Vigorously, you wipe the sweat off your forehead, pants falling from your lips. Your hair, damp against your skin and threatening to freeze in the rather cold temperatures, is all over the place; it perfectly shows the kind of distress you went through just to finally stand in front of the office door of the first real estate agent you'll encounter today. Much to your dismay, the rain hadn't let up at all once you stepped out of the train, leaving you still without an umbrella and this time, without a nice old lizard to help you out.

So forced to endure the terrible weather without any protection other than your jacket, you ran through the somehow still busy streets until you had reached your destination, albeit soaked and cold. Taking shelter under the small roof in front of the agent's office, which seems to occupy a portion of the apartment building's first level.

Shaking yourself for a short moment in a silly attempt to get rid of the excess water, you peer upwards and take in the picture in front of you. To be honest, it looks quite different from what the advertisement said online. While the photos online glowed a soft cyan, in actuality, the colour is a faded, dirty green. You can only hope that the outside is the only thing you've been catfished with, even though it's obvious that they also lied about the 'It's stationed in a friendly, safe neighbourhood' part. During the whole two minutes that you've stood here, you've already received more than enough worrying glances from a group of smug-looking Zebras.

Letting out an elongated huff, the air showing up in small white clouds due to the cold weather, you decide to finally get this over with and enter the building. That alone tells you that the security in this place seems to be lacking as well. Making your way to an open office door, the dim light shining into the otherwise dark hallway, you carefully knock. It gains the attention of a seemingly ecstatic Bobcat.

"Uhm, Hello," You hesitantly greet, put off by the sketchy atmosphere of the place and simultaneously pitying the feline, "My name's Y/n, we talked on the phone about an available apartment here?"

A glaze of recognition falls over her face and she lights up, standing up from her seat behind her desk and coming up to you with a key in hand. "Oh, yes! Glad to see you've managed to make it on time with all this rain. Come along, I'll show you the place."

She rushes past you, the low heels of her shoes clicking against the floor as she walks off into the darkness with apparently no worry whatsoever. Swallowing thickly, you follow her and quickly catch up, choosing to walk beside her in hopes of gaining a little reassurance about the rather off-putting building. The two of you walk up three sets of stairs in awkward silence, the Bobcat appearing more than sad that you so quickly declined her offer to use the incredibly small and rusty elevator. However, you are not comfortable in small spaces such as that one, even less when it's so close to resembling the inside of a van.

"It's an honour to meet you, by the way." She grins brightly as the two of you enter another short hallway, catching you off guard.

"U-Uh...what?"

"You probably get that a lot," She babbles on, entirely oblivious to your confusion," But I'm so honoured to finally meet the only human in Japan! I've always wanted to meet a human, you guys are just so cute!"

"O-Oh..." You stammer, forcing a smile onto your lips. "Thanks..."

This world just keeps on getting weirder and weirder every day I spend in it.

The Bobcat sends you a beaming smile and skips forward a few feet, her short tail swishing around behind her as she stops in front of a dark green door with the number 305 on it. With the friendly smile frozen onto her face, she opens the door and holds it open for you, allowing you to enter to survey your possible future home. Cautiously, you take a few steps into the apartment, though not willing to go any further, seeing as there is nothing but pitch-black all around you.

With the flick of the light-switch, the feline reveals the true terror of this place to you with a happy grin on her lips.

There are no windows in the entire one-bedroom-apartment, keeping the room in a triste, gloomy light. The wallpaper is a mess and threatening to fall off in various places, while the floorboards are in such bad condition that you're sure you'd just fall through them the second you take another step. Not to mention the obvious mold problem.

"Quite the eye-catcher, isn't it?" The feline asks and you wonder if she's crazy, blind, delusional or all of the above. With wide eyes and growing concern, you only observe as she moves forward to show you around.

"And with the monthly rent being this cheap," It isn't, it's quite audacious that this apartment was one of the most expensive ones on your list "it's truly a steal. Now, if you want I'll show you the bathroom, which has a lovel-AH!"

Helpless, you watch as she suddenly crashes through the wooden floor, a loud scream echoing from the apartment below. As carefully as possible, you lean forward slightly to peer down the newly-created hole. "Are you-"

"I'm alright!" She yells, obvious cursing echoing in the background. "Don't worry, the damage will be cut from your costs!"

"Great." You mutter despairingly.

