The moment the word left her lips, Arden’s eyes softened.
Not in a smug way — not like someone who had won.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3jWoxXmIt0
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrRTTHgd2Jt
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMH2GIoTn2A
Elowyn moved through the side stairwell, her footsteps echoing too loudly.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHtG2DbkU7h
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA2cDjlhnis
But when he looked at her, it was just Arden again.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSTz6L7yk4K
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD68yWNNYiA
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmWJy3zTT1
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPjKRzA8nXY
She didn’t know how to answer, so her mind grasped for distraction.
The cultural fair — last weekend.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4KBzdoBnsH
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUL5AvH8yD
“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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0o3YTnEyVR
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?68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPbEGLrYySq
It did feel like a scene.
The mysterious boy.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1P97N5jCFj
The flickering lights.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMt0qSBlJOJ
The secret no one else could see.
But unlike a K-drama, there was no soft filter.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhVG7Ci9lJE
No guarantee of a happy ending.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfhqvDS4Hrm
Just Arden.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTN6tV0hXsY
Just her.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJP4SXaj60F
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnbNZTdY8lV
But there was something else in his eyes now.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtSpggxGh5
Not danger exactly.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡar99grnjMK
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIFzgj5mNZ7
And for a single breath, she saw something shift behind it.
A shadow.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBolddRzHD
A version of her.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmrgrLKN61
Of him.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vBHtEVKZo
Watching.
And still...
Elowyn nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Show me.”
Somewhere deep inside, a truth stirred — fragile, flickering, half-formed.
ns216.73.216.82da2What if the version of reality she craved… was the one quietly unraveling her?
and then Add to home screen.