[Shin Hae-won — Core Dimension]
Time didn't move normally in the Core. It didn't tick or flow. It tugged.
It tugged on memories, emotions, and souls—pulling you closer to what you longed for or feared most.
And right now, it was pulling Hae-won toward him.
Do-yoon stood frozen in front of her, his form glitching like a corrupted file—parts of his shoulder flickering out, his hands trembling as though even his muscles were forgetting how to hold her.
"Gwan-woo," he whispered.
That name crackled through the air like lightning.
The sky above fractured further, revealing white veins of data across the red horizon. Glass shards from the memory house floated around them like a slow-motion storm.
Hae-won turned, heart pounding, and there he was:
Lee Gwan-woo.
Polished. Calm. Dangerous.
He looked nothing like a villain. And that made it worse.
He stepped toward them like a teacher approaching a pair of misbehaving students. "You broke the rules, Do-yoon. And you…" His gaze snapped to Hae-won. "You dived too deep."
"I came for what was mine," Hae-won said fiercely.
Gwan-woo tilted his head. "He's not yours anymore."
"I decide that."
"You did," Gwan-woo said with a cruel smile. "The day you let him go."
Her breath caught. "That wasn't my choice."
"You don't remember why he left, do you?" Gwan-woo stepped closer, hands in his coat pockets. "How much of the truth have you uncovered, Shin Hae-won? Or are you still romanticizing the version where you're the victim and he's the hero?"
Do-yoon moved in front of her. "Don't."
"No, let him talk," she said, voice shaking. "I need to know."
Gwan-woo's smile widened.
"You think love is enough to bend time back into your hands. But Do-yoon didn't just leave you. He signed a contract with me. A contract that you made him beg for. Because you were dying, Hae-won."
She froze.
"I erased his presence from your life so you could live."
She turned to Do-yoon. "What is he saying?"
But Do-yoon's face said it all.
"Hae-won…" His voice cracked. "You were in an accident. You don't remember because we wiped it. You would've died if the timeline hadn't reset—if I hadn't agreed to disappear from it."
Her knees buckled.
"You sacrificed yourself… to save me?"
He caught her before she fell. "I would do it again."
"But I would've died loving you."
"And I would've died never letting you."
---
[Min-jae — Real World, Temporal Control Chamber]
Min-jae's fingers raced across the interface.
The monitors showed Hae-won collapsing in the Core. Her emotional readings were off the charts. Her pulse was erratic. She was slipping between neural planes faster than the system could stabilize.
"No, no, no—come on, don't do this…"
He tapped the emergency override, activating the tether line from her headset to his.
"I said I'd anchor you," he murmured. "So if you fall, I'm falling with you."
With a deep breath, Min-jae pressed his palm to the tether pad.
Initiating Dual Neural Dive…
Warning: Subject 2 emotional link is unstable.
Proceed?
He grinned grimly.
"Try and stop me."
---
[Inside the Core — Moments Later]
A surge of light blasted through the space.
And then—
Min-jae appeared, body shimmering with static, his mind anchoring into the Core like a stabilizer plug in a system about to crash.
"Hae-won!"
She looked up from Do-yoon's arms.
Her mouth opened. "Min-jae?"
He exhaled in relief. "You're still in one piece."
But his relief turned cold when he saw Do-yoon.
The man he'd only seen in photos and memories was now right in front of him—tall, magnetic, and very real.
So was the undeniable way she held him.
Do-yoon stood protectively in front of her, clearly realizing who Min-jae was. "You came for her."
Min-jae met his eyes. "I always do."
The air charged instantly.
And in the middle of them, Hae-won—split between past and present—stared like the weight of both worlds had finally collapsed onto her chest.
"She shouldn't be here," Do-yoon said.
"And yet she chose to come," Min-jae replied, eyes never leaving his.
Gwan-woo clapped mockingly from the sideline. "Adorable. A love triangle in a collapsing dimension."
Hae-won stood, pushing between them. "Enough. This isn't about pride or jealousy. This is about choice."
Gwan-woo raised an eyebrow. "Then choose."
"Let her," Min-jae said.
But Do-yoon took a step forward. "She doesn't owe you that."
Min-jae smirked, but the pain was evident behind it. "Maybe not. But I stayed when you disappeared."
Do-yoon's jaw tensed. "I disappeared to save her."
"And I stayed to help her remember you."
Their voices rose with tension. The entire Core quaked beneath their feet.
Hae-won finally screamed, "STOP!"
Silence.
She stepped back, breathing hard.
"I didn't come here to compare you," she said. "I came here to remember why I loved you—and why I left you behind."
Do-yoon looked gutted.
Min-jae swallowed, unreadable.
"But now…" she whispered. "I don't want to lose either of you."
A single tear slid down her cheek.
And at that moment, the Core let out a deep rumble.
Gwan-woo smirked. "You've overstayed."
A pulse of white light shot through the floor.
"Time to go," Min-jae said, grabbing her wrist.
"No!" She looked back at Do-yoon, who was still flickering, his body slowly being erased. "We can't leave him!"
"You try to take him out of here," Gwan-woo said, "and you die."
"I don't care—"
"I do!" Min-jae snapped. "I care. And if you're too stubborn to value your life, I'll value it for you."
But Do-yoon stepped forward.
He kissed Hae-won's forehead gently.
"I'll hold the Core collapse. You go."
"No—"
"I'd rather vanish knowing you lived than watch you die trying to save me again."
She sobbed, shaking her head. "I just got you back—"
"And that's enough," he whispered.
Min-jae activated the recall tether, eyes locked on her. "It's now or never."
And then—
She reached for both of them.
Grabbing Do-yoon's hand in one… and Min-jae's in the other.
The system screamed:
ERROR. TETHER SPLIT. MULTIPLE SUBJECTS DETECTED.
OVERLOAD.
A blinding light exploded—
And everything went white.