Tatsu woke up on the floor with a throbbing headache and a single wish.He wished he had never bought a second hand fridge for the price of instant noodles.
Slowly, he sat up and blinked at the stranger sitting calmly on his couch, dripping faint cold mist onto the cushions. The man's expression was somewhere between bored and existentially disappointed.
"You fainted," the stranger said, completely deadpan. "Again, I assume."
"Again implies experience," Tatsu muttered. "And I refuse to accept that I have experience fainting at appliances."
The stranger placed a hand on his chest and closed his eyes with dramatic weight."I am not an appliance, mortal. I am Fridge Sama."
Tatsu rubbed his temples. "Right, Fridge Sama. Deity of cold leftovers."
A cold gust blew across his face."Blasphemy will be frozen," the man warned with a tone that suggested he had been waiting centuries to say something that ominous.
Tatsu raised both hands. "Fine, fine, you are a very intimidating fridge man."
"Fridge Sama," the man corrected.
"Yes, that."
The man nodded solemnly.
Silence settled in for a brief moment. The kind of silence that suggested neither of them really knew how to continue this conversation without someone calling a doctor.
"Alright," Tatsu said at last. "Explain. Why were you in my fridge."
The man lifted his chin with slow pride."I sleep where I please."
"That is not an explanation. That is a red flag."
"It is both."
Tatsu sat on the floor, arms resting on his knees. He stared at this bizarre intruder.A man stepping out of a fridge was not normal.The fact that this man looked like a tragic protagonist from a romance novel made it worse. It was like the universe had decided that if Tatsu was going to be poor, at least he should suffer in high definition.
The fridge behind them hummed softly, almost like it was listening.
Fridge Sama glanced at it, then looked back at Tatsu."I require offerings."
"Excuse me," Tatsu said. "You just woke up in my apartment, stole my couch, froze a woman's coffee earlier, and now you want offerings."
"Electricity," Fridge Sama said. "Cold air. Occasional respect. And snacks."
Tatsu blinked slowly. "You are a freeloading fridge spirit."
"I am an ancient and powerful entity," Fridge Sama corrected calmly. "Also I like grape soda."
Tatsu held his face in his hands. "I brought home a supernatural raccoon."
Fridge Sama ignored that and inspected the apartment as if judging its aesthetic crimes."This place is too warm," he declared. "And too small. You should get a bigger place."
"With what money," Tatsu asked. "My bank account is allergic to numbers."
Fridge Sama raised one eyebrow."So you are poor."
"Do not sound so surprised."
Before Fridge Sama could continue his commentary on Tatsu's financial disasters, the room went cold. Not the earlier playful cold, but something heavier.
Tatsu looked up, heart pounding."Hey, fridge guy. Are you doing that."
Fridge Sama frowned softly. That same mysterious, unreadable expression returned to his face."No," he said. "Something else is."
The lights flickered. The temperature dropped again.
Then deep from inside the fridge, something shifted.A slow, heavy thud echoed from within the dark interior.
Tatsu froze.Fridge Sama's eyes narrowed.
"Do not open that door," he said quietly.
The fridge hummed again, this time in a low, almost living tone.
Tatsu swallowed hard."What is inside."
Fridge Sama's face went cold and serious, nothing like the dramatic actor he had been seconds ago.
"That," he said, "is not for you to know yet."
The fridge rattled once, like something inside was awake.
And watching.