"Miss Hewinia... can I ask you a question?"
"Hmm? Sure."
"Why are you willing to be my friend?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"You're a Golden Sound Player, but I'm just a Copper Sound."
"So what? Being a Player is just a status."
"What else can it be?"
"Idiot, it's being 'human'."
...
Ogg opened his eyes.
It was pitch black in front of him.
If not for the pain on his forehead, he might have thought he was already dead.
He touched his forehead and felt bandages, sticky with what was likely seeping blood.
This wound was wrapped carelessly, as if sloppy, yet also as if... deliberate.
And this made him recall everything, recalling the expression of grief and despair on the male breeder who lunged at him, and the stone that relentlessly struck his head.
Ogg fell into silence.
He still remembered that breeder, because the breeding room was closer to him and the breeder's health was poor, so Ogg had specially looked after him.
