I emerged from the caves on another summer evening, backpack full of quartz and other minerals. Willy had once mentioned the museum here, and that its curator was always looking for new artifacts and rocks to display. Was there a chance he'd take interest in what I found? I made a mental note of it.

I looked up at the sky, which was darkening, but not dark. I looked at my watch and decided that there wasn't enough time to store my newfound rocks away and head over to the beach… but also that there was too much time for me to just go to bed.

I took a slow stroll over to town, trying to come up with something to do. Mining was out, fishing was out… Pierre's was closed… I'd watered the sunflowers I'd planted… Maybe I could train Laslow to walk on a leash? Nah, it was too late to get over to the city to even buy a leash.

As I came down the stone steps by Pierre's, one building stuck out to me like the moon in a starry sky: the saloon. Kinda helped it was the only one that seemed to have light coming from it, at least that wasn't a house.

I hadn't touched Junimo Kart in a while. At this point, I wondered if it was even still there.

No harm in taking a look, I decided with a shrug. So I headed to the saloon.

When I got in, I was immediately taken aback by how lively it was. It seemed like there was at least one person in every corner, from those at the bar to a guy standing by the fireplace and sulking (his obvious grimace stuck out like a sore thumb in this place; it was kinda funny). Everyone except the sulking fireplace guy was smiling and laughing in one way or another. It honestly felt a bit foreign to me. I even prodded the top of my thumb with a fingernail to inflict just enough pain to confirm this wasn't a dream.

I turned toward the game room… immediately seeing Abigail sitting on the couch and Sam on the near end of the pool table. I imagined Sebastian was there as well, but he must have been obscured by the wall.

I took note of how I was still afraid to go over there for fear of intruding on their hangout. A year doesn't always do much, I suppose.

Afraid didn't mean refusing in this case, though. I'd come all the way over here, and the blue-haired bartender had even shouted a "Hello!" my way. I wasn't about to just turn around and leave.

I took a breath and stepped carefully toward the game room. Junimo Kart was calling my name, encouraging me toward it.

After I got about halfway across the floor, I stopped again. What if Abigail, Sebastian, and Sam really were trying to hang out by themselves, just the three of them?

"What are you doing?" asked a disgruntled voice from my 8 o' clock.

I turned to see the guy with the grimace. Said grimace had grown (somehow) and was now directed completely at me.

What, you've never had social anxiety before?, I wanted to retort.

"You know, I… don't know," I said instead, completely defeated. I felt all the energy, all the motivation, leave my body, making me feel weak. Feeling my face heat up, I turned toward the door to leave. What the fuck was I doing? Why couldn't I just have gone straight home and hid myself from the world under a blanket for the rest of the night?

I'm grateful to Abigail for what she did next.

"Hey!" she said in a friendly manner. I knew she was greeting me. I turned around, and she was standing in the entryway to the game room.

"Hi!" I smiled, still feeling a bit weak from all the anxiety I'd just had.

"Come hang out with us!" said Abigail.

"Alright!" I answered, following her back into the game room and to the couch where she'd been sitting before. I sat down next to her.

Before I sat, though, I peeked over at the pool table. There seemed to be an equal amount of bolds and stripes on it. Could Sam stand a chance of winning this time?

As I sat, I heard a shot, a ball going into a hole, and Sam's irritated cry of "NO!" I stood to get a look at the table, and realized the 8-ball was nowhere to be found. Part of me wanted to laugh.

"You could easily have avoided that!" Sebastian taunted from across the table.

Sam opened his mouth to argue, but instead said "Yeah, yeah. Rematch." Sebastian "tch"ed in response, before they both gathered up the balls.

"Was that Shane that snapped at you?" asked Abigail. "Don't pay him any mind. He's sort of an ass."

"Oh, yeah?" I replied, making a mental note of that.

"Yup," said Abigail. "That's his demeanor 24/7."

"Oof," was all I could think to say in response. I also wondered where the nearest therapist was; if Abigail was right, he needed one.

