Friday ended academically at 5:12 in the afternoon.
Emotionally, it had refused to end since Monday.
The final First Aid lecture covered handover reports, documentation, and the dangerous distance between what a witness saw and what a witness assumed.
The instructor wrote one line on the board before dismissing us.
REPORT FACTS. DO NOT IMPROVE THEM.
Jihye photographed it.
"Mr. Kim will have it framed," JP said.
"It is useful," she replied.
"That has never stopped him from making something frightening."
Around us, chairs closed and bags opened.
The room divided into students going to Bliss and students determined to appear morally superior for not going.
JP belonged to the second category.
"We are not missing anything," he announced. "Nightclubs are dark rooms where people pay to lose hearing."
Cherry zipped a small makeup bag inside her backpack.
"You asked for the address three times."
"Academic curiosity."
"You asked whether Thoon confirmed."
JP looked toward TZ.
"I was assessing cross-major attendance."
TZ continued packing as if loyalty required him not to smile.
"Thoon confirmed," he said.
JP became still.
"I did not ask."
"You just did."
"Indirect questions do not count in court."
Bunny pulled Cherry toward the door before the conversation could become evidence.
June followed them.
She wore ordinary class clothes and carried a black garment bag over one shoulder.
NS noticed it.
I noticed him noticing it.
Kitty noticed both of us.
"Library at seven," Anna said. "Second floor. Same room."
"Pathology first," NC added. "Emergency medicine after nine."
JP looked at the garment bag disappearing through the door.
"After nine?"
"Yes."
"That feels targeted."
"You chose not to go."
"Choice should protect me from consequences."
Jihye handed him the case packet.
"It rarely does."
NS left without telling either group where he was going.
In the cohort chat, his attendance remained MAYBE.
At 7:06, Campus 2 belonged to students with examinations, secrets, or nowhere else to be.
The Grand Fountain was dark.
The temporary barriers around it had been doubled, and the open stone panel was covered with a gray sheet. A printed notice blamed emergency pipe replacement.
The campus lake could not be seen from the library after sunset.
Its smell could.
Something metallic entered through the ventilation system whenever the wind changed.
Jihye closed the nearest vent.
"That is not algae."
JP opened a packet of chips.
"Can we diagnose the lake after my future?"
"Your future is not producing a smell."
"Give it time."
The study room contained six chairs.
Kitty sat beside me.
NC, Anna, and Jihye opened the pathology cases across from us.
JP positioned his phone behind the workbook, believing five Health students would not recognize a crime committed with no subtlety.
NC held out her hand.
"Phone."
"My mother may call."
"Your mother calls on video."
"She may discover texting."
"Phone."
JP surrendered it.
The screen displayed Bliss's public story.
The entrance line already curved around the building.
Nobody commented.
NC placed the phone face down.
We began with acute inflammation.
For eleven minutes, we were excellent students.
Bliss occupied the upper floors of a black-glass building four train stops south of Utopia University.
Its entrance faced an elevated station, but the transport strike had closed two exits and reduced service to one train every twenty minutes. Students crossed the final intersection in groups beneath flashing advertisements and police traffic lights that no longer controlled traffic.
At 8:48, June reached the entrance with Bunny, Cherry, and TZ.
She had changed into a simple black dress beneath a pale coat. Nothing about it asked for attention.
The street gave it to her anyway.
Bunny wore silver.
Cherry wore deep blue.
TZ wore the same dark shirt he used for every event that required him to pretend he had not planned his clothes.
"Two hours," he reminded them.
Cherry looked toward the line.
"You started timing before we entered?"
"Last reliable train is at twelve-ten. Road transport is worse."
"We can book a car."
"The transport application currently estimates ninety-six minutes."
Bunny lifted both hands.
"No routes. No schedules. Tonight we are normal students."
TZ looked at the elevated tracks.
"Normal students also need to return home."
