How long has it been?
The girl somehow made it to the hideout.
So hungry she could go mad, the moment she arrived, she opened the hand tightly holding onto something.
From her mouth came a sound like a cough, and from her hand, something that had turned into a muddy mess from the mixed rainwater crawled out.
It was closer to mud than food, but the girl didn’t have the luxury to pick and choose.
“…I’m hungry.”
Thinking she needed to eat something to quell the maddening hunger, the girl thrust her right hand into her mouth.
And then, it happened.
The girl spotted a small fur ball huddled in a corner of the hideout.
Drenched from the rain, it looked like a black rag at first glance.
Had it snuck in while she was away?
It wasn’t unusual for an intruder to stumble into the hideout, but usually, they would jump in surprise and run away the moment the girl came back.
So, she thought it must be dead.
Kiiing…
But from the barely audible sound of a faint squeak, the girl realized that the fur ball was still alive.
Still alive, which meant it looked like it was going to die soon.
The girl had no way of knowing it was a creature commonly called a “puppy.”
She stared at the struggling fur ball, gasping for breath.
It had four legs.
What appeared to be its head had ears, a nose, and a mouth, but no eyes.
No, rather it couldn’t open its eyes because of the deep wounds where its eyes should have been.
The girl understood better than anyone just how important eyes were for survival.
With those eyes ruined, it would be hard for the fur ball to survive.
Given its eyes were wrecked, it was destined to die someday, if not today.
The girl thought to herself that she could eat it if it died, and continued her meal, licking her hand for a moment before resuming.
With hardly anything to eat, she had to consume it more slowly and in smaller amounts than usual.
After this, she would have to wrestle with hunger again.
As she thought this while continuing her meal,
“…”
Suddenly, the girl looked up to see the fur ball in the corner.
The fur ball, which had been looking down at the floor, was now facing her.
Even though the fur ball had no eyes, the girl felt that it was looking at her.
No, maybe it wasn’t looking at her but rather at her hand.
The girl guessed that the fur ball had not eaten anything at all today.
Because of the rain outside.
On a day when, lacking eyes, its nose and ears would be nearly useless, it wouldn’t have been able to find food out there.
So the dying fur ball wanted the food left in her left hand to survive today.
But that was wishful thinking.
It was hardly enough for one person to eat.
Besides, giving away something she obtained after being beaten up was out of the question.
Even with this food, the fur ball would die soon because its eyes were damaged.
The girl was no fool.
To survive in this city, she had to be more cunning than anyone and colder than anyone else.
The girl turned her gaze away from the fur ball and continued her own meal.
…Or at least, she tried to.
Kiiing…
But she couldn’t shake the feeling.
The whimpers from the fur ball were growing quieter.
The breaths from the colorful fur ball were slowly fading.
“…Ah.”
The next moment, the girl realized that she had instinctively reached out her left hand towards the fur ball.
The fur ball, initially startled by the sudden hand, seemed to understand that what was in the hand was essential for its survival and began to lick it.
Oh, the girl was bewildered by the sensation of the fur ball licking her hand.
She couldn’t even comprehend why she acted that way.
Watching the food she had painstakingly gathered vanish into another mouth made her feel overwhelmed.
At this rate, all the food would disappear.
She hadn’t even satisfied her hunger yet.
Shouldn’t she pull her hand away and salvage whatever was left?
Suddenly that thought entered her mind, and hurriedly, she tried to pull her hand back from the fur ball’s licking.
Kiiing, kiiing…
But, she couldn’t take her eyes off it.
The fur ball, desperately licking her hand with its snout, was clearly struggling to survive in a world where it would be hard without its sight.
Yet, the girl couldn’t pull her hand away even though she could barely hold back the tears.
“Ah…”
Eventually, the food in her hand vanished completely into the fur ball’s belly.
“Uu…”
The girl looked at her empty left hand, feeling like crying.
Not a single crumb was left.
She was still so hungry.
The girl glared resentfully at the fur ball, which had licked up every bit of food she should have eaten.
But the fur ball, whether it knew the girl’s feelings or not, had already fallen asleep, breathing softly as it curled up.
The girl felt lost at that sight and lowered her head, thinking.
What a foolish thing she had done. Why did she do something she would regret?
“I’m hungry…”
The girl didn’t realize.
That when she had shared her food with the fur ball, it was because deep down, she wished that someone would share food with her when she was hungry.
She couldn’t pull her hand away because she felt that the fur ball was in a more pitiful situation than herself.
The feeling she had for the first time in her life was called “empathy” and “compassion.”
