Song By Unreality

Chapter 1

"...Singing for me is like breathing. If I stop singing, I'll suffocate..."

(from Rina's interview with the publication 'Music In Our Life')

"No, there's something wrong here..."

Yura ran his fingers into a pile of brown curls and even more disheveled hair, which neither a comb nor styling products could tame. Manya glanced disapprovingly at her brother but said nothing, only lowering the lid on the pan with an unnecessarily loud clunk and turning off the gas.

"Why did Rina do that? At the peak of her career? Suddenly?"

"She could have had a hundred reasons!" Manya couldn't stand it, because Yura had been talking about one topic for an hour.

As he burst into the apartment at ten in the morning, plopped down on a stool that creaked under him, and so he chatted. Manya had already managed to cook soup, treat her brother to coffee with homemade cupcakes, and listen to a hundred and fifty 'why?', and he kept pouring out versions that he dismissed.

"Yura, should I fry potatoes as the second meal? Or is it better to boil?"

"Yeah. Do you think she..."

"So fry or boil?" Manya interrupted, deciding that it was time to stop this monologue full of rhetorical questions. In part, she understood Yura: if he lit up on some topic, it was a fiasco for everyone who tried to talk to him about something else. And then journalistic interest mixed with personal: her brother was a fan of the popular singer Rina, didn't miss a single concert in Moscow, and was extremely proud that he once interviewed her for the magazine in which he worked. Manya also liked the talented singer, she even went to a concert with Yura one day instead of the girl he broke up with, so the news about the cancellation of the tour upset her.

However, the brother, in his meticulous desire to get to the bottom of the reason for Rina's act, crossed all boundaries.

"So what to do with potatoes?" Manya reminded.

"Fry it!" Yura answered briefly, as if waving off, and started over again: "Rina suddenly canceled all concerts and unconditionally paid the penalty. Do you know what kind of money it is? But she paid and... disappeared. No one knows what happened or where she is."

"Yura, she could get sick!"

"In this case, the concerts are not canceled, but postponed. Rina has repeatedly performed with a sore throat and a fever. One day she lost her voice right on stage. She was very worried about the postponement of concerts, personally appeared on social media, and responded to comments and messages. Now - complete silence. Just announced that it was possible to return tickets, and that's all."

"Rina, first of all, is a young woman who could get bored with publicity. She could have secretly married..." Manya involuntarily got involved in the discussion, forgetting about the soup cooling on the stove. "Or maybe she's expecting a baby and that's why she went into the shadows."

The upcoming wedding of the popular singer and famous businessman Dimitri Lebedev was trumpeted by all the tabloids. The paparazzi were chasing a young, beautiful couple, looking for something in their relationship that could make a sensation. However, neither Rina nor Dimitri gave reasons for the scandal, and the journalists themselves fanned the rumors. Therefore, when someone noticed a ring on Rina's finger, only an illiterate person didn't write about it.

"She broke off the engagement!" Yura exclaimed, jumped up from his seat, and walked from the window to the table. Two steps there, two steps back. From the movement, the light colorful curtain swayed as if in the wind.

"Well, maybe their 'parting' is another fake! How many times have Lebedev and Rina been 'divorced' in the press?"

"Flore, you see, I didn't read about this from competitors but received information from a trusted person. No one has yet had time to write that Rina and Lebedev broke up! Me first."