Penacony's neon lights pulsed with intoxicating romance.
From the rooftop, the city glittered like daylight even at night. Raindrops formed a hazy mirror, repelling any hand that tried to touch it.
No one could truly grasp a dream.
Least of all someone as ordinary as Annie.
Annie wasn't fortunate.
No prestigious lineage. No noble bloodline. No meteoric luck.
Just a mother who loved her—until even that small happiness was cruelly taken away.
Rain soaked her silver hair, strands clinging to her forehead like translucent veins. Only her resigned eyes remained visible.
She loved music.
That one chance to visit a concert hall came from her mother's company reward trip. The venue was grand, beautiful—but what mattered most was the golden-haired boy onstage, conjuring dreamlike melodies from his fingertips.
Music let Annie forget sorrow, if only briefly.
For birds like her, forbidden from the skies, fantasy was the only flight.
Then catastrophe reduced everything to ashes.
She survived. Her mother didn't.
Not truly.
The Family offered experimental dream-pools to sustain comatose patients—for a price. At first, the costs were manageable. Then they skyrocketed.
Annie became an Iris Family attendant, working grueling hours just to keep her mother's consciousness flickering in dreams.
It was hard. But in Penacony, she found beauty. And met him again.
She never shared her past. Here, she wanted a new story.
Too bad she arrived slightly late.
That boy's eyes already belonged to another.
Annie tried loving this world. The world never loved her back.
When Robin's fame exploded, the Reverie Hotel's prices became astronomical—numbers Annie could never reach. Without explanation, the Family transferred her mother to a hospital ward.
Maybe through desperate measures—even unspeakable ones—she could've scraped together the credits.
The Family didn't care.
The universe had customers far more valuable than Annie. Why waste precious dream-pools on the dying?
Three days after the transfer, her mother left without goodbye.
The Family offered a credit transfer.
Digits on a screen. Cold. Meaningless.
Once, Annie needed money desperately. Now... she didn't.
Anming had been kind. To spare her pride, he helped covertly—reducing her shifts, increasing attendant benefits. Policies that applied to all, yet she knew: this was his gentleness.
He understood she hated pitying gazes.
Neither anticipated how the Family's commercial calculus would play out. A trivial decision to them. The final straw for her.
She bought a beautiful dress. Invited Anming to meet in reality.
This world was cold. She just wanted to bid farewell to its only warmth.
Eyes closed. Arms spread.
Rain kissed her cheeks. Silver hair billowed like funeral flowers.
"Anming."
"Turns out... I really wasn't cut to be a protagonist."
This bleak world had only gained color when she met him.
Wherever she was, he'd say: "I'm here."
But Annie had no more expectations.
Her reason to live vanished long ago.
A step forward. The edge met her toes.
Below, sports cars weaved colorful trails. A skyscraper-sized screen played Robin's Red High Heels MV.
"Couch-bound, bleary-eyed, hair a mess"
"Yet dreaming of silver-screen finesse"
At last, she could touch this sky.
Even falling meant briefly sharing his horizon.
Annie embraced the descent.
Puddles mirrored the sky. Sky mirrored ground.
"BANG—"
"Ah?!" A girl nearby dropped her umbrella, fleeing with a shriek.
"Jumper?"
"Why the fuss? Probably another dream addict."
After initial chaos, numbness returned. This city was accustomed.
Ambulances circled. Family guards erected barricades.
"What's wrong?"
Robin blinked as Anming braked abruptly.
He stared at the distant flashing lights, chest seizing with inexplicable agony. "Something I need to check. Don't wait."
No umbrella. Just sprinting into the rain.
Robin watched his retreating back, frozen.
Anming's blood turned to ice. Each step felt like dragging leaden feet.
"Family Head?!"
Guards recognized him, stepping aside.
On the rain-slicked stretcher lay a familiar silhouette. Silver hair. The dress she'd worn hours earlier.
Raindrops traced her cheeks like tears.
Above them, Robin's colossal MV played:
"Loving you's like traffic lights askew♪"
"Madness with no avenue"
"Can you halt this chase untrue~♫"