The night clung to Hana's skin like a second layer. Her heart raced as she watched the figure at the corner of the room, unable to process the words that had come from its lips.
"Choose him… and the world burns."
The shape in the corner didn't move. It was almost like it was part of the shadows themselves, blackness leaking from every edge, making the room feel smaller, suffocating.
Hana's hand gripped the pendant, which was still warm, almost alive. Her chest tightened as she tried to steady her breath. She needed to think. To move. But her limbs were paralyzed by something heavier than fear.
What was it? Was it the same thing that had followed them, whispered warnings, made them see things?
No. This was something different.
Slowly, she pushed herself from the bed, keeping her eyes fixed on the figure. Every part of her screamed to run, to escape the suffocating presence. But she knew she couldn't.
It was too late to run.
The figure spoke again. Its voice was like a low growl, an unnatural rasp that made the air itself tremble.
"Do you understand now, Hana? Do you know what your choice means?"
Her throat felt dry, and her mouth refused to obey her, but she forced the words out. "Who are you? What do you want?"
The figure seemed to smile, its shape shifting with a disturbing fluidity. "I am the last thing you want to meet."
Suddenly, the air around her shifted. A faint humming filled the room, like a thousand whispers carried on a breeze that didn't exist. Hana stumbled backward, eyes wide, as the figure took a step forward. Her mind raced as images flashed another life.
It wasn't Jisoo standing before her anymore. It was the man from her visions. The one who had betrayed them.
In the same ancient courtyard, under the same moonlight, the man's dark eyes locked with hers, as if the world were waiting for her to make a choice. His hand, stained with blood, reached toward her, pulling her into the very same fate.
And just like before, she had chosen him.
The image shattered, the room returning to its unnerving stillness. Hana stumbled forward, clenching her fists. "What is this?" she demanded, her voice breaking.
The figure laughed, but it wasn't a laugh. It was cold. Derisive. "This is what you were born to face. The cycle you will always repeat. You will never escape it. Not until you break it."
The words echoed in her mind, the weight of them pressing down on her chest. The cycle... the betrayal... the endless thread of fate pulling them toward each other only to be torn apart.
Before she could process it further, the room seemed to collapse inward. Her vision blurred, the edges of reality twisting. She felt a hand on her arm warm, solid.
She turned toward it instinctively.
Jisoo. His presence cut through the suffocating air like a blade.
"Are you alright?" His voice was low, filled with concern.
Hana's heart skipped a beat as she met his eyes. He seemed so real. So present. But there was something something she couldn't put her finger on. The pendant in her hand pulsed again, and she realized her fingers were trembling.
The figure was gone. Vanished.
But Hana wasn't sure it had ever really been there. Was it a hallucination? A figment of her fractured mind? Or was it something else entirely?
"I…" she began, but her voice failed her.
Jisoo stepped closer, his eyes never leaving hers. "We have to talk."
They didn't speak again until they were sitting together at his dining table, the moonlight casting faint shadows across the room. Hana was silent, her mind racing, the pieces of the puzzle slipping from her fingers every time she tried to grasp them.
Jisoo poured them both a glass of wine, but she didn't drink. Instead, she stared at the pendant on the table between them.
"What is happening?" she asked finally, her voice thick with the weight of everything she had just seen.
Jisoo took a deep breath. "I think it's time you understood everything."
The silence between them was suffocating, but Jisoo finally began speaking, his words slow, deliberate.
"I know about your memories. The ones from your past life."
Her heart skipped, and she looked up sharply. "How?"
"I've had them too," he admitted. "For years, fragments. It's why I've been searching for you. I knew we were connected."
Hana didn't know how to respond. She reached for the pendant again, turning it over in her fingers. The weight of it was grounding. But the weight of what he was saying felt like a burden she couldn't carry.
"You're saying… we were together before?" She swallowed hard. "How is that even possible?"
Jisoo's face was darkened with some internal conflict, a storm brewing just beneath the surface. "Yes. We were..." He stopped, eyes narrowing. "But this isn't the life we were meant to have. Something is trying to stop us from remembering. Someone doesn't want us to have this life."
She felt a sharp pang in her chest. "Who?"
"I don't know," Jisoo muttered. "But I'm starting to think it's someone who knows exactly what will happen if we break the cycle."
He stood up suddenly, pacing. "We've already altered fate. That night. The night of the auction."
Hana's blood ran cold. "But we didn't change anything. The pendant it's still the same."
"That's just it," Jisoo said, his voice low and intense. "We didn't change anything… yet."
The air shifted again, the faint hum returning. This time, there was a clear source a cold draft sweeping through the room, wrapping around them. Hana's heart raced. The atmosphere was thick with anticipation.
Jisoo turned toward her, his face set with determination. "We need to find out who's trying to stop us before they succeed."
But as he spoke those words, the pendant in her hand flared.
A sudden burst of light.
And then, she heard it again.
The same voice.
"You're already too late."
The sound of a door creaking open filled the air.
A figure stood in the doorway.
The one who had haunted her visions.
But this time, there was no mistaking him.
He was real. And he was here.