The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡea5hoSvBUl
It was gentler than that — like relief tinged with something unspoken. Maybe fear.
“Meet me after final period,” he said, brushing a hand through his hair. “The old library wing. No one uses it anymore.”
There was a quiet certainty in his voice, like he already knew she’d say yes.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwphFbpzGyN
Maybe that’s what unsettled her most — not his confidence, but how natural it felt to follow him.
By the time the last bell rang, the school had slipped into that strange, in-between silence.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbG2zGlbA5T
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXre11MCLQ
Her heart thudded in odd, glitchy rhythms — fast, then slow. Like it wasn’t sure which world it belonged to.
He was waiting.
Leaning against the wall like time passed differently around him. Like he was part of something bigger, older.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWviRB0Ynx
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsLXxJrzGZW
Eyes warm. Smile small. Hands in his pockets.
“I want to show you something,” he said.
And this time, she followed.
The room felt forgotten — dust swirling like memories in the slanted light.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ54sMPg4Aah
A projector hummed in the corner, looping a broken school presentation that flickered like a dream half-remembered.
But it wasn’t the projector that caught her eye.
It was the wall. Or rather... the part that shouldn’t exist at all.
A glitch. A shimmer. Like someone had sliced reality and stitched it back — badly.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGzFMBX7u0W
Behind it, the desks warped. The shadows pulsed. A silent crack that felt alive.
She stared.
“What is this?” she whispered, stepping back.
“I don’t know,” Arden said. “But it’s been… appearing more. In dreams. In real places. And you…”
He turned to her, voice softer now. “You’re always near it.”
That last sentence landed somewhere strange in her chest. A flutter. A warning.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8YG3sW87rV
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSWSXPip7sH
That woman at the origami table, folding paper with calm hands and unreadable eyes.
“If you could live anywhere?” she’d asked, smile tilted.
And Elowyn, full fangirl reflex, had said, “South Korea.”
The woman had simply smiled — kindly, but with something sharp underneath.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWSRRbVd0W
“It’s not like K-dramas,” she’d said softly. “There’s no soundtrack whenyourheart breaks. No lines to follow when you’re trying to heal.”
Elowyn had laughed, a little too brightly — like she wasn’t still half-waiting for the slow-motion close-up and a perfect OST to swell in the background.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRzdDe3sUgX
But now, standing here with Arden and the glitching wall, the woman’s words returned like truth wrapped in soft disappointment.
Now she was in a dusty room, with a glitching wall and a boy who felt like a story she hadn’t meant to write — and that woman’s words echoed like a prophecy.
Because this moment?24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKBLOd4sLE
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo233YYeEYx
The flickering lights.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhd3ZrOyhvc
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFchzq30Bwz
No guarantee of a happy ending.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvOz06Fd29
Just Arden.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ05zy8ldeoc
Just her.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmkqR5AZ2Rl
It felt like a tear in the world — one they didn’t know how to mend.
He stepped closer, careful, like he was approaching something fragile.
“I don’t know what this is yet,” he said. “But I think… we’re already inside it. The glitches. The warnings. The notes. Maybe they’re not about me exactly.”
He paused, gaze flicking toward the shimmer.
“Maybe they’re about the version of me I haven’t become yet.”
A chill slid down her spine. The idea of versions. Of futures. Of selves.
She looked at him — really looked.
He was warm. Familiar.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmA6DPGfg2
But there was something else in his eyes now.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn5HFtpT0OI
Not danger exactly.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiJsFkPpl76
But possibility — like he hadn’t yet decided who he was going to be.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
She hesitated.
The projector buzzed louder. The glitch shimmered.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qD1rAfni9
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGEQe7yXdS6
A version of her.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTyPXMio5Tk
Of him.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtkYDyZn7fj
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.123da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
