chapter.1  »  one of those nights.

Fired.

The word rang in my head.

Fired.

After working in the same place for four years, it ended just like that.  After being with the same people for four years, it ended... just like that.  The reason was almost senseless, and the way they fired me was heartless.

The rain patted the sidewalk as I trudged on somberly, my entire outfit soaking wet.  I had dressed up for nothing.  It was so beautiful this morning, but when afternoon came and the clouds closed in, things changed.  Thick white clouds became gray, and water began to fall from the sky, trailing down the glass panels of the café.  Right then, my boss called me into his office.

I shouldn’t have come.

Usually, it would take at least twenty minutes to walk from work to home—usually.  Rainwater collected in the street gutter, eventually pouring into the sewers on the sidewalk.  Misery was a curious thing: I began to think about the rain as though it were a person.  I thought that the rain was lucky, because it didn’t have to work to survive, and it didn’t have to survive after being fired from work.

I neared a giant electric post in the middle of the sidewalk.  Planted around it were green, blue, and yellow trash bins, each color indicating what kind of garbage it collected.  The post was decked with pamphlets and posters, inviting people to go to a certain shop or call a certain person if they wanted some work done for them for a certain amount of money.  Advertisements which had been defeated by water pooled down around the post and in soggy clumps.

That was when I broke down, and let the tears that had been stinging my eyes for about an hour fall.  Weirdly, it felt good to cry in the rain—like the sky was weeping with me.  Its tears mixed with the water running down my cheeks, making me look nothing more than another soaked passerby.  Some parts of my hair locked in curls; a few strands stuck to my face.

Suddenly, I heard whimpering.

Eyebrows furrowed, I looked around.  There was nobody there except for me.  The whimpering came back, and I turned my head toward the trash bins.

The damp head of a white puppy was protruding from the trash in the yellow bin.  It cried again, struggling to get out of the trash.  It wiggled one of its feet, trying to remove the plastic bag stuck to it.  I wiped my face and picked the puppy up slowly.

“I’ve always wanted a puppy,” I mumbled.  I carefully removed the plastic bag from the dog’s feet.  “Let’s get this plastic bag off your foot, little one.”

I lifted the dog up a little.  It moved its head around slowly, blinking, its fur wet from the rain.  I rummaged through my bag for something to keep the dog warm.  Luckily, I found a face towel and wrapped it around the dog.

“Let’s get you out of here,” I said, turning left at the end of the street and walking three blocks ahead, arriving at my little house.

Stupid trash.

Why was I even here?  I swear, when I come back and all of this is over, I’ll teach that witch a lesson she will never forget.

Prince Jinki does not deserve this!  I tried screaming, but it came out as a yelp.  That witch could have been nice enough to have turned me into something else other than a dog.  At least I was still cute.

The kingdom was probably missing me.  If it weren’t for that witch at my twentieth birthday party who came all dressed up as an old lady wanting something to drink, I wouldn’t have been here.  I would have been laying down in my king-sized bed in the eastern wing of the eastern tower in the castle, all stuffed and comfortable.

Why didn’t the king and the queen—my father and my mother—do anything?  They should have backed me up when I shoo'd the witch-slash-old-lady away.  The rules had clearly said, “NO OUTSIDERS ALLOWED”.

Ugh, I’ll teach them all a lesson!  How come everything I said came out as a whimper?!

Tiny sobs came from nowhere.  I tried climbing out of the pile of trash, but I kept on sliding back down.  I whimpered to call the person's attention.  She turned around...

Oh, she’s ugly.

I wiggled my foot, trying to remove a stupid plastic bag away.  Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands grip my two front feet (formerly my arms) and lift me up in the air.

“I’ve always wanted a puppy,” the girl mumbled.  I could clearly see her face now.  She's not that bad.  She removed the plastic bag off of my foot.  “Let’s get this plastic bag off your foot, little one.”

‘Little one’?  That’s one of the worst names I’ve ever heard.

I noticed the girl go through her bag, then she pulled out a towel from it.  She wrapped it around me, and I felt a surge of warmth I was looking for for quite a long time before she arrived.  It felt so good.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said, then we started walking.  Or she started walking... Whatever.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

first chapter!  i hope you guys like it  ><  i don't know, i feel like i have to put more stuff...  but yeah.  xD  thank you for reading!

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