During the same day Aubrey, Basil, Kel, and the Hooligans went to Somewhere, Mari woke up to the sunlight that hit her eyes. She found herself still on Sunny's bed. Apparently, she cried herself to sleep yesterday, with her mom letting her go to sleep.
She woke up and did her morning routine; showering (with warm water), brushing her teeth, facial care, and changing her clothes. She walked down the dreaded stairs for breakfast. However…
As she passed the living room, her father stopped her as she was about to enter the kitchen.
"Mari."
Mari then stopped.
"... What is it, Dad?" She said, not looking back at her father, but still addressing him with respect.
"Mari Suzuki. Mathematics Final Exam. Grade C."
"Wha-"
Mari looked back at her father who was standing, with a crumpled piece of paper on his hands. It was the exam paper from yesterday that she threw away at some point into the trash bin.
Her father sighed, taking off his glasses and scratching his graying hair. He pointed the hand with the glasses towards her.
"... You know you can't keep going like this, right?"
"..."
"Do you want to be like your brother, huh? Imperfect, no talent, can't even master his recital score. Even his younger cousin already did it. How bleak do you want your future to be? Do you want to shame yourself?"
The Suzuki family was actually a very big family and a powerhouse in the music world. The Suzuki family had given birth to music legends, music prodigies and very intelligent individuals, as seen in their academic achievements. Because of that, every family in the Suzuki family was expected to have excellent children, hence the extremely high expectations.
"... Do you even hear yourself?"
"What?"
"Your son is gone, and all you care about is my grades!? And how I look!? I. Don't. Care. My little brother is out there. Scared, alone, probably-" Mari shivered, "-dead." She couldn't deny the fact that Sunny might be dead.
"So? What can I do? The police are searching for him, and you put up missing posters around, for goodness sake!"
"But are you searching for him!? From the looks of it, you don't even care if he doesn't come back!"
"..." Mari's father couldn't deny that.
"No, you know what? You don't care how bright or bleak my future is, all you care is how you look in the family! Am I right!?"
"That's not true, Mari." Mari's father's eyes said otherwise.
"You can refuse, but you can't hide it anymore! I'm no more than just your exhibit, to boast around our relatives, to make sure you aren't shamed!"
"That's enou-"
"Is that all we are to you!? Huh!? In fact, I think you're so happy that you have a reason to throw Sunny out. I bet you spread your lies, right!? 'Sunny was jealous, so he pushed Mari from the stairs. She didn't die though, so he ran away in fear.' Aren't I right!? Answer m-"
"ENOUGH!"
Silence ensued between the two. Her father broke the silence that he started.
"Mari Suzuki, you will study and practice this whole summer. I've neglected you too long." He grounded her.
"What right… do you have to do that?" Mari crumpled her hands into fists. She was furious .
"I'm your fathe-"
"NO, YAMAHA SUZUKI, YOU ARE NOT, YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A SELFISH SORRY EXCUSE OF A FATHER!"
Mari's father was startled.
Mari changed her mind, when she was before going to the kitchen, she now headed towards the front door.
"MARI, YOU TOUCH THAT DOOR AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE HERO AGAIN!"
Mari froze. Even if she hated Hero for what he did, Mari still loved Hero, even though looking at his face brings her bad memories, making her both sad and angry. But…
"Didn't I tell you? You're not my father."
Mari turned the knob.
"MARI! If you ever so open that door,
I'LL RESCIND THE SEARCH FOR SUNNY!"
Mari froze with shock.
Rescind the search for Sunny…?
Something snapped within Mari. Mari was both furious and sad hearing that, because as it turns out…
Mari's father didn't care about Sunny.
Mari's father didn't care about the both of them .
…
Mari opened the door.
"So that's your answer, huh!? So you don't care about Su-"
Before Yamaha Suzuki completed his sentence, Mari turned back looking at him. He didn't finish his sentence.
Mari was angry. Mari was crying. Mari was heartbroken.
Mari slammed the front door and ran. Mari's mother saw everything that happened from the door to the kitchen, afraid and unable to stop whatever happened.
It was a tiring morning for Hero. He didn't sleep well last night, and his sleep was interrupted by Kel. Unable to go back to sleep, he lazily walked towards the kitchen, not even bothering to take a shower or change his clothes. He was in blue striped pajamas.
…
He walked into the kitchen and was greeted by her mom.
"Good morning, dear! Oh, you look terrible."
"It's okay, Mom. I just need more sleep."
"Okay…" She looked worried.
Hero sat down on a chair, and his mom served him a plate of bacon and eggs. On the side, he was given orange juice. Yummy!
Hero initially didn't feel hungry, but the aroma and the sight of a recently cooked bacon and egg enticed his appetite.
"Say, where's Kel, Mom?" Hero put a piece of bacon into his mouth and chewed.
"He already left some time ago."
"Hmm…" Hero hummed as a response as he enjoyed his breakfast.
Knock knock knock.
There was someone in front of their door.
"I'll get it," Hero got off his chair and walked towards the front door.
Hero opened the door, "Hello, who is it- Mari…?"
In front of him, was the girl that he loved, and the girl that hated him for what he did. She was wearing a red t-shirt and short jeans which were higher than her knees. She was sobbing uncontrollably.
"Gosh, what happened?"
…
Hero took her to the living room and comforted her. Her mom also saw Mari crying, and brought a cup of water with her and comforted her together with Hero. After Mari was calm enough, Hero's mom left the room.
"... Are you okay now?"