I can definitely cross this one off of my list then...

After managing to escape that overly-friendly real estate agent and the horror that was that apartment, you quickly make your way to your next point on your bucket list. The second place of the day is situated many blocks away from the previous disaster, leaving you with a bit of hope that this one might be better suited for you. It had yet to stop raining, so you're freshly drenched when you meet up with real estate agent number two.

This time, it's a male wombat with a groomed moustache and ridiculously cool sunglasses, even though it was the middle of winter.

"Hello, you may call me Herbert. Let's get moving, I don't have all day." He grumbles, already heading off towards the stairs with a little clipboard in hand. It's not hard to keep up with him thanks to his much smaller statue, but you still wonder how an animal that was meant to walk on four legs is this bloody fast on two.

Four floors higher, he stops in front of a brilliant white door with a golden number plate, not even mildly out of breath whilst you try to keep your panting to a minimum. You're pretty sure this is way more physical activity than Doctor Baron had allowed you to take part in. Unfazed by the bright stream of light that nearly blinds you when the wombat opens the door and switches on the lights, he quickly continues and marches into the one bedroom apartment.

Following after him, you take in the sight of the beautiful place, already a big fan of the simple soft blue colour on the walls and the many windows showcasing the terrible weather outside. The room is already furnished, the colour scheme remaining between white and dark grey, a fake plant sitting on the coffee table.

"Wow, this place looks grea-"

"The rent would be 33073500 yen a month. I hope you're aware that we require you to pay two months' worth of rent upfront as a security deposit," Herbert interrupts you coldly, your stomach dropping at the price and much to your dismay, he continues, "As well as 22045 yen as monthly key insurance."

Y/n.exe has stopped working.

A quiet whimper escapes your throat at the insane price, your eye slightly twitching in shock before you turn to Herbert. "That's way higher than the price that's listed on your website!"

"Hm?" Unbothered, he notes something down on his clipboard and peers up at you through his sunglasses. "Ah yes, we've raised the cost after a couple of small renovations."

Then, he sends you a nasty side-glance. "And we expect more payment in order to rent animals larger than small herbivores."

And instantly, your shock is cleared and turned into annoyance. But sadly, this world doesn't have many discrimination laws, especially when it comes to housing. With an irritated sigh, you bid goodbye to Herbert and move on to your next stop.

Apartment number three is all the way on the other side of the city, making it early midday when you arrive in the seemingly simple neighbourhood and streets full of small businesses and diners. The building hosts an American-styled diner in the lower level and the real estate agent, a male Heron who introduces himself as Shawn, meets you near the front and takes you through a small alley to the entrance. On the second floor, he opens a door whilst giving you more than obvious side-glances that make you a tiny bit uncomfortable.

"T-Take a look inside, I'm sure it'll be to your liking!" He smiles with a nervous stutter that has you raise an eyebrow at him, though you do as offered and walk a couple of feet into the medium-sized room.

It's stale; that's the best way to describe it. Grey walls with a couple of tiny holes, only a small window with bars in front of it, a couple of spider webs and dark, obviously rundown furniture that you'd rather not touch in fear of catching some sort of disease.

"It's not the best, I know, but you can surely make a nice home out of it." The heron pipes in and you slowly turn to him, only to get a near heart attack when you find him not even a foot away from you, his eyes staring right into yours. "Perfect for a couple, too."

"Hey, uh, can you back up a bit-"

With a dreamy sigh, he cuts you off and invades your personal space even further. "You look so much better than the female humans in my magazines."

BIG ASS NOPE!

Faster than you probably should according to Doctor Baron's orders, you sprint out of the building and leave the Heron in the dust. Taking a break on the opposite street end under a small roof, ignoring the obsessed Bird watching you through the second-story window, you take out your phone to check the time and where you'd need to go to next. You still have about two more places you want to look at today and four more for tomorrow. You can only hope those go better.

Though with a heavy heart, you take notice of Legoshi's lack of messages, a tiny bit worried that he hasn't tried to contact you at all today.

"He's probably just busy." You mutter to yourself, heading out to the next train station whilst simultaneously trying to dodge as many raindrops as possible. The journey isn't long and you're more than glad that the hybrid train isn't that packed today. You'd rather avoid physical contact with strangers.

