He'd been looking for her all day. He was nervous, and he wanted someone to help him calm down. He didn't know why he was nervous. He was practically already the winner and the race hadn't even started. Pipit was the best flyer in the race, and he was more experienced, and…
He had butterflies fluttering in his stomach.
"Rane..?" He could hear the bell ringing outside. He had to go—now—to the ceremony. He looked around more. In her room. On the roof. Around town. He just couldn't find her.
But what could he do? She was nowhere to be seen. For some reason that made the butterflies worse.
He'd never had such a strong hatred for the sky as he did that day. He was distracted by concern for his friend, and he couldn't focus. He found himself lucky to win the ceremony at all. And then he was standing with the girl who played the goddess that year. Kina. She looked beautiful, that was true, but… for some reason his mind kept drifting.
Back to the sky.
Where was she? This was right up there with the most important days of his life, and he had hoped that afterwards… Well he'd wanted to go flying with her. He'd wanted to ask for so long… even came up with the cheesy line to do it.
"How would you like to date a senior?"
…..But that was before.
Pipit left Kina as soon as possible, instead taking off and flying on his own. Maybe he needed to rethink this whole thing with Karane. He thought she liked him the way he liked her. He thought, briefly, that maybe they were currently the most important thing to each other at the moment.
But she hadn't even bothered to show up.
…Maybe his feelings for Karane would just have to be put back on the shelf for a while. Right now his only love was the sky.