Something's Off With the Portal
Min Jae wasn't paranoid. He was careful.
He had to be. Between running an underground magical trade empire and juggling high school midterms, he didn't have time for mistakes. So when he started noticing tiny inconsistencies at home, he didn't panic.
At first.
It began with the cupboard drawer in the basement. He always left it open slightly, just enough so Goji could sniff his emergency snack supply. One day, he came back and it was closed. Perfectly. Silently.
Then the tool rack on the left wall—he always kept the mana file and tuning fork next to each other. But the tuning fork had been flipped. Right-side-down.
"Goji," Min Jae asked, "did you move the tools?"
Goji blinked, looked deeply offended, then trotted over and deliberately headbutted the fork into its correct position.
So… not Goji.
---
The Real World Is Too Quiet
A week later, the portal room—which should've been thick with dust in one unused corner—was swept clean.
Not magically. Just… wiped. Almost like someone had used a cloth.
Min Jae crouched in front of the untouched floor section and traced a finger through the edge.
"No cleaning spell," he muttered. "Just human hands."
He looked over at the portal. Inactive. Silent. Runes dormant.
Or so it seemed.
Sunwoo came downstairs and raised an eyebrow. "You okay?"
Min Jae didn't look up. "I think someone's been here."
Sunwoo's face darkened. "In the basement?"
Min Jae nodded. "I'm going to set traps."
"Violent ones?"
"No."
"…Boring."
---
Rune Surveillance 101
That night, Minji sent over an enchantment set. A custom rune sequence:
Tripwire sigils near the door.
Memory trace enchantments on the stairs.
A low-light shimmer orb that would record any unrecognized mana.
Goji insisted on adding a peanut under a teacup.
"For bait," Sunwoo explained, deadpan.
Min Jae activated the traps, locked the portal, and took the basement key with him to school.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone else had stood on that floor. Someone not him.
---
Clue Number One
After school, Min Jae rushed home and checked the shimmer orb.
Nothing.
Then he checked the peanut trap.
The peanut was gone.
The teacup was untouched.
Goji stared at the empty space where his bait had been, then turned and dramatically fainted onto a sack of mana powder.
Sunwoo whispered, "We have a peanut thief."
Min Jae activated the memory trace rune—and finally got a hit.
A faint outline. Blurred by a cloaking charm. Average height. Human build. Entered through the portal at 3:41 a.m.
Min Jae stared.
He had never activated the portal at that time.
---
Break-in Confirmed
The portal was supposed to respond only to his key signature—and it had, every time.
But that didn't mean someone couldn't mimic the signature.
Not perfectly. But well enough to fake a one-way trip.
Min Jae checked the return trail logs.
> Outbound activation: 3:41 a.m.
Return activation: Not found.
Whoever entered… hadn't come back through the portal.
Min Jae's breath caught.
"Either they're still in our world," he said slowly, "or they went in… from this side."
---
Theory: Home Intruder from Fantasy Land?
Sunwoo ran diagnostics. "I've got no enchantment echoes outside the house. No energy spikes in the neighborhood. If someone came in, they either went straight back through the portal, or... they're hiding in Korea."
Min Jae froze.
"That's not possible."
"Is it?"
Goji chewed on the empty peanut wrapper like it was a stress ball.
Min Jae activated a private emergency rune and whispered, "Minji, we have a breach. Real world. Level red."
Minji replied immediately.
> "Stay calm. I'll prep a locator charm. But if someone's leaking into your side… this changes everything."
---
Searching the House
That night, Min Jae triple-locked the basement.
He walked the house from top to bottom.
Nothing in the attic.
Nothing in the laundry room.
Nothing under his bed except old test papers, a cursed sock, and Goji's snack stash.
Just as he was about to dismiss it all as portal residue or maybe his own clumsy mistake, he noticed something on his desk.
A coin.
Gold. Unfamiliar.
But stamped with a goat head and the words: "Gatekeeper Approved."
He picked it up.
It was warm.
---
He's Being Watched Again
He didn't sleep.
Instead, he sat by the basement stairs all night with Goji curled beside him, holding the coin and trying to remember every moment he might've let his guard down.
By dawn, he had made a decision.
The portal would stay locked.
From both sides.
Until he knew who the hell was slipping between worlds without him.
---
Meanwhile… Elsewhere
A figure stepped out of a building deep in the edge towns of the fantasy world.
She wore a cloak, but beneath it, her satchel clinked with small magical trinkets—some stolen, some replicated.
She looked at her hand.
A matching coin.
"Min Jae," she murmured. "You really should be more careful with your doors."
She smiled.
Then vanished.