Nothing dramatic happened the day after the lab.
That was the problem.
Campus 2 woke up and moved the way it always did. Doors slid open. Shoes scuffed tile. The vending machine near the stairs jammed again, swallowing someone's money without apology. A lecturer complained about attendance while marking people present anyway. Life continued, indifferent and precise, as if nothing inside anyone had shifted at all.
If someone had looked closely, they might have noticed it.The pauses that lasted a second too long.The conversations that stopped just before something important.The way certain people avoided standing too close, or stood too close and pretended it meant nothing.
But no one ever looked that closely.
XH arrived earlier than usual.
He took the same seat near the middle, pulled out the same notebook, flipped to the same page he had left unfinished the night before. The pen rested between his fingers, balanced but unmoving. He stared at the empty margin longer than he should have.
He told himself he was tired.
They had stayed up late. Too late. His body felt heavy, like it had not fully caught up to the morning yet. Mondays always did this to him. That was the explanation he repeated in his head.
But the truth was simpler, and harder to sit with.
He did not know how to act anymore.
Kitty entered the room a few minutes later.
She was not rushing. She was not late. Just careful, as if every step had been measured before she took it. Her hair was tied the way it always was, her bag slung over her shoulder the same way, but something about her presence felt slightly adjusted, like furniture that had been moved a few inches and now made the whole room feel different.
Their eyes met.
They both smiled at the same time.
It was automatic. Muscle memory. Familiar in the way breathing was familiar. For a brief second, it felt like nothing had changed at all.
Then the smile ended a moment too early.
Not abruptly. Just quietly. Like both of them had felt the same warning at the same time.
Kitty chose a seat two rows away.
Not far.
Just different.
TR dropped into the chair beside XH with the subtlety of something heavy giving up on grace.
"Why do you look like someone stole your lunch money and your will to live?"
"I'm fine," XH said.
TR squinted at him. "That was a long answer for yes."
PL leaned over from the row ahead, twisting around in his seat. "You two have been weird lately."
"We look the same," XH replied.
"Exactly," PL said. "That's the weird part."
JP was already typing on his phone, thumbs flying, pretending none of this existed. NS sat on the other side of the row, posture straight, gaze forward, as if distance could be measured in centimeters and silence was something you could stack neatly between people.
The lecturer started talking about fundamentals.
Definitions. Processes. Things that would matter later, just not now.
XH tried to focus.
Every time Kitty shifted in her seat, his attention followed without permission. When she reached for her pen, when she tucked hair behind her ear, when she paused as if thinking about something unrelated to the lecture. He wondered what she was thinking, not because he did not know her, but because suddenly knowing felt less certain.
There had been a time when certainty felt easy.
Under neon lights. Music too loud. Laughter reckless and unguarded.
He remembered it without trying to.
The night had felt young, wild, and unfinished. The kind of night that made you brave enough to say things out loud. He had looked at Kitty then, really looked, and for once he had not hesitated.
Let's date officially.
Not dramatic. Not loud. Just honest.
She had smiled at him, soft and warm, and said something that sounded harmless at the time.
Let's just be friends for now.
Not no.Not rejection.Just not yet.
He had nodded. Played it cool. Told himself it meant patience, not distance.
Kitty, back then, had thought she had time.
She had always been admired. Always noticed. In the health track, she stood out without trying. Compliments followed her like background noise. Attention felt permanent, reliable, almost guaranteed. Playing hard to get did not feel like a risk. It felt like strategy.
A long game.
She had not known how quickly timing could shift.
Back in the present, the break bell rang.
TR stood and stretched like he was auditioning for attention. "I need sugar. Or caffeine. Or chaos."
"Those are not interchangeable," HS said mildly.
"They are to me."
They drifted toward the vending machines in loose formation, conversations overlapping and colliding. Kitty walked with them, phone in hand, scrolling through messages she was not replying to.
XH walked beside her at first.
Then, without intending to, he slowed.
She slowed too.
For a few steps, it was just them, moving at the same pace, not looking at each other, aware of the shared space between their shoulders.
"How was… everything?" he asked.
The question sounded vague the moment it left his mouth. He hated that.
Kitty glanced up. "Everything's fine."
Fine.
The word settled between them like a placeholder neither of them believed in.
At the machines, TR argued with a slot that refused to return his money. PL laughed too loudly. TZ leaned against the wall, relaxed and unbothered.
NS stood slightly apart.
XH noticed before he could stop himself.
"You've been quiet," XH said.
NS shrugged. "Just tired."
XH nodded, accepting the answer he knew was incomplete.
The rest of the day dragged.
By the time campus finally released them, relief came too quickly, like it had not been earned.
"Food?" TR asked immediately.
"Always," PL said.
They ended up at a small place near the campus gate. Cheap tables. Loud fans. Familiar smells. The kind of place where nobody cared how long you stayed or how many times you refilled your cup.
The mood lifted.
That was the dangerous part.
TR told a story that went nowhere. TZ laughed anyway. PL spilled sauce on his sleeve and pretended it was fashion. JP corrected someone's math mid-sentence without looking up.
For a moment, it felt normal again.
Kitty laughed at something TR said, her head tipping back slightly, eyes bright. XH watched the sound leave her mouth and realized something uncomfortable.
Laughter used to feel like comfort.
Now it felt like distance.
She caught him looking.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said too quickly.
She studied him for a second, then nodded. "Okay."
NS watched the exchange without comment.
When they left, the sky had already started to dim. Campus lights flickered on, softening the walkways.
TR jogged ahead with PL, arguing about nothing important. JP walked with HS, already discussing assignments. TZ lagged behind, unbothered by the pace.
XH and Kitty walked side by side again.
This time, neither slowed.
"I had fun at karaoke," Kitty said suddenly.
XH smiled. "Me too."
"We should… do it again sometime."
"Yeah," he said. "We should."
The words were right.
The timing still wasn't.
They stopped near the dorm entrance.
Kitty adjusted her bag strap. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow," XH echoed.
She hesitated, like she might say something else.
Then she didn't.
As she walked away, XH stood there longer than necessary, watching her disappear into the building.
NS stopped beside him.
"You don't have to rush," NS said quietly.
XH looked at him. "Rush what?"
NS didn't answer right away. He stared ahead, then spoke again. "Just… don't wait too long either."
XH swallowed. "I'm trying to figure it out."
NS nodded once. "Yeah."
Then he walked off.
XH remained where he was, campus quiet around him, understanding something he had been avoiding.
Nothing had gone wrong.
But nothing had gone right either.
And sometimes, the space between almost and too late was the hardest place to stand.