XH woke to the sound of water striking the metal frame outside his window.
For several seconds, he thought the storm had returned.
Then he opened his eyes and saw sunlight crossing the floor of the boys' dormitory.
The sound came from the damaged gutter above his room. Rainwater left behind from the night before fell in slow, heavy drops onto the emergency staircase.
One drop.
Then another.
Then silence long enough for him to remember everything.
Kitty beneath the lights of the Campus 2 lobby.
Her hands against his coat.
His mouth on hers.
The sudden movement on NC's phone screen when the call reconnected.
June's face appearing for less than a second before the connection ended.
NS standing beside her.
XH reached for his phone.
There were thirty-seven notifications from the university group chats, eleven messages about the unforecasted storm, and a photograph of a tree branch that had fallen across the road beside the Engineering Building.
There was nothing from Kitty.
There was nothing from June.
NS had sent one message at 1:14 in the morning.
Lab at nine. Mr. Kim said attendance still counts.
That was all.
No accusation. No question. No mention of what he and June had witnessed.
XH read the message twice.
The second reading made it feel colder.
He sat on the edge of his bed and listened to the water outside. His uniform shirt hung from the back of the chair. The collar was still slightly damp from the storm.
He should have changed it the night before.
He should have answered June before she was forced to ask anything.
He should have stopped before the lobby disappeared around him and Kitty became the only thing he could feel.
Instead, he had done none of those things.
The clock read 7:26.
Normal class began in less than two hours.
Utopia University had survived a night of thunder, a power failure, flooded walkways, and at least three damaged roofs.
Therefore, naturally, the laboratory remained open.
Campus 2 looked freshly built after the storm.
The morning sun reflected from every wet surface. Water shone on the stone paths, the glass buildings, and the bronze university seal set into the entrance plaza. Maintenance workers cleared leaves from the covered walkways while students stepped around yellow warning signs without reading them.
XH entered through the eastern gate.
To his left, the School of Engineering rose behind a row of rain-darkened trees. Several students stood outside photographing the fallen branch beside the loading entrance as if it were a new campus attraction.
Beyond it stood the Computing Building, square and silver, with blue light still burning behind the upper windows. Somebody had probably stayed there through the storm.
The Business Faculty occupied the newer building across the road. Its enormous digital screen had frozen on an advertisement from the previous evening.
BUILD TOMORROW BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE OWNS IT.
JP stood beneath the screen taking a photograph.
"That feels threatening now," he said when XH approached.
"It felt threatening yesterday."
"Yesterday it was motivation. The weather changed the genre."
TZ joined them with a steamed bun in one hand and a carton of soy milk in the other.
"Did either of you sleep?"
"Four hours," JP said.
"That is not sleep. That is a long blink."
TZ looked at XH.
XH kept walking.
"Less than four," TZ decided.
They crossed the Interfaculty Commons, where the first-floor cafés were reopening. The smell of coffee drifted into the wet morning air. Students from different faculties crowded around charging outlets because two dormitories still had no electricity.
Utopia Tower stood beyond the commons.
Its glass walls reflected the clouds so perfectly that the building seemed hollow.
XH did not look toward the lobby doors.
He looked anyway.
For a fraction of a second, he saw Kitty there again.
Then a group of first-year students crossed in front of the entrance and the memory disappeared.
"XH."
June's voice came from behind him.
He stopped.
She approached with Bunny and two other medical students. She wore her white laboratory coat folded over one arm. Her hair was tied back, and her expression was composed enough that JP immediately looked away.
To anyone passing them, nothing was wrong.
June stopped beside XH as if it were where she belonged.
"You are early," she said.
"So are you."
"I did not sleep."
Bunny glanced between them. "I am going to pretend I did not hear that in a romantic way."
June smiled.
"Please do."
Bunny laughed and continued toward the Clinical Sciences Building with JP and TZ.
For several seconds, XH and June stood alone beneath the connecting walkway.
Students passed around them.
June lowered her voice.
"Kitty did not answer me."
XH felt his throat tighten. "What did you send her?"
