A/N - THE ONE YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

Herbert’s Very Own Chapter

Herbert the raccoon was a busy guy.

He’d sped his whole day scrounging for food while trying to avoid the evil Mrs. Song and her baseball bat. Today was a Monday and while most of the kids at the school were devastated at the prospect of spending a day in that literal hell, Herbert was happy that the trash cans would once again be full of sticky goodness. His favourite was the can just outside one of the Korean Language classrooms, he poked his head out - nibbling on a cracker her had found. In his line of sight sat a girl that caught his attention. She looked a bit like his friend Tony, a wild rabbit that lived in the sports shed, with her bucked teeth.

Herbert watched the girl who appeared to be staring at the woman in front of her, this woman looked like on of the cold birds on the poster in the science building. The penguin girl was looking down, writing notes, completely unaware of bunny-girl’s staring. If Herbert had been human he would have noted that it wasn’t a look of lust or even love, it was a perplexed expression. Like she wasn’t sure what to make of the other girl, the bunny didn’t appear to know why she was staring at her. But Herbert wasn’t human so instead he just noted the similarity between bunny-girl and his associate, Tony, and then went back to gnawing on his cracker.

He quickly moved on trying to find something more substantial, as Herbert rounded the corner though he froze. There she was, the bane of his existence stood there in her business clothes and her messy bun, beady little eyes behind glasses. Mrs Song. She was stood with another girl, Herbert recognised this girl as the one who chased her with a butterfly net last term. She had bruises all over her face but Herbert still recognised her. This particular woman had been chasing her with more vigour lately, almost as though she was using the chase as a way to vent some sort of repressed anger.

However, Herbert was a raccoon and so had no real thoughts or feelings in terms of teenage angst. He didn’t really care about her bruises either, all he could think in that moment was that he needed to run REALLY fast as both women looked over at him in unison. With a shout they were both after him, Herbert zigzagging his way through the school. He eventually found his way to his vent shaft, it was loose so he could nudge it aside with his nose and scurry in. He ran through the vent, scurrying past his little nest and through the shaft until he came out in the sports hall where the cheerleaders were practicing.

Immediately he found his kin. He may not know everyone that traipsed through this school but he always recognised the girl who looked a bit like himself. He liked her, she had been kind to him when she found him hurt and abandoned, giving him this big home. Sure he had to share it with others and Mrs Song kept trying to kill him but Momo had still given him a better home that he would have had otherwise. If Momo had been alone, rather than barking orders at her cheerleaders, he would have approached. She was always happy to see him and he was happy to see her.

Was not a love as sweet, as the love between a peach and a raccoon.

It was Shakespeare really.

Momo had only just gotten back to school and Herbert had noted her absence. For him, when familiar faces disappeared, it was usually an animal friend who had gone off alone to die. Momo came back though so Herbert was happy with the fact she was alive and well, aside from a few sneezes. She was still not 100% so she wasn’t taking part in the actual cheering until the sneezes and coughing stopped. Momo would get short of breath if she tried, so Jihyo had said no cheerleading until she was better.

Herbert watched the squirrel girl walk in as the bell rang, she appeared to be late and went straight over to Momo - talking to her quickly. Momo nodded and Sana went to her spot so the group could start again. Herbert had seen Sana a lot in the past, she was usually in the quieter parts of the school (where Herbert himself frequented when not searching for food) appearing to hurt other girls based on the noises they were making. He hadn’t found her in those places recently though, instead she had been with the penguin looking girl.

One thing stayed the same though, the other cheerleaders were still side eyeing her. They would still talk behind her back, if Herbert was capable of registering human speech he would have heard the words ‘’ and ‘’ muttered in relation to the squirrel girl. While Mina had gotten over her girlfriends past, nobody else had and Sana was still a victim of the rumour mill. Nobody could believe that Myoui Mina of all people had managed to calm the storm that was hurricane Minatozaki. Girls around the school continually talked behind the backs of Sana and Mina, their friends stopped it where they could but it still happened. Not that Herbert knew any of that he was just glad squirrel girl had stopped making women scream near where he slept.

