Chapter Text
Jungwon had never liked birthdays.
It wasn’t that he hated cake or attention or the way people smiled at him like he was something worth celebrating. That stuff wasn’t so bad. It was just that birthdays always felt… strange. Like he was stepping into a version of himself that didn’t fit quite right.
Eighteen felt worse than usual.
“Make a wish!”
The candles flickered in front of him, tiny flames dancing in a way that made his chest tighten. For a second, just a second, the light bent. It didn’t flicker. It bent. Like something invisible had brushed against it.
Jungwon blinked.
Everything was normal again.
“You’re zoning out,” someone laughed. “Hurry up before the candles melt into the cake.”
“Right,” Jungwon said softly.
He leaned forward, inhaled, and blew.
The flames went out all at once, a little too fast.
A ripple of quiet passed through the room before the cheering started again, but Jungwon barely heard it. His gaze stayed fixed on the thin trails of smoke curling upward, twisting unnaturally before fading into nothing.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
It started small after that.
So small he could pretend it wasn’t happening.
A pen rolled across his desk when there was no slope. His bedroom light flickered just as his thoughts sharpened into frustration. A glass on the kitchen counter shifted, just barely, when he stared at it too long.
Jungwon tested that one.
He stood alone in the kitchen late that night, the house quiet, the world holding its breath. The glass sat near the edge of the counter, perfectly still.
“This is stupid,” he muttered.
Still, he narrowed his eyes and focused.
Nothing happened.
He exhaled, shaking his head at himself. “Yeah, okay. I’m losing it--”
The glass moved.
It scraped lightly against the surface, sliding a few centimeters closer to the edge.
Jungwon froze.
His heart slammed against his ribs as he stepped back too quickly, knocking into a chair. The sound shattered the silence, loud and wrong and real.
“No,” he whispered.
The glass tipped, and then fell.
It didn’t shatter.
It should have, Jungwon knew it should have, but instead it hovered, suspended midair for the briefest, impossible moment before dropping gently onto the floor with a soft clink.
Like something had caught it.
Jungwon stared, breath shallow.
“I didn’t…” he started, then stopped.
Because his fingertips were warm.
Slowly, cautiously, he lifted his hand, and saw it.
A faint spark.
Gold.
It flickered at the tip of his finger like a dying ember before vanishing completely.
Jungwon jerked his hand back as if burned.
“What is happening to me…?”
No answer came.
Only silence.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
That night, sleep didn’t come easily.
When it finally did, it didn’t feel like sleep at all.
Jungwon found himself standing somewhere unfamiliar, somewhere vast and dimly lit, where the air shimmered faintly like heat over pavement. The ground beneath his feet wasn’t quite solid, more like glass reflected a sky that didn’t exist.
“...You came back.”
The voice was soft.
Familiar.
Jungwon turned, and his breath caught.
There was someone standing a few steps away from him.
A man, no, not just a man. There was something other about him, something that made the space itself seem to lean toward him. His presence was quiet but overwhelming, like gravity.
His eyes.
His eyes were violet.
Not dark enough to be mistaken for anything else. Not light enough to be unreal.
Just… impossible.
Jungwon couldn’t look away.
“Do I know you?” he asked, though the question felt wrong the moment it left his lips.
Because something in his chest already knew the answer.
The stranger smiled faintly.
Not amused or surprised, just… sad.
“Not yet,” he said.
The words echoed strangely, like they meant more than they should.
Jungwon took a step forward before he could stop himself. “Wait, who are you?”
The distance between them felt inconsistent, stretching and shrinking with every movement. The closer Jungwon got, the more the world around them seemed to unravel at the edges.
The stranger lifted a hand, hesitating like he wanted to reach out, but didn’t.
“You’re running out of time,” he said quietly.
“For what?”
But the question came too late.
The world cracked.
Light split through the darkness like glass shattering, and the ground beneath Jungwon’s feet gave way.
