New Friends

“We got another stray.” Jiwoo nudged Tzuyu as she was scanning through medical documents of one of the dogs they had. Tzuyu looked away for a moment to look at the pictures her workmate was showing her. “Two actually. God, I hate it when people do this.”

Tzuyu looked closer at the photos and felt her heart clench when she saw the two dogs all battered up, there was less fur on their faces than their bodies and they were definitely malnourished. “What happened to them?”

Her workmate sighed and then scrolled down to show her the details that were posted on their page. “The person who found them said that she saw them hanging around the junkyard and kids who passed by would throw rocks at them.”

That made Tzuyu wince, she hated when people do that. Kids really were immature to know what they were doing. “Who’s rescuing them?”

“Well, they messaged us and Jeongyeon-unnie said she was gonna go out later to find them.” Then Jiwoo looked at her. “You can go with? The extra hands will be appreciated.”

Tzuyu thought about it, but who was she to miss out on something like this? “Sure, I’ll go talk to her then.”

She then stood up from her seat and beelined towards Jeongyeon’s office. She peeked inside and saw that Jeongyeon was on the phone, but her older friend saw her and beckoned her to come inside. Tzuyu quietly entered and sat on the seat in front of her desk.

“Yes, unnie. Jihyo wants the flowers to be fresh and it has to be white.” Jeongyeon then furrowed her brows and let out a sigh. “I don’t know. Maybe ask her instead of me? As long as there are flowers then that’s fine with me, I just care about what Jihyo wants.”

Tzuyu wasn’t sure if she should stay so she checked her phone to see if Sana messaged. It made her smile again when Sana did and sent her updates about her day and showed her pictures of the sky or whatever random thing she wanted to share with her.

“Okay, bye.” Jeongyeon let out a sigh and then dropped herself on her chair. “I don’t get why people call me about the wedding arrangements when I clearly told them to call Jihyo about it.”

Tzuyu pried her eyes from her phone and shrugged. “Well from what I remembered, the invitation said Jeongyeon and Jihyo’s wedding. Not Jihyo’s wedding only.”

Her friend sighed and then nodded. “You’re right. I’m just being grumpy about this.”

“That’s fine. Planning a wedding isn’t a simple thing.” Tzuyu tried to comfort her. She knew how stressful it had been since Jeongyeon and Jihyo have decided to plan the wedding already.

“Anyway.” She patted her legs and smiled at Tzuyu. “What can I do for you?”

Tzuyu pursed her lips, feeling shy to say this. “Jiwoo mentioned that you were going out for a rescue. Two dogs that were found by the junkyard?”

Jeongyeon nodded, looking for the post on her computer. “Yeah, me and my sister were gonna go out and get them. Why? You wanna come with us?”

Tzuyu gave an awkward smile. She had never really done this before. Usually it was Jeongyeon who would invite her to the rescues, but this was the first time she was compelled to come with them. “Is that okay?”

Jeongyeon beamed, probably the biggest smile she had seen during the many years of their friendship. Well, asides from when Jihyo said yes to her proposal, but that was a natural reaction. “Yes! That would be great! I’ll just call my unnie and then we can head out as soon as we get the car ready.”

With that Jeongyeon told her what she should do to prepare and the two left her office.

Tzuyu loved going on rescue missions. It was satisfying to get the said animal and make sure they feed them before luring them into their cages to be treated properly in the shelter. Jeongyeon really had a big dream to rescue as many as she could, and it didn’t matter what kind of animal it was.

Which was admirable. Guess it was probably the reason why she desperately wanted to work with her. It felt like it was her calling too.

Tzuyu used to have a dog, but she was bought by the luxury of her family and then the dog was left to be on its own until it eventually passed away before Tzuyu could spend more time with her. That definitely fueled the flame to her dream.

Se-Ri wasn’t much of a fan of the idea of having pets. It explained why she never got any when they moved in together. But maybe Tzuyu felt hopeful because there wasn’t anyone who was going to stop her from getting pets.

Maybe if those two dogs that they were going to rescue didn’t have anyone who wanted them could go home with her instead. She had wishful thinking again. She didn’t want to act out of impulse.

