when the cold crept in

Will Byers had never been certain of anything, but for the first time in his life, he knew he had to get the hell out of Hawkins. So he applied to NYU, maybe to be close to his brother, maybe to rediscover himself after everything that happened in the last eight years of his life. Those last years' events being: being captured by a monster into a different "dimension", being possessed by a monster from said other dimension, moving to California to discover that he was in love with his childhood best friend and his new sister's boyfriend, learning that a dude called Vecna gave him superpowers, coming out to all of his family and friends, defeating Vecna and closing the Upside Down forever, losing his sister, and, of course, graduating; because after all of that he still managed to do great at school. So yeah, he needed the change of scenery.

But he was lying mostly to himself, because the real reason Will intended to get the hell away from Hawkins was none other than his best friend. Yeah, that best friend who used to date his sister until she was swept away into the void of outer space after destroying a wormhole. That best friend: Mike Wheeler. The same Mike Wheeler who is going to study in New York with him.