Chapter Text
The old music room was usually empty when the final bell rings to dismiss the students. None of the music and performance clubs bothered to use it for reasons outside storage of things that are no longer needed like the dust-coated grand piano. But its keys were still working fine.
Venti pressed down on one before readjusting his headphones. He pressed down again, kicking down on the old pedals with as much force he dared. He gave it one more kick before giving up. The keys were working fine, but the pedals might need to be looked after or better yet replaced.
He sat up straighter as the song through his headphones came to an end. There was a brief silence between the songs before the opening notes of the next song started. Venti lip-synced as his fingers gently pressed down on the piano keys. His fingers moved from one key to another in a quick and messy manner. But he didn’t bother to put in the effort to correct himself as he continued, completely lost in his own little world.
Which is why he noticed the loud crashing noise too late. A frightened scream escaped from him as something hard slammed into his head and knocked off his headphones. He whirled back to find the window of the old music room shattered with an unsuspecting baseball lying on the floor. Ah, so that’s what happened.
He let out an indignant huff before reaching down to his fallen headphones, it was a good thing he was alone in the room. The last thing he needed was someone teasing his well-excused scream and brief panic.
“I am so sorry!” a voice called from outside. “Are you alright?”
Venti looked back again to find Lumine. “Was it you who struck the ball?”
“It was me,” Lumine admitted. “Did I hit you too?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Venti waved off her concern. “But you should be more careful.”
“Sorry,” she apologized again. “It’s hard to hold back with the last game of the season coming up.”
“Is everyone alright?” Xiao appeared beside Lumine. “I heard a scream.”
“Xiao!” Venti waved. “Are you nearly done with practice?”
Xiao gave Venti an unimpressed look before sighing. “Oh, it was only you. Nothing to be worried about then.”
“How rude! Do our years of friendship mean nothing to you after all?”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“You’re being cold-hearted.”
“Do you know if there are a broom and a dustpan in that room?” Lumine interrupted. “I should clean up the broken glasses before a teacher finds out.”
“A broom?” Venti tilted his head and let out a little hum. “I think there is one in the cupboard.”
“Don’t touch any of the broken glasses,” Xiao warned. “You could cut your finger.”
“Don’t worry about that. I had no plans to clean up at all, it’s not my mess.”
“I deserve that,” Lumine sighed. “Let me just--”
“You three!” a new voice interrupted them. “What did you do to the window?!”
Venti looked over to the source and made eye contact with the extremely angry-looking vice principal. He shrunk back as he watched her march toward them.
“That’s my cue to leave,” Xiao turned back and walked away. “Good luck.”
“Wait, Xiao!” Venti called. “Don’t leave!”
But Xiao was already jogging back to the rest of the team with nothing but a wave back to Venti.
“I tried to say it was all my fault,” Lumine sighed. “But she ended up getting you in trouble too.”
“Well, what can you expect from someone as grumpy as our vice principal?” Venti shrugged. “You can make it up by buying some apple cider.”
The sun had begun to set as they had made their way out of the vice principal’s office. Venti let out a little appreciative sigh at the breeze that greeted him as they stepped out of the school building. Spring really was here at long last and Venti couldn’t be more eager to bid goodbye to the chilly winter days.
“Speaking of which,” Lumine suddenly stood straighter. “I had been meaning to ask you if you were free tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Venti tilted his head back. “It’s a Saturday so I have no big plans.”
“Great,” she sighed in relief. “I had invited Xiao to hang out tomorrow during practice.”
He let out an amused huff. “How did you manage that?”
“He owes me lunch,” Lumine explained before looking around and lowering her voice. “And you know how popular he is with everyone?”
“Don’t remind me,” Venti sighed. “He’s still figuring out what to do with all those Valentine’s Day gifts.”
Despite being a sweet tooth, Xiao had seemed anything but enthusiastic that day. But that was a fair reaction seeing how quickly the chocolates and candies stacked up before either of them could blink. Combined that with Xiao’s hatred for wasting food, it had quickly become a problem. He had tried regifting some, but that still had a considerable amount left over.
