FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I wake up at 5:30 after crying to sleep. Time to prepare for school. I get off and tidy my bed then go to the shower. After that, I dry myself and change into my school uniform. I make my breakfast, just egg on toast, and for lunch, Japanese style bento, again. I wash the dishes and utensils, prepare my school stuff, and now it's 6:45 and all prepared. This has been my life for a year since Dad went abroad to Japan.

I wait for the school bus outside the house. It arrives at 7:00, and I get on it. The middle-right seat is empty again, so I take it. Again, the bus stops and the black furred Husky comes in. He sits beside me and the bus starts to run again. Everything was almost the same as yesterday.

"Three members, just two more," he says, fist pumping. I smile at him. He's as carefree as yesterday.

"Hey, we got lucky with Ken yesterday. Don't assume that we'll get lucky today as well," I say. Riese, the black furred Husky, raises an eyebrow at me. "Oh right, you didn't ask for his name," I add mockingly.

"Oh, so that silver furred Akita is Ken?" he asks.

"I'm glad that you got it," I mock him. He sticks his tongue out and I stick out my mine. He starts to laugh afterwards then I start to as well. After a while of laughing, we watch the beautiful sky together.

The school bus stops in front of the school, and instead of dashing off, Riese waits for me. We get off the bus and talk a bit while we walk to our room together.

"You know that fox, Rue? Can you ask him if he wants to join the club?" Riese asks.

"Why can't you do it?" I reply. He scratches the back of his head in guilt.

"Well, I may have offended--"

"May have?" I cut him off with a glare.

"Okay, I offended him. So, I might be on his bad side."

I'm surprised he thought it through about what happened yesterday. I thought he's just an airhead who doesn't think much. "But we're club members, he'd know you're part of it and just decline," I add.

"Worth a shot, anyways," he puts his paws behind his head and stares at the sky smiling, "Who knows, he might join," and he's still optimistic about it.

We go to our classroom, 1-B, and Tabitha, the orange Tabby Cat, comes near me after I take my seat. "What club are you in?" she asks crouching with her paws and head on the right side of my desk.

I shake my head, "You don't wanna know. What about you?"

"Haven't decided yet. There aren't any clubs I find interesting, so I asked you," she says lazily, her eyes lazily closed and ears drooped, "maybe your club is interesting."

"We're in the High Flyers club, wanna join," Riese says as his head and paws appears from the left side of my desk.

"Wazzit do?" Tabitha asks, her ears perk up. She sounds interested.

"We do anything we want with high spirit, thus High Flyers," Riese says. Tabitha's eyes widen.

"So I can roll around on the floor and do nothing as long as I'm doing it with high spirit?" she seems reinvigorated, but how does someone do nothing with high spirit?

"Of course, as long as everything you do is with high spirit. You can read, you can roll, you can shout to the world, anything as long as you give your one hundred percent!" he stands up and spread his hands, catching some attention from the other students

"Awesome! Can I join?" she asks and Riese replies with a "sure". She then shouts "High Flyers!" and pumps her fist in the air.

"High Flyers!" Riese echoes while also air fist pumping. I furrow my brows at them acting like children, but I can't help but smile to it as well.

"High Flyers!" I join in the air fist pumping and our three paws connect. I didn't care if we looked weird to the others, the moment our three paws connected, I felt so happy. It's like being with my family again.

"So, how many members does the club currently have?" Tabitha asks.

"You're our fourth member," Riese points at Tabitha, "so we just need one more to officially form the club, otherwise it'll be disbanded, but not to worry because our club is awesome enough to get one more," he adds with thumbs up.

"Ooh, I'll scout with you, this club already sounds like a lot of fun," she says with high spirit.

"Alright, this way we can cover more ground for recruitment," his eyes sparkle like the stars in the night sky, "Varu also promised to help. I bet we can find a fifth member before the end of the day."

I sigh with a smile. You forced me to helping you, anyways. With that hug that made me feel at home with Mom and Dad, like they never left my side ever since. But they're not here, and I have to take care of myself.

"Hey, are you crying?" Tabitha asks me. I didn't notice that I was. I wipe away the tears and rub my eyes. This is embarrassing.

