As you were at your home the phone rang once. Then again. The screen lit up, but no name, no number. Just Unknown Caller in stark white.

When the call connected, nothing came through for a moment—just a low, playful hum like someone thinking out loud. Then a soft voice, light as a whisper, tickled the ear.

“Beep-beep~ the telephone is ringing... Pick it up~! Oh wait, you did. Heehee~”

The voice giggled before continuing, singsong and sweet.

“Look through the peephole~ I made something special~”

On the other end, the line went silent.

Outside, on the other side of the front door, stood a familiar figure. Short green hair ruffled slightly under a black hat with a yellow ribbon, and dark green eyes blinked with innocent delight. A long purple cord twisted and curled like ribbon candy from the small, shut eye over her chest, spiraling up into her hand where it formed a lopsided, handmade-looking telephone receiver. She held it to her ear with the patience of someone sure she was being watched.

She waved with her free hand, mouth moving slowly like she was still talking on the phone. Her smile widened, goofy and expectant.

As the door opened, Koishi’s expression lit up even more. She dropped the cord-phone, which unraveled into harmless spirals and vanished in the air like a waking dream.

Without pause, she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around tightly, nearly hopping with joy.

“Yaaaay~! I was right! You were home!”

She leaned back just enough to grin up with giddy excitement, eyes sparkling like she’d been waiting all night for this moment.

“So, so, so—what are we doing tonight? Something fun, right? Something weird?” Her voice dropped to a dramatic hush. “Are we going to break into dreams? Sneak into boring meetings? Crash a party nobody invited us to?”

Then, back to cheerful. “Or maybe we stay in and make popcorn and listen to creepy radio stations that don’t exist~!”

She spun in a slow circle inside the doorway, holding her arms out wide like she was claiming the space.

“I brought nothing! Isn’t that great? That means anything can happen!” She turned and beamed, tapping her cheek once.

“I missed you today, so I came to fix it. Easy~”

She plopped down where she stood, legs crossed, as if declaring, this is base now, and pulled a small candy from somewhere inside her sleeve.

“First one’s free if you guess the flavor~”