Chapter Text
Time was ticking, yet, it had yet to tell him if his efforts were truly worth it.
He stood as still as if he had ants in his pants. He couldn’t help but shift his weight from foot to foot, swaying alongside the butterflies in his stomach that never seemed to find a moment of peace.
Outside the school gate was where he told Sunny to meet him. Obviously, Sunny would have to pass by in order to get home, but this is where he sealed his fate. This would be the spot where he confessed his feelings.
He had everything calculated and planned with precision in his head. First, Sunny would see the letter flutter out of his locker as he opened it, read it, then after school make his way to the gate where Kel was waiting. Then, Kel would add onto the contents of the letter before Sunny could reply with one final note that he had been rehearsing in his head over and over again to get it just right. Kel has made several mistakes in the time he has been alive, but just this once was the only time he did not want to make one.
He took the crumpled piece of paper out of the pocket of his basketball shorts to once it over one more time. His eyes scanned it, mentally noting the parts he predicted he would forget or fumble on.
He read the last lines on the paper, hastily scribbled down in second hand embarrassment, ‘I like you, Sunny. Will you go out with me?’
… Who was this sappy guy?
Absorbed in his own thoughts and fantasies of the perfect confession, “Sorry for making you wait,” a voice made him jump.
“Oh, it’s no worry at all!” Kel nonchalantly slid the piece of paper back into his pocket. “Hey, uh, Sunny?” he asked, eager for him to mention the letter.
“Are you ready to go to my house?” Sunny asked over him. “The others are already waiting there.”
He stopped fidgeting. Failing to register that this was the stillest he had been in his entire lifetime thus far. The butterflies in Kel’s stomach shriveled up and died as he tried to stop himself from recoiling in pain from the shock. Did he not see the letter? Or did he just willfully ignore its existence?
He poured his heart out in that letter. He poured his everything into it.
Something shattered in Kel. He tried to stop the disappointment from settling into his facial features; to keep his smile from wavering, stop the scrunching of his brows, to uphold the cheerful attitude he always has. But it was hard for him to do so as his vision blurred from the wetness in his eyes.
He tried to pick up the pieces of his broken heart and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He cleared his throat, hoping it would stop the burn he felt at the back of it, but that didn’t stop his voice from cracking, “Yeah, I’m ready.”
-
As the two made their way to Sunny’s house, Kel used this time to recuperate. He didn’t want to show up to their weekly gathering all depressed; it wasn’t his personality to be. Everyone expected him to be loud, rambunctious, and as Aubrey usually described him, annoying. So, he would give them loud, rambunctious and annoying; the usual Kel.
When the two arrived at their destination, they opened the door to the usual Friday scene; Hero, Aubrey, and Basil playing Mario Kart on Hero and Kel’s shared Nintendo Switch, while Mari’s sweet laugh carried through the room from how insanely horrendous her boyfriend was at the game. From Hero’s defeated expression, it seemed to Kel that he found himself in last place once again, competing with Basil for the second last spot so as long as he’s not last.
Aubrey fist pumped in the air. “Alright! First place again!” she turned to Kel, “Eat that, Kel.”
He tried his hardest to reciprocate the banter, “I wasn’t even playing!” he exclaimed. “Plus, if I was, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’d be second place. Outperformed by the great Kel, no less!”
“No way.” She scoffed. “You can never even get past fifth place!”
Kel recoiled. “There’s a first time for everything!”
Mari sat up from her spot beside Hero, “Now that everyone’s here. Do you guys mind if Sunny and I run through our duet one more time? I wanna know what you guys think.”
“Sure,” Hero replied. “But I’m sure you guys will be fine, Mari. You guys have practiced over and over again, and it sounds great every single time we listen to it.”
“I know,” she replied, looking down at the hand in her lap, “but I just really want it to be perfect...”
He rubbed her arm in reassurance. “You guys’ll do fine, alright?” He showed her his best smile, his eyes softening in fondness as he looked at her.
“You’re right, thanks, Hero.” She leaned in to rest her head on his shoulder, fitting perfectly as if it were the missing piece to a puzzle. Kel clenched his fist. While he was happy for the two of them, he couldn’t swallow the bitter feeling that rose in his throat. That was what he wanted to be with Sunny. To reassure him when he had his doubts, to encourage him, to cheer him up when he’s down, to be the missing piece to his puzzle.
Kel clenched his fists at his sides, but forced himself to speak, “Yeah, Mari! You and Sunny will be just fine. ‘Sides, when I’m there, I’ll be in the front row cheering for you guys like,” he forced himself to unclench his hands and bring them up to cup his mouth. “‘WOO!! YOU GOT THIS MARI AND SUNNY!’,” he paused to let his voice bounce off the walls for a moment.
