The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CyuJPyypH
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM2biCmpJnF
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9b9xIYk4km
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGpShurego
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1FkSj9QQtf
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtKhhyIUpWU
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ57nRZF22ZI
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7Z8cv0iuA
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhIOYu03vE
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa7i9vI0YUD
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0c3StaWCt9
“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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3Avpwqgk3
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?22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGjVdmZREO
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtbKR9wFtT
The flickering lights.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3eLISCwaHh
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hA2HwkOHQ
No guarantee of a happy ending.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPRRj2Sqms5
Just Arden.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1jyreaIjKe
Just her.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsDoZleaPI
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXe3Qm8L21S
But there was something else in his eyes now.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiiS760mzQa
Not danger exactly.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC11HJTzXAO
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLFNzeL6GTd
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDwC8qZDlZ9
A version of her.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYOdqxBga06
Of him.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYko1CJJ9xN
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.254da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
