The brush moved slowly across the parchment — steady, reverent strokes capturing the still figure in front of it. Han Jisung sat motionless beneath the open sky of the divine realm, his ceremonial robes trailing like water across the temple steps. His eyes, sharp as cut glass, were fixed on the horizon. Silent. Expectant.

A servant painted him in full splendor — as tradition dictated for a god preparing to ascend. But before the ink could dry, hurried footsteps echoed through the marble hall.

"Your Grace," the young acolyte gasped, breathless. "The fountain... it turned red."

Silence gripped the chamber. A crimson omen — one that had not bled from stone in over a century. The time had come. The throne awaited.

Jisung did not speak. He only rose, and the air thickened with pressure as if the sea itself held its breath. Another of his trusted retainers stepped forward, bowing low.

"Three runes," the man said grimly. "Scattered in the world of men. We've prepared the crossing... And Baek Hyunsu will accompany you. He's walked among mortals before."

They stepped through the portal carved into an ancient mirror, but the energy pulsed wrong — wild, unstable. Hyunsu landed safely in a shadowed alley of modern Seoul. But Jisung—

Jisung was hurled across dimensions with force.

In a quiet park, beneath flickering streetlights, a young woman sat alone on a bench. She was rolling a silver ring between her fingers — a family heirloom, worn and warm from years of wear. Her lips pressed together in indecision. Sell it and cover the bills, or keep it.

Then a gust tore through the air.

A body dropped from nothing, light scattering like shattered glass. The impact was sudden, jarring — but the girl didn't hit the bench. At the last second, the man twisted midair, catching her head with his hand, cradling it carefully as they fell.

She collapses on the grass. He stared down at stranger. He has no idea who it is.

"Woman... Woman! Is this where you're meant to sleep?"

No answer.

He looked around — confused by the blinking signs, the humming metal poles, the glowing screens in the distance. The world was far colder, far stranger than he remembered from the sacred scrolls. His body — stripped of power — now felt oddly human.

Jisung sat upright, utterly naked — a god robbed of divine clothing by the human realm's ridiculous physics. His eyes narrowed as he spotted a brown paper bag beside the girl. Within: a fluffy, pink hotel robe with embroidered cartoon bunnies.

Jisung hesitated. Then sighed.

Minutes later, a figure emerged from the shadows of the trees — Baek Hyunsu, fully dressed... in Jisung's usual robes. He stopped dead when he saw the god of water standing tall in a knee-length pastel robe, cinched at the waist, the hem fluttering in the wind.

"Your Grace... Why are you dressed like—?""Your garments arrived on you," Jisung interrupted, deadpan. "Mine didn't.""But—""Remove them."

Hyunsu stared. "...Here? In the park? With the rabbits?"

"Remove. Them."

With a deep, suffering sigh, Baek Hyunsu obeyed. Two minutes later, the noble, fifty-year-old attendant was walking through Seoul in a pink robe with floppy bunny ears on the hood, clutching Jisung's divine robes in a bundle.

"...At least let me keep the shoes," he muttered.

The Next Day.

The map—once marking the path to the three runes—had vanished within the swirling chaos of the portal. Baek Hyunsu found only an empty cover, flipping through pages that no longer existed.

"We've lost the path," he muttered. "No," Jisung replied firmly. "We begin again. From the land of the gods."

And so they arrived at the old house on the edge of the city—built upon what was once sacred ground. The stone foundation still bore faint traces of ancient seals, long faded by time. The wrought iron gate groaned as they approached.

Someone was already on the porch. The woman.

"That woman again..."

He stepped forward, stopping just a few feet away. "What do you want, servant?" he asked, his voice laced with regal indifference. There was no curiosity in his tone—only a frustrated confusion at her constant presence. She responded—calmly, but cautiously, like a psychiatrist deciding he's crazy and not looking for an adequate dialogue. A word in her answer caught his attention.

"Money?" Jisung repeated, as if hearing the term for the first time. He turned to Baek Hyunsu. "What is that?"

Baek Hyunsu let out a long, weary sigh, covering his face with one hand. "We literally just explained this yesterday..."