Chapter 1: The Library That Shouldn’t Exist
Rain drummed softly against the tall windows of the university library as Kim Yeon sat alone between the shelves, pretending to study while secretly watching the glowing numbers floating above everyone’s heads. It was a strange ability she had possessed for as long as she could remember. No doctor could explain it. No priest could understand it. Everyone simply assumed she was imagining things when she was a child, but the numbers had never disappeared.
A student walking through the aisle carried 18,452 above his head.
The librarian at the front desk carried 9,776.
A professor searching for a book carried 1,203.
Days.
Years ago, Yeon had discovered what they meant. The glowing numbers counted the exact number of days a person had left to live. Even worse, if she focused long enough, brief visions would sometimes appear. A car accident. A hospital bed. A falling tree. A drowning victim. She could see fragments of the death waiting for them.
Everyone carried a countdown.
Everyone carried an ending.
Everyone except her.
No matter how many mirrors she stood before. No matter how many selfies she zoomed into. No matter how desperately she searched, she had never seen a number above her own head.
It was as though fate had hidden her ending from her.
And she hated it.
Closing her textbook with a sigh, she rubbed her tired eyes. The library seemed quieter than usual today. Almost unnaturally quiet.
“You know,” a voice said, “most people come here to read books.”
Yeon looked up.
An elderly librarian stood beside her.
She was certain she had never seen the woman before.
Yeon smiled awkwardly. “I do read books.”
The old woman laughed.
“No.”
Her eyes glittered strangely.
“You look for answers.”
Something about the way she said it made Yeon’s stomach tighten.
“What does that mean?”
Without answering, the woman pointed toward the very back of the library where heavy black curtains concealed a section of the building.
“I think you’ll find what you’re looking for over there.”
Yeon frowned.
“I’ve been coming here for years.”
The old woman smiled.
“Not there.”
A chill ran down Yeon’s spine.
“Not until today.”
Curiosity got the better of her.
Gathering her things, she walked deeper into the library. Each step carried her farther from the crowded study area. The familiar sounds slowly disappeared behind her until even the tapping rain became completely silent.
The atmosphere felt wrong.
Heavy.
Almost dreamlike.
Finally, she reached the end of the corridor.
And stopped.
An enormous black iron door stood before her.
Ancient symbols were carved across its surface.
Yeon’s heart skipped a beat.
She had walked this hallway dozens of times before.
That door had never existed.
“Okay…”
She stared at it.
“Either I’m losing my mind or somebody built a secret dungeon overnight.”
Taking a deep breath, she pushed.
The iron door groaned open.
The world vanished.
Yeon’s eyes widened.
Rows upon rows of books stretched endlessly into darkness. Shelves towered toward a ceiling she couldn’t even see. Golden lanterns floated in the air like stars, bathing the impossible library in warm light.
Millions of books.
Millions.
The place felt larger than a city.
Perhaps larger than the world itself.
She slowly stepped inside.
Her footsteps echoed through the silence.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then somewhere among the shelves, a voice whispered.
Soft.
Ancient.
Almost familiar.
“Welcome back.”
Yeon spun around.
Nobody stood there.
Yet she was certain she hadn’t imagined it.
As she wandered deeper, she noticed the names.
Every spine contained a person’s name.
Real people.
Students from her university.
Teachers.
Politicians.
Neighbors.
Strangers.
The entire human race seemed to be stored within these shelves.
Her hand reached toward a random volume.
The moment she opened it, words began appearing across the pages.
Not printed.
Writing themselves.
Birth.
Childhood.
First love.
Marriage.
Regrets.
Dreams.
Death.
An entire human life recorded in perfect detail.
Yeon immediately slammed the book shut.
Her heart raced.
“Nope.”
She took a step back.
“Absolutely not.”
This wasn’t possible.
Yet it was happening.
Then one shelf illuminated.
Just one.
A single black book rested at its center.
Waiting.
Calling.
Her pulse quickened as she slowly approached.
The title gleamed in silver letters.
KIM YEON
Her own name.
Her hands trembled as she pulled the book free.
Dust drifted through the golden light.
