The book sat on her lap, breathing. At least, that's what it felt like.
Yoorin hesitated before opening it. The cover was old, worn leather, embossed with a single silver crescent moon. No barcode, no publisher, no price tag. Just the name.
Seo Seon-hwan.
Her fingers trembled as she opened the first page.
To the girl who waited for me, even when time forgot us.
Her throat tightened.
The pages smelled like night rain. The ink shimmered faintly, like it had been written in starlight. Some passages looked handwritten, others typewritten. Some were crossed out. Some faded, like they were being erased with every second she stared at them.
"This is impossible," she whispered.
But the story…
It began with a boy with no name, waking up in a village where the moon never rose.
He searched for someone — he didn't know who. He remembered only a voice. A feeling. A promise never spoken aloud.
And each time he thought he found her, she slipped away.
Sometimes she wore red.Sometimes she had ink-stained hands.Sometimes she burned.
Yoorin couldn't stop reading. The story pulled her in with invisible threads.
Then she turned a page—and froze.
There it was. A line of poetry she had scribbled in the margins of her notebook two weeks ago.
"If I were a thread, would you follow me into the dark?"
She flipped back, breath catching. There was no way. How could he know that?
How could a man from a century ago write something she'd thought for the first time just recently?
Unless…
No.No, no, no—
She looked up.
The woman at the counter was gone.
The bookstore was… empty. Silent.
Even the outside world seemed muffled.
Her phone had no signal. No time.
She stood up, gripping the book. It hummed like a heartbeat.
On the back cover, new words appeared.
Chapter One – Begins When You Remember Who You Are.