The Boy of Cheongan (靑霧)

Episode 2: Broken Gravity

As the cold smoke clutched me tight and dragged me far away, the roar of the acoustic guitar slowly faded into a distant hum. With my boots scraping harshly across the stage floor, there was nothing left beneath my feet but empty air.

The squad did not hesitate for even a moment outside the venue. Jiseok violently kicked the nearest motorcycle, and the engine let out a harsh scream as it roared to life the same instant his aim fixed on the dark trajectory cutting across the night sky. The other members swiftly exchanged urgent, precise hand signals, then soon formed a tight perimeter and hurled themselves onto the bikes. They tracked the flow of smoke moving with desperate intent toward the outskirts of the city, and that journey led everyone to the very edge of reality.

A cold pressure born of emptiness swelled fearfully, and soon the dark trajectory viciously tore open the sky’s curtain and slammed down into the giant, glowing裂 crevice. Beyond it, the shape of a massive floating triangle revealed itself ominously.

Before I could even finish screaming, the rest of the squad poured in right behind me, plunging vertically into the crevice. It was perfect, absolute chaos itself.

The stolen motorcycles were tossed around roughly inside the crevice, their tires spinning uselessly in midair. The heavy machines floated strangely like metal autumn leaves, and the handlebars twisted on their own, defying the flow of the weightless void. Jiseok was flung completely off the seat. I watched him flail through the brilliantly spread-open space, thrashing in the air with all four limbs. He was desperately kicking the frame of the floating bike to generate even the slightest bit of motion that could reach me.

"Hold on!"

I shouted, but the force of the rushing light swallowed my voice completely.

Jiseok reached his hand out as far as he possibly could, his eyes locked onto mine with desperate, intense focus. The weightless current shoved us mercilessly down a long, endless corridor filled with blinding light, and we kept falling ever closer to the swirling point of strange anomaly.