The Wish That Changed My Life

As the first rays of sun rose, the alarm clock rang loudly as usual, forcing Keiji Takuniko out of his deep sleep. He raised his head with difficulty, his eyes half closed, and extended his hand to turn off the annoying noise before groaning. "Why does morning always come so early these days?" Keiji said with a groan as he stretched. With his eyes half-closed, he got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to wash his face. He quickly put on his school uniform and grabbed his bag, glancing around his messy room before closing the door behind him. "I have to clean it up later, when I get home from school," Keiji told himself. He goes down the stairs and heads to the kitchen to eat his morning meal, which consists of: “A toasted sandwich with peanut butter and jelly, a glass of milk, and an apple.” After finishing his morning meal, he washes his hands and face and heads to school. The day passed like any other school day: boring lessons, strict teachers, and classmates who talked about things that didn’t interest him much, but he still enjoyed them. At the end of the six-hour school day, which ran from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Keiji returns home. On his way, he stops by a grocery store to buy a bag of toast, having eaten the last two pieces of bread that morning. Upon arriving at his home and entering it, he is greeted by the usual silence that makes him feel lonely because he lives alone. But the only thing that breaks his loneliness is his cat, “Sema,” a Turkish Angora cat with soft white fur and a friendly personality. This little creature made him feel like he had a small family, even if it was just... a little kitten. “Sorry, I was late today, wasn’t I?” Keiji said, stroking his cat, Sema. When evening came, Keiji was sitting at the kitchen table, eating his dinner: three boiled eggs with slices of beef, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, a slice of whole-grain bread, some lettuce, and a glass of natural orange juice. Sema sat next to him, watching him with wide eyes. He reached out to stroke her soft fur, then placed her food on her usual plate and refilled her water bowl. Sema sat down to eat gently, while Keiji continued to eat his dinner quietly. After he finished eating, he washed the dishes and put everything away. He then put on his pajamas, turned off the lights, and headed to his room. Before he went to sleep, he stood in front of his room's window, contemplating the starry sky. His attention was drawn to a meteor quickly crossing the sky. He remembered that he had once read a legend derived from the ancient Greeks that seeing a meteor was a magical moment that should be exploited to make a wish that might come true, although it was something far from true and were merely ancient beliefs. Keiji was aware of this, and yet... "I wish I had someone to live with me... so I wouldn't be alone anymore," Keiji whispered with his eyes closed. Although he felt the strangeness of what he did, he felt a strange sense of comfort. He closed the window, then crawled into his bed and closed his eyes to sleep after that day, which he concluded with that wish. But in the middle of the night, he's awakened by Sema's strangely repetitive meowing sound outside his room. He opened his eyes slightly and then muttered tiredly, “Ah, Sema… Not now, let me sleep…” He ignored it and continued sleeping, not realizing that his life was about to change in a way he never imagined. ———————— Early in the morning, Keiji woke up to a strange noise coming from the kitchen. He groggily got out of bed and went out of his room to check what was going on, grumbling. "Oh, Sema... This is the fifth time you've messed around the kitchen like this—" Keiji said in a grumbling tone before being shocked by what he saw upon entering the kitchen. When he entered the kitchen, he froze in place and his eyes widened in shock. There was a little girl with long, soft white hair, wearing a long white shirt like a cloak that covered her body down to her feet. She was on the table holding Sema's plate of food, and it seemed that she was l*****g the rest of her food. Her plate of water was spilled on the floor, so he walked towards her cautiously, angry. "You!... Who are you?! And how did you enter my house?!" Keiji said to the girl angrily and provocatively. But the little girl did not answer him, but only looked at him with her wide eyes before she tilted her head and began to lick her right hand and rub her soft hair with it, which angered him even more, so he pulled her and tried to expel her from his house while she was resisting him strangely, and when he reached the door to throw her outside, she began to meow in a familiar voice to him, so he stopped pushing her and froze in place as his feeling of anger began to turn into confusion and then into real shock as he looked at her, while the girl jumped. Behind him, she looked at him with fear and tension. "Th-This voice... Could it be...?" Keiji said nervously and confusedly before continuing his words and shouting with realization and a look of true shock on his face, "You... You... MY CAT SEMA ?!?!?!?!" First chapter has ended.