The number glowed on her screen like a small sun.

  

  ?? Congratulations! You hit 2,000 concurrent viewers! ??

  A bright chime sounded. The automated voice that followed was clear and pleasant, cheerful yet indifferent.

  Min-yeon stared at it. The digits remained there, while the chat detonated beside it.

  

  [?? No Tomorrow ??]: 2000 VIEWERS???!!

  [seoul_lore]: the algorithm found her FINALLY

  [?Deathbed_king?] gifted 5000× gold coins

  [NoToMindReading] gifted 400× gold coins

  [fun doodle]: turn the lights up yeon

  [yoonseul_art]: the last one about the singing tomb kept me up for DAYS. guess it's the catalyst!

  [Soul_eater]: don't just drink water like a goblin! what story tonight??

  [fun doodle]: it's okay. you can have your moment.

  She had not yet begun the tale shaped by patient research and ink-stained notes, her throat warmed with honeyed tea in expectation of this hour. However, none of it mattered now because the comments scrolled like autumn leaves falling, endless and beautiful, and she could not catch a single one. At the edge of the screen, faint hearts shimmered for her earlier works. With each gentle chime, strangers seemed to draw a little nearer.

  She set down the bottle and leaned toward the microphone. A trace of water lingered on her lips, faintly nectar-sweet as she swallowed.

  "Two thousand," she whispered.

  Her eyes were wide. Unlike the few times in the past when she feigned surprise for a coin or two, this was no performance. Her heart hammered against her ribs, like something trying to escape.

  

  [Moonmon]: Yeon is dying (? ????﹏????)

  [Heart to_art]: she's gonna cry omgggggg

  Perhaps they were right. Her gaze flickered to the corner of the screen. Eighty thousand won so far tonight, more than her last twenty streams combined. Rent was due in four days.

  For the first time in years, fear did not seize her.

  If this continued, she could pay the landlord without bargaining. She could restock the pantry. She could breathe.

  She shook out her hands, sniffled, blinked hard.

  “No, no. Not crying.”

  

  [??Pottercane]: CRY CRY CRY CRY

  [yoonseul_art]: awwwww~

  [lurker_404]: "Yes. Forget everything else. Let those tears of joy fall freely across your beautiful face, instead of swallowing them back into a heart already brimming with an ocean of unspoken emotion."

  [?? No Tomorrow ??]: ... bro's a simp!

  [fun doodle]: it's a girl! ?????

  [Soul_eater]: simp spotted

  [?? No Tomorrow ??]: fundoodle said it's a girl. is their spirit watching?!

  [fun doodle]: it's a girl!

  “What about it?!” Yeon grinned, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

  The screen flooded with laughter and noise, and she let herself sink into it.

  It was nearly midnight, and for the first time in years, the air in her tiny room felt soft.

  

  [lurker_404] gifted 600× coins

  It had finally started. Her long-withered life had finally turned. Was this not success? She floated somewhere above her body, watching herself laugh and exist in this moment of impossible grace. A normal stream, just casual talk about horror stories, and the universe handed her everything in the blink of an eye. She had forgotten about the exam tomorrow, the one she had not studied for. She did not care.

  You guys are amazing. I love you all. Special gratitude to those who found me worthy of emptying their pockets: Deathbed King, Mind Reading, Suzy Clair, Lurker 404…”She made sure to mention them all, and even though she made it sound like a joke, she meant every word.

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  [Ghoul_sarang]: ghosts are waiting to offer you tissues too

  [lurker_404]: i'm ready

  She laughed and the chat laughed and everyone was happy.

  No one noticed her fingers. How they found the water bottle. How they stroked its surface before she turned it in her hand off-camera and into shadow.

  Black pristine glass, so dark and smooth even as it swallowed the glow of the light, her bashful reflection remained like a ghost of herself watching from the curved surface.

  No one could read her thoughts as she offered silent thanks to something she could not name. Something that had listened. Something that had answered. Something she did not fully believe in, yet felt nonetheless, patient and warm.

  No one saw the knowing glance in her eyes, the way they drifted to the neon-green letters blooming across the bottle’s surface like LED numerals stirring from sleep, soft as breath against glass:

  Everyone starts from somewhere: Day-1.

