"Come to think of it, Minchae was also at the first portal's appearance right?"
"Yes ma'am, I was around 10 at the time and was on vacation.", Minchae replies.
"Well maybe you can give your view on the situation in the next class. Alright everyone, mark your textbooks till there and read up on the notes I sent y'all", the teacher said.
He walked out of class, ticked off as the insensitive teacher mentioned the day in front of him as if it was a casual everyday thing.
(Only a week left for me to get my desire... I wonder if I'll complete it.)
"Oi Minchae!" Jiho calls out from afar.
He looked up. Jiho was jogging awkwardly, grinning from ear to ear, bag hanging off one shoulder. Minchae's face sparked up with joy as he jogged towards Jiho as well.
They exchanged a casual dap and held each other's hand in that position for a few seconds as they caught up on the events of the day.
Jiho asked, "Decided what you're gonna do after graduation?"
"I honestly have no idea. You know I wanna become a transcendent but the closer the day is, the more I worry." he replied.
"Well, you can always become something else if you can't transcend." Jiho chuckles.
"Anyways wanna go get some tteokbokki or something?"
"Yeah sure. I'll pay!" Minchae replied.
On the way...
"Him again." Jiho said, pointing at a billboard.
"Never seems to catch a break. I guess that's how the rich do it."
The billboard showed a man in a rich suit and text that read,
"Businessman and CEO of Forestra corp, Kang Tae seok."
"Oh so that's who he is." replied Minchae.
"Yeah, apparently he keeps starting projects that benefits the environment and stuff like that." Jiho said.
"Well, that's amazing. Hope I could become a man like him some day." Minchae replied.
"You shouldn't be so sure about that. Who knows? That CEO might be an evil bastard for all we know." Jiho said.
Minchae grinned slightly at the thought of having such a great friend. Moments like these reminded him how lucky he was to have Jiho around.
"So how long until your day comes?" Jiho asked.
"Only a week. What about you?" Minchae replied.
"There's still a few months left for me." Jiho answered.
"Honestly, I'm just worried my desire will be something stupid as hell. What if it's to learn to unicycle or some shit like that?"
"Isn't that what Destonaro's for? If transcendence is in your fate, you'll do it. Don't sweat it." Minchae said.
"Seems you haven't been paying attention to the lessons. Destonaro doesn't interfere with fate, silly. Trying to achieve transcendence is just another part of your destiny. You can't just wait and let fate unfold." Jiho replied.
Minchae gave him a flat look. "Yeah okay, whatever."
Jiho rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.
The conversation continued for hours as they engaged in lighthearted banter until the evening.
Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
(Today's the night. Didn't think it'd come so soon. Felt like I'd been waiting for eternity but now that it's here... I'm scared to hell and back.)
"So today's the day, right?" Jiho asked.
"Yeah, I'm scared out of my mind dude."
"I got some advice from my brother by the way. He said not to panic and remember it's a dream because that god you'll see is a bit disturbing." Jiho said.
"Well, I'd better trust him. He's a transcendent after all."
"Alright, good luck, see ya tomorrow." Jiho said as he walked off on the path to his own home, still worried about him.
Minchae walked into his home with his heart in his mouth. He looked at illustrations of the god from online forums to get familiar with it. Unfortunately, everyone perceives it uniquely. Although there seem to be a few consistent features such as massive, obese and humanoid with 2 heads.
He scrolled through several depictions to condition himself to what he would encounter. He read up a bit on lucid dreams, so he could perform a reality check in the dream to attain lucidity.
(It's 12 already. I have to wake up at 5, I should hit the hay.)
Minchae falls into bed and enters sleep really quick because of exhaustion from college assignments.
It feels as if I'm in a trance. What's this, trains, buildings, toys? Oh, Jiho! Where are we?
"Hey Minchae, what are you doing here?"
I don't know, I just got a bit lost, haha. Wait, is that my mom? What are you doing with her?
"Oh she's cheating on her husband with me."
What? Are you ok, Jiho? What the fuck are you saying?
