The first thing Taehyung reached for when the emergency lights shifted into their steady, rhythmic, red pulse... was his phone.

He flicked it on.

No signal. No Wi-Fi. No service provider name in the corner. Just a single word that always claws at the chest during moments like this: No Service.

He tried again, walking toward the glass railing near the escalator landing, as if a few more inches of height might help. But the screen stayed stubbornly blank—his own dim reflection staring back at him like a ghost.

"Jungkook, try yours," he said, a heavy tremor sneaking into his voice. He then glanced at Soohee, who was looking around with silent, wide-eyed confusion.

"Soohee, can you check whether you got any service in your phone as well?" Taehyung asked.

Jungkook pulled his phone out, a habit born of instinct more than logic. He tapped the screen, swiped, shook it as though the device itself were at fault. Nothing.

"Dead too," he muttered. "What the hell..."

"What about yours, Soohee?" Jungkook asked this time.

Soohee lowered her gaze, her shoulders shrinking slightly as if she were about to be scolded by an elder. "Actually... I don't have one of those," she admitted.

"Wait, what!? You don't have a phone? Who doesn't have a phone these days?" Taehyung asked, incredulous.

"I-I couldn't afford one," she said, voice small.

Jungkook's expression softened into concern.

"It's fine," he said, shaking his head. "Whatever is going on, one thing is for sure—no one has service right now."

Jungkook was right. It wasn't just them. A half-finished soda cup sat abandoned on a bench nearby, a handbag left on the floor beside it. Next to it, a phone lay plugged into a portable charger. Taehyung crouched and picked it up. The battery showed full, but the connection icon was just as empty. No call signal. No data. Nothing.

The three of them—Jungkook, Soohee, and Taehyung—looked at one another, a mixture of confusion and growing dread in their eyes.

The world outside their little glowing screens had already gone quiet... now the world inside them had too.

They stood there for a long moment, breathing. Thinking. Wondering what their next move should be. The only sound was a faint electric hum from somewhere above—and the pulse-pulse-pulse of the red lights overhead.

Soohee tilted her head. "Did you hear that?"

Taehyung frowned. "Hear what?"

She wasn't sure. It wasn't exactly a sound—it was the absence of sound. No elevator chimes. No air conditioning. No distant laughter from kids on the toy floor. No footsteps. No mall music. Just void.

The silence wasn't peaceful. It was suffocating. It pressed down on their eardrums, slippery as dread, settling into the space between their breaths like an unseen watcher.

They moved down the next flight of the frozen escalator slowly—each step heavy, their bodies tight with caution. The vending machines on the 119th floor glowed weakly, flickering like dying stars. Jungkook placed his palm on one. It was cold, vibrating quietly—as if running on borrowed power.

He inserted a coin and pressed the button for a chocolate bar.

Taehyung flinched. "Dude, what the hell are you doing, man?" he hissed, covering his mouth anxiously.

The machine rattled, churned, and dropped a chocolate with a loud thud. The noise echoed through the floor like a gunshot in a canyon.

Soohee jumped back. "True... what if something is really wrong? We should stay quiet until we know what's happening," she whispered.

"It's just chocolate," Jungkook muttered, though his laugh came out shaky. He unwrapped the bar and broke it into three neat pieces, handing them out. Soohee hesitated—not because she was hungry, but because every sound, every movement, felt magnified now. Like someone... or something... could hear them.

They kept walking, passing familiar places—bookstores, toy shops—places where kids once dragged their parents from aisle to aisle... yet now stood hollow, frozen in time. The bookstore's door was wide open. Loose pages rustled, even though no wind stirred. A toy train set lay toppled over on its side, the derailment captured mid-motion like an abandoned victim of chaos.

Taehyung swallowed hard. He opened his mouth... then closed it again. The silence clung to them like an invisible cloak soaked in fear.

A sound echoed—maybe three or four floors below. A dragging sound. Soft. Slow. Almost like footsteps. But not quite.

Jungkook's head snapped toward the railing, eyes wide. "You heard that?"

Soohee nodded slowly. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest, so loud she feared it would give them away. She wasn't sure now. If she even wanted to be here.

They stood frozen, listening. Watching. The echo faded, but its shadow lingered in their bones.

The vending machine flickered again—its light dimmer now, pulsing like a weakening heartbeat.

Jungkook whispered, "We need to keep moving. We can't stay up here."

"Yeah. And we need to find out what's going on," Taehyung murmured. "We didn't see a single person since we left the theater... where are the others? The people who were inside with us?"

"It's like they vanished into thin air," Soohee said, biting her fingernail.

They stepped onto the next lifeless escalator. The silence followed them... and thickened. With every floor they descended... it felt less like a mall.

And more like the world outside had simply... stopped existing.

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