Louis had been saved only by the glutton of his ex-compatriots. Having saved his antlers to chew on, the smell of "the outsider" was easily explained away as a weakness on the lions' parts.

You, however, were on a forced field trip.

"I really don't want to be here..." You held your head low.

"Yeah, well, me neither. But we have three stops to make here and each is critical to your recovery."

"Fine..." You sighed, feeling a bit queasy. It was too early in the morning to smell hospital disinfectant, in your opinion. As you wound through the hallways with the Ailuropoda melanoleuca, you felt very insecure. He trusted that you wouldn't run away, but you could tell he kept his eye on you. Was there really anywhere to even go? Melon wasn't looking for you. Louis wasn't looking for you. Hell, even Legoshi wasn't anywhere near-- something that surprised you.

As you passed through a few different waiting rooms-- pulmonology, allergist, emergency-- until Gouhin stopped at one room, took a seat and motioned for him to join you. "Are you afraid of needles?" You shrugged. You weren't scared of anything in particular. Loneliness, perhaps, but you were facing that on a day-to-day basis now. When Gouhin wasn't harassing you about your health, you were left alone in a room to sulk. "That's good. I want a base level on your health. You don't seem to eat very well and you're looking a bit... gaunt. I just want to make sure your diet is appropriate for you."

It was nice of him to care, you honestly believed that, but it was just hard to let him. It was hard to let anyone care about you. Legoshi had been in love with Haru, Juno had been in love with Legoshi, Haru had loved Louis, Juno now loved Louis (as far as you could figure), Melon had loved the idea of eating the spawn of you... And you took whatever was left over.

Pina was right. I was a doll and a doormat. Louis was right. I was lying to myself about being okay with it. But Melon helped me to see that what it really was-- I was being walked over. Just like Pina said in the very beginning. I made it a habit to ignore anything bad that was happening, but the feelings didn't go away. I just bottled them up. And now here they all are. Out and ugly...

"LN, YN." A nurse-- Meles meles-- called out your name. She was a pretty badger, you noted. Her facial stripes were very clean. You looked down at your own fur pattern and noticed a lot of stray black hairs in the red patches. If there was a word for your third year of school, it would be insecure; because that's how you felt. All. The. Time.