Heaven's Yeouiju ✰ Jue Viole Grace

『7』칠

That girl's weird, man. She's creepy-weird.

Her innermost desires?
Nope. She had none.

The simplest of things were the most difficult to attain in the Tower, forcing (Y/n) to give up on what people would call lofty dreams. She wasn't overly-satisfied with her current lifestyle but she felt no need to change it. (Y/n) was a dustball in the wind, only moving when the tides of life changed; she never took control. It was okay; she was content with her mundane life because it meant being safe and never sorry.

Playing with a lock of her hair, (Y/n) could almost laugh from the contrast in attitude from when she was young. Everything had changed for her then and there was a small piece of her that wished she could go back, back to being blissfully unaware.

●○●
There was always some difficulty being an abandoned rugrat living on the streets with a weak body and a hollow stomach. Of course, there would be occasional stares and looks of distaste but they didn't matter at all, food was more important. Licking her lips, a small girl ran the cobbled steps to the back of a small restaurant with a bag tied to her wrist, waving lazily in the air before dying down as she stopped in front of a metal basin.

Stealing food wasn't much of an option because as much as the food was made fresh, (Y/n) rather not get killed for it so dumpsters were her favorite go-to. Climbing onto the side, her legs clanged against the metal as she managed to stand up, throwing a fisted hand in the air and pretending it was a hook. Imagining herself to be an adventurous pirate seeking out valuable treasure, she dove in with an "Arghh!" and foraged the basin for edible food as bags of trash and other junk squelched beneath her feet. Clawing through each bag, she tore them open and spilled out their contents, burying herself deep in spoiled food and other muck without a care in the world.

Ending up putrid-smelling was the least of her problems, anyway.

With high hopes, she scoured the bags, although most food she found in her dumpster dives were rotten and indigestible, it didn't stop her from breaking out a wide, toothy grin when she found some goodies.

'Argh, ye maties. Lookie at what me have here: an unopened candy bar!', she thought in wonder, marveling at the sight of it within her small palms.

Today's my lucky day!~

Shoving it into the plastic bag, (Y/n) scavenged for any more edible food before she jumped out, tripping on the metal bar, face pale with fear and surprise as she outstretched her hands to keep from collision.

It didn't help much, by the way.

Falling face flat onto the concrete, she lay there for a few seconds then sprung up unfazed, brushing off the sudden mishap and continued with that funny grin of hers as she skipped along a path to the other children. Passerbyers quickly made way for her, pinching their noses closed as they sought to avoid her like the plague. She was bleeding at the nose and was quick to clean it up with a cloth when she realized what was happening. Finishing up, she tossed the bloodied cloth inside a trash bin when she passed by and upon seeing a familiar alleyway, (Y/n) ran inside, shouting, "Guys, look what I found!"

A handful of children grouped together in a circle spaced out to make some room for her to sit down. Smoothing out her soiled rags, she sat down criss-cross applesauce, giddy with excitement to show her friends what she had brought. Dipping her hand into her bag, (Y/n) whipped out the sacred candy bar, revealing what she had found to everyone with a bubbly smile.

"We're so lucky tod---"

Before she could finish her sentence, the boy next to her who had stared at the bar with a gape mouth and hungry eyes snatched it from her hands and hastily ripped off the wrapper before scarfing it down. Her smile was wiped clean off her face as she threw her hands in the air in anger, gritting her teeth before shouting, "Hey! We were all supposed to share that! You can't just take it all for yourself!"