The message came in the afternoon.
Short. Official. Final.
Training begins June 3rd. Orientation required two days prior.
Kai read it twice.
Then a third time.
June 1st.
That was the day he'd have to leave.
Not "sometime soon."
Not "in a few months."
A date.
He found Velithra sitting on the bleachers after school, legs tucked under her, notebook open but untouched.
She looked up when he approached.
"You got another email," she guessed immediately.
He nodded.
She closed the notebook slowly.
"When?" she asked.
"June first."
The words felt heavier spoken out loud.
Velithra did the math in her head automatically.
Weeks.
Not months.
Weeks.
"Oh," she said quietly.
Kai sat beside her.
Neither of them rushed to fill the silence.
The sky above them was pale and calm — annoyingly normal.
"That's soon," she murmured.
"Yeah."
He leaned back, staring forward. "It feels more real now."
"It is," she replied.
He glanced at her, searching for cracks.
But she wasn't breaking.
She was thinking.
After a moment, she said, "Then we stop saying 'someday.'"
He blinked. "What?"
"We stop pushing things off," she explained. "If we want to do something, we do it. If we want to say something, we say it."
Kai studied her carefully.
"You're making a plan."
"I'm making sure we don't waste this."
Something about that made his chest tighten.
"You're stronger than me," he said quietly.
She shook her head.
"No. I just don't want to regret anything."
That hit him.
Regret.
He turned toward her fully.
"I don't regret us," he said.
"I know."
"And I won't," he added.
She smiled faintly.
"Then let's make sure of it."
The wind lifted a strand of her hair across her face. Kai reached up without thinking and brushed it back gently.
June first.
The date sat between them now — visible, unavoidable.
But instead of pulling away…
Kai reached for her hand.
"Okay," he said.
"Okay?" she repeated softly.
"Okay. No countdown. No acting like it's already over."
Velithra squeezed his fingers.
"Just us."
"Just us," he agreed.
And for the first time since the acceptance—
The date didn't feel like a threat.
It felt like a reminder.
Time wasn't disappearing.
It was moving.
And they were choosing to move with it.
Together.