TGOT 01

Chapter 1: The Strange Dream

The dawn in Seoul was unusually quiet.

Faint light from the streetlamp slipped through the window, and the distant hum of a bus was the only sound.

Kim Arin suddenly gasped for breath and opened her eyes. Cold sweat clung to her forehead, and her heart was pounding wildly. The room was dark and silent, yet her mind was still filled with vivid scenes from her dream.

In the dream, Arin had been standing in a strange place.

The sky glowed red, and countless clocks were scattered at her feet.

Each of them was ticking backward. The second hands moved in reverse, as if time itself was trying to undo its own flow. Then, from somewhere unseen, a deep and low voice echoed.

“Time has chosen you, Arin.”

She looked around, but no one was there.

The voice sounded close, yet its source was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, one of the clocks before her stopped, and from its center burst a blinding light. The light grew rapidly, swallowing her whole.

“Stop!”

Arin screamed, but her voice vanished into the emptiness.

In an instant, everything disappeared.

She sat up abruptly on her bed. The room was still dark, and moonlight slipped through the window, casting faint shadows on the wall. Arin caught her breath and looked at the old clock hanging there.

Its second hand had stopped—exactly at three in the morning.

“What… is this?” she murmured.

Just then, a faint glow leaked from the clock.

Startled, Arin stepped back. The glow brightened, and a human-shaped shadow began to take form in the middle of the room.

It had no face—its figure was hazy, like fog.

“Time is calling you, Arin.”

Her body froze.

“Who are you? Answer me—who are you?”

The shadow didn’t reply. It simply began to move closer.

The air in the room grew colder with every step.

“When the sun sets tomorrow, your life will change.”

With those words, the shadow vanished, and the light went out.

Only darkness and silence remained.

Arin couldn’t move for a long while.

Her fingertips trembled, her heart still racing.

She turned toward the clock. The second hand had started moving again—as if nothing had happened.

“Was it just a dream…?”

She asked herself, but deep inside, a quiet voice answered: No.

Arin picked up the clock. It was an old wooden one, engraved with the initials “S.P.”

It was her late grandfather’s keepsake.

She held it to her ear—and heard a faint whisper.

“Time will test you…”

Startled, she put the clock down.

“It’s just my imagination… It has to be.”

But at that moment, her grandmother’s voice came from downstairs.

“Arin! Breakfast is ready!”

She hurriedly changed clothes and went downstairs.

The smell of steaming seaweed soup filled the kitchen.

Her grandmother, Mrs. Park Soon-ja, was sitting at the table.

“Grandma, about this clock,” Arin began carefully.

“The one Grandpa gave me. Did it have any special meaning?”

Soon-ja paused, looking up from her meal.

“Why do you ask that?”

“I had a strange dream last night. The clock was glowing, and… I heard a voice calling my name.”

Her grandmother’s face stiffened.

“It… glowed, you said?”

“Yes. And it said, ‘Time has chosen you.’”

Soon-ja sighed deeply.

“I knew this day would come.”

“What do you mean?”

“That clock isn’t just a clock. Your grandfather was a Guardian of Time.”

“A… Guardian of Time?”

“Yes. There are people who protect the flow of time so it doesn’t collapse. Your grandfather was one of them. And now, it seems that power has passed to you.”

Arin shook her head in disbelief.

“That can’t be real. You’re saying time chooses people?”

“Time is older than humankind. Sometimes, it uses humans to protect itself.”

At that moment, the clock fell with a click.

When it hit the floor, a small key rolled out from inside.

It, too, bore the engraving “S.P.”

Soon-ja picked it up.

“This is the key to your destiny. But be careful—time is both a gift and a curse.”

Arin looked at the key.

Her fingertips trembled, yet she felt a strange warmth emanating from it—almost alive.

She turned toward the window. The sky was clear, but inside her, clouds of uncertainty began to form.

That night, Arin couldn’t sleep.

Her grandmother’s words echoed in her mind—“Guardian of Time…”

She looked at the clock on her desk. Its second hand ticked slowly. But oddly, with every full rotation, the picture on the wall trembled ever so slightly.

“This… isn’t a coincidence.”

She stood up and picked up the clock.

Suddenly, its back opened by itself, releasing a beam of light.

“Not again…”

The light grew stronger, and the air began to vibrate.

Arin squeezed her eyes shut.

When she opened them again, she was no longer in her room.

Around her stretched a strange city. The sky glowed red, and shadows moved through the streets—each holding a clock.

“Where… am I?”

Then, behind her, a familiar voice spoke.

“You’ve finally arrived, Kim Arin.”

She turned around.

A young man stood there, dressed in a black coat, his eyes cold and sharp.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Kang Do-yoon. One of the Guardians of Time. And you… are the newly chosen one.”

Arin swallowed hard.

“What are you talking about? I’m just an ordinary person.”

Do-yoon smiled faintly.

“Time doesn’t choose ordinary people. There’s a special power inside you—the legacy your grandfather, Kim Seong-pil, left behind.”

“You… knew my grandfather?”

“He was a mentor to us all. But since he vanished, the balance of time has started to collapse. Now, only you can restore it.”

Arin shook her head.

“I don’t know anything about that. I just want to go home.”

Do-yoon pulled out a clock and handed it to her.

“Turn this, and you’ll return. But remember—when time calls again, you won’t be able to run.”

Arin looked down.

The second hand on the clock was moving backward.

“Time… is reversing…”

She turned the dial.

For a moment, the world spun upside down.

When she opened her eyes, she was back in her own room.

The clock sat quietly on her desk.

This time, the second hand had stopped completely.

She whispered,

“This is… just the beginning.”

Outside, dawn was breaking—

but within Arin’s heart, another world had just opened its door.