“Wait!” Jungwon shouted, panic surging. “Don’t go--!”
The stranger’s expression softened.
And just before everything disappeared, he said--
“I’ll find you.”
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
Jungwon woke up gasping.
His heart pounded as he sat up, dragging a hand through his hair. “A dream…” he murmured.
It had to be.
It didn’t feel like one.
He looked down at his hands, half-expecting to see that same golden spark.
Nothing.
Jungwon let out a shaky laugh, leaning back against his pillows.
“Yeah,” he whispered to the empty room. “I’m definitely losing it.”
But as he closed his eyes again, trying to force himself back to sleep, one thought refused to leave him.
It wasn’t the magic or the moving objects or even the spark.
It was the way the stranger had looked at him.
Like he had been waiting.
For a very, very long time.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
Jungwon tried to ignore it.
That was the first mistake.
The second was testing it again.
The morning after the dream, everything felt… off.
Not visibly and not in the way anyone else would notice. The sky was still the same pale blue, the air still cool, the world still moving like nothing had changed.
But Jungwon felt it like a quiet hum beneath his skin.
Like something waiting.
“Are you okay?” a classmate asked, nudging his shoulder lightly. “You’ve been staring at that notebook for ten minutes.”
Jungwon blinked, snapping back to reality. “Huh? Yeah. Just tired.”
That was easier.
Safer.
No one questioned tired.
He forced his attention back to the page in front of him, but the words blurred together, meaningless. His grip tightened around his pen.
And it snapped.
Ink splattered across the paper.
Jungwon flinched.
“Dude,” someone laughed. “What did that pen do to you?”
“Sorry,” he muttered, wiping at the mess. “Just… slipped.”
But it hadn’t.
He hadn’t even applied that much pressure.
His fingers tingled again.
Warm.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
It got worse over the next few days.
Subtle at first.
Then not subtle at all.
Jungwon stood in his room, door locked, curtains drawn.
“I just need to know,” he whispered.
The words sounded ridiculous out loud.
Still, he stepped closer to his desk, eyes fixed on the same pen he’d replaced that morning. It lay perfectly still, untouched.
Normal.
Everything was normal.
Jungwon exhaled slowly.
Then focused.
Not just looking, focusing. Like reaching with something he couldn’t see, something that stretched out from his chest, his mind.
The pen twitched.
Jungwon’s breath caught.
It rolled slightly, then stopped.
“Oh my--”
He stepped closer, heart racing. “Okay. Okay, that’s not-- that’s not nothing.”
His pulse spiked as adrenaline rushed through him. “Again,” he murmured.
He tried harder this time, really pushed.
Something inside him tightened, like a string pulled too far.
The pen shot off the desk.
Jungwon yelped, ducking as it hit the wall with a sharp clack before falling to the floor.
Silence filled the room.
Jungwon stared at where it had hit, chest heaving.
“...I did that.”
The realization didn’t feel exciting.
It felt wrong.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
The dreams didn’t stop.
If anything, they became clearer.
This time, Jungwon was standing in a field.
It wasn’t empty like before, this place was alive.
Soft grass brushed against his ankles, glowing faintly under a sky painted in colors he didn’t have names for. The air smelled sweet, unfamiliar, like something out of a memory he couldn’t quite reach.
And he wasn’t alone.
“You’re getting stronger.”
Jungwon turned instantly.
The violet-eyed stranger stood behind him again, closer than before.
Too close.
Jungwon’s chest tightened. “You--”
The word caught in his throat.
Because it didn’t feel like he was looking at a stranger anymore.
“You keep showing up,” Jungwon said instead, voice quieter now. “In my dreams.”
The man tilted his head slightly. “Dreams,” he repeated, like the word didn’t quite fit.
“What else would this be?”
For a moment, the man didn’t answer.
His gaze softened, something unreadable flickering beneath the surface.