Once you step out of the underground station, the rain has lessened to a mere drizzle. The refreshing smell of mountains and forests lies in the air, typical after such a 'massive rain-shower. This next apartment building stands tall among many others of similar statue, situated in the working class district of the big city. The neighbourhood seems mundane but uneventful, which is more than you could ask for after the year you've had.

Entering the office in a smaller building on the same street, you greet the female Secretary-bird who eyes you suspiciously under her gleaming glasses. "Hello, Miss, I'm Y/n. We talked on the phone about the-"

"We don't cater to humans, here." She simply states, returning to her paperwork and ignoring you completely. After a moment of shock, you scoff and turn back, checking this estate off your mental list of possible future places to stay.

The racism in this town is unbelievable.

With a desperate glance towards the grey but lightening sky, you mentally prepare yourself for the final apartment visit for the day. And as if to remind you that you haven't eaten anything other than breakfast at the hotel today, your stomach lets out a loud grumble.

"Okay," You murmur to yourself," Mission one, find food."

Thus, you set off on your journey. Following the pattern of the streets past many diners and cafés, all of them either seeming heavily biased in their customer-crowd or just not right for you, you make your way down the familiar streets until you land right back in front of the hospital. The coincidence brings a smirk to your lips.

Then, your eyes land on the café that you passed yesterday, the big, mint green sign reading 'The Mayflower'. Another grumble from your stomach urges you to check it out and walking up to the large, clear windows, you take note of the many pastries stacked on the display at the counter. From cakes to other baked goods, the sugary sweets have you aching with hunger. Satisfied at the mixed customer-crowd that ranges from carnivores to herbivores and omnivores, you decide this is the café you'll leave your money today.

A light-hearted bell rings above you as you enter and take a seat at a small table near the window. Gleefully exhaling, you appreciate the increase in warmth in comparison to the cold weather outside and you take off your jacket, draping it across the back of your chair. Letting your eyes wander, the first thing that you notice are the pretty flower bouquets made up of white, pastel yellow and pink mayflowers stacked on every table and simple maroon-coloured pots of the small flower adorning the shelves in the corners. The café is held in simple dark red-maroon for the wooden floor, tables and chairs, although the cushions are striped with light and dark cyan, with hints of the dark colour on the front of the counter.

Grateful for the break from your rather unpleasant day, not counting the encounter with Legoshi's grandfather, you glance out the window and get lost in the slow drizzle of raindrops against the clear glass.

"Hello, Miss." A sudden voice enters your proximity, slightly startling you, though you cover it with a smile. "What would you like to order?"

The waitress, clothed in a dark and light pink striped shirt that's covered by a cyan green apron with dark green flowers, wears a gentle smile on her face, her dark turquoise eyes shining against her black fur. For a moment, you're star-struck, simply because this is the first time you've seen an animal with a condition that makes them nearly as rare as humans in this world. She's a female elk, guessing from her height, and a melanistic one at that.

"Uh...I,uh..."You stutter pitifully, because whilst your mind wandered off into the unkown, you had completely forgotten to take a look at the menu. Awkwardly, you apologize to the waitress, your anxiety getting the better of you. "Sorry, it's been a while since I've been to a café."

"No worries," She reassures you, "take as long as you need."

After scanning over the four pages, you decide on an ordinary hot coffee and a slice of cake, watching mindlessly as the elk notes your order down. "Alright, it'll be just a moment, Miss."

She walks away, her pearl earrings sparkling as the light catches them just perfectly and you gingerly return your attention to your phone. The last place for today is about ten minutes by train from the city center, which is where you are currently. The office is a little further than the actual building as far as you know, but the website read that the places are on the cheaper side and not too extravagant, but also not completely rundown. Plus, some forums said that they'll let you do a lot with the room as long as you remove it once you move out, which is a plus in your eyes because you desperately want to enhance security measures in any apartment that you pick.

I really hope this one isn't as much as a shitshow as the last ones.

A quiet bell noise alerts you of a message and eagerly, you write back when you read Juno's name, asking how the hunt for a home is currently going. Silently chuckling beneath your breath, you tell her how terrible it's been and that you hope it'll be better tomorrow.

Then, a sudden thought wipes the smile off your face.

Tomorrow...Tomorrow's Sunday. School starts in two days...and Legoshi still has no idea that I'm not going to school anymore.

Weighed down by your heavy heart, you stem your forehead against your hands and let out a triste huff of air.

