Harem of Side Characters [Rewrite]

Memory Fragment - That's That, and This is This

A young girl sits on the steps of the convenience store, holding a worn out childrens book. The pages were stained and torn, yet the girl stared at it with shining eyes. It was the first book she ever got.

"T...the...l-litt...little...r-red..." the girl struggled to read, not because the pages were too damaged, but because she was never taugh to read to begin with. She never went to school, never had any siblings to teach her, and her parents...

"Oh! Hello, _____! Out here on your own again?" An older woman walked out of the convenience store, holding a can of beer on one hand and a cigarette on the other. She was the owner of the convenience store, someone _____ knew well. The little girl gave her a smile.

"Good morning, miss! Uhm...h-how was your day?" The girl said.

"Haha, I see you remember what I taught you. Business has been pretty good lately! Now how are you doing, young one? Is your mom around here?" At that, the little girl frowned, before glancing at a nearby alleyway. The convenience store owner followed her gaze and saw exactly what she expected. There were empty syringes laying all around the floor, clearly having been used recently, along with some suspicious white powder. The implications were obvious. The owner's face soured for a moment, before returning back to a gentle smile.

"I see you have a book with you! What is it?" The owner tried to take the girl's mind off what was going on in the alley.

"Y-yes! I found it just over there!" The girl excitedly showed off her book, pointing at a trashcan.

"I...see...That's "The Little Red Riding Hood", isn't it? Please, wait a moment..." The owner went back in the convenience store. A few minutes later, she came back out with a book that was clearly old, but not nearly as destroyed as the one in _____'s hands.

"Found it! "The Little Red Riding Hood"! I knew I had that same book here! This is the first book my son read as well. Was planning on giving it away anyway, so might as well give it to you." The owner handed the girl a cleaner copy of the book, taking the worse one away.

The little girl could only gape at the book in amazement. "C-can I really have this...?"

The owner let out a laugh. "Girl, this book is multiple decades old at this point. It's better off in your hands." She gave the little girl a pat on the head.

"Wow! Thank you! Thank you so much!" The girl bowed her head in thanks.

"Ah it's nothing! No need to thank me for something as small as this."

"No! I have to thank you!" The girl shook her head in protest.

"Haha! You're a good kid, _____. Never change that about yourself, okay?" The owner gave the girl another headpat as she nodded furiosly.

"...C-can you help me read? It's hard..."

"...Eh, why not. Not like I got anything better to do anyway." The owner snuffed out her cigarette before sitting down on the steps as well, leaning over to read the book together with _____.

—————

"...and that's the end of the book. Looks like we managed to finish it pretty quickly! Isn't that cool?" The woman said as she gulped a beer. The little girl was practically beaming as she fidgeted with the book in her hands.

"Mhmm!" The girl nodded with a smile...but then it quickly turned into a frown. "You're always so nice to me. The other kids and adults aren't that nice to me. Why?" The owner looked away and sighed. She knew the reason ____ was always hated by the patrons of her store. It was because of the girl's damn mother. A drug addict, alcoholic, street thug. Even though the little girl was the complete opposite of that, everyone treats her the same way as her mother. They treated her like criminal scum.

"...Why?" The girl asked again. The owner realized she forgot to reply to the question.

"It's complicated adult stuff. You'll know when you're older. Just know that it's not your fault."

"...Is it mom's fault, then?"

"..." The owner couldn't reply. But that silence was enough to answer the question.

"...Why do you treat me nicely then?" The owner let out another long sigh, before lighting another cigarette.

"...That's that, and this is this."

"Huh?"

"It's a phrase. Your mother is one thing, you are another. They are completely different, so I treat them as different things. That's that, and this is this." The owner says, letting out a puff of smoke. The little girl scrunches her nose a bit at the smell of smoke.

"...Smoking is bad for you. You should be careful." The girl scolds.

"...Heh. Really, I feel bad for you kid." The owner pats _____ on the back.

"Feel bad? Why?"

"Why, you ask? I mean, don't you think you were born into a pretty shitty situation?" The little girl shook her head.

"...No...I don't think so. Even now, I'm...happy..." the girl tightly hugs the book to her chest.

"...Honestly, I can't with you youngsters." The owner lets out another puff of smoke.

"A-ah! Don't ruffle my hair so much!" Looking at the scene, the owner can only hope the girl grows up well.

Unfortunately, she didn't.

Note:

Sorry for the really long wait. I had to deal with college finals, and it was very stressful. I have a lot of ideas, but I can't really think of ways to insert them, so I decided to do them like this. I hope the memory fragments aren't uninteresting.