Paper Wings (#2) [☆ PREVIEW ☆]

Chapter One: Happily Ever After...

Hello, friends! Thank you so much for waiting so long for Paper Wings. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) I'm pretty embarrassed that it took so long. Actually, even now I am still writing it... (；⌣̀_⌣́) *crawls into a hole and dies but not really because I need to finish writing this book*

I recently took on extra responsibility at my workplace, so I'm working in multiple departments, and as you may already know from my announcement on my profile, I'll be writing the companion novel (which is Vilvian's mom's story) to this series for Radish Fiction.

This novel, like Paper Wishes, is largely unedited and may not represent the finished version. You may find typos, repeat words, etc. Please don't hesitate to kindly let me know where they are. I will do my best to fix these errors! Also, I don't know how regularly I'll be updating but I'll do my best so I don't disappoint you all.

Love you all~

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Time seemed to slow down and my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. The tears that had been flowing had come to a stop. I wiped the remnants away with the back of the hand that had been covering my mouth, which had been agape in surprise. I felt my hands getting clammy, and I was sure a cold sweat had broken out on my forehead.

"Yes...," I said softly as I nodded weakly to the lovely, flowery proposal Nox had just provided me within a very public setting. My stomach was flip flopping as a heavy knot developed in it. This isn't right, I thought. Nox should know me well enough to know that attention was the thing I craved the least, and as he slid the ring on my finger a few people who had stopped to watch us began to applaud and cheer.

Suddenly everything went dark.

***

"Hikari?"

I heard his voice loud and clear. My eyes opened and I found myself staring into his eyes. They were familiar to me. I'd seen them before--he whose eyes were such a deep black that the universe could have been consumed by them leaving behind no speck of light.

"Tsubasa?"

"What's going on? Are you OK?" His brow furrowed as he leaned forward to press his cheek to my forehead. "You don't have a fever, but you look terrible."

"Nox proposed to me."

"I know. Aren't you happy about it?"

I sighed. "I am happy but I wish someone would have given me a heads up. Did everyone know?"

Tsubasa shrugged as he lay down next to me, so we could stare at the sky together.

"I don't know for certain but if I had to guess I'd say yes. After all wasn't it Kai who arrange for your hotel stay? Surely he must have had some idea."

"I don't like attention," I said softly. "I get anxious."

Tsubasa was silent for a moment as he thought of something to say. "Maybe everyone thought you'd want the attention just this one time, to make it special."

"They were wrong," I said. I heard the anxiety I felt creep into my voice. I wasn't trying to be ungrateful--even I was surprised by the level of anxiety I felt.

"Whatever you've said to Nox... don't feel like you can't change your answer. If you don't think you're ready to be married, just tell him. You'll be OK no matter what." He turned his head to look at me and gave me a smarmy smile. "I know you'll be OK. You've started to see that you have wings, too."