Side Chapter 2: Tigers Aren't Cute

The alarm on her phone went off at 9:00 am. The girl in question was a female tiger named Yufine who was a second year high school student at Cherryton. She scrunched her face up and yawned loudly before pressing snooze. She reached over and grabbed one of the many stuffed toys she had sitting on her bed and squeezed it to her chest. This one was one of her favorites, a big, round, squishy polar bear she had named Mallow. After a few minutes she sat up and turned her alarm off. It was Saturday, two weeks before the Festival of the Meteor, and she had no particularly strong reason to get out of bed today.

She sighed and swung her legs over and onto the floor. She looked down at them and examined her claws. She had painted both the claws on her feet and hands hot pink with silver glitter, but the polish on her toes was beginning to chip a bit. She yawned.

Well, I guess I have something to do.

One of her roommates walked by and greeted her.

"Morning, Yufine."

Yufine smiled at her.

"Good morning! Got any plans today?"

The other girl shrugged.

"Nothing in particular. I was hoping a certain someone would ask me to go to the festival with them, but they still haven't. So I was thinking about waiting near where he tends to hang out with his friends and see if he finally finds his nerve. Wanna come with me and chat?"

Yufine clasped her hands together and squealed.

"I'll go get dressed!"

Soon the two of them were sitting on a bench across from the basketball courts. A group of male carnivore students were playing a game of three on three while other students milled about enjoying their day off. As they sat, Yufine's roommate asked,

"So what about you? Anybody you want to go to the festival with?"

Yufine sighed.

"I dunno. I've still never gone with a boy before, and this is my second to last year of high school. The problem is that no guys I like actually end up liking me."

Her roommate squinted as she tried to remember some past romantic interests of Yufine's.

"I don't remember you ever saying anything about liking anyone else? Have there been many?"

"A couple, and I wouldn't really say I 'liked' them in any romantic way, but they all made it clear that they wanted me to leave them alone."

"Oh, that's too bad. Honestly it's their loss. I mean, you're very attractive after all. At least, that's what I think."

Yufine smiled.

"Awww, that's sweet. Thank you. Oh, there's one of them now! That's one of the guys I liked."

Her roommates followed where she was pointing and saw… two male students, neither of whom was a tiger.

"Uh, Yufine? Which one?"

"The cat."

One of the two was a short tabby cat with long fur that he had styled in a sophisticated manner. He was a little less than half Yufine's height and probably more than half her weight. Yufine's roommate frowned.

"Oh… well he's definitely…."

"Super cute! I just wanna scoop him up and rub my cheek against his cute widdle face! And play with his soft, bouncy hair! And—"

Her roommate raised an eyebrow.

"Sounds more like you want a new stuffed animal than a boyfriend."

"I know! I can't help it! I just love small, cute guys! Big, muscly males are overrated. But all the cute ones don't like me!"

"Probably because you scare them off by squeezing them half to death."

Yufine sighed.

"I just want a sweet, cute boy to hang out with me, and buy me sweets, or flowers, or something like that. Is that too much to ask?"

Her roommate shrugged before grabbing Yufine's hand.

"O-M-G! He's coming over here! Quick, act like we're laughing!"

Yufine watched the proceedings with vague disinterest. The male tiger in question talked a bit about their classes and such before obviously steering the conversation to the Festival in two weeks. He asked her to go with him, and she said yes. There was nothing unusual about it, just your typical high school romance stuff with the socially accepted partners. Same species, same height, similar backgrounds.

As she walked with her friend, she gazed wistfully back at the male tiger and his friends. Sometimes she wished she liked the types of guys that normal girls like her did. But she couldn't remember a time when she had.

(Many years ago.)

In the heart of the city was a relatively large apartment complex. It was built as a large, empty square with a small park in the middle where the various residents would spend time, especially the children. Five year old Yufine was playing in the park with a handful of other children, being supervised by one of the retired tenants of the building while the children's mothers ran errands or worked. Yufine was in the middle of a game of freeze tag when she noticed a new child standing farther off from the rest, watching from the edge of the park.

The child was a young male sheep with creamy white wool marred only by a single gray patch around his left ear. He saw her looking and averted his eyes. Immediately, Yufine left off her game and skipped over to him. As she approached, he didn't look up. She stopped in front of him and giggled.

"Why are you over here? Come play with us!"

The sheep mumbled something and shuffled his feet. Yufine tilted her head.

"What's wrong? Did your mom say you couldn't play?"

He shook his head no. Yufine continued.

"Because one time I took a cookie when Mommy said I couldn't. She wouldn't let me play then."

The boy didn't respond. However he did peek at her from the corner of his eye before looking back down. Yufine shrugged.

"That's okay. If you don't want to go over there, I can just stay here."

