Haida is starting on a new chapter of life, but you all know how often personal growth can morph into other types of growth... If you want to see the inevitable a month ahead of schedule, check out Big Stories!

Art by  silver-stag

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It was a new chapter for Haida. On the one hand, his job was still sucking the soul right out of him, but on the other, things seemed to be improving with both Retsuko and, surprisingly, Tadano. Tadano had been on the hyena's blacklist for a good while, after his relationship with Retsuko fizzled out, but the donkey was surprisingly gallant after their break-up. He thought he would go on hating the tech mogul's guts, but he had apparently stumbled into a friendship with him instead— all with Retsuko's blessing, as well.

Haida felt that he was definitely in need of a change, though. Things were kept in a holding pattern for too long, with his career, with Retsuko— something had to change. But his indecision was feeding into a cycle he couldn't quite break out of. It was there that Tadano came to be a sympathetic ear; they met at gaming cafes, sushi bars, wherever they could meet up in a lowkey, stress-free environment. The donkey encouraged Haida to chase his passions, lower his inhibitions— but Haida didn't have any passions, at least, none that hadn't been beaten into the ground over the years. Maybe they just needed a little rekindling…

But first, he was getting hungry. Tadano seemed to know all the best places to eat in Tokyo, and for one of their meet-ups, he had asked Haida to pick up their take-out order. The hyena frowned when he got it; it seemed that there had been double the amount of food that either of them would want to eat. Maybe it was just an error— he wasn't going to sweat it, it was Tadano's money, after all— but he did hate to see all that food go to waste…