The mushroom-head boy had called, but he hadn't been able to find him...
Would he think he'd deliberately given him the wrong contact information?
At the thought, the boy was overcome with anxiety.
He wished he could see the mushroom-head boy right away.
Then he could explain.
He'd called, but couldn't find him...
Couldn't he come to the school and look for him?
After climbing onto the bus home in disappointment for what felt like the umpteenth time, the boy couldn't help feeling a little resentful.
Or...
Was the other boy angry?
Did he think the boy had deliberately given him the wrong contact information so he wouldn't come looking for him?
The boy didn't know what the mushroom-head boy was thinking.
Without seeing him, anything he came up with was only a guess.
As the days went by, the boy's heart slowly sank.
Really...
Were Big Sister and the mushroom-head boy never going to come see him again?
Grandma had been wrong.
The boy sat on the swing.
He stared blankly up at the sky.
Dreams... weren't the opposite of reality.
In his dream, he'd lost Big Sister and the mushroom-head boy.
And in reality... it was the same.
The boy was miserable.
But he kept it all bottled up.
He didn't want Grandpa and Grandma to notice anything was wrong.
Those happy days seemed like a dream.
He'd returned to how things had been at the beginning.
At school, he was like a ghost.
At home, he was like a ghost too.
That man had a new wife and child.
He would bring them to visit Grandpa and Grandma.
That was only natural.
Grandpa and Grandma were that man's parents, after all.
He didn't know whether that woman had started a