They talked for what felt like a long stretch after that, settling onto the couch together as Mia unpacked the container and handed him a spoon, her voice filling the quiet apartment with easy, familiar chatter.
She told him about her own day at the small café where she worked part-time, how the regulars had asked about him again because she couldn't stop mentioning him, how she'd spent her break thinking about ways to make his life a little easier if he'd just let her.
"You know I worry about you living like this, Noah. Alone in this place with that leaky faucet you keep saying you'll fix. I could come over more, help out around here. Cook for you properly, make sure you're eating right. It's not a big deal for me, I like taking care of you. I've liked it since we were kids, remember? When you fell off your bike and scraped your knee, and I patched it up with those cartoon bandages from my backpack. Some things don't change."
He listened, nodding along, letting her words wash over him while his mind kept circling back to that vanished system screen and the impossible voice in his head.
She was extra clingy tonight, the way she kept touching his arm or leaning into his side, her eyes searching his face for any sign that something was off.
It was comforting in its own way, but it also made the knot in his stomach tighten because he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was happening to him wasn't something he could share, not even with her.
They finished the soup together, the warmth spreading through him and easing some of the tension in his shoulders, and eventually
Mia suggested they get some fresh air. "Come on, a walk might clear your head. The night air is nice out there, not too cold yet. We can just stroll around theblock like we used to do when we were younger and didn't have anywhere else to be."
Noah agreed, mostly because staying inside with his racing thoughts felt worse, and soon they were stepping out into the cool evening, the door to his building clicking shut behind them.
The city streets had quieted down a bit from the earlier rush, the streetlights casting soft pools of yellow glow on the sidewalk as they walked side by side.
The night breeze brushed over them gently, carrying the faint scent of distant rain and the warm glow of nearby shop windows.
Mia slipped her arm through his without asking, her head tilting to rest lightly against his shoulder as they moved, her voice continuing in that soft, steady rhythm.
"I've been thinking a lot lately, you know? About us. About how lucky I am that you've always been in my life. Even when things get messy with work or whatever else, you're the one constant. It makes me want to hold on tighter, make sure nothing pulls you away. Does that sound silly? I just… I don't want you to ever feel like you're facing anything alone."
They kept walking like that for a while, the conversation flowing naturally between memories of their shared past and lighter talk about what they might do next weekend if he had the time.
It felt easy, familiar, the kind of connection that had kept him coming back to her even when his life felt like it was spinning in circles.
Then, just as they turned a corner near the edge of the block, they came upon a small flower vendor tucked against the side ofa closed storefront, the old man behind the cart bundling up a few last bouquets under the glow of a single hanging bulb.
The colorful petals stood out against the night, vibrant reds and soft pinks that caught Mia's eye immediately. "Oh, look at those," she said, her voice brightening as she pointed. "The lilies are beautiful tonight.
They remind me of the ones you brought me that one spring when we were teenagers."
Noah felt a small, impulsive urge rise up in him, the need to test whatever this hallucination was, to see if it would react to something real.
He reached into his pocket, pulling out a crumpled twenty and a few smaller bills, and approached the vendor with a quick nod. "I'll take one of the lilies for her," he said, handing over fifty dollars in total without thinkingtoo hard about it.
The old man smiled, wrapping the flower carefully and passing it to Mia, who accepted it with a delighted little laugh, bringing it up to her nose to inhale the scent.
The moment the payment left Noah's hand, though, the air in front of him shimmered again, and the system screen popped back into existence right there in his vision, bold and impossible to ignore.
[ Congratulations, Host! $50 spent on Mia. Multiplier: 10x]
[ You have received $500 in your bank account.]
His phone buzzed almost immediately in his pocket, the screen lighting up with a notification from his banking app that he could see even without pulling it out fully.
Noah's eyes widened, a jolt of pure shock racing through him as he stumbled back a couple of steps, his free hand instinctively reaching out to steady himself against the edge of the vendor's cart.
The flower in Mia's hand trembled slightly as she turned toward him, her expression shifting instantly from happy surprise to worried confusion.
She hurried forward, grabbing his arm with both hands and holding on tight, her voice rising with genuine concern. "Noah? Hey, what's wrong? You look like you just saw something scary. Are you okay? Did you feel dizzy again? Talk to me, your face went completely white just now."
He stared at her for a long second, then glanced back at the glowingblue system screen still hovering there in the air between them, the words taunting him with their impossible reality.
His voice came out shaky, barely above a whisper, as he forced the question past the lump in his throat. "Mia… can you see what's in front of me right now? Like, right here?"
She followed his gaze, tilting her head and looking straight ahead with a puzzled frown, her brow furrowing in that cute way she always did when she was trying to figure something out. "It's just the flower vendor, Noah. The cart with the lilies and those little bundles of daisies. Why? What do you think you're seeing? You're starting to worry me for real now."
Noah's eyes flashed with a mix of surprise and raw shock as the truth settled in, he was the only one who could see it. The system, the pop-ups, the money that had justappeared in his account out of nowhere.
It was all in his head, or maybe it wasn't, but either way, it wasn't something he could share. He shook his head quickly, forcing his expression back to something closer to normal even as his thoughts raced wildly, a mental note burning itself into his brain that this strange system was his secret alone.
"Don't worry about it," he said, his voice steadier now but still carrying an edge he couldn't quite hide. "A sudden thought just came to my mind, that's all. Nothing important. Must be the long day catching up to me again."
Mia smiled sweetly then, the worry easing just a little as she squeezed his hand tighter and laced her fingers through his, her heart clearly softening at his words even if she didn't fully believe them.
But Noah's thoughts were completely on this strange system, turning over every impossible detail in his mind as the night breeze continued to brush over them both.