Deadline

2. One Rule

"I have one rule."

"One rule..." mumbled Hobi as he looked down at his feet, studying the gunk that had gotten stuck there earlier in the day, "I feel like it's more like a million."

"Hobi, are you even listening to me?"

Sighing, Hobi looked up at the man that stood before the desk in all his outfitted glory. The man's sparkly golden tuxedo was just as yellow as his hair. The only thing dark about him were his rich brown eyes as they took in Hobi disdainfully. For being the headmaster of wishes, he was very serious looking all the time. He always looked as if someone had rained on his parade. Hobi just figured it had to do with the pressure of training the new fairies every year. Hobi had joined the job with a few other fairies that were incompetent to the point that aspirin had become the headmaster's best friend. Hobi was claimed to be the best of the crop that season, but he still gave the headmaster enough of a hard time that he always looked like grumpy cat personified.

"I'm listening to you Headmaster Yoongi," said Hobi.

"Well, it didn't look like it a second ago. It looked like you were glancing at your shoe as if that was what was lecturing you."

Hobi rolled his eyes causing Yoongi to let out a long, drawn-out sigh.

"Hobi, this is important so I need you to listen. Granted, I'm only stepping away for a short while, but still. I really need you to listen."

"I'm all ears," said Hobi before quickly following it up with, "Well, not really but you know what-"

"Yes! Yes! I know what you mean," said Yoongi.

He motioned towards the monitor that sat on the desk in front of Hobi.

"You are to guard the wish monitor as it processes the new incoming wishes to filter out the ones that deserve to be granted from the ones that don't," said Yoongi. "While I'm gone, just make sure that process continues. Do NOT under any circumstances try to grant a wish yourself though. You're not ready for that yet."

"How do you know I'm not ready?" asked Hobi. "You only let me try granting a wish one time."

"Yes, and do you not remember what happened?"

Hobi didn't right off, chewing the corner of his lip as he thought. A huff of annoyance left Yoongi's lips as he threw his arms up into the air.

"You ended up tripping over a cord walking to the monitor and gave yourself amnesia!" snapped Yoongi.

'No wonder I can't remember,' thought Hobi as he ran a hand anxiously through his coffee brown hair.

"After all, that's the reason it's bolted down now," continued Yoongi as Hobi's eyes moved down to look at the bolted monitor. Tripping over a wire definitely wouldn't make that go flying again.

"You need more training before you're ready, Hobi," Yoongi added as Hobi just nodded his head.

"Got it. Look but don't touch."

"Exactly," said Yoongi as a relieved smile slipped across his lips.

It was then that a chime sounded out throughout the office. Yoongi moved towards the door as if that were his cue, leaving sparkles on the floor in his wake.

"I'll be back in a few hours," said Yoongi without turning back to look at Hobi. "I'll see you then."

Hobi watched as the door closed behind Yoongi, soon leaving him alone with the monitor. The screen was currently black since it had fallen asleep. However, he knew that it was still doing its job due to how loudly it was humming trying to process the latest batch of wishes.

"I suppose I should wake the monitor screen up and make sure everything is going well," said Hobi out loud to himself, leaning forward to wiggle the mouse.

As the monitor woke up, he could see the wishes scrolling up the screen. It reminded Hobi of the beginning of Star Wars; the wishes scrolling up towards the top of the screen where a progress bar was housed, disappearing before they touched it. The progress bar was only about halfway done the process. This batch of wishes was just as large as all the rest.

Hobi leaned back in his chairs as he read some of the wishes that scrolled up along the screen.

'I wish for a pony.'

'I wish my teacher would turn into a toad so we didn't have homework!'

'I wish I would stop getting so many flat tires!'

'I wish people would stop being so stupid all the time!'

"I'm sure Yoongi relates to that wish," said Hobi as a smirk toyed at the corners of his lips as he continued watching.

It was then that a wish popped up on the screen that was different than the rest. It was different enough that it caught Hobi's interest, causing him to lean forward in his chair to read it.

'I wish I could have a chance to track down my killer and bring them to justice. Please.'

It was the 'please' along with the request that made it stand out to him so much. This person was desperate to have their wish granted. Tracking down a killer was a noble wish too. Much better than a toady teacher or flat tires. Hobi looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear before clicking on that wish.

Normally when one selected a wish, it brought you to a new screen that said, 'Wish Granted'. It was as simple as that. Hobi had seen Yoongi do it a couple of times. It insulted Hobi that Yoongi didn't think he could do something so easy.

Well, Hobi thought it was easy. After he had clicked on the wish, no 'wish granted' screen appeared. In fact, the entire wishing process screen froze.

"Crap, crap, crap..." said Hobi in a panicked whisper, madly clicking on the wish he had clicked on over and over again as if that would get the computer to snap out of its frozen state.

Hobi was so busy madly clicking that he continued to do so even when he heard footsteps coming outside the door. Hobi's panic heightened as he turned his eyes towards the door and saw the doorknob begin to turn. Surely it couldn't be Yoongi back already.

Hobi caught the screen changing out of the corner of his eye, looking away from the doorknob for a moment to see that the 'Wish Granted' screen had finally appeared. He let out a sigh of relief, quickly shutting the monitor off just as the door opened.

"I forgot my speech cards," said Yoongi as he re-entered the office and walked over to where Hobi sat. He paused short of picking up the index cards beside the monitor, looking at Hobi. "Is everything good here?"

"Golden!" said Hobi with a smile.

Yoongi looked at him warily for a moment before shaking his head. He grabbed up his index cards and made his way back towards the door.

"Remember, don't try granting any wishes!"

"I won't," said Hobi as he waved Yoongi off.

When the door shut again, Hobi let out a sigh of relief. He turned the monitor back on to see that the 'Wish Granted' screen was still in place. He couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face at the sight of it.

"See, Yoongi doesn't know what he's talking about," said Hobi. "I just made someone's life better."

What Hobi didn't realize was - during his mad clicking - he had also clicked on the wish right below it, merging the two and resulting in a consequence he nor anyone else would ever see coming.