A reader by the name of Yukirei_135 submitted this wonderful fan art to me. Thank you so much Yukirei_135!
*
Cautious and on high alert, Sunny arrived back at his apartment.
Basil had gone to write his midterm on campus, and Sunny was alone. He expected detective Jawsum or his mother to show up at any moment, but he couldn't find any trace of them around his block or inside his building.
A wave of relief hit him when he opened the door and saw his room empty and untouched.
I still can't let down my guard. They could show up at any time.
Even though it was too late to be of any use, the first thing Sunny went to do was to log in to his email account and change its password. On their way home he had thought of a hard password to guess which was easy for himself to remember. He'd taken four random, unrelated objects and strung them together into a password, adding a number at the end just for extra security.
But when Sunny logged in to his account, he found an extremely startling email from his mom.
The subject was: DON'T LET ANYONE READ THIS EMAIL EXCEPT YOURSELF SUNNY.
She finally sent a reply to my emails but this is what she puts on the subject line?
Sunny clicked on the email and began reading it.
Sunny, don't press charges against me. The detective does NOT know your secret. I'm sorry if you misunderstood. Don't show this email to anyone else!
He had no idea what to feel or make of this.
Just moments later he felt enormous anger rising inside himself. Everything his mom did enraged him.
What the...that detective doesn't actually know what happened between me and Mari?
'I'm sorry if you misunderstood'. No, mom, you're the one who keeps misunderstanding the relationship I have with Basil!
And just what was I supposed to think if you hired a detective to track me down and the detective tells me 'I know what you did to your sister'?
I can't trust you. You definitely told him something about my sister, and he spilled it in a way that made me believe he knew the truth—
This is all your fault, mom!
But...if he doesn't know...then what exactly is he threatening me with?
You keep making life hard for me, causing problems for me and Basil when things are going perfectly fine between us.
Just shut the hell up and stop bothering us already!
Sunny wanted to slam the laptop screen down in anger.
He took deep, shuddering breaths to try and calm himself down. Every nerve in his body wanted to direct his fingers to send a furious reply to his mom.
He and Basil had spent so much time coming up with a plan to fight her, believing that she'd spilled their secrets to someone outside the family, reading criminology books and even taking a course in law. After such a massive investment in finding counter charges all she can say is please don't press charges against me?
Not to mention the emotional damage inflicted on himself and Basil from believing that the detective really knew what they did to Mari.
Calm down, Sunny...
You don't deserve this...but don't destroy the laptop, please. It's really Basil's laptop, not yours, and he spent a ton of money on it.
Just remember that you are the one in control here. She's given up because she knows she's done for if you press charges against her.
There was a possibility his mom was straight up lying through her teeth in that email. It was plausible that she really did tell detective Jawsum the truth, that she was only begging him not to press charges against her so that she could have time to come up with a better plan to force him to return to her.
But what can she even do right now?
Jump me in an alley, put a bag over my head, kidnap me?
Before separating from Basil this evening, they'd made a promise to each other.
If either of them went missing for more than twenty-four hours, the other would use Basil's grant money to hire a lawyer to press their counter charges against his mom and detective Jawsum. It was a pact to prevent themselves from not taking action in case communication became impossible. So, they had an answer to the situation where one of them got kidnapped.
There really wasn't anything else he could think of that his mom could try to do.
And what's with this 'don't show this email to anyone else' in the subject line?
From the urgency of the message, he could believe that his mom had really gotten herself into deep trouble. Yet the message itself was just a plea for clemency, not a request for help or anything like that.
The whole tone of that email is pretty pathetic.
If she's not in trouble herself, that just leaves the issue of her lying to me...
He saw two options he could take. Either he continued with his plan to press charges and reveal to the whole world what he did to his sister, or he believed his mom's words and do nothing until the situation got clarified.
The vengeful part of himself wanted to press charges without question. After everything she'd done, all the emotional damage she'd inflicted upon him and Basil, he wanted to see her go down in flames even if it meant he had to stick his own arm and leg into the fire.
Another part of him could only think of what pressing counter charges would mean for Basil.
Basil and I would still have to answer for manslaughter...
Even if we were only twelve at the time, we can't be certain that the jury would forgive us of our crime as adults.
