chapter 9: the song that should not exist

Chapter 10: The Song That Shouldn’t Exist

The Archive felt alive.

Soft hums of forgotten melodies floated through the air like whispers, pressing against Jungkook’s skin as he walked between the endless shelves of lost music. The deeper they moved into the underground vault, the heavier the atmosphere became—like the very walls held centuries of untold stories.

Namjoon’s fingers traced the edge of a dust-covered vinyl. The title had been scratched out, leaving only faint remnants of ink. “This place is unreal.”

Hana was scanning the shelves, her brows furrowed. “We don’t have much time. The Silence will be looking for us.”

Jin folded his arms. “And how exactly do we find a song that was erased?”

“The Archive doesn’t just hold music,” Hana explained. “It remembers.”

She turned and pressed her palm against a section of the wall.

A ripple spread through the stone, like a vibration responding to her touch.

Then—music.

Faint, broken, like a song struggling to be heard through time itself.

Jungkook sucked in a breath as the sound wrapped around them, threading into his bones. It wasn’t complete—it was a fragment, a piece of something bigger.

Yoongi’s eyes darkened. “That’s Moonlit Echo.”

But not the version they knew. This was something else.

Something older.

The wall trembled as letters began to carve themselves into the stone. A name emerged from the dust, forming slowly, deliberately.

"ECHO’S LAST VERSE."

Jimin’s breath hitched. “That’s it. That’s the missing part of the song.”

Hana hesitated. “If it’s here… it means it was erased for a reason.”

Jungkook stepped closer, his heartbeat hammering. He didn’t care why it was erased. He just needed to hear it.

Carefully, he placed his palm against the stone.

The moment his skin made contact—

A pulse.

The world around them flickered.

And then—

They weren’t in the Archive anymore.

They stood in an open field beneath a sky filled with swirling golden light. The wind carried a melody—familiar yet foreign, like a song on the tip of their tongues but just out of reach.

Figures moved in the distance. A crowd. A performance. But something was wrong.

The music twisted. The people turned—faceless, empty, like echoes trapped in time.

Then—

A figure stepped forward.

A woman in a flowing black coat, her face hidden beneath the shadow of a hood. Her voice cut through the air, cold and sharp.

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

Jungkook’s blood ran cold.

This wasn’t just a song.

It was a warning.

And they had just stepped into the past.

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