THE ETERNAL BOND AT ATMATESHWAR

The night was dead silent. The streets were entirely empty, swallowed by a heavy darkness as a lone boy named Ren made his way back to his apartment.

A muffled, desperate cry shattered the quiet.

Ren stopped. In the narrow, pitch-black space between two shuttered shops, a girl was cornered by four men. There was no one else around to hear her. The empty road offered no help.

He didn't rush in. He didn't even lift his hands or shift his posture. Ren simply stood at a distance, his eyes locking onto the shadows of the alley.

Suddenly, a violent force erupted—completely unseen by anyone. Without a single physical movement, an invisible wave slammed into the four men, throwing them backward. They crashed heavily onto the pavement, gasping in shock.

Terrified and confused by the unseen strike, the men scrambled to get away. The girl bolted out of the alley, desperate to escape. As she ran past, she tried to peer into the darkness to catch a glimpse of the person who had saved her, her mind racing with confusion over how those men had been thrown without anyone lifting a finger. But Ren had already vanished into the night.

When he finally unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside, the toll hit him.

Ren felt a burning sensation right inside his heart. It didn't cause any actual damage to his organs, but it felt exactly like a real fire was burning inside his chest. He pressed his hand firmly over his heart, trying to hold back the intense heat. Panting in the quiet room, he didn't bother turning on the lights.

As the pain flared up, he closed his eyes and muttered to himself in the dark, "This again..."

With a tired sigh, he threw himself onto the bed, letting sleep finally numb the burning inside him.

The morning came, and Ren opened his eyes slowly, the exhaustion of the previous night still clinging to his limbs. He placed a hand over his chest. The burning sensation from using his power was entirely gone, replaced by a dull, hollow ache that always followed the fire.

He sat up and stepped into the main hall of the apartment, where the bright morning sunlight was pouring through the large glass gates of the balcony. Outside the glass, the towering structures of the city were already awake. Ren didn't open the gates this morning; he just quickly washed his face and dressed in ordinary clothes suitable for a college student. In a massive, crowded city, the easiest way to hide was to look just like everyone else.

Leaving his apartment, Ren stepped out into the roaring energy of the city. The quiet, oppressive darkness of the night was completely gone, replaced by the chaotic sounds of heavy morning traffic, rushing crowds, and the distant hum of trains. He walked with his hands in his pockets, blending seamlessly into the sea of strangers.

No one was talking about the alleyway. In a city this vast, small incidents vanished into the noise of everyday life. The four men were likely too humiliated and terrified to tell anyone what had actually happened to them. To the rest of the world, it was just another ordinary morning.

When Ren arrived at the university campus, the courtyard was filled with students rushing to their morning lectures, drinking coffee, and chatting about exams.

Somewhere in that massive, bustling crowd of students was the very girl he had saved the night before. She had made it to campus safely and was heading to her own department, completely unaware that the boy who had rescued her from the shadows was walking onto the exact same campus grounds. They shared the same college, but their paths wouldn't cross so easily—they belonged to entirely different classes.

Ren walked through the heavy glass doors of the main building, his expression entirely blank. He took a seat in the back row of a large, crowded lecture hall, melting into the background. As the professor began to speak, Ren looked out the window at the sprawling city skyline. He was completely alone with the memory of the invisible force and the fire that had burned in his chest, entirely invisible to the world around him.

When the midday bell finally rang, the lecture halls emptied, and the campus cafeteria filled with the loud chatter of hungry students.

Iris sat at a corner table, completely staring down at her food without touching it. Her mind was still trapped in that dark alleyway from last night, replaying the moment those four men were violently thrown back by an invisible force.

"Earth to Iris," her friend Maya said, waving a hand in front of her face with a laugh. "You've been spacing out all morning. Are you actually going to eat that?"

Iris snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at Maya. She hesitated for a moment, wrestling with whether she should even say it out loud. Finally, she leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "Maya... do you think it's possible? Like, is there a person alive who actually has supernatural powers?"

Maya paused, blinking in surprise before bursting into a light grin. "Supernatural powers? Iris, you've definitely been reading too many light novels or staying up way too late. This is real life. Stuff like that only exists in fiction stories."

Iris forced a small smile and nodded, looking back down at her tray. "Yeah... you're probably right."

Once the afternoon classes ended, Iris didn't hang around campus. She went straight back to her apartment, the heavy silence of her own place wrapping around her the moment she stepped inside.

She didn't even bother sitting on the couch or turning on the TV. Instead, she slid down against the wall, sitting directly on the floor in a tight, crouched position with her knees pulled up to her chest. She stared blankly at the floorboards, her mind entirely consumed by the exact same question that had haunted her all day.