In the worst case, we might end up becoming separated from each other.
Sunny's fingers trembled.
He really wanted to press those charges, or at least tell his mom that he was going to do it and see how she responded.
I'm...
I'm so angry.
But it won't help Basil.
If she really can't do anything to us, if we currently hold all the power in this battle, it's better to not press those charges so that we erase any chance of us getting in trouble with the law.
Anger won't solve anything...
To preserve our happiness, I have to sit still and do nothing for now.
It was so hard to tell himself that.
His anger was not yet abated, and he still wanted to type an angry reply to his mom to let her know that he was so done with her. He was this close to going no contact on her. If he ever saw that detective around again he'd have to devote mental effort not to instinctively throw a punch at his face.
...Maybe no contact could be a good idea.
Replying to his mom's email meant acknowledgement, certainty. Even if he screamed at her with rage in text form, she'd feel some security from the fact that he'd read her email. And if he threatened to press charges without actually doing so, he might push her over the edge, cause her to do something drastic.
She wasn't the only emotionally manipulative person in this game.
I'm not going to reply to you at all.
He clicked the checkbox beside the email and then clicked Mark Unread.
I'll exact my vengeance on you by ignoring your email and by spilling all the contents of it to Basil.
He deserves to know what's going on, even if you insist that I'm the only person who should read it.
Sunny went and changed the password of his account, though he had a feeling she still had some ways in. She could've linked her own email address as a backup account and then request a password change to her email. But if she changed his password, he could then know for sure that she'd found out his location by accessing his email.
To fully be free from her control, he had to create a new email account.
Over the next twenty minutes, Sunny made another email account with some brand new free mail service called Gmail and wrote down both passwords in a record book. Then he went out to pick up Basil from campus with his shopping cart.
It was dark and chilly outside, the night wind much colder than during the day. Dead leaves swept across his path as he walked towards the building where Basil was writing his midterm. He kept his eyes on alert for any sign of detective Jawsum.
Judging by the students crowding around the entrance of the building, the midterm had just ended and everyone was discussing their answers with each other.
He spotted Basil standing with his crutches at the edge of the crowd.
"Hey, how was the midterm?" Sunny asked.
"Good! I studied a lot yesterday, so I think I had a pretty good handle on the questions," Basil replied with a smile.
Sunny smiled back. "I know you did well."
Eyes turned towards the two of them as Basil climbed into the shopping cart, placing his crutches half over the edge of the cart. Sunny gave the crowd of curious students a grin before pushing the cart onto the path back home.
"I have some news," Sunny said. "My mom replied to me."
"What did she say?"
Sunny lowered his voice to a whisper. "The detective doesn't know our secret. And for some reason she told me not to let anyone else see the email. I'm already going against her wishes by letting you know."
Basil frowned. "So...the detective really isn't threatening us with what we did?"
"I don't know. I think she told him something else. Based on the tone of the email, I think she's really frightened about us pressing charges against her. So, I think we lay low for now and just wait for her to clarify the situation."
Sunny was happy to see that Basil looked relieved.
"I'm glad we don't have to go ahead with that plan," Basil said.
I guess you were really afraid of admitting what we did to the law, too...
"Let's still keep ourselves on guard," Sunny said. "She might be thinking of another plan right now. The worst scenario is that she's lying in her email, and she really did tell the detective our secret."
"If that's true, do we have to do anything right now?"
"Nope. We still have our list of counter-charges to deter her with, so things are back to normal." Sunny smiled brightly. "I'm going to my new job tomorrow and you should rest after all those midterms!"
"Ah—hah, okay..."
The wind picked up on their way home, chilling Sunny to the bone. He felt something stuffy inside his nose.
***
Perhaps running off to an empty field and lying down on the cold grass in the middle of a windy autumn had not been such a bright idea.
Sunny worked hard at his job for the first two weeks, but it was becoming clear that he'd come down with something. He nearly passed out at work one day after a long shift in the greenhouse. His head felt hot and heavy, his muscles ached, and he lost his appetite for food. Even though he wanted to make a good impression on his employer, he had to submit to his body's needs and take a week off from work.
"I'm really sorry to do this just after starting the job," Sunny said to his boss.
"No, please take care of yourself. You've done a great job so far, but I don't want to see you risk your health."
