"You must be wondering what happened back there,"
Raon's voice echoed faintly, as though the world itself were a narrator listening to him.
"So… let's go back. To the beginning."
The world dissolved—
And we were taken back to an ordinary evening.
The kind of day that would never make it into anyone's story.
---
Jeon Raon was an unremarkable man, the kind who disappeared into the noise of the city.
Morning meetings.
Endless traffic.
Colleagues with practiced smiles.
A job that paid him just enough to keep breathing.
He thought the world was predictable. That days came and went like pages in a book he'd already read too many times.
But that day felt slightly different.
Maybe it was the gray sky, or the silence between songs on his playlist, or the faint ache behind his eyes — the kind that whispered something is ending.
---
At 6:42 PM, Raon left his office early.
He was supposed to meet someone across the city, but the road was drowning in traffic, horns screaming like dying animals.
He cursed under his breath, parked his car, and walked toward the station instead.
> "Train will arrive in one minute,"
the speaker crackled overhead.
A wave of nostalgia struck him.
It had been years since he last rode a train.
Back when he first started working — when he still believed in beginnings, in stories with happy endings.
He smiled faintly, stepping inside a nearly empty cabin.
There were maybe a dozen people:
Two schoolgirls whispering over snacks.
An old lady holding her husband's hand.
A young woman rocking a sleeping child.
A man in a suit reading the news.
Fifteen souls, including him.
The train lurched forward. The world outside blurred into streaks of light.
Raon leaned against the window, unlocked his phone, and smiled.
A notification blinked at the top of his screen.
> [The Beginning of the End — Final Chapter Released]
His heartbeat quickened.
That was his favorite web novel — the only thing that made his commutes bearable years ago.
He had waited for this day. The ending of a story that had followed him through the worst parts of his life.
He opened the chapter.
And just like that…
The world around him disappeared.
The hum of the train.
The chatter of the passengers.
Even the faint vibration beneath his feet — gone.
There was only the screen, and the words on it.
---
> "The moment the reader finishes the final chapter, the story will no longer need the world to continue."
Raon frowned.
"What the hell…?" he murmured, scrolling down.
The letters began to blur. His reflection rippled on the screen.
The phone's glow dimmed, then brightened, until it looked almost alive.
And then—
The train shook.
A low, thunderous roar swallowed every other sound.
The world around him trembled.
Lights flickered, glass cracked, someone screamed—
And Raon's phone slipped from his hand, the final words burning on its display before it shattered against the floor:
> [The Scenario Has Begun.]