Is there any supernatural power that's actually real?

It shouldn't be possible. Everything Maya said made perfect sense—it belonged in fiction. But Iris couldn't ignore the memory of the cold air shifting, the sudden impact, and the terrifying reality of four grown men being thrown like ragdolls without a single hand touching them.

Unable to sit still with her racing thoughts any longer, she suddenly stood up and grabbed her laptop. She sat back down, opened the screen, and rapidly typed a single word into the search bar: Magic.

The screen glowed in the quiet room as the search results loaded. Iris scrolled down page after page, but her heart slowly sank. There was nothing real. Every single link led to fantasy novels, web fiction stories, movie trailers, or forum discussions about video games. There wasn't a single article about mysterious invisible forces, no hidden news reports, and no secret history.

Iris stared at the bright screen, a profound sense of exhaustion washing over her. She slowly closed the laptop and leaned her head back against the wall.

Maybe... Maya is right, she thought, a bitter smile touching her lips.

The more she thought about it in the safety of her apartment, the more impossible the whole thing felt. Sitting there in the quiet, she began to convince herself that the entire terrifying ordeal—the alleyway, the four men, and the mysterious boy who saved her—was nothing more than a hyper-realistic, waking nightmare. A trick of her mind brought on by stress. She let out a quiet sigh, deciding to bury the memory deep down where it couldn't confuse her anymore.

The evening settled heavily over the city, painting the sprawling skyline in shades of deep blue and neon light.

Back in his apartment, Ren stood in the main hall. The lights were turned off, leaving the room illuminated only by the distant glow of the city filtering through the large glass gates of the balcony. He reached out, slid the heavy glass gates open, and stepped out onto the balcony into the cool night air.

Leaning his hands against the railing, he looked down at the streets below. From up here, the people looked like tiny, endless dots moving through illuminated gridlines.

He placed a hand over his chest. The dull ache from the morning had finally faded, leaving him feeling empty, but normal. Ren knew how the world worked. To the city, he didn't exist. To the girl he saved, he was likely already becoming a faded, impossible memory—something she would eventually convince herself wasn't real. And that was exactly how it had to be.

He took a deep breath of the night air, stood on the balcony for a few moments longer, and then stepped back inside, sliding the glass gates shut behind him to block out the noise of the world.

The next morning at the university campus was louder than usual. Iris walked through the crowded hallways, repeating the same mantra in her head over and over: It was just a dream. It wasn't real. Maya was walking right beside her, happily chatting about a midterm assignment, providing the perfect shield of normalcy.

"Oh, wait! I forgot my notebook in the lecture hall," Maya suddenly stopped, snapping her fingers. "Iris, wait for me by the main locker bay? I’ll be right back!"

"Sure," Iris smiled, stepping to the side of the busy corridor to wait.

The hallway was a sea of moving faces. Iris leaned against the lockers, letting her gaze drift aimlessly over the passing students. Suddenly, a group of rushing athletes accidentally slammed into a row of heavy, unanchored metal display shelves. With a loud, terrifying groan, the massive iron shelf tilted, falling directly toward a student who had their back turned.

Iris opened her mouth to scream, but the sound died in her throat.

The heavy iron shelf didn't crash. Instead, it abruptly froze, hovering awkwardly in mid-air for one impossible second—defying gravity entirely.

Before the crowd could even process the bizarre sight, a few nearby students reacted to the danger. They rushed forward, grabbing the hovering shelf and shoving it safely against the wall. The loud thud of the metal hitting the wall broke the spell. To the rest of the hallway, it just looked like a close call where quick reflexes saved the day.

But Iris stood frozen, her heart hammering against her ribs. She had seen it clear as day. The shelf had stopped on its own.

Completely confused and breathless, Iris’s eyes darted frantically across the hallway. She scanned the faces of the crowd, searching for any clue of who—or what—had just caused that impossible pause. But every single face she looked at was filled with genuine shock, fear, and confusion. No one looked capable of stopping a falling iron shelf with their mind.

Except for one person.

At the very end of the corridor, standing near the exit, was a boy wearing a dark black hoodie. While the entire hallway was buzzing with panic and adrenaline, he stood completely relaxed. He didn't look shocked, he didn't look scared, and his posture was entirely calm.

It was him.

Iris stared at him, her eyes wide with a mix of shock and realization. But Ren didn't look back. Without a single glance in her direction, he casually turned and moved out through the exit door, vanishing into the stairwell and leaving Iris alone in the crowded hall, her mind completely shattered by the truth.