Herbert woke up by the dumpster behind the school cafeteria, he had fallen asleep after a big feast, there had been a problem with one of the fridges and its contents had to be discarded, he had come in the hopes of a decent meal but was found with dozens upon dozens of eggs, some mozzarella cheese, two buckets of tomato sauce, and three bags of pre-cooked rice. It was a party and nobody thought to tell him earlier. Our friendly raccoon decided he would be taking full advantage of his findings and put himself in an almost food coma from how much he ate.

When the raccoon woke up, he decided to take a walk and, with luck, not throw up on a roof on his way. He began with strolling around the fields, saw some girls throwing each other up and shouting while shaking something in their hands. He saw them often and never paid much attention, those girls were noisy. Then he ran by the field the boys in helmets and shoulder pads ran from one side to the other throwing some sort of egg around, usually there was this small and pale boy who was really fast and another one who looked like a bear and kicked the egg very far, those two usually hang out with a big one that tackled the others to the ground. But today it was just the big boy, not wearing his helmet and shoulder pads talking to the man who always stood to the side and shouted at the boys.

He didn’t dwell on it too much, he wanted to get to his partner and still had to make his way across the school for that. The raccoon found the open vent and climbed in, it was the fastest way to Bomb and the weather was too hot to stay outside. Taking a turn left, Herbert passed one of his favorite rooms, there was a lot of food in there and the smell was always nice, he didn’t see the small and noisy boy he usually did when the room was empty like this, but didn’t stop regardless. Another few turns, he found himself looking through another one of his favorite windows, this one used to show Bomb’s human always shouting with another two, but they weren’t there today, just the woman who usually shouts at them and other kids missing things that smelled dangerous to him.

Leaving the smelly room, Herbert too a right and climbed down, he was already on the other side of the building, squirming through a hole in the wall, he too the backstreet and passed by the animal shelter. The raccoon would stop by and play with his friends there if he wasn’t after his partner, but the tall boy who grabbed him and washed him every once in a while was out front and he really didn’t want to be washed today. Quickening his steps and darting under the fence on the park, Herbert saw bomb’s human with two others, one really small and another that reminded him of the squirrel living in the third tree to the left, they had many papers scattered around them and were talking with their heads down. 

Just after he left the alley towards his destination, he saw Ppuyo’s human with that pale boy he used to always be with, they were talking but Ppuyo’s human looked sad. There were two girls who the pale boy left with and Ppuyo’s human waited for them to turn the corner and tears fell from his eyes. Herbert didn’t know what to do but decided it would be good to tell Ppuyo to show some extra care to his human, so the raccoon made a detour. He found the cat he had been looking for easily and conveyed his message quickly, then he jumped up to the fences and made his way through them, it was easier than being on the ground to cross the backyards like that, and that awful dog three houses down from Bomb was still trying to bite him.

Sure enough, once Herbert ran across the back fence for that house, the dog started barking and trying to jump up to get him. Honestly, what was that damn dog’s problem. Bomb had been sunbathing on the back porch when he heard the dog, didn’t bother to move, however, Herbert always laid down and rested with him for a while before they headed anywhere. Once the raccoon climbed down, he trotted to the shadowed corner close to where Bomb always laid and decided to take another nap, he was tired from his journey and there was a lot to tell his companion. Bomb merely purred once he received a fond on his belly but kept unmoving.

Sujin had been watching the family cat from the kitchen, and she chuckled when the visitor the family cat, which didn’t move a muscle, and settled close but in the shade. It was always interesting to see the always tsundere cat allow this kind of thing.