"You can become reliable again at eleven-thirty."
"Eleven-twenty."
"Accepted."
HTN met them at the entrance wearing an engineering faculty pin above her black jacket.
"Health Track finally arrived," she said. "We were about to declare you clinically absent."
"We had class," Cherry replied.
"Engineering also had class. We simply respect priorities."
Shinso appeared behind her and checked their names against the guest list.
SRM waited beside the security desk, arguing that her bag contained no outside drink, only perfume with an unnecessarily large bottle.
Across the lobby, KM and Thoon represented Business by taking photographs in front of the event wall before anyone else could occupy it.
"You came," Thoon said when she saw June.
"That was the invitation."
"XH didn't?"
June removed her coat.
"That was not the invitation."
Thoon smiled as though the answer had provided more information than June intended.
TZ gave the coats to the attendant.
KM placed one hand on his shoulder.
"Reliable man. Did JP lose permission?"
"JP chose to study."
"Voluntarily?"
"He believes so."
The doors opened.
Music entered the lobby like weather.
Bliss was designed so nobody could see the entire room from the ground floor.
The dance floor occupied the center beneath moving blue and violet lights. Two curved staircases led to upper tables hidden behind smoked glass. Mirrors multiplied every crowd until one hundred students looked like four hundred.
The ceiling displayed artificial stars.
Outside, the real sky had begun producing lightning without rain.
Nobody inside noticed.
HTN led the group toward a reserved student area near the dance floor.
"Engineering paid the deposit," she said.
KM removed the reservation card and replaced it with a Business faculty card.
"Business understands ownership."
Shinso moved it back.
"You understand touching other people's tables."
"The table is between both signs."
"Then Health should claim it," Cherry said.
June placed her small purse at the center.
"Done."
Bunny cheered.
For the first time that week, the competition required nothing from their grades.
They ordered sealed bottled water and soft drinks first. TZ checked each bottle before passing it across the table.
SRM watched him.
"Did you attend a safety seminar?"
"Yesterday."
"You are making nightlife feel supervised."
"Good."
"Ignore him," Bunny said. "He was born forty-three."
The first song changed.
Cherry pulled June toward the dance floor.
June resisted for exactly four seconds.
Then the week released her.
HTN started the first competition by forming a circle and pointing at Business.
"You lost rowing. Redeem yourselves."
KM stepped into the center before Thoon could stop him.
"Business does not redeem. Business acquires."
He attempted a footwork sequence that looked impressive for two beats and became an emergency evacuation on the third.
Shinso entered only to prevent Engineering from being represented by laughter.
SRM and HTN shouted instructions he ignored.
Thoon pulled Bunny into the circle.
Bunny pulled Cherry.
Cherry pulled June.
Within one song, the rivalry stopped belonging to any faculty.
They copied each other's worst movements and applauded every mistake as if it were intentional. TZ remained beside the table until SRM and Bunny seized one arm each.
"I am watching the drinks," he protested.
"HTN is watching them," Cherry said.
HTN raised both thumbs from the table without taking her eyes off the bottles.
TZ allowed himself to be dragged into the light.
His dancing was careful, restrained, and unexpectedly on rhythm.
Thoon stared at him.
"You lied about not knowing how."
"Nobody asked."
"JP would consider this betrayal."
"JP considers weather betrayal."
June laughed hard enough to lose the next beat.
For several minutes, she was not second position, not XH's unfinished history, and not NS's private decision.
She was twenty-one beneath artificial stars with friends who also feared the future and had agreed not to discuss it tonight.
Her phone vibrated inside her purse.
She checked it during the next song.
Cherry had sent six photographs.
Bunny had sent one blurred video.
The cohort chat contained JP complaining about chronic inflammation.
There was no message from XH.
June looked at his name for one second.
Then she placed the phone face down beside her sealed bottle and returned to the dance floor.
Above her, one of the empty private tables waited behind smoked glass.
