The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ32ln8AtAWg
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWjhmrC924
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgI7bsYj15i
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeOpivCDeLI
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHRFqsEJISH
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOaYMHgPyaz
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9bYhX67iG2
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoPpAlbF7Fb
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBmPmO0jsL
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBuDb0noPzZ
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnu7RAo33U
“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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFKZrSdL9J6
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?14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUuCDxn6g25
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs1kG3R52UR
The flickering lights.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBPksXZ7hhP
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmMhNaNTK8Q
No guarantee of a happy ending.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8X0DdbDtLi
Just Arden.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3xHgwPd89S
Just her.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡctVN3MALFx
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeBa1q37fK
But there was something else in his eyes now.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNTRGET746z
Not danger exactly.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOL6b4bRPYP
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrOGNMpQi8B
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9pQc4yEpK
A version of her.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ErhFBp7z8
Of him.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzl8V2jfz6d
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.247da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
