When Kim Dokja stepped back into the sunlight, he expected something dramatic.
A trumpet. A collapsing star. Maybe a choir of Constellations belting out a dramatic K-drama OST.
Instead, Yoo Joonghyuk sneezed.
Loudly.
Han Sooyoung pointed and laughed. "Oh, wow. The Great Yoo Joonghyuk has hay fever?"
"It's pollen from the narrative stabilization," Kim Dokja offered helpfully.
"I will end you both," Yoo Joonghyuk muttered, rubbing his nose like a deeply offended war god with sinus issues.
Kim Dokja looked up.
Above them, the sky was back — but not the fractured chaos of earlier. This sky shimmered with narrative clarity, like the story itself had remembered what genre it belonged to.
For once, it wasn't tragedy.
[System Message: Final Scenario Unlocked.]
[Scenario Title: "The World After the Epilogue"]
[Time Until Commencement: 12 Hours]
Twelve hours.
Twelve hours before the last story.
Twelve hours before someone — or everyone — died.
"Cool," said Sooyoung. "That's enough time to nap, panic, and commit light arson."
"Please don't commit arson," Kim Dokja said wearily.
"I said light arson. Let me have hobbies."
Jung Heewon stepped out of a nearby portal, holding what looked like a barbecue skewer covered in wriggling tentacles. "Dinner's ready!"
Kim Dokja stared at it. "Is that safe to eat?"
"It bit me back once," Heewon said, beaming. "But I won."
"Good enough," said Shin Yoosung, grabbing a piece.
They sat together on a rooftop overlooking what used to be Seoul. The city was strange now — half-real, half-narrative. Buildings that didn't exist yesterday stood beside familiar ruins. Words floated in the air like graffiti scrawled by Constellations.
And for the first time in a long time, nobody was screaming.
Kim Dokja took a breath.
Peace was weird.
"So," Lee Hyunsung said, chewing thoughtfully, "what happens in the Final Scenario?"
Everyone looked at him.
Then they all looked at Kim Dokja.
He blinked. "What? Why are you all looking at me?"
"You're the Reader," Sooyoung said. "Aren't you supposed to know?"
"Yeah," Yoosung added. "Isn't that your whole thing?"
Kim Dokja raised his hands. "Okay, first of all — rude. Second — I have no idea. This is past the published material. We are deep into uncharted fanfic territory now."
"…We've been in fanfic territory for like ten chapters," Sooyoung muttered.
"I mean, it was canon-adjacent—"
"Dokja," Yoo Joonghyuk interrupted. "Focus."
Kim Dokja sighed. "All we know is the title. The World After the Epilogue. Which means… it's about what happens after the story ends."
"So, like, taxes?" Heewon asked.
"…Possibly."
"Weddings?" Yoosung asked hopefully.
"Absolutely not," Kim Dokja said, horrified.
"What about a spin-off series?" Sooyoung suggested. "Like, 'Omniscient Reader's Cat Café'? I could write that."
"No cafés," Yoo Joonghyuk said firmly. "Only battle."
"Why not both?" Sooyoung grinned. "You can be the tsundere barista who fights customers who don't tip."
Kim Dokja pinched the bridge of his nose.
These were the people he was trusting the world to.
"Maybe the Final Scenario," he muttered, "is us. Maybe we're the story now."
Everyone quieted.
The thought settled over them like mist.
Not an enemy to defeat.
Not a trial to endure.
But a choice.
"Do you think we'll all make it?" Yoosung asked softly.
Kim Dokja looked around.
At Heewon, confidently licking tentacle sauce from her fingers.
At Hyunsung, building a small fire with perfect posture.
At Sooyoung, sketching narrative loops into the air like graffiti.
At Yoo Joonghyuk, standing with arms folded, eyes on the horizon.
At Yoosung, brave and wide-eyed and holding all their hearts together.
He smiled.
"I think we already did."
A soft chime rang.
[Final Scenario Preparations: 80% Complete]
Sooyoung stretched. "Well, if I'm going to die tomorrow, I'm at least doing it with eyeliner and an unreasonable amount of sarcasm."
"Same," Kim Dokja said.
"Can I bring a sword?" Heewon asked.
"You can bring two."
They laughed.
And for that moment, it didn't matter what the system would throw at them.
For that moment, they were more than players.
They were friends.
Family.
The heart of the story.
Kim Dokja leaned back and watched the stars — real ones, not made of data — come out over the city.
"I'm not ready," he admitted.
"That's fine," Yoo Joonghyuk said.
"…What?"
Yoo Joonghyuk didn't look at him. "I'll be ready enough for both of us."
Kim Dokja's throat tightened.
Sooyoung leaned over. "We're with you, dumbass. We always were."
Heewon raised her skewer like a sword. "Let's finish this story."
Yoosung beamed. "Let's write the best ending."
The fire crackled.
Above them, the Final Scenario loomed — the last curtain call.
But below?
Below, the story was still alive.
And so were they.
End of Chapter 26