"Wow, it's big!"

The little blonde girl instantly ran inside the house without hesitation, looking around curiously like an excited little pup. Her eyes darted around, until she saw the couch in the middle of the living room, empty and untouched. Following her instinct, Ella immediately ran to the couch and jumped on it, making a moderately large 'poof' sound that echoed through the empty living room.

"Hey, uh…" Mari spoke.

"Yeah?" The blonde girl looked at Mari, the big and innocent eyes behind the sunglasses looking straight towards Mari.

"You know what? Never mind…" Mari wanted to tell Ella to get off the couch and wipe off her sweat first, but Mari didn't have the mental energy to lecture her and walked off to the kitchen, "Please wait for a bit, I still have to put these groceries into the fridge."

"Okaaayyy!" Ella looked at Mari and answered with a childish demeanor while laying on top of the couch, her long blonde hair covering a part of the couch.

While Ella was lying on the couch waiting, Mari began the next part of her chore as she opened the fridge and started putting the foodstuffs in the fridge.

Eggs on the top door shelf… vegetables in the bottom containers… meat in the freezer… Alright. Now, the pasta to the left top drawer…

While Mari's mind focused on her current chore, she couldn't help but think about the strange girl that she brought into her house. She seemed familiar, and she definitely didn't seem like the type to rob other people's stuff after being welcomed into her helper's house. Her blue dress wasn't a cheap dress, signifying she was from a well-off family.

Who was that girl? Mari wondered as her hands autopiloted her chore, she seemed WAY too familiar. It feels like I've seen her before.

Mari browsed through her memories while she was putting the canned foodstuff into the right top drawer.

… Nope, can't recall anything. Who is she?

With her memory search not having fruition, Mari decided to focus back to the thing she was supposed to do.

However, she was interrupted again. This time, though, it wasn't because of her thoughts.

A faint melody from a piano was caught by Mari's ear, and she immediately knew what song it was;

The dreaded song that she and her little brother practiced for months for.

Mari's mind throbbed as the memories she wished she didn't remember flooded her mind.

"Again."

"Why can't you do this?!"

"Sunny! Are you taking this seriously!?"

In the midst of her loud memories, she saw her own raised hand directed towards her own little brother.

No… stop. Please, no, she pleaded to her dark memories.

CLANK! The canned meat that was on her hand fell down to the floor with a loud impact, as she put both of her hands on her ears, covering them in an attempt to drown out the sounds. Unfortunately, memories didn't work that way.

Mari needed to stop the song, so her mind wouldn't destroy her more than it had done. Mari psyched herself and started running to the source of the song, and it wasn't difficult to know where it came from.

The thumping of her feet to the ground felt really loud to her, as if her very own feet were making contact with the ground right next to her head. It was deafening, with the voices tormenting her. Time felt as if it slew down to a crawl.

After an eternity, she finally got herself to the piano room, and saw the blonde girl that she brought in playing the piano. Mari raced to the girl, trying to stop her from playing more of the song.

Unfortunately, Mari tripped on herself. Her feet tangled with her other feet, making her faceplant onto the floor.

On the bright side, her falling had made a loud noise, which prompted the unknowing blonde girl to stop in shock. The girl soon looked back and saw that her helper had fallen to the floor.

"H-hey! Are you okay, Mari?" Ella quickly scampered to Mari to help her get up.

Mari stayed silent as she supported herself with the help of numbing pain had quite literally silenced her as she felt pain throughout her face and her torso.

"Ow…" Mari groaned, attempting to stand up with the blonde girl's help, "I'm okay. Though… that song…"

"Oh? That? I was bored, so I decided to take a look around the house," Ella pointed towards the piano that still had the score of Duet resting on top of the piano's body, "Then, I saw the piano and the score. So… I played it to pass time!"

"I… see," Mari answered, "I… You can play the piano, but… please, not that song."

Ella looked at Mari with a confused look, "Why?"

"It's… j-just don't play it, okay? It… I… I don't want to hear that song."

Ella looked at Mari with a concerned look, "Okay…"

Silence loomed over both of them. Mari paused for a while, and then took a deep breath, "I'll finish what I have to do. It won't be long. You… Please don't go anywhere else."

Mari turned towards the door and went out of the piano room, leaving Ella alone… and worried.

"... there, all done."

After sorting through the groceries, Mari finally finished her task and wiped the sweat on her forehead; it was a hot day, mind you.

"Now… for the other thing."

Mari took a walk to the piano room to go and fetch the lost child she picked up. She walked past the big TV in the living room and headed straight towards the piano room, not even batting an eye towards the stairs. However, fate didn't seem kind enough for her to avoid her problems.

Thuck!

"Ouch!" Mari winced at the pain that came from her toes as she accidentally smacked them at a box to her right, just beside the living room's exit. As she tried to tend to her poor toes, her eyes caught sight of the box. It was all too familiar, and the content of the box was exposed for all the eyes in the room to see.

Sunny's broken violin.

Mari jolted away from the box and stumbled upon the stair's railing, afraid of it. If her memories were an abstract reminder of her mistake, that was a concrete reminder instead. The symbol of her failure as a big sister, and a dark blot in her own history. She wanted to run away, but she couldn't; something held her in place. Her breathing paced faster, and she could feel her own quickening and thumping heartbeat in her ears.

"I… I'm sorry."

"I… pushed you too hard."

Her breathing had turned erratic, and her lungs felt as if it was filled with water and was suffocating herself. Slowly, she was losing consciousness and her vision blurred from her tears. Slowly, the world around her turned into a darker place.

It was dark.

It was cold.

But light came, in the form of a small and sweet melody.

A soft little melody came from the piano room that was behind her on the left. She recognized the song; it was the first song she ever played to Sunny; Good Morning. A simple and lighthearted song that she played when Sunny was 8 years old. If her memory didn't fail her, this was Sunny's happy song… Well, until the both of them knew about the lyrics. Either way, the song was a saving grace to Mari, which gave her a chance to calm down .

Breathe in,

and breathe out.

Slowly, Mari regained what's left of her mental stability. She soon realized that the box in front of her was just a regular cardboard box with old books. She slowly stood up, and opened the door to the same girl she scolded before.

The girl stopped playing and looked at the door with slight agitation, half expecting another scolding from Mari. However, Mari just looked at Ella with a more peaceful look than she had before.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them, but Ella finally spoked, or rather, asked.

"... Is something wrong?"

"O-oh, nothing's wrong. I just came here to say that my work's done, so… we can go now."

"Oh, okay then," Ella closed the piano lid and approached Mari, "Let's go!"

Ella walked out of the room, with Mari still standing, but her eyes locked to Ella.

"What's wrong?" Ella noticed Mari's gaze and looked back at Mari.

"Oh… it's nothing."

Ella tilted her head in confusion, but decided to shrug it off and walked off her way towards the living room. Mari kept looking at Ella until she was out of her sight, feeling grateful for the escape Ella gave her, despite it being unintentional.