IntroI thought yesterday was an accident.Today proved it wasn't.~~
I didn't sleep well.Not because of nightmares──but because every time I closed my eyes, I could still feel that pulse echo through my chest.Not mine.Never mine.~~
When morning came, I tried to convince myself it was stress.Lack of sleep.Hallucination.Anything that belonged to the world I knew.But the thought didn't hold for even five minutes.~~
Because when I stepped out of my apartment, the air outside felt the same as yesterday in the park──thick.Resistant.Like space was water, and I was wading through it.~~
I forced a steady breath and walked toward the subway station.Normal morning.Normal people.No one else slowed down.No one else hesitated.Only me.~~
Which meant the problem wasn't the world.It was me.~~
The cat didn't show up this morning.Maybe that should've calmed me, but it didn't.Its absence made the silence around me feel even louder.~~
While waiting for the train, the white line flickered again at the edge of my vision.Clearer than yesterday.Not a hallucination.Not a floaty speck of dust.A symbol.A diagonal stroke with a sharp hook──Then gone.~~
I pressed a hand to my forehead."What is happening to me…"~~
The train arrived.I stepped in.People chattered around me, but the air remained heavy.Like a layer of something unseen pressed against my skin.~~
Then the second pulse came.Not from the park this time.From inside me.~~
A low vibration rolled through my chest──softsteadyrhythmiccompletely foreign.~~
My fingers tightened around the handrail.No pain.Just wrong.Like an inner echo answering a call I never gave.~~
For a moment, sound around me dipped.Voices muted.The rumble of the train softened.The world felt one layer farther away.~~
I knew this sensation.Yesterday's boundary.Yesterday's rejection.Yesterday's… breath.~~
But now the pulse wasn't coming from the park.It was coming from me.Like something inside had woken up after sensing the distortion yesterday.~~
The train reached the next stop.People got off.People got on.No one noticed anything.Only I felt the second pulse fade slowly, as if sliding back into silence.~~
I swallowed hard.My hands were cold.Not from fear──but recognition.~~
The park wasn't the only thing changing.The pulse wasn't tied to a place.It was tied to me crossing that boundary.~~
I glanced at the train window reflection.My face looked the same.Completely normal.But behind my eyes, buried deep, something felt… active.Waiting.Listening.~~
I whispered to myself:"This is not going to stop, is it…"~~
And in the reflection, for less than a heartbeat, a faint white line flashed across my iris.The same symbol from the park.Clear.Sharp.Intentional.~~
I didn't blink.I couldn't.~~
Because for the first time, I understood with absolute certainty──The boundary reacted to me.And now something inside me was reacting back.~~