The hallway outside the boys' dorms was quiet, the kind of quiet that only came after midnight. Most of the rooms had their lights off, but faint murmurs slipped through the thin walls — students whispering, laughing, living normal lives.
Marc knocked twice on Luca's door before slipping inside without waiting for an answer.
Luca was sitting on the floor with his back against the bed, notebook open on his knees. He had drawn a simple map of the festival grounds, but half the lines were crossed out in frustration.
Marc closed the door gently. "Bro, if you erase any more lines off that map, you're gonna summon a demon."
Luca didn't smile. "I'm just trying to figure out what the system wants."
Marc sat across from him, legs stretched out. "That's the problem. You're thinking like the system needs something from us."
Luca looked up. "It does. Otherwise, why force a loop every time we mess up? Why fix us back at the same save point?"
Marc shrugged. "Maybe the world wants a perfect story. Maybe it wants a perfect ending."
Luca scoffed. "A perfect ending for who? Us? The girls? The NPCs?"
Marc hesitated. "Maybe for the person reading it."
That made Luca pause.
The silence that followed wasn't awkward — it was heavy. Familiar.
Marc leaned his head back against the wall. "You know… I've been thinking about Hana."
Luca blinked. "Hana?"
"Yeah." Marc exhaled. "She's getting better. I can see it. But she's still scared. Every time she smiles at you, there's this… sadness behind it."
Luca looked down at his notebook. "She's been like that since the first loop. Maybe even before. But we didn't know her well enough back then to see it."
Marc chuckled softly. "We didn't know anybody well enough back then."
Luca nodded. "The first time felt like we were speed-running a life that wasn't ours."
Marc smirked. "We were. And we sucked at it."
That earned a real laugh from Luca. Short, but real.
Marc's tone shifted again. "But now it's different. I don't want to treat Hana like she's part of a route. She's… a person. And helping her feels like something we're supposed to do — not because of the system, but because she deserves it."
Luca stared at him. "That's… actually deep."
Marc grabbed a pillow from Luca's bed and threw it at him. "Shut up, bro. I'm being serious."
Luca tossed it back. "I know, I know."
Then he added, quietly:
"You're right. She does deserve something real."
Marc nodded, satisfied.
They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the soft hum of the dorm building.
Then Marc spoke again, voice lower. "And Aria… she scares me a little."
Luca raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because she remembers," Marc said. "Not everything. But enough to feel pain the rest of them don't. Enough to feel… lost. And she won't say it, but I can tell she's slowly realizing she's not supposed to."
Luca swallowed. "She's lonely."
"Yeah." Marc nodded. "And she's hiding it behind that calm attitude. But she's scared she won't fit anywhere — not the old version of this world, not the new one we're shaping."
Luca looked toward the window. The moonlight spilled across the wooden floor in a thin silver stripe.
"You know what I think?" he said.
"What?"
"We help Hana get back into sports. We help Aria find where she belongs. And we don't let the system rush us. Not this loop."
Marc grinned. "Look at you. Saying something smart for once."
Luca rolled his eyes. "Shut up."
Marc stood and held out his hand. "C'mon."
Luca looked at it, then took it. Marc pulled him up.
They didn't dap or fist bump this time — just a simple, quiet nod. Some moments didn't need a signature gesture.
Marc headed toward the door. "Get some sleep, bro. Tomorrow we start making things better for real."
Luca smirked. "You act like I'm the one who stays up late."
Marc pointed a finger gun at him. "You are."
He closed the door gently behind him.
Left alone, Luca took a slow breath.
The loops weren't getting easier — but the people inside them were starting to matter more than the resets.
And tomorrow, things would start changing.
For Hana.
For Aria.
For the world they were stuck in.
And for them.