Chereads / No Medicine For Regret / Chapter 23 - A Story

Chapter 23 - A Story

Seeing Ava had gotten herself mostly situated, Lily let out a smile from behind her and jokingly called out, "I'm going to start scrubbing your back, don't stab me, okay?"

Hiding a smile in the steam, Ava lightly clenched the fist that held the knife under the water and lifted it up, and raised it above water, placing it on the edge of the pool. Thinking for a moment, she did the same with the pouch.

Seeing that Ava actually did bring a knife into the water, Lily didn't know how to feel. The pouch she could understand. But a knife? Huh? Did you hate bubbles that much?

Shaking her head with a slight laugh in her eyes, Lily walked up behind Ava, holding the sponge she had grabbed earlier, and started rubbing at Ava's back, starting from where it started peeking out of the water.

After a brief moment of scrubbing, although Lily got rid of most of the surface layer of dirt and grime, she couldn't help but feel like there was a layer of grease that just refused to come off, painting Ava's pale skin a dirty brown.

Placing one hand on Ava's right shoulder, Lily held onto Ava as leverage and used all of her strength to rub the skin that was exposed above water, and after a hard five minutes of scrubbing, she finally managed to reveal a pale white skin that had an even paler scar running across the back from Ava's right shoulder-bone all the way down to the center of Ava's back.

Shuddering a little, Lily couldn't help but jump back a step while recoiling her right hand, revealing the tip of the scar that clumped up in a bit of an ugly mess, indicating an unclean removal of the blade. It seemed like someone had cut Ava's back up to her shoulder and had even wedged the blade in at the endpoint and spun it, ripping apart the soft flesh before taking the edge out.

Stuttering, Lily couldn't help but ask, "A-, Ava, what's with the…." Biting her lip, Lily stopped asking. She didn't want Ava to suffer any unpleasant memories.

In front of her, Ava couldn't help but feel a little confused. She had just been gritting her teeth a moment ago and enduring Lily's rough handling of her back when Lily suddenly stopped and started saying something before stopping. Seeing Lily a few steps away from her holding up the sponge as if it was a rock and she was prepared to throw it, Ava couldn't help but find it a bit funny.

Thinking for a moment, Ava placed the pouch on the edge of the pool, feeling somewhat safe as she saw that the only entrance was the doorway they had come through earlier, and she was confident she could get back to the other end of the pool and grab her stuff in the time it took for someone to open the doorway.

Stepping over, Ava went and grabbed the sponge from Lily's hand and started working on her front side. "What were you asking, Lily?"

"Um." From behind, Lily hesitated for a moment before asking, "The scar, how did you get it?"

Pausing her scrubbing, Ava thought for a moment before resuming and answering, "A couple of years ago, I managed to snag a fairly fresh loaf of bread from the baker's trash. I was still a little naive at the time and didn't think to hide it and simply started eating on the spot. Later I got found by two guys called Jarvis and Kennely who wanted to steal it from me."

Moving to start scrubbing the parts underwater, Ava continued with an indifferent tone, "Of course, I was unwilling, but I also wasn't strong enough to beat them, so I just hugged the bread in my chest and laid on the ground, hoping they would leave when the crowd grew bigger. They weren't very strong, so although their fists and kicks hurt, I thought I could bear it. Half a loaf of bread for half my life… It was a trade I was willing to take."

Pausing, Ava fell silent while continuing to scrub.

Behind her, Lily couldn't help but ask, "And then?"

Turning around, Ava looked at Lily and let out a small smile, "And then one of those idiots found a discarded nail in the baker's trash and ripped it across my back. But a crowd ended up coming, and they booked it after kicking me another time for good measure." Tilting her head, Ava added, "To be honest, the cut wasn't that deep. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made it that year. But they didn't bother to take the nail out, and I had to rip it out myself." Reaching over her right shoulder with her left hand, Ava made a grabbing gesture, "But my arms weren't quite long enough, so it was a bit of a mess."

Letting out a mirthless smile, Ava said, "Had to avoid them for an entire year after that, but in the end, they got-"

Ava was cut off as Lily plunged forward into the water and hugged her, pushing Ava's head into her chest as she let out small tears. "Shhh, it's *hicc*, it's okay," Lily whispered.

Stunned, Ava lowered her right hand, careful to avoid Lily's back as she moved the knife over to the side of the pool before placing it on a ledge and moving both of her arms behind Lily, awkwardly placing them into a hug.

"Er, don't cry, Lily? It really wasn't that bad. I got them back in the end, so I'm not ashamed of it or anything."

Hiccuping, Lily slowly released Ava out of her grip before pushing her back slowly, looking at her with reddened eyes. "Stupid. You should have given up the bread."

Ava let out a sad smile, a warm feeling in her heart. "I would rather bleed to death than starve to death."

Staring at Ava, Lily let out a small shake of her head. "I don't understand."

Ava sighed, "Starving is-"

Lily cut in, "I don't understand, but I'll make sure you don't have to make that choice again."