At this point, the boys had finished setting up for the next game.

"I'll break," said Sebastian, switching places with Sam and putting the cue ball in the right position.

"…I won't make that mistake this time," Sam said, seeming to have gotten renewed motivation. I took a look at his face, which had a look of utter determination. It was inspiring.

"Glad to hear it," said Sebastian, sorta indifferently, as if he knew he'd win again, or that Sam would make the same mistake again.

Right after Sebastian made the break shot, I remembered I'd come here to play Junimo Kart. Though… watching these two play pool had captivated my attention. Abigail seemed to be just as captivated as me, curiously enough.

A little bit into this next game, my eyes fell on Sam's hair… and my brain did a bit of an interesting process.

"Hey, um…" I said to Abigail. "Do you watch anime?"

"Some, yeah," she replied with a smile. "Do you?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "…Do you watch YoYo's Crazy Day?"

"Oh, that's such a good one!" she beamed. "Which arc is your favorite?"

"I haven't seen all of it," I said. "I'm on Orange Transit right now."

"Ooh, you have a lot to look forward to," Abigail smiled. "I think that one's got my favorite opening."

"It is pretty cool," I nodded.

I looked over at Sam's hair again, confirming this thought I was having.

It was also at this point that Sam said he was going to the bathroom, and left. This was good, because of what I was about to do.

I brought up a picture on my phone of a YoYo character, Pormeree, and showed it to Abigail.

"I recently couldn't help but notice how similar Sam's hair is to this guy's," I said with a laugh.

Pormeree's hair may have been black, but it stood tall via some unseen force, just like Sam's.

"Oh my Yoba, I see it," Abigail said, then proceeding to start laughing.

"Right?" I said, laughing myself. "I don't know how it took me this long to see it."

"I didn't see it until just now, either," laughed Abigail. "Wow, that's hilarious."

"It's like an exact copy!" I said.

"Like Sam has a picture of Pormeree taped to his mirror for inspiration or something," she added. Our laughter grew in intensity for a bit.

Among our laughter, I thought I could hear a third entity let out a brief exhale that could qualify as a laugh.

I looked over at Sebastian. Surely enough, whether he wanted the world to see it or not, there was a smile on his face. Did he watch YoYo, too?

The night wrapped up with Sebastian having a 6-0 win in pool. Sam had great sportsmanship and optimism, yet I still had to feel at least somewhat bad for him.

We walked with Sam back to his house first, since it was the closest. We said our goodbyes before he went inside.

"Let's stop by my place next," said Sebastian. "Abby, you left something in my garage last time you were there."

"Did I?" Abigail responded. "…Oh, wait, is that where my amethyst went?!"

"That's the one," Sebastian answered. "Come on."

As we all walked over to Sebastian's place, I wondered exactly how often Abigail visited him. Must have been somewhat frequently, right? Unless the time I'd heard them talking was when she left the amethyst behind. Wouldn't be too strange, I figured.

Once we got there, Sebastian said "I'll go get it. You guys wait here.", then quickly went into the house. The garage was closed; I guessed he would've had to get there via the house. A few moments later, he came back out with the amethyst in his hands, then walked up to Abigail and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she said, taking the gem off his hands.

A beat of silence passed.

"Are you… sure you guys want to go home by yourselves?" asked Sebastian. "It is dark out. I can walk you back, if you want."

Was this guy blushing?! Wait, of course he was. It was Abigail he was asking more than me. I could fend for myself, so I waited for Abigail's answer. If she wanted his company, I would be more than happy to take the back road home alone so they could have their time together.

But, to my disappointment, she answered "No, I'm okay."

Stifling a sigh, I said "If nothing else, I'm armed."

"Wait…" Sebastian said. "With, like… a gun?"

"Oh, no, no," I said.

I took the backpack off my shoulders, tossed it to the ground, unzipped it, and took out my favorite sword. Despite all the underground creatures I'd slain with it, it was surprisingly clean. Not shiny, but clean.