She sat on the ground and began picking blades of grass. After a while she patted the ground and called to the boy.

"C'mon! Sit with me! We can play grass whistles!"

Finally the boy hesitantly sat down a little bit away and mumbled,

"What's… grass whistles."

Yufine grinned.

"My Daddy showed me! You take some grass and hold it like this, then you blow really hard on it!"

She held the grass between her thumbs and pressed it to her lips. A high, shaky whistling sound came from the grass and Yufine burst out laughing. The boy eagerly plucked a piece of grass and tried to do the same, however he couldn't make it whistle. Yufine noticed and scooted over until their knees were touching.

"No! You need to move your fingers. Like this, see?"

She adjusted his thumbs the way her father had and then waited as he tried again. Still nothing. He sighed and threw his grass down. He tucked his knees under his chin and grumbled,

"I can't do it."

"Aw! Don't give up! Your grass was probably just bad! Here, try this one!"

He reluctantly accepted hers and tried again. This time a quiet whistling sound came warbling out. His face split into a grin and he did it again, and again. They both laughed before Yufine said,

"My name's Yufine!"

The sheep grinned at her.

"I'm Seiten!"

Yufine held her pinky out to him.

"Wanna be best friends?"

He looked at her finger for a moment before wrapping his pinky around it. He nodded to her. Suddenly, a female voice came from across the park.

"Yufi! Time to go get ready for dinner!"

Yufine looked back to see her mother waiting near the stairs. She turned back to Seiten and said,

"That's my mom! I gotta go!"

She let his finger go and ran towards her mom. She whirled around and waved at Seiten.

"Bye! See you tomorrow!"

Seiten smiled and waved back.

Over the next few weeks, the two continued to play together until they became inseparable. Everyone knew that if you saw one, the other was close behind. Soon they were visiting each other's apartments constantly, with each child's respective family coming to accept the new addition as one of their own.

"Fear, uh, not!" Seiten struck a dramatic pose. "I will slay the evil monsters!"

Yufine giggled and held her hands like a helpless princess from a storybook.

"Rescue me! You're the braverest boy in the kingdom!"

Seiten wielded his sword, formed from part of a broken broom handle, and charged the imaginary villains making dramatic fight noises with his mouth. Once each invisible monster was slain, he knelt before Yufine who had a towel wrapped around her clothes to look like a dress.

"Fairy Princess Yufi! I am rescuing you!"

She took his hand and the two raced down the hallway of Seiten's home. As they did, Yufine laughed and called out,

"Oh no! It's a huge cliff!"

Seiten froze at the line of pillows that had been placed on the floor.

"How do we get across!"

Yufine clasped the sparkly pink pencil with the star eraser she had tucked into her pants and waved it around.

"I'll use my fairy sparkle magic to float us across! Fwwwooooooooooosh!"

The two giggled as they flapped their arms and hopped over the pillows. Seiten's mother smiled as they entered the main room of the house where she was reading a magazine. She called to them,

"If it isn't the brave warrior and fairy princess. Do you two intrepid adventures want some juice?"

They both voiced their desire for juice and waited eagerly as she got them each a juicebox from the refrigerator. As she did, Yufine asked her a question.

"Mrs. Ten-ten's Mom? What's in…inte…intepi… what does that word mean?"

The adult smiled and thought for a moment.

"Well, it means you're very brave, and you do what's right, no matter what other people say."

Seiten chimed in.

"Yufi's always intepip! She got my sword back after one of the other kids took it."

His mother knelt down and rubbed both kids on their heads.

"Exactly. You're lucky to have such a good friend, Seiten. Make sure you're a good friend to her too."

Yufine bounced up and down.

"Of course he's a good friend! We're best friends forever! He pinky promised!"

Seiten's mother gave him a rueful smirk and tickled his stomach, making him laugh.

"Well then that means he can't ever break it then. I guess you'll always be friends."

(Present day)

"—fine, Yufine! Hello? Earth to Yufine!"

Yufine blinked and focused back on her roommate. They had frittered away their morning talking about the latest trends on social media and what they had found funny this week, and now they were having lunch. Yufine's roommate sighed.

"Yufine, you've been spacy all day. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just… thinking about some stuff."

"Oh yeah? What type?"

Yufine shrugged.

"Nothing too important…."

(Many years earlier.)

Yufine was now ten years old. She and Seiten had been attending the same school ever since their first days, however they were in different classes. This didn't stop them from playing during recess, or from Yufine intervening in his problems.

Yufine was skipping towards the water fountain when she saw two of Seiten's classmates teasing him in the hallway. They were taking turns poking his dark spot and calling out "Dirty-wool! Dirty-wool! You have Dirty wool!" Yufine scowled. Seiten was very sensitive about his patch of darker wool. The small boy was trying to hold back tears as he feebly covered the blemish when Yufine stomped over.