At 9:18, JP recovered his phone during Anna's explanation of chronic inflammation.
"I need a calculator."
"There are no calculations in this case," Anna said.
"Then I need emotional support."
He opened HTN's story.
The screen showed Bunny, Cherry, SRM, and Thoon dancing beneath blue light. KM attempted a movement that required more confidence than rhythm. Shinso stood behind him recording evidence.
TZ remained beside the table.
In the next clip, June appeared between Cherry and Bunny.
She was laughing.
Not smiling for a photograph.
Laughing.
The sound could not be heard beneath the music, but I remembered it accurately.
JP lowered the phone.
"They appear academically irresponsible."
"Give it here," NC said.
"I am done."
He handed it over without argument.
Kitty had watched my face instead of the screen.
"Do you want to go?" she asked.
"No."
"Do you want her to be unhappy because you stayed?"
"That is not fair."
"I know."
The answer was too quiet to fight.
Jihye closed the case packet.
"Ten-minute break."
"We started eighteen minutes ago," Anna said.
"The room is no longer learning."
JP reached for his phone.
NC moved it farther away.
"Break without surveillance."
We opened the snacks and played one Mobile Legends match because JP claimed reaction time was a clinical skill.
He selected a hero before anyone joined the team and blamed the network when we lost.
For thirteen minutes, Kitty argued with him about a lane, Anna laughed loudly enough to disturb the next room, NC carried the team, and Jihye recorded no weather anomaly.
I almost forgot Bliss.
Then my phone displayed June's name in an old pinned conversation.
No new message had arrived.
I locked the screen.
At 9:34, a black-and-gold Ferrari stopped beneath the club entrance lights.
The valet knew NS before the door opened.
Students waiting outside turned their phones toward the car.
NS stepped onto the pavement in a black shirt and dark jacket. He handed the key to the valet without looking at the cameras and entered through the shorter line beside the main doors.
Publicly, his attendance changed from MAYBE to obvious.
Privately, he had known he would come since VT mentioned June's name.
The manager escorted him upstairs.
His table overlooked the student section from the opposite side of the dance floor. It was smaller than VT's reservation and far enough away to appear unrelated.
That had been deliberate.
NS placed his phone on the table.
An incoming call filled the screen.
HS CALLING
The music vibrated through the glass.
NS watched the name until the call stopped.
He told himself HS would call again if it mattered.
Below him, June stepped away from the dance floor and looked up.
She saw him.
Her expression changed before she could control it.
NS left the upper table.
"You said maybe," June told him when he reached her.
"Maybe developed."
"Into a Ferrari?"
"It was available."
Bunny looked between them.
"You two argue like this often now."
"Academic pressure," June said.
"Transportation policy," NS said at the same time.
Cherry narrowed her eyes.
TZ drank water to avoid becoming involved.
NS nodded toward the upper level.
"I reserved a table."
"You promised not to compete with VT," June said.
"I promised nothing. You gave an instruction."
"You told me to stop giving orders yesterday."
"I am learning from you."
She tried to remain annoyed.
The music changed before she succeeded.
NS offered his hand.
"One song."
"We are not doing that in front of everyone."
"Everyone is already watching KM dance. We are safe."
KM had climbed onto the low platform beside the student tables. Thoon recorded him while Shinso attempted to remove him before security did.
June laughed.
She took NS's hand.
They entered the edge of the dance floor without holding each other closely enough to confirm anything.
Their eyes confirmed it anyway.
Kitty and I left the library at 10:02 to refill the water bottles.
The second-floor dispenser displayed a red maintenance light.
So did the dispenser on the first floor.
We walked to the temporary distribution point beside the fountain.
A security officer handed us two sealed bottles and recorded our student numbers.
"Since when does water require attendance?" Kitty asked.
"Temporary conservation tracking," he replied.
Behind him, an unmarked tanker connected to the campus inlet.