However, since the girl didn’t know the words, she couldn’t name the feelings, and as she had never deeply contemplated her own feelings, she failed to recognize these new emotions.
“…I’m hungry.”
Thus, the girl lay down on the floor, self-blaming.
Whether it was because of the rain that soaked her or because she hadn’t filled her belly,
She felt much chillier than usual.
That chill was pain, and for the girl, pain equated to hunger.
In return for her first act of kindness, all that was left for the girl was unfulfilled hunger.
Crouching down like a bug, the girl resolved.
She would never do such a foolish thing again.
In a city where one had to be heartless to survive, what she had done might have been nothing but idiocy.
“…Hungry.”
So the girl trembled from hunger for a while, then fell asleep as if fainting.
*
“…Ah, ugh.”
The next morning, the girl uttered a groan as she opened her eyes.
The moment her eyes opened, a fierce hunger welcomed her.
Perhaps due to the aftereffects of the beating from the previous day, her entire body screamed in agony, and her empty stomach cried out for food louder than usual.
“Hungry…”
She needed something to eat, anything at all.
But there was no way there would be food left.
The food she had found yesterday was already in the bellies of herself and that fur ball—
“…Ah!”
At that moment, recalling yesterday’s events, the girl whipped her head towards the corner of the hideout.
There had to be food.
There, surely, a fur ball on the brink of death…
“Ah…”
It should have been there, but it wasn’t.
In the corner where she saw nothing, the girl felt weakened and sighed.
She had given it food yesterday, and it seemed to have regained its strength and wandered off somewhere.
The girl felt her regret about the previous day deepen.
She had ended up worse off because of that act.
By sharing food, she had lost food because of it.
“Ugh…”
Disappointed, the girl straightened her head back to its original position, shivered a little, then seemed to give up and sighed.
She tried to get up, but her body wouldn’t move well.
Maybe it was due to the effects of the beating from the previous day.
To her, it was a thunderbolt of a revelation.
To be in no condition to go out to search for food yet discover there was nothing to eat meant that she would have to starve today despite being so hungry.
“Hungry.”
Realizing she had to starve, the girl felt her hunger intensifying.
The remaining chill from yesterday’s rain seeped deep into her bones as she groaned and curled up.
In such a freezing, starving situation, the girl couldn’t even think about wishing for someone’s help.
Because she had never received such aid in her life.
So the girl simply endured her hunger, crying quietly.
In a hideout where no one would come.
But at that moment,
“…?”
A small shadow appeared at the entrance of the hideout, where no one would come.
Lifting her head, the girl was startled to see a presence that had vanished.
It was the little black fur ball she thought was gone!
The small black fur ball trotted into her hideout.
Could it not stray too far without sight?
The girl didn’t know why, but she felt relieved.
After all, it was practically bringing food to her.
Just then, as the girl was trying to muster her strength to grab the fur ball,
Thud.
The fur ball dropped something it had been carrying in its mouth right in front of her.
The girl momentarily halted, staring at what the fur ball had dropped.
Unbeknownst to her, it was the corpse of a rat.
“…”
What is this?
Confused by the fur ball’s actions, the girl paused, staring blankly at it.
The fur ball tilted its head slightly, then immediately bit down on the rat resting on the floor.
With a bite from the fur ball, the rat was split in half.
Right before the girl, the fur ball proudly chewed and swallowed one of the halves.
Then, it nudged the remaining half towards the girl with its snout.
Watching this scene in a daze, the girl finally understood the fur ball’s intentions.
“…Ah.”
The fur ball remembered.
It remembering that she had shared half of her food with it yesterday.
This was its repayment.
Before she knew it, the girl had bitten her lip.
Myang!
Eating quickly! The fur ball barked at the still-motionless girl.
Urged by the fur ball, the girl trembled as she picked up the half it had given her.
As soon as she swallowed it, the fur ball happily wagged its tail and began to circle around her, then plopped down right next to her.
As if it believed she wouldn’t harm it.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Tears streamed down the girl’s face as she felt the warmth radiating from where they touched.
For the first time, the warmth of another being penetrated deep within her, banishing the coldness.
When the girl pulled the fur ball into her arms, it made no move to resist and instead burrowed deeper into her embrace.
Myang! Myang!
The fur ball yapped, eagerly wagging its tail in her arms.
In reality, the food the fur ball had brought her had the most horrendous taste of anything she had ever eaten.
Moreover, the amount was outrageous and hardly filled her belly.
But for some reason,
She felt strangely less hungry.
“Hehe…”
The girl smiled for the first time in her life.
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