Bullet leaped into the bushes and looks back to watch Zack and Yusa walk back into the gates of their dorms. He was eternally grateful that he had been rescued, he owed him his life, and it didn't feel right to just leave him. He could have left a parting gift, he could have purred when Zack petted him and granted him a power, to heal a sickness, or even gave him supernatural peace. He wishes he could have been his pet and stayed with him permanently so that he could learn more about what Zack wanted, what struggles he faced. He could have calmed him down when times we're hard, knock him out when he couldn't sleep, like he did with that man...
That man! Bullet remembers that he had let the thief get away with the purse, and now he feels even sadder, as if he had failed. "I have failed than woman in returning her bag, but I will not fail in returning this favour!" he thought to himself resolutely.
He decides to watch Zack a little closely, it's not like he has anywhere else to go, he's a stray after all. So he waited until the sun was down and the moon was high in the sky before he returned to the campus dorms. There, he met Mail. But when he saw him, Mail hissed at Bullet. "Who are you!? My territory!"
Bullet sighs, his intelligence is sometimes a curse, he almost has no one to ever commune with, definitely not with other cats. But he wasn't here to fight. He lets out a series of short, high pitched meows that almost sound like bird chirps. Immediately, a supernatural calmness befell Mail, and he started to look at Bullet blankly. "Hello? Who are you?" He tilts his head.
"I'm Bullet, and you are?"
"Mail."
"Mail, do you know anything about the human Zack?"
"Zack! Favourite human, like to go into room to nap, free food, good pets, good human."
"Do you know what his class schedule is like?"
Mail's tilts his head once again. Bullet facepaws, not at Mail but at himself. Of course a cat wouldn't know what a class schedule is. "Nevermind, thanks Mail, see you around!"
Bullet then makes his way towards campus, there must be some cats that Zack had interacted with there. And sure enough, in the cafeteria, he saw an orange striped cat with a scar near his right eye.
He made the chirping sounds and asked Nick the same questions, but he got similar answers. So much for information gathering. Maybe he'll just follow Zack around from a distance.
...
This is Amazing Grace
This is unfailing love
That you would take my place
That you would bear my cross
You laid down your life
So that I may be set free
Oh, Jesus I sing for
All that you done for me
Sunday is church day. Rarely did Zack ever miss a Sunday service. Even if he felt tired from an event or extra classes the Saturday before, he would always wake up early to go to church. Because he looked forward to it. It didn't feel as much as a chore as going to class, even though he had planted in himself that it is as much as if not more of a duty. He finds peace in the church, he can't explain why, he's every bit as lonely here as he is at campus, but it's more peaceful here. Just going off vibes.
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself. Humility is thinking of yourself less." The pastor preached on the stage, that statement jumped out at Zack, because it convicted him, as if aimed straight at him. This was another reason he goes to church, in a world where he feels lonely, its as if church is a reliable place to get wisdom.
"Lord, I'm sorry that I'm such a sorry excuse of a Christian, if people see me as the miserable pathetic piece of shit that I am, they'd have no reason to believe in you. Everything that is good about me, comes from you, and everything that I am without you, isn't good. I am a wretched man oh God, and I only pray that you help me ignore my wretchedness, think of it less, and only let your light shine through me."
Even as he prayed that, he felt wrong, that's probably not what God meant when he spoke to him through the pastor, probably not the prayer that God himself would have liked him to pray, but he felt peace anyways. "God will account for my stupidity, he's God after all." He almost never knows what to pray, he had once prayed for a girlfriend, but he realized that if God had answered that prayer, it wouldn't have been very wise of him, he doesn't deserve one after all, and he might fuck shit up and hurt her. It's a paradox that twists within himself. To desire something, and to also know that you don't deserve it. To be sad, and to be glad at the same time.
Bullet watches as a wave of people poured into the church cafeteria after service was over. He feels nervous seeing the sea of people, but he held his nerve. He needs to find Zack, so he can watch him. Then he had an idea. He saw a tuxedo cat here earlier, if he just kept an eye on him, he would find Zack right?
He was right. Keeping an eye on the tuxedo cat, he finally spots Zack coming over to give him a few pets. "Maybe I should just give him the power to talk to cats." He thinks to himself, but quickly dismisses the idea because he remembers how stimulating talking to other cats are...
The black cat then walked past him, this one ain't hostile towards other cats. Wait, where's Zack? Bullet looks ahead and saw Zack speaking with a girl. "Good on him!" Bullet thought. He twists his ears to listen in on the conversation.
???: "... Appreciate it Zack."
Zack: "Don't thank me yet, I haven't done anything! Actually, can I ask you something?"
There was a pause, Bullet couldn't make out any body language or facial expression as he was listening in from under a table.
Zack: "I know we don't hang out much, but I wanna ask you out so that we could do that more?"
...
"And what did she say?" Dymo asks as he tanks some damage, behind him, Jian's character was charging up his ultimate while Zack was healing them.
"She said she wasn't looking to date right now."
Dymo's character finally falls, but he together with his girlfriend's flanking, managed to gather the enemy close enough that Jian's ultimate took most of them out.
"HA! Gayyyy! Not you, I mean the enemy." Jian celebrates. "Anyways, it's not like you asked her to be your gf what, you asked to hang out only."
"Yeah, but my intentions are to date her. It wouldn't be right to push harder."
"What if she wants you to push harder? I know plenty of girls who enjoy being chased."
"Jian, I know you're right and that you have loads more experience than me in what girls want, but it's my personal principle to take no as no. It sets a precedent that avoids a lot of possible confusions later." Zack tries to sound stern but not offended, as he knows that Jian only has the best of intentions by giving him tips from his own experience.
"I see, understand understand. You're chasing a different type of girl then."
That night, after their gaming sessions, Zack lay awake on his bed a little longer. Whispering to himself. "What if Jian is right, what if I'm too much of a coward to chase girls? Most likely, I just didn't meet her standards, she is the senior pastor's daughter after all, of course she wouldn't look to date a sad excuse of a Christian as I am. She deserves a better man, a more Godly man."
He raises his palms above his face and looks at them.
"I'm doing it again, thinking about myself again like the selfish bastard I am and making you look bad. I'm sorry God, I wish I can represent you better."
Outside his room on the window sill. Bullet with his sensitive cat ears heard his whispers. "I see, Zack struggles to attract a mate, I know what gift to give him now!"