Minchae immediately realized something is wrong with what was happening. He was full of rage and weird thoughts flooded his brain, he felt strange and regretted ever becoming Jiho's friend. He never knew Jiho was an evil rascal all along.
I wish this fucker never becomes a transcendent!
Transcendent? Transcendent... transcendent... God's desire... god's desire?
He looked towards his hand but all he could discern was a blurry splotch of skin coloured palm with several fingers.
The scenery of random trains, buildings and toys turned hazy as they spiral toward a singularity. Every fragment of the realm collapsed into it and eventually disappeared.
A large demonic creature fades into view.
Red skin with thick black lines along it in an ornate pattern, bumpy like an alligator, two heads of a dragon, long arms which could reach his knees if he stood. The only feature breaking this terrifying and formidable description of the creature, was its obese figure.
The head on the left spoke.
Quest-Giver: Quite the imaginative human we have here.
Look what you made of me! Hah!
The head on the right spoke.
Quest-Judge: This is no time for jokes, Giver. We have several more humans to attend to.
Quest-Giver: You seem to forget we're gods, Judge! Haha!
Quest-Judge: ...
Minchae finally understood that his God's desire had began and the hellish nightmare he just experienced was all a dream.
"You must be the Quest-Giver and the Quest-Judge."
Quest-Giver: That's right! It's us. You must be Yu Minchae, right?
Quest-Judge: Why'd you ask? You already knew that.
Quest-Giver: Oh. Right.
(Guess it was the god's weak attempt at relating to me, a human.)
Quest-Giver: Anyways, you know the rules but let's just go through them real quick. You'll get a desire, 1 year to complete it. If you do, you'll be brought back here, given some abilities and eventually you'll return and get more desires, growing stronger with each. Capiche?
So if I can't complete my desire, do I get a refund? Heh.
The air gets heavy. The Giver's eyes turn a leatherish hue of burgundy darker than a magnate's wine, as his smile dissipates. The Judge shows a look of worry on his face as the Giver grows enraged. The Giver speaks with gravitas in front of the frightened Minchae, who is on the verge of bursting out into a deep cry from the depths of the throat.
Quest-Giver: A puny mortal like you dares to mock the Cycle of Chaos?
I'm sorry sir!
The space begins to shatter when the Judge interrupts.
Quest-Judge: That's enough, Giver. Keep calm.
The atmosphere reverts to its previous mundane form in an instant. The only thing that remained was the fear and temporary psychological scars sustained by Minchae.
Quest-Giver: Hah! I got a little carried away... Sorry Minchae. You forgive me right?
Minchae speaks in a voice so quiet that you couldn't hear even with your ear to his mouth.
Yeah. Of course I forgive you, sir.
Quest-Giver: Well, I think that's enough for your first visit. I hope you get to visit this realm multiple times in your lifetime. Good luck!
Minchae immediately jolts awake. This wasn't like a normal dream that he has every now and then. He remembers every single detail, vividly and clearly, including the part of the nightmare...
(That was weird, huh. First, Jiho would never do that. Second, why was I referring to that random woman as my mom? I don't even know my parents. They probably died in the Descent. They were really rich... Ah nevermind.)
Minchae leisurely gets ready without the fear of missing college classes since it's a weekend. He departs for Jiho's house much more hastily than he got ready.
"Jiho, pick up, please!" he says as he desperately tries to dial Jiho's number.
"Hello?" Jiho answers the phone.
"Jiho! You won't believe what happened! I'll be there in a few. Wait for me." Minchae says ecstatically.
Although doubt envelops his mind. The reading last night taught him quite a lot about dreams and one of the things he learnt was that a dream reflects one's subconscious. If he were to tell Jiho everything that happened, Jiho might misassume that Minchae has a negative notion of him.
Minchae contemplates telling him and by the moment he's at Jiho's doorstep, he's already made the decision to leave it be. Telling him could hurt his feelings and it's always better to be safe than sorry.
Minchae walks into the already open house and Jiho spots him out the corner of his eye.
"Hey Minchae. So, What happened? How was it? Tell me everything."