship?

M: "Of course not! What are you saying?! You're special and you serve a great purpose! But...they're all playing and nobody is watching, I think, not even BERLY! So, how about a kiss now?" We...Never kissed?

H: "You're- Serious? Ah- You know, I really need to sneeze right now...Are you really sure? Ah..Why not?" I move my face closer to hers, with our faces away by lip distance.

M: She moves her face close to mine, and we share a small kiss, nobody is watching, nobody is having a choir of "OOOOOO's" we MUST be a real relationship now, right? Right? Geez, I sound desperate. 

H: I pull my face away, I slowly look at her "I'm glad nobody saw us, your picnic is very visible to everyone...MARI. So, it was a matter of luck."

M: She softly smiles "Yep!! Now, you MUST cook me yummy good food in return! How exciting! So excited, I'll go tell everyone!" She giggles softly.

Sometimes, I just want to be alone with MARI, or the rest of the group knowing about something called privacy, especially BASIL sometimes.

                                                                         END OF CHAPTER, NEW CHAPTER

                                                                                               TOMORROW.