"That is your first question?"
"June."
"I asked whether she was safe."
"She went back to her room."
"I know where she went. I asked whether she was safe. Those are different questions."
XH had no answer.
June looked toward Utopia Tower.
"We have lab," she said. "I am not doing this here."
She walked ahead of him.
From the far side of the commons, two students waved at them.
"Did you two fight again?" one called.
June turned while still walking backward.
"He is losing," she replied.
The students laughed.
XH forced a smile.
The performance had begun before either of them agreed to it.
Mr. Kim had written one sentence across the laboratory board.
OBSERVE BEFORE YOU INTERPRET.
Twenty microscopes waited on the long black benches. Prepared blood-smear slides sat in trays beside bottles of immersion oil, lens paper, and boxes of gloves.
Mr. Kim stood at the front in his white coat, checking the wall clock as students hurried inside.
"The university did not cancel class," he said. "The storm therefore did not cancel your responsibility. Sit down."
Chairs scraped against the floor.
Kitty entered just before the door closed.
She wore her hair loose.
She did not look toward XH.
There was one empty seat beside June and another beside NS. Kitty paused between the two benches for only a moment before sitting beside NS.
June lowered her eyes to her notebook.
NS moved the tray of slides toward Kitty to give her more room.
"Did you eat?" he asked quietly.
"I am not hungry."
"That was not the question."
Kitty looked at him.
NS placed an unopened bread packet beside her notebook.
He did not ask again.
After a few seconds, Kitty opened it.
June watched without turning her head completely.
Then she removed her gloves, reached into her bag, and placed a small bottle of water beside Kitty's elbow.
Kitty's hand stopped around the bread.
"Thank you," she whispered.
June put her gloves back on.
"You always forget water when you are upset."
Kitty looked as if she wanted to say more.
Mr. Kim turned toward their bench.
"If the private conference has concluded, we will begin."
Everyone faced forward.
Mr. Kim tapped the sentence on the board.
"A microscope will show you what is on the slide. It will not protect you from what you expected to see. Today you will identify the major white blood cells and record only what is present. Not what your partner suggests. Not what the textbook photograph looked like. What is present."
He dimmed the front lights and projected a magnified blood smear.
Pink discs filled the screen. A single purple-stained cell sat near the center.
"Identification?"
Bunny raised her hand. "Lymphocyte."
"Why?"
"Large round nucleus. Thin border of cytoplasm."
"Good. Evidence before conclusion."
Mr. Kim changed the image.
JP leaned toward XH. "He is definitely talking about more than blood cells."
"He is talking about blood cells."
"That is why it is working."
XH adjusted his microscope and placed the first slide on the stage.
June sat beside him because they had been assigned as partners at the start of the term. Neither of them suggested changing places.
Through the lens, the blood smear blurred into red and violet clouds.
XH turned the fine-focus knob.
The image sharpened.
Then Kitty laughed softly at something NS said behind him.
XH turned the knob too far.
The cell disappeared.
"You passed it," June said.
"I know."
"Then come back slowly."
He adjusted the focus again.
June watched his hand.
"You are pressing hard enough to break the slide."
XH released the knob.
"Sorry."
"Stop apologizing to objects."
He looked at her.
June was already writing their observations.
Behind them, NS bent toward Kitty's microscope. He did not touch it. He only pointed toward the objective lens and waited while she corrected the focus herself.
"There," Kitty said.
"What do you see?"
"A neutrophil."
"Evidence?"
"Multiple lobes. Pale cytoplasm. And because Mr. Kim has asked us the same thing six times."
Mr. Kim spoke without looking up from another bench.
"Repetition is how education defeats confidence unsupported by knowledge."
The class laughed.
For the next forty minutes, the room returned to something almost normal.
Students moved between microscopes. JP argued that one damaged cell resembled a surprised ghost. TZ recorded the wrong slide number and tried to blame the printer. Bunny reminded him that printers could not alter handwriting.
XH and June completed their identification table without discussing the night before.
Kitty finished the bread NS had given her.
Nobody said what all four of them knew.
