Nevermore Palace was never meant to wake up gently.
Morning light slid through its tall windows like it had been invited, touching marble floors that reflected everything back too clearly. Chandeliers still glowed faintly from the night before, their crystal arms holding onto yesterday's warmth. The palace felt alert, waiting, as if it knew today would be remembered.
XH stood just inside the entrance, hands tucked into his jacket pockets, letting the space swallow him.
His body still remembered the night.
The closed room.The glow of screens.The match that slipped away before dawn.
Sleep had not erased the weight. It had only softened the edges.
Around him, students gathered in clusters by major. Voices overlapped. Phones were already out. Screens flickered with hashtags and stories being uploaded in real time.
#QueenSelectionEvent#NevermorePalace#UniversityFestival
JP whistled low. "This place doesn't feel real."
TZ nodded. "Feels like a movie set where something bad always happens later."
NS adjusted his jacket, eyes scanning the room with practiced calm. Places like this were not unfamiliar to him. He had grown up in halls that smiled too politely. But this was different.
This time, the people inside mattered.
The health track group gravitated toward the breakfast tables. White linens. Polished trays. Fruit arranged in careful symmetry. Coffee machines humming softly like restrained anticipation.
Kitty poured herself a glass of juice, fingers steady. Her outfit was simple, but nothing about her presence was accidental. She had a way of occupying space without asking for permission.
She noticed XH watching and tilted her head.
"You look exhausted," she said.
He smiled faintly. "I don't remember going to bed."
She studied him longer than necessary. "You still showed up."
"So did you."
"I slept," she said lightly.
He laughed under his breath.
Across the room, June stood with NC and Anna, posture straight, attention sharp. Her dress fit perfectly, not loud, not subtle. Intentional. Everything about her this morning felt prepared.
When her eyes met XH's, something unspoken passed between them.
Not romance.Not tension.
Recognition.
We made it here.Whatever today becomes, we made it here.
At nine o'clock, breakfast officially began.
Students moved between tables. Plates filled. Conversations layered. Graduates returned, wearing confidence like armor, sharing stories that sounded equal parts warning and invitation.
XH listened as a former medical track student spoke about studying abroad.
"It breaks you," the graduate said, smiling anyway. "But if you survive this place, you learn how to rebuild yourself."
June listened closely, pen already moving. Kitty watched from a distance, less focused on the words and more on the way people spoke when they believed themselves.
NS leaned toward XH. "She's already planning five years ahead."
XH nodded. "She always does."
JP swallowed a mouthful of food. "She'll get whatever she wants."
The words landed heavier than intended.
Kitty glanced at June, then back at XH.
Something tightened in her chest, subtle but undeniable.
At nine thirty, the room shifted.
Staff cleared plates. Microphones were tested. The first official speaker prepared to take the stage.
Medical track graduates.
XH sat near the front, NS and TZ beside him. Kitty sat several rows back with Jihye and NC. June chose a seat near the aisle, notebook open.
Stories unfolded. Long nights. Distance from home. The loneliness of ambition.
Somewhere between applause and polite laughter, XH felt Kitty's gaze again.
He turned.
She looked away first.
June noticed everything.
She always did.
When the session ended, the room loosened. Conversations resumed. Phones came back out. Photos were taken.
Near the edge of the ballroom, close to the tall windows that framed the inner courtyard, XH drifted away from the noise.
June followed.
They stopped near the folklore golden statues, visible beyond the glass.
Two figures, cast in gold, standing close but not touching. Their faces tilted toward one another, frozen in a moment that felt unfinished. Rainwater from an earlier drizzle clung to the metal, catching the light.
June spoke softly. "Do you know the full story?"
XH shook his head. "Only pieces."
She stepped closer to the glass.
"There was a couple," she said. "They loved each other without hesitation. The kind of love that doesn't calculate the future. Only the present."
He listened.
"One winter, the girl fell ill. Suddenly. Severely. The kind of sickness that drains you so fast it feels unreal." June's voice slowed. "She was dying. Doctors couldn't save her. No medicine worked."
XH's eyes stayed on the statues.
"The boy begged," she continued. "He pleaded with gods, with fate, with anything that would listen. He was offered a choice."
She turned slightly toward him.
"They were given a single gift. Eternal life for her. But not freely. The pill had to be split. Half for her. Half for him."
XH frowned. "That sounds… generous."
"It wasn't," June said quietly. "The cost was cruel."
She took a breath.
"For every twelve months, he would be allowed to see her for only ten minutes. Just ten. And in exchange, he would be turned into a dragon for the rest of the year. Forced to live above the clouds. Alone. Watching the world without touching it."
XH swallowed.
"When the time came," June said, eyes fixed on the statue's faces, "he returned every year. Always with the rain. The rain hid his tears. Hid the fact that he could never stay."
"And the statue?" XH asked.
June's voice softened. "They say the statue never dulls. Never rusts. Even in storms. Because for those ten minutes, love was stronger than time."
Silence stretched between them.
XH exhaled quietly. "That's… tragic."
June smiled faintly. "You always brush it off."
He shrugged. "I don't like stories where love survives only in fragments."
She studied him. "Sometimes fragments are all people get."
He glanced back at the palace interior, then outside again. "There's a blind spot here."
June tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"When you approach this place," he said slowly, "people outside can see everything. The rain. The waiting. The cost. But once you're inside, you forget what it looks like from beyond the walls."
Her gaze sharpened. "Is that how you feel right now?"
He hesitated. "Sometimes."
They stood there, the sound of the festival humming behind them.
Kitty watched from across the room.
She could not hear their words. But she saw the way June leaned closer to the glass. The way XH didn't step away.
She did not feel anger.
She felt clarity.
At ten thirty, the engineering session began.
Voices grew louder. Energy sharpened. Rivalries resurfaced.
KM sat among his peers, relaxed, calculating. Shinso leaned back, smirk untouched.
The air shifted.
Kitty felt it immediately.
At noon, lunch was announced.
Relief washed through the hall.
JP avoided the soft drinks. He stayed near the barbecue trays.
XH noticed June scanning the room again, measuring, planning.
Kitty noticed too.
This time, when their eyes met, neither smiled.
The day was still young.
Queen selection had not begun.
But the rain had already been written into the story.
And none of them knew yet how closely they would come to it.