Miko stepped out of the house, the front door clicking shut behind her like a final seal. The morning wind brushed past her hair, but it felt cold and sharp against her skin. She began the long, lazy walk to the bus stop. Every step felt like she was dragging her feet through invisible sand—a thirty-minute journey that felt like hours in her exhausted state.
As she reached the stop, she leaned against the rusted pole, her gaze drifting across the street. On a small patch of green grass, a group of puppies were tumbling over each other. They were clumsy, soft, and completely unaware of the world's weight. For the first time that day, the tightness in Miko's chest loosened. A faint, genuine smile touched her lips.
Then, the silence of the morning was shattered.
A sharp, pained bark echoed through the air. Miko's head snapped toward the sound. A man was standing near a trash can, pulling his foot back after kicking a thin, scraggly dog—the mother of the puppies. She had only approached him looking for a scrap of food, but he looked at her with pure disgust.
Miko's jaw clenched. The heat of anger rushed to her face, masking her headache for a moment.
"I hate humans," she hissed under her breath. "Ugh, I hate them so much."
Without thinking, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled bills she had saved for her own lunch. She hurried to the small shop beside the stand, bought a pack of biscuits, and ran across the road.
"Twch, twch... hey, come here. It's okay. I have food for you," she whispered.
The dog cowered, its tail tucked between its legs, eyes filled with the same fear Miko felt every time her mother raised her voice. Slowly, the animal approached.
"You're a good girl. Here, eat up," Miko said, her tone softening into a sad, quiet rhythm. "How can humans be so cruel to something so innocent?"
As the dog began to eat, the heavy sound of a bus engine approached. Miko stood up and hurried back across the road just as the doors creaked open. She found a seat by the window, pressing her forehead against the cool glass.
As the bus pulled away, she watched the dog wagging its tail, surrounded by her playing puppies.
Miko felt a tiny spark of light in her chest, but it was quickly shadowed by a dark thought: The dog is lucky. It doesn't have to pretend to be okay. It just has to survive.
Miko hopped off the bus just as the final bell began to ring furiously. She was late.
She sprinted through the gates, the school building looming over her like a gray fortress. Her classroom was on the fifthfloor, and the climb was brutal. By the time she hit the third flight of stairs, her lungs burned and her legs felt heavy, as if she were wading through the deep water of her dreams again.
She reached the top floor gasping for air, her headache throbbing with every heartbeat. She slipped into the classroom just as the teacher started the roll call. Slumping into her hard chair, she tried to focus, but the heights of the fifth floor made her dizzy. Looking out the window, the ground felt miles away, and for a moment, the blue sky looked exactly like the surface of the ocean she had been sinking into.