How long has it been?

The girl somehow made it to her shelter.

Starving to the point of madness, she opened her clenched fist the moment she arrived.

A sound like a desperate gasp escaped her lips, while something half-mashed and mixed with the rainwater trickled from her fingers.

It was closer to mud than food, but the girl had no time to be picky.

“……I’m hungry.”

She thought that if she could just get something in her mouth, it might ease this maddening hunger, so she shoved her right hand into her mouth.

And at that moment, something caught her eye—a small ball of fur crammed into a corner of the shelter.

It looked like a black rag at first glance, drenched in the rain.

Had it sneaked in while she was away?

It wasn’t uncommon for intruders to visit her shelter, but until now, they usually darted away in shock upon her return.

So she assumed it was already dead.

Kiiing…..

But at the barely audible sound of a faint whimper, she realized that the little ball of fur was still alive.

“Still alive,” that meant it looked like it was about to die any minute.

The girl didn’t know it, but it was a creature known as a ‘puppy’ in the outside world.

She stared blankly at the pitiful sight of the little creature struggling.

Four legs.

There were ears, a nose, and a mouth where a head should be, but no eyes.

No, to be precise, it couldn’t open its eyes due to the deep wound where its eyes used to be.

The girl understood better than anyone how crucial eyes were for survival.

With its eyes ruined, it would be hard for the little ball of fur to survive.

Once its eyes were gone, it was destined to die someday, if not today.

Thinking that she could eat it if it died, she licked her fingers and resumed her meal, which had only slowed momentarily.

With so little to eat, she needed to take it slower than usual, bit by bit.

Once she finished this, she would have to fight hunger again.

While continuing her meal with such thoughts,

“……”

The girl suddenly raised her head and looked at the ball of fur in the corner.

The furry creature, which had been facing the floor, now had its head turned toward her.

Though it had no eyes, the girl felt as if it was looking at her.

No, perhaps it was looking at her hand instead.

The girl guessed that the little ball of fur hadn’t eaten anything that day.

It was raining outside.

Without eyes, its nose and ears would become nearly useless in such a downpour, so it wouldn’t have been able to find food.

So this dying little furball wanted the food that remained in her left hand to survive another day.

But that was out of the question.

There wasn’t enough for even one person.

Moreover, she had barely managed to gather this food through so much struggle; it was impossible to share it with another.

Besides, even if the furball had this food, it would soon die anyway due to the lack of its eyes.

The girl wasn’t a fool.

To survive in this city, she had to be more cunning and more ruthless than anyone else.

So she turned her gaze away from the furball and continued to eat by herself.

…Or at least, that was what she was trying to do.

Kiiing…

But she found it increasingly irritating.

The whimpering sounds coming from the furball were softening.

The little creature’s breaths were growing fainter.

“……Ah.”

In the next moment, she realized she had unconsciously reached out her left hand towards the furball.

After hesitating for a moment, the furball, startled by the outstretched hand, began to lick it, realizing that what was in her hand was essential for its survival.

Ah, feeling the sensation of the furry creature licking her hand, the girl couldn’t help but feel flustered.

She herself didn’t even understand why she was acting this way.

Watching the hard-earned food vanish into another mouth made her vision blur white.

At this rate, all her food would disappear.

She hadn’t even resolved her own hunger yet.

Shouldn’t she pull her hand away to save at least some of the remaining food?

In a moment of panic, she attempted to pull her hand away from the licking furball.

Kiiing, kiiiing……

But she ended up just watching.

In a world cruel enough that it would be hard for a creature that couldn’t see to survive, there was the furball desperately trying to live by burying its snout into her hand.

Seeing this made the girl well up with tears over the shrinking food, yet she couldn’t bring herself to pull her hand away.

“Ah……”

Eventually, the food in her hand vanished completely into the furry creature’s stomach.

“Wuu…”

She gazed at her now empty left hand, feeling like crying.

Not a single morsel remained.

Even though she herself was still so hungry.

She glared at the furry creature that had licked up every last bit of food that she should have filled her own belly with with resentful eyes.

But the furball seemed to be sleeping soundly, blissfully unaware of the girl’s feelings.

The girl, feeling a sense of emptiness at the sight, hung her head and thought.

She had done something foolish. Why did she have to do something she would regret?

“I’m hungry…”

The girl didn’t realize.

That the reason she shared her food with the furball was that she wished someone would share food with her when she was hungry, just once.

That she couldn’t pull her hand away because she felt that the furball was more pitiful than herself.

The emotion she felt for the first time in her life was something called ’empathy’ and ‘compassion.’

