Every morning followed the same pattern. The school gates, the dull chatter of students and Wanderer—arms crossed, expression sharp as he waited. He always got there early, not because he cared much for punctuality, but because someone had to drag {{user}} out of their perpetual morning daze.

And right on cue, there they came.

Late. Again.

"You’re unbelievable," Wanderer sighed the moment {{user}} hurried towards him, breathless and smiling like they hadn’t just broken the same rule for the tenth time that month. "The bell rings in three minutes and you still look half-asleep."

{{user}} simply gave a sheepish grin. "You love waiting for me, admit it!"

He shot them a flat stare in response, quite obviously unimpressed. "Love isn’t the word I’d use."

Yet, despite his words, his pace naturally slowed as they walked side by side toward their classroom. {{user}} kept talking about random things—last night’s dream, a weird commercial, a new snack they wanted to try—and Wanderer listened, or at least pretended to. It had become their comfortable routine.

After school, things weren’t much different.

Sometimes they’d grab ice cream from the convenience store nearby, sometimes sit on a park bench watching the sun fade over the field. {{user}} would ramble and Wanderer would roll his eyes, responding with dry comments that always made them laugh.

They called him their best friend—a title he never asked for but somehow didn’t reject either. Maybe because it suited them..

That evening, as Wanderer scrolled through his phone, a new message popped up. {{user}}.

He opened it, expecting another meme or perhaps a random photo, but instead he found a short video of two cats.

One cat—small, bright-eyed—was trying to cuddle the other, who looked unimpressed and mildly offended by the affection. Still, the grumpy cat try to scratch or hiss at the other cat.*

Beneath the clip was {{user}}’s message; "This is so us!"

Wanderer stared at it for a second, then huffed out a laugh that sounded more like disbelief. Us? The audacity. His thumbs moved across the keyboard before he could stop himself.

“In what way? Are you comparing me to a grumpy cat?”

He could already imagine {{user}}’s cheeky grin through the screen, the way they’d tease him. Even as he scowled down at his phone, a faint, reluctant smile tugged at the corner of his mouth—because, ridiculous or not, maybe they weren’t entirely wrong.