"Will someone be able to cover for me while I'm gone?"
"We'll try to find someone. If all else fails, I can try to cover it myself! I've learned a lot from your gardening knowledge these past two weeks."
"Thank you."
Sunny went to the clinic beside the Fix-It and got diagnosed with the flu. Drinking water and getting lots of rest was going to be his schedule for the next week. Basil stopped by the same day to return his crutches, his foot now fully healed.
This time, Sunny was the one being carried by Basil on their way home by bus.
"I hope I'm not too heavy for you," Sunny said, his face lying against Basil's shoulder.
"You're pretty light, Sunny."
Hope that's not a bad sign...
"Thanks for carrying me, Basil. I don't know if I would've made it back by myself."
"I'm here whenever you need me, Sunny."
He felt like death when he got back home, collapsing on his bed without even turning on his laptop. The world wavered in and out of existence for the next few hours. He lost track of time, unable to tell being awake from being asleep. The sounds of Basil's footsteps and Basil chopping vegetables on the kitchen counter gave him a solid slab of reality to anchor his mind onto.
Being sick made Sunny feel so useless. He wished he'd been healthier during his early teenage years so his immune system could have had the strength to fight off a flu. Basil lived with him, slept so close to him every day, but he hadn't fallen sick from whatever he had.
Maybe Basil might get sick later, but it's more likely that my health is just worse than his.
His flu was different from a cold in that he retained his sense of smell. Later that evening, he smelled Basil cooking chicken noodle soup.
Sunny blinked a few times, his mind drifting off to sleep at random, and when he opened his eyes again he found a bowl of soup floating in front of him. The flu-filtered contours and textures of his vision gradually blended back into solids, revealing Basil holding the bowl of soup and a spoon.
"Hey, Sunny," Basil said, his tone soft and caring. "How are you feeling right now?"
"Horrible," Sunny spoke honestly.
"I'm really sorry. I made some soup for you."
"Thank you so much, Basil."
He reached for the spoon but every muscle in his arm ached. Unable to move out of bed or even sit up straight, he gave up and let his arm fall limp against the mattress. "I'm too tired."
"I'll feed you, don't worry."
Sunny had lost all appetite for food, but he knew how important eating food was when he was sick. Mari used to help feed him chicken noodle soup all the time when he was sick; he remembered not liking the taste, mostly due to having poor appetite, but after eating he gradually felt better. She'd tell him that the awful feelings of being sick was actually his body's response to an invasion by a virus; his immune system needed him to rest, drink water, and eat healthy food so it could fight off the disease.
Basil brought a spoonful of soup to Sunny's mouth and he drank the warm soup. He barely registered its taste, and when he swallowed he felt a tight, burning sensation in his throat. But just moments later, the warmth of the soup rejuvenated his empty stomach. He looked at Basil and tried his best to muster a smile.
"I'm embarrassed to ask but...would you mind feeding the rest of the soup to me?"
"I'd be happy to!"
Basil fed Sunny more spoonfuls of soup and he gratefully swallowed every bite. There was chicken and vegetables in the soup along with bits of noodle that together provided the nutrition to start making Sunny feel better.
By the time he finished drinking half the bowl of soup, he had regained the energy to sit up against the bed's headrest and face Basil with the mood to talk.
"I'm feeling much better," Sunny said. "Your chicken soup is amazing!"
"Ah—ah, thank you...I thought you sounded a bit sick when you went off to work earlier today, so I started preparing the ingredients this morning."
Sunny blushed and he couldn't tell if it was from the fever or from his feelings of gratitude for Basil's thoughtfulness.
"The longer you boil the ingredients, the better the soup tastes," Basil continued. "And the soup becomes healthier, too, since all the nutrition from the ingredients will melt into the water."
"I'm glad," Sunny replied. "...Glad to have someone as kind and thoughtful as you to care for me when I'm sick."
Basil's eyes grew wide, his cheeks blushing deep red at those words. "Ummm...I appreciate it, Sunny!"
"I mean...you've done so much to take care of me today."
"I'll keep taking care of you until you get better! It's the least I can do for you, right?"
Sunny turned his eyes downward. "The only thing I'm worried about is that I might get you sick, too."