Fuck...I feel like a terrible girlfriend.

I...I really need to tell him.

But this isn't something that you tell your partner over the phone. At least not to someone like Legoshi...I kinda need to tell him in person or else he'll get so worried that he'll run across the entire town just to find me and ask what the hell I'm thinking.

Searching for his contact, you begin to write a message to your boyfriend, ignoring how much your hands are shaking as you type. Because even though you know how strong your feelings for Legoshi are, there's still a small, insecure part of you that's worried that you two will grow apart once you're no longer face to face every day of the week. Or that he'll get tired of your guys' little high school romance and begin to search for an actual grey wolf girlfriend. However, you quickly kick those thoughts out of your brain, not in the mood to deal with your emotional baggage right now.

For a final time, you read over the text.

I need to talk to you about something. Do you have time tomorrow?

You click 'send', letting out a shaky breath as it does. Depending on his answer, you'll move around your schedule. This is kind of more important than searching for an apartment.

"Here you go." The waitress returns, setting down your coffee and slice of cake with a nice smile. "Enjoy!"

"Thank you." You say with a slight bow of your head and waiting until she has returned to her work before you tinker with your coffee in terms of milk and sugar until it's to your liking. Then, you dig in, nearly letting out a moan of delight when the delicious bite of cake meets your hungry taste-buds. You eat slowly, enjoying your meal with every bite and sip, not at all happy that you'll have to go back out into the cold weather again.

All the while, you're anxiously waiting for a text back from your boyfriend, your worry only worsening when there's still no response as you finish, nearly forty-five minutes after. Thanking the waitress for the food and leaving a generous tip as you pay, you leave the cosy warmth of the Mayflower, mentally preparing yourself for the final apartment visit for the day.

"Here goes nothing." You try to motivate yourself, though you certainly fail at doing so. Which isn't anything new to be honest.

Once more, you enter the hybrid train, gracefully ignoring the small disputes between a group of large female felines by simply scrolling through social media on your phone. Despite how shitty social media is in general and how it used to have quite an impact on your mental health back in your world, it's one of the only few pieces of normality you have left. Also, it keeps you connected to Cherryton and on top of that, there's no longer that toxic need to compare yourself and your body to the 'perfect' image created by influences. Because they're all animals and you can't really compare yourself to that.

Exciting at your destination, you skip over puddles and through the small crowds, pulling your jacket tighter around you to escape the dreaded cold. Finally, you've reached the office door to 'Ox Real Estate', a real estate office that takes care of a couple of buildings on the cheaper side around the area. And that is frankly all that you need; something cheap and simple, but not so rundown that you should worry about getting another Tetanus shot just for good measure.

Slowly, you open the door and walk in, eying the hornless, female Ox behind the desk and computer. Everyone else in the office seems busy and so you guess that she'll be your agent for the day. Based on her appearance, she seems friendly, her thin glasses reminding you of the stereotypical elderly English teacher. She notices you and sends an amiable smile your way. "Hello there, how may I help you?"

"Oh, uh, I'm Y/n," You greet," We talked on the phone. I'm looking for an apartment."

"Ah, take a seat then." The Ox motions to the stool in front of her desk and you oblige, sitting down awkwardly. "Most of our buildings are pretty packed at the moment unfortunately. What kind of apartment are you looking for?"

"One on the smaller side, preferably a one bedroom apartment." You answer, mindlessly gazing around the office. "At best one with a private bathroom if you have any of those, but I'm not too picky."

After all, you just got out of high school, where sharing a bathroom is kind of a mandatory thing. So while it's not the most ideal situation, you'd be alright with sharing a bathroom with neighbours. As long as there are certain privacy boundaries, especially in vulnerable places like the showers.

"Hm..." She murmurs absentmindedly, taking a second glance at you. It seems this is the first time she fully noticed that you're a human, you're merely guessing because her eyes suddenly grew wider. "Well...Luckily for you, there's a vacant room. We just did some renovating on one of the floors of this building and the rooms are rather small and worn out, but nothing that would worry the local health department . We added small but private bathrooms to the sixth floor, so it'd be perfect for you."

At this, your mood brightens.

"Most animals who live there have special circumstances, so your neighbours might need a little time to get used to, but they're all nice animals. Sure, there's an ex-convict, but oh well, this is the safety you can expect when you're trying to buy a cheap apartment."