  Min-yeon smiled at the camera.

  “Okay, so for tonight’s story, I was thinking—”

  Her phone buzzed.

  She ignored it, still smiling, still bathed in the warm glow of two thousand viewers.

  It buzzed again.

  And again.

  She reached down beneath the table, her smile never wavering, and glanced at the screen.

  Hyuna ??: THAT BOTTLE! NO WAY IN HELL!

  Hyuna ??: YEON. YOU DIDN’T HEAR ME, DID YOU?!

  Hyuna ??: NONONONONO ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW

  The messages kept coming. Hyuna, who was supposed to be at her cousin’s wedding in Seoul.

  Hyuna, who slept like a bear through every season and rarely startled at anything.

  Now typing as though she were falling from a cliff.

  Min-yeon only sighed, amused by the overreaction. Hyuna had always been dramatic.

  

  [?? No Tomorrow ??]: yeon? Why the distraction!?!

  [Soul_eater]: she's reading something

  [lurker_404]: her face just changed. like someone walked over her grave.

  [Ghoul_sarang]: Stoup Bithing Yourr beauuutiful lihps! Pardon me English is my second language

  The chat carried on without her, having the time of their lives. And she could not shake the urgency. About Hyuna. About the bottle. And about herself.

  The happiness had not left her. It simply thinned.

  “You lovelies—” She cleared her throat, smile steady. “Tonight is really special. Truly. But something just came up, and I can’t do the live story.”

  The chat erupted.

  

  [fun doodle]: what happened??

  [Moonmon]: is everything ok??

  [seoul_lore]: she never cuts stream

  “Nothing serious!” she said quickly. “My friend wants to see me. If I don’t go, she’ll cry rivers.” She chuckled while already reaching for the stream controls. "I already recorded the next part of last week's story, the one about the singing tomb? It's edited. It's good. I'll upload it tonight. Alright? Okay. Again, love you all. Thank you for 2,000 and the coins. Thank you thank you thank you—"

  She hesitated only a second.

  “Again, love you all. Thank you for the two thousand. And for the coins. Thank you. Truly.”

  Then ended the stream before anyone could respond.

  Silence. Just her breathing and the faint hum of the ring light, still glowing warm while the bottle beside it felt strangely cold. The innocent little thing Hyuna would not shut up about.

  Her phone buzzed again.

  Hyuna ??: CALL ME. NOW.

  Hyuna never demanded anything. But this time she did.

  Min-yeon nodded, suddenly tired. “Yeah, yeah,” she muttered, pressing CALL.

  One ring.

  “—Yeon!”

  Hyuna was gasping like she had been running. The background noise of a train platform pressed against the edges of her voice, announcements and footsteps and the ding of closing doors all tangled together.

  “It worked?!” Min-yeon laughed, half in disbelief, half to let Hyuna hear the triumph in her voice. She could barely contain herself. Of course she had meant to call Hyuna the second the stream ended, but Hyuna must have been watching and spotted the bottle when she drank.

  “It will.” Hyuna’s voice dropped to a whisper.

  Min-yeon chuckled. “You're just freaked out. It's just a bottle.”

  “You can’t be serious!” Hyuna snapped.

  Min-yeon pulled the phone from her ear for a second, wincing, then pressed it back. This was just another episode. Another panic spiral.

  “Hyuna. What if it’s a coincidence? You don’t believe in my endeavours?” she teased, waiting for a laugh.

  None came.

  “Yeah.” A pause. “Yeah, maybe it’s your time to shine. What’s so special about a bottle, right?” Hyuna scoffed. “It’s freaking alive. You saw what it did.”

  “And it hasn’t caused any trouble! It's been with me for a week. If it's real, then it's a good thing. It means it actually works. Why do you have to make it negative?” Min-yeon spoke in one breath, defending herself and defending the bottle and defending this miracle she had not had time to ponder because Hyuna was already attacking it.

  Silence stretched between them for a long moment.

