Richie continued talking to the cat:
"Actually, I've been here for a long time. It's not as if I have no family or haven't made any new friends.
"On the contrary, I've been really lucky. I found a wonderful family, with an amazing father and mother, and a really cocky friend.
"But I still feel lonely in this world. No matter how nice it is here, it isn't my home.
"I can always feel something pushing me away, constantly telling me that I don't belong in this world.
"Please don't mind me rambling. I don't usually talk this much, and I won't bother you like this after today.
"No matter what, I'm still scared. That strange feeling, that fear of losing what I have, never leaves me.
"It wasn't until I met you that I found even a little connection to this world, some sign that I was still alive.
"Sometimes I wonder whether I'm already dead, and this is just a world I imagined in my final moments.
"But you came along and showed me that all of this is real. Thank you for being here, Sixth Sister."
Once Richie finished, he fell silent.
To be honest, before meeting this soul from the same world as him, Richie had always used sleep to hide his loneliness.
A psychologist had once said that if someone laughed a lot, they must have something deeply painful weighing on them; if someone loved sleeping, they must be very lonely; and if someone was especially forgetful, they must have lost far too much.
Richie liked using sleep to hide his loneliness. He was always sleeping-on the sofa, on the bed, on the floor. Sleeping endlessly...
Besides sleeping simply because he felt unwell, Richie also used sleep to pass the time even when he didn't