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"...Where is she?" King asks about Seiun Sky's whereabouts.
She is missing from today's joint training session—which the missing uma herself arranged, by the way—and King Halo didn't really want to train by herself.
Why? Today is a Saturday, which is usually a rest day.
An additional why? Today is also Valentine's Day.
Tracen Academy is especially lively today, with many students out and about, and of course, a lot of them are paired up. King did not want to seem particularly lonely when anyone else using the practice track today were having their own partner runs.
To be honest, King did not even realize that when Sky asked her to train together for the weekend. She was more surprised that Seiun Sky herself would even ask to train together of her own volition. She chalked it up to both of them having the same race coming up, and King wasn't one to back down from a challenge, especially from such a first-rate rival (as much as she doesn't want to admit it). It took her returning to her dorm room and checking it off her calendar for her to realize. At least she had enough chocolates prepared.
The day was going by smoothly. Early in the morning, she left her tasty gift for the still-asleep Urara on her desk. Later on, with her followers during breakfast. She then had lunch with her gen-mates, except Seiun Sky was absent. The others did note that they had already seen Sky, along with her chocolates.
'No matter,' King thought, 'I'll be seeing her in today's training anyway.'
This is where she's at now, with no Sky to be seen. Their trainers had no idea where she was either, so she took it upon herself to find her.
Sky wasn't at the usual spots she would be when she would slack off from training, which annoyed King. ‘Her not showing up was definitely deliberate, considering today, then.’ However, she had no clue where to go next. That was when her phone buzzed. It was a message from the missing uma herself.
'Looking for me?' Obviously. 'I've been waiting in class this entire time!'
While she knows damn well that classes aren't even being held today, King has already checked both the infirmary and their usual classroom with no dice. She texts back, 'Where are you!?' This class better still be in Tracen.
'Look at the date today. Take a guess.' Sky replies almost immediately.
'...The 14th of February... 142? 214?' King figured it was either of them. Might as well check them both out.
She went to room 214 first. No Sky there. She didn't have to open the door to find out, luckily. It was already occupied by people who did not sound like Sky—not that she wanted to recall what those sounds were.
After reaching room 142, she puts her hand on the door and slides it open. Lo and behold, it is Seiun Sky, sitting in the far corner of the room. She had her chin on her arm, looking out the window. Her ear twitches toward the sound of the door opening.
"...Sky." King calls out after finally finding her.
She turns her gaze towards the door. "Hi, King! Took you a while. I thought that I would be here foreeeever waiting for you." she said, looking self-satisfied.
"Maybe I should have left you waiting here then! Why would you even set up a joint training session for us if you aren't even going to show up! You aren't only wasting my time, you know." King closed the door behind her as she fully entered the room.
"With all the running around you probably did while looking for me, I'd say that was plenty training enough! Nyahaha!" Sky laughs. King doesn't retort.
Instead, King comes closer. Suddenly the atmosphere became heavy. Heavy with expectation. "So," King starts, "What brought me here?"
Sky didn't expect the mood to change so quickly, but her response shouldn't change. "Wow, do I really have to spell it out for you, King? You're making me shy..." she says as she looks away from King, her smile seemingly faltering from nervousness.
"Yes? It's the least you can do after putting me through your antics today!" she brings her hand up, fanning herself. It wasn't even hot out, but she got a little sweaty from looking for her.
"Hmm, I just wanted a nice and quiet place to ourselves today." she clasps her hands up to her chin. She's really playing up the shy act now.
"And your usual places weren't nice and quiet enough?" King presses further.
"I just wanted to throw you off too." Sky beamed.
"...Ugh! Are you going to give me anything or not?" King lost her patience. Maybe too soon, but she already had a lot built up.
That actually made Sky jump in surprise. Her ears drop. "Wow, King. I didn't expect you to want them that much..." she reached for her bag that was hidden from King's view and then set it on her desk as she stood up from her seat. She rummages through, assumingly, everyone else's chocolates before taking out what she meant to find. "Here you go! Happy Valentine's!" she greets as she hands her chocolates out to King.
King takes a good look at Sky's Valentine present.
It was a heart-shaped box wrapped in a green ribbon. Heat suddenly rose up King's cheeks as she took it off her hands.
"It has my true feelings all over it! Hope you like it! Teehee." Sky continues.
King remains speechless. After all, who knew it was gonna be something like that? 'Does that mean the Sky... Is that why she did all... I should have seen this...' she starts to sink deep into her thoughts, until Sky snaps her out of it.
