The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGKT4DnSkcT
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVfYuJae58c
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKvGLw0nBU
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4KDww6jKP6
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhbXy9AWX5S
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12m6fjKCIf
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBhPVB5Ac33
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIIAMpdQEHH
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RnAavryZa
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7smerxSUUC
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8gCwtSHr7
“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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg7c0nd1DXy
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?21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVsdJoEEpXH
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9pxMoO3b0h
The flickering lights.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfM5QsKauMh
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLdGVANuCD7
No guarantee of a happy ending.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdzhO3sI9TB
Just Arden.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8qM5RrkgF5
Just her.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJhatgn4FJN
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbrO0HLPvGN
But there was something else in his eyes now.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6FEbhrnaqm
Not danger exactly.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgWL5idU8ly
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJeqZQyfdy6
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCSJF2eHQ3
A version of her.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjoKcYtXid
Of him.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8hylCGzdt2
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.100da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
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