"I've been going mining a lot lately," I said, showing the sword off. "There are… creatures down there. I learned how to defend myself pretty quick."

Abigail just stared at the sword. Sebastian did the same, but with a bit of an understanding nod. Noticing the lull in the conversation, I looked at my watch and noticed it was midnight.

"Oof, we should probably be getting home," I said, putting the sword back in my bag.

"Yeah," said Abigail.

"I'll see you guys later, I suppose," said Sebastian.

"Yup, see you around!" I waved.

He went inside, and Abigail and I headed back toward town.

"What are the mines like?" she asked as we walked. "You did say there were monsters down there."

"There'll never be any monsters on the first level," I said, hoping I hadn't scared her. "And really, it's mainly slime creatures that'll leap at you and take a nip. If you get deep enough, you run into these shadow-zombie-like things, but they're pretty dumb, so a few slices is good enough to bring them down."

"Wow," said Abigail, seeming genuinely amazed. "That actually sounds pretty cool. Maybe…"

"Hm?" I said, hearing that she'd trailed off.

"Ah, it's…" she said. "…I was about to say that you should take me with you sometime, but… I don't know."

"You don't have to go until you're ready," I assured her. "It scared me at first, too, the prospect of going down into the ground where you could get mauled by monsters if you're not careful. Thankfully, being careful pretty much means using common sense."

Abigail was about to respond, but a noise had us both stopping in our tracks. It was… sorta like a chirp. A chirp of a bird that was both foreign to me and extremely close.

"What was that?" asked Abigail, clearly a little scared.

"I don't know," I answered, turning so my backpack faced her. "But could you reach into my bag and hand me my sword? You can't be too careful."

She didn't even say a word as she unzipped my bag and handed the sword to me. I grabbed it and did a 360 scan of the area. We were near the abandoned building between the town and the mountain, and right off the bat, there didn't seem to be anything suspicious around. I kept looking, though, incase we were about to be ambushed by a shadow monster that had blended into the darkness.

Then, the noise happened again. This time, it also came with something tapping the toe of my boot.

I instinctively grasped the sword with both hands and pointed it down at the ground… where I saw something that looked like an apple with eyes and appendages. It looked up at me curiously.

I suddenly felt a bit dizzy, wondering if something was wrong with me. Was I hallucinating? Had something gone wrong in my brain, like a stroke or something?

"W-What is that?" Abigail asked, completely flabbergasted at the creature as well.

Nope, not hallucinating. Unless… we were both hallucinating. But could two people hallucinate the same thing?

Before I could come up with another thought, the creature paced slowly toward the abandoned building. Abigail and I looked at each other, completely confused.

"Do we… follow it?" she asked.

"I don't know," I answered. "What if it's taking advantage of our curiosity to lead us to a trap?"

"I don't know about that," Abigail replied. "I have a… good feeling about the little guy."

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Like… it wants to show us something."

I took a breath and said "Alright. How about this, then? You follow it, and I'll wait outside incase anything happens."

I desperately hoped and prayed nothing would happen. Having someone's life on my shoulders gave me anxiety like you wouldn't believe.

"Okay," Abigail agreed.

She set off on a slow pace, following the creature into the abandoned building. I followed closely behind, looking around me at all times, both hands on my sword and ready to strike. I stopped at the door to the building, though, looking inside instead of going inside.

Abigail was now standing in front of an ensemble of the little creatures. And they were all holding things.

My first impulse was that these "things" were weapons, so without thinking, I dashed in there. But once I got in there, I saw the things properly.

They were instruments. Not of warfare or torture… but music. These tiny creatures were holding bonafide… tiny, but still genuine… musical instruments of different kinds. There were a couple of cellos, some violins, a flute or two… and one even had what looked like a digital piano.

"Hey," said Abigail, pointing to the piano. "That keyboard looks like the one Sebastian plays."

