𝕆ℕ 𝔸 𝔻𝕀𝔽𝔽𝔼ℝ𝔼ℕ𝕋 𝕊ℍ𝕆ℝ𝔼

2

Y/N was tired. Tired and hungry and in pain. But she didn't have time to rest just yet. She had to drag herself to the market and try to get something to eat with the fish she had caught. She had already gathered up the rent for their room for this month and she had a few pennies to spare, so hopefully she'd be able to get some rice or potatoes or even some vegetables at the market.

At this point she'd be happy with anything that wasn't fish for once. Her and her siblings had been having fish (and only fish) for the last few weeks and it was getting too much even for Y/N. She was running out of ideas on how to prepare it to mix things up and her younger siblings were starting to refuse eating it, because it was getting too bland. She couldn't have that.

It was just that until today Y/N hadn't had the money to buy anything from the market. She hadn't been able to catch a lot of fish, no matter how long she was down by the coast. She barely caught enough for her siblings and herself to eat. There was nothing left to sell at the market and whatever she sold had to go towards the rent first. But today she finally managed to get some extra money on the side.

Which meant instead of going home and resting for the long day she'd have tomorrow, she had to get to the market just as it was closing up and hope she'd get something for a bit cheaper than usual. All with her siblings tagging along with her, so they could help her carry stuff. And because she couldn't possibly leave Hiroshi alone to take care of them any longer than she already had.

All her siblings were younger than her, but Hiroshi was the oldest one out of all of them. He was just 13 and he really shouldn't be left alone to look after 3 even younger children, but it wasn't like Y/N had much of a choice. Someone needed to look after them and someone needed to work to get money. And she wasn't going to send her 13 year old brother off to work and take care of the entire family. If anyone was working it would be her. She was 16, she'd be fine.

Well, that's what she thought anyway. It turned out that she wasn't really that fine, because it was hard to find a job. There were lots of job openings, but no one wanted her. It was really frustrating to Y/N. She had gone to so many of the skippers and everyone had turned her away. She didn't get it. They all desperately needed workers and she was there, willing to work, yet they were turning her away. She knew it would be hard to find a job in fishing as a woman, but she hadn't imagined it to be this impossible. So now she had to somehow make things work on her own.

It wasn't easy and she couldn't remember a night she had slept more than four hours during the last couple of weeks, but at least things were working out. Somewhat. They were all still together, they all had a roof over their heads (even if they were just sharing one tiny room) and they had food at least once a day (even if it was fish every single day). None of them had to go to an orphanage or a convent or anything like that. She didn't have money to send her siblings to school, that was a problem, but she had finished school and whenever she could she taught them what she knew.

Y/N really hoped that things would get better, though. She was fine doing this for now, but she knew she wouldn't be able to keep doing this forever. She was almost falling asleep standing as it was. Every bone and every muscle in her body hurt relentlessly and she was so hungry. One meal a day just wasn't enough when she was working like this, but there wasn't more food than that.

Either way she had to keep going. Her eyes fell onto one of the merchants who was selling all kinds of things - potatoes, fruits, vegetables, sometimes also some rice. He hadn't completely packed up yet, so Y/N might still stand a chance. She still hadn't figured out which of the sellers were going to be nice to her and which ones she should better avoid, so she felt a little anxious approaching him.

Some of the merchants didn't like selling to orphans like her at all, while others didn't seem to mind. Y/N wasn't sure why some of them had a weird aversion to people like her, but she figured it had something to do with a lot of people believing that orphans couldn't possibly pay for anything unless they had stolen the money. Which wasn't true. Y/N had never stolen anything... well, she had never stolen any money. She had been stealing some food here and there, when she really didn't have enough money, but it was small amounts and nothing huge.