Chapter 1: The Protagonist Denied
He refused the Catalyst role.
The Archive trembled.
In this version, Aren Yeo never touched the book. He closed the site. He deleted his browser history. He left the apartment. Got a coffee. Took a breath.
And yet the sentence followed him:
"Aren Yeo is still being written."
Even in denial, his name reappeared on bus tickets. On receipts. On graffiti. One day, he woke up and his reflection asked him: "Why did you let the story rot?"
He couldn't answer.
Because deep down, he knew:
You cannot unread something that has read you back.