For several seconds she simply stared at the cover.
Then she opened it.
The world shattered.
Visions exploded inside her mind.
A woman in royal silk standing inside a burning palace.
A healer kneeling beside wounded soldiers.
A musician laughing beneath lantern-lit streets.
A young mother holding a child.
A queen.
A servant.
A scholar.
A nun.
A warrior.
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Different faces.
Different centuries.
Different countries.
Yet somehow all of them were her.
And every single life ended the same way.
Too early.
Far too early.
Yeon stumbled backward, nearly dropping the book.
“What…”
The pages flipped wildly on their own.
Hundreds of years passed in seconds.
Finally they stopped near the very end.
Her eyes moved across the final written page.
Kim Yeon possesses the Sight.
She can see the lifespan of every living person.
She can witness the manner of their death.
She can see every countdown in existence except her own.
Yeon’s throat tightened.
She continued reading.
The reason she cannot see her own lifespan is because only one man in existence can see it.
Her heartbeat became deafening.
The next line made her blood run cold.
For fifteen hundred years that man has followed her through lifetimes.
For fifteen hundred years death has separated them before the truth could be revealed.
The immortal man who alone can witness her final day is…
The sentence ended abruptly.
The page had been torn away.
Yeon stared in disbelief.
“No.”
She turned the page.
Blank.
Another page.
Gone.
Another.
Gone.
Every remaining page had been ripped out.
As though someone had deliberately hidden the answer.
“Who is he?”
Her voice echoed through the endless library.
No answer came.
Then the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
A cold wind swept through the shelves.
Thousands of books trembled.
Pages turned by themselves.
The entire library seemed alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
Yeon’s heartbeat accelerated.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
Someone else was here.
Slowly she lifted her gaze.
And saw him.
At the far end of the library stood a man.
For a moment she forgot how to breathe.
He was tall, dressed entirely in black, his dark coat falling perfectly against his frame. Strands of black hair rested carelessly across his forehead. His face looked almost unreal, as though centuries of artists had attempted to create the perfect man and somehow succeeded.
Sharp jawline.
Sharp cheekbones.
Sharp nose.
Everything about him seemed carved rather than born.
Yet what struck her most wasn’t his appearance.
It was his eyes.
Silver.
Cold.
Ancient.
Beautiful.
And completely fixed on her.
The moment their eyes met, a violent vision tore through her mind.
Rain.
Blood.
A shattered clock tower.
Her own hands covered in crimson.
A man’s desperate voice screaming her name.
Then darkness.
Yeon gasped and nearly collapsed.
The vision vanished.
The stranger remained exactly where he was.
Still watching.
Still silent.
But something about his expression made her chest tighten.
He wasn’t staring at her with curiosity.
He wasn’t staring at her with fascination.
He wasn’t even staring at her like a stranger.
He looked terrified.
Not for himself.
For her.
As if he already knew something she didn’t.
As if he had seen this moment happen before.
Many times.
Far too many times.
The stranger took a single step forward.
Then stopped.
His eyes closed briefly.
Like a man fighting unbearable pain.
When he opened them again, the fear was still there.
Raw.
Heartbreaking.
Ancient.
And suddenly Yeon realized something even more frightening.
He wasn’t looking at her.
He was remembering her.
Far above them, hidden among the endless shelves, a loose page drifted through the darkness.
Words slowly appeared across its surface.
The immortal remembers every life.
The girl remembers none.
And for the first time in fifteen hundred years…
He had found her before it was too late.
Yet all he could see above Kim Yeon’s head was a number that made even an immortal fear fate.
10
Ten days until her death.
Ten days before history repeated itself.
Ten days before he lost her again.
The stranger’s hands clenched into fists.
His gaze never left her.
And for the first time in centuries, he prayed.
“Please…”
His voice barely existed above a whisper.
“Not again.”
Before she had uttered a single word in response, within a blink of her eye, he vanished and she is now present in her bedroom. SHOCKED.
TRYING TO ANSER ONLY ONE QUESTION: WHAT ACTUALLY HAD HAPPENED JUST NOW?
CHAPTER-1 ENDS HERE!
