‘That’ Side Character Chapter 9: Animal Shelter

“Oh, wonderful, thank you, Lolita,” the boss replied with a smile from the lady, to you, “hi Y/N, you’ve grown since I last saw you.”

You beamed.

“I feel like this is a family reunion,” you said with a grin, feeling very happy and safe with these two women.

“Oh precious,” Lolita chuckled, placing her hand on your head and giggling as she gave you a little pat, “I’ll leave you and Linda to it, ciao for now.”

And with that she left you to enter the office while she bobbled her way back down the hallway to the front desk.

“Hi,” you said again to the boss as you bounced into the room and sat down on the chair there.

“I remember you being very caring of our animals here,” the boss said as she pulled out some paperwork, “are you still in school, Y/N?”

“Uh.. . Yeah… unfortunately,” you replied with a grimaced smile.

“I see, so what days could you work for us then?” the boss asked, looking down at something on the sheet.

“Uh well… after school? From, like…” You paused, “well, I could come straight here from school because I’m not hanging out with Kenma anymore…” your face fell a little then you regained your composure, “uh. 4pm?”

“I see,” she said, jotting something down, “and weekends?”

“Yeah. Weekends, all day. Like, I can sleep over on Saturday night if you need me to,” you said… you weren’t even joking, but Linda chucked anyway.

“I like your enthusiasm,” she said with a smile, “currently, we have a number of students offering to help in the afternoons so I could give you Friday, but then Saturday and Sunday mornings we would love to have you on board.”

“I’ll take it,” you said with a grin, “I can even start today right now,” you added.

The boss looked at the clock, then at you. 

“Isn’t it a school day, why aren’t you at school?”

“Uh… umm… it’s a pupil free day today,” you lied, grinning on the end to seal your lie and turn it into truth.

She eyed you, but nodded anyway.

“Ok. Well, I supposed it would work to show you around again and make sure that you know what to do… since you’re here,” she said.

“Yes! Yes, that is an awesome idea,” you said happily, “yes. Just show me what to do and I’ll do it!”

“Ok, well, first of all, I’ll show you to our cattery,” she said, standing up, “the water bowls need to be changed.”

“Yay, I love changing water bowls. That’s my favourite thing to do, ever,” you said, just happy to be around animals and not at school.

She let out a small chuckle and led you to the cattery.

“Oh, yeah, I remember what to do,” you said, “bowls to the red and then lie them on the bed.”

“I’m sorry?” the boss asked, confused by your random saying.

“You push the bowls up against the red lever over there to fill them with fresh water then put them back on the mats inside the cages- like a bed,” you said with a smile.

“That’s a very cute little saying,” she said, “it appears you have remembered what to do, so can I leave that with you, then? Do you remember what to do before filling the bowls?”

“Yeah. Fluffy bear hands.”

“Fluffy bear hands??” she asked.

“Uh. Yeah. Glove things, so that the cats don’t scratch you if they get scared of you changing their water.”

“Oh. Yes. That’s correct,” the boss said with a little amused look on her face, “ok, go ahead and I’ll be in my office.”

“Roger!” you said with a giant smile and salute, turning around to get the gloves on your hands.

You pulled them on, noticing how warm they were and taking a second to press them to your cheeks to feel how soft they were too.

“Smells like cats,” you inhaled deeply and closed your eye, letting the comforting scent wash away all negative feelings that had been sitting inside you.

After spending ample time sniffing the gloves, you then got to work changing the bowls.

Most of the cats just stayed away from you and cowered in the corner while you spoke soft words of comfort and encouragement to them.

But there was one, that had tufts of long hair hanging off it with one long blond bit hanging over one eye and you giggled as you approached the cage.

“You look like Kenma,” you chuckled to the cat as it looked away and pushed its face into the corner of the cage, “and you act like him too,” you said with a sad chuckle, falling silent as you pulled the water bowl out of the cage to fill it up while Kenma’s voice rang in your head again…

‘We’re not friends’.

You sighed as you put the now full water bowl back in the cage and looked at the back of the cat as it ignored your.

“I do want to be friends though,” you said softly, looking at the cat forlornly before slowly closing the door and moving on to the next cage.

The rest of your day was spent forgetting Kenma, and then remembering him randomly.

While this was happening with you, something similar was happening with Kenma at school. The walk back to his house alone felt really foreign and he tried to make himself feel like it was normal, really concentrating on his game to take the lowkey unhappy feeling sitting in his gut, away. 

But he still felt bad.

After being consecutively beaten by the same monster, 4 times, he sighed with annoyance and put his PSP in his pocket then shoved his hands in there as well and kept walking home- thinking about you.

“Ok fine. Tomorrow I’ll apologize,” he thought, pulling his keys out to open his front door.

He looked down at his keys.

“Jeff is such a stupid name for a set of keys.”

………………………………….

You felt much better by the end of the day and got yourself another ice cream that afternoon, just because. And so by the next morning you were happy again and got yourself ready for school.

You happily walked along, looking at everything that was going on around you, and thinking random thoughts, and before you realized it you had entered the school ground and had gotten to your locker.

Humming to yourself, you packed your bag and books into your locker, then grabbed what you needed for first class then stepped back.

“Umm,” a soft voice said and you looked to your right, straight into the feline eyes of a very shy looking Kenma.

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‘That’ Side Character Chapter 10: One Sided Chatty Chats >>>