Money or Life?

Description

Loneliness has a cure, but it's hard to find. Everyone seeks it in different ways; some chase their dreams so they would forget about the pain eating they souls away, some curl up and cry, some look for something to save them.

Luhan has been an outcast since day one of primary school. He was small and weak, but pretty too. Unapproachable, some said. Odd, others would remark. What mattered though, that he never truly had anyone to rely on. His parents were always abroad, in the states or China where his family came from, or maybe in Europe. They never cared enough to tell him where they went.

But one day, even he found something that tore him away from all the darkness that crowded him in his empty world.

Oddly, it was his job. He had always been fond of animals and just as he started collage, he got the post of a shop assistant in a small, nameless pet-store. It was dusty and crowded, but quite cosy.

And, many young animals waited there for their soon-to-be owners who would hopefully cherish them.

Luhan sometimes wished that someone would just barge in there, but not for the animals.

He wished for someone to take him home.

Foreword

"It is hard to look for someone or something, when you don't know what you are looking for."

"Love is easier to feel than see, but it might shatter your heart afterwards."

"For an eternity, I've wished for you. But would you even look at me?"

Is it normal to be scared and safe at the same time?

"You're not going anywhere, not now."

Luhan's gaze rested on a group of contently playing puppies, his fingers casually drumming on the wooden counter as he did so. It was always uplifting to see those small animals wrestle with each other; they rarely caused any harm, but they were completely joyful and oblivious to the world's problems.

Luhan found it somewhat fascinating. Even if he tried to ignore all those hardships that life gifted him with, he could never be as free as the puppies. Somehow, he would have loved it if just for a moment, he could forget everything.

Not only his parents who he hadn't seen in such long months or his friends who didn't even exist, maybe in his dreams, but... everything. From waking up to falling asleep, he wanted everything in his mind to be blank and clear, like fresh canvas if the artist was suffering and had no real ideas to paint or draw.

He was pulled out of his odd musings by the sound of the door closing.

And not much later, a husky voice whispered words that Luhan would remember until his very last hours...