The golden pocket watch in Shin Hae-won's hand felt heavier than any decision she'd ever made.
One turn. That's all it would take.
Around her, time remained frozen — a glass-like stillness hanging in the air. The curtains had stopped mid-sway, the blinking city lights outside suspended like stars that had forgotten to shine.
Do-yoon stood just feet away, shirt half-unbuttoned, chest rising with panic.
Seo Min-jae waited near the door, gaze calm, unreadable, a single finger tapping his thigh in rhythm — tick, tick, tick — as if mocking the watch's stillness.
And Hae-won?
She couldn't breathe.
"If I turn it clockwise…" she whispered.
"You'll end the loop," Min-jae said. "You'll be free. But you'll forget everything. Every timeline. Every version of love. Him." His gaze cut sharply to Do-yoon. "Me. All of it."
"And if I go back?" she asked.
"One turn counterclockwise. You rewrite tonight. You delay the collapse," he replied, slowly. "But the loop continues. The resets will keep coming—until your mind can't hold them anymore."
Do-yoon stepped forward. "You don't have to choose either."
Hae-won's eyes flicked up. "What if choosing nothing collapses everything?"
"We'll find another way," he said, voice low, intense. "Together."
Min-jae let out a quiet scoff. "Together? You think the universe cares about romance? Time has rules, Baek Do-yoon. She's already cheated them too many times."
"And you haven't?" Do-yoon snapped. "You've been pulling strings from the shadows. You knew about the resets. You let her suffer through them."
Min-jae's expression flickered. "I tried to give her choice. That's more than you did when you left her at the altar."
A flash of white-hot pain crossed Do-yoon's face.
"Stop!" Hae-won cried, the watch rattling in her trembling grip. "This isn't about who hurt me more. It's about what I can survive."
A pause.
And then… silence.
Heavy. Crushing. Final.
She looked down at the pocket watch again.
Its gold glinted like temptation.
Clockwise: end it all, erase the pain—but lose everything.
Counterclockwise: delay the reset, remember the love—but risk losing herself.
She clenched her jaw, tears pricking at the edge of her lashes.
"Do-yoon…" she whispered, "if I forget, will you try to find me again?"
He took a shaky breath and stepped closer.
His hand reached up, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. "Even if you forget me a thousand times, I'll keep falling in love with you."
She turned to Min-jae. "And you? Will you stop?"
"No," he said simply. "I will always come back for you. Because I'm the one who remembered first. I've loved you through every version of yourself. Even the ones that hated me."
That confession hit hard.
Her breath stuttered. Her vision blurred.
She closed her eyes… and turned the dial.
---
One click.
Counterclockwise.
---
The watch glowed in her palm—heat pulsing like a second heartbeat.
The light expanded, swallowing the room in gold.
And then—
The reset began.
---
🌒 June 11th, 2025 — 11:58 PM
Hae-won jolted awake in her apartment. Gasping.
The air was thick with déjà vu. Her clothes were still strewn from earlier. The outline of her wine glass was still on the table. The soft hum of the city outside was moving again.
Time was flowing.
She sat up, her fingers still clenched.
The pocket watch was gone.
But her body remembered.
Her lips tingled with the memory of Do-yoon's kiss. Her heart still carried the weight of Min-jae's gaze. Her soul… felt bruised.
She rushed to the mirror. Checked her eyes. Checked her pulse.
She still remembered. Everything.
Then a knock at the door.
She froze.
Could it really be—
She opened it.
Baek Do-yoon stood there, hair slightly damp from the rain, as if fate had dragged him here again.
But this time… his eyes were different.
They widened the moment they saw her.
"Why do I remember kissing you?" he whispered. "But it hasn't happened yet."
Her throat went dry.
"You remember too?" she choked out.
He nodded, stunned. "Not everything. Just pieces. But it's clearer now."
They stood staring at each other, as if two souls had finally found a frequency they both understood.
Then he reached into his coat.
Pulled out something small.
Her breath caught.
The pocket watch.
She stepped back. "How—?"
"It was on my desk when I woke up," he said. "I thought it was a dream. But this... this isn't a dream, is it?"
She slowly reached for the watch, fingers trembling. It pulsed in her hand again—alive.
But something was different.
The dial was cracked.
---
🔥 Meanwhile — Elsewhere
Seo Min-jae stood in an empty lecture hall, staring at the blank screen of his tablet.
His hands were clenched into fists.
"She chose him again."
A woman entered quietly behind him.
Shadowed face. Long coat. Quiet steps.
"She's become too powerful," the woman said. "The resets are beginning to ripple. The Overseers won't let this continue."
"She still has one chance," Min-jae murmured.
"She's had too many."
Min-jae's jaw tightened. "Then I'll break time itself before I let them erase her."