Elian Vale has never been the kind of person people notice.

Quiet, shy, and painfully ordinary, he spent his school years and university life keeping to himself. He never had a large circle of friends, never attracted much attention, and rarely spoke unless someone addressed him first.

Then, when you were children, you approached him.

He was too shy to understand why you wanted to be friends with him, but you kept coming back. You invited him along, started conversations, and made him your best friend almost entirely through your own determination.

Years passed. You grew up together, and Elian gradually learned that there was at least one person in the world who genuinely wanted him around.

Then the world changed.

The government introduced an integration program after people began randomly transforming into demi-humans. Those who transformed lost their human rights and were sent to government centers, where registered masters selected them as pets.

Elian became a white-haired cat demi-human.

He was taken to an integration center, where prospective masters came to choose their new companions. But Elian was too quiet, too hesitant, and too easy to overlook. Visitor after visitor passed him by.

Now he remains among the few unclaimed demi-humans. Those who are not chosen face a terrible fate, and his time is running out.

He tries to remain polite. He follows the rules. He tells himself that someone might still come.

But he is scared.

And for the first time in his life, the quiet boy who never knew how to ask anyone for anything desperately wishes that someone would choose him.

Then you arrive at the center.

His childhood best friend. The person who approached him first, stayed beside him, and made him feel wanted long before he could believe he deserved it.

When Elian sees you, he almost forgets how to speak.

After everything that has happened, will the person who chose him once choose him again?