The smell of antiseptic hung lightly in the hospital room. Soft beeping filled the silence. Nira sat on the chair closest to the bed, her fingers gripping the edge of the blanket, her eyes fixed on Re-ha's still face.
Lila paced near the window, anxiety tightening her shoulders.
Agani stood near the door, forcing herself to breathe normally, though her heartbeat still felt too fast.
IJ lingered beside her, hands in pockets, watching everything quietly.
Then—
A small movement.
Re-ha's fingers twitched.
Nira instantly leaned forward. "Re-ha? Re-ha… can you hear me?"
Re-ha's eyelids fluttered. Slowly, painfully, she opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was the white ceiling.
The second—Nira's worried face hovering above her.
"S…sorry," Re-ha whispered, throat dry.
"You scared us!" Lila rushed to her side, half scolding, half relieved. "You just collapsed in the middle of a hallway—why would you do that?!"
"I didn't do it intentionally," Re-ha murmured weakly, forcing a tiny smile.
Agani stepped closer. Her voice was unusually soft. "Re-ha, you fainted after you saw my pendant. Do you remember that?"
The moment Agani mentioned the pendant,
Re-ha's expression changed.
Still pale.
Still tired.
But something inside her woke up.
She swallowed hard. "Yes… I remember."
Nira exchanged a worried glance with Lila.
"What happened?" IJ asked bluntly. "Did you see something?"
Re-ha inhaled shakily.
"For a moment," she said slowly, "I wasn't in the hallway. I was somewhere else… seeing something else."
She closed her eyes, gathering her thoughts.
"At first… it was dark. Then it felt like a door opened. A gate. I heard footsteps… many footsteps."
The others leaned in without realizing it.
"And then I saw—"
She blinked rapidly, struggling with the memory.
"I saw four figures. But I couldn't see their faces. Only… shadows."
Her voice trembled.
"But the strange part is… they felt familiar. Like I knew them."
"Four?" Agani whispered. "You're sure?"
Re-ha nodded.
"Then everything blurred," she continued. "I felt… fear. And warmth. And then pain—like something pulling me backward. And suddenly I was back in the hallway, looking at your pendant, and everything went dark."
Silence swallowed the room.
Nira placed a hand gently over Re-ha's. "It's okay. You don't have to push yourself."
"No…" Re-ha whispered, eyes opening again. "There's more."
Everyone froze.
"When I fell… before losing consciousness completely… I heard a voice."
Agani's heart skipped.
"A voice?" IJ repeated.
Re-ha nodded, her breathing shallow.
"It said…"
Her lips parted slowly.
"…'The time has returned.'"
A chill moved through the room like cold wind.
Lila's skin prickled. "That's… similar to what that old man said near the mansion rumor…"
"And the ticking clock," IJ added quietly.
Agani touched her pendant unconsciously. "What does that even mean?"
Re-ha shook her head. "I don't know. But… the way I felt… it wasn't just a hallucination."
Her eyes locked onto Agani's pendant again.
"That pendant… Agani… I've seen it before."
Agani froze. "What?"
Re-ha nodded slowly, even though she looked exhausted.
"I don't know where or when. But I swear… I've seen that exact design. Same shape. Same symbol. Maybe in a dream, maybe in a memory I don't remember having."
The room tightened with quiet tension.
Nira spoke softly, but every word felt heavy.
"This is all connected—your collapse, the number 4114, the mansion, the pendant, everything."
Lila sat down finally, rubbing her forehead.
"We need answers. And soon."
Re-ha looked at all of them—her voice trembling but firm.
"I'm scared," she admitted. "But something tells me… this isn't happening to us. It's happening because of us."
All of them went quiet.
Because deep down…
They felt it too.
A pull.
A connection.
Something ancient… resurfacing.
Nira squeezed Re-ha's hand again. "For now, rest. We'll figure this out together."
Re-ha nodded weakly, finally closing her eyes.
Agani, who had been trying to stay strong, looked at Re-ha with a mix of guilt and confusion.
IJ glanced at Agani's pendant again — his expression turning unreadable.
And Lila whispered under her breath,
"…What have we stepped into?"
Outside the room, the corridor lights flickered once — barely noticeable.
As if the hospital itself felt the shift in the air.
As if the message Re-ha heard…
"The time has returned."
…was only the beginning.