Though she didn’t want to miss out on the chance to save those dogs. They looked horrible and she probably wouldn’t sleep at night if she didn’t know they were okay.

So, they got to work.

Jeongyeon, her sister, Soojin, and her were off to the junkyard to save the two dogs.

They arrived in the spot where the author of the post mentioned and they set off separately to look for them. But it didn’t take long for Tzuyu to spot them hiding under a cardboard box that was covered in scraps of metal. Which was totally unhealthy for dogs to be around for such a long period of time.

They were both huddled together, their thin and weak bodies were shaking from the coldness of the weather. Tzuyu felt like she could cry just seeing them.

One of them had brown fur, or what was left of it, pointy ears and was small. Probably a mix-breed, she wasn’t sure. The other one looked older, black, and tan on the face and was the same size as the other one. They were both really malnourished and Tzuyu was worried that they could be sick from the cold.

She approached slowly, already grabbing a handful of dog treats that were kept in her pocket. The black one took notice of her, hearing her boots crunch onto the snow. Then the other one woke up as well and the two dogs cowered back into the cardboard box, shaking even more now because of fear.

“Hi,” Tzuyu said softly as she took careful steps forward. “I won’t hurt you guys. I promise.”

The dogs didn’t respond, they were watching her every move, flinching back as she held her hand out. She knew she couldn’t touch them because that would mean they could either run away or bite her and she didn’t want that. So, like they always did, she placed the treats onto the cardboard box, a little closer to the edge so it could coax them to move closer.

The stench of the treats made them use their noses, sniffing around and then the black one decided to slowly walk forward. When it got a good whiff of the treat, it ate it immediately. Tzuyu smiled at that then placed some more for the brown one to have some as well.

As expected, the brown one did go out and ate some of the treats. Tzuyu watched them happily as they ate the rest of what she had and once they were done, they both looked at Tzuyu, curious but still cautious.

Tzuyu tried to put her hand out, hopefully the scent of the treats were still lingering on it. To her surprise, the black one came forward, took her time to sniff and then licked her hand.

“Wow, thank you,” she said, smiling at the dogs. Then she did an experimental touch with the back of her hand and the black one seemed to not mind.

“Tzu?” Jeongyeon called out softly and stopped when she saw her with the dogs. “You good? I can help get the other one.”

Tzuyu nodded and grabbed the leash she kept in the other pocket of her coat. She tried with the black one first, carefully sliding the loop of the leash over its head and once it was in, she carefully secured it then held a hand out to Jeongyeon to grab her leash.

She did the same with the brown one and once the two dogs were secured, Tzuyu slowly reached her hand in the box to carry the black one out. There was slight hesitation from the dog but once it realized that Tzuyu wasn’t going to hurt it, it remained calm in her arms.

Jeongyeon took careful steps towards them and got the black dog from Tzuyu, waiting for her friend to retrieve the other dog.

Tzuyu bent down again to carry the brown one, but this one got more hesitant than the black dog. “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you,” she said again, placing a palm over its head. Once the dog calmed down, she reached in the box again and carried it out.

“Good job, Tzu,” Jeongyeon said, cradling the weak dog in her arms. “Let’s get them back to the shelter.”

Tzuyu nodded. Then the dog in her arms started to shake, the cold wind started to pick up and she opened her jacket to keep the dog inside. Trying her best to keep it warm.

At least this wasn’t a chase and that none of them were aggressive. But the one thing Tzuyu learned from this whole thing was that these two should not be separated.

It had been days since the rescue and the dogs have been doing better than the whole team expected. Both dogs were female, no microchip found in their bodies but sad to say, they both were severely malnourished and needed something for their mange.

One of the veterinarians took a curious check on them and found out that they were mother and daughter. The black one was older, assuming she was around five or six years old and the brown one, who was the daughter, was probably two to three.

It was an unspoken rule inside the shelter that the two should never be away from each other. They still cuddled with each other inside their new kennel, and they would only eat their meals if both had food in their bowls.

It was a success, but there was something that bothered Tzuyu whenever she would think about the two dogs.

“What’s on your mind?” Sana called out to her over the phone. They were video calling again while Tzuyu ate her dinner alone in her dining room.