Kaitlyn could do little more than stare, completely thunderstruck. The orange-yellow sky still hung in the background, the last traces of blue slowly disappearing as the sun continued its slow descent. A chill breeze blew past, ruffling her hair lightly. But all of those were secondary details compared to the main one—Ian was still sitting there.

The sound of her own pulse filled her ears, blocking out everything else. Her thoughts came to a screeching halt. It felt like someone had taken a fist-sized rock and jammed it into the gears of her mind. As she struggled internally, one question continued to play on repeat.

Why…? Why didn't it reset?

"Kay?"

Kaitlyn blinked. With an effort, she refocused on the face before her. Ian's eyes were still locked on hers, but his expression had turned from excitement to concern.

"Kay?" He asked again, brow furrowing. "You ok?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her mind was still reeling from the implications of the kiss, making it hard to even string words together.

"Y-yeah…" she finally managed. "I'm… fine."

Ian didn't look convinced. "You don't look fine. Did… did I do something wrong?"

"No! No," she shook her head. "I just… I…"

Her words trailed off into silence. What could she say? Nothing. She had no idea what was going on. Even if she did, it wasn't like she could tell him about it.

After a few moments, Ian seemed to realize that she didn't have any more to say. He gave her a tight smile. "Well… if you say so. Should we, er, head back?"

"...Yeah. That sounds good."

They slowly rose from the bench. Still dazed, Kaitlyn followed Ian as they finished their walk toward the west dorms in silence. She hardly noticed the wooden quality of their goodbyes as she left the elevator and ambled toward her door. Nor did she particularly note Heather's absence, her roommate having already left for break.

With a slight thump, she fell onto her bed. Her gaze went distant as she stared straight through the far wall.

Why…

Hugging herself, she closed her eyes and focused on breathing. The question continued to run through her head endlessly, drowning out her attempts to get things under control. She sat there for a long time, struggling to force down the panic that threatened to well up and consume her. But bit by bit, it slowly receded.

Eventually, Kaitlyn felt like she could breathe again. Her grip on her arms loosened as she slowly opened her eyes. Though the worst of the shock had passed, it had left behind a deep sense of dread and numbness.

Ok… ok. It's ok. Just relax.

It took a few minutes for her to wrangle her still-scattered thoughts into some semblance of order. Even then, they remained jumbled, tripping over each other for her attention. But one thing was clear—something had gone wrong. Very wrong.

What did I do?

She tried to replay the events in her head, but the panic began to well up once more. With a conscious effort, she shoved the lid back on the box and forced herself to think about something else.

Ok. Let's… let's give it some time. I need to calm down first.

Glancing over at the window, Kaitlyn saw that the sky had darkened significantly. Checking her phone confirmed it. Evidently, she'd been sitting there a bit longer than expected.

That… makes sense. I'm just glad I made it home before breaking down like that.

She winced slightly. The thought of sitting like that out in the open was enough to make her shudder. It had been hard enough to get out the few words that she did to Ian. Having random passerby come and question her… well, maybe it could have helped. But it would have also been stressful.

Laying back on her bed, Kaitlyn let out a long, slow breath. No way she could unpack what had just happened right now. She needed just a little bit of distance to do that. But luckily, it was the last day of the loop. There were only a few more hours until everything reset, and when it did, she'd hopefully get a bit more information about what had happened. If nothing else, she'd have more rest to really think about the issue without having a full-blown panic attack. No, it would be better to wait until morning, rather than keep running herself in pointless circles all night.

Assuming I can, that is.

As she settled in for an early night of sleep, her mind proved a bit more opposed to the idea than she'd hoped. It continued wandering toward the kiss whenever she let down her guard even slightly. Even worse, she couldn't help but dredge up endless theories and explanations, each more bleak and unlikely than the last.

After a couple of hours of the nonstop assault, she decided something had to change. She needed a distraction. And so, for the first time in a long while, she pulled out her phone and began reading webnovels. Not new ones, of course. Just some of her old favorites. Anything to get her mind off of things.

It didn't work particularly well. Her thoughts continued to sneak up on her when least expected and completely derailed her reading. Even as her eyes began to droop and exhaustion began to set in, her mind felt like she'd just chugged several cups of coffee.

Eventually, after several straight hours of struggle, she checked the time. Her glowing phone screen read 11:58 PM.

It's that late already…? That means things are about to reset, whether I'm awake or not.

Memories of the last time she'd stayed awake for the reset bubbled up to the surface. With a grimace, Kaitlyn squeezed her eyes shut. She would have definitely preferred to be asleep for this. But since she wasn't, closing her eyes was the next best thing.

She waited, fidgeting slightly as time ticked on. It was difficult to resist the urge to check the time again, but she managed. The last thing she wanted was to be caught off guard.

Suddenly, the world went quiet. Behind the darkness of her eyelids, she imagined the suddenly frozen landscape of the campus and its now empty sky. Stilling herself, she held her breath and waited for the inevitable to come.

Stolen story; please report.

***

Cycle 32 Complete!

New Ending Unlocked!

Ending: The Road to Hell

Total Endings Unlocked: 10

Achievement Earned: The Spice of Life

Achievement Earned: Team Player

Unlocked: Notes

***

Sunlight peeked through from behind Kaitlyn’s closed eyelids. She winced at the brightness as she came to consciousness, holding on to the blissful nothingness of sleep for as long as she could. Just a few more minutes. Then she could face the day and everything that came with it.

Then reality slammed into her like a brick wall.

Memories of the last loop's events rushed back, needling her with new questions. But that wasn't the main thing. No, it was the screen that she'd seen in her dreams that made her eyes fly open.

