Meat Bread
Blood streamed down her forehead, and the nails on her tiny fingers were broken and bleeding in places.
The moment that wretched sight entered my eyes, my heart plummeted.
“R-Ria…?”
My throat closed up as I called her name.
“R-Raon… Uncle… I’m sorry… My… head… is spinning… I think I’m going to collapse…”
I rushed over in a single stride and gathered the child into my arms. Her shoulders, little more than bone, trembled violently in my embrace.
“What… what the hell happened to you…! Who… who… who did this to you…?”
My voice cracked, raw with rage and fear.
“Th-they…”
Ria buried her face in my shoulder and whispered in a fading voice.
“Mom… and Dad… said I stole money… and just started beating me… I… ran away… I thought I was going to… die…”
Mom and Dad.
Not strangers—her own parents did this?
Something hot seemed to surge up from deep inside me. I wanted to storm over to Ria’s house right then and beat those bastards to death. I was the kind of person who couldn’t stand injustice.
“B-but… the meat bread… the one you gave me… I brought it… I wanted to share it with you… Mom and Dad… tried to take it… but I told them they couldn’t have this one…”
Those words turned my stomach inside out. My breath caught, and tears spilled down my face.
“Hic… sob… Ria… Ria… no… how could… over something like that…”
Rage and grief choked my throat.
“Uncle Raon… my… head is spinning… I think I’m going to fall asleep… Uncle… uuh…”
Thud.
All the strength left her body. A cold, tiny form nestled into my arms. Her heart was still beating. Ria seemed to have fainted.
Imagining the pain this frail child in my arms must have endured made fury boil up inside me.
“F-fuck… What’s the big deal about having red eyes, you pieces of shit…”
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I wanted to go to Ria’s house and confront those rotten, heartless parents. But I forced it down and swallowed it. I carefully carried the child inside and brought her up to the bedroom above the restaurant.
“Haa… Thank goodness.”
About an hour had passed since I’d disinfected all her wounds and laid Ria on the old wooden bed. I’d spoon-fed her a thin gruel of pureed apple and meat, and I prayed with all my heart that she would wake up.
“A child this kind… and those bastards did that to her…”
I looked at the meat bread sitting on the shelf—the one Ria had been clutching tightly in her hand. Anger surged again. How… how could anyone do this? My mind seethed and bubbled with magma-like rage.
“…Mm, nngh…”
Ria’s eyes fluttered open.
“Ah… Uncle?”
“Ria, you’re awake? You must be hungry. Want Uncle to cook something for you?”
I decided to act as normal as possible. I didn’t want to dig at her wounds.
“Ah… the… meat bread… where…”
“Here…! I’ll give you the meat bread. It’s right here.”
“Hehe… meat bread…!”
Ria’s face lit up with a bright smile when she saw it. She split it in half… and held one piece out to me.
“Uncle, eat this.”
“Hm? You’re giving it to me?”
“It’s the first present I’ve ever gotten… Since it’s the present you gave me… I really wanted to eat it together with you. Hehe.”
How could she be so precious… My heart ached as if it were being torn apart.
“Is that so? Then I’ll gladly have some.”
I shared the meat bread with Ria…
“But this alone won’t be enough, right? Uncle will cook for you.”
“R-really…?”
“Yeah. Uncle’s a pretty good cook.”
I’ve got two years of restaurant experience under my belt, after all.
“Wow…”
I told Ria to wait just a moment and went downstairs to the kitchen. I pulled out the pork ribs that had been smoking, cut them into bite-sized pieces a child could manage, brushed them with sauce, and seared them over a high flame. I also grilled the sausages I’d planned to have with beer for dinner, and stir-fried onion, cabbage, and carrot in oil for a vegetable side. And if I simmered a potato stew to warm her belly… Ria’s meal would be complete.
I plated the food, set it on the table, and laid out the utensils… Ria, apparently starving, had come downstairs to the kitchen, glancing around cautiously.
“Pfft… Hungry, huh? All of this is for you, Ria.”
“Eeh…?”
Ria’s eyes went round at the appetizing spread, and then she swallowed hard.
“C-can I really eat this…?”
“Yeah. You can eat it all.”
Ria hesitated for a moment, then began wolfing down the food. As if she’d never eaten anything like it before… without even pausing for breath…
“Ria…! You’ll choke…! You can eat slowly.”
Ria kept shoveling food in. It looked like… a reflexive survival instinct. This was how Ria had been living all this time.
“Do… your mom and dad not make things like this for you at home?”
“Ah…? Mom… Dad…?”
At my words, Ria stopped eating. Her eyes went vacant.
“Uuh… Mom… Dad… please don’t hit me… please…”
She clutched her head and began gasping, breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Ria…!”
