The sun dipped low, dusk settled like velvet over the festival grounds.Light bulbs strung across trees began to glow, casting a warm shimmer over tables cluttered with empty drink cups, food trays, and the lingering echoes of laughter.
Students from both towns were scattered in pockets — sprawled on picnic mats, seated on bleachers, crowding around the bonfire that had just been lit in the center of the field.
Kant moved through it all like a ghost.
He had tried to stay still, to act like he wasn't affected, to smile when people walked past. But the beat of the drum he played hours ago was nothing compared to the throb in his chest now.
He had to find Sylan.
He didn't know what he'd say. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. But something inside him refused to stay quiet.
So he wandered. Past the food stalls. Past the students comparing mascot scores. Past the path behind the school where couples had started to drift off.
That's when he saw him.
Sylan.
Laughing.
Surrounded by Grendale students, shoulders relaxed, his hair ruffled by the breeze. And right beside him was a girl with attractive curly hair— leaning into him with a kind of ease Kant had never seen in anyone around Sylan before. Her arm was hooked around his. She pressed a kiss to his cheek and whispered something in his ear that made him chuckle.
Sylan looked so... at peace. So content.
Maybe even happy.
Kant stood there frozen, half-hidden behind a tree near the food tent. His hand tightened into a fist, breath caught in his throat.
This was the person he had spent months trying to forget. The person whose name still filled every corner of his notebooks. The person he had loved in silence — who now smiled so effortlessly with someone else in the open.
He blinked, and tears threatened to spill.
Not here.
He turned away quickly. His footsteps retreating back to the same path he had come from.
His boots crunched softly against the gravel as he walked in the opposite direction, shoulders stiff, vision blurry.
He didn't look back. Couldn't.
And Sylan never saw him standing there.