Location: Gyeongju, Kingdom of Korea—Ancient Temple Ruins
The sky flickered like a glitching memory. Moonlight turned silver-blue as a gate shimmered open in the middle of the sacred grounds.
Lee Gon stepped through slowly, sword in hand, with Dephnie following him cautiously, eyes scanning every broken pillar.
Woo-jin whispered, "This is the Temple of the Moon—the site where time first split."
Dephnie felt a strange hum under her skin, like a song from another life. She stopped suddenly.
The same symbols from her childhood notebook… carved into the stones.
"Why do I recognize these?" she asked.
Lee Gon looked down at them—the seal of the royal line, paired with a mirrored version in reverse.
"Because you were born in both worlds."
Flashback: Seoul, Republic of Korea—15Years Ago
A little girl—Dephnie—stood in the snow outside Seoul University Hospital. Her father, a physicist, had just died in a lab accident no one could explain.
But as the snow fell, a tall man in a military coat knelt beside her.
"You'll forget me one day," he'd said, brushing hair from her tear-streaked face.
"But I'll always return when the clocks break."
She looked up at him. "Who are you?"
The man looked pained. "Someone who loved you in another life."
Then… he was gone.
Dephnie never remembered the moment again. Until now.
Location: Royal Palace, Kingdom of Korea – Secret Archives
Lee Gon brought Dephnie into the royal archives, a chamber hidden beneath the palace, only accessed by his bloodline.
He placed his hand on a biometric gate. A stone wall slid open to reveal:
A full map of the multiverse.
Two Koreas.Two timelines.But a third path appeared… blinking red.
"What is that?" Dephnie asked, alarmed.
"An unknown world. Neither yours nor mine."
Woo-jin frowned. "Another dimension?"
Lee Gon nodded. "A hybrid timeline. Where someone has started rewriting the rules."
Location: Busan, Republic of Korea – Private Residence
Professor Kim Min-jae watched live satellite images from his laptop. He zoomed in on Gyeongju.
Thermal activity. Space-time fluctuation. Identical to the readings before the 2001 royal massacre in Korea.
Suddenly, the screen glitched.
A message appeared:
🕰 "She remembers. The mirror has awakened."— The Monarch's Shadow
Kim's face paled. "This is bigger than theoretical physics. Someone's… altering memory itself."
He opened a sealed drawer and pulled out an old journal. His mentor's handwriting, the last entry:
"If she remembers the boy with the sword… time will fracture again."
Location: Kingdom of Korea – Royal Chambers (Nightfall)
Dephnie sat in front of the palace mirror. Her reflection shimmered, slightly off.
She whispered, "Why me?"
Behind her, Lee Gon stood quietly.
He spoke gently. "Because in the original timeline, you were never supposed to live."
Dephnie turned sharply. "What?"
Lee Gon walked closer, his voice low. "You were meant to die the night your father opened the first gate. But… I crossed into your world and saved you."
Dephnie's eyes welled up. "You broke time for me?"
He nodded. "Yes. And time's been trying to fix that mistake ever since."
They stood in silence. Then slowly, without words, he reached for her hand.
They didn't kiss. But the stillness between them trembled with a love buried by time.
Location: Unknown—Third Timeline (Glitched World)
The masked figure from the previous episode walked through the neon-lit streets of an alternate Seoul.
People here wore the royal crest. Police drones flew under a Korean flag.
A voice-over played:
"In this timeline, Corea won the war of timelines. There is no Republic. Only the Empire."
The figure stopped at a mirror mounted on a wall in the alley.
Inside the reflection?
Not his face.
But Dephnie's.
The mirror cracked.
Final Scene: Dual Timelines
Back in the Republic of Korea, Professor Kim receives a package. No sender. Inside is a coin from the Kingdom of Korea.
The second he touches it—he sees:
A young Dephnie
A burning palace
A boy with golden eyes
And a sword tearing open the sky
He collapses.
Overlaid voices whisper:
"The game is moving.""And the mirror is beginning to break."
🌀 To be continued