"Haohao."
The woman asked tentatively.
"Did you see something scary?"
Could it have been some kind of bug?
The woman thought of something that had happened in the past...
Once, the child had been walking under a tree, minding their own business.
A caterpillar had dropped straight onto the child's outstretched palm...
It had all been too much of a coincidence.
The child had happened to hold out their hand right then...
It had been so coincidental that it almost seemed deliberate.
The man rubbed the child's palm firmly. "The doctor prescribed medicine for Haohao. Mom already put it on for you."
Well, most of the time, it was true that old habits died hard.
The child saw a scary bug and froze, then ran off in a panic...
That way, nobody would get caught in the rain.
"Mm."
The girl shook her hand.
There weren't any lasting effects.
The girl's lips curled up slightly.
"...Mm."
The girl's body began trembling again.
Even though she was timid, and thought cats and dogs were cute, she still felt nervous when they got too close...
"It was angry..."
"If you hadn't grabbed that branch in time..."
The warmth around her, the familiar presence beside her, and the firm grip on her hand gave the girl courage.
That couldn't be.
Of course.
The girl looked terrified.
Something like that wasn't impossible...
It was good that she understood.
The child's excessive timidity now seemed to pose a threat to her safety...
"Did it scare you that badly?"
Instead, she clutched her schoolbag tightly to her chest.
Even though she was trembling too hard to muster any strength...
Fortunately, wild cats and dogs were uncommon these days.
Some of the wording didn't need to be quite so strict.