One Final Gloomy Day

Chapter 3: Don't Forget, I Love You.

I looked at the clock on my desk. It was 7:45 in the morning. Unusually, Lisa was still in her room, most likely asleep. I slumped on my desk as I sat on my chair, looking outside my window at the misty morning like yesterday. My door was wide open, letting my family get inside the room if they wanted to. I traced my mind back to last night when Lisa confessed what we didn't know. Father, Monochro, and I felt like I was the one that was most shocked when we all learned that Lisa did have a lover that all three of us didn't have the slightest clue of. We talked about Lisa's lover, who lived in the northern town (which fortunately doesn't hate people like us). We knew about the reason why Lisa leaves on the weekdays for work we didn't know about, work that involved selling jams and food with her mister. The whole conversation lasted until six in the evening which made everyone tired. Yesterday's dinner was made by Father and Monochro, who was the best cook in the house.

I looked back to the window when I finished remembering what had happened last night.
I heard two knocks on my door. I turned my head to the right and saw Monochro was leaning on the door frame. He was taller than I am, might as well be taller than Father was. Today, he was wearing a suit. A white polo layered under a black vest and blazer. He wore a matching black pants and leather shoes. Although, looking at the tie made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

 "That green necktie looks bad."

"Really?" Monochro was slightly shocked. I noticed he had a sad look in his eyes.

"I've better ones." Then I walked over to my closet and carefully looked for a specific necktie while in my mind I tried to decipher what was going on, so I threw in some questions.

"Say, where are you going?"

"Starfall City."

I froze for a second when he mentioned that place.

"Why?" But Monochro didn't respond.

"Mono," I plainly said. "Is there anything interesting in that city?"

"Buildings, people, business... Yeah, a lot. It's also the best city in the world!" Monochro said.

I eventually found the tie I was looking for in one of the boxes on the floor of the closet. But I hid it in my hands and pretended that I was still looking for a tie. Fortunately, Monochro didn't notice.

"Buildings, yeah. And what more?" I asked

"There's a lot of business there. Maybe I could work as a barista in a cafe or as a businessman!" I heard a slight uneasiness in his voice when there were slight pauses between his sentences.

"Why?" I said for the second time.

"For a better future! I don't want to be a farmer all my life," I noticed his voice starting to break.

"Besides, the income is... better." Then he smiled sweetly at me, like how Father would.

"Just tell me." I looked at Monochro. He looked at me with a sadder look in his eyes and paused before he said a word.

"Oh, Colly," I noticed his voice break a little. "You know what happened after... the event that happened a year ago..." I instantly knew what Monochro was talking about. "Even before that happened, I studied all I could to go to a city to help our family. But when the town hated monsters like us even more, I studied a lot harder since our family and neighborhood weren't getting enough income anymore." Monochro's voice silently broke and he ran to me and hugged me from behind.

"Colly-" Monochro's quiet sobbing made it difficult for me to even move, think, or do anything at all. Frozen in place and paralyzed by the realization that I had. He was leaving. But why? Why is he leaving us? I didn't even know why he was going to leave us all of the sudden.