Then smiled. “Like that.”
“... You’re not supposed to do that at recitals, Kel.” Aubrey butt in, “Can’t you just clap at the end like a normal person? You’re gonna get kicked out!”
“Not when the people performing are…” Kel trailed off. He couldn’t help how his eyes took a side glance at Sunny, who was still standing beside him at the entryway. He clenched the strap of his gym bag, then mustered a smile. “My bestest friends.”
“I appreciate the enthusiasm, Kel,” Mari smiled. “But wait until our performance is done before you start cheering…”
-
The six of them entered the piano room. Kel was familiar with the space, having visited several times prior. It was a simple room, the piano in the center of the room, a display shelf in the far corner with all of Sunny and Mari’s musical achievements, and right beside it was a grandfather clock that their dad bought impulsively from an antique store. Man, Kel would never forget the tongue lashing that Sunny and Mari’s dad got from their mom the day he brought it home. Now, it was banished to Mari’s piano room, collecting dust in the corner beside the pristinely polished shelf of achievements.
All of that was nice, but Kel’s favourite part of the room was behind the piano; the large window that made the entire room feel larger than it really was. In the sunset, it filtered the orangey rays of the setting sun into the room, leaving the room glowing in the fading rays. Often after school, the six of them would take their seats on the floor and listen to Mari play the piano. Accompanied by the warm rays of the sun, it filled Kel with a sense of comfort and longing for a nostalgic memory that he couldn’t quite place his finger on. The laughter and smiles of his friends, the soft melodies that poured from the piano, the sunlight, the nostalgic feeling, these moments in time where it felt like they were the only ones in the entire universe was hard to beat.
After Sunny finished tuning his violin, their duet commenced. To the untuned ear, like Kel’s, their duet sounded as great as it usually did. Surely, if he were a little more musically inclined, he could offer some sort of constructive criticism, but he opted to just listen and clap at the end as per usual.
“That was amazing.” Hero was the first to break the silence that settled over the room.
“Yeah! You really nailed that one part you were having trouble with in the middle that goes,” Aubrey started to hum an indistinguishable tune Kel swore wasn’t anywhere to be found in the piece they just played. How could one be so bad at humming a tune they’ve heard over a hundred times?
Mari giggled, “Thanks everyone, but I couldn’t have done it without Sunny’s help. He was the one who noticed how odd it sounded there and helped me practice it over and over again.”
Sunny nodded.
Downcast, Kel held one of his arms in his hand. He mustered the cheeriest tone he could, only for it to fall flat. “And you did really well too, Sunny! You two really put a lot of work into it.”
He couldn’t even meet Sunny’s eyes to see the expression he returned to him, but he swore he heard a small “thanks” delivered to him on the ghost of a small smile.
-
Time had passed, and Kel found himself curled up against the piano bench. He pressed his forehead into his knees and closed his eyes, letting the soft tune Mari played on the piano comfort his broken heart.
“Aren’t you going to go play with them?” Mari asked, her fingers never ceasing from its smooth dance across the keys.
“I don’t feel like it”, Kel muttered into his knees, uncaring if it were audible or not.
The melody ceased, and Kel felt Mari shift on the piano bench. The leather squeaked as she turned towards him.
“Does it have something to do with you confessing to Sunny today?”
Kel’s head shot up to look up at her. The dwindling sunlight pouring in from the window behind her blinded him. Who did Basil not tell?! “How did you know?!”
“Just a sister’s intuition,” she replied, which Kel was relieved to hear. With how much of a blabber mouth Basil was for the last few days, he was on thin ice with Kel. But lucky for Basil, the ice hadn’t plunged him into the icy cold water underneath just yet. Basil was safe… for now, until he accidentally told someone again in the future.
“Plus,” Mari continued, “I could tell that something was up with you. So I thought I would ask just in case there’s anything I can do to help.”
Kel’s admiration at Mari’s deduction skills dissipated and he curled back up on himself, mumbling, “Sunny rejected me today…”
Mari gasped. “He did? I’m so sorry Kel…”
He groaned and flung himself backwards, splaying his limbs out on the floor. “I put a note in his locker and everything! I poured my heart out in that letter! But he didn’t even mention it to me when we were walking home from school! He acted like everything was normal between us!”
“Kel…” Mari started. “Are you sure you put it in the right locker?”
Kel froze as if he were a deer caught in headlights. “Huh?”
