Molayne will be staying on the islands to study astronomy, while Kukui has been completely focused on leaving the islands once he got into college on the mainland. While they do not fight, he and Kukui drift apart significantly after graduation. Olivia, on the other hand, finds Kukui's attitude to be reprehensible and offensive to her personally, and admonishes him as a coward as he leaves.

Meanwhile, though they had assumed Guzma transferred to another high school, he actually dropped out, and had been living on Ula'Ula in a number of different impermanent locales. Kukui leaves the island not knowing this and doesn't look back.