Seungho always thought adulthood would come with a manual.Something like: "Congratulations! You Have Unlocked Level 18. Here Are the Instructions for Not Ruining Your Life."
Unfortunately, adulthood came with no manual.It came with stress.And assignments.And teachers who acted like sleep was optional.
If Jisung didn't exist, Seungho was pretty sure he would've melted into a puddle of anxiety by now.
They had been best friends since middle school—when Jisung accidentally knocked Seungho unconscious with a dodgeball and cried so loudly the entire P.E. department came running. Somehow, that incident turned into a lifelong partnership between chaos and sanity.Chaos = Jisung.Sanity = Seungho.
Now, after another exhausting day of high school torture, they escaped to the rooftop. Not to break rules, but just to exist somewhere quiet without someone screaming about test scores.
The sunset was gorgeous.Oranges and pinks painted across the sky.A cool breeze rustled their uniforms.
"Kinda weird, right?" Jisung said, leaning on the rail like he was acting in a music video. "One more year and we're done with school."
"Yeah," Seungho sighed. "Everything's going too fast."
"Too fast?" Jisung snorted. "Hyung, life didn't even warn us. It just stepped on the gas and said 'Good luck.'"
Seungho chuckled. "You make it sound like a tragedy."
"It is! One second we're buying Pokémon stickers, next thing you know our relatives are asking if we have a career plan."
Seungho groaned in agreement.
The wind picked up. Storm clouds rolled closer.
"Let's stay a bit," Seungho said. "It's nice up here."
Jisung sighed dramatically but stayed. "Fine. But if lightning hits us, I'm haunting you."
"That's fair."
They stood in silence, watching the sky fade into deeper orange.
"Do you think we'll be okay?" Jisung eventually asked. "You know… after we graduate."
"No idea," Seungho admitted. "But we'll figure it out."
Jisung smiled. A soft, genuine one—not his usual mischievous grin.
"I'm glad we're friends."
Seungho blinked, surprised.
"I mean it," Jisung said. "We're older now. We don't do stupid stuff like we used to… well okay, we still do stupid stuff, but smarter stupid stuff."
"That's… progress?" Seungho laughed.
Thunder cracked loudly across the sky.
"Hyung," Jisung continued, "if the universe ever throws something crazy at us, don't ditch me."
"I won't."
"Good. Because I refuse to fight dragons alone."
Seungho opened his mouth to reply—
CRAAAAACK!
Lightning struck the railing beside them with a blinding flash.
Everything turned white.
Not hot.Not painful.Just—white.
When Seungho opened his eyes again… he wasn't standing.
He was floating.
Time wasn't moving.Raindrops hung in mid-air like tiny frozen diamonds.The clouds were paused mid-rumble.
And Jisung floated nearby, spinning slowly like a confused rotisserie chicken.
"HYUNG?!" Jisung screamed. "WHY ARE WE FLOATING LIKE BROKEN GAME CHARACTERS?!"
"Calm down," Seungho tried, but he was equally confused.
A loud DING echoed through the frozen sky.
A glowing blue panel popped up in front of them.
"SYSTEM UPDATE: Two humans have been accidentally overcooked." "Initiating soul reboot… Please wait."
Jisung stared at the glowing text.
"OVERCOOKED?! Did we just get flash-fried?!"
Seungho rubbed his forehead. "There's no way this is how we die…"
Another panel materialized:
"COMPENSATION GRANTED: Multiverse System – Deluxe Package" "Status: APPROVED"
Jisung immediately perked up.
"Oooh. Deluxe package? Suddenly dying isn't sounding so bad."
"Jisung."
"Hyung, DELUXE! This is premium death!"
Before Seungho could respond, the air cracked.Not thunder—reality.
White fissures spread across the sky like splitting glass.
"THIS LOOKS BAD!" Jisung screamed.
"Stay calm—"
"HYUNG I'M TOO HANDSOME TO DIE TWICE!"
Seungho reached for him. "Grab my hand!"
"I GOT IT!"
Their fingers locked.
The cracks widened—light pouring through them like a bursting sun.
"HYUNG!" Jisung shouted over the noise. "IF WE GET REINCARNATED, I'M CALLING THE COOL POWERS!"
"No—!"
Too late.
Reality shattered.
Light swallowed them whole.Their bodies, their voices, their entire world disappeared.
Then—
Darkness.
Not normal darkness.Not night-time darkness.
This was the kind of darkness that existed before anything was created.
Seungho opened his eyes… or at least he thought he did. Nothing changed. There was no ground, no sky, no sense of direction—just endless black stretching infinitely.
He floated like a balloon someone forgot to tie.
"Hyung…?"Jisung's voice echoed somewhere far away. "Please don't tell me I'm alone in the cosmic void."
"I'm here," Seungho answered.
Something shifted in the emptiness, and Jisung drifted closer like he was swimming through space with zero skills.
"Hyung, where… are we?"
"I think… the afterlife."
Jisung gulped. "Why does the afterlife look like someone turned off the universe?"
Seungho had no answer.
They floated in silence, weightless, directionless, thoughtless.
"Hyung… are we really dead?" Jisung whispered.
"Lightning struck us, a system said we were overcooked… so yes."
Jisung covered his face. "I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO FINISH SEASON 2 OF THAT DRAMA!"
"This is your priority right now?"
"I need closure!"
Another soft hum echoed through the void.
This time, a bright panel lit up in front of them.
"SOUL TRANSFER COMPLETE" "Welcome to the Multiverse System" "Initializing… 3%" "12%" "34%"
Jisung gasped. "Hyung… are we reincarnating?!"
Seungho stared at the loading bar. "Looks like it."
"In another world?!"
"Probably."
"With cheat powers?!"
"Most likely."
Jisung pumped his fist. "YES! I KNEW STUDYING WAS USELESS!"
The bar continued:
"47%" "63%" "89%"
"Hyung," Jisung said quietly. "Are you… scared?"
"A little."
"Same."
Jisung finally stopped panicking. He floated closer, steady.
"But if we're together," he said, "we'll be fine."
Seungho smiled. "Yeah. Together."
The loading bar pulsed brightly.
"100% — TRANSFER READY"
The void trembled.
Light began forming around them like the universe was drawing a doorway.
"Hyung," Jisung whispered, "this is it."
"Yeah."
The light surged.
The darkness cracked.
The void pulled them in—
And everything turned white.