The city looked different at two in the morning.
Not prettier. Not calmer. Just thinner, like someone had turned down the volume on life and left only the background sounds running. The streets around Utopia Tower were mostly empty, but not fully asleep. A stray taxi rolled past like a bored shark. A convenience store glowed across the road, bright and lonely. The wind moved through the concrete like it was searching for somewhere warm to sit.
XH adjusted the strap of his backpack and looked up at the tower.
Utopia Tower always felt too tall, too clean, too important for people like them. During the day it swallowed students and schedules and complaints. At night, it looked like a giant silent judge.
"Bro," TZ said, voice muffled by his scarf. "Are we actually insane?"
JP rubbed his hands together, breath coming out in white puffs. "We're not insane. We're… responsible."
NS stared at the tower entrance like it might suddenly change its mind and lock them out. "The bus leaves at five," he said quietly. "No delays. No waiting."
"That's why we're here at two," XH replied.
His voice sounded calm, but his chest was still tight. Anxiety had a way of disguising itself as logic. If the bus left without them, their whole reward trip would become a story they told later with bitterness. And if there was one thing Campus 2 taught them, it was that bitterness grew faster than hope.
They weren't the only ones who knew that.
There were already a few students gathered near the base of the tower. Some sat on the steps with blankets wrapped around their shoulders. Others stood in small groups, clutching coffee cups like shields. A couple of people were asleep on their bags, faces turned away from the cold.
XH took it in and felt something loosen inside him.
They weren't crazy.
They were just… committed.
Or terrified.
Sometimes it was the same thing.
TZ pulled his phone out and aimed it at the tower. "I'm taking a picture. This is historical."
JP snorted. "Historical? It's just us freezing."
"No," TZ said seriously. "This is the part of the drama where the main characters suffer before the trip montage."
NS didn't laugh. He was focused, scanning the crowd like he expected something to go wrong any second.
XH understood him. NS was the kind of person who stayed quiet because if he spoke too much, the world might hear his thoughts and mess them up.
The wind got sharper.
XH zipped his jacket higher and flexed his fingers inside his gloves. Even through the thick material, the cold still managed to bite.
"Minus one," JP muttered, checking the weather app like it was insulting him personally. "This is disrespectful."
TZ leaned closer to XH. "Tell me again why we couldn't just arrive at four like normal humans."
XH shrugged. "Because you and JP would panic at three and start running anyway."
JP pointed at him. "Don't drag me into this. I'm calm."
NS finally spoke, voice flat. "You're not calm. Your ears are red."
JP immediately covered his ears with his hands. "That's wind."
"That's fear," TZ said, laughing.
XH smiled despite himself.
They stood there like that, four boys under a cold sky, too young to have real power, but still acting like this trip depended on them alone.
In a way, it did.
This trip wasn't just a vacation.
The university had framed it like a reward. Like a badge.
A university-sponsored cultural immersion trip, they'd said, for students who completed the foundation and chose to remain on the full pathway. A "mental reset." A "community engagement experience." A "bond-building opportunity."
Unofficially, everyone knew what it really meant.
You stayed.
So the university wanted to show you something worth staying for.
They wanted to keep morale high.
They wanted students from all majors to feel like Campus 2 wasn't just a rumor factory.
Engineering, business, computing, health tracks, everything.
A big mixed cohort, one destination.
And if you were the kind of student who still believed in the program, you got to go.
XH thought about that, and something warm stirred in his chest.
He had stayed.
Even with the rumors chewing at the edges of everything.
Even with the advisement pressure.
Even with the way people kept saying private universities always had issues.
He stayed.
And so did his friends.
That mattered.
A sudden shout came from the convenience store side.
Someone had stepped out with a plastic bag full of snacks, waving it like a flag.
TZ perked up instantly. "Food!"
JP followed him like a loyal soldier. NS hesitated, then moved too, because no one wanted to be the only one left standing under the tower like an abandoned statue.
XH walked behind them, hands in pockets, watching their backs.
He didn't say it out loud, but he felt it:
This was what the reward trip was really for.
Not the village.
Not the monastery.
Not the photos.
It was for this.
The part where four people chose each other before the bus even arrived.
Inside the convenience store, the heater hit them like a blessing.
JP sighed dramatically the moment warm air touched his face. "This is what heaven feels like."
TZ grabbed instant noodles. "Heaven smells like plastic and instant broth."
NS went straight for bottled water and energy bars, methodical. Like he was preparing for war.
XH watched him, amused. "You're really building a survival kit."
NS shrugged. "I'm not trusting village food."
JP leaned over a rack of chips. "You're acting like we're going to the jungle."
TZ laughed. "Bro thinks we're on a documentary."
NS didn't react. He just picked up another pack of energy bars. "At least I'll be alive."
They paid, stepped back into the cold, and immediately regretted leaving the warmth. The wind slapped them like it had been waiting.
"Okay," JP said quickly. "We're not staying outside for three hours. Someone find a spot."
There was a sheltered area near the tower entrance where the building blocked most of the wind. They moved there, bags at their feet, shoulders pressed closer than they would ever admit they needed.