"You okay?" Riese asks with a genuinely comforting voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I assure them with a smile and they smile back. The door opens and Mr. Lindil Kelt, a cougar and our adviser, comes in. Tabitha waves goodbye and she goes back to her seat. Riese also went back to his and continues doodling on his notebook.

After the morning class, lunch break. Riese eats his lunch swiftly, choking a few times so I let him drink from my water bottle that I always bring with for lunch. He dashes off outside after eating for five minutes and Tabitha follows him soon after. I'm left alone with my uneaten bento. Sigh. I was hoping that we'd eat together again.

"Um... Foks, was it?" the green fox with drooped ears stands in front of me, carrying his lunch box. His lips were quivering, hesitating to talk until he finally asks, "M-may I... eat with you?" His fading voice was still hearable. After hearing him, my frowns turns into a smile.

"Sure, and call me Varu," I say. His ears perk up and tail waving slightly. He smiles weakly, slowly grabs a chair, and sits in front of my desk. He opens his lunchbox to reveal three onigiris, it's white rice formed in a shape of a triangle wrapped in seaweed wrapper called nori. My eyes widen with fascination.

"I-I heard you like Japanese food..." he picks up one onigiri and extends his paws towards me, holding it. I just noticed that the palms of his paws were white like snow and blends with the onigiri. "So, maybe we could eat together?" his eyes have mixed emotions of fear of rejection and happiness, but his smile only showed the latter. Of course we could eat together. It's better than eating alone.

I extend my paws and he gives me the onigiri he's holding. The onigiri isn't warm, but isn't cold either. He picks up another one from his lunch box and says, "L-Let's eat," before taking a bite. He hums as he chews it. I was curious of his behavior and take a bite myself, and I was transported to a different world.

I am flying up in the sky with arms spread wide and the sweet cold air passes through my face. The air warms up, a bit spicy even, but it mixes well with the sweet air, enhancing the flavor. I then see a fluffy cloud that looks so delicious to eat, so I did and take a bite. The softness and fluffiness of the cloud mixed with the enhanced flavor of sweet and spicy was so delicious that I could eat the whole thing. This is what I'm currently feeling while I eat this onigiri. This MASTERPIECE!

I can hear myself humming while chewing the onigiri. It's been a long time since I've had something really delicious. "How did you make this?" I ask after swallowing and before taking another bite.

"Uh, I can't tell how, but my mom taught me. Sorry." he says before taking another bite. His eyes look sad. Maybe he wanted to tell but he just can't?

"No apologies necessary. I should be thanking you for sharing this," I say while slightly lifting up the onigiri I'm holding. He nods slightly. After eating my onigiri, I unconsciously put my lunch box back in my bag. I notice that Rue hasn't eaten the third onigiri yet so I ask him.

"Umm, it was supposed to be for your friend, but he left already. I was thinking of waiting for him," Rue turns his head to the door, perhaps Riese will come in anytime now, but he hasn't. Rue looks back at me afterwards and asks, "When do you think he'll be back?"

I roll my head backwards, staring at the ceiling, "Your guess is as good as mine. I don't even know why he was in a hurry," I lean my face on my paw then stare outside the window. Where is he, and with Tabitha?

"Oh, I see," he covers his lunch box and with it the third onigiri. I shoot a glance at him, he looks disappointed.

"Well, let's wait. We can pass a bit of time by talking, perhaps?" I ask. After all, he shared his onigiri with me, and if knowing each other's names like Riese said means you two are friends, might as well get to know more of each other. Rue doesn't seem to like the idea, though.

"T-Talking...?" his voice went off-tone there. I ask him what's wrong. "N-Nothing is wrong, I mean. W-What kind of topic?" his voice continues being off-tone.

"Hmm, good question," I think for a few seconds and found a topic. "Have you joined any club?" he shakes his head shyly, "Then which club are you planning to join," he shakes his head.

"I-I mean, I'm... not planning to join any," he looks away with his face red.

"Oh, I was gonna ask if you wanted to join the High Flyers Club," I guess he there's no chance of recruiting him to the club. He repeats the club's name in form of a question. "Oh, the High Flyers Club. Riese said you can do anything as long as you give your one-hundred percent in doing anything. Riese was that Husky weirdo," I add when I see Rue tilts his head.

"It sounds like a club that I won't fit in," he says with a disappointed tone.

"Well, you can apply anytime if and when you want to," I say. Rue nods before picking up his lunch box.

