PROLOGUE
Thud!
It's here again.
That strange sound is here again.
He stretched out his toes to turn off the small fan. The comic book that had been used as a sun shield on his face was placed beside him. His arms slowly pushed himself up to sit properly. The gentle late morning sunlight and the breeze were something perfect for sitting outside and relaxing on a weekend like this.
He turned to look at the house next door. The tall white concrete fence made it impossible to see anything except the green treetops of the house next to theirs. It was a normal sight that most people wouldn't be surprised by. Except for that one orange fruit lying flat on the fresh green grass right next to the wall.
His legs, covered in shorts above the knee, slowly carried him up from the soft cushion, and he walked to pick up the fruit. It rested in his small hand. The eyebrows on his face were tightly furrowed, before he looked up at the top of the orange tree that was just barely visible above the wall. His head tilted slightly with curiosity.
How did it get here?
Did it fall?
And if so, should I return it to the owner of the house?
The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. He didn't know what to do with this orange.
In the end, the cheeky child decided to peel it and walked back to sit under the orange tree as before. He secretly glanced at the house next door from the corner of his eye from time to time.
This is the tenth one already.
Don't fall again. I'll definitely eat it.
The small hands slowly peeled the orange. He smelled the delicate, fresh scent from the peel with a cheerful expression. He closed his eyes tightly until they looked like drawn lines, then placed the large orange peel onto his pile of scraps. A wide smile emerged on his face when he saw the large orange in his hand. The sour and sweet flavors were now spreading throughout his mouth, as his sense of duty had just softened. He thought he was quite lucky that a big orange fell into his yard today. He hoped it would fall like this often, so he could secretly eat them!
The corner of his eye glanced at that house, beyond the white concrete wall. That two-story house had been lonely for a long time, until there was news that a family had just moved in. They moved in with a large orange tree, even hiring a truck to plant it right in front of the house.
The little boy had never seen the owner of the house. He had only seen the owner's son.
He looked like a girl. Didn't speak a word. His face was completely unfriendly. When they walkedover to give bananas to the house with his mother, the boy just stared at them with a fierce look. Ugh, scary.
Oh, wait... If he finds out that we secretly eat his oranges often, will he be angry at us?
But still, what more could a 7th grader (M.1) think about than that?
A white chair was dragged and placed next to the wall, so that the small body of a child could climb up. The banana in his hand was placed on top of that wall, before the person who placed it walked away from it.
Believe it or not, after just turning his back to store the chair for a moment, his yellow banana was already gone, and he didn't know where did it go.