As in, literally snapping her fingers directly near her face. "King? You good there? At least say something, I put all this effort in after all." Sky seemed worried to the snapped-back King, so she had to find a reply.
"...I don't know what to say... I didn't expect you to be so... straightforward all of a sudden." King finally answers.
"Of course, King! For such a special day, I gotta act special as well! So... would you happen to have some for me too?" Sky asked, expectingly.
King did make obligatory chocolates for everyone, so of course she has some for her, but she suddenly got shy from the imbalance of their gifts. Especially with what Sky was implying with hers.
She sets the box aside and takes out her gift for Sky. She then handed it out to her. "...Here. Some first-rate handmade chocolates." she of course had to throw that descriptor in while she’s at it.
Its presentation is nowhere close to Sky's, though. The chocolates were neatly wrapped up in a small plastic bag. Her chocolates were made in batches to be given to many people, after all.
As Sky takes them, she says, "Why thank you! I'll have to admit we have quite a different amount of feelings being shown in our gifts, huh? Haha!"
'How can she be so composed about this?' "W-well, if I'd have known, I would have made something special! For... you." King's retort trails off as she realizes what she seemed to mean by that.
"If you'd have known, huh?" Sky teases. "Well, you can know more right now! I'd love for you to open it!"
"H-here?! In front of you? A-are you fine with that?" King can't believe how open Sky is being. 'Was she really going to be like that once they...' She cuts the thought for now.
"Yep! Go ahead." Sky starts to smirk as she extends her offer.
A few quiet moments later, King takes the box and carefully unwraps the ribbon from the box. She opens it.
She is greeted by a photo of Sky playfully sticking her tongue out, going 'Bleh!' to the camera. That stops King at her tracks. "Wh-?"
"Nyahahahaha! Got you good! Did you expect something more... intimate, King?" the Trickster is truly at it again. Maybe it was wrong for King to think otherwise.
The contents of the heart-shaped box is the photo and a regular-shaped sky blue box, wrapped once again with a green ribbon. Everything else in it is fluff to keep the two items in place. Simply put, a troll.
"Geez, Sky! What is up with this misleading present?!" her embarrassment is about to go through the roof, but she can't stand being lied to.
"Don't worry, King! There really are chocolates in there, I just packaged this one a bit more specially than the others... just for you!" Sky assures her.
"S-so when you said that this had your true feelings in it... you were..." King's voice is trembling. She might actually grab Sky and show her what true feelings actually were, but that would be unbecoming of her.
"Oh, I was telling the truth! It has all of my true feelings for you, like I loooove how fun you are to tease, and so on. Nyahahaha!" Sky raises her hands up to her head, denying any mishandling of her feelings.
"..." King was likely going to get nowhere with her for now. She was truly duped with her weird Valentine's gift. What's she meant to do with this photo now?
"You can keep that as a keepsake, y'know," Sky notices her questioning gaze toward the photo.
"...Let's just go back to training. Our trainers must be bored out of their minds by now." King huffs, tired of her supposed partner's antics.
"...C'mon, King! Did you really think I just sent you on a wild goose chase for me just for show?" Sky grins at her. Their trainers did seem particularly unconcerned with her antics today, it rather looked like they were more concerned with each other instead.
"...You all set me up." King accused.
"Whoops, busted!" Sky admitted.
Her trainer was definitely getting a piece of her mind later.
Back in her dorm, King takes out Seiun Sky's ‘box of chocolate of weird feelings', at which King sighs at disappointingly. She shouldn't have expected anything different, that Sky doesn't have a serious bone in her body after all.
She starts unwrapping the real gift this time. However, when she opens it up, she gasps in disbelief.
Urara, who’s at her desk enjoying all of the chocolates she was given today, perks up at King's sudden sound. "Hmm? What's up, King?"
She goes over to King's desk and looks at the newly opened box. It was a box full of heart-shaped chocolates, colored light blue and green. They all seemed mint chocolate-flavored. This wows Urara. "Woah!! King, did you get confessed to?! That's so cute!!! Did you know? Rice did the same thing to Bourbon today!! Watching it all go down melted my heart, just as much as these chocolates are melting in my mouth! Hehehe!!!" Urara started dancing in place. She was really happy for three (maybe even four!) of her friends' blooming relationships.
Meanwhile, King was starting to get even redder. She tries to deny it, "N-, you're wr..." but she's unable to.
"So, who was this from?" Urara is eager to ask for details, but King can't even start to comprehend it.
‘And so on. Nyahahaha!’ flashes through King’s mind.
What did Seiun Sky mean by this?
She'll have to force it out of her tomorrow.