What the— Road to Hell?! What kind of ending is that?!

She sat up quickly, looking around.The room was just as empty and organized as it should have been. That was normal, at least. The loop had finally reset, meaning she was back at square one. But despite the familiarity of her surroundings, Kaitlyn felt more lost than ever.

Maybe I really was dreaming this time? I mean, maybe it was all a bad nightmare or something? There's no way I actually got a bad ending, right?

Closing her eyes again, she pulled up her Progress Report to confirm.

Progress Report

Current Cycle:

Cycle 33 (Week 1)

Endings (10/18):

Alex (3/3 – Complete!)

Dinner Date

Comfort Food

Rotten to the Core

Ian (2/3)

???

A Winding Path

The Road to Hell

Philip (2/3)

Family Matters

Distant Relations

???

Vinny (1/3)

???

???

Party Crasher

Elliot (1/3)

???

Fertile Ground

???

Other (1/3)

???

Under the Radar

???

Achievements (10):

The First of Many - Unlock your first ending

What Friends Are For - Unlock a friendly ending for any male lead

Walking Red Flag - Unlock a bad ending for any male lead

Happily Ever After - Unlock a romance ending for any male lead

From Every Angle - Unlock all endings for a single male lead

Wingman - Complete the “Rachel and Cedric” easter egg

A Solid Start - Unlock 5 unique endings

Dean’s List - Ace all five classes

The Spice of Life - Unlock 10 unique endings

Team Player - Win first place at the Bara Bash doubles tournament

Disbelief suffused her face as she read over the text. That all but confirmed it—she'd somehow gotten Ian's bad ending.

How…? A friend ending I could understand, but why this?

She chewed on her lip. The end of the loop had gotten her more information, all right. But it had also entirely squashed the last ember of hope in her chest. Even the new achievements weren't enough to lift her spirits.

Flinging the covers off, Kaitlyn stood and began to pace. With a night of supernaturally-restful sleep under her belt, her head felt just a little more clear than it had before. But that didn't mean the situation made any more sense.

Ok. Ok. C'mon, Kaitlyn. Let's think through this. One thing at a time, though. There's way too much to unpack here.

She began to grimace. With a deep breath, she did her best to will the swirling thoughts into some semblance of order. Then, she plucked the first and most obvious question from the pile.

So… why didn't the kiss reset things?

The fact that it hadn't provided all sorts of valuable information on its own. For one, it showed her that kissing itself didn't seem to result in a reset. Instead, it was just romance endings. At least, that was what she had to assume.

So just kissing the male leads out of nowhere won't do anything here. I have to actually get the ending, then kiss after the confession.

It was something that she'd somewhat expected. In fact, it was almost a relief that running around and simply mashing her face into the other male leads wasn't going to be a viable option to finish the other routes. But still, the confirmation was nice. Any additional knowledge about how the game worked was precious.

And that brings us to the next question—why was this a bad ending?

From her point of view, Ian had been doing fine. Not just with grades and Bash Bros, either, though those were pretty compelling arguments in her favor. He'd seemed content and even happy throughout the whole loop. The guy had even opened up to her, to the point that they could actually talk to each other about normal things.

Was it because I confessed instead of him? That could be it, but… I don't think it's the only thing. I gave him as many chances as I could, and it didn't look like he was going to confess. But given the ending, maybe that was just because I didn't meet the requirements somehow. I still can't know if he has to do it himself or not.

While the exact specifics weren't certain, Kaitlyn got the sense that having the guy confess might be important. After all, if she hadn't reached the point where he was comfortable doing it, then that itself could be a good indicator of her progress. Unfortunately, it also meant that there were no shortcuts, if that was the case.

She bit her lip. Those two matters were easier to handle. The last was not. Obviously, she'd messed something up on the last loop. It was just a question of what.

So… what did I do wrong?

There was just too much to think about on that front. She had a few ideas of what might have happened, but none were certain. Even worse, tackling that big of a problem felt like more than she could handle at the moment.

With a vigorous shake of her head, Kaitlyn set the question aside. She wasn't ready to dive right back in. Not yet. The whole ordeal had left her feeling more than a little deflated, and if her understanding of the situation had given her a bad ending, then she'd gone so incredibly wrong that it wasn't even funny. This wasn't something she could figure out in an afternoon. It might take a little more time than that.

Kaitlyn sighed heavily. Well, as disappointing as it is… at least I did get a new ending. So that's good, probably.

The thought made her frown. Come to think of it, she'd gotten something else, too. The end of cycle report had said she'd unlocked "Notes," whatever that was. She checked over her Progress Report again, but it looked the same as ever. Thinking or saying the words didn't bring up any new text, either. Even searching through the desk didn't reveal any new notebooks or papers out of place.

There's gotta be something new here. It wouldn't give me something useless, right?

Another idea crossed her mind. Pulling out her phone, Kaitlyn quickly scrolled through the list of available apps. Sure enough, a new one had appeared, simply labeled "Notes."

Tapping into it, the thing seemed pretty basic. It was just a normal notepad app. She could type in text, and… that was it. A little counter in the corner indicated that she had a 1000 character limit, as well. All in all, it didn't seem special in the slightest.

Huh. Well, one more thing to figure out, I guess. I really wish these things came with instructions or something…

Her eyes flicked up to the time. With a start, she realized that she'd been thinking for quite a while. Heather would arrive soon, and she wasn't even changed. Leaping up, she grabbed her toiletries and rushed to the bathroom.

I could go find Ian for breakfast, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I need more time to plan my approach. And besides, there's no rush. There's always next time. And the next. And the next…

Shuddering at the thought, she stepped out the door.