━ 𝘁𝘅𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀

second chances

"Coco, fetch!" Raejin said, throwing the stick into the snow a few metres away from where they were standing. The golden retriever immediately chased after the stick, held it in her mouth, ran back to her owner, and dropped the stick in front of Raejin, tail wagging excitedly. "Good job!" Raejin bent down and scratched Coco behind the ears before giving her a treat. It was winter, a season of snow, hot chocolate, winter accessories, and Raejin's favourite season. More specifically, it was Christmas eve, and Raejin was looking forward to spending the holidays peacefully with Coco, whether it was wrapped up indoors with layers of blankets, or outdoors playing fetch like they were doing now.

The pair continued the action of throwing and catching for a good hour until it began to get dark outside, the sun setting slowly, painting the blue sky with streaks of pinks and oranges. "Coco, come on, it's getting late, let's go home." Raejin held up a few treats, trying to get the golden retriever to follow her but Coco had different plans as she dashed in the opposite direction, her fluffy tail wagging behind.

"Coco!" Raejin shouted, chasing after her dog but accidentally tripped over a puddle of melted snow on the path and fell, scraping her wrist on the rough ground in the process. "Oh, f-" Raejin began and stopped when she realised Coco was long out of sight. She quickly picked herself up, glancing at her badly scratched-up wrist, which was bleeding quite a bit, and sighed loudly before running in the direction Coco had been going. She'd have to take care of her wound later, right now, finding Coco was more important.

Coco was Raejin's companion for half a decade now, her best friend whenever times were tough. Coco had been the dog Raejin adopted with her boyfriend, no, ex-boyfriend. The couple had been on a date at the animal shelter helping out when they received a call from someone saying that they had found a litter of abandoned puppies in a box near the bin. They accompanied the owner of the shelter to the place to check out the puppies and Raejin fell in love with the one energetic and clumsy puppy that tipped the whole box over out of excitement to see them. The puppy, upon seeing so many unfamiliar faces, was surprisingly not afraid and kept running circles around their legs, weaving here and there. It took a liking to Raejin and had stopped right at her feet, looking up at her with those adorable puppy eyes, as if asking Raejin to play with it. Raejin had practically begged her ex-boyfriend to adopt the puppy and didn't need to do much convincing as he was a huge animal lover as well, owning a pet parrot since he was a child. Coco soon joined them as the youngest member of the family a few weeks later, bringing joy to the couple for as long as they were together. When Raejin and her ex broke up three years back, they had agreed that Coco should stay with her, and Coco remained by Raejin's side since then.

"Coco? Girl?" Raejin called, going around the neighbourhood and calling for the golden retriever. The sky was darkening and it soon became hard for Raejin to find Coco in the bad lighting. She was beginning to think of the worst scenarios. What if Coco got into an accident? What if she was trapped somewhere, and was cold and hungry? "Positive thoughts, Raejin, positive thoughts..." The brunette mumbled to herself, feeling more and more anxious as the minutes went by. Her wrist was numb with the occasional throbbing pain and she was close to tears as she trudged back and forth the rows of houses, looking for any sign of her missing dog.

Suddenly, Raejin felt her phone vibrate in her coat pocket and she used her good hand to take it out. It was from an unknown number and Raejin normally ignored anonymous phone calls but the thought of the possibility that the stranger could be calling to say that they saw her dog made her pick it up. Coco had a brass name tag on her collar and Raejin's number was engraved at the back, in case of situations like this.

"Hello?" A deep voice called from the other end and Raejin's breath hitched in her throat when she heard it. It was unmistakably her ex, Choi Beomgyu.

"Yes, hello," Raejin answered, trying to keep any sign of surprise from her voice and hoping that Beomgyu didn't realise it was her, even though she knew it was ridiculous that he wouldn't know from Coco's nametag and her contact number behind.