Chapter 1

Bevis was my neighbor, and we were born in the same hospital, just a day apart. Such fate had us grow up together like childhood sweethearts. Bevis was known as a prodigy in our village from a young age. Yet, he always followed me, caring for me with great attention to detail. Whenever I made mistakes, he was the one who took the punishment for me. We were inseparable, except when we slept. This closeness led the villagers to jest that we were a match made in heaven. Whenever this was mentioned, Bevis's ears would turn slightly red. I always thought we would be together forever.

That belief held until I was eight years old, when tragedy struck my family. My father, who was working abroad on a construction site, accidentally fell from a great height. The contractor in charge insisted that it was my father's own fault, and since he was working off the books without a contract, we received no compensation at all. My mother, a simple peasant woman, knew little beyond tending to the fields. Overwhelmed by the situation, she could only cry as she went to bring back my father's remains for cremation, purchasing the cheapest urn available. After that, the matter was left unresolved.

From then on, it was just my mother and me. At first, the village took good care of us. However, as time passed, people's hearts changed. They said that a widow's doorstep was a place of much gossip, and they were not wrong. Although my mother worked the fields daily, she had been the beauty of the village in her youth, and she was still only in her thirties. With the main breadwinner gone, it was inevitable that some would covet and slander her.

Once, an old bachelor from the village boundary crept into our house in the middle of the night. Fortunately, I woke up to use the bathroom and called for my mother to accompany me. Hearing the noise, my mother grabbed a kitchen knife and scared the intruder away. The consequences of that night were too horrifying to imagine. After that incident, the idle gossip in the village grew worse. Being young, I didn't understand that this was a form of public condemnation, nor did I realize how deeply the casual words of others wounded my mother. All I knew was that she became more and more silent.

However, I didn't take it to heart because Bevis continued to treat me well, even better than before. Before my father's death, he would urge me to attend school when I skipped classes, but afterward, he helped me with my homework and even allowed me to skip school and indulge myself. I simply thought he was more compassionate because of my father's passing, only to realize later how naive I had been.