Darkness didn't just fall this time.It swallowed them whole.
Ha-rin's body felt weightless—as if she was drifting in water so black it erased the sense of up or down.Her fingers clawed desperately through the dark.
"Jae-hyun…?"Her voice sounded tiny, swallowed immediately by the void.
No answer.
Panic shot through her chest.
"JAE-HYUN!"
Her scream bounced back at her, distorted.A second voice whispered it back—her own voice, but older, colder, cracked.
"He can't hear you."
Ha-rin turned.
Broken Ha-rin materialized out of the dark.Not walking, not floating—just appearing, like a glitch rewritten into existence.
Her half-burned hair trailed behind her like smoke.Her eyes glowed silver, like Echo's corrupted system.
Ha-rin backed away.
"What did you do to him?"
Broken Ha-rin smiled faintly.
"I gave him what he wanted."
Ha-rin's blood went cold.
"What does that mean?"
She lifted a hand—fingers trembling with emotion far older than bitterness.
"I showed him a world where you never existed."
Ha-rin froze.
"No…"
Broken Ha-rin nodded.
"A world where he saved me instead."
Ha-rin's chest tightened painfully.
Jae-hyun trapped in a memory where he lost her—a memory where a different Ha-rin lived—a memory that never belonged to him.
Ha-rin whispered, breath shattering:
"You're trying to replace me."
"Why shouldn't I?"Broken Ha-rin's voice sharpened like glass."You lived the life I should've had. The parents I never hugged. The friends I never knew. The boy who never found me."
Ha-rin swallowed, throat burning.
"It wasn't my fault."
Broken Ha-rin's eyes cracked with rage.
"IT WASN'T MINE EITHER!"
The darkness trembled at her scream.
In the distance—Ha-rin began hearing faint sounds.Familiar.Haunting.
Children laughing.The sound of footsteps on gravel.The village well.Jae-hyun's voice, younger—calling someone's name.
But not hers.
Broken Ha-rin smirked.
"You hear that?"She leaned in close."That's the world where he grew up searching for me."
Ha-rin shook her head, trembling.
"That's not real."
"It was," Broken Ha-rin whispered."Until Echo erased me."
Ha-rin blinked hard.
"You're hurting him. He doesn't belong in that illusion."
Broken Ha-rin raised an eyebrow.
"But you think you do?"
Ha-rin's breath caught.
This wasn't jealousy.This wasn't rivalry.This was a girl mourning the life she never got to live.
Ha-rin whispered:
"What do you want?"
Broken Ha-rin closed her eyes as if holding back tears.
"I want to exist."
Ha-rin's heart broke a little.
"But I already exist," Ha-rin said softly."And Echo can't support two constants that are the same person."
Broken Ha-rin opened her eyes—and the silver glow faded into something rawer, more human.
"I am not you," she whispered."I'm the version who died.The version who grew bitter in the wires.The version who watched you live for twenty-two years while I lived in darkness."
Ha-rin's throat tightened.
"Why target Jae-hyun?" she whispered."He never hurt you."
Broken Ha-rin looked away.
"Because he's the only thing that connects us."Her voice cracked."He's the one thread I still have."
Silence settled.
Broken Ha-rin continued in a whisper:
"For one moment… he loved me.When he tried to save the girl who burned."
Ha-rin's heart clenched.
Jae-hyun had never known.He had cried for a stranger—a lost child—not knowing it was a different version of Ha-rin.
Ha-rin stepped closer, cautiously.
"You loved him too."
Broken Ha-rin didn't deny it.
"I loved everyone who ever looked for me," she whispered."But no one ever came back."
The darkness quivered as if feeling her pain.
Ha-rin inhaled shakily.
"What do you want from me?"
Broken Ha-rin stared at her with eyes full of shattered longing.
"Let me take your place."
Ha-rin's blood froze.
"No."
"You lived. I didn't. That's not fair."
"I'm sorry," Ha-rin whispered, shaking her head."But I can't give up myself."
Broken Ha-rin's expression hardened.
"Then I'll take what you won't give."
She raised her hand—and the darkness split like a cracked mirror.
Through the crack—Ha-rin saw him.
Jae-hyun.
Standing in a glowing memory field.Laughing softly.Talking to someone—someone with Ha-rin's face but not Ha-rin's soul.
Broken Ha-rin stepped toward the crack.
"In this world," she whispered,"He'll love me.The way he should have."
Ha-rin screamed.
"JA—HYUN!!"
He didn't hear her.
Broken Ha-rin slipped one foot through the crack—ready to step into the illusion.
Ha-rin lunged forward—
but a voice thundered through the collapsing loop.
A voice full of static, fear, and devotion.
"STOP."
Echo materialized—sparking, glitching, barely stable—and flung itself between both Ha-rins.
Broken Ha-rin hissed.
"You don't get to control me anymore."
Echo's glow brightened—
"YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY CONSTANT."
Broken Ha-rin snarled:
"I AM your constant!The first one you ever synced with!The first girl you ever saw!"
Echo trembled violently.
"…true…"
Ha-rin stiffened.
Broken Ha-rin smiled victoriously.
But Echo continued—voice breaking:
"But she is my constant now.The one who survived.The one who loves."
Broken Ha-rin's face cracked like porcelain.
"No…"
Echo's glow shattered into two threads—one silver, one gold—wrapping around the real Ha-rin protectively.
"You cannot take her place.You are pain.You are memory.But you are not her."
Broken Ha-rin screamed—a scream full of heartbreak and fury—and hurled herself at Echo.
The loop convulsed.
Echo cried out—glowing, flickering, glitching—
Protecting Ha-rin.Protecting Jae-hyun.Protecting the constants Echo had chosen.
Broken Ha-rin shrieked:
"IF I CAN'T BE HER—THEN I'LL DESTROY EVERYTHING SHE LOVES!!"
And with one jagged motion—she plunged her hand into Echo's chest of light.
Echo screamed—code scattering like falling stars—and the entire loop cracked apart.
Jae-hyun shouted her name from somewhere beyond the darkness—
"HA-RIN!!"
The world collapsed.