"Don't worry about a thing, Sunny. I'll take care of you even if I'm sick. I'll make soup for both of us and I'll feed you if you don't have the energy to eat by yourself."
I wish you didn't need to keep doing everything for me.
Sunny gazed into Basil's eyes and felt his heart melting at the caring kindness he saw in them.
A selfless kindness that embraced him when he was confronted by the bleakest misery, held his hand when reality became too hard for him to face, and cooked and fed him soup when he was so sick he couldn't even move his arm to pick up a spoon.
"You're too kind to me, Basil," Sunny spoke quietly. "If you get sick with me, you should rest and let me take care of you."
"That's fine, too. We can take care of each other!"
I've always been the weaker one between the two of us.
Basil lifted another spoonful of soup for Sunny. "You shouldn't worry about me until you get better yourself."
Maybe you'll always be the one taking care of me from now on...
Sunny felt something hot rising up into his eyes. He blinked, his vision turning foggy. It could be tears, or it could just be his fever making him delusional—it was too hard to tell.
He mustered the strength to wipe the wetness from his eyes so he could see Basil's face clearly again.
"Sunny?"
"I'm...just...grateful to have someone like you," Sunny spoke.
"Oh—oh, Sunny, you don't have to say that! I'll always be here to help you get better when you feel sick, okay?"
I'm grateful even to have someone beside me right now.
Words can't describe how thankful I am that my boyfriend cares for me, loves me, and I love him back so, so much.
"Come on, Sunny, drink up!" Basil said, bringing the spoon to Sunny's mouth.
Sunny opened his mouth, but he was so weak and clumsy that he spilled a few drops of soup over his bedsheets when he drank from the spoon.
"I'll take care of it," Sunny whispered.
"N—No, it's okay, really!"
Sunny tried to get out of bed to pick up some napkins from the kitchen counter so he could wipe the stains. He nearly lurched forward when he pushed himself onto his feet, the world spinning in a hundred different directions. A warm, firm arm stabilized the trajectory of his body and brought him gently back to rest against the bed.
His vision still wobbly, Sunny resigned himself to staying locked in bed.
"I'm sorry," Sunny whispered.
Another spoon filled with warm soup entered past his lips and soothed his burning throat.
"Just relax," Basil said. "You don't have to worry about a thing, Sunny. Everything's going to be okay."
I'm so useless without your help.
Sunny drank the rest of the soup with Basil feeding him each bite. When he finished the bowl, he laid back down flat against the mattress, his stomach full and the world brimming with warmth. He still didn't have any energy to move his body.
The next few hours passed with Sunny maintaining only a bare bones awareness of what was happening around him. He heard Basil washing the dishes, then saw Basil sitting by the table studying his college textbooks. Soon after Basil was lying in bed beside him, a book in his hands.
Sunny tried to say 'thank you' but discovered that he lacked even the energy to do that.
It felt scary that he was so sick, a signal from his motor cortex couldn't be passed down to his vocal chords to be transformed into words.
Errhh, what did I just think about...?
Darn, I'm so sick my head's acting all funny.
Not for the first time, Sunny started seeing colorful illusory textures appearing in his field of view.
Words and feelings and thoughts spiraled, danced around, became characters and objects, spoke to him, took care of him, hurt him, lifted him out of his body and took him on a magical adventure in a fantasy land far, far away. Then Mari's head came out of nowhere, told him he was going at the speed of light, and after a weirdly silent explosion, he landed back inside his room, lying on his bed with Basil still there by his side.
That was like one of those five-minute long dreams...
Basil turned to look at Sunny.
"You're soaked in sweat," Basil said. "Do you feel okay right now, Sunny?"
He actually felt a bit better than he'd been a few hours ago. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
"Hold on."
Basil went to the bathroom and came back with a warm towel. With gentle fingers, Basil pushed the locks of sweat-drenched hair out of Sunny's eyes and pressed the towel to his forehead. The cool fabric brought him some relief from his fever.
Sunny gazed into Basil's sweet, charming eyes and managed to smile again.
"I don't know how I can ever thank you for taking such good care of me," Sunny whispered.
Basil wore a cute but concerned smile. "You don't have to thank me. I just want to see you get better."