"Leave him alone!"

The two other boys saw her and laughed. One said,

"Look, Dirty-wool, it's your ~giiirlfriend~!"

They both laughed as Yufine positioned herself between Seiten and his tormentors. She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.

"You better stop it right now! Or else!"

One of them got in her face.

"Oh yeah? Or else what? Are you going to attack us? My parents said we need to be careful around carnivores because they attack people, but you're just a silly little girl with a dumb fur-clip."

He flicked the pink flower clip that was on the side of her head where her fur was longest. Yufine crossed her arms.

"Didn't your parents tell you not to pick on people?! You're both mean!"

The other boy laughed.

"At least we're not stupid like you! You keep trying to be cute, like an herbivore girl. But you're a nasty little tiger! You'll never be cute!"

They both laughed. Yufine swung her bag off her shoulder and grabbed it with both hands before slamming it into the side of the first boy's head. He fell to the ground and began to sniffle.

"Y-you hit me! Y-You can't do that!"

Yufine stood over him and raised her bag again.

"My mom said that I can't hit people, but everyone knows it's fine to hit bad guys! And you're both bad guys!"

She began to swing her bag again as both boys ran off, shouting that she was crazy and that they'd tell a teacher about this. Seiten wiped at his eyes.

"S-sorry, Yufi. I probably just got you in trouble again."

She put her bag back on her shoulders and smiled.

"I don't care! I'll always rescue my best friend!"

Seiten rushed forward and hugged her.

"You're the best, Yufi! You're my hero!"

(The present.)

Yufine sighed. She wasn't sure why she was remembering all of this now, but it was really bumming her out. She was remembering how devastated she felt when in her first year of middle school, Seiten had moved away because of his Dad's job. Slowly he had stopped returning her texts until she stopped hearing from him. And then the worst thing to ever happen to her happened.

(Yufine's first day of high school.)

Yufine was walking to class with her friends. This was an exciting day, she was officially in high school. From now on, she was practically a grown up. As she was walking to the door to find her seat, she heard a familiar voice.

"So anyway, there I was trying to find out what to do with not one, but two pies now, and he freaking bites it and splits his lip open on the sidewalk!"

Multiple voices laughed before another voice asked,

"No way! What happened then!?"

"I called an ambulance of course! So now I'm sitting in the ER, my pants are still soaked and I don't have a shirt, and I'm holding two pies while wearing an eyepatch! I must have looked like the worst pirate ever!"

The group of boys hooted with laughter as Yufine rounded the corner. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw a familiar person standing with his back to her. There was a sheep with pure white wool except for a single patch around his ear. It was Seiten.

"Seiten!"

She ran forward and caught him up in a tight hug, eliciting a shocked yell from the far smaller boy. She pressed her cheek against his and grinned.

"You're really here! You're back!"

His face was bright red and he spluttered,

"Y-Yufine! Put me down!"

The other boys were snickering among themselves and pointing at them. Yufine relaxed her grip a bit and continued.

"I've missed you so much! What happened? Why'd you stop texting me?"

"Yufine!"

"How's your family? Did your Dad swap jobs?"

"YUFINE!"

"Oh, I don't care! I'm just so happy to—"

"PUT ME DOWN YOU CRAZY BITCH!"

Yufine flinched and let him go, backing away like she'd been burned. Seiten was breathing heavily and looking around in embarrassment. Everyone was staring at them. Yufine had covered her mouth with her hands, hurt clear across her face.

"S-Seiten? Why—"

"Yufine! Why can't you just take a hint and leave me alone!"

"But—"

"Why do you think I stopped talking to you? I wanted you to back off, you psycho! All that grabbing me and squeezing me, do you know how uncomfortable it was, no, is for an herbivore to get grabbed by some crazy carnivore!"

Yufine sniffled.

"But… I thought we were—"

"You thought wrong! Now leave me alone!"

Yufine turned and ran to the bathroom. She had hoped to hold back her tears until she got inside, but they were already falling. She should have realized. Just because they had been friends when they were little didn't mean they were exempted from the natural order. Herbivores feared carnivores, carnivores resented herbivores. Herbivores were cute and sweet, carnivores were fierce and intimidating. She couldn't even hope to be anything but what she was.

(The present.)

Yufine's friend was returning her tray when she stopped and touched Yufine's arm.

"Hey, you've seemed kinda down today. Is everything alright?"

Yufine looked across the cafeteria. There, in his usual spot with his group of friends was Seiten. They hadn't spoken since that day, and that absence drove a shard of ice into Yufine's heart. She shook her head.

"Just a little bummed about something."

"What?"

Yufine sighed and adjusted her fur clip.

"That tigers can't really ever be cute."