At 10:17, the university chime sounded through the building.
The projector changed by itself.
The blood-smear image vanished and the Utopia University crest appeared against a blue background.
Several students groaned.
"If this is another storm safety video, I already know not to stand beneath a tree," TZ said.
Text appeared beneath the crest.
STUDENT WELLBEING AND COMMUNITY RETREAT
INNLAY LAKE AND MOUNTAIN VALLEY
FIVE DAYS, FOUR NIGHTS
The laboratory became silent.
Then everyone began talking at once.
"Five days?"
"Starting when?"
"Is Innlay Lake even inside Yandon?"
"What about our classes?"
"Do the dorms still have electricity?"
The next line appeared.
DEPARTURE: TODAY, 1:30 P.M.
JP slowly removed his glasses.
"That is not an announcement," he said. "That is an abduction with university branding."
Even Mr. Kim smiled.
He stepped in front of the screen.
"The trip was approved earlier this week. The final departure time was delayed because of last night's weather inspection. Your afternoon classes have been suspended. You will have two hours to return to your dormitories, pack, eat, and report to the Grand Fountain."
Bunny raised her hand. "Is it optional?"
"No."
"Then why is it called wellbeing?"
"Because Mandatory Rural Removal would concern your parents."
The room broke into laughter.
Mr. Kim waited for it to settle.
"Innlay Lake is several hours beyond the outer districts of Yandon. The first part of the program will take place in the floating settlements. The second will continue at Mountain Valley."
He changed the slide.
A photograph showed a wide lake beneath misty hills. Houses stood above the water on wooden supports. Long gardens floated in green rows between narrow channels.
"The purpose is rest, community observation, and cooperative work outside your usual faculties. That means Medical students will not spend five days only with Medical students. Engineering, Computing, Business, and Applied Sciences will travel with us."
JP raised his hand. "You used the word rest and then the phrase cooperative work. Which one was the lie?"
"You may discover that after arrival."
"Are you coming with us, sir?" Kitty asked.
Mr. Kim nodded.
"I will supervise this group with TZ."
TZ leaned toward JP. "There goes the illegal card tournament."
Mr. Kim continued without turning around.
"There went the illegal card tournament."
At 10:24, he dismissed the class.
Normal school ended in an instant.
By one o'clock, the entire center of Campus 2 had changed.
Travel bags rolled across the stone paths. Faculty coordinators carried clipboards between buildings. Two buses waited beyond the administration plaza while luggage attendants tied colored tags to suitcases.
XH returned from the boys' dormitory with a backpack and one dark duffel bag.
The route to the Grand Fountain took him along the eastern edge of the campus lake.
The lake was smaller than Innlay Lake, but it formed the quiet center of Campus 2. A white pedestrian bridge crossed its narrowest point. Willow branches touched the water near the library steps. Beyond them, the red-brick Humanities Building faced the newer glass walls of Clinical Sciences.
Students often joked that the two buildings looked like they belonged to different centuries and had been forced into the same group project.
Today, the water was unusually still.
The storm had left pale debris along the shore. Groundskeepers pulled broken reeds from the shallow end while black water birds gathered near the floating study deck.
XH crossed the bridge.
From its center, most of Campus 2 could be seen at once.
Utopia Tower rose to the north. The Central Library stretched beside the lake like an open book. The Clinical Sciences complex stood to the east, connected by covered corridors. Engineering and Computing occupied the southern end, while the Business Faculty faced the main road as if it had chosen the best place to advertise itself.
At the western entrance stood the Grand Fountain.
Three broad stone tiers rose from a circular pool. Water spilled from one level to the next around bronze figures representing the original faculties. At night, lights beneath the pool changed with university events. During examination season, students threw coins into it and made promises they immediately broke.
Today, the fountain had become a departure point.
Groups gathered around the pool in matching jackets and faculty colors. TZ stood on the lowest step with a clipboard and whistle.
"If your luggage has no tag, it does not exist," he called. "If you have more than two bags, decide which one will begin a new life at Campus 2."
