I awoke with a startled breath, sothing poked my cheek.
"Mister?"
The kid’s face hovered inches from mine, finger extended.
"...That’s weird, thank God it was just a Drea—"
Before I could process the dream, my gaze drifted upward
A blue, translucent window floated in the air.
────────────────────────
[READY FOR A QUEST?]
ACCEPT / DECLINE
────────────────────────
"Nevermind..."
I stared blankly at the floating text. "...A quest? Seriously?"
The kid tilted her head, squinting. "Mister, are you okay? You’re staring at nothing."
I rubbed my eyes.
Hard. Again.
The window didn’t disappear. Instead, it changed.
────────────────────────
[QUEST: Have a Nice Day]
Objective: Spend a peaceful day outside with ???.
Reward: ???
────────────────────────
Nope. Definitely not a dream.
"A joke," I muttered. "This has to be a joke."
"Shopping!" The kid suddenly grinned. "You promised we’d go today!"
"I— wait, when did I promise that?"
"You did," she said with all the confidence of soone who absolutely made that up. "Just now."
...Actually? I think I did say sothing yesterday.
I sighed. "Right. Guess I have no choice."
I reached toward the window.
"Accept."
The letters shimred, dissolving into sparkling dust.
[QUEST ACCEPTED.]
A faint ting! echoed in my head.
Great. My first quest after eting a literal dream goddess... is to go shopping with a kid I found in a dumpster.
...Still, her smile made it hard to complain.
I yawned and stretched, groaning as my back cracked. "Alright, before we go anywhere..."
I glanced toward the kid, who was already standing near the door barefoot, her toes curling against the floor
"...We should eat first." I said
"Breakfast?" Her eyes lit up instantly. "Do you have pancakes?"
"Do I look like soone who makes pancakes?" I muttered, already heading downstairs.
"I... um," speechless she just followed, humming happily, no lody, no rhythm, but sohow cheerful. "Maybe?" She whispered to herself
The house was quiet, too big for one person. I opened the fridge.
Bottled water, rice and eggs, and... is that a expired milk?
"Yea, no."
I took the expired milk and dropped it on the trashcan beside the fridge.
"Eggs and rice it is," I said. "We can just buy so later. Since we’re going out anyway"
The girl peeked over the counter. "You cook?"
"Barely." I said as I yawned.
She giggled. "Then I’ll help! I’m good at stirring!"
"That’s... a weirdly specific skill"
As we worked in the kitchen well— i worked while she mostly talked— the awkward silence began to lt.
"So," I said after a while, glancing at her. "I don’t think I even asked your na yesterday."
"It’s Ivy!" she said proudly. "And you’re Mister...?"
"Si Hon."
"I’ll just call you Mister Si!" she declared with a grin.
"...No."
"WHAT— what about Mister Hon?"
No response.
"Ahjussi?"
"Hmmm... That works."
The sll of fried eggs filled the air, and for the first ti in that morning, I almost forgot about the floating text box and the dream goddess.
Right now, breakfast with a barefoot kid felt more real than any of that.
I sat by the small kitchen table, plates steaming with fried eggs and rice. Ivy swung her legs beneath the chair, humming between bites.
I watched her eat— tiny bites, but fast, like she hadn’t had a proper al in a while.
Which... yeah. Dumpster, filthy clothes, freezing night. Makes sense.
"...Hey," I said between mouthfuls, "how old are you, anyway?"
She looked up, cheeks puffed out with food. "Ten!" she said proudly after swallowing.
"Ten, huh." I leaned back, glancing at the faint blue system window still hovering above the table.
The words [QUEST: Have a Nice Day] glowed softly, like it was quietly judging for eating instead of adventuring.
Tsk, this makes rember Vesper.
"not six or seven?"
"Ten!"
"Alright, ten years old and already part of my first quest," I muttered. "Lucky you."
Ivy tilted her head. "You’re talking weird again, ahjussi."
"Sorry. You sure you’re not secretly thirty? You complain like an old lady." I yawned, scratching the back of my neck.
She gasped. "Do not! I’m cutesy!"
"Yeah, yeah." I chuckled, eyes flicking back to the window. "So... where were you before I found you?"
Ivy stopped swinging her legs, Her spoon hovered mid-air.
"Um..." She looked down at her plate, poking the rice with her spoon."I don’t really rember."
"Don’t rember?" I asked.
She shook her head slowly. "It was dark. Cold, I think. And... there was humming. Like a song, but I couldn’t see who was singing."
Cold, dark, dumpster... yeah I get it.
I glanced at the floating system window again, still there, glowing softly like it was listening.
"...Right," I muttered, forcing a smile. "Well, guess that’s over now. You’ve got breakfast and a quest. That’s better than a dark alley, right?"
She nodded quickly, smiling again, though her eyes stayed in the air beside , like she saw sothing I couldn’t.
We finished eating in silence after that. Ivy humd again, but quieter this ti, like her mind was sowhere else.
When the plates were empty, I leaned back with a sigh. "Alright. Let’s clean up and get ready."
***
✧> a little tiskip...!WALKING TO THE MALL
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