He spotted Jeongyeon running in with her net so Herbert continued. He went back into the vents hoping to escape, after a lot of running he paused for breath. He was next to an open grate which looked out over the student council room. The owl-looking president was sat behind her desk with a large stack of files next to her. Herbert knew this girl, she was usually with Momo - they would do this weird thing where they pressed their faces together. They seemed close and Jihyo had hidden Herbert from Ms. Song under her desk a few times.

She was always by this desk when she wasn’t in classes. Herbert had seen her many times asleep with her head on stacks of papers, she would always stay later than everyone and come in before everyone else - she was nearly there as much as he was and he LIVED at the school. Lately she had been asking students to leave things in the hallways. Herbert had seen that Jihyo was directing people to lay things like flowers and cards in front of various lockers around the school, he had considered trying to eat some of the items but decided against it. Obviously they were important to the students.  

He continued through the vents for a while longer before running out and into the Arts Building. He scampered through the empty corridor and heard music from one of the dance rooms. He went towards the music, Herbert knew that where there were people there it was more than likely there was food their too. It was penguin girl, she was doing strange movements along with the music. Had Herbert been a man of many words…or a man f any words….or a man AT ALL he would have described her a beautiful. He would have complimented her on her form, of her grace and elegance as she moved.

Mina did appear to get somewhat frustrated at one particular move which involved stretching her limbs out, her face contorted and her voice let Herbert know she was in pain with an audible grunt. Herbert liked the show, he thought the moves were interesting and Mina was transfixing in that moment. Every move was choreographed and planned to perfection. The music eventually came to a stop and Herbert took it as a sign that he should keep moving, so he did - continuing down the hall.

There was more music coming from down another hallway which Herbert went towards. The pale girl, that Herbert recognised as the one who stepped on his tail when she was trying to dance down the hallway, was sat at the big box thing that produced nice noises most of the time. Herbert could never figure it out, when the pale girl played it the noise was pleasant on the ears - when Herbert ran across it the box was loud and scary. Now, once again Herbert was unable to have any form of educated, thorough thought process but if he had that ability he would be able to recognise that the song playing was very lonely. It was as if the empty room became twice as empty the more Dahyun played.

Herbert could recognise that the girl was sad, he felt that way when he was hungry (yet another trait he shared with Momo). Looking around the room he couldn’t see any immediate cause for her to feel this way, there was nothing. There was no other person that could have upset her, no loud noises or big scary dogs - those always made Herbert sad. But she was and her music reflected that. Noting there was no food though, Herbert decided to move on.

He ended up up heading round the bad of the humanities building, there were usually left over packets all over. As he turned the corner he noted the short girl (who would put her face against Ms Song’s accomplice’s face) was stood by the wall. She was shaking a cylindrical object and moving it back and fourth, it made a little clicking sound as she did so. Then she held down the top and a hissing noise began, she then drew blue lines on the wall alongside other bright colours that had been placed there over the years.

Herbert didn’t know why she had her arm in a sheet but he didn’t understand humans, truthfully nothing they did made sense to him. She looked happy though, spraying the paint on the back wall made her feel happy and so Herbert decided to avoid her. He ran to the trash can only to find it empty, his stomach complaining when he realised he wouldn’t find any food there for a while.

Then a light clicking noise gained his attention.

He cocked his head as he looked up, spotting a figure sat on the grass holding out half a ham sandwich. He cautiously went closer to the tall figure, he recognised her - she felt unsafe. Herbert was an animal, he still had a very fine tuned fight or flight instinct and everything was telling him that she was dangerous. Hesitantly he sat back on his tail and took the sandwich between his paws to eat. He began nibbling away and ignored the girl sat next to him, the girl lay back gazing at the sky - not at all bothered by the fact she had given the rest of her lunch to Herbert.

Sometimes it was nice to be the one providing for someone less fortunate, people provided for Tzuyu all the time - she liked her rare occasions to give back. So they sat there together in silence, listening to Chaeyoung spraying the wall.

Two animals, sat in silence.