Seoul, South KoreaNight | Han River Research Center
The rain had stopped, but the city hadn't yet noticed. Lights shimmered on the wet streets, and thunder still echoed faintly in the distance. In the sterile silence of the Han River Research Center, Dephnie Han stared at the portal simulation code blinking on her screen.
Behind her, red strings and pinned research covered a wall like an unsolved murder. At the center was a photograph: her father in front of a machine that never made it to the patent office. Next to it, Dephnie's own handwriting in permanent marker: "If two worlds exist, both must be trying to remember each other."
She was tired. But tonight felt different. The air held a static charge. The simulation engine, which had failed a dozen times before, flickered—and stabilized.
The waveform was steady. The barrier… was thinning.
Suddenly, the fluorescent lights above her crackled. The screen went black. A deep hum resonated through the floor, then—
A ripple in the air.
Not a hallucination. A sliver of light cut through space like a blade of glass, slowly rotating in midair. Dephnie gasped. She backed up as the portal expanded into a circle—about the size of a window. On the other side, what she saw made her knees tremble.
A forest. Misty. Silent. With soldiers in ceremonial black and gold armor.
And standing at the center—
Lee Gon.
The Kingdom of KoreaJeolla Province | Royal Black Forest
King Lee Gon lowered his golden monocular. "It's her again," he whispered to Captain Joo Won, his royal guard. "She appears like clockwork—only at the crescent moon. Look."
He pointed at the mirror-like rift floating just above the mossy ground. This wasn't his first encounter. For months now, he had seen her face reflected in odd surfaces: water, windows, even his dreams.
"Is she real?" Joo Won asked.
"She's not a ghost," Lee Gon said firmly. "She reacts. She flinches. She sees me."
He took a step toward the shimmering void.
"No, Your Majesty—!" Joo Won warned, but Lee Gon had already touched the rift.
Both Worlds, One Moment
Time wavered.
On one side, Dephnie touched the air in front of her. On the other, Lee Gon did the same. Their fingertips aligned—for less than a second—and then—
BOOM!
The portal exploded in a burst of wind and light. Dephnie flew back against a table. Her laptop sparked, wires fell like snakes, and the lab went dark.
Lee Gon stumbled backward in his forest, shielding his eyes as the rift shattered like glass and disappeared.
Later that NightSeoul | Dephnie's Apartment
Dephnie pressed an ice pack to her temple. She had cuts on her arms and smoke on her clothes. Her cat, Nyangie, sat curled next to her on the couch, alarmed but loyal.
She looked at her whiteboard now smeared with ash.
One word had been burned into it—not by her, but by energy she didn't understand.
"Gon."
Kingdom of Korea | Royal Palace, Haeundae Bay
Lee Gon walked the halls in silence, his gloved hand trailing across the stained-glass window of his ancestors. He stopped in front of a hidden room. Inside was a relic—a blade known as the Time Divider, passed through generations.
And a prophecy carved in old Korean script:
"When the stars fall and the sky tears open, she who remembers the other world shall awaken the King's lost path."
Lee Gon stared at the writing.
And then he said her name aloud, as if he had always known it.
"Dephnie."
🌀 To be continued...