Kairi opens a florist's shop as soon as she turns eighteen, because, like, of course she does. She doesn't have much of a resume and her education is seriously lacking, anyway, and the only college in the city is, like, really classist or whatever and doesn't do financial aid, and there's no way in hell she's ever going to get a scholarship, so.

But a boat ticket is pretty cheap and a small business loan in Hollow Bastion is super easy to get, so here she is.

Her friends laugh at her when she tells them. They're like, "God, Kai, how stereotypical could you even be," and one of her old classmates even tells her she's 'conforming to harmful manifestations of femininity and contributing to the patriarchy,' or whatever. So she just turns her phone off for a few days.

She wants to call Sora and tell him everything, but they aren't really speaking right now, so there goes that idea. Her heart hurts to think about him, but it also hurts to not think about him, so that's that.

They'd danced around each other their whole childhood and early adolescence, and she'd waited for him when he left her, and she hadn't complained a bit, even when she'd gotten mixed up in some pretty messed up shit, all because of him. Because he didn't mean it, he'd never meant to hurt her. So she forgave him.

He kissed her on her seventeenth birthday, on the beach, under the stars, and she would have sworn her heart had stopped. Then, he'd gone away again. He and Riku both. She'd been left completely alone, again. This time, hopelessly in love, to boot.

Then he'd come back, only to sit her down and explain, haltingly, that he'd realized some things, that he and Riku had been spending so much time together and for the longest time they'd only been friends but now we aren't sure and I think I love him and of course I love you too, Kai, but it's in a different way and anyway I'm really happy now but of course I don't want you to be sad but I'm just so happy and you can understand that, can't you Kairi?

She'd felt her face close off and knew that he saw it, because how could you not? You can't spend your whole life with someone and not know when they're heartbroken. And Sora wanted to cry for her, to tell her how sorry he was, to assure her that everything would be okay, maybe even to take back everything he'd told her, but he couldn't. Obviously. Because he wasn't sorry. Not really.

Sorry for hurting her, of course, but he was so happy that he couldn't bring himself to be truly remorseful, and of course Kairi couldn't, like, blame him for that, but she also couldn't really be around him anymore. Or Riku, like, obviously.

You know, it would be one thing to have one friend who was always screwing up, but like, her two best friends in the entire world, the ones she'd built her entire life with, both… It's like, they were always hurting her, but not really, because she wasn't the important one in the equation. Collateral damage, as it were. They had good excuses. But losing both of your best friends, all the time?

She couldn't really, like, handle it.

Because Kairi isn't strong, not really. Not in any of the ways that matter. That's what she tells herself when she feels small and dark and hurt.

But she is strong enough not to cry as she looks back at her friends from the boat and they're beaming at her but also at each other and trying so hard not to hold hands in front of her and they're failing desperately and they look so, so happy. She doesn't cry.

Not really.