1. this book took place before kiss note. it happened when vinn's sister, joy, passed away.

2. technically, his parents died when he was younger. he grew up with his grandparents and sister. and so he cherished them so much more.

when his grandparents died, he was devastated. they stood as his mother and father. the only persons he could lean on when he's having a rough day at school especially after all the bullying. so when they left, he somehow lost sight of his path and began taking lots of painkillers.

3. as stated above, he got over it with the help of crawford (his best friend) and his sister, joy.

but when joy also passed away, he felt like his world was beginning to crumble when he wasn't even done gluing the pieces back together. so he went back to taking painkillers. when it wasn't enough he even tried doing drugs.

remember when joy asked him where he's been (when he went back 'home' since the painkillers / drugs' effects started wearing off) and she asked if she could come with him, he said no. she asked why and he said "it felt like hell back there" or smth. it's because he felt like he's in a living hell without his family.

4. remember when it was his parents' death anniversary? joy said they went to meet her brother but he couldn't come. he asked why but she said she didn't know but her hair turned white. because she did know. and it was because her brother's body cannot go to the cemetery that time. why? because he did drugs. and so, why his soul was in their realm after he crossed the boundary between life and death, his lifeline hanging by a thread.

vinn has been going to the lost world for a lot of times already. the first chapter wasn't the first time he's been there. but he doesn't remember going there at all which surprised joy when he came back and remembered. joy tried acting indifferent or like nothing happened before, like everything was reset. but when he came back frequently, she knew something was wrong and so why she told him not to go back. to just stay back in our world.

sometimes, vinn shows symptoms of being drugged or the side effects of painkillers such as nausea, dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness, poor eyesight, coughing out blood, etc. (when he was asked to sing but he felt like his throat was burning, when he keeps seeing colors differently like yellow = purple, blue = green, loads of fainting.)

remember those "lost | 00" chapters i posted sequentially? that's him taking drugs and ending up with a different delusions / hallucinations. like, he'd normally end up in joy's lost world but sometimes, he'd end up in . . . hell. or it felt like it because he kept seeing a little girl, dying (which was joy btw because he can't stop thinking about his sister).

here are a few screenshots of those chaps:

btw remember the cat drawings? joy said vinn drew 37 of them. that means he did drugs / took painkillers 37 times and ended up in the lost realm. (but considering that he sometimes end up in other dimensions . . . well, you get the drift.)

5. i purposely kept adding stuff like hello kitty socks or him claiming his name to be spongebob or dora or boots or buzz lightyear or woody or lightning mcqueen or barbie or hello kitty / kitty white or some other cartoon because he used to watch them with her when she was still alive.

remember when joy was tracking "lost" things and it turns out that they're actually "stolen"? who kept stealing them? swipers. this is a dora the explorer reference because of the same reason above.

remember when joy asked him to draw a cat? she told him she wanted a cat when she was alive. that's why vinn loved cats in kiss note. it reminds him of her.

also, he knew how to braid hair because he loved his sister so much he learned how to do it so he can make her feel pretty and happy when she was alive.

6. remember when he was asked what his talent was? he said he liked singing. and so, he became a member of the red bullet band.

7. oh, and like i said, the first chap wasn't their first encounter. at first, she found him familiar. like, "isn't that my brother? i mean, he looks older but i've been dead for a while so that's him, right?" but then she thought, "wait, is he dead? that can't be, i mean. why would his body be here? i died before him and my body hasn't even arrived in this world so ???"

that's why she kept asking his name every time he shows up. she wants to know if it really is his brother in that body or if some other soul is occupying his shell.

8. after vinn went to and fro the lost world, often forgetting he's been there in the first place, she began to understand. and so she acted like it's her first time meeting him, too. since all their memories together were put to a void in vinn's mind, anyway.

9. she lied about her brother being able to help him go home. in fact, she just wanted to bring vinn home and have him meet their family. hoping they could do something since she knows vinn shouldn't be there.

so yeah, i guess that's it lmao.

i wrote this around Chrismas time & finished it today, february 2, 2017. 8:45pm. (i'm not gonna post this today tho lol i updated a lot and there are loads of chaps left haha.)

let me know what you think, okay? thanks for reading! love lots! x