Meet Eustass Kid, 20, a second year Mechanical Engineering student at the prestigious New World University: a young man standing at 205cm with well-built muscles to match, pale white skin, blood red irises and equally blood red spiked-up hair. He's brains and brawns, and despite being fairly attractive, he's the loneliest man in the world—or at least that's what he claims.
No one wanted anything to do with Kid. People found him easily scary. With his notable features, coupled with his shaved eyebrows and the menacing smirk he almost always wears especially when someone looks his way, his appearance spelt of 'trouble'.
It's not like he's an actual troublemaker per se. To his defense, he never initiated anything. He would just fight back whenever others would start it or if they do anything bad towards his friends. It's not like he had to defend his friends, though. They were all decent fighters on their own.
Sadly, no one sees and appreciates Kid behind his demeanor. Well, no one except for his few friends and most of all, Killer.
Killer has been Kid's best friend since forever. Killer, with his tanned muscular body and messy long blond hair with bangs that always covered his eyes, held just as much notoriety as Kid amongst their fellow students.
Despite people's misconceptions about them, they understood each other like no one else. Kid did not feel the gravity of his loneliness as long as Killer was around.
Unfortunately for Kid, he hasn't been hanging around with Killer as much as before ever since Killer got himself a boyfriend some weeks ago. It came as a surprise to Kid. He had never heard of the boy named Penguin before.
Kid felt upset at first, thinking that Killer hadn't told him about something so important. It turned out that Killer himself wasn't aware of Penguin's existence until the day they started dating.
It was all so confusing to Kid. All he understood of the story was that Killer and Penguin instantly clicked with each other upon their first talk. Still, how could you even decide to date someone you just met?
To be fair, Penguin was a charming boy with a charming smile. He has smooth silver hair highlighted with black here and there that was cut just before his jawline, which he always hid with his fluffy hat that had dangling ear flaps and the word 'PENGUIN' written just above the brim. Complete with his pale icy blue eyes and pale skin, Penguin really did look like he came from Antarctica.
Kid approved immediately of Penguin; he could see why Killer would fall for such a boy. They looked cute together, and it's undeniable how Penguin turned the usually quiet and stoic Killer into a puddle of goo. Penguin brought out the sides of Killer even Kid himself hasn't seen before.
Kid genuinely felt happy for Killer, but despite that, he couldn't help but feel alone.
Killer would always give Penguin all of his attention whenever the three of them hung out together and Kid would always feel like the awkward third wheel.
Slowly, he started hanging out less and less with his best friend, and that was when he started to be the self-proclaimed loneliest man in the world.
Kid sighed as he diverted his eyes from the couple beside him. Once again, he was stuck with his best friend and his best friend's boyfriend, giggling and whispering sweet nothings to each other as Killer let Penguin put flowers and do random braids on his long blond hair. Kid had to sigh once more. Being with a lovey dovey couple like this just adds up to his loneliness.
"Kid, look at this!" Penguin caught his attention as the said boy stretched out his arms towards Killer, showing his masterpiece to Kid. "He looks pretty, right?" Penguin asked Kid with his blinding smile, pearly white teeth on display. Killer was looking at Kid as well, his lips curved into a tiny genuine smile. That was a rare expression from Killer. Oh, his best friend must be really in love.
Kid had to raise a non-existent eyebrow, though. 'Pretty' was never a word he associated with Killer.
"Yeah, if you say so," Kid answered whereas as Penguin only chuckled and took out his phone, taking selfies of himself and Killer. Since when did Killer even ever fancied having his pictures taken? Yes, ever since Penguin came along.
Kid sighed again and stood up, collecting his stuff. The pair did not even seem to notice him, so he had to poke Penguin's puffed up cheek while they were taking a wacky selfie, just to get their attention.
"I'm going ahead, you lovebirds. I'll see you," Kid said as he reached for Killer's shoulder and patted it. "We'll see you, bro. Take care," was Killer's brief reply. The couple waved at Kid as he walked away, before going back to taking selfies.
Sigh, Kid really feels so lonely.
New World University wasn't that far away from where Kid lived in South Blue, at least by his own standards. It was just about a 30-minute walk considering his pace. Kid loves walking; he enjoys the different scenarios playing out before him, whether it be people rushing around or just a quiet empty road lined with trees.
Walking is one the things that cleared his mind, along with making projects out of metal scraps, among others. He would always take his time and take up a different path from the day before whenever he went home from NWU.
This time, he wound up to the path where he had to cross the park. He walked and walked, taking in his surroundings, enjoying his time alone with nature until his attention was caught by a passing black cat in front of him.
He stopped in his tracks. Could this cat possibly bring him bad luck? He slightly shook his head, amused by his own line of thoughts when he noticed that the cat has also stopped and was staring up at him with its golden eyes, blinking at him.
He kneeled down in front of the cat. "Hello there, cutie," he greeted the cat, reaching out his hand to stroke the back of its ear when it suddenly hissed at him. Now that's one grumpy cat.
"Come on, baby, I'm not going to hurt you," he tried again, and the cat seemed to listen to him this time, purring as Kid pet it. Kid chuckled, the cat's attitude totally flipped 180 degrees. It seems like the cat likes a lot of attention and petting.
The cat was sprawled on the ground as he was rubbing its belly when an idea suddenly popped up into his mind. "Hey, little buddy, do you have a home?" he asked the cat which earned him a blink in reply.
He stared back at the cat for seconds, as if expecting it to reply and that was when he has finally decided, "okay, I'm bringing you home. Come, baby".
He patted his lap, and the cat immediately climbed on to him, leaning against his chest as he hugged it and stood up, heading home once again.
As soon as he got home, he put the cat down and let it explore its new home as he stripped off his school uniform and slipped into comfortable shorts.
He thought that the cat was a good addition to his empty apartment and hopefully it would also ease his loneliness even just a little.
He plopped down onto his couch and smiled as the cat immediately jumped and curled up on his lap. The cat has totally warmed up to him and is totally cuddly. That was when he realized he has yet to name his new cat.
He already knows from earlier that day that the cat is a boy, but just to be sure, the lifted it by its arms to check again. The cat snarled at him for disturbing its rest on his lap.
"Don't be mad, little boy, I was just making sure," he said as he put it back down on his lap and began racking his brain and rambling out random names for the cat.
Then he suddenly remembered the topic they had earlier on history—The Battle of Trafalgar.
"Right!" Kid exclaimed loudly, startling the cat on his lap, making it look up at him. He look back down at it, "I know now what to name you!" he announced excitedly as the cat looked at him attentively. "Trafalgar. From now on, you will be known as Trafalgar the cat," Kid continued. Trafalgar just meowed at him. He doesn't know if the cat liked the name or if it even understood what was happening in the first place, but it just kept staring at him.
"Okay," Kid began, "let's make a pact. From now on, I, Eustass Kid the human, am officially your human; and you, Trafalgar the cat, are officially my cat." Kid took Trafalgar's little paw and shook it with his thumb and forefinger.
Kid doesn't exactly understand what he was doing. All he knows is that he's lonely and desperate to be un-lonely to the point that he's actually on his way to becoming a crazy cat man—except that he isn't planning on taking in another cat besides Trafalgar any time soon.