The hose moved slightly with the pressure.
Thunder sounded above the tower.
Kitty looked at the clear sky.
"Your appointment was yesterday."
"I remember."
"That was not what I meant."
"I know."
She waited.
I told her about the referral and the warning not to drive.
I did not tell her about June in white, the palace lights, or NS holding pages beneath an unfamiliar sky.
"You are still keeping something," she said.
"I am trying to understand it first."
"You always want understanding before honesty."
"Understanding makes honesty less dangerous."
"No. It makes it late."
The fountain stood empty behind her.
For one second, I imagined water rising from the dry basin and covering both our feet.
Then Kitty took one bottle from my hand.
"Come back upstairs," she said. "Be where you chose to be."
I followed her.
At 10:11, three dark vehicles stopped outside Bliss.
The first carried two security men.
The second carried VT and PL.
The third carried people who laughed before the doors opened because they had learned that arriving beside power required a performance.
VT wore a pale jacket that separated him from every dark suit in the entrance. The manager came outside to greet him personally.
PL stepped from the vehicle in black.
Her dress was elegant, simple, and chosen according to an instruction she had pretended was a suggestion.
VT placed one hand at the back of her waist for the waiting cameras.
She let him.
Inside, he was taken to the largest upper table.
A private attendant opened bottles before he sat down.
PL looked across the smoked-glass railing.
She recognized HTN first.
Then KM.
Then Bunny and Cherry.
June stood near the dance floor beside NS.
XH was not there.
PL did not know whether she felt relieved or abandoned again.
"You said my old friends would be here," she told VT.
"Some are."
"Where is XH?"
VT smiled without looking at her.
"Studying, apparently. He has become responsible at the least useful moment."
PL turned toward him.
"How do you know where he is?"
"I know where everyone important is."
Below them, June returned to her table.
VT stood.
PL caught his sleeve.
"Her name was on your reservation."
"Then I should welcome my guest."
"She didn't accept."
"Not yet."
He descended the curved staircase.
PL remained above the dance floor.
June saw VT approach before NS did.
The crowd adjusted around him. Some students recognized his face. Others recognized the two men who never moved far behind him.
"You came," VT said.
"I was invited by HTN."
"Everyone enters through someone."
His eyes moved toward NS.
"I see you found the smaller table."
NS faced him.
"I see you brought security to a student event."
"They enjoy music."
"They look emotional."
June stepped between the conversation and its next ten minutes.
"We are here to relax."
VT smiled at her.
"Then come upstairs. It is quieter, the service is better, and you won't have to protect your bottle like an examination answer."
"I'm staying with my friends."
"Bring them."
"No, thank you."
The rejection was gentle enough for public use.
VT received it as though it were the first part of a negotiation.
He looked toward Bunny, Cherry, and TZ.
"At least allow me to send something to the table."
"We already ordered," TZ said.
"I wasn't asking you."
"He answered for the table," June replied.
For one second, VT's smile disappeared.
Then the music changed and returned it to his face.
"Enjoy the night," he said.
He walked back toward the staircase.
NS watched him go.
"We should leave."
June turned.
"We arrived an hour ago."
"He came here for you."
"Then he can waste his time."
"You don't understand him."
"And you don't control where I stand because another man entered the room."
"This is not jealousy."
"That is exactly what a jealous person says in a better jacket."
Bunny covered a laugh with her bottle.
Cherry looked toward the upper level.
"Wait."
She narrowed her eyes at the woman beside VT's table.
"Is that PL?"
June looked up.
PL stood behind the smoked glass wearing the confidence of nobody they remembered and the expression of someone who remembered all of them.
Their eyes met across the room.
PL did not wave.
Beside her, the private attendant placed another unopened bottle into a silver bucket.
VT leaned close and said something the music erased.
PL's attention moved from his face to his hands.
Below them, everyone watched the reunion that had not happened yet.
Nobody watched the table.