Every few decades, there was one event that Lonely was invited to, the Performance. On a stage set up in the middle of the marketplace, each emotion was given a chance to show off what they did to pass on their emotion. It took most of the day, with some performances taking longer than most, but it was a tradition that he couldn’t afford to miss.

He stood at the back of the crowd as Sadness introduced the performance. They always went first, as per tradition. They were the first to be born, the one that made the rules they all followed, so it was seen as respectful that they go first in every performance they organised.

After their haunting operatic singing, the order changed each time. Sometimes Lonely went straight after them, sometimes he was in the middle, but this time he was dead last, meaning he had to watch and wait through hundreds of performances. All he wanted was to play his violin and leave.

Despite his agitation and growing boredom, he watched and clapped at every performance. All of them caused the visions to appear, tendrils of different coloured lights forming pictures of people going about their daily lives. He couldn’t recognise any repeating faces, the images flashing by too much, but he knew with absolute certainty that they were there.

Humans had such an immense range of emotions, from the good to the bad and every so often, a new one was made. The youngest of them was a few centuries old, but he couldn’t remember which one they were. He was one of the oldest, younger than Sadness and Happy and Anger and few others, but older than most around him.

Fear was one of the few that was older than him, the third or fourth to awaken, but his young appearance and his shaking steps as he walked onto the stage made Lonely forget. A smile spread across his boyish face as he set up his stand and his clay. Fear did his work through pottery and sculpting, moulding the clay into all sorts of shapes. From what Lonely had seen and heard over the years, Fear gave a lot of his sculptures to his friends, but Lonely had never received one, which explained everything.

Sculpting the little figure of a human man took a long time, but it wouldn’t be the longest performance he would have to watch. The longest Performance in his lifetime had been when Love decided that he wanted to paint the entire crowd to show his respect and fondness for all of them. It had taken hours and the Performance as a whole went on for almost two days.

When he was done, Fear stood and held up the clay figure. “It needs to go in a kiln,” he said, his voice carrying over the crowd and wobbling a little. “But I’ll show you all what it looks like when it’s done.”

The others clapped back in response, Lonely included. He couldn’t see it clearly from the distance, but he was sure it looked nice. Fear’s sculptures always did. It had taken them all a long time, decades of practice, but they were masters of their crafts, every single one of them. They had to be if they wanted to pass on their emotions.

A few others Lonely forgot the names of came up on stage, playing instruments or dancing or doing gymnastics. Ever so slowly, Lonely inched towards the front as more and more emotions did their performance. He still had a long time to go before he played his violin and he was already sick of standing in the stuffy crowd, but he had to be there.

It was the only time he got to see everyone, he wasn’t just going to run away from it, even if being stuck in the crowd made him uncomfortable. He didn’t remember all of the names of the people around him. Calm was in the crowd somewhere, talking to someone he didn’t know. Stress and Pride were nearby, standing in silence. Sadness stood near the stage still, watching over the crowd with an expression that gave nothing away.

The massive crowd silenced as another of them stepped onto the stage. Familiar blonde hair caught Lonely’s eye and he frowned. Confidence smiled at them all but didn’t seem to be paying attention to who he was looking at. Lonely had no idea what he did to pass on his emotion and there was a strange feeling in his stomach as he waited in silence for the man on stage to start.

He wasn’t dressed in the suit Lonely had last seen him in but in a dark grey leotard. It looked strange on him, almost a little too tight, but it suited him somewhat. He’d changed his hair. Last time Lonely had seen him, his hair was a messy mop on his head, now it was shaved on the sides and back, the top tied up in a bun.

He nodded to the side of the stage and sweet piano music filled the air. It was a joint performance. Love was there too, playing his piano. Lonely had never seen anything like it; most people performed on their own because it was easier to see what was going on, but for some reason, Love and Confidence decided against it.

Then Confidence started dancing and it took Lonely’s breath away. Others danced as well, but there was something about the way Confidence moved that was different from the rest. He couldn’t figure out what it was, but he couldn’t look away. Confidence jumped across the stage, throwing his arms wide. As they came back down, lilac streams flowed from his fingers and mingled with Love’s pink ones.

But Lonely wasn’t paying attention to the faces in the visions, he was focusing on Confidence as he leapt across the stage again and spun. Every movement was gentle, graceful, as if he had to be careful with what he was doing. Lonely’s lips parted as he watched, Confidence twirling and spinning, his arms high above his head.

And then with a flourish, it was over and noise rushed back into Lonely’s ears as the crowd clapped again. After a second of shock, he clapped along with them as Confidence disappeared from the stage. Others helped Love remove the piano from the stage, but Lonely was no longer paying attention, he was stupidly trying to find Confidence in the crowd.