"Thanks for... taking your time to talk to me," he stands up carrying the lunch box.

"You're not gonna wait for Riese?" he shakes his head slightly. He mumbles something that I couldn't hear before heading to his seat. Just after Rue takes his seat, two familiar faces emerge from the door. It was the Husky and Cat, their aura giving off a depressed look. They slowly go to my seat, crouch, and lean their heads on my desk. "What's wrong?" I ask the depressed duo.

"It didn't go so well," Riese grunts.

"Yeah, that meanie meanie," Tabitha adds. I ask what they were talking about. "The scouting, of course. We couldn't get another one to join the club," she says with a childish tone.

"And what's worse, the disciplinary committee came and scolded us," Riese adds, "I mean, is it wrong to scout for club members?" Tabitha nods with a humming sound.

"Well, you shouldn't go running around the school campus during lunch break. I mean, people would want to eat in peace," they both grunt at me like I was wrong.

"Boo, fine. Let's recruit later, Ri-Ri," I snorted when Tabitha said "Ri-Ri". That's a very horrible nickname to be honest. Though, I don't remember them introducing themselves. Maybe while they were away.

"Sure, Tubby," okay, these nicknames are getting hilarious. I had to laugh it off or I might explode.

"You're gonna help us later, right Varu-ney?" Riese asks with a straight face. I shudder. I can't tell if he's mocking me or he just made up a nickname for me. Maybe both.

"Please don't call me that. Call me Varu, or Val if you don't wanna sound Japanese-ey" I tell him. I don't like that nickname "Varu-ney" since I'm more of a Telechubbies person. I used to watch that show with mom when I was a kid.

"Why's your name Varu anyways?" before I can respond, he stops me with his paws, "No, wait, we'll do the proper introduction when we find our fifth member," he stands up with paws on his hips, "Okay, we'll continue scouting later during club hour. High--" he puts his right fist in front of him. I question him what he's doing. "This is our signature club fist bump."

"Oh, I see," Tabitha says before standing up and fist bumping Riese's fisted paw with hers. I follow and two of them say "Flyers!" together while raising their fists in the air. I was late on the reaction and raise my fist last. They seem to be able to understand each other like their minds are linked.

"But what about the club room?" I ask them.

"Woah, we already have a club room?" Tabitha shouts in surprise on my question.

"Mr. Kelt was kind enough to already give us a club room," Riese replies to Tabitha, "But what about it, Varu-ney?"

"Again, please don't call me that. And just so you know, we don't know where exactly is our club room yet. Well, Mr. Kelt told us where, but we still need to look for it. Maybe even clean it a bit," I add the last part unintentionally. I've been used to cleaning that I'm not content on very messy places. A bit of chaos is fine, but chaotic is a different thing.

"Ew, I don't like cleaning," Tabitha says and Riese agrees with her, "I'd rather go scouting."

"Varu will be on cleaning duty, then. It's settled," Riese settles things even though I never agreed to do it. Alone, anyways. Before I could tell him, the Husky and Cat start talking to each other about plans on scouting and such. It would be rude to interrupt even though I didn't want to clean alone, but I guess I'll have to deal with it. They continue their talk until the next teacher comes in and they go back to their respective seats.

Normal class hours pass by and the time reaches reaches 4:00 PM. It's time for clubs. As I pick up my bag, Riese says "We're gonna go scout some members now, make sure you clean the club good, okay?" and goes off with Tabitha who says "It should be spotless," before leaving Sigh. I'll be cleaning alone again. It reminds me of me cleaning the house alone, no one to help me.

I proceed to find the club room. If I remember correctly, it was on the third floor at the end of the hall. It should be easy to find. I ascend the stairs to the third floor and... at which end? Mr. Kelt didn't specify if it was at my right end or left end of the hall. I'm gonna go with my gut and try my right end. There's no sign to indicate whether it was the right one or not, nonetheless I open the door and all I see is darkness. A chill crawl up my spine as I remember that it was darkness like this that shrouded my home when I saw my mom on the floor. Out of fear, I slam the door shut, sweating as I try to forget about that time.

