'It doesn't hurt at all.'
That was what Rina initially thought. But after she touched her face, she felt a stinging pain from her nose to her mouth and panicked internally. She stood up and went to the public bathroom of the park, looking for a mirror to inspect her face.
After seeing her face a sigh escaped from her mouth.
Rina hated mirrors, that was why she had none in her room. She avoided mirrors with her best abilities because she did not like what they show her when she looked in. Rina thought of herself as a human. Or at least she was still believing that she was a human. That was why when she stood in front of a mirror she would expect to see something human-like. But what it showed instead was an abomination.
A perfectly round ball with four limbs attached to it and another, smaller ball on top of it. Thinking about it logically, the smaller ball should have been the head. But head and body were usually connected by a neck, but the version of the human when Rina looked into the mirror, had no neck.
What was worse was, that each time she looked at the small ball in detail she would get the urge to vomit. But she had always managed to suppress said urge because she knew it was her own face.
This time however Rina was confident that she would have vomited if her stomach was not empty. Today's version of her face with a big bruise on her cheek, a visibly broken nose, and two missing front teeth would have been too much.
Rina took a towel and wiped out the blood on her mouth and left the bathroom towards the bench. She still had not eaten yet and had left her food there.
'Hopefully, nobody has taken it, I don't want to go to that convenience store again to buy new food. Well, considering, that I wasn't long in the bathroom, the people around should know that the food belongs to me. So there's no literal way that somebody took it! They would rather kill themselves before they eat food that was touched by something like me, hehe', Rina jokingly thought to lighten up her mood.
And indeed, the rest of the sandwich and the two lunch boxes were still on the bench.
After taking a seat Rina picked up a lunch box and began unpacking. She could not continue eating the sandwich without the two front teeth after all. The box contained rice, five pieces of small omelettes, and some vegetables. It came with a pair of disposable chopsticks so Rina should manage somehow. When she finished unpacking her lunch, she started eating while contemplating about what had happened.
She picked up the first omelette piece with a bit of rice and put it in her mouth.
Yesterday Rina was kicked out of the house because the boyfriend of her twin sister was visiting. Rina did not even know that her sister had one. Well, it did not surprise her as she stopped caring about Nina and their parents ages ago.
*Gulp*
After swallowing the omelette she picked up a second one.
But only because she stopped caring about them, it did not mean that she did not love them. In fact, Rina still loved her family, especially her twin. Even her father had a place in her heart despite only having bad memories of him.
*Gulp*
This time she picked up rice with some vegetables.
But she knew they would shun her as soon as they know about her disposition, so she started distancing herself from them hoping she could hide her disposition when she was a young teenager. Unfortunately instead of just being shunned, her relationship with them developed into something much worse.
*Gulp*
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She put the third omelette piece with some vegetables in her mouth.
Before, her father had already been quite violent and had very often shouted at her. But Rina concluded for herself that at those times he had valid reasons for 'disciplining' her. Afterwards however how he treated her got worse. Around the time she reached adulthood, it had got to the point where he would simply punch, kick and shout at her without any reason and without holding back. Well, considering how Rina's body was already built back then her father probably had concluded that he did not have to worry about injuring Rina's internal organs. Fortunately, the treatment did not, well actually could not get any worse since then so the amount of abuse Rina got pretty much remained the same since she had reached adulthood.
*Gulp*
This time again a piece of omelette with rice.
Her relationship with her mother, Nagisa, though could have been considered a pretty normal, healthy mother-daughter relationship. When her mother noticed that her husband began treating their daughter more roughly, she followed suit, because she was both afraid and nevertheless still deeply in love with him. So she also started to insult and hit Rina whenever a reason arose. But as her husband's mood deteriorated over the years, so did her relationship with him. So she switched from hitting and insulting Rina to hitting, insulting, and blaming Rina for their current family state.
*Gulp*
Rina scooped up the remaining rice and vegetables in her mouth while feeling her face heating up.
As children, she and Nina were very close. They did everything together, from playing to sleeping to bathing. They wore the same clothes, often swapping them and sharing their toys and food. When Rina was crying because their father had hit her, Nina was always there to console and hug her. Sometimes when Nina saw that their father was about hit her sister she would even try to stop him risking being hit herself.
*Gulp*
After putting the last omelette piece in her mouth Rina put the empty box aside and unpacked the second lunch box. She could not help but feel scammed when she saw that this box only contained three pieces of omelettes.
Their relationship changed however when both hit puberty. When they were bathing together Rina noticed that her twin's body was getting more and more feminine. At first, she was only proud that her sister would become a beautiful woman in the future but as time passed and her sister developed more curves, her thoughts changed drastically. When they bathed together Rina's body never failed to heat up which muddled her mind with dangerous thoughts.
*Gulp*
She picked up the first omelette piece of her second lunch box while noticing her cheeks getting wet.
Rina's instinct had told her to get away from her sister. She had hoped that she would not destroy their relationship due to some impulsive actions she could not understand at that time. So she distanced herself slowly but surely from Nina.
*Gulp*
She picked some rice and vegetables while a water drop fell into her lunch.
She stopped bathing with her, denied Nina's requests for swapping clothes, and requested her mother for a separate room. Looking back Rina could only laugh at her stupid actions back then. Of course, would Nina would feel betrayed by that.
*Gulp*
She next put an omelette, rice, and vegetables in her mouth.
Like her mother, Nina started insulting, mocking, and blaming her for unreasonable things each time they see each other. Since then the appearance gap between them widened at a fast pace. On the one hand, Nina grew more feminine and beautiful each day, Rina felt herself becoming more and more ugly while growing horizontally.
*Gulp*
Rina stopped reminiscing about the past and concentrated on the happenings from yesterday.
'Nina had a boyfriend...'
She stuffed her mouth full of the remaining rice and vegetables while more water droplets were falling onto the last omelette piece in her lunch box.
He had probably visited for the first time. Maybe Nina wanted to introduce him to their parents? When Rina came home at dusk, he was still there. Her parents, Nina, and Nina's boyfriend were laughing loudly after all. From what she could hear, she was pretty sure they were laughing about her, though the boyfriend probably did not know that he was mocking his lover's sister. To the rest in the room though it seemed obvious that it was about Rina.
When morning came her father 'asked' her for the keys and told her to leave. Rina did not need to be a genius to know what it meant: she was kicked out of the house, naked - well except for the clothes she had on at the time - without anything. She knew that everyone in the family had seen her as the black stain of the family but she could have never imagined that they would kick her out like that. They were after all things considered still family, they still shared the same blood. If she had the courage and could see herself succeeding, she would have grovelled before them begging for forgiveness for distancing herself from them, especially Nina, a long time ago.
With her chopsticks, she picked up the last omelette and ate it.
But now they kicked her out, seemingly not wanting to see her again, not caring about how she would survive from now on.
She shook her head slowly and took a deep breath to clear her head from the current thoughts. Then with the sleeve she carefully, not wanting to hurt herself because of the broken nose, wiped her face which had gotten quite wet for some reason. Afterwards, she picked up the empty boxes and dumped them into the trash bin.
She was quite content with the taste of the first lunch box she ate. After all, it was quite delicious for ready-made convenience store food. However, she was not pleased with the second box. She did not even mind that there was less food in it that in the first one. What she did however mind, was the taste.
'It was too salty.'