I struggle with words for darker stories because if I say "what a depressing story" it like... almost sounds like a bad thing, but I don't mean it that way. š But it had an uplifting end to it. I was kinda suspicious of the boyfriend the whole time just because his sprite was obscured, but I'm glad he just ended up being a sweetie.
I wish we could've interacted with the NPCs, or at least the second one. I kinda thought the friend would have something to say, if that was her at the second desk.
I kinda wish mouse controls would let me go between maps; it seemed like they only triggered with arrow keys, and I got confused trying to leave the house in the beginning. š I think this was RPG maker? I think I've seen other games that used RPG maker have an arrow sprite pop up when you're near an exit tile. Something like that might've made indoor exits more clear.
Overall, I thought you did well. The color palette well-suited the melancholy-ness of the story.
(spoilers)
I got two endings, and out of morbid curiosity, I kept trying to trigger a "worst ending," but either there isn't one or I couldn't figure it out. I don't think this needed a dark ending by any means. But since the map is there, maybe it could've used one last line from Maryanne on that map telling us that there's nothing to do, else I wouldn't have kept checking tiles, wondering why the map was accessible at all. š
I think the sprite that spawns if you go there immediately was an interesting change that prompted more exploring, but it may have been a little misleading since there wasn't anything beyond that.