I love this chapter. Please Enjoy!

-MalMetal

CHAPTER 34: A Bittersweet Secret Creates an Acquired Taste

Haru stepped out of her room dressed in her school uniform and walked down the long hallway to a stairway. Her time at Cherryton has become far more peaceful since her bullies' suspension and more so since she'd been enduring her fears a little bit better in the meantime. Haru checked her phone, Bill texted her about coming by to see her today, he'd been seeing her for a short while nowadays. While Legoshi couldn't spare much time he'd advised Bill to take his place instead.

"Bill, I need you to visit and look after Haru, she needs help being around carnivores and you should get used to her," Legoshi told his friend.

"Why do I have to? I don't have anything against her but I don't think I'm the best at this type of stuff, and y'know… considering."

"I know it's a lot to ask. I would help her more but she's scared of felines more than she is canids. I'll stop by when I can." Bill saw his friend's sincerity clear as day. Although his schedule wasn't exactly clear he understood where his friend was coming from.

"Fine, I'll do it. I can't make any promises about making her not scared of me though."

"Don't worry I'll send you a message giving you some pointers on how to approach her easier. She just needs to be able to stand being around felines again. That's mainly why it has to be you," Legoshi finished with his usual stoic face while Bill tried to feel comfortable with the current situation.

That is how their talk went down. In Haru's mind, it went a little something like this.

"Bill, please take care of Haru for me. I'm gonna save another herbivore that got kidnapped."

"Seriously? I couldn't even talk to her before plus she's scared as hell of me."

"Yeah, I know but please do it," Legoshi said with a somewhat sad face that Bill could not refuse.

Haru chuckled to herself about that horrible interpretation of her friends, thinking more on it though something struck her.

"My only friends are a wolf and tiger I'm scared of, a deer that I love who refuses to talk to me, and maybe another wolf who I'm scared of and saved me from bullies." Haru smiled to herself out of pure annoyance at her thoughts and friend selection. Not only were most of them carnivores, they were large animals too. Coming to the light of the sun outside her dormitory she felt autumn's air beginning to cool off even more. It was the middle of November at this point so winter would not be far. Haru dropped her phone as a girl around her size bumped into her left shoulder running out of the herbivore dormitory. The girl fell to the ground but recovered quickly and grabbed Haru's phone.

"Sorry, I was in a hurry!" Els handed Haru back her phone, its screen had been cracked. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that!"

"Don't worry about it. I'll take it to a shop in the city. I hope you get where you wanna go. Bye." Haru walked on completely annoyed by the convenience of a small herbivore bumping into her now of all times. Unfortunately, that annoyance wouldn't end as Els ran to catch up to her.

"H-hey, I've seen you before. You're the girl who was kidnapped by the Shishigumi a month ago right?"

"Thank you for reminding me. It's not like everyone else loves talking about it still."

"I didn't mean to make you angry!" Els' voice hit a high pitch again which grated against Haru's sensitive ears.

"Please calm down. Your voice is too high pitched." Els covered her mouth.

"I'm sorry. Please let me pay for your phone it'd be wrong for me not to after I-"

"Would you let it go? Don't you have somewhere to be? I don't need you hovering around me, we don't even know each other!" Haru's outburst drew several sets of eyes to her but none were more damning to her than Els'. She was just a young girl who looked decently vulnerable, just like herself when she was a child. Haru clicked her tongue, disappointed by her immature behavior, she offered a hand to Els.

"You can say sorry by eating with me, is that fine?" Els teared up a little bit before nodding her head. The two exchanged phone numbers before leaving one another behind. Haru could feel a few pairs of eyes still looking at her, but they didn'tbother her all that much anymore. Carnivores ignored her like usual but she could feel their curiosity like a fly buzzing around her.

"What a nosey crowd right?" Pina's smooth voice annoyed Haru. She gave him a look that showed her true emotions as she felt them before leaving without a word.

"She's different now too. How beautiful." Pina wrote in his notebook before he watched Haru leave with a crowd of students towards the main school building.

Haru's school day went off without a hitch. There was still the separation of the classroom in all of her classes but she managed to answer more questions during each one drawing that much more attention back to herself. She found herself moving more and more quickly between classes not out of anxiety or fear but rather a respect for her own time. She bumped into a honey badger on her way to the lunchroom as she often would, the honey badger gave her a pitiful look that she dismissed as soon as it came. Her hands shook for a few minutes after the encounter.

She made it to the lunchroom and sat her things down at the table Els told her to. It was just the two of them sitting there, she turned her attention to the lunchlines that were long as always.

"Hey!" Els smiled and waved toward her senior classmate. Haru went to meet her, a bit embarrassed by the callout.

"I'm surprised you came," Els said.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You didn't seem social so I didn't think you'd want to. All of the animals just lie and say they'll come because it feels wrong to not accept an offer like lunch together."

"That's true."

"Well, thanks again. I didn't have anyone to sit with today."

"I typically sit outside."

"Really? So you're the dwarf white rabbit that's always alone?"

"Is that some sort of moniker I have around campus?" Haru felt her esteem take a hit.

"Yeah, but there's plenty of other horrible rumors too, which I guess you know about. Despite that, I wanted to get to know you better since well-"

"Did Legoshi and Bill put you up to this?" Haru asked bluntly.

"How'd you know?!" Els quickly covered her mouth.

"It was too easy to tell. Bumping into me randomly, accepting a lunch offer. Those two know too much about me."

