Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley: 1-1

It was a little before midnight. Everywhere in the house was dark. But the window on the second floor had moonlight shining through it. It illuminated the floor beneath SUNNY and MARI. SUNNY looked down at the floor. It had a shadow with the outline of the window. MARI was only a few steps away in front of him. She had been shouting something at him and he couldn’t understand what was being said. What were they even talking about?

The argument had gone on for so long that SUNNY wasn’t sure what had even started it. It must’ve been something he said while they were going up the stairs together. His first words in hours; words that had been building up for a long time. He had stayed silent the whole time they were practicing for the recital tomorrow. It doesn’t really matter what he said. It could’ve been the slightest retort back to anything MARI told him while practice; all the little details she engrained upon him for those few hours. It could’ve been something serious. Maybe, for the first time in his life, SUNNY actually said something mean about his sister. It really doesn’t matter. What mattered was that whatever he said, it snapped something in MARI’s head.

“Don’t you realize how grateful you should be?” MARI yelled. “Everyone is working hard so that we can do this. And it’ll be your fault when it all amounts to nothing.”

MARI was so frustrated. How come SUNNY couldn’t see just how important this was to her, to everyone? She was so tired of how ungrateful and selfish he was being. He didn’t care about everyone else. He didn’t care about her!

SUNNY just wanted MARI to understand him. She didn’t understand him at all. He knew how much work everyone did for this recital, but she wasn’t acknowledging anything he had done. Anything he could do was never enough for her.

“Am I asking for you to be the number one player in the country? No, I’m asking you to play a goddamn violin right!”

SUNNY couldn’t understand what MARI wanted from him. Just how much better does he have to get until she can be satisfied? He was really trying, he really was. And he thinks he’s getting better, day by day. But it was never enough. Eventually, it had become the night before the recital, and SUNNY couldn’t even remember the reason he wanted to play violin in the first place.

“I love you because you’re my brother, SUNNY, but to anyone else, you’re nothing. It’s not like you’re good at anything else. So why can’t you just do this one thing for me!”

SUNNY clenched hard at the violin he was holding. He could see his fingers, which were covered in calluses. He was clenching the violin so hard that he thought his palm would start bleeding. After a certain point, it was hard to hold the pain in. He had realized the source of the problem; the reason behind everything. And he was now going to get rid of it.

“All you do is eat away at my life.”

And maybe these were the words that finally broke SUNNY. It’s unsure whether it was these specific words or if it was the culmination of everything MARI had said up until then.

MARI reacted too late when SUNNY had already thrown the violin down the stairs. The silence was broken off by sounds of wood breaking, as the instrument collided along the steps, and eventually on the floor down below.

MARI couldn’t believe what she just saw. What the hell just happened? She exploded in anger again, livid that her brother would just do something like that. That he would just throw away the gift his friends had bought for him, the future they brought to him. Abandon their efforts, just like that. Who did he think he was?

“You selfish little brat!” She screamed, and continued to yell more.

And SUNNY - he held on to his anger. He was just so tired. He couldn’t believe what he had done, either. What was going to happen now? Would he get in trouble? Oh god, would MARI get in trouble? Yes, even in that moment, SUNNY couldn’t help but worry about what would happen to her, and not him. What was he going to do? MARI was so angry, and he couldn’t understand what she was saying at all. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t do anything.