Summary
As soon as she reaches home Atsuna rushes straight to the air conditioner for relief. It's too warm in September, she complains heading into the kitchen. She opens the refrigerator door and calms down until her mom comes in to scold her. She should be thinking about her younger brother before doing things like this, he's at an impressionable age. Her younger brother makes a remark that frustrates Atsuna and her mom forces her away from the fridge to shut the door.
Neither of them can appreciate her paradise.
This proceeds to happen again when she messes with the AC, and the following day at school her friends tease her intolerance for heat. Atsuna remains miserable, being unable to rip her pants off like at home to cool down. She returns from school and waits for her mom to leave, going on to check the laundry as asked. The second her mom leaves, she runs back to the fridge for some cool air until she sees her returning, then she hides. She's deduced that if she can do this at least ten times a day, she will be able to stay nice and cool.
She puts this plan into action and it seems to work, but one day she notices a strange, shimmery marking against the back wall of the fridge. It can't be dirt because her mom cleans it often. They only had it for about a year. Just as Atsuna recognizes the mark resembles an eye, she gets swatted by a rolled up paper her mom is wielding. She scolds Atsuna for thinking she was clueless enough not to realize what she was doing. Atsuna is distraught, but she refuses to live with this heat.
She will get to paradise no matter what.
The next day Atsuna returns to the kitchen to find a note from her mom on the fridge door, warning her not to open it. Atsuna rips it off and opens the door, but this time, the marking resembles a pair of eyes. She feels awkward since it looks like she is being watched now.
Later, Atsuna fetches the mail while wondering if this is a prank. She decides not to worry about it and she opens the door when her mom is distracted, and this time the mark resembles an actual person staring back at her!
Atsuna's panic catches her mom's attention, but when she tells her what she saw, her mom looks and is unable to see anything. Atsuna remains uneasy and she asks where the fridge came from, leading her mom to recall it was gifted to them by her aunt. It was still new at the time and they didn't need it, it would have been a waste throwing it away. She goes on to bring up Atsuna's childhood friend and older cousin, Rei-chan. One day, Rei went missing without a trace. Rei used to like playing pranks by using the fridge, even though she got scolded a lot. Her aunt had a hard time keeping the fridge because it would remind her of her missing child.
Atsuna is shocked as she realizes she has been doing this as well, but when she sees something out of the corner of her eye, she retreats to her bedroom. Later she pays her friend a visit and explains what happened. She's wondering if it could be Rei. Her friend is confused as she offers Atsuna some ice cream. Atsuna is relieved because she doesn't see anything unusual in her fridge; until a pair of eyes become visible, causing her to scream and run back home.
This girl is trying to drag her inside, wherever she is...
Atsuna wonders if returning the fridge to her aunt would solve things, but she is surprised to see that nobody else is home right now. She is uncomfortable and decides to leave until her mom returns, but she can't open the door. The windows are also shut, and she's beginning to feel overheated. She tries to turn on the air conditioner, but it does nothing, leading her to wonder if the girl in the fridge could have something to do with this. She frantically tries using the phone to call her mom for help, but her behavior causes her mom to assume it was a prank. However, because of how worried Atsuna was about the fridge, she gave her aunt a call to ask where it came from. An Acquaintance gave it to her.
As Atsuna listens she stumbles across some pictures of her and Rei when she was little. The sweltering heat is beginning to get to her and she struggles to listen to the conversation any longer. She drops the phone and slowly begins to approach the fridge as her mom worriedly yells out for Atsuna.
Unless she can reach paradise, she will become overwhelmed by the heat.
Opening the fridge, Atsuna is surprised to find the shimmering mark is gone. She happily sinks into her paradise and convinces herself she must have been imagining it. Now that she feels better, she contemplates grabbing a cold drink or some ice cream when she leaves. Hearing her mother arriving home, she prepares to get out, but she turns to discover that she is now surrounded by nothingness.
Atsuna's mom comes inside to find the opened fridge door. She complains and shuts it, calling for her daughter again. She is beginning to lose her patience with her antics lately. She leaves the room to search for her.
In the refrigerator void, Atsuna is surrounded by her cousin and others who fell for the fridge's temptation. She begs for her mother to see her but it's pointless. The others assure her that everything will be okay, because they can enjoy their paradise together and they are all happy.
Tropes:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: He doesn't appear long, but its implied Atsuna has this dynamic with her brother.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Atsuna thought she imagined the strange markings she saw in the fridge, and she attempts to leave hearing her mom come back. But it turns out that she's now been transported to the inner-depths of the fridge and is unable to escape.
- Deadly Prank: In a sense, Rei ended up trapped within the fridge because she liked to play pranks by hiding inside of it.
- Lighter and Softer: In comparison to the story prior to this one, and following it.
- Never Found the Body: There's no trace of anyone brought to "paradise", so for all anyone knows, they're dead somewhere.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Atsuna tried to convey how scared she was to her mom, but she assumed it was just a prank.
- Prior to that it was Subverted. Her mom looked in the fridge after Atsuna freaked out, but she didn't see anything. She was also trying to find out more about the fridge on her behalf.
