How to redirect user to public/ directory in PHP Composer?

This is how my file structure is:

./ git
./ public
      ./assets/
      ./pages/
      ./index.php
./tests
./vendor
./composer.json
./composer.lock

./index.php ==> header('Location: /public/'); Should I do this ?

Instead of typing stories.com/public in my browser eveytime, should I include an index.php and then use header call or is there any other * better * method ?

Please keep in mind I want to later on deploy my app to HEROKU for FREE