“Well, my brother is one of those people,” Lumine said. “And he wants me to introduce him to Xiao. Want to come with?”
“It’s nice that you’re trying to be a good wingman for your brother. But I have no interest in third-wheeling.”
“But if my brother and Xiao manage to hit it off, I will be the third wheel,” Lumine frowned. “If you come along we can be the third wheels together.”
“Can’t you bring Amber along and make it a double date?”
“Oh, I wish. But Amber is busy tomorrow,” Lumine sighed. “And it makes more sense for you to tag along as well. Xiao always seems friendlier when you’re around and my brother is a musician. So when the conversation lags you can come in and talk about famous composers or whatever.”
“That sounds nice and all,” Venti said slowly. “But I retired from playing.”
It was a little hard to believe, but it had been two years since he had officially performed. His father had run a small music school and focused on teaching everything to Venti and his brother. He couldn’t remember when his father’s teachings officially started, all he remembered was sitting in a dark room for hours with his father looming over his shoulder.
His father had never made it big in the music field, so he had poured all his ambition onto his children. It was his goal to make them win every competition in the town and be eventually shipped off to some foreign country where they would compete and win some more. But three years ago, his father died and along with his brother. A year had passed by and Venti gave up on performing.
Lumine frowned in confusion. “But I thought you were playing in the music room just now.”
“That wasn’t really playing. More of fooling around on the keys.”
“But you should still come along, it could be fun. Besides, I owe you that cider.”
That promised apple cider was tempting and he didn’t have any other plans for tomorrow. “Fine,” he sighed. “It better be a really good cider if I have to third wheel.”
Before Lumine could respond, loud music started to play followed by the insistent sound of buzzing. “Shit, Amber,” Lumine reached down to her bag and pulled out her phone. “I forgot about our coffee date.”
“You better get going then,” Venti said. “It’s rude to keep a girl waiting.”
“Eleven tomorrow at the park,” Lumine said, already running forward. “Don’t be late!”
“I won’t,” Venti watched her run to the school gate before perking up at the sight of his friend. “Xiao! You waited for me?”
Xiao looked up from his phone just as Lumine ran past him with a quick greeting before disappearing. “Where is she going in such a hurry?”
“She has a coffee date with Amber.”
“Oh,” Xiao nodded in understanding. “She has been more energetic now that she and Amber are officially dating.”
“The effects of being in love,” Venti sighed wistfully. “Must be nice.”
“Lumine said something similar at practice some time ago,” Xiao said. “The moment she saw Amber, the whole world seemed to take on more vibrant color and how everything seemed to sparkle. I don’t really get it though.”
Venti turned to his friend and tried to imagine him being as energetic and cheerful as Lumine if he ends up liking her brother tomorrow. It was admittedly a little difficult to imagine him like that. Perhaps he had other manners to show that he was smitten.
“Really?” he asked. “No one had made anything in the world ‘more colorful’ for you?”
“Well, what about you?” Xiao deflected the question. “You’re the one that said it would be nice to fall in love.”
“Me?” Venti laughed. “Falling in love sounds nice, but I can’t see myself doing it anytime soon.”
He considered pointing out how Xiao dodged his earlier question and thought better of it. “How was practice today?” he asked instead.
Venti had arrived fifteen minutes late to the agreed spot. His alarm clock had failed to wake him up, but at least he tried his best to arrive as quickly as he could. Despite that, no one stood waiting for him. He let out a little indignant huff. The least they could have done was wait for him a little longer.
He reached for his phone, planning to spam Xiao questions about where they were now and giving Lumine a little apology and making sure she didn’t change her mind about the free drink. But the thoughts of that diminished when he heard a melodica playing in the distance.
“Is that Pazu’s Fanfare?” Venti muttered. “Not half bad either.”
Unable to resist his curiosity and intrigue, he made his way further into the park, trying to locate the source of the music. He will find Lumine and Xiao later, it’s not like he was planning to go far from their meeting place.
The song continued to play as Venti followed it deeper to the children’s playground area. The wind stroked his hair away from his face as he approached the source of the music.
