The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFJjD7G6zW5
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUlVjwjV5M
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOJCDKgJAU3
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTEFV4EpzS6
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbitFUoBfsD
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMK3V2EyI7
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9nIqmIaYt6
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKZIEqhVCfS
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlWjvsJJQzk
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRfFHZxBI05
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJMbheqrBCD
“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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYV2niUP7sZ
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?49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0SRJQpAnc9
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJHJgdDSljb
The flickering lights.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLg1GN9d7oZ
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLeYSiL5lr
No guarantee of a happy ending.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXzRxquY6l4
Just Arden.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPCaDSQkgvM
Just her.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmTMb7eMrn4
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkPCvEgj8TV
But there was something else in his eyes now.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9bxzFgT35X
Not danger exactly.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR6LrSW0ZMg
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfwcu8E8xLH
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJxb4bDuxj6
A version of her.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJAp0OFjzcc
Of him.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeYlHyNcvJQ
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.206da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
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