However, because she didn’t understand words, she couldn’t name that feeling, and she had never deeply pondered her emotions; thus, she could not recognize those feelings she experienced for the first time in her life.

“I’m…hungry.”

So, she lay her body down on the ground in self-blame.

Whether it was due to getting soaked in the rain or because she hadn’t filled her belly.

She felt much colder than usual.

That chill was pain, and for her, pain meant hunger.

In return for the kindness she had offered for the first time, all that remained for the girl was unfulfilled hunger.

Curling up like a bug due to the overwhelming hunger, the girl made a vow.

That she would never do something so foolish again.

In this city, where being cruel was the only way to survive, perhaps what she had done was no different from foolishness.

“……Hungry.”

After shivering from hunger for a long while, she finally drifted off to sleep as if she had fainted.

*

The next morning, when the girl opened her eyes, she let out a groan.

The moment she opened her eyes, an intense hunger greeted her.

Her whole body ached from the aftereffects of the beating she had received the day before, and her stomach, more insistent than ever, cried out for food.

“I’m so hungry…”

She needed something, anything to eat.

But surely there wouldn’t be anything left to eat.

Everything they had gathered yesterday was already in the stomachs of her and that furry creature─

“……Ah!”

At that moment, recalling yesterday’s events, the girl whipped her head toward the corner of the shelter.

There should be something to eat.

There, the furball that had been on the brink of death…

“Ah…..”

It should have been there, but it wasn’t.

In the empty corner, she let out a sigh of despair.

Since she had fed it yesterday, it seemed to have regained its strength and scampered off somewhere.

The girl felt her regret for what she had done deepen.

When she thought about it, hadn’t she incurred a double loss with that act?

She had given away her food, and in return, lost food as well.

“Ugh…”

Disappointedly turning her head back to its original position, the girl shuddered and then sighed as if giving up.

She tried to get up but found her body uncooperative.

It must be due to the effects of the beating she sustained yesterday.

To her, it felt like a thunderbolt.

Being in no condition to go out in search of food but having no food to eat instead… it meant she would have to endure another day of hunger.

“……Hungry.”

Realizing she had to go hungry, the girl felt her hunger grow even more intense.

The chill that remained from the rain felt like it seeped deep into her bones, making her groan as she curled up.

In such a cold and hungry predicament, she couldn’t even think of wanting help.

Because she had never received any help in her life.

So, the girl merely whimpered and endured her hunger.

Inside a shelter where no one would come.

But at that moment.

“……?”

A small shadow appeared at the entrance of the shelter, where no one ever visited.

And as the girl lifted her head, she was startled to discover the familiar form of the furry creature she had thought was gone.

The small black ball of fur entered the shelter with a shuffling gait.

Perhaps it couldn’t wander far since it couldn’t see.

She didn’t know the reason, but the girl felt a sense of relief.

After all, food had come to her on its own.

Just as the girl was about to rise with effort to catch the furry creature.

Thud, the furry creature dropped something it had been holding onto right in front of her.

The girl, who had been trying to rise, paused and looked at what was dropped.

It was the corpse of an animal known as a rat.

“……”

What is this?

Confused over the furry creature’s actions, the girl stood there blankly, watching it.

Then, the furball tilted its head for a moment, before chomping down on the rat lying on the floor.

The rat was instantly torn in half by the furball’s teeth.

Right before the girl, the furball proudly chewed on one half and swallowed it.

Then, using its nose, it nudged the remaining half towards her.

While the girl stood there, mesmerized by this scene, the furball barked, “Myaang!”

Only then did she understand its actions.

“……Ah.”

The furball remembered.

That she had shared half of her food with it yesterday.

This was its way of repaying her.

Before she knew it, the girl had bitten down on her lips.

“Myaang!”

As if urging her to eat quickly, the furball barked at the girl, who stood frozen.

At the urging of the furry creature, the girl cautiously picked up the offering with trembling hands.

When she swallowed it whole, the furball happily wagged its tail and began to trot around her, eventually flopping down beside her.

And as if to express its trust that she wouldn’t harm it, it leaned its head against her side.

“U, ugh…”

Feeling the warmth transmitted from the spot where they touched, tears streamed down the girl’s cheeks.

The warmth of another being, which she had never felt before, was enough to melt away the chill that had seeped into her bones.

As the girl embraced the furry creature, it pressed into her without hesitation, seeking her warmth.

“Myaang! Myaang!”

Barking and wagging its tail excitedly from her arms.

In fact, the food it had brought was the worst-tasting thing she had ever eaten.

Moreover, it was far too little to satisfy her hunger.

But for some reason…

She felt strangely content.

“Hehe…”

And just like that, for the first time in her life, the girl smiled.