Mari nodded.
They were sitting together with a gap between them on the couch. Hero didn't dare to violate her space due to their current state of relationship. But really, Hero wanted to hug her so much. Mostly because of the urge to give her comfort, the rest because Hero is pretty much love deprived for quite a long time.
Now, for the elephant in the room.
"... What happened, Mari?"
Mari stayed silent for a bit, and then opened her mouth.
"It's… my dad."
"What's wrong with your dad?"
"What's wrong with my dad!? He-... sorry." Mari realized that she never told Hero (or anyone) about her situation with her dad ever since Sunny went missing.
"It's… It's okay. I probably deserved it."
"No, you don't! I… I'm not being fair to you. I know you truly regretted what you did, and you even apologized. Not to mention you went out to find Sunny every time you had the chance. And after abandoning you for a year… Here I am, seeking a shoulder to cry on."
"No… I'm glad you- Wait, how did you know I was finding Sunny?"
Mari chuckled, "I know you, Hero. When you went missing every weekend, what else would you do? After what happened that day…" Her face instantly changed back to her sad expression.
Hero went silent.
"Well, back to the topic, me and dad had a fight about my bad grades. And then… and then… I got mad at him. I didn't regret screaming at him, though. He tried to ground me. I refused, of course. After that…"
Mari's lips trembled.
"He threatened me that he would call off the search for Sunny."
"He WHAT?" Hero eyes opened more.
"That was then I realized that whatever I said was true; he never cared about us… he only cared about looking good towards the big family. How… How could he!? How could he threaten me like that!? Sunny's his son, too! What father would threaten not finding his son!? I just… I just can't…"
Mari hugged herself. She was trembling and on the brink of crying.
"It's okay, it's okay…" Hero put his left arm around Mari's shoulders, with the hand rubbing her left shoulder, trying to comfort her.
"And… and… I went out. No… because of me, Sunny might never be found. Finding him will become longer… If we take too long, he'll die out there, he might be dead alre…"
Mari was afraid of the thought of finding Sunny dead. She started crying uncontrollably again, hyperventilating. But then…
Mari felt warmth on the right side of her face. Her face was pressing Hero's clothed chest. She also felt another hand embracing her. Hero finally hugged her and brought her near him.
"No, I'll find him. No matter what it takes… I'll find your Sunny, your little brother. Our little brother."
Mari started crying more.
"Hero, I'm so sorry for hating you. I'm so sorry for abandoning you. I… I'm a bad person."
"No, you're not. It was understandable. I get it."
"..."
"..."
"You smell, by the way," said Mari.
They both giggled.
"I mean, didn't you see what I'm wearing?"
"Point taken," Mari giggled again.
Hero and Mari enjoyed a few more moments of hugging.
…
Meanwhile, Hero's mother heard everything about Yamaha Suzuki from beside the entrance to the living room from the kitchen. "What…" She covered her mouth with her hands, horrified.
Moving back to the search party at Somewhere, Aubrey, Basil, Kel, and the Hooligans split up into two groups to search for Sunny. Aubrey, Basil, Mikhael, and Kim were in one group, while the other group had Kel, Charlene, Angel and Vance. Kel's group was given a picture of Sunny by Basil. It was the picture of their friends and Sunny with Sunny's plushies.
By the way, Aubrey's photo was Sunny's photo in his birthday present's box. Basil noticed her staring at it quite a lot, so he gave it to her at some point, realizing Aubrey's crush for Sunny.
"Good luck!" said Basil with a wink.
Darn it, Basil… Aubrey blushed a little bit as she remembered the last thing Basil told her when he gave her the photo.
They stumbled upon a fancy shoe shop, and decided to ask one of the customers there.
"Excuse me, mister… Did you happen to see him?" Aubrey showed the picture to an old man with a cane that came out of the shop, "He's this tall…"
"Hm… not that I remember, no."
"Okay…"
Aubrey looked down, and then went to ask another person. Basil gave thanks to the old man just before the party left the old man completely.
"Sunny!? Sunny! SUNNY IT'S YOUR BEST FRIEND KEL!" Kel was calling out to Sunny, but as a result he garnered quite the amount of weird looks at him. Vance, and Charlene were dying of second hand embarrassment. Angel, on the other hand, followed Kel.
"SUNNY!? I DON'T KNOW YOU BUT WE'RE FINDING YOU!"
"E-excuse me, do you know anyone that looks like this? He's about this tall…" Vance was asking one of the passersby away from the two screaming boys. Charlene was with him, too, also wanting to get away from their two fellow teammates as Vance did.
The sky had turned orange, but there was still some time before it got dark. The group met up together at the town square by the fountain in its center and shared their very disappointing results on searching for Sunny.
"Did you guys see any sign of Sunny?" Basil asked the other group.
"Nope, we called out to him but he never came to be," Kel answered.
"Kel, are you sure your information is correct?" Kim lifted her eyebrow. She was referring to the tip Kel got from his friend.
"Hey, why would anyone lie to me about Sunny!?"
"That's… true, though… If it was, it would be a trap like those scenes in gang movies…" stated Kim according to her knowledge based on fictional stories.
Aubrey looked depressed. They haven't seen Sunny nor hear a clue about Sunny's whereabouts. She was feeling frustrated at this point.
Seeing that the team is tired and it's getting late, Basil suggested going back home.
"Hey… It's late, we can try this again tomorrow- hm?"
Just then, Basil's ears picked up something.
…
…
It was the sound of a violin.