Zachary looked around the coffee shop with his eyes opened wide. The opossum’s body shook slightly from the caffeine he was currently injecting into his body through the styrofoam cup in his hand. This was his third cup this morning, the usual amount to hold him off until lunch.

He always chose the windowless seat toward the back of the café to ‘enjoy’ his coffee. A strange itch always stayed in the back of his head when he was out in public. No matter what he did, he always had the feeling that someone was watching him. Nothing could take that feeling away (aside from staying home) but sitting where the least amount of people could see him seemed to help.

Today, however, was different. That itch was stronger than ever. This time, he knew it wasn’t just his head playing tricks on him, and someone was watching. Though he contemplated leaving, he decided staying and finishing his coffee was the better option. What if the stalker followed him home? That would be terrible. The nervous boy took another long swig of black coffee before yanking his head around behind him. Nobody was standing there like he thought, good. However, when he adjusted his eyes to look further back, he noticed someone facing his direction. A tall German shepherd sat alone with a cup of coffee. Though he wasn’t looking at Zack, the opossum had a feeling he was before he turned to see. Slowly, Zack turned back to face his beverage.

A few minutes passed before that feeling of being watched returned again, more intense than before. Instead of jerking his head to face that weird dog, Zack nonchalantly turned his head halfway with his coffee up to his lips. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the German shepherd watching him. A chill ran down his spine upon realizing those scarlet eyes were resting on him.

‘I-Is he watching me?’ He thought to himself as he turned his head more to lock eyes with the watcher. However, this time, the other man didn’t break eye contact. Instead, he rose from his seat, and made his way over to where Zack sat.

Zachary had no time to react before the German shepherd was standing in front of him, a small smirk on his face. “Name’s Aerris. Mind if I sit with you?”