After finishing their performance, they were met with a round of applause.

The two performers on stage, a pianist and a cellist, bowed towards the audience.

Abbi looked to her left and saw Sunny, her very adorable 'brother', as she waved at him with a smile.

But…

Why did he look sad?

It wasn't very apparent on Sunny's face, but there were slight changes on his face that indicated he was sad.

Despite only knowing Sunny for about a month, Abbi had grown very attached to Sunny. She would spend a lot of time with Sunny during her free time, and was very happy everytime Sunny applauded her playing the piano. Although, she had seen Sunny looking sad every time after he applauded her. She didn't notice it at first, but spending a lot of time with Sunny made her notice the small changes on his face.

Abbi knew that it wasn't because her playing was bad. Rather, Sunny himself told her it wasn't because of that. The only clue she had on his reason was that it was related to his big sister by blood. Many times she had asked Sunny, only for him to not answer her. Nevertheless, seeing him sad always ruined her own mood. She didn't blame him, however.

She was in turmoil as she was sitting backstage. She wanted to help Sunny. She couldn't bear seeing her adorable 'brother' sad. Those thoughts occupied her mind as the next performer, the solo violinist, went up the stage and played.

Hiko saw this and asked her, "What's wrong?"

"... It's Sunny."

"Oh."

Hiko knew about Sunny looking sad every time Abbi played the piano.

"Still, however. He never says a lot about himself. There's a chance… He was always like this."

"..."

When Hiko looked at Sunny, he was reminded of his old self; reserved and not showing a lot of emotions. The only reason he was what he was now was because… of a certain person in the past that he treasured a lot.

"... I'll probably try something so that he will open up. Don't think too much about it. It may not look like it, but you are the place where he feels comfortable." Hiko smiled at Abbi.

Abbi looked at Hiko and blushed a little bit. She giggled, "Aren't you, too?"

"... I guess so. But you spend more time annoying him than I do, right?"

"I can't help it. I mean, look at his face! Isn't he the most adorable thing?"

"I… guess I can see that."

They waited until the soloist's performance was over, and headed towards Sunny who was in the audience seats.

The both of them were expecting a flat face or a slightly sad one, but…

They saw Sunny in the distance, with his eyes gleaming and his mouth open. He was at the edge of his seat.

The both of them were surprised looking at Sunny's expression.

"... Su- ahem, Omori?" Hiko called out to Sunny.

Sunny broke out of his trance, and ran over to Hiko and Abbi. Abbi held Sunny's hand as they walked back home from the theater.

They were walking on the dark streets of Nowhere, towards the creative hall. After all, this was where Hiko usually stashed his cello.

Unlike the usual, Sunny's eye was still shining. He looked full of energy, unlike his usual self. Abbi looked at Sunny and saw this.

Abbi smiled when she started her question, "What's up, Sunny?"

Sunny was taken aback, and looked at Abbi. His gleaming eyes just made him extra adorable.

So cute….! Abbi thought to herself as she had her heartsqueeze.

While trying to hold her desire to hug Sunny, Sunny whispered something.

"... play…"

"Huh? What did you say?" Abbi asked.

"I… want to play the violin. I want to play that song." Sunny's eyes were determined.

Hiko heard the word violin and perked up. He looked at Sunny with surprise, and then wore a smile.

"... I see! Fortunately, there's a violin in the hall. Der Erlkönig was it? Hm… That might be too hard for you…"

"I… I want to play that song!" Hiko was taken aback by Sunny's whisper. Sunny wasn't usually this assertive about what he wanted.

"... Alright then! I'm sure there's a score there left by the founders!" Hiko smiled a big smile. He looked forward after that, and had this look in his eyes that was a mix of sadness and nostalgia.

The backstage of the hall was very dark, filled with various instruments, constructs and gimmicks. There was a big shelf on the back that spanned through its entire wall. The shelves were either empty or filled to the brim with scores.

Hiko walked towards the shelf, trying to find Franz Schubert's Der Erlkönig.

"... Found it," it was located on the bottom of a score pile. After all, it was a very difficult piece, which meant fewer people didn't want to play it. Then, he walked to the right, towards a black violin case that hadn't been touched for a long time.

He opened it and saw a worn black violin, with scratches on its body.

"... It's been a while, Hime." Hiko smiled sadly as he saw this violin. It belonged to the one he held dear long ago.

He closed the violin case, and brought it into light after many years of neglect.

The hall was empty that day.

Abbi and Sunny were sitting together at the edge of the stage. Sunny was waving his legs, waiting in anticipation for the violin. Abbi looked at Sunny and smiled. Abbi loved how Sunny looked at the moment; like a child excited for a new toy. She would prefer any day over a sad Sunny.

The both of them heard steps from backstage. It was Hiko coming out with a violin case. He laid the violin case in front of Sunny. Sunny looked at the violin case, his eyes brimming with excitement.

"... Do you want to open it?" Hiko looked at Sunny as he smiled.

Sunny slowly opened the case and took out the violin. Sunny looked at the violin, amused.

"Do you want to try the violin first, Sunny?"

