The next morning came around, but the festival wasn't set to begin until the late afternoon. While Gugu tried his best to work diligently until then, serving the last few customers before the shop would close for the day, Gunter couldn't hide his excitement. Gugu wondered why that was, given that he visited the festival every year.
After closing, the sun was already long past its zenith. The golden shimmer that remained after the brightest rays from the midday sun had worn out shrouded the landscape in a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. The grassland stretches littered with trees in full bloom made the scenery feel almost like a dream. Like a vision of Paradise even.
It didn't take long for both of them to get ready and reach the meetup spot. Gunter had already filled them in on Gugu's mask, and before long, he was treated like he had always been part of their close group of friends. Gugu couldn't exactly show it through facial expressions, but he felt ecstatic nonetheless. They made jokes, played festival games, enjoyed the food… and making all these new memories helped Gugu settle in to his new reality. He didn't want to forget his old friends, or Fushi, or anyone he had met during his time with him, but Fushi hadn't contacted him at all until now. Maybe he wanted Gugu to live his own life from now on. He looked up, towards the violet sky dotted with faint starlight. This world seemed peaceful, so maybe that was his wish. Still, he wished for Fushi to tell him all that himself, in person.
"Hey. Gugu." Gunter's voice was barely above a whisper when he nudged Gugu's side with his elbow and pointed to somewhere nearby with a tiny movement of his chin. Curious, Gugu turned to see what Gunter was pointing to.
His heart wasn't sure how to react, whether to stop beating entirely or to beat quicker. His eyes weren't sure what to do, either, whether to dehydrate from staying wide open for too long or to fill with tears. Gugu averted his eyes, tried to fixate his eyes on nothing in particular in the opposite direction of where Rean was.
It's not her, it's not her, it's not her, it CAN'T be her, stop stop stop stop stop st-
"She's a real cutie, I know. Ah, if only she didn't have a boyfriend…" Gunter's words ripped Gugu out of his wildfire thoughts. "Huh?" He knew it wasn't her, and yet, what was that… feeling in his chest? He began to tremble, causing his mask to rattle. After a moment of grasping what was going on, Gunter's expression changed to one of worry. "Gugu… are you okay? You're shaking..."
As the two of them made their way out of the crowd, Gugu slowly began to calm down again. His heart still in his ears, he could barely focus on what Gunter was saying. He guided him to sit down on the picnic blanket they had put on a strip of grass at the border of the festival earlier and bit by bit, Gugu managed to calm down. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I completely forgot about your travels, I should have known something like this could happen, I mean I should have asked, I should have known, I—" Suddenly, Gugu put his hand on Gunter's shoulder. "It's okay. You didn't know, I didn't tell you. Don't beat yourself up about it." "But—" "It's fine. I'm fine now, thanks to you."
Later, the rest of Gunter's friends joined them as the final attraction of the day, a fireworks show, was getting set up. Gugu took a look around, idly watching spectators put down blankets, open picnic baskets or huddle closer as the air temperature sank. Just as he was about to turn back to his friends, a purple ribbon swaying softly in the breeze came into his field of view. The braided blonde hair the ribbon was tied to followed soon after. Mere meters in front of him, there sat Re— the girl he had seen earlier. Next to her, a young man. They were giggling, exchanging whispers, things Gugu wished he could have done with her. It was hard, but… Gugu managed to turn back to his friends and chatted with them for a little while longer until… "Dear visitors, the fireworks show is about to begin!"