Chocolate Kiss Vol. 1: Forgotten Love Song

"Hmmmm?

Did the bell on the front door ring?

Ah! Welcome, esteemed guest, to Chocolate Kiss Cafe!

Enter and be transported to our rustic haven, where you can relax and have some quiet conversation.

Our coffee is the best, our cakes will leave you obsessed.

So come, sit down and take a break. Our service is the best, so no need to hesitate!

But a word to the wise, listen for I tell no lies.

If on your table a fox shall appear, take it with you, don't leave it here.

For the fox will grant a wish, to those who don't resist.

But a curse will be given to those who make the wrong decision.

Ah but I digress…

This one should let you rest.

So sit back and enjoy the bliss that you will experience from Choco Kiss!"

I watched as the Mad Hatter chanted his welcome before he ushered me to an empty table. He looked as crazy as ever with that smile of his that reached ear to ear.

It's been years since I've visited this place, which had always seemed like something straight out of a fairy tale. In fact, I was the one who named the attendant 'Mad Hatter' two decades back. It was because he reminded me of the character in Alice in Wonderland. And yes, he even wore the iconic top hat.

Back then, the cafe really had a fantasy feel to it. Walls and floors made of stone, wooden tables and chairs, oak barrels, and warm, dim lighting courtesy of countless candles on every table as well as scattered around the entire interior. Even the chandelier was filled with candles.

In the past, the customers seemed larger than life and, although I could only see their silhouettes, I knew they were not humans. Some were in the shape of a bear, some are small, like ferrets, and some had humanoid shapes but sported what seemed to me as tails. They talked in a language that I could not understand nor recognize. Thinking back, the words sounded very archaic.

This time around, the silhouettes looked like those of normal humans. So much so that I wondered if it was because of my childishness that made me see them as beings you can only hear in stories or see on TV.

I craned my neck a bit to listen to those at the table next to mine talk. I couldn't help but feel disappointed when I realized that I still can't understand a word they were saying.

"What would it be, Master?" the Mad Hatter asked me as he handed me the menu.

I glanced at him incredulously.

I have been to this place hundreds of times in my childhood and the sequence would always be the same, like a play being performed repeatedly. First, the Mad Hatter would sing his silly rhyme before giving me a table. Then, he would bring me a treat depending on the season. In springtime, it would be a tart or any fruity dessert. In hot summer months, it would be an ice cream sundae or a banana split. Autumn would be pumpkin pies and apple cobblers. And the cold winter months would mean smores, hot cocoa, and eggnog.

This was the first time the Mad Hatter had asked me what I wanted.

He looked at me with his bulging eyes and that wide smile that for a moment I wondered how I wasn't afraid of him as a kid.

I looked down at the menu and decided to choose the first one that caught my eye.

"I'll have a carrot cake and a cafe Americano."

The items appeared on the table in a blink of an eye.

As if to resume the script that had been used for years, the Mad Hatter made a quick bow and uttered the words, "Enjoy," before he turned around and left.

I glanced back at the food that had manifested themselves in front of me and wondered what caused such a change in the sequence. Was it because I am already grown up so I am now able to choose what I want? Or was there something more to it? Regardless, it was a small deviation from the usual script, but it still left a lingering unease within me.

I knew from the very start what kind of place I have drifted into. I had known back then, and I still remember it now. What I do not know, however, was the purpose behind all this. Why am I experiencing them again?

What I recalled next was one that made my heart beat fast. As soon as my mind had called upon that memory, I looked up from my table and saw the exact same scene that made my heart skip a beat even now.

There she was, sitting in front of the bar and looking as she had the first time that I laid my eyes on her twenty years past. It was as if she was stuck in a place where time had stopped and will forever be immortalized in that specific moment.

The only way I can describe her is ethereal. She exuded an aura as if she was not of the real world. There was no breeze yet her long white hair flowed like gentle waves on the ocean. There was confidence and power in the way she held herself.

She glanced at me and for a moment her image seemed to overlap with a white silhouette that was shaped nothing like a human. It disappeared as quickly as it came, causing me to doubt whether or not I had actually seen it. She had also looked away.

Even so, that one glance was powerful enough to capture my heart, whether it was my younger self, or the adult one. I have never been able to forget her face. Even long after I was no longer able to visit this cafe, her face was often in my dreams.

Finding the courage, I stood up, hoping that I had enough time to approach her. She took notice of me once again when I had finally reached her side. She looked at me for a moment, her fox-like red eyes slowly focusing until they reflected something that seemed to me like a hint of recognition.

"It is you," she said simply, and my heart soared at the sound of her voice.

So she does recognize me.

I wanted to say something, but the words were stuck in my throat. Behind her, on the countertop, a small mist had appeared and just as she turned around, it had solidified into a card that had a picture of a court jester juggling some balls in the air.

She picked it up, her eyes lingering on the image.

"The Fool," she muttered almost inaudibly before shifting her eyes back to me.

The jubilation that my heart felt at the thought of her recognizing me was short-lived as I saw her brows furrowed in confusion. Her gaze then became sharp and her demeanor cold.

"You are not supposed to be here, young one," she spoke in a manner that sent an icy shiver down my spine.

This time, the silhouette that hovered around became clearer and I could distinctly see the image of a snowy white fox overlapping with her body. Her body began to flicker between human and fox that it seemed like the glitching of an image in a computer.

"Leave this place at once," she hissed between her teeth and I could feel her temper escalate. Around us, the cafe seemed to melt like hot wax.

She began to laugh hysterically. "Are the gods trying to insult me by sending this boy to my realm?"

She looked at me and sneered. "Go back to your own world, boy. You should know not to listen to beings who toy with others for their own entertainment. Go home and never return."

I felt myself getting pulled away from that place and through a tunnel filled with blinding light.

I opened my eyes and the next thing I saw was darkness. Blinking to adjust my sight, I realized that I was back in my room.

The dream had ended.

It had started the same as it had decades ago, but the ending tonight was very different.

Feeling thirsty, I turned on the lamp beside my bed and sat up to grab the glass of water on the nightstand.

It was then that I noticed a card lying on the tabletop. It had a picture of a girl with one hand pointed to the sky, while the other pointed to the ground.

Written beneath the picture were the words "The Magician."