Sunny nodded, as he put himself in playing posture and held the bow on the violin.

….. Hyyyyyyyyyymmmmnnnn…..

The violin played a very sweet note.

Abbi and Hiko just looked at him surprised, blinking twice. Apparently, Sunny had experience with the violin.

"Very beautiful, Sunny," Hiko said.

"It is, it is!" Abbi followed up.

Hiko handed the score to Sunny.

"... Are you sure, Sunny? This is a very difficult composition." Hiko asked.

Sunny nodded without hesitation. He wanted to play this very score.

Sunny read the score from the beginning to the end, with a frown on his face after seeing it all. Nevertheless, Sunny was determined to play this very score.

And so, he played.

…

He played horribly.

He missed a lot of notes, some of them screeched. Sunny looked and felt down. He felt depressed that he wasn't able to play like the soloist he saw. However…

Clap, clap, clap.

Hiko and Abbi were applauding him. Sunny looked at them confused.

"Why…?" Sunny whispered towards them.

"I applaud you for your courage to try and play the score. Of course, your first time would be bad. Even more so for Der Erlkonig," Hiko smiled, "Well, honestly, I think that you should start with something easier. But, if you still want to play this, I'll support your decision."

"I'll support you, too!" Abbi gave Sunny a big smile.

Sunny felt warm. It reminded him of that time Sunny started to play their recital score. It didn't go as well, of course. There were a lot of mistakes here and there. However, Mari still gave Sunny positive emotional support. Well, that was very long ago…

Thinking about it again,

Sunny really missed Mari giving him words of encouragement and her being proud of him.

Sunny felt tears run down, as he wiped off his tears.

"Sunny!? What's wrong? Abbi asked, as she saw Sunny crying a bit.

Sunny just shook his head as he gave the both of them a smile bigger than usual. The both of them stared at Sunny for a while, and smiled back.

What a bright smile, Hiko thought.

The next day…

It was a Sunday.

Abbi woke up and sat down. She looked around her. It was her apartment. A ray of light went into their room through the open window on top of the apartment door. There was Hiko and the usual stuff.

…

Wait, where's Sunny? Abbi thought.

Abbi instantly stood up, and woke Hiko up. Abbi panicked as she saw Sunny wasn't sleeping between the two of them.

Just before Abbi was about to run out and search the entire town, Hiko told her to calm down.

"Calm down, Abbi. Sunny's fine."

"W-what do you mean, he's fine!? He's gone!"

"Yeah, Sunny's gone, because he went to the hall earlier." Hiko rubbed his eye.

"... Huh?"

"Sunny woke me up earlier, asking if he could go to the hall. I let him, of course, and gave him the keys." The last person to leave the halls usually left with the key. Most of the time, it was Hiko or Abbi.

"Oh…" Abbi sat down on their only chair, relieved.

Hiko was organizing his thoughts and his plans for the morning, "Hm… I guess I'll just cook breakfast in the hall… Well then!" He clapped his face, "Let's go to Sunny."

The doors to the hall were pushed open. It was unlocked.

Hiko and Abbi entered the badly lit hall. Entering, they were met with a horrible noise.

It was Sunny still struggling to play the piece. He was just about to finish the score when Hiko called out to him.

"Sunny!"

Sunny stopped and looked at the source of the voice, it was Hiko and Abbi.

"You're doing great! Maybe this time, you should try part by part!" said Hiko.

Sunny nodded upon Hiko's advice, and started to practice the galloping part instead. Of course, he wasn't able to do the two and three stops consistently.

While Sunny was practicing, Hiko set up a table and a portable stove. On his hand were ingredients he brought from the apartment and stuff he brought from the convenience store recently. Hiko decided to make toast and bacon.

Now you might be asking (you're probably not), where does Hiko keep all his frozen stuff?

Well, Hiko knew everyone that was good or morally gray in the town of Nowhere. He established connections and befriended them so that he could ask favors from them. Now, Hiko was good friends with the usual convenience store staff, which he took advantage of by asking them to store some of his stuff in their fridge and being allowed to buy cigarettes despite not being legal to buy them. Anyway, back to the story..,

…

As Hiko was cooking, Sunny was making screeching noises trying to nail down the part. The noises hurt in their ears, but they decided to not make him stop to show their support. Until…

Slowly, Sunny was starting to play the two stops a lot more consistently. The quality of the sound was subpar, but it was getting better. This surprised Hiko.

"Wait… that's not normal," Hiko looked back at Sunny.

(W notes: Okay, before we continue, I'm just going to say I have no experience nor research about how difficult two and three stops are on violins. Okay, moving on.)

Two stops and three stops essentially means playing two and three strings at the same time respectively. It was an advanced violin technique that was hard to nail.

… And Sunny here had started to get the hang of two stops in such a short amount of time with no prior learning experience of playing two stops. True, the sound quality was still bad, but he's getting somewhere.

Hiko and Abbi looked at each other upon a conclusion they made.

"Abbi, Sunny's…"

"... Yeah…"

They both realized that…

Sunny is a Ling Ling prodigy.