What would he do if he did find him? Nothing. The last time he had seen him, he’d talked to him for five minutes and then decided that he wasn’t worth it. Lonely would watch him and then go back to waiting. Trying to talk to him would be pointless and would result in the same thing he always got, people oblivious to his entire existence.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” a deep voice said behind him and he turned with a gasp. Confidence had taken his hair out of its bun, letting it swoop down one shoulder.

How he got behind him, Lonely had no idea. “I had to be,” he replied, not meeting the other man’s eyes and wringing his hands together. “I liked your performance. You’re an amazing dancer.”

There was a light in his eyes when he beamed. “Thank you!” he said, his cheerfulness reminding Lonely of the puppies he occasionally saw.

Lonely was sure that would be the end of the conversation from the way Confidence looked around at the others in the crowd. “Why don’t I see you around here much?” he asked instead and Lonely bit down on his lip. “I only see you at the bookstall. We had a picnic the other week and everyone was there but you.”

“There was a picnic?” he asked and crossed his arms over his stomach. Of course, there had been, there were probably plenty he didn’t know about.

Confidence frowned down at him but he couldn’t read what it meant. “Did no one tell you?” he asked and his eyebrows furrowed when Lonely shook his head. “Why?”

“I am Lonely,” he said with a shrug. No one had ever asked him why before and that was the only answer he could think of.

If anything, Confidence looked offended, which shouldn’t have been possible. “That’s not-” he said and cut himself by running a hand through his hair. “This isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“What- What did you want to talk to me about?” he asked, a strange feeling in his stomach, one he could only compare to a swarm of butterflies.

“I just wanted some book recommendations,” Confidence said and smiled at him. Of course, he just wanted something from him, not to have an actual conversation. Lonely didn’t realise until then that a real conversation was what he’d wanted from the moment Confidence revealed himself. “I see you at the stall all the time so I thought you would be a good person to ask.”

“Why not ask Wisdom?” he said before he could stop himself, his tone shocking even him.

Confidence seemed taken aback, shifting towards the crowd. “I wanted to talk to you.”

Before Lonely could question him, figure out what he was talking about, a voice called his name from up on the stage. Sadness crossed their arms over their chest and raised an eyebrow expectantly. It was his turn. Somehow, during his conversation with Confidence, all the others had performed.

He took a step back, heading for the stage. “I’m sorry, I have to-”

“Go,” Confidence said, but Lonely couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Sadness shook their head when he made it up to the stage and his fingers clenched around the neck of his violin. He should have been paying attention to what was going on, but when he looked down at the crowd, none of them were looking at him. They were all having their own conversations.

Even so, he took a deep breath and prepared himself. They’d all listen while he played, they had to. But he hadn’t been listening to the last few performances, had he? It was only right that they ignored him too, it wasn’t like it would be any different from what usually happened.

He played his usual music, letting his hands and the violin take him where they wanted to go. He closed his eyes when the blue streams of light appeared, not wanting to see the visions. There were days where he couldn’t look at them, but he had to when he was performing, he could show them how much he hated it.

But no one was paying attention. The visions swirled around him, occasionally giving him a view of the crowd. None of them looked at him. They talked to each other or looked around, shifting uncomfortably as if they wanted to be anywhere but where they were, wanted to do anything but listen to Lonely’s music.

He played anyway, the music grew more and more ferocious, his hand speeding up as he drew the bow across the strings. It wasn’t fair. They listened to everyone else, clapped for everyone else, but they couldn’t care less about him. Most of them probably didn’t know who he was, so why would they listen?

His song slowed to a stop, drifting into one long note and ending with a poignant silence. Lonely was panting when he stopped, dropping his violin to his side. Sadness was already speaking before he got off the stage, their words catching the attention of everyone in the crowd. With a sigh, Lonely stepped down from the stage and put his violin back in the case he left by the steps.

He stood off to the sidelines as Sadness closed the Performance, fixing up his instrument where no one could see him. On the edges of the crowd, people began to drift away into the side streets. The Performance was done, all Sadness was doing was closing it up so it was alright for people to leave. It meant he could disappear without anyone saying anything.

That was exactly what he did. He walked down the edge of the crowd, ignoring the faces he walked past. All he wanted was to go home, to get away from those who didn’t care about him.

“Lonely!” He turned, spying Confidence waving at him the crowd. All he wanted was to run away and not have to face their awkward conversation from earlier, but a smile spread across Confidence’s lips and something unknown bloomed in his stomach. “Your song was beautiful.” And then he was gone, swallowed by the crowd and leaving Lonely to wonder what he was thinking.