Chapter 1
I am walking home from work. It only takes 15 minutes to walk from work to home, so I treat it as an exercise. I moved out of my parents' house three months ago because I wanted freedom, but now I wonder if it was worth it. I am bored, but I have nothing going on for me except work, and then I have to go back to my lonely apartment. Am I meant to live like this? I have only one friend, but it's a long-distance friendship, so I really feel lonely, and from my apartment it takes two hours to go to my parents' house. That's why I rarely visit them. Outside my apartment door, I find a cute dog sitting there. I am on the second floor, so how did it get there? I am scared of dogs, so I try to shoo it away, but it doesn’t move. What should I do? I have to get inside, but the dog is blocking my way. My neighbor, Blade, comes out and smiles when he sees me.
"Hey, neighbor. What's wrong?" I must look strange standing there, waving my hands around. I point to the dog, and when he sees it, he walks towards it and starts brushing it affectionately.
"It's harmless. You don’t have to be afraid." It looks anything but harmless. He moves the dog away, allowing me to enter my apartment. Before I close the door, I look back at the dog, and it's staring right at me. I swear it almost looks sad, which makes me feel guilty, but instead of going back outside, I say,
"Thank you, neighbor." Before closing the door. Before anything else, I shower and wear my sweatpants, and a white crop top. Since I live alone, I don’t like to cook, so I eat fast food a lot or simple food like salads, spaghetti, and rice with eggs. Today, I am craving a pie, so I walk to the convenience store. It's only five minutes away, so I like to go there a lot. The dog is nowhere to be found. I am worried, but I'm also hungry, and my hunger comes first, so I momentarily forget about the dog. At the convenience store, I buy a pie, a cold drink, and some snacks like chips, ice cream, and chocolates. This always happens, I always plan to buy one thing, but I end up buying almost the whole store. I quickly pay and then walk back home. On my way home, I keep thinking about the dog and hoping it would show up, but unfortunately, it doesn’t.
The next day, as soon as I walk out of my apartment, I see the dog sleeping peacefully near my apartment door. It looks so cute and innocent, unlike yesterday, but since I have to get to work, I leave it there. I work as a graphic designer, and although it's not my first choice of career, I love it. I've always wanted to be a writer, but I never dared to let people read my work. When I finally took that step and released my first book, 'I can make you smile,' it didn’t do so well, so I gave up on writing and put all my focus on graphic design. I'm good at my job, and I love it, but it gets lonely. My colleagues are nice, but I always feel like they are only nice because they have to, not because they want to. Sometimes I feel like they have this obligation to be nice to people they work with to avoid having a toxic work environment, which is something I appreciate, but I wish I had one true friend at work. When I get to work, I drown myself in my projects, and then at five pm, at the end of the workday, I walk home. I'm tired of the same routine every day. I wish my life were a little more adventurous, but something did change yesterday. There was a little dent in my routine, a dog appeared at my doorstep, then it disappeared, but now it was back again. Maybe this is a sign that I should get a pet, so it would keep me company. I pick up my pace in hopes of seeing the dog again. When I get home, it's there, wagging its tail and staring at me like it did yesterday. I approach it cautiously with my hand extended. When I brush it lightly, the dog starts jumping around and barking, and that makes me scared, so I back away. I look at the dog again, and I just see excitement. I open the door as a gesture for it to enter, but it doesn’t. Instead, it looks at the sky. The sun is about to set, and it's going to be dark soon, but the dog still runs away. I look at it go, feeling my heart break a little.
"I guess the dog doesn’t want to be my friend," I say, before going inside my apartment. After showering, I cook rice and eat it with eggs. It's already dark outside, and I'm watching a movie when I hear noise outside my door. I look through the front door cam, but I see nothing. When I open the door, the cute dog walks in and settles near the tv at the lounge. I involuntarily let out a smile and then continue watching my movie.