"So it's electronic?" I asked.

As to answer my question, the creature standing in front of it played a few notes. It was, indeed, an electric piano, whose bell-like notes echoed throughout the building.

I held my nose and tried to breathe again. Nope, still couldn't do that.

I was awake… but was I even in the real world anymore? Was there a portal to a different realm somewhere I'd stepped into without realizing?

The little creatures took advantage of the lull in the conversation. They all took hold of their instruments, and before I knew it, they were playing a song. It was composed of strings, a few notes of piano here and there, and a flute.

I looked at Abigail… who was playing said flute.

"Wait, what?!" I reacted. "Have you… always had that?"

Before I could get an answer, though, the strangest impulse occurred to me. A ball of stress came up in my heart. Something in me wanted me to wait until a certain bar in this song I'd never heard, and then take part in the song.

I fought with myself for a bit while I waited. Was this… mind control? Had Abigail fallen for this same impulse? Were these creatures making us submit to them as their prey or something?

Then, we were just one bar away from where I was to come in. How I knew that, I didn't know… but I knew it.

The impulse won. I took a breath in… and, on an "oo," began to sing.

Each note came to me individually. There was no warning. I hadn't come up with any of it beforehand. I wasn't thinking about any of it. Every note bypassed my conscious thinking and went straight to my vocal cords, where it came out.

And the craziest thing? It was all a coherent song. Perhaps one of the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard. If Abigail had the same impulse, it was causing her to play in perfect harmony with the rest of us.

Somehow, an impulse we didn't know the origin of was having us perform perfectly a song we'd never heard before in our lives.

For the first minute of this, I was super anxious and confused as to what the fuck was happening… but after that minute, I realized that whatever was happening, I liked it. The music was embracing me, allowing me to be my best, most confident self in these moments.

For the first time, I noticed that all the problems I was forced to carry with me throughout every day… the disaster that was currently most of the farm, my feelings for Sam… took active thought to even acknowledge. When I was perfectly singing this melody I'd never heard in my life, there were no problems. There was no negativity, no sorrow. There was nothing but me, the moonlight, and the music flowing not only out from my throat, but through my veins.

About three minutes into all this, I noticed that Abigail and I were performing the same melody, just with different notes. Two notes at a time that produced a harmony, almost like a duet singing a love ballad.

And before I knew it, everything went quiet. The song was over.

As I was processing that we were back to reality, I saw the creatures disperse, as if this had been a mere rehearsal that had just been dismissed.

The silence was deafening, but at the same time, I didn't want to break it. Abigail was the one to do that for me.

"What… just happened?" she asked, almost breathlessly.

"Well, let's see if you had the same thing happen to you as I had happen to me," I said. "When those little guys started to play those instruments, did you get an unexplainable impulse to play along? Then, when you played, did you know every note despite having never heard the song in your life?"

"Word for word," Abigail nodded. "That's what happened to me, too."

"…Well, first off," I said. "I didn't know you played the flute! You're so good!"

Abigail blushed and said "Thanks. And you! I didn't know your singing voice was so beautiful!"

"Aw, shucks," I said, not being able to help but blush and smile.

I almost didn't want to think about where those creatures had come from anymore. I felt it would've ruined the magic the night brought to us.

Author's note: I feel like I took some huge risks with this one, first being referencing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by calling it YoYo's Crazy Day. "Pormeree" refers to Polnareff, and although his and Sam's hair aren't too similar, looking at Polnareff's hair made me think of Sam's for some reason, so here we are. I'm on Stardust Crusaders, by the way, and I think this has become my favorite anime.

I also got the idea for the Junimo part after listening to TPR's rendition of "Corridors of Time" from Chrono Trigger. That's the song I picture everyone was performing.

I am proud of all this, though. This is the longest chapter of anything I've written in a long while, and for once, I love how it came out.

Well, if you've made it this far, you're freakin' awesome. Have a fantastic day/night/somewhere in between.