I knew the exact moment my life split into before and after.
It was when my hands began to shake—not from cold, not from fear, but from the certainty that if I took one more step toward the altar, I would disappear forever.
The mirror in the bridal room reflected a woman I barely recognized. White silk wrapped tightly around my body, stitched with pearls my mother had borrowed from a neighbor. My hair was pinned neatly, my lips pale, my eyes hollow.
I was Han Seo-yeon, twenty-four years old, and about to be married to a man I had spoken to fewer than ten times.
Outside, the old church in our Rust Belt town groaned under the weight of age. Ashford had once thrived on steel and smoke. Now it survived on habits, silence, and resignation. People here didn't dream. They endured.
This marriage was meant to save us.
That's what my father said as he avoided my eyes.
That's what my mother whispered while tightening my veil with trembling hands.
"Just endure," she told me softly. "That's how women survive."
But my chest felt too tight. My lungs refused to cooperate. Every breath felt like drowning.
Through the thin wall, I heard the low murmur of guests. Neighbors. Relatives. People who had watched me grow up and believed this was the only ending I deserved.
I pressed my palms against the vanity, grounding myself.
If I don't leave now… I never will.
The thought terrified me more than scandal, more than poverty, more than disappointing everyone I loved.
My phone vibrated inside my bouquet—one last message from an unknown number.
Come out now.
I didn't know who sent it.
I didn't need to.
The bells began to ring.
That was my signal.
I lifted the hem of my dress and ran.
Gasps exploded behind me as I burst through the side door, cold night air slamming into my lungs. Someone shouted my name—my father, maybe—but I didn't turn back.
I ran past rusted streetlights and shuttered shops, my shoes slipping on cracked pavement. The church bells followed me, loud and relentless, as if trying to call me back into place.
My veil tore free, caught on a broken fence, and vanished into the dark.
Good.
I reached the highway just as the first tear escaped my eyes.
The road stretched endlessly in both directions, flanked by dying trees and abandoned factories. Headlights sliced through the darkness, trucks roaring past without slowing.
I had no plan.
Only instinct.
My phone buzzed again—missed calls stacking one after another. I shut it off and stepped closer to the shoulder, heart pounding so hard it hurt.
Then the world exploded.
A violent crash tore through the night. Metal screamed. Glass shattered. A black vehicle swerved wildly, slammed into the guardrail, flipped once—twice—and landed upside down barely thirty meters from where I stood.
For a heartbeat, everything went silent.
Then came the hiss of steam, the smell of fuel, the distant echo of something burning.
I didn't think.
I ran.
The car was mangled, its roof crushed inward. Blood streaked the window like dark paint. I fumbled for the door, my hands slipping, panic clawing at my throat.
"Hello?" My voice shook. "Can you hear me?"
A low groan answered.
Relief hit me so suddenly my knees weakened.
Inside, a man was trapped by his seatbelt, hanging upside down. Blood ran from a gash on his forehead, soaking into dark hair. One arm was bent unnaturally, but his chest was rising—unevenly, painfully.
His eyes opened.
They were sharp. Too sharp for someone this injured.
They locked onto mine, and something strange passed between us—an awareness I couldn't name.
"Don't…" he whispered. "Don't call anyone."
I froze. "You're hurt. I need to get help."
His hand shot out, gripping my wrist with startling strength.
"They'll find me," he said hoarsely. "And if they do… you'll die with me."
The words were calm. Certain.
Not the ravings of a delirious man.
Sirens wailed faintly in the distance.
But they sounded wrong.
Not police. Not ambulances.
Something heavier.
My instincts screamed danger.
"Who are they?" I asked.
He hesitated, jaw tightening. "People who erased me."
A strange warmth spread from where his fingers touched my skin—deep, steady, like a pulse syncing with my heartbeat.
Against every reasonable thought, I believed him.
I found a shard of glass and cut the seatbelt. He collapsed into my arms with a pained breath, heavier than he looked but refusing to scream. I dragged him from the wreck just as headlights appeared down the road.
We disappeared into the trees.
Branches tore my dress. Thorns bit into my skin. My legs burned, but I didn't stop until we collapsed behind a cluster of dead pines, hidden by darkness and fog.
His breathing grew shallow.
"I'm Seo-yeon," I whispered, pressing my hand to his chest.
He studied me for a long moment, as if deciding how much truth I could survive.
"Kang Ji-hoon," he said finally. "That's all you get."
Footsteps echoed faintly on the road. Voices. Controlled. Searching.
Ji-hoon's fingers tightened around my sleeve. "We need protection."
"What kind?"
"A lie," he said. "One strong enough to make them hesitate."
My laugh broke, sharp and hysterical. "I just ran away from my wedding."
His gaze lifted to mine—focused, piercing, terrifyingly clear.
"Then finish it," he said. "Marry me."
The absurdity of it stole my breath.
"You're insane."
"Probably," he agreed softly. "But married women are protected—legally, socially… magically."
"Magically?" I echoed.
Thunder rolled overhead, deep and heavy.
My fingers brushed against something cold in my palm.
The ring.
The one meant for another man.
The sirens grew closer.
I should have thrown it away.
Instead, with shaking hands, I slid it onto Kang Ji-hoon's finger.
The ground trembled.
A faint symbol ignited around the ring—ancient, glowing softly like moonlight through water. Ji-hoon gasped, his body arching as if something had awakened beneath his skin.
The warmth surged through me, stronger now, binding, undeniable.
Far away, something powerful turned its gaze toward us.
And I realized—standing in the woods in a torn wedding dress, blood on my hands—
I hadn't just fled an arranged marriage.
I had bound myself to a man hunted by shadows…
…and awakened a fate that would never let us go.