Chapter 12: Fools(1)
"..." She stared at the bag, then turned to the boy.
Hesitating for a moment, she nodded her head.
The boy pursed his lips, and he nodded his head at her, "You can take some supplies from that, but please don't take everything."
The girl looked at him.
Why did he give it so quickly?
Did he want something from her?
She stared at the boy with a slight frown on her face. Suspicion drowned her entire head.
She couldn't believe that someone could just give her something without wanting an exchange for it.
"... Is there anything you want?"
She asked cautiously.
"..?"
The boy looked at her curiously, and confusion filled his whole face.
The girl looked at him.
"Like, is there anything that you would like in particular? Like i can get some of these for some of mine."
She gulped down her spit to calm her rising anxiety.
"Like a trade-off? Yeah, it's a trade-off."
"A trade-off?"
The boy asked.
The girl looked at him, then gave it a thought for a moment.
"Like, i get something from you in exchange for something of mine."
The boy cocked his head to the side, "Why?"
"To have an equal exchange? Or something?"
The boy stared at her for a moment, confused.
Was she proposing to have an exchange with him? Was it really necessary?
He had planned on just giving half of the content inside the bag bot for the two of them before they both go to their separate ways, but the girl refused.
She didn't want to have it for free and proposed such a method.
"You can have it."
"In exchange for what?"
"Nothing."
"Why?"
Now, it was his turn to ask himself.
Why did he want to give her half of the content inside the bag?
And he wanted to give it to her for free too.
That wasn't like him.
It wasn't like him at all.
The boy looked down and reflected on himself.
Why did he want to give the girl something for free?
Didn't he already know that resources such as food were scarcer and more precious here in this warring world? He should take it with himself, all of it, and leave nothing for her.
The Man had already taught him that he should hoard all the resources he could find and bring. Those he couldn't, he should hide it in case someone needed it.
The Man had taught him how to survive, to fight back, to hide, crawl, and even dig through dirt just to cover himself.
All these survival skills, all these things that the man taught him, he memorized it all.
Even the advice and sayings he had told him, he memorized everything.
He should be selfish, a little selfish if he wanted to survive in this devastated world.
But why did he want to give something to the girl.
He turned his head up to look at the girl.
A long blue like hair with a ponytail behind her head, her body petite and malnourished, her face pale yet dark from tan, she wore a very short shorts and a big sleeveless sweater.
She had a sling bag with her.
On the contrary, the girl examined the boy from head to toe.
Bright orange hair with dead black eyes, a cold face, and slender body, malnourished as if he hadn't eaten for months. He wore a white shirt with black shorts.
One looked cute and pitiful but bubbly.
While the other looked like a dead corpse, cold and indifferent.
Two children that contrasted each other.
The boy looked at her, and then an answer appeared on his head.
"Because i wanted to help."
The words of the priest came to his mind.
He really didn't know why, nor did he understand how to help others, but he just did it.
He did it because he wanted to help her.
When the boy realized this, he suddenly felt that he could understand the priest a little.
Only a little.
The girl stared at him, then shook her head as she ignored the growling of her stomach.
"T-Thank you."
"...Thank you?"
The boy asked, not understanding what the words 'thank you' meant.
"W-well, mommy said that if someone helped you or something, you must always say thank you."
"I see."
She pursed her lips, then turned to him and followed up, "And if someone says thank you, then you must say you're welcome."
The boy looked at her, then nodded his head. "You're welcome."
The two stared at each other.
Slowly, a bond started to form between the two.
***
The sun rose, and the two went to their separate ways.
When they were far away, a car suddenly came to the campsite. Two men got out of the car and then examined their campsite.
"The food are gone."
"So is my sleeping bag."
One of the men let out a dry chuckle.
"So there really was someone hiding last night."
"I told you so."
The other man chuckled and looked down to the ground
A clear shoe print scattered around the ground.
"It's small. They're probably someone short. Or a woman."
"A woman...?" The man pursed his lips.
"Where do they lead to?"
The man studied the shoe prints for a moment, then looked at a particular direction and took out his compass.
"To the west." He muttered.
The other man's eyes went narrow.
"To that refuge city, huh?" They stared at the sky for a moment. Then, let out a smile.
"Let's hunt them down for taking our stuff."
"Yeah, let's."