The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJyZM4hfygS
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyFhstoAdt
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ROVaEauIh
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZfxd7phAe3
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAsGR3xing6
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAqvWXQvvZc
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZd2OMIdxEx
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ47G7OWfIAS
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqBCAHAALzS
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXV0xvu0Vd
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnt65Ig2ACW
“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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0CLuXpmpTH
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?34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxReEyuAxXj
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2nBTC1ma6l
The flickering lights.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBnmh9dxRlt
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVC9egGtvWy
No guarantee of a happy ending.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3uMy9uLna7
Just Arden.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTKYp0z15df
Just her.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkmgnAZAHZz
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3u17tT38NU
But there was something else in his eyes now.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbudT2sCK9r
Not danger exactly.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIo1Kawo4Kv
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMO3Kxs7wR2
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAiy8ynStHt
A version of her.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvturbw4Yj1
Of him.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOAjWkABzMa
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.205da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