"Maybe I'll try the other end," I say to myself before turning to my right, "hopefully it's the right one," I slowly go to the other end and there is another room with a faded sign. I can't make up the words but I can see there's an "F" as the first letter of the second word. The moment I touch the door handle, I'm reminded of that room and mom, but I try to ignore it and open the door slowly. I'm greeted with a silver furred Akita sweeping the floor as my first sight of the room. He notices after a while because he stares at me. His cheeks then flushes red and just continue sweeping.

"Oh, K-Ken, I didn't know you were already here," I stammer. I wasn't expecting to see him here, let alone cleaning the room and how he knows where the club room is if we never told him. "So, uh, let me help you clean," I say to him and he nods, his cheeks going back to his natural silver. I put my bag down on an empty desk and find a feather duster in one of the shelves. I start dusting off the shelves while Ken continues sweeping. The shelves contained quite a few books.

After dusting, sweeping, arranging the chairs and desks, cleaning and opening the window, and throwing away the gathered dust and trash for a good twenty minutes more or less, we rest on separate chairs and admire our cleaning. Ken's eyes were still somewhat emotionless looking when I took a glance at him, but I think he's satisfied. The room is small with white tiles, but it should be enough to hold seven or eight persons, there are books on the shelves that I might read, five chairs and desks are available, and there's a place strictly for cleaning supplies on the right-end corner of the room which I honestly like. The room is filled with silent admiration at first, but later on becomes an awkward silence.

"So, how'd you know where the club is? We weren't able to tell you yesterday," I ask, breaking the silence.

"Mr. Kelt told me," he says with a flat tone and without turning his head to face me.

"Oh, I see," after that, another awkward silence. I can't think of any topic to talk about. I was never the type the start conversations. I jump when I hear Ken call my name. "Yes?" I turn my head to him

"Nothing," he just stares at the floor with his emotionless eyes, but his brows changes it by making it look... sad? I ask him what's wrong but he just shakes his head, "Nothing," he says again. I keep on thinking of topics to talk about, but there is really nothing I can talk about that he might be able to relate or respond to since I don't know much about him yet. Ken Aki. Aki. Is he Japanese, perhaps? I've heard of a famous Japanese Akita whose last name is Aki.

"Are you related to Minami Aki?" I ask him. His ears perk and looks at me with widened eyes, surprised. He then looks away and stares back to the floor. He nods slightly.

"She's my Mom," he says. I'm left speechless. Minami Aki was a famous business woman in Japan. I've read a few articles about her and how she became successful at the age of 20. Her strategies and systemized planning is what carried her in the world of business, and here is her son in the normal society, and in our club.

"W-Wow, that's... amazing," this is what I can only say. The son of a famous business woman is here in the school. But he seem to dislike what I said because he shakes his head.

"She's always busy," Ken says. He's right. The world of business is a busy world where each minute is planned through, at least that's what I think. But why is he here? Shouldn't he be at least in Japan?

"So, where do you currently stay?" I ask him. It'd be offensive if I say that he should be in Japan.

"I'm living with my grandmother," he says.

"I see..." and then another silence. This is probably the most awkward chat in my life with silence coming back every so often. Instead of asking more about him and his mother, I think it would be best that I shouldn't now and wait for the end of the club hour.

At around 4:54, the door slowly opens. I thought it was Rue but it's just the duo looking exhausted. Were they able to recruit someone? "We've been looking everywhere to find this room. We opened every door we could find. Why didn't you tell us it was here?" Riese says exhaustedly. Wasn't he listening to Mr. Kelt? "Oh, and you must be Ken. Name's Riese Michael Fritz, nice to meetcha," he adds pointing his thumb at himself. Tabitha leans forward, pushing down Riese and also introduces herself.

"Ken Aki. It's a pleasure to meet you," he bows his head slightly. He's formal.

"Mr. Kelt told us where the club is. You just forget or didn't listen," I tell Riese bluntly who flinches in response. Tabitha then shakes Riese's head violently and yelling why he forget. I laugh a bit and my eyes catches Ken's eyes. His eyes no longer look emotionless but a bit of sparkle, like he found the duo's act funny, and I could agree to that. I pass the comedic baton to you, Tabitha.

"Ohoho, good job on cleaning the club room, Varu," Tabitha stops shaking Riese's head and compliments me. Riese falls on the floor semi-unconscious, mumbling insensible things.

"I didn't do it alone, though. Ken helped me," I say before giving a glance at Ken. His cheeks went pink when I glanced. Tabitha goes to Ken and shakes his paws, also complimenting him. Ken goes from pink to red and looks away. He's probably embarrassed.

