Dara lounged on the cafe's cushioned seat, dreading the entire afternoon. It took every bit of her self-control to avoid snacking on her nails. Instead, all her tension got redirected to her legs which haven't stopped bouncing since she sat down. It wouldn't be too long before her charge enters through the door, and with her, a thousand problems to mind.

Perhaps not a thousand, but close. Dara had been assigned to this contract through a worse turn of luck. Even though she complained to the front desk, they still gave her the case. And she saw the reason why most of the contractors handed the case files back after just a few days. The longest record before Dara was a week.

What about her? Oh, she has been stuck with the same job for a month, and if it didn't drive her crazy already, the insane amount of wishes she had to fulfill in the past week alone could be the final straw.

She stretched in her seat, an arm bracing the width of the backrest while staring at the crowd of uniformed students rushing from the nearby school premises. It would be best for her to drop by and pick up the girl herself, but the Company had strict rules on how to interact with their charges. These rules were what the contractors had to adhere to, or else risk expulsion. What was the fate of an expulsed contractor? Well, they get sent to the recycling department where broken dreams and unfulfilled and forgotten wishes go. Nothing was more depressing than dealing with other people's problems and there wasn't any happy ending.

So, Dara was stuck in the distance, forever watching her charge from afar. That, and making every single wish come true. Rather, if she went by the Company guidebook, making every soul happy. And what better way to make a person happy by giving them what they wanted, right?

When she first joined the Company, she was one of the critics of the rules. After all, humans were vengeful, pathetic, little creatures who were ambitious enough to start hunting each other and more. But, the Manager told her the only thing that she still carried around to this day: Happiness isn't about getting what you want, but about knowing where you are supposed to be. A whole load of bollocks, but it made sense with her job and the rules she followed.

A contractor's job wasn't to fulfill every wish that came their charges' way. The first rule about wish-granting was that they should never interfere with other people's happiness. Second, wishes should never aim to hurt a living being. And three, the rules of nature must still apply. Dara couldn't make stars fall just because a person wished for it. She couldn't conjure elephants out of thin air, nor could she make them dance the Macarena.

What she could do was to cause the teacher for the first period to be late for class by wrecking their toaster or by making their partners angry at them, spending the entire morning yakking away. She couldn't crash the plane by magic alone, but she had enough power to teleport to the pilot's cockpit seat, distract them for a second, and teleport back out. Dark, but she once did that and made sure to make it crash in the open sea. Cost the airline a great deal, but her charge was happy the company that maligned him was burdened with the problem.

The point was, Dara and the other contractors weren't blind. Their job required delicate handling, and only the best contractor knew the most ideal way they should take to bring about their charge's wish.

Which was the main reason why most of the contractors quit on her present charge's case. The cafe's door swung open with a distinct ding from the bell, and a pair of students sauntered in. They headed straight to the counter, ordering their favorite flavors which Dara had come to memorize by now, before sinking into their usual seat in the corner.

Even though Dara had never wished to hear every bit of her charge's angst, the contract she accepted forced her to. Contractors who accepted their contracts were attuned to their charges so well that even the tiniest wish could be heard. For instance, her charge wished for an extra amount of toppings on her ice cream serving just now. Dara flexed her hand, sending her powers straight at the worker handling the order. A slip of the hand, and oh, there were more toppings than normal.

The server brought the ice cream to her charge's table before trotting back to the counter. Then, the conversation continued. A conversation which happened to concern a young lad called Jake and her charge's supposed infatuation with him.

Dara slapped her thigh, forcing her leg to go still. It didn't. She blew a breath, massaging her temples as her charge mooned over the boy in disturbing detail.

Page, the girl sitting on a cushioned seat with her best friend and partner in crime and unfortunately Dara's charge, wasn't all that bad. She was young, hopeful, and a little lost in her own world. She was a pro-gamer and already earning additional allowance through that gig. The downside was that she never goes out of her room, spending every bit of free time a highschool student could have locked in a game with friends she couldn't even see. And for some twisted reason, she became enamored by this random dude, Jake, and now, all she thought about was him and how they could end up together.

As her contractor, Dara was bound to make that happen. Anything to make the charge happy, and she could finally declare this case closed and done. The Company could finally be relieved of a problematic case of unhappiness that has been plaguing the system since forever. Not that Dara was being a hero. If not for the Manager bringing up that work-related mishap she did a few years ago, she wouldn't be stuck in this cold case of a charge for as long as she did.

So, Dara tried her best to get the Jake dude to notice Page, and all of them failed. That included stalking the guy's front lawn as a squirrel and risked getting electrocuted by his father's fence. The main issue lay with Jake being a pro-gamer as well, going as far as representing the national team in tournaments abroad. The guy didn't even have time for dating.

Which became a problem Dara had to sort out on her own. The rules didn't tell her anything about this. Sure, she wanted Page to be happy, and that could only happen if she got her wish and be with Jake dude, but...love was messy. Revenge, Dara could handle—that bit was easy—but love? It was as easy as removing a house's foundation without destroying it. Pragmatically impossible, and yet, these silly creatures such as humans still do it. Everyday.

Hence, Dara had sat through the entire month of running around, trying to make Page's wild and reckless wishes come true. The only thing she hasn't done yet was to make Jake date Page.

Page got home at the end of the day with Dara trailing close behind. She watched her charge stomp upstairs, throw her bag across the room, forget her homework for the day, and log into her online game. Her gaming chair creaked when she stretched, rubbing her stomach in the process. "Oh, man," she said with a heavy sigh. "I wish Jake would lose all his game creds. Then, I would know the perfect way for him to get it back. Then, we'd get closer. Maybe go out on a not-so-much-as-a-date together. And—"

Something snapped inside Dara. "Look," she said aloud, massaging her temples and heaving a huge sigh. "You can't keep wishing for these things. Grow up! There are more natural ways to get that boy to notice you, like—dare I say—going out of the house?"

Her only response from her charge was a wide-eyed stare, words forming and dying at the throat. Dara frowned. What? Then, she realized it.

In her anger and frustration, she had teleported straight into Page's room, showing herself to her charge.

Oh.