seasons sing a lullaby

Pluviophile X Rain - 1

Sagar and Varsha started to walk on the main road. He could see a cluster of high-rise buildings and small establishment, illuminated by the neon hue emitted from the billboards and advertisements. The rain had reduced to a drizzle, and Sagar had closed his umbrella and held it in his left hand, his right holding on to the half-eaten corn. They didn't have a particular destination to reach to, they just walked, searching for a street dog.  Since he knew the streets in and out around this area, he didn't worry about finding his way back to his room.

"Sagar, what are your hobbies?", Varsha asked, as she slowed down, probably for him to catch up to her. There was a bored look on her face: he didn't really talk on their way, actually, he considered himself to be the silent type, and he spoke even less in the past few months.

" I-I used to write a web novel", the sudden question had startled him, so he didn't have the composure to think for an answer, he honestly told what was in his mind.

"used to?", she asked, turning toward him, with a curious look on her face. They were now walking side by side.

"Well, I've put it on hiatus for now, due to.... reasons". 

"Oh". She didn't question further. She stared at him for a moment and continued to walk.

They walked for another 5 minutes, then, near a streetlight, they found a puppy. It was black colored, probably around 6-7 months old, sitting under the streetlight. Sagar approached the puppy. It looked at him with gleaming, hopeful eyes. He averted his eyes from its. He placed the half -eaten corn near it. It smelled the corn for a few seconds and took the whole thing in its mouth. It started to chew it, trying to drink the juices released. It chewed it for a few minutes and spit it out.

Sagar stared at the Puppy. It had a happy and a satisfied look on its face, not that he studied animal behavior, he just assumed that it was happy. The fact that it was still chewing on it, even though it had already eaten all the corn kernels, probably meant that it did not usually find a lot of food, as far as he knew, dogs were greedy creatures: they would normally come for more food before even finishing what they already had. Anyway, this is what he could infer on the experiences he had in the past. He did feed a lot of dogs in the past, so he thought his opinion toward their nature was probably true. He remembered all those times when he had to tag along with him even though he was against feeding left over food to street dogs. Although looking back, he tagged along with him to do stuff he didn't want to, and many times, actually ended up enjoying it.

Sagar's eyes, again, had a faded distant look. They were focused on some random spot on the road, he appeared to be thinking, or more precisely, reminiscing about something.

" Y'know, scratching on their backs makes them feel happy".

Sagar was pulled back to the present. He hadn't noticed, but the dog had finished eating and started to rub itself on his pants, wagging its tail. Varsha was crouching near it and scratching it's back, with a smile on her face.

"C'mon you should try scratching it too"

"I...think I'll pass"

"Wait, is it possible that you are scared of dogs?", she said with a teasing look on her eyes, in a joking manner.

"I'm not scared", he replied in an irritating tone.

She played with the pup for a little longer, and with a satisfied look on her face, got up to leave. They walked in the same direction they had come in. The puppy followed them for a short distance, but stopped following them after a while. They could see the board of the corn stall a few meters away.

It started to rain again.

To be continued