ECLIPSED VEINS — Episode 1: "The Shadow That Breathes"
1. The Empty Classroom
The school building creaked as if it were tired of standing another day. Wolha High always felt quiet after classes ended, but this silence was different—thick, suffocating. The kind of quiet that made the air feel alive.
Ryu Seong-min pushed open the classroom door.
The metal hinges groaned, echoing like a warning.
Desks sat in perfect rows, but their shadows were wrong—longer than they should've been, stretching across the floor like dark fingers reaching for him. The dim evening light filtering through the windows painted everything in cold blue.
Seong-min stepped inside.
He could still smell Jiho's cologne lingering in the room—faint mint.Jiho had disappeared two days ago.
And Seong-min had seen something the night before that he still wasn't sure was real.
His breath fogged faintly in the air, though the room wasn't cold.
"…This place again," he muttered.
A soft crack interrupted the silence.
He turned sharply.
The window panel nearest him had fractured with a thin spiderweb crack spreading outward. Yet nothing had hit it.
Just like last time.
Seong-min stared at the glass—and froze.
His reflection was staring back.But something was wrong.
The reflection's mouth began to move.
Before his did.
"Hungry…"
Seong-min stumbled back, knocking over a chair.
"What—?"
"Hungry… aren't you?"
The voice slithered through the air, though no sound came from the reflection's lips. The whisper was inside his skull, brushing against his thoughts like a cold hand.
"No. Not again," he breathed, clutching his chest as something inside him pulsed—like a second heartbeat.
For a moment the reflection's eyes turned black with silver irises.
Then—
BANG!
The door flew open.
Light flooded the shadows like a tidal wave.
"Seong-min! Why didn't you answer your phone?"
Cha Yuna stood in the doorway, clutching a stack of printed club notices to her chest. Her breath was uneven, like she had run all the way here.
Her warm golden-brown eyes widened when she saw him kneeling beside the fallen chair.
"Are you okay? You look… pale. Paler than usual."
"I'm fine."
It came out too fast.
Yuna frowned and stepped closer, the sunlight she carried with her pushing the room's unnatural chill away. For a heartbeat, the shadows behind Seong-min recoiled, twisting like they'd been caught.
Her gaze flickered right past him—and she sucked in a breath.
"Seong-min… what is that behind—?"
She blinked.The tendrils she saw vanished.
"…Never mind. Maybe my eyes are tired."
Seong-min forced a small smile.
"Yeah. Maybe."
But inside, a cold truth dug into him.
She saw it.Even if just for a second—she saw the thing that had been following him for weeks.
2. The Whispering Hallway
They left the classroom together, neither speaking at first.
The hallway was dim despite the sun still outside. Lights flickered overhead. Something in the atmosphere felt charged—alive.
Yuna hugged the papers closer.
"Another student went missing today," she said quietly. "Third one this month."
Seong-min's jaw tightened.
"...I know."
Neither said what they were both thinking.
Every disappearance had happened at school.And every one of them had occurred near places where Seong-min had… episodes.
Yuna glanced sideways at him.
"You've been acting strange lately. If something's happening—"
"It's not," he cut in.
"You're lying."
He kept walking.
Yuna didn't push further, but her voice softened.
"You can tell me anything, you know that."
He wanted to believe that. Desperately.
But if he told her what he was becoming—If he told her about the shadows whispering inside his veins—She would run.
Or worse… she might try to help.
And get swallowed, just like the others.
3. The First Echo
They reached the stairwell.
Seong-min stopped.
"…Yuna."
She blinked. "Yeah?"
"If something ever happens to me… stay away. Don't get involved."
She stared at him, expression tightening. Her caramel-colored hair shifted in the faint breeze.
"That's a stupid thing to say."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
She stepped closer, eyes burning with determination.
"I'm not abandoning you. Ever. So stop trying to push me away."
Seong-min opened his mouth—to protest, or maybe to thank her—but a whisper slid through the air like poison.
"She will kill you."
He froze.
The voice wasn't external. It was in his bones.
"She will kill the Eclipsed."
"What…?" he hissed under his breath.
Yuna frowned. "What?"
"Nothing."
But his heart was hammering.
The whisper continued, soft and cold:
"Don't trust the Sunwarden…"
4. The Rooftop Becomes a Grave
The school bell tower began chiming the hour.
Seong-min's vision blurred.
A dark pulse spread across his sight, and the walls seemed to ripple—stretching and contracting like breathing flesh.
He gripped the railing.
Yuna's voice was distant now.
"Seong-min? Hey—hey! Look at me!"
"I… I need air," he rasped.
He shoved the rooftop door open and staggered outside.
The sky above was drenched in deep indigo. Clouds drifted past a massive moon—unnaturally large, bleeding a faint crimson at its edges.
A partial eclipse.
His knees buckled.
Warm blood hummed under his skin, glowing faintly silver.
Not again.Not here.Not in front of her—
His back arched as a soundless scream tore through him.
Yuna rushed out behind him. "Seong-min!"
"Stay… back…" he growled, voice distorted.
A tendril of shadow lifted off the ground like smoke made solid.
He felt his teeth sharpen.His bones crack.The moon calling to him—
His reflection's voice whispering:
"It's time."
5. The Shade Priest Arrives
A rippling wave of darkness spread across the rooftop floor.
Yuna gasped as the air temperature plunged.
The edges of the roof dissolved into crawling mist. From the depths of it, a figure rose—tall, robed, masked in bone-white shaped like a crying crescent moon.
The Shade Priest tilted his head slowly, unnaturally.
"Child of Eclipse," he crooned.
Yuna stepped in front of Seong-min instinctively.
"Who are you?!"
The mask turned toward her. A soft, unsettling laugh flowed from it—like a chuckle played in reverse.
"You should not be here, Sunwarden."
"What are you talking about?!"
The Shade Priest ignored her, focusing on Seong-min.
"Your awakening comes late… or perfectly on time."
Silver veins flared across Seong-min's arms.
Yuna grabbed him.
"Seong-min—stay with me! Look at me, not him!"
His eyes snapped upward.
Black sclera.Silver irises.Inhuman.
Yuna stumbled back in shock.
Her voice trembled. "No… no, this isn't you…"
The Shade Priest whispered:
"Soon, he will forget your name."
END OF EPISODE 1