“If it were just a dream,” he said slowly, “you wouldn’t remember me this clearly.”
Jungwon faltered.
That was true.
Every detail was sharp. The way his voice sounded, the way his eyes held something heavy and distant, and the way Jungwon’s chest ached for reasons he couldn’t explain.
“Who are you?” Jungwon asked again, stepping closer despite himself.
This time, the distance didn’t stretch.
It closed.
The man hesitated, then said, “Not yet.”
Frustration sparked. “You said that last time.”
“And you’re still not ready.”
Jungwon frowned. “Ready for what?”
But the man’s attention had shifted.
His gaze dropped, briefly, to Jungwon’s hands.
Jungwon followed the movement and saw it.
Gold.
Faint sparks danced along his fingertips, brighter than before, flickering like tiny stars caught beneath his skin.
Jungwon jerked back. “What is that?!”
“You don’t know?” the man asked, something like surprise breaking through his calm for the first time.
“No!” Jungwon snapped. “I’ve been asking you that!”
The sparks flared slightly, reacting to his voice, to his emotions.
The man watched carefully, something tense in his posture now.
“...It’s starting sooner than I thought.”
“What is?!” Jungwon demanded.
But the air shifted.
Just like before.
“No-- wait,” Jungwon said quickly, panic rising. “Don’t do that again. Don’t just leave--”
The man stepped forward for the first time, close enough that Jungwon could feel the warmth radiating from him.
Jungwon didn’t realize he had moved until their hands almost touched.
The man stilled.
Their fingers hovered a breath apart.
And then--
The man pulled back.
Not abruptly, just carefully. Like it cost him something.
“Just hold on a little longer,” he said softly.
“To what?” Jungown whispered.
But the world was already breaking apart.
Light fractured around them, pulling everything into nothing.
And just before Jungwon woke, the man finally gave him something real.
“A week,” he said.
“Then I’ll come find you.”
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
Jungwon shot upright in bed.
Again.
His breathing was uneven, his pulse racing like he’d run a mile.
“A week…” he repeated under his breath.
Seven days.
Why seven days?
What was supposed to happen in seven days?
He dragged his hands down his face, trying to steady himself.
“This is insane.”
Magic.
Dreams that weren’t dreams.
A stranger who felt more familiar than anyone he’d ever met.
Jungwon swung his legs over the side of the bed, staring at the floor.
“I’m not waiting a week,” he muttered.
But even as he said it, something deep in his chest tightened.
Because he already knew he didn’t have a choice.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
The next few days passed in a blur of tension and silence.
Jungwon stopped testing his abilities.
That didn’t stop them from happening. Doors creaked open when he was upset, lights dimmed when he was tired, and once, just once, a faint trail of gold followed his hand when he reached out for something.
He pretended he didn’t see it.
He pretended none of it was real.
He wanted to pretend he wasn’t counting down the days.
But he was.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
By the time the seventh day arrived, Jungwon felt like he was standing on the edge of something he couldn’t see.
Something inevitable.
<<>><<>><<>><<>>
It happened in the evening.
Of course it did.
The sky was streaked with fading light, the world caught between day and night, between what was known and what wasn’t.
Jungwon was walking home when he felt it.
That same hum.
Stronger now.
Closer.
He slowed, then stopped.
The air shifted.
And for a brief, impossible moment, the world felt exactly like his dreams.
“...You came.”
The voice was behind him.
Jungwon’s breath hitched.
Slowly, he turned, and there he was.
Not a dream, not a memory, not something his mind had made up to cope with things it couldn’t explain.
He was real, standing only a few steps away.
Violet eyes locked onto him, the same as before.
The same as always.
But this time, there was no distance.
No waking up.
No escape.
Jungwon’s voice came out barely above a whisper.
“...Will you tell me who you are now?”
The man held his faze, steady and certain, and finally, this time, he answered. “My name is Sunghoon.”
“...and you need to come with me.”