Her fingers interwoven together, fiddling around, unable to keep her hands still as Carmine kept moving and interlocking her fingers, unable to keep her mind drifting.
"Stupid boy. Stupid cute boy…" she mumbled to herself in frustration. Thinking back to the moment at Loyalty Plaza, where she was stupid enough to say.
"Sheesh, this is awkward to tell you, but I…."
And then that damn phone call had interrupted and ruined everything. The moment she could finally come to tell him. That boy from Paldea. Florian…she would tell him right then and there, that much she had decided.
She laughed thinking how quickly her opinion on him changed. At first she wanted nothing to do with these outsiders interfering in their way of life, even making her little brother go along with him so she could not be reminded of the humiliating defeat she suffered against him.
And then came the night of the festival.
She tried to shake him, tried to get him to go away. Tried to tell herself that he didn't look almost semi good in the kimono their grandparents had given him. And then at that festival they met Ogerpon, and their journey together started.
From finding the crystal to repair Ogerpon's mask. To fighting the Lousy Three together and even their final battle wherein he used his new friend Ogerpon to defeat her team.
These weird feelings. They emerged as they journeyed together in an attempt to help Ogerpon and even when the moment came that Kieran wanted Ogerpon for himself, Carmine secretly hoped that Florian would win this battle and finally make Ogerpon feel at home.
And now her brother had isolated himself, not speaking a single word to her and even refusing to see Florian off. And as for Carmine, she sat there, angry at herself for not allowing herself to express her feelings.
Now she had to return to the academy, and he had to return to Paldea. The chance of seeing him again was…
And then her Rotom phone beeped. A message from Florian.
"Hey can you meet me at the loyalty plaza?"
Carmine looked at the message for a straight minute before she softly replied with "yes I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
Her heart was beating faster. Why did he want to meet her? Did he want to tell her something? Whatever it was she wasted no time, to her shame, in checking herself in the mirror if she looked good and running out the door to meet the object of her affection at the Loyalty Plaza.