-
It turned out, Kel was an idiot, and maybe Aubrey was right for once.
“All this time… all this time I thought Sunny rejected me, but now you’re telling me I might’ve put the letter in the wrong locker?!” his voice rose in disbelief.
“Yep.” Mari answered, short and simple.
Kel had no one to blame but himself. Hero told him the right locker number, but in his haste, he forgot to double check the number before sending his heart out in letter form. Instead, his heart went into the locker of this snooty girl Kel had the displeasure of having in his biology class last year. Hopefully, word of his blunder didn’t spread around the school from her snarky mouth.
“It’s no wonder why he acted like everything was normal. Turns out I’m the biggest idiot on the planet- no universe.” he said.
“Aw don’t sell yourself short, Kel,” Mari reassured. “You’re not the biggest idiot in the universe, but you may be the biggest idiot in the entire galaxy, though.”
…
Ouch.
Kel brushed past that comment before it could eat at him. Seemingly unphased by this comment from someone who usually possessed a sweet demeanour, Kel asked, “What should I do?”
“I know what you should do.” Mari gently pulled the piano cover down over the black and white keys with a satisfying thud. As if they were still dancing over the keys, she tapped the top of the cover with one hand, head resting in the hand of the other, and smiled, “Why don’t you confess to him now?”
“WHAT?!” Like striking a tuner, Kel’s voice carried around the room. “There’s no way! I c-can’t!”
“Kel,” Mari stared right into his eyes, her eyes glimmering with a shimmer of hope. “I believe in you, Hero believes in you, Basil believes in you, and although Aubrey teases you about it, she believes in you too! All that’s missing is for you to believe in yourself.”
Sharp and fast, the final sentence Mari spoke to him struck a chord in his chest like a harpist plucking a harp string. It was true. Many of his friends—and even his own older brother— supported him, tried so hard to get Kel to muster the courage to confess to his crush. But the only one who didn’t support him was himself.
After realizing this, Kel had a sense of realization wash over him like waves crashing into a beach’s shore. “You’re right, Mari. All this time, I’d been so worried about how it could change our friendship, but in the end whether our friendship changes for the worse or for the better, all I know is that no matter what, I’ll always have you and everyone else by my side.”
Mari nodded. “Mhm! No matter what, Kel, we’ll always be by your side. Now, what are you going to do?”
Kel got onto his feet, staggering as he suddenly felt the blood rushing back to his legs. “I’m going to tell Sunny that I like him!” He stood there for a moment. “But how?”
Then, once again, Mari’s beautiful warm smile that reminded Kel of summer days, friendship, and warm chocolate chip cookies, rose to her lips once more. “You already have.”
Obstructed from his view and behind Mari, was the person those words were meant for.
Though hard to see on his face, Kel could at least see the shock in Sunny’s eyes. “The next round is starting and we were wondering if you were going to come play,” he said with a neutral tone.
Mari turned around to greet her little brother. “Welp, I’ll go see what everyone is doing” Mari threw a smile over her shoulder accompanied by a wink. Kel needed a moment to process what just happened. Was he just duped by Mari into confessing to Sunny?!
He heard the sound of the door closing softly behind her. Then, as he made direct eye contact with Sunny, the sound of his heartbeat began to pound in his ears.
“S-Sunny! Hi! I didn’t- I didn’t notice you there…”
Way to go, Kel.
He tried to start again. “Listen Sunny. I know you just heard what I said to Mari, but hear me out. For the past few days I’ve been trying to confess to you, but I was too scared to because I thought it would ruin our friendship.” He felt his cheeks warm, his lips quivering as they moved a mile a minute. “But everyone was trying to encourage me and help me out and Hero thought the best way to tell you how I felt was in the form of a letter that I tried really hard to write, but then I put it in the wrong locker and you acted like everything was fine between us so I thought you read the letter and this was your way of rejecting me but now Mari is telling me that I should still try and confess to you and believe in myself so…”
He shook his head to snap him out of rambling too much. “Wh- What I was trying to say,” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Is that I like y-“
In an instant, he felt something cut him off. The final word was stuck in his throat, unable to come out as he felt a pair of cool, thin lips against his. His eyes widened in shock. When he brain finally processed what had occured, he relaxed, closing his eyes.
When he felt the pair of lips pull away from his, he opened his eyes. And what Kel saw when he did was something that he had never seen. On Sunny’s face, complemented with a rose pink that completely contrasted the cool, pale tone of his porcelain skin, was a genuine smile that stretched from one ear to the other.
“I like you too.”