Short Short 4 (Fantasy Edition). The Man Who Distributes Dreams (1804 characters)

🌙 The Man Who Distributes Dreams

When the night grows quiet and still,
the man flies through the sky.

His hat is crooked, his coat hem is frayed, and his shoes are completely worn out, but
even so, the man flies gently through the sky every single night.

In his hand, he carries a small bag.
Inside it, there are many dreams.

The dreams are kept in glowing bottles, and each one is a different color.
There are dreams that shimmer blue, fluffy white dreams, and warm-looking orange dreams.
Sometimes, there are even dreams mixed with many colors like a rainbow.

—

The first place the man heads to is where the children are.

One boy loved building blocks.
The man took out a bottle, extracted the light from within, and tossed it gently over the boy's head.
In his dream, the boy was building a castle so high it reached the sky.

Another girl loved to eat.
In her dream, she wears a white chef's hat and is making delicious soup.
The face she made as she smiled and said, "Thank you for eating," looked truly happy.

Besides them—
a child hopping over stars,
a child taking a nap on a cloud,
a child running through the forest with animals...

The man, matching the child's heart,
gently delivers their dreams.

—

But sometimes,

the man also heads to places that are not for children.
That is not to deliver dreams—
but to pick them up.

When people become adults,
dreams are often thrown away.

Saying things like "It's impossible anyway," or
"I've forgotten about that," or
in that way, without noticing, without realizing, they drop them or throw them away themselves.

In a place where no one can see,
the man quietly picks up those dreams,
puts them into faded bottles, and stores them in his bag.

Forgotten dreams are also precious dreams.
Believing that there is surely still a place for them to return to.

—

One evening.

At the bottom of the man's bag, a single dream bottle trembled softly.

It was a dream he had picked up many years ago. The bottle, which had lost its light for so long, was faintly beginning to glow once more.

Well, well... The man gently took the bottle in his hand and rode upon the special night wind.

—

He did not land in a child's bedroom.

There, a young man was sleeping quietly. He had a slightly tired look on his face. He must have worked very hard during the day. As he breathed in his sleep, he looked as if he were on the verge of remembering something.

The man gazed at that face for a while, then took a bottle from his bag and gently opened the lid.

Then, the light spread softly—and melted into the young man's chest as if soaking right in.

—

In his dream, the young man stood tall with his sun-tanned body, feeling nervous.

Standing before him was a girl. When she laughed, her eyes narrowed, and it was as if a multitude of flowers were blooming all around her just from that.

She was a childhood friend, but long ago, the young man had no money and lacked the confidence to tell her how he felt.

But now, in the dream, the young man stood before her and took a small breath, as if searching for the right words.

...There is something I couldn't say a long time ago.

The girl stood there quietly, saying nothing. She narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled softly. Just that alone seemed to make the dream world grow warm.

I wanted to see you again... I want to be with you forever from now on.

The light spread softly around them, and the young man's sleeping face softened just a little.

—

High in the sky, the man watched this and smiled.

His smile is just a little deeper than usual.

"As I thought, this is the moment I love the most."

From the man's bag,
one dream
returned to its original owner.

—

The next morning, the young man's shoes were polished clean, and
a small letter was tucked into his pocket.

I don't know what was written in it.
But—the man knows that there is a girl who will soon receive that letter and the flowers he is about to go buy.

The man's smile became even deeper, gentler, and warmer.

And so, today too, the man continued to fly through the sky, distributing dreams.

—

[The End]