The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDmjWQft7s6
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtTT99Vkv2i
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQFuIjJoKLO
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFxIeqtRI2
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtFT7ns2aBI
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCoDtvaPmkU
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7U5Qvzv7Ew
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUbkydsIZY5
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Zt1YYqoMm
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs1KsHvMUJ8
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡixJ4nYVzWs
“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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡToCXMV73sX
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?25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyXevyxR2A
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8vYhRQa1HG
The flickering lights.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEAKYAiL4HF
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ58QiB8Z6Le
No guarantee of a happy ending.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUNz6BazxL
Just Arden.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9Rz4PFqUd
Just her.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGAXc8dZ6Uy
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡinulA7EYR4
But there was something else in his eyes now.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfu3LshlrY1
Not danger exactly.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8I2APwkrzC
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ57YMrZrXo0
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbDPNKAXyMS
A version of her.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNEC43ptioo
Of him.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxJVKuaWSp5
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.9da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
and then Add to home screen.