"Well, it was actually Legoshi who asked me to do it. He approached me at the meeting yesterday. He said we should talk because our situations are alike." Haru couldn't help but feel both annoyed and happy that he paid this much attention to her regardless of how she acted towards him.

"So what did he tell you?" Haru politely asked.

"He said you lost someone you loved or he thinks you loved. I lost someone like that too. The alpaca who was devoured. I liked him. He always smiled when he was with me and made me laugh. Legoshi gave me the love letter he wrote for me, his handwriting isn't something I can get out of my head." Els' sincerity and emotion almost pushed her to tears. "Sorry, I said too much."

"Yeah, you did." Els looked at Haru who knew how she felt. "For me… he left me behind without a word. Fortunately, he's not dead, although, he may as well be with how he avoids me."

"Don't say that! You still have a chance to patch things up with him. Maybe I could speak with him and help you out." Haru shook her head.

"This is something I have to do on my own." Haru's response was accompanied by a soft smile which Els returned in kind.

"Is it okay if we talk about something else?" Els happily agreed with Haru and they sat together to talk after getting their lunch. The two spoke at length about an assortment of things from hobbies to TV shows and beyond that. Haru was still a little restrained but Els wouldn't stop, she droned on and on like she hadn't talked at all. At one point she overheated andHaru had to call her down. By the end of the lunch period, they'd become proper friends and agreed to meet up for lunchagain tomorrow. Haru's hands and heart were still for the first time in a long time. However, that wouldn't last long as she walked into a large crowd of carnivores and herbivores. She kept her cool by avoiding eye contact with any claws, teeth, or eyes of any carnivore. She arrived at her next class and went on to finish the day.

She made her way back to the gardening club to lay in her bed. She waited for her heart to calm down before looking at Bill's message to her from earlier. She accepted his offer and finished up some of her homework in the meantime. Around twenty minutes passed before a knock on the door made Haru sigh to herself.

"Bill?"

"Yeah, you doing alright?" The tiger's silhouette could be seen through the thin white curtain over the glass sliding door.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm doing fine too. How do you want to do this? Do you wanna try face-to-face or back-to-back with the door, again?"

"Back to back again, please." Bill sat down and Haru did the same. Haru could feel his body heat through the glass, shecould imagine how soft his fur was.

"These talks have been helping me. Thank you."

"I didn't do anything Legoshi has been giving advice on how to do this, so thank him." Bill sounded a bit dismissive.

"That doesn't matter, you're the one who's been coming to see me every day for the past week." The softness in Haru'svoice grated on Bill as it always did whenever they spoke.

"Hey, why don't you tell me about your day?"

"It was good I met someone from your club, an angora goat named Els. She was sweet and my first real friend at this academy. That's an herbivore at least. It's pretty sad to say that but nice all the same. Both you and Legoshi. I hate to rely on you guys but you're doing all you can for me and I don't know how to express that appreciation. Nothing I say or think of doing feels like it would be enough." Haru spoke ever so calmly. Bill could feel himself ready to throw up. "Bill. Tell me something about you that you've never told anyone. I want to share a secret like that with you."

"For starters, I'm not a good animal. I'm a beast. The less you know the better." Haru chuckled loudly.

"What are you a killer? You never seemed like that. You didn't have the look of one."

"I could be y'know?! Why is everybody sayin' that? I'm a carnivore for god sake! I could just be hiding it really well!" Bill blurted out in embarrassment.

"After I saw those lions I knew. You didn't have those eyes. The ones that made me scared. Yours were kind and soft, like a baby." Haru stressed the baby part to rile Bill up more but it did the opposite. His feeling of nausea disappeared.

"You wanna know something I haven't really told anyone? If you don't count my carnivore friends close to me, thenyou'll be the first herbivore I tell willingly." Bill took a serious tone. "I've eaten meat in the Black Market and I've drank rabbit's blood."

"...Oh." Haru's fear gripped her close, snatching a bit of her up in its jaws. "I-it didn't change you?"

"It did, I was merging with my instincts like a lot of meat eaters do. I was becoming something I wasn't proud of or could live with. I wasn't going crazy like you hear in the stories or anything like that, I was a high-functioning meat eater if you want to give it a proper name. I'm past that time in my life now and I don't want to go back, thankfully. I still hear its voice in my head from time to time but I shake 'em off as soon as it comes through."

"Have you ever thought of eating me?" Haru's voice trembled, staining Bill with a blot of shame.

"...Nah, never anyone living. I promise." Haru smiled to herself ever so slightly, she couldn't begin to explain why but her heart felt at ease for this moment in time. She turned to the door and asked for Bill to move back. Haru opened the door a small way so her hand could feel the evening autumn air and flexed her fingers towards the tiger.

"Hm?"

"Just grab my hand." Bill nodded to himself before slowly grasping Haru's hand. Haru's fur was soft and fluffy. Bill's fur was thick, a bit stiff, and a bit soft. His fur was completely different from Louis', she swallowed her fear for another second to speak one last thing. "I want to try and move past this fear." Haru recoiled her hand with that declaration, closing the door after herself. Bill could hear her breathing heavily and stood up, he looked at his hand with a small smile.

"I'll come by again sometime next week so I can help you more, is that okay with you?" Haru could feel Bill's kindness envelope her entire body.

"Please. I want to be able to look you in the eyes again."

"You'll get there." Having said that, Bill took his leave. Haru's heart beat loudly in her ears, not just out of fear but an admiration for one tiger's kindness.