Ah… I’d misspoken. I shouldn’t have brought up her parents…
“Hic… sob… hic… sob… hah… please… please… I feel like I’m going to die… don’t hit me… it hurts…”
“Ria! Ria! Calm down…!”
I firmly gripped her bony, emaciated shoulders.
“Hic… sob… huuh… huuh… huuuh… huuuuh… I’m… I’m okay… I… I’m calm now…”
Fortunately, Ria soon settled down.
“Ria, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“Yes… Since this is Uncle’s restaurant… I feel safe right away…”
Then she went back to gobbling up the food.
“Mmm… It’s delicious… mmm…”
She’d stabilized so quickly and started eating again… that was a relief, at least. From now on, I’d have to be careful not to poke at the wounds in her heart…
“Nom… gulp— mmm… It’s so good…!”
“Pfft… Eat plenty, Ria.”
Before long, Ria had polished off the entire mountain of food.
“Urgh.”
She let out a cute little burp, then startled and glanced at me nervously.
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“Ah… Mom and Dad… always get really mad if I burp… they say it’s dirty…”
“No, no. Uncle doesn’t care. Don’t worry.”
“Hehe… Thank you, Uncle Raon.”
Ria beamed, reassured. I felt a weight lift, but at the same time, anger boiled up again. Just how badly had those so-called parents abused this child… for her to be this traumatized…
“How old are you, Ria?”
“I’m… eleven.”
I’d thought she was around eight… so she was eleven.
“How old are you, Uncle Raon?”
“Hm? I’m twenty-three.”
“Ooh… You’re super old, Uncle…”
Ugh. A direct hit like that… I’m still only in my early twenties…
“Uncle Raon… thank you. I… should get going now.”
Ria said that and slowly rose from the table.
“Thank you so, so much, Uncle. For treating my wounds… and for the delicious food…”
Having said that, Ria…
“Goodbye. I won’t forget you, Uncle Raon.”
She stood up, trying to look composed, and made to leave the restaurant. Those small shoulders and slightly unsteady steps. A back that might return covered in wounds at any time…
The moment Ria carefully lifted her foot at the doorway, my heart dropped.
“Ria…!”
Ria stopped and looked back.
“Y-yes? What is it?”
“Instead of going home, want to live here with Uncle?”
“…Huh?!”
I dropped a bombshell. Feeding one more kind little kid like Ria was nothing. There was no way I could send this child away.
“C-can I… really?”
“Yeah, if that’s what you want, Ria. How about it?”
“…”
Ria was silent for a moment.
“But… if Mom and Dad… come looking for me here… if they… uuh…”
“Uncle will protect you.”
I meant it. I desperately wanted to protect this child—Ria.
“R-really?”
“Yeah, so you don’t have to be afraid.”
Ria bit her lower lip, deliberating.
“Mmm… but…”
After fretting for a long while, twisting her legs together, Ria finally spoke.
“Okay…!”
Ria said it with a bright smile.
“I… like you so, so much too, Uncle Raon. I want to live with you…!”
“Good choice! Let’s get along well together.”
“Mmm… but…”
If Uncle Raon gets hurt because of me… I was scared.
Instead of going home, want to live here with Uncle?
When I heard those words, my heart pounded. I was so happy… so overjoyed I could jump. But… people might hate Uncle because of me.
Everyone hates me. Everyone except Uncle. They say they hate me because I have red eyes… that I’m a bad kid.
If word gets out that I’m living with Uncle at this restaurant… will customers still come…? If the customers stop coming… Uncle will become poor because of me… uuh… because of me…
…But go back to that house…? The house with Mom and Dad who throw flowerpots at me… and beat me with clubs…?
In the end, after thinking it over…
“Okay…!”
I made a selfish choice. I was bad.
“I… like you so, so much too, Uncle Raon. I want to live with you…!”
“Good choice! Let’s get along well together.”
Uncle Raon, smiling as he said that, was incredibly handsome. He must be super popular with girls. When I grow up… I want to marry someone kind and handsome like Uncle Raon…!
That’s what I thought.
I didn’t open the restaurant that evening. Ria needed to adjust to my home—and the restaurant—and she’d probably be scared if customers kept coming and going.
Eight o’clock in the evening. Ria, full from the dinner I’d cooked, was sound asleep on the bed. Looks like I’ll be sleeping on the floor.
I snuffed out the flickering oil lamp on the old table, and the room was steeped in the deep blue darkness of late night. I stroked Ria’s hair once, then laid out a blanket on the floor and prepared to lie down.
Just then—
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG—!
A sound like someone was trying to smash the restaurant door down came pounding through.