A boy with fair skin and strands of gold held together in a neat braid stood on top of the rubber play mound with the melodica in hand. The flowering trees seemed to dance to the boy’s music as its branches swayed, raining rosy petals down. It wasn’t just the trees that basked in the song, birds seemed to flock near the boy along with the children that watched him with wide eyes and open mouths.
Venti felt the same as the children. He wasn’t sure if the sight before him was real or not. There was something so otherworldly about the musician to Venti. It was as if the boy belonged in a vibrant picture book where he stared as the hero of the tale or a subject of a glazed oil painting where the artist did their best to render an idealized version of a human being. He continued to watch as the boy continued to play, wishing he could preserve the scene before him somehow.
Venti tried to burn every little detail into his memory before he realized that he was still holding his phone. A laugh escaped him at his silliness. Good thing he was living in the twenty-first century where everyone had portable cameras on their phones.
The song ended with a high note as the boy pulled the melodica away and inhaled deeply. He turned back to his audience, his eyes meeting Venti’s. And for a moment, Venti felt breathless at the boy’s attention. Tears sprang out of the stranger’s eyes before he turned away from Venti with a cough, releasing whatever hold he had.
“I blew too hard,” he said, sounding a little breathless as he wiped his eyes.
“It didn’t work,” one of the kids shouted. “The pigeons still aren’t here.”
“They’re not? I wonder why.”
“It’s because it has to be a bugle that’s playing, not a melodica.”
“Why would the pigeons care about the difference?” The stranger let out a little laugh. “What matters should be the song, not the instrument. Let’s try that again, together this time.”
“Hey!” another kid pointed shouted at Venti. “Are you taking pictures of us?”
“What?” Venti asked, caught off guard at the sudden attention on him. “I was taking pictures but--”
“Stranger danger!” the first kid screamed followed by the rest of the kids. “Stranger danger!”
“Wait!” Venti held up his hands in surrender. “I wasn’t taking pictures of you--”
“Liar! You just said you were taking pictures of us!”
“Not pictures of you ! Pictures of him!”
“Me?” the blond asked. “Why?”
“He’s a creep!” the kid shouted. “Stranger danger!”
“I am not a creep!”
“My mommy always said that when someone takes pictures of you without permission you should tell an adult because they could be a creep,” the kid insisted. “And he took your pictures without permission.”
“Listen to me for a second,” Venti said, his patience wearing thin. “I was going to ask later.”
“Well,” the blond said, looking conflicted. “Your mother isn’t wrong but--”
“I am calling the police!”
“Timmie, no!”
“Please don’t. I can’t deal with them right now.”
“What is going on here?” Xiao asked, startling Venti at his and Lumine’s sudden appearance.
“Who’s calling the police on who?” she asked.
“On him!” Timmie pointed at Venti. “He’s a creep.”
“I am not!”
“What did you do?” Xiao asked, exasperated. “Did you terrorize another kid because he was too loud again?”
“That was a one-time thing and that brat deserved it.”
“Alright, alright,” the blond jumped down from the mound. “Let’s all calm down and try to talk one at a time so we can understand the full story.”
“Yeah,” Lumine nodded in agreement. “I want to know what that kid did to receive Venti’s wrath.”
“It’s a long story,” Xiao sighed.
“It really is and we have no time for that,” Venti said. “Let me go first by saying that this is all a big misunderstanding.”
He did his best to explain everything to the pesky albeit confused kid. He started with how he was supposed to meet Xiao and Lumine in their agreed spot but found himself alone when he arrived. (“You should have arrived on time then,” Xiao rolls his eyes.) Then he goes on to explain the sound of melodica (“ My melodica,” Timmie interrupts) and how he followed it to find the blond boy playing it. Venti then goes on to explain how much the boy seemed to be having fun and wanted a picture to preserve the memory, then ask to keep the picture later so he wouldn’t interrupt his playing. So Venti wasn’t being a creep at all, but trying to be polite and letting everyone have their fun without rudely interrupting!
“So it was all just a misunderstanding after all,” the blond said with a laugh. “You have nothing to worry about, Timmie.”
Timmie frowns up at Venti for a second longer before looking abashed. “Yeah, I guess. Sorry for calling you a creep.”
