Chapter Text
It was raining on the night of Sunny and Mari's recital, but it wasn't that bad to call it off. From the window, Mari could see the rustling of the trees as she played the piano. She frowned at the idea of it becoming a storm. Yet what she didn't know was at that moment a different storm was already brewing, and she would be the first one to experience it .
Mari abruptly stopped and played an out of tune note, when Sunny almost kicked one of the legs of the grand piano. With wide eyes, she looked at her brother. "Sunny? What?"
Sunny swatted his bangs away from his eyes and let out a frustrated groan.
"I can't take this! I can't take this anymore Mari! No matter what I do, I always get that part wrong!"
They were very close to the end and Sunny always fumbled on the second to the last measure. Mari sighed and reached out to him to pat his shoulder. Though she was getting annoyed of Sunny's behavior; she didn't want to disrupt her own concentration from the piano.
'Maybe he just needs a little pep talk?' she thought to herself naively, pep talks always worked on Sunny. She forced a small smile and looked at him. "Come on Sunny! just one last push! You can do it!"
"That's not the point!"
Sunny stormed out of the room, leaving a confused Mari to follow in pursuit. "Hey Sunny, wait!" she called out. Sunny hated it. Sunny hated it so much. No matter what he did to make him play better, no matter how many rounds- his hands would simply not cooperate with him. And what made things worse was Mari's guts to give him words of encouragement. He swung open the door to his room and opened his violin case. Before he could shove the accursed thing inside, Mari had already entered the room.
"Sunny, now's not the time to place back your violin! This is our last practice, I promise!"
"You said that hours ago!" Sunny muttered. "I can't do it Mari, I just can't do it. It's better if you play without me."
Mari's frown deepened and turned into a scowl the moment Sunny dropped the violin. "You're kidding right?" She stopped him from closing the container. "You're not serious... you can't throw this away Sunny. We've been practicing for months!”
"Well I already have. I could've used those months doing something else but I ended up using it on that stupid violin."
Mari looked at him hurt from what he said. "Take that back." When Sunny shook his head she repeated it louder. "I said, take that back!"
"No!" he shouted, his grip on the violin tightening as he unknowingly took it from the case. "You want this piece to be perfect- No... you want me to be perfect! But guess what? I'm not perfect, and I never will be!" He rushed out of the door and ignored her scoff from inside the room. He felt mad. No, enraged. Mari wanted him to be perfect, but he was far from it. The violin quivered violently from his hand and he found an urge to break something.
Unable to control the whirlwind of his emotions; he threw the violin down the stairs in a fit of rage. Mari gasped when she exited the door.
"Sunny!"
She ran towards the stairs and looked below. To her disbelief, there on the ground lay Sunny's broken violin.
"S-Sunny how could you?! That violin was from our friends! I can't believe you-"
Sunny clenched his fists and looked at his feet, unable to say anything. Even he was taken aback by what he had just done, but it was already too late.
He needed out.
"Sunny, look at me."
He could now hear Mari shout at him. She was shouting at him. But he couldn't bear to face her.
"SUNNY LOOK AT ME!"
Sunny darted away from her and approached the stairs, he knew to himself that things wouldn't end well if he stayed in the house.
"We're not done here Sunny! You're not running away from this." she snapped, blocking his path.
He shook his head and roughly grabbed her wrist, with the strength of a 12 year old, he yanked her away from the top of the staircase causing her to land with a thud behind him. Sunny then ran for the door and avoided the bits and fragments of his former violin. He didn't want to look at it- not after what he had done. Before Mari could shout another word, the boy took his shoes from the shoe rack and ran inside the pouring rain.
Mari, now alone in the quiet house, sat there shocked from what had just happened. 'Sunny... how could he do this? after all we've worked hard on..' Tears started brimming from her eyes as her anger slowly dissipated. She looked down the stairs once again and took to heart the sight of Sunny's shattered violin. Never in her life had she felt this betrayed by her own brother.
Not knowing what else to respond to, and knowing Sunny was already gone, she hugged her knees and silently wept on top of the staircase.
Sunny ran as far as his feet could carry him, anywhere, as long as it was far away from the house. He couldn't face Mari after what he did, and there was no longer any use to go to the recital. He thought of his friends waiting for them inside that mini auditorium, now they would never hear him and Mari play. But that didn't change the way he felt about the violin and the pressure he forced unto himself just to play it.
The rain thickened as he made his way through the streets. He didn't even get the chance to take an umbrella.
Panting, he stopped in the middle of the road to catch his breath, but he was met with loud honking and the screeching of tire wheels. Afraid, he rushed to the other side and entered the park. It was empty, but he didn't bother looking for anyone. Sunny jogged towards their secret hangout spot with despair etched on his face.
The soil was moist below his feet, and the wind was getting stronger.
When he reached his final destination, Sunny noticed that he had run through the streets without putting his shoes on. With a sigh, he dumped it next to the dock and sat down on the edge. Knowing that no one would hear him, he let out a loud cry.
He looked at the murky water and saw his reflection through the rippling rain. 'This is your fault.' he muttered to himself angrily and kicked it. 'This is all your fault.' Unbeknownst to him the water was already reaching the tip of his toes. He stayed there wishing there was a way for him to escape.
A few minutes passed into hours and Sunny had slowly calmed down. The recital didn't happen, and the rain had grown heavier. He was genuinely too tired to care about the water reaching his knees.
Letting out a heavy sigh, he wiped out the remnants of his tears and tried to get up. He knew that Mari wouldn't care to look for him after what he had done. But for some reason when he tried lifting his legs up from the water, his one leg was stuck. His heart started pounding when he tried to shake it loose.
His sock had gotten caught on a large nail. He shouted for help but no one came for him.
He was alone.
It was hard to see what he was working on, so instead, Sunny inched a little closer towards the edge and tried removing his sock. With the last of his strength, Sunny tried to pull himself free. But to his misfortune he miscalculated his weight and ended up falling face first into the water.
Sunny screamed. The raging water was dragging him down and his arms felt heavy. He couldn't swim, he didn't know how to swim- he was afraid, and he didn't want to die. Mari wasn't there for him to save him, so there was nothing he could do. As he sunk deeper into the lake, he found himself staring at the dark sky. Even as it was raining, he could see the stars twinkle above him.
I'm sorry Mari.. I hope you forgive me…
He then closed his eyes and was met with pure darkness.