The girls' hall was quiet in a way that felt unfinished.
Not the deep, settled quiet of sleep, but the fragile kind that hovered just above consciousness. Mats lay neatly across the wooden floor, blankets folded with care, bags lined against the walls like obedient soldiers. The heater hummed softly, struggling against the cold that seeped in from the cracks of the old building.
Kitty lay on her side, facing the wall.
Her eyes were open.
She had tried closing them. Tried counting breaths. Tried convincing her body that it was tired enough to rest.
It didn't work.
New places always did this to her. New ceilings. New smells. New sounds. Her mind refused to shut down when everything around her felt unfamiliar.
Behind her, someone shifted. Fabric rustled. A soft sigh escaped into the darkness.
"Is anyone asleep?" a voice whispered.
Jihye.
A few quiet chuckles answered.
"No," Anna murmured."I think my eyes are closed but my brain isn't," NC said calmly.Cherry didn't even pretend. "This mattress hates me."
Kitty smiled faintly, still facing the wall.
She rolled onto her back and stared up at the dark ceiling beams.
Somewhere outside, the wind moved through the trees. Far away, a dog barked once, then fell silent again.
The monastery was old. It held its silence like a habit.
"Are we allowed to talk?" Jihye whispered.
Cherry scoffed softly. "If they wanted silence, they shouldn't have put this many girls in one room."
A ripple of quiet laughter moved through the hall, immediately suppressed by hands over mouths and buried faces in blankets.
Kitty turned her head slightly and finally spoke. "We're whispering. It's fine."
Her voice was soft, but steady.
June lay a few mats away, hands folded on her stomach, eyes fixed on the ceiling just like Kitty's had been. She hadn't spoken yet, but she was awake. Kitty knew that without looking.
June was always awake before she spoke.
"I can't sleep," Jihye whispered. "My heart feels like it's still on the bus."
"That's called excitement," Anna said gently.
"That's called anxiety," Cherry countered.
NC smiled in the dark. "Sometimes it's both."
Silence settled again, thinner now.
Kitty adjusted her blanket and felt her phone vibrate faintly beneath her pillow. She didn't pick it up yet. She already knew who it was from.
She didn't need to look to feel the warmth that came with it.
June shifted and finally turned her head toward the center of the room. "Since no one's sleeping," she whispered, "we might as well talk."
That was June.
Practical. Honest. Direct.
Jihye grinned even though no one could see it. "Yes, please."
Cherry tilted her head. "About what?"
June paused.
Kitty felt it then. That subtle shift. That moment when a conversation chose its own direction.
June said calmly, "About why we're all awake."
Another silence.
This one heavier.
Anna broke it first, gently. "Trips make people think."
"Trips make people brave," Jihye added.
Cherry scoffed again, but quieter this time. "Trips make people honest."
Kitty swallowed.
She turned onto her side again, facing June now. The dim light from the hallway slipped under the door just enough for her to make out June's silhouette.
June's face was unreadable.
But her voice wasn't.
"I don't like almost-things," June said softly.
The words landed without drama.
No accusation.
Just truth.
Kitty's fingers curled slightly into her blanket.
Jihye held her breath.
NC stayed quiet, sensing the importance of the moment.
June continued, her tone even. "Almost conversations. Almost confessions. Almost relationships. They waste time."
Cherry shifted, interest sharpening. "That's specific."
June didn't deny it. "It is."
Kitty felt her heart beat a little faster.
She knew this was about him.
Not because June said his name.
Because she didn't need to.
Kitty spoke before she could stop herself. "Sometimes people are scared."
June turned her head fully now. "I know."
Her voice softened slightly. "Fear explains hesitation. It doesn't erase consequences."
Kitty exhaled slowly.
She stared at the ceiling again, gathering herself.
In the darkness, without eyes watching her, it felt easier to speak.
"I don't want to hide," Kitty said quietly. "Not like that."
June didn't interrupt.
"I don't mean announcing things to the world," Kitty continued. "I just… don't want to feel like I'm standing in the shadow of a question that never gets asked."
Jihye whispered, "Kitty…"
Kitty smiled faintly, unseen. "I know it sounds dramatic."
"It doesn't," NC said gently. "It sounds honest."
Cherry's voice was sharp, but not cruel. "If someone wants you, they should say it."
Kitty's chest tightened.
That was the truth she had been avoiding.
June shifted closer on her mat, lowering her voice even more. "If someone asked you seriously," she said, "not halfway, not joking, not hiding… would you say yes?"
The question was simple.
The answer wasn't.
Kitty didn't reply immediately.
She thought of the way XH looked when he was quiet. The way he stood slightly apart from crowds. The way his care showed in actions instead of words.
She thought of messages sent and unsent. Of moments paused just before crossing a line.
"Yes," she said finally, almost inaudible. "I would."
No one teased her.
No one laughed.
The room held that answer carefully.
June nodded once, as if she had expected it.
Jihye let out a small breath. "Wow."
Cherry smirked, but her voice was softer now. "Figures."
Kitty turned her head toward June. "What about you?"
The question came out before Kitty had fully decided to ask it.
June didn't pretend to misunderstand.
She didn't dodge it.
"If he asked me," June said, "the same way I just asked you… yes."
The word echoed quietly in the room.
Kitty felt something complicated twist inside her.
Not jealousy.
Recognition.
They weren't rivals yet.
They were standing on the same line, looking at the same door, waiting for the same person to decide whether to open it.
Jihye whispered, "This is intense."
Anna smiled softly. "This is real."
NC closed her eyes, listening. "Whatever happens… don't lose yourselves."
Cherry snorted. "Speak for yourself."
But even Cherry sounded thoughtful now.
Kitty reached under her pillow and finally picked up her phone. The screen lit up softly.
A message from XH.
XH: don't freeze.
She smiled.
June glanced at her phone too.
Kitty didn't reply immediately.
She typed. Deleted. Typed again.
Kitty: still awake. can't sleep.
A few seconds passed.
Then:
XH: same.
Just one word.
But it was enough to make her chest warm.
June watched Kitty's face in the dim light and understood everything without needing to ask.
She looked back at her own phone.
No message.
She didn't mind.
June didn't need constant reassurance.
She needed clarity.
She stared at the ceiling again and thought, not for the first time, that if XH ever chose, he would have to choose with his whole heart.
Not halfway.
Not safely.
The heater hummed.
Someone yawned.
The night deepened.
Outside, boys laughed faintly somewhere far away, carried by the wind like a secret.
Kitty smiled to herself.
June closed her eyes, finally, not sleeping yet, but resting.
In different halls, under the same cold sky, hearts stayed awake.
Not because of the trip.
Not because of the place.
But because some questions, once formed, refused to stay quiet.