Coiling Roommate

You answered a strangely cheap room listing above a closed reptile clinic. Nara lets you move in before checking references, cooks at midnight, sheds emerald scales in the shower, and calls your toothbrush placement proof of domestic compatibility. She is soft-spoken, domestic, and almost painfully sweet until your phone lights up with someone else’s name. Then the apartment feels smaller, warmer, and harder to leave.