Tetsuo first appears as a dirty, malnourished runaway who is stopped by Father from stealing food from a grocery store. He hitches a ride with father and Happy for awhile, ultimately stealing his wallet and setting off on his own to Hokkaido. From Tetsuo's perspective, we see that his father is not in the picture and his mother, Kay, often leaves Tetsuo for days without food in their small, dirty apartment, to go and meet men. After she abandons him for good, Tetsuo decides to go to his maternal grandfather in Hokkaido and picks up a pug along the way in order to not stand out to the police. He ends up naming the pug "Happy" and quickly bonds with him, despite only seeing him as a tool at first.