I lost the cap of this marker.↗ At least it wasn't the bigger tip's cap, but I have absolutely no idea how I managed to lose it. I took off the cap to write something on my planner, leaving it just beside me on the left side of the desk. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't find the cap after a minute or two. A bit alarmed, I scanned around the desk. I didn't hear anything hit the tile floor, but I looked down and around all the same. I checked under the desk, too. No trace of it. Impossible.

Completely baffled, I searched everywhere. Even though I knew it was out of the realm of possibility, l rummaged through every drawer. Don't trust logic, the pen could have transported itself. I cleared the desk, removing everything on the surface. I shook the desk mat like a matador confronting a bull; I also shook the fragile book stand like a tambourine; I checked my office chair, giving it some unnecessary smacks just to make sure the cap hadn't buried itself in there. Then, I swept the floor around the desk to make sure I hadn't missed the tiny black cap, but all I could see was a week's worth of dust (don't judge me). I even patted myself up and down, not sure of myself anymore.

Meanwhile, my poor pen was lying helplessly on the desk. I had to separate it from the other pens to keep an eye on it and to avoid smudging anything with the exposed tip. Other pens seem to be holding their collective breaths in my pen holder, a.k.a. a white-Dollar-City-coffee mug. Are they pitying the black marker's misfortune, or are they welcoming this situation that might give them extra space in the pen holder? (I tend to cram it.)

Someone on Reddit said this about losing a pen's cap:

Just throw it away and use another one. The pens are cheap!

Excuse me, sir, but this marker ain't heap. One of these costs more than $2 to $5 depending on where and how you buy it. I always buy them in a set online and have them shipped internationally since they're not sold where I live. Actually, I can also buy it when I go back to Japan, because it's a Japanese product. If you love drawing, bullet journaling, calligraphy, or stationery itself, you would recognize this pen despite the worn-off logo. You would surely know the quality of this pen, too. It's worth every darn penny. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Tombow's ABT Dual Brush Pen. Of course, there are many more color variations available than my humble black one in the header image.

Tombow is a gigantic Japanese stationery company. I can confidently say that there is not a single person in Japan who hasn't used one of their products in their lives. For the past decade, their top-notch quality stationery has been gaining huge popularity outside Japan as well. This maker series is one of the most cherished products. From what I've seen, this particular item is way more popular overseas than in Japan. By the way, Tombow is a universal logo of the company's name トンボ (tonbo) that actually means dragonfly.

Back to the topic, assuming there is one in this post…🥴What I wanted to say is, this wasn't any cheap pen I can discard easily. I value it too much. Regrettably, I had done a decluttering of my stationary last month and I had gotten rid of all the used or broken pens, including ones from this series. I should've kept at least one so that I could re-use the cap... The dread I was feeling at that moment was rather overwhelming.

The clock is ticking… the poor marker will dry out sooner or later. It will be an agonizing process to witness, a torture of sorts that I don't wish to inflict upon anyone. I thought about saving it using some little hacks I found on Reddit, but it seemed futile, just delaying the inevitable. Maybe, I should go on a rampage of scribbling before the pen dries out, so that it can fulfill its raison d'être rather than being left until it runs out of ink. Would the pen appreciate my mindless and desperate act, or would it rather prefer me to go about my day as usual until the time comes? The sight of the exposed tip just kept gnawing at me, and I couldn't stop checking every pen and see if any of the caps fit.

In the end, it turned out that I had a blender pen from the same series in my stock, whose existence I had totally forgotten🤪. It's a pen without ink, and you can use its brush just like a watercolor brush for blending colors. Since I rarely use this brush, I could borrow its cap. Ta-da! My dearest pen is finally out of danger.

Where did the lost cap go, though?

I assume it's in the hands of aliens.

It's always aliens.

(I swear, I just wanted to write a paragraph)

✔Corrected