TZ opened a bag of chips with dramatic flair. "We should swear something tonight."
JP blinked. "What?"
"A vow," TZ said, chewing. "Like real bros."
NS looked up. "We already are."
TZ pointed at him. "That's why we swear it. To make it official."
XH leaned back against the wall. "Official bro paperwork."
JP nodded seriously. "Like blood oath."
NS sighed like he hated it, but his lips twitched slightly. "You all watch too many dramas."
XH laughed quietly. "And you act like you don't."
NS didn't deny it.
A small moment passed where none of them spoke, just breathing cold air, watching the empty street.
XH's phone buzzed once.
He glanced at it instinctively.
Nothing important.
Just a group chat notification from the larger cohort: students confirming arrival times, asking where to wait, complaining about cold.
The chat moved fast.
It made the trip feel real.
They weren't just four anxious boys anymore.
They were part of something bigger now.
A cohort.
A campus.
A university that was trying to prove it deserved them.
TZ leaned forward suddenly, eyes bright. "Imagine the girls arriving."
JP immediately stiffened. "Why are you imagining that?"
TZ grinned. "Bro. You know who's coming."
JP's face started flushing already, like his skin was trying to escape his body. "Stop."
XH said nothing, but his mind flickered automatically.
Kitty.
June.
He didn't know why his thoughts separated them like that.
Kitty felt familiar, like an old song you could hum without thinking.
June felt like a new melody you couldn't predict.
Just the idea of seeing them both at four in the morning, hair done, faces bright despite the cold, made his chest tighten in a strange way.
NS noticed his silence. "You okay?"
XH blinked. "Yeah. Just… thinking."
TZ slapped his shoulder lightly. "Bro is thinking about romance."
XH glared. "Shut up."
JP pointed dramatically. "He's guilty."
NS shook his head. "You're all stupid."
But his voice was softer than usual.
A sign that even he felt the warmth of this stupid moment.
Two-thirty came.
Then two-forty.
The waiting itself became part of the bond, like endurance training.
Around three, more students arrived in clusters, dragging luggage, yawning, laughing quietly. Some from engineering. Some from business. Some from computing.
Different faces.
Different vibes.
But the same cold.
XH watched the growing crowd and noticed the subtle shift.
Their class wasn't the biggest here.
In fact, they were outnumbered.
The engineering boys arrived in a loud wave, joking aggressively. The business guys followed, polished even at three a.m., hair styled, cologne fighting the cold. Computing students moved like ghosts, hoodies up, eyes half asleep.
XH felt a strange protective instinct rise in him.
It didn't make sense.
But it was real.
TZ leaned closer. "We're outnumbered."
JP cracked his knuckles. "Good."
NS stared at JP. "Why are you like this?"
JP shrugged. "If anyone tries to disrespect us, we handle it."
XH smiled faintly. "You mean if anyone looks at our girls."
JP froze. "Our—"
TZ howled laughing. "He admitted it!"
JP's face went redder. "I didn't mean—"
NS sighed. "You all need sleep."
But even NS's mouth was twitching now.
They were stupid.
They were young.
They were alive.
And somehow, that made the cold less painful.
At exactly three-fifty, the crowd shifted again.
A ripple.
Like a wave traveling through people.
XH looked up instinctively.
Not because someone told him to.
Because his body knew.
A figure approached from the sidewalk.
Hair done.
Coat neat.
Steps calm.
Kitty.
She walked through the crowd like she belonged in every space she entered. Not arrogant. Just… natural. Like the air made room for her without being asked.
XH felt his chest tighten.
Behind him, TZ muttered, "Oh."
JP forgot to breathe.
NS stared like he was watching a plot twist.
Kitty spotted them and waved lightly, expression amused as if she could read every stupid thought on their faces.
"Why are you all here so early?" she asked, voice clear despite the cold.
TZ tried to answer and failed. "We… uh… bus."
JP nodded too aggressively. "Bus."
NS said nothing.
XH managed, "We didn't want to miss it."
Kitty smiled. "Cute."
That one word made JP's ears turn red again.
Kitty glanced at the bags piled behind them. "You brought your whole house."
TZ pointed at NS. "He didn't."
Kitty's eyes shifted to NS. "Really?"
NS nodded, serious. "I brought food."
Kitty laughed, a short bright sound. "Only food?"
NS frowned. "What else?"
Kitty looked at the others. "Why does he look like he's about to act tough in a drama scene?"
TZ slapped NS's shoulder. "He thinks he's the main character."
NS stared at him like he might punch him, then looked away.
But his lips twitched again.
The bus hadn't arrived.
It didn't matter.
The trip had already started.
And as Kitty stood there with them in the cold, smiling like she was warming the air just by existing, XH felt the strangest thought settle into his mind:
This was going to be a memory.
A real one.
The kind you didn't notice while it was happening.
The kind you only understood later, when everything changed.
And as the snow continued to fall softly around Utopia Tower, the first morning of Volume 2 began the way life always begins—
Not with certainty.
But with people choosing to show up anyway.