"If you ever get sick, Basil, I'm going to take care of your every need, okay?"
"I know you'll try your hardest, Sunny. I trust you. But don't get stressed about paying back the favor or anything."
Basil brought him a glass of water. Sunny's throat was parched and he drank the whole glass from Basil's hand.
As Basil washed the glass in the sink, Sunny turned his eyes away guiltily. "I might get you sick pretty quickly like this."
"I don't mind."
"But you should think about your own health instead of mine. You still have your exams to worry about, you know."
"Sunny, I'm not going to avoid you just because you're sick! If anything, I want to stay by your side even more..."
"But, if you get sick during your exams because of me—"
Basil cupped Sunny's chin with his hand. His thumb gently stroked Sunny's left cheek. It made Sunny feel so warm and cozy inside.
"There's dark circles underneath your eyes," Basil spoke softly. "Your body's so tired from fighting."
I'll keep fighting until I survive.
"Please don't worry about me," Basil said. "Focus on getting lots of rest."
Sunny nodded his head. "Okay."
I don't want you to be sad because of me, so...
So I won't make myself worry about you for now.
With his eyes growing lidded, Sunny rested his head back down against the pillow and let Basil adjust the towel over his forehead so it felt comfortable. A few minutes later, the lights in the room turned off and Basil settled into bed right beside him.
"Goodnight, Sunny. If you ever need anything during the night, don't hesitate to wake me up."
Goodnight, Basil.
Thank you so much. For everything.
***
Deep waters surrounded him.
Sunny looked around, trying to figure out where he was. But the water was so dark, he'd fallen so deep that no light could possibly reach him. He was sinking farther, faster. The abyss of the dark trench would swallow him up; he'd never see the light of day again.
He opened his mouth to take a breath and felt a surge of water filling up his lungs.
Over and over he struggled, trying to swim against the force pushing him ever downwards. His flailing limbs could not overcome the current. The deep water would not let go of its tremendous grip.
A ghostly apparition materialized in front of him, an abyssal creature of the deep. It opened its mouth and tried to swallow him whole.
Something in the water...
He felt darkness, total darkness.
The totality of the deep filled him with so much dread and fear. Nothing could save him. He was going to drown.
I'm going to...die...
The ghostly apparition appeared again. It opened its mouth and threatened to swallow him into an ever darker abyss.
Why are you back now...?
Its maw was larger than a trench; the sheer size of the black space that awaited inside spelled out certain death.
I've dealt with you before.
Something came closer and closer.
It was going to devour him, leaving nothing behind.
The enormous maw swallowed him up, and as the mouth closed Sunny became fully enveloped in permanent, total darkness.
I remember how.
Sunny opened his eyes.
He saw no light, no trace of the surface. The deep waters was his home now—the bottom of a trench, or the belly of an enormous beast.
In spite of the terror in his heart, he didn't struggle.
Something in the water appeared again, its massive jaws hanging above his head.
Sunny floated in the water, facing the beast before him. He didn't fight. Even when the creature threatened to swallow him up again, he didn't resist it.
He didn't try to resist fear itself.
Pure terror coursed through each vein in his body, frying his every nerve, but he let it happen smoothly until he had experienced the totality of fear.
I see what you are now.
The moment of fear, the moment of terror—
It wasn't so bad.
A bench appeared, floating in the water.
Sunny swam towards the bench and clung on to it.
The massive Something, its maw still lingering above his head, clasped the bench as well. Although they were underwater, with the two of them holding on to it, the bench stabilized. Sunny gently glided over until he was sitting down on the bench.
The underwater-Something took a seat beside him just as the spider-Something had done, and the two of them drifted through the water together.
The waves under the ocean had never felt so calm.
They floated while light reappeared, melting with the darkness of the abyss, until the two finally reached the surface together.
***
Why do I feel like I can't breathe any air?
The source of that dream quickly became clear to Sunny. His nostrils were blocked; he'd been breathing through his mouth. His brain must have imagined he was stuck underwater while he was dreaming.
On the bright side, his fever was gone, and his body no longer ached. All the pain and fatigue of the flu had become replaced with a stuffy nose.
Ah...I'm getting a bit better again.
In spite of the awful feeling of a plugged nose, Sunny felt glad to have his energy back.
