He'd made himself look ridiculous.
The boy was stunned.
Anger, humiliation, embarrassment, confusion...
All kinds of emotions tangled together, forming something even more complicated and hard to make sense of.
He wanted to get away.
He didn't want to stay here anymore.
He lifted his foot and kicked backward...
Even now, everything that happened afterward still felt veiled in a thin haze to the boy, unreal in a way.
Not long ago, he'd been running in the wind, full of confidence.
But afterward, he was like a grasshopper trapped in a cage.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't escape that feeling of being bound.
He was especially frustrated and stifled.
He didn't want to talk to anyone.
But the other party's "threat" left him no choice but to respond.
For all children, the threat of telling their parents... was probably an instantly effective deterrent.
Thinking about his parents finding out what he'd done...
The boy couldn't help trembling all over.
No matter how tough or self-righteous he'd acted before...
He might be a child.
But he wasn't a little kid of four or five anymore.
He knew...
What he'd done... was wrong.
He just didn't want to admit it.
This time, he'd acted on impulse.
The howling wind had scattered his misgivings.
Besides...
He'd already run...
There was no turning back now.
He could only keep running.
He thought...
"...It's just an apple..."
It only cost a few yuan.
Why did they keep chasing after him?
What a stingy adult.
The boy grumbled to himself.
As the man listened to the boy's account turn into complaints about him...
The corner of his mouth twitched hard.
Great.
So this was his fault now, was it?
He was stingy.
He shouldn't have chased after someone over an apple...