“It’s fine,” Venti smiled down at the kid, trying his best to hide the overwhelming relief. “Just don’t jump to conclusions so suddenly next time okay?”
“I don’t know,” Xiao said, crossing his arms as the kid scampered away. “I think Timmie had the right reaction. Why would you go around taking random stranger’s photos?”
“Can I see it?” the blond asks as Venti splutters in embarrassment. “I want to know how it turned out.”
“Oh, of course,” Venti held up his phone. “Don’t worry I only took one.”
He looked down onto the screen as Lumine moved closer to look as well.
“That is good lighting,” Lumine said with a smile. “It would make for a good selfie spot.”
“You’re right,” the boy smiled and turned to Venti. “Could you send it to me?”
“I would but I don’t have your number.
The blond let out a surprised laugh. “How forward.”
“Yes,” Lumine smiled in agreement. “Hitting on my brother within just a few moments of knowing him. I knew you were bold, Venti, but I didn’t think you would be to this level.”
Blood rushed to Venti’s cheeks at their reaction. “Brother?” he asked before wanting to kick himself. Of course, he was Lumine’s brother, it should have been obvious with how similar they looked.
“Twins,” Lumine said. “Don’t ask which one is older.”
“It’s me,” her brother laughed.
“It is not .”
Venti watched the siblings bicker, feeling his heart sink. Lumine had set up this hang-out so her brother could be introduced to Xiao, not Venti. The emotion increased tenfold at the thought and Venti fought to keep it out of his face. It felt like a mix between frustration and disappointment with the unwanted addition of jealousy and he would rather not deal with it.
“You two really are similar,” Venti said instead, smiling as wide as he could. “Honestly, I am surprised that I haven’t seen the two of you together at school.”
“I already see enough of Aether at home,” Lumine rolled her eyes. “So it’s really no surprise.”
“Your words wound me, sis,” Aether dramatically placed a hand on his chest. “I may never recover.”
“Think you can recover if I give you your drink?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you ditched me?” Venti asked as Lumine handed her brother a can.
“Yes,” Xiao said, handing Venti one as well. “You were taking too long so we decided to get a drink from the nearby vending machine.”
“Aether here was supposed to wait for you,” Lumine gave her brother a disapproving frown. “Don’t know what he was doing all the way over here though.”
“Long story short,” Aether opened his can and took a sip. “I accidentally scared off Timmie’s pigeons by sneezing and he demanded that I bring them back. So he dragged me all the way over here so the birds can listen to the song better.”
“I don’t see how a song is supposed to bring them back,” Xiao said. “I thought that was just a myth.”
“It is,” Lumine rolled her eyes before standing up straighter. “What time is it?”
Aether’s eyes widened at the question before pulling out his phone and looking at the screen. “I am going to be late.”
“We should start heading in then,” Xiao said.
“Head in where?” Venti asked.
“There,” Lumine pointed ahead. “At the Hoyo Hall.”
Venti stopped at the sight of the familiar building. It had been two years since he stepped in there. He was so sure that he would never enter that building again.
“I will be up on stage performing,” Aether said. “Keep an eye on the piano.”
“Come on,” Lumine started to move away. “We’re going to be late.”
“I think I am going to pass,” Venti said, eager to avoid the building.
“What?” Lumine turned back and frowned. “I still owe you your drink.”
“You can treat me later.”
A hand grasped Venti’s firmly before he could pull away. “Come on,” Aether said with a smile. “I promise it will be fun.”
Protests died in Venti’s mouth before he could manage to bring it out. Aether’s gaze left him breathless yet again before he slowly nodded in agreement.
“Great!” Aether cheered and started to drag him towards the auditorium. “Let’s go then.”
The trees still rained their petals down as the sun shined on, adding to Aether’s otherworldly look. Venti had the urge to take another picture but found himself following Aether’s footsteps as they headed to the auditorium. But he studied Aether’s form anyway, trying to memorize everything despite the logical voice in his head screaming at him to stop. It was difficult to listen to that voice though, he was too captivated by the sight of Aether with the backdrop of his favorite season.