Mr. Kim stood beside the first bus, speaking with the driver. He had changed out of his laboratory coat and wore a charcoal jacket over his shirt. A medical kit and a stack of attendance forms rested on the front seat behind him.
June waited beside the fountain.
Kitty stood with Bunny on the opposite side.
NS arrived from the direction of the main gate carrying his own bag and a paper cup tray.
He offered one cup to Kitty.
"Milk tea. No ice."
Kitty looked surprised. "You remembered?"
"You traded drinks with JP at the palace café because he ordered the wrong one."
"My failures continue helping people," JP said as he walked past them.
Kitty accepted the cup.
Her fingers brushed NS's.
She did not pull her hand away immediately.
June saw it from across the fountain.
NS noticed her watching and lifted the second cup.
"Ginger tea. No sugar."
June hesitated.
Then she crossed the small space between them and accepted it.
"You remembered mine too?"
"You spent nineteen minutes explaining why sweet tea is not tea."
"It was not nineteen minutes."
"I rounded down."
June laughed.
This smile was different from the one she had given the passing students that morning.
It reached her eyes.
XH stopped beside the fountain with his duffel bag still in his hand.
NS looked toward him.
For a moment, something silent passed between them.
NS reached for the final cup in the tray.
Black coffee. No sugar.
XH's usual order.
He held it out.
XH accepted it.
"Thanks."
"You looked like you needed it."
It sounded like friendship.
It did not feel like friendship.
A university photographer climbed onto the fountain step.
"All travelling students, group photograph before boarding. Medical group in the center. Engineering on the left. Computing and Business behind them. Please keep the fountain visible."
Everyone began moving.
TZ directed the taller students toward the back row. Mr. Kim stood at one end beside the other faculty supervisors.
XH took his place near the center.
June was guided to his side.
Kitty stood one row ahead with Bunny. NS stepped into the space beside Kitty when another student shifted toward the back.
The photographer looked through the camera.
"Closer together, please. We have too much empty space in the middle."
June moved half a step toward XH.
Their shoulders touched.
"A little closer," the photographer said.
June slipped her arm through XH's.
The movement looked natural because she had done it so many times before.
Only XH felt how rigid her hand had become against his sleeve.
In front of them, NS said something too quietly for XH to hear.
Kitty lowered her head, then smiled.
June saw that smile.
XH saw June see it.
"Everyone ready?" the photographer called.
Dozens of students faced the camera.
JP stopped complaining. TZ hid his unfinished bun behind his back. Bunny lifted her chin. Mr. Kim offered the small, patient smile he used when students finally answered correctly.
Kitty smiled beside NS.
June smiled beside XH.
XH smiled because everyone else had.
The camera flashed.
For one perfect photograph, they looked happy.
"One more," the photographer said.
The second flash caught the same lie from a slightly better angle.
At 1:29, Mr. Kim stood inside the first bus and counted every student himself.
TZ checked the luggage compartment below.
"If I call your name, answer loudly," Mr. Kim said. "I will not accept a hand movement, eye contact, or the belief that I should know you are present."
The students answered one by one.
June sat beside XH in the third row.
It was where they always sat during university trips. Choosing different seats would have invited questions neither of them wanted to answer.
Across the aisle, Kitty took the window seat.
NS sat beside her.
JP and TZ occupied the row behind them with enough snacks to open a small shop.
Mr. Kim finished the count and took the front passenger seat. TZ climbed aboard last and closed the door.
The engine started.
Outside, the Grand Fountain continued spilling water from one stone tier to the next. The photographer reviewed the group picture beneath the bronze figures. Behind him, the buildings of Campus 2 shone beneath the clean afternoon light.
The bus moved around the circular plaza.
It passed the Central Library, the white bridge, and the edge of the campus lake.
XH looked back through the window until Utopia Tower disappeared behind the trees.
Beside him, June kept her hands folded in her lap.
Across the aisle, NS reached past Kitty and pressed the window latch when it began to rattle.
Nobody spoke about the photograph.
Nobody knew that before they returned, it would become one of the last pictures in which all of them could still pretend nothing had broken.