The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2kRm7KsaGL
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRSm5aYRxHo
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN7qhBMlGtX
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoWTC3mehd2
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNq37xFrrWS
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgRCFhHaH6z
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPDdvZqi7Ak
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa7HaG9FZXs
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qsXE7wAqS
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBFNvVPK6Sf
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbDXEl5hKhw
“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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFIFnVvSUyE
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?42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBVYj0B0QNP
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1mz2qXCxQf
The flickering lights.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOKLHpmmBF
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNuK4VgEYM8
No guarantee of a happy ending.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelvaUXa5tf
Just Arden.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWebPNrtgdO
Just her.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUV1WEyYfpW
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7E244LCXMk
But there was something else in his eyes now.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrq0QJ01VAA
Not danger exactly.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJdWegJy3eR
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.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5HjH8WinKA
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd9iizDXy4A
A version of her.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4Zil4US4V
Of him.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4wzaieoHM
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.230da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
and then Add to home screen.