The Cat and the Mouse

In a college, located near the acacia tree, there were four animal friends who always hung out with each other. The fox, the cat, the mouse, and the chicken. 

They always sat next to each other in the classroom, on the field, and most especially around the library. 

They talked, slept, and even sneakily ate there. But our story today won't talk about their adventures together. It would be centered between the cat and the mouse. 

In theory, they shouldn't be friends; the cat should have eaten the mouse from the get-go, but the cat has been trained to eat anything but a mouse. 

They got along just fine in the first three years of college. The cat was so close to the fox, and the mouse was best of friends with the chicken. 

The four of them were always seen together but worked in duos. They were okay, almost all the time, but early on, the cat noticed something about the mouse. 

The mouse would always complain about everything- school projects, terror teachers, the weather, her appearance, and most of all about her dysfunctional family. Her drunkard father, her saint-of-a-mother, and her not-so-well-adjusted older siblings.

Since the cat was a trained empathizer, she would give some advice and try to cheer her up. "Okay ra na uy, paningkamot lang jud." "Dili naman na mausab imong Papa jud, pasagdii nalang na siya." "Ayaw na problemaha imong mga igsuon, pag focus sa imong problema." "Pasagdii na imong kuya kay naningkamot rapod nag iya." 

During this time, the situation was tolerable because the burden was not really on the cat; remember, she was always with the fox. 

It wasn't until their fourth year of college, when the fox stopped going to school and decided to hunt in a different forest, that the real struggle began. It turned out, the real glue in the group was the fox, and without her, the cat had no duo, and she had to listen to the myriad problems of the mouse alone. 

The cat had to lend her ears 24/7 to the mouse, and she realized soon after that, no matter what kind of advice she gave, it wouldn't change or help the mouse. 

The mouse was just a perpetual complainer and did nothing to solve her problems. She was a pessimistic downer, and the cat was slowly drowning in the mouse's shits. And the cat couldn't escape from it because during this time, the mouse's real duo-the chicken, was also not regularly going to school for reasons no one knew. 

For one year, the cat only wanted to stay away from the mouse, but the mouse had nowhere else to go. The mouse followed the cat around and yapped about her problems, while she didn't care that the cat was fighting her own struggles too. 

The cat was a working student with a tyrannical-tiger boss. She worked through the bones from 4:50 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. She hardly complained about her situation and never passed her burdens to her friends; instead, she found solace through her books and the fictional worlds created by her favorite authors. 

But the mouse never asked the cat if she was okay, and she couldn't even catch a hint that the cat was so tired of her and just wanted to eat her. 

It wasn't until they finally graduated and were about to take the Licensure Examination that the cat finally freed herself from being metaphorically tied to the mouse. She finally found peace in her life and left the professional victim who didn't even try to help herself.

Moral of the Story:

The cat should have cut off her relationship with the mouse from the very start of the story, because in real life, their friendship doesn't make sense. 

Additionally, a professional victim who doesn't want to change their life even just a little will always be the victim, even if there are people worse off than them around. 

In Tagalog, "sila ang biktima, sa sarili nilang storya."

Epilogue: The mouse occasionally messages the cat to borrow/ask for money, but the cat historically only let/gave her once. The cat is not in a bad friendship anymore because now she's not afraid of eating anyone's head off. Haha!

P.S. In the 'moral of the story' above, I wrote something about the professional victims in Tagalog, "sila ang biktima, sa sarili nilang storya," which we could also relate to the author (me) of this story, "ang author ang bida sa sarili nyang storya." 

So whatever you read earlier, take it with a grain of salt. This is the author's truth, but it doesn't necessarily mean it should be yours (or the mouse's truth), too.