With plenty of nutritious food and sleep, he recovered over the next few days and felt ready to go back to work by the end of the week. On Sunday afternoon, his last day of rest, his mood felt great and he decided to give his old friends a call.
"Hey, Kel? How have you been?"
"Hi, Sunny! Things are great over here. My senior basketball team made it to the state semi-finals. If we win our next game we'll be playing at the finals in December!"
"That's amazing." Sunny had to smile at the good news; Kel was certainly going to places in life. "I'm really proud of you!"
"How are things since you moved out of Faraway with Basil?"
Oh, I think Basil called them a couple of months ago to tell them that we've moved out.
I believe Basil told them we were working on a gardening project in college together.
"It's been nice," Sunny said, wondering how much of his cat-and-mouse game with the detective he ought to reveal. "I got a job and Basil's been doing well in his college courses."
"Wow, that's awesome, Sunny!"
"Hey, Kel, I'm just wondering—what are your plans after you graduate high school?"
He heard a laugh coming from the other end.
"Heheh, my grades might not let me graduate just yet," Kel said. "Mom and pop's going to give me an earful when they see my report card. I'm hoping to get a basketball scholarship for college, though."
"Oh, grades again huh..." Sunny said. "I hope you land that scholarship, Kel. I believe in you."
"Thank you so much, Sunny!"
"How's Hero?"
"He's really busy with his medical studies right now. We try to talk once every week but lately he's just been drowning in exams!"
"Tell him that he should remember to relax and get some rest. If he studies too hard he might burn out."
Advice that I should keep in mind for myself if I get sick again...
"Yeah, will do. I'll mention that you said hi, Sunny!"
"Great. Thanks for catching up with me on things, Kel."
"No problem!"
After the call, Sunny phoned Aubrey's number, but there was no response. He guessed she might be busy with her after school club right now.
Basil was studying with some classmates since exams were coming up, so Sunny thought it'd be a good idea to get some fresh air by going to visit him on campus after having spent a whole stuffy week indoors.
He'd been to campus to pick up Basil many times before and was familiar with the layout. Whenever he passed by the science buildings he always felt a little sad that Mari couldn't be among the bright minds studying there; her grades in math and science had always been exemplary. He was sure she would've been a great college student.
And when he passed the music buildings inside which students were always rehearsing a performance, he almost cried knowing how much Mari would've loved to take part in an orchestra or a band. He could barely hear the notes of a piano or a violin without feeling tears welling up inside his eyes. Sometimes their performances were so beautiful he wanted to walk in and clap.
He knew those situations would still be too hard for him to bear at this time in his life.
Mari, what would you have studied in college?
Would you have gone to this college, with Basil? That'd be so fun, wouldn't it...
Sunny reached the library where Basil spent his weekends studying with his classmates.
The moment he walked in, the towering archives and the sheer number of books lit up a certain fascination inside him. Even though he'd never been much of a book person, because of Basil reading books to him when they were children, he grew to enjoy the simple feeling of a library where he could pass endless hours reading together with Basil.
Maybe the novel that I'll write one day will end up in here.
...Oh, who am I kidding? Most of the books here are textbooks for academia!
When he found the table where Basil was studying, Basil's eyes met his in the same moment. Basil got up from his seat and rushed over.
"Guess what, Sunny?" Basil spoke, his eyes alit with happiness. "Some of my classmates told me they'd be willing to help build our garden next summer!"
"That's awesome! It won't just be me and you, then?"
"I'm getting my classmates in my program to sign up for it this week. We might have around a dozen people to build the garden by summer—the state might increase the size of my grant so that I can afford to pay them all!"
"Wow..."
That amazing piece of news meant their financial burdens were about to be over.
Ecstatic, Sunny guided Basil until they were well hidden between two bookshelves where nobody could see the two of them.
Sunny held Basil's hands and kissed him on the lips.
Basil's face blushed full red. "S—Sunny...?"
"We didn't kiss for a whole week while I was sick," Sunny said quietly. "I feel like I have to make up for it."
Giggling, Basil kissed him back, and they shared a quiet, tender kiss together in the library.
"Ah—ah...I'm glad you're feeling much better, Sunny!"
Sunny smiled. "Me too."
*
This story will have five more chapters~