Gleefully, you decide to ignore the 'Ex-convict' comment, seeing as you've seen enough bullshit and you're metaphorical closet isn't empty either. "Do you think I could perhaps take a look at it?"

"Of course." The lady grins, before leaning back in her chair. "Donna!"

Flinching at her loud voice, you quietly observe as a younger female Ox comes running from the back room, dressed in a simple white button up and pants, a name tag on her chest. Her attention is fully on the older female. "Would you show this young Miss to room 603 in the Condo?"

Quickly, Donna nods and disappears back into the back before re-emerging with a key. She motions for you to follow her and you do, keeping up with her larger statue as you walk about five minutes from the Office.

"That's it right there." She points out to you, smiling with a hint of nervousness. You're guessing she's never encountered a human before, either. "That's the hidden condo."

With a raised brow, you ponder over the name.

Hidden condo? Why hidden? It's out for anyone to see, there's nothing hidden about this!

Second-guessing the proposal, you take in the run-down state of the building. Still, it's not so run-down that it's problematic; instead, it adds a hint of history. Some of the rooms seem to have small balconies attached that ca be accessed through the windows and even the neighbourhood, despite being rather close to the black market as you've found out, isn't as bad as you assumed. It's rather peaceful actually.

You follow Donna into the building and up the stairs to the sixth floor, passing a gentle-looking, shirtless seal. Not going to lie, he seems high to you. Finally, she stops in front of a door and you find out that apparently, there are only two rooms on the sixth floor. You're not too mad about that, it gives you a sense of privacy.

"Here we are." Donna says as she opens the door, allowing you to walk in and examine the apartment. "It's not much but then again, it's only around 30 thousand yen a month."

Huh...that's honestly pretty cheap. And the place doesn't seem that bad.

Truthfully, it's the definition of simple. A large window at the wall opposite of the door filled the room with natural light, leading to a small balcony that you already wanted to fill with plants from Haru. A traditional but soft-looking sleeping mat adorns the floor, a dresser sits on the side, with a small table next to the wall. The small kitchen is situated besides the door and lastly, the door to what you presume is the bathroom is on the wall beside it.

Curiously, you move towards it an peer inside. In all honesty, you're delighted to see the bathtub-shower combo. It's more than enough for the price and a great refresher after the last couple of fails today.

Already, you can imagine this place filled with your belongings and little trinkets. Pictures on the walls, plants scattered on the balcony, you and your friends playing games during the holidays when they come to visit. It's small but for your first apartment, that's exactly what you want and need.

It's perfect.

With a smile, you turn to Donna.

"I'll take it!"

***

Hey there, Homies! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

We've reached the hidden condo! Yay! Be honest, how many of you thought that I would have her move in there? Though I think it was pretty obvious. While the Condo actually has no private bathrooms, I have no idea how the bathrooms there are set up and for future references, I just added a private bathroom to the sixth floor but then also raised the rent by 5 thousand yen.

Fun fact, I did a lot of research on renting in japan for this. First of, the first price named (the 33 million yen) are around 3 thousand US Dollars. The 3k thousand yen are around 300 US dollars. Just to put it into perspective. Also, it is legal in japan for a renter to refuse to rent out a property to someone for simple reasons like skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or heritage, etc. So I added this as well.

Plus human-obsessed weeaboos.

Btw, I started watching the Loki series and SPOILER!

Female Loki is hot 👀 Not gonna lie, I'm really glad we have a female Loki now.

Spoiler end.

Also, I watched quite a lot of RE 8 village let's plays, cause I greatly enjoy the concepts of those games. Plus, RE 8 had Lady Demitrescu, or big booba lady as the internet calls her. And while she's really appealing, I'm really simping for one of the daughters (*ahem* Bela). I've read a lot of fanfic, too, I gotta admit.
I just have a thing for blonde women, I've noticed. And the gay is stronger than ever in lockdown, so yeah. I've fully accepted that I'm either a lesbian with comphet or a bisexual who likes 95% women and 5% men. Cause real life guys just...aren't my deal, I've noticed.

But I stay clear of figuring out my sexuality right now, before I fall into another existential crisis because of that. Honestly, it is not fun.

But alas, I still have these books and they bring me joy. Not gonna lie, Y/n and Legoshi are my comfort straight couple.

Anyways, I hope y'all are all safe and healthy!

See you in chapter 4!