Chapter 1 : Loop Eighteen

Main Characters intro:

Adrian Vale

Age: 21

Course: Psychology Major

Personality: Quiet, observant, emotionally restrained

Role in Story: The one who remembers

Adrian has lived the same year seventeen times.

Every time, he falls in love with the same boy.

Every time, that boy dies.

Car accident. Illness. Suicide. Murder. Accidentally pushed from a rooftop.

The universe always finds a way.

When time resets, no one remembers.

Except Adrian.

With each loop, he becomes colder. More distant. More desperate.

He has tried saving Luca in every possible way — controlling him, avoiding him, confessing early, staying silent.

Nothing changes the ending.

This is Loop 18.

And Adrian is tired.

But he cannot let him die again.

Luca Moretti

Age: 20

Course: Literature Major

Personality: Warm, teasing, emotionally intelligent

Role in Story: The boy destined to die

Luca has no idea time keeps restarting.To him, this is just his first year at university.

He is soft without being weak. Gentle without being naive.

He reads people too easily. He notices the cracks in Adrian almost immediately.

In every lifetime, Luca falls first.

In every lifetime, Luca loves deeper.

In every lifetime…

He dies before graduation.

But in Loop 18…

Something feels different.

Sometimes, Luca dreams of drowning.

Sometimes, he hears Adrian whisper his name before they’ve even met.

Sometimes…

He feels like he remembers something he shouldn’t.

Supporting Character

Noah Reyes

Adrian’s roommate.

Chaotic. Observant. Suspicious.

He doesn’t remember past loops — but he senses something is wrong with Adrian.

He becomes the emotional bridge between the two.

chapter 1: Loop Eighteen

Luca is laughing.

It’s sunlight-soft, golden, warm enough to make the world feel survivable.

They’re sitting under the old oak tree behind the humanities building — the one that sheds leaves too early every autumn. The campus is quiet. Late afternoon. The kind of hour that feels like something sacred.

Luca is talking about a poem.

He always talks about poems in the beginning.

“In another universe,” Luca says, lying back on the grass, staring at the sky, “maybe we meet earlier. Maybe we don’t waste so much time pretending.”

Adrian watches him carefully.

He memorizes everything.

The way Luca’s curls fall into his eyes.

The faint scar near his collarbone.

The tiny crease that appears when he smiles too hard.

Adrian already knows this conversation.

It happened in Loop 5.

But in Loop 5, Luca didn’t lie back like this.

In Loop 5, Luca sat upright.

In Loop 12, it rained before this moment.

In Loop 16—

“Adrian?”

Luca turns his head.

His expression shifts.

Something is wrong.

The sky darkens too quickly. The wind picks up. The oak tree creaks.

Adrian’s chest tightens.

Not again.

“Don’t,” Adrian whispers.

But Luca stands.

And this is wrong.

They’re not supposed to be here.

Not today.

Not—

A sound.

Brakes.

Screaming metal.

The world tilts violently.

Luca is falling.

No.

No.

No.

Adrian runs.

He always runs.

His hands reach out.

He always reaches.

And he is always one second too late.

Blood spreads across pavement like spilled ink.

Luca’s eyes are open.

They always stay open.

This time, though—

This time Luca looks directly at him.

And smiles.

“I remember,” Luca whispers.

Everything shatters.

—

Adrian bolts upright in bed.

Darkness.

Dorm room ceiling.

His lungs burn like he actually ran.

His hands are shaking.

He looks at the clock.

August 21.

6:12 AM.

The first day of the semester.

Again.

Loop 18.

He presses his palms against his eyes until stars explode behind them.

Seventeen times.

Seventeen funerals.

Seventeen hospital corridors.

Seventeen final breaths.

Every version of Luca dies before spring.

Different causes.

Same ending.

Adrian learned early that fate doesn’t care about creativity.

It only cares about completion.

Across the room, Noah groans.

“Why are you breathing like you just fought a demon?”

Adrian lowers his hands slowly.

In Loop 3, Noah got food poisoning on this day.

In Loop 8, he dated a philosophy major who cheated on him.

In every loop, Noah never remembers anything.

“I didn’t sleep,” Adrian says quietly.

That part is true.

Noah throws a pillow at him without opening his eyes. “It’s the first day. Try not to look like you’ve seen death itself.”

Adrian doesn’t respond.

Because he has.

—

By 8:40 AM, the campus looks exactly like it always does.

Freshers pretending not to be nervous.

Seniors pretending to be important.

The air smells like coffee and possibility.

Adrian stands outside Room 204.

Psychology Lecture Hall.

This is where it starts.

It always starts here.

He could skip it.

He tried that in Loop 10.

Luca still found him.

They always find each other.

Like magnets.

Like gravity.

Like something crueler.

The classroom fills slowly.

Adrian chooses the seat near the window.

He always does.

He tells himself it’s for the light.

It’s not.

8:59 AM.

The door opens.

Luca walks in late.

He always walks in late.

Soft curls. Messy backpack. Apologetic smile.

“Sorry, Professor,” Luca says, slightly breathless. “The map lied to me.”

The class laughs.

Adrian stops breathing.

There he is.

Alive.

Whole.

Unaware.

This is the eighteenth first time.

Luca scans the room for an empty seat.

And then—

Their eyes meet.

Adrian expects the usual reaction.

Curiosity.

Confusion.

That tiny spark.

Instead—

Luca freezes.

Just for half a second.

His expression flickers.

Recognition.

Fear.

Something deeper.

Then he walks straight toward Adrian.

Not random.

Not accidental.

Straight.

The seat beside him is empty.

It is always empty.

Luca sits down.

Close enough that their shoulders almost touch.

Adrian can feel his warmth.

This is the part where Luca introduces himself.

This is the part where he says:

“Hi. I’m Luca.”

Adrian waits for it.

He braces for it.

Luca turns to him.

Smiles.

But this smile is softer.

And quieter.

And almost… sad.

“You look tired,” Luca says gently.

Adrian’s heart stutters.

That line never happens.

Never.

“I’m Luca,” he adds after a pause. “Have we… met before?”

The world tilts.

In seventeen lifetimes, Luca has never asked that.

Never.

Adrian stares at him.

Every instinct screams to lie.

To deny.

To control the script.

But Luca keeps looking at him like he’s searching for something buried.

And for the first time—

Adrian feels something unfamiliar.

Hope.

Small.

Dangerous.

Terrifying.

Maybe this loop is broken.

Maybe fate made a mistake.

Or maybe—

Maybe Luca remembers.

The professor begins speaking.

The semester begins again.

But Adrian isn’t listening.

Because Luca’s hand is resting on the desk.

And it’s trembling.

Just slightly.

And Luca whispers so quietly no one else can hear:

“I keep dreaming about dying.”

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