[Chibi Creative Award] At Midnight, My Heart Returns

*This article is an entry for the '#ChibiCreativeAward'.
I have woven a story for Kakerun-san's theme '#WhereTheHeartResides' with my quiet thoughts.
A single story has been spun.

At midnight, my heart returns

During the day, I often say, "I'm fine."

Probably about three times a day.

There are days when I really am fine, and days when I'm not.

Midnight.
I turn off the room lights and open my smartphone screen.

A small light floats in my hands.
I sense Mii-kun waking up
in the cage right beside me.

The sound of him gnawing on timothy hay.
The sound of the exercise wheel spinning around.

They say chinchillas are creatures that
wake up at dawn and dusk.

They are most energetic at the boundary between day and night.

Midnight is also the boundary between today and tomorrow.

This little one lives in such a time.
And my day,
in truth, begins here.

Every time I say "I'm fine" during the day,
my heart gradually goes away.

So, while it's away,
where does my heart go?

As I stare at the light in my palms,
a memory suddenly overlaps.

The first night, when I had zero followers.

With trembling fingers,
I pressed "Publish" for the first time.

Back then, too, only this little one was awake.
The me who doesn't write, and the me who does.

The small flame I lit that night
has not gone out, and is still here now.

The place where my heart resides is surely here.

Between the light of the screen, the story I'm writing, and the sound of gnawing on timothy hay.

I get stuck on my writing, and my fingers stop.

When I turn my phone face down, the room gets a little darker,
and because of that, I can hear Mi-kun's sounds more clearly.

When I bring my finger close to the cage,
he gently presses his cool nose against it.

Just from that little thing,
my fingers start moving again; it's a mystery.

"I'm home" is a phrase said at the threshold of a door.

……I'm home.
Tonight, too, my heart is here.

Yukitsuzuri Yuki

The story of me and note is also here……✨