The bell rings, meaning it's time to go home. Riese slowly stands up and composes himself. "Uh, before we leave, numbers," he picks up a phone from his pocket, "so that we can contact each other when we need to. I don't want my head shaked like a maracas again," he says. Makes sense, even I don't want my head to be a maracas. The four of us exchange numbers before leaving the club room. We bid goodbye to Ken who goes out first and the three of us follow afterwards. Though, we have to go back to our classroom because these two didn't bring their bags. After they pick up their bags, we go out and Tabitha's dad was there to pick her up.

"See you guys tomorrow," Tabitha waves goodbye before the car's engine starts and they take off.

"I'll be taking the school bus today, laters," Riese also waves goodbye but before he leaves, I ask him why he didn't take the bus yesterday. "I went to buy the latest manga of Two Piece. I take the public bus afterwards," he says.

"Why not just walk home? I think our houses and the school aren't that far from each other," I tell him. He could save a few bucks walking home.

"You're just asking me to torture myself. I still have a life to live, man," his voice was shaking like walking as actually a torture, "Well, laters," he waves goodbye again and dashes to the school bus. Walking is good, man. Walking is good.

I walk back home like yesterday. Two kilometers isn't actually that far. And it's not like there's someone waiting at my house to greet me home, I can take my time. I even see a normal cat that reminds me of Tabitha on the way homr and play with it for a while. It's kinda weird how there are animals that resemble us, though we are animals as well. I wonder how and why we are made different. I continue walking back home when when the cat jumps over a fence. Wonder if we'll meet again. I arrive home a while after, opening the door and entering.

"I'm home," I say as close and lock the door. I take of my shoes and put on my indoor slippers. I look at the time, 6:00. Didn't notice I was playing with that cat for a long while. I go to my room, take off my uniform, and change into my casual clothes, a blue shirt that blends well with my fur and black shorts. I then go to the kitchen and check what ingredients I can make. A pack of spaghetti catches my eye and I take it. Spaghetti today seems good.

I make the spaghetti without the help of internet. I've been making spaghetti long enough to not have a guide and am successfully able to cook it. This much usually lasts me one or two more dinners depending on my mood and is refrigerated for the next days.

I put the platings (just a plate and fork) and put some spaghetti on it. I put the leftover spaghetti in a tupperware and put it inside the fridge. With that done, I proceed with dinner. With the fork on my right, I pierce through the strings of spaghetti, swirl it around getting quite a lot, and eat it. It's unusually warm. It's not cold anymore. I haven't tasted spaghetti like this since my mom made some for me. It reminds me of her so much that I start to cry while eating. These tears, they're tears of joy. In this house that I call a "home" actually feels like one now. This "home" was never a home when Dad left abroad, but it felt like home now.

After eating, washing the dishes and utensils, I go to my room. Don't need to clean again since I already cleaned the house a bit yesterday. I turn on my laptop and see that Dad's online. He contacts me from time to time when he's not busy. He sends me a message "Hey son, how're you doing?"

"Fine," I reply. He's a great dad, kind and caring, just that he has work abroad and he's usually busy. Something like Ken's mom but with lesser work, "How about you?"

"Work's been a hassle. It's really not easy here in Japan even after one year." "How's school?"

"You're not chatting while working, are you? You know we have different timezones. It's probably around mid-morning there." "Also, school's fine."

"C'mon, give your old man a break. I can't survive just working. Also, details on school. Friends? Girlfriends?"

"Seriously? Girlfriends?"

"What, you're old enough for a girlfriend already. Nothing wrong with it."

"Mom was here, she'd slap you. Twice"

"Haha. True."

"Well, I have a few friends."

Five minutes later, he replies, "Sorry, caught by my boss. That's great you have friends. Enjoy yourself, your laifu and your friendsu. Gtg now, chat ya next timw." "*Time" I snicker at his misfortune and misspelling.

"Alright, g'night. Cya." I reply and he goes offline. I place my head on the laptop's keyboard. We don't get to have time together, and with our different timezones, we can't always chat to each other. I turn off my laptop, close it, and jump to my bed, kicking my slippers away. I'm feeling a bit sleepy. Before I know it, I slept without crying for the first time in two years.