  “Yeon. Listen to me very carefully.” Hyuna's voice cracked. Behind her, the train's doors dinged again, opened and closed. “That bottle. My halmoni has been trying to contain it for forty years. Forty years. She built the shrine around it. This thing has survived fencing and prayers and rituals and owners. All of it. Just to keep it in one place. Just to stop it from—”

  “From letting anyone be hopeful that miracles still exist?” Min-yeon took a bite of her sandwich, the one she prepared that morning hours before the stream when everything was still ordinary. She chewed casually while waiting, but hearing nothing from the other side, only made her chewing more deliberate and slow.

  “You said you weren't sure,” she said finally. Softly with her mouth half-full. “You said you didn't know yourself. That your halmoni told you so. You really need to calm down, okay? How about we observe it for a while?”

  Static crept into the call; she could hear fabric shifting, like Hyuna bumping away from someone.

  “We won't be the ones observing, Yeon.”

  The irritation slipped out before she could smooth it, “Hyuna, stop making a scene.” She tried again, lighter as she said, “Enough with the voodoo. Let’s celebrate my success.”

  “Where is the bottle right now?”

  Min-yeon sighed and glanced at her desk, cheeks still puffed with half-chewed bread. Giving up, she said, “On my desk.”

  “Leave it there. Walk away. Go to your kitchen.”

  “What? Why would I—”

  “Just do it. Please.”

  Yeon stood and crossed the small space to her kitchen corner, sandwich still in hand. Four steps. She turned toward the sink.

  "What now—"

  A gleam caught her peripheral vision. The bottle sat on the kitchen counter, right beside the stack of glasses.

  She hadn’t touched it. Hadn’t carried it. But it waited there.

  “Hyuna.” Her voice shrank. “It’s in my kitchen.”

  “There. It works... Now try again. Go to your bathroom.”

  “No. This is insane. I must’ve moved it without thinking. I wasn’t paying attention. Am I dreaming?”

  “Yeon. Go to your bathroom. Lock the door.”

  She obeyed.

  She went and stood in the corner of her tiny bathroom with the phone pressed to her ear, waiting. Her eyes moved across the tiles and the mirror and the shower curtain. Nothing.

  She let out a breath she did not know she had been holding. Grinned with relief.

  “You're spiralling! There's nothing here—”

  “Yeon?”

  The bottle sat on the edge of the sink. Its black surface reflected nothing. And yet it felt like it was looking at her.

  Min-yeon’s back hit the wall. Her legs refused to move. She remained staring at the thing that should not be there. That could not be there.

  “It...” she whispered. “It’s following me.”

  Yeon didn’t move. On the other end, Hyuna was the one struggling to breathe.

  “I’m going to my halmoni. Meet me there.”

  “What will it do?”

  “I don’t know.” The words tumbled out. “I won't know until I talk to her. You just have to want to come to the shrine. It will follow. To the yard at least. That’s what it does.”

  Min-yeon stared at the bottle. At her warped reflection in its dark curve. Then she lifted her gaze to the mirror above the sink.

  Her own eyes looked different. Still. Calculating.

  Green light flickered across the surface.

  Day-1.

  She went quiet for a long moment before her lips moved.

  “Hyuna,” she breathed. “It’s Day-1. Seven days. I can ask for six more things. I’m not wasting that.”

  The line went silent again.

  Then Hyuna’s voice tore through it. Her voice held the harshest tone Min-Yeon had ever heard from her.

  "Fucking stop it!" The words rushed out, Hyuna cursing for the first time ever. "Don't let it consume you. I'm telling you, just come and meet me there. If you don’t, I’ll come to you, you underst—”

  The line went dead.

  Min-yeon hadn’t hung up. Neither had Hyuna.

  She stared at her phone and at the bottle, then at the phone's screen.

  Behind her eyes kindled the fear, yes. But stronger than fear was something else.

  It was possibility.

  To walk away from a well that answers? She couldn’t afford that.

  She stepped forward and picked it up. The glass was ice-cold against her chest. With her free hand, she opened apartment listings. Somewhere else. Somewhere far. Somewhere she could have six more days.

  Day-1. Just the beginning. it whispered in green light.

  Whatever it was, she intended to use it regardless.

  To be continued…