1 strange insects

When I left the front door of the high-rise apartment building with the empty lunch bag in my hand after delivering the order I had to deliver, I saw two insects wrestling with each other under the small trash can placed on the side of the sidewalk where people walked.

Even though I'm not very knowledgeable about insects, I was pretty sure that one was a rhinoceros beetle and the other was a cockroach, until I saw the rhinoceros beetle take the cockroach between its horns and tear it into two pieces with a single move. It was a bit of a bloody fight for the insect world.

I got on the small courier electric bike with my empty lunch bag and went to the meat-based Turkish food restaurant on the street where I work.

All the tables in the shop were empty. It was only 10 in the morning. 10 o'clock was not a time when people preferred to eat meat

As the noise of the store closing the door echoed, a man and a woman in their early 20s came out of the kitchen, where a curtain was hung instead of a door.

The man's name was Edward and the woman's name was Elizabeth. Edward was a young man of good build with black hair and black eyes, currently 23 years old.

He was the person who convinced me to leave the orphanage when I was only 8 years old, and the woman next to him was Edward's wife, whom he met by chance 4 years ago and has been married for 3 months now.

In addition to having black hair and black eyes, just like Edward, Elizabeth was also tall. She and Edward were often confused by others as twins of different genders, although the story about them falling in love with each other the moment they first saw each other has always seemed like nonsense in my eyes. It was a kind of fate in their mouth

"Oh, white boy, if you had been a little bit late, I would have been the one to go out looking for you, so you know, a boy with white hair and white eyes wandering around alone outside and being spotted by a rich woman, uhh, I got goosebumps."

I rolled my eyes at my brother's nonsense, placed the empty bag in my hand on the table and sat at one of the dining tables, while Elizabeth was warning Edward.

While they were talking, I went to the sink. After finishing my work in the toilet, while washing my hands in the sink, I saw my own reflection in the mirror. I looked at the young man with white hair, sickly white skin, white eyebrows and light blonde to white eye color.

Frankly, this man might have been more beautiful than handsome, but his hair falling over his ears made him a very neutral person.

But what spoiled the beauty of the man in the mirror were scars of skin cancer, similar to sunburn, from my neck to my chest and from my chest to my chin.

As you've probably guessed by now, I was born with albinism. Because of this disease, my skin became extremely sensitive to sunlight, and even as a child, I was often bullied by my peers because my skin was as white as a dead person's skin.

These scars occurred because I wanted to tan and get rid of my sickly white skin, despite the warnings of the old woman who was once the director of the orphanage.

Apparently an albino patient of my level has no right to tan.

The skin cancer wasn't just on my neck; I also had scars from my left shoulder to my wrists. Because I thought I looked scary because of these scars, my left arm was always wrapped in bandages during the day.

After washing my face with some cold water, I returned to the others. When I looked around, there was no one there, but there was a nice smell of food coming from the kitchen, so I went to the kitchen and saw the other two already sitting at the dining table. I think there were fried mushrooms for today's breakfast. I sat down quietly and started eating.

After everyone at the table ate in silence for a while, Edward couldn't stand the sounds coming from the cutlery on the table any longer and started a conversation with me.

"Today is the last day of summer vacation, you will continue to go to school again and all the work will be left to us. By the way, what grade were you in?"

My brother's sloppy question didn't even surprise me, he was just his usual self.

"This year I'm in my last year of high school. You should hire a courier while I'm away. The shop's income is more than enough for that."

The next question from the person I considered my brother was enough to make me grit my teeth.

"How old are you now? Also, when was your birthday?"

Just as I was about to tell him that I was going to be an adult and scold him, Elizabeth answered the question for me.

"Eren's birthday is in 3 days. We need to celebrate his 18th birthday properly. Any ideas, Edward?"

I looked at Elizabeth like she was an angel

Elizabeth and Edward always treated me like their own child, which was quite disturbing to me.

To be honest, even though I am 17 years old now, I was a small person among my peers. If someone from the outside were to guess my age because of my diseased skin, they would say 15 at most.

As disturbing as it is, if Edward hadn't taken me in when I was 8, I would have been sent to a random orphanage in who knows what part of the country when the orphanage was closed, like the other children.

Speaking of which, when I was 6 years old, Edward was 12 years old and left the orphanage. He came back 2 years later and called me to join him. He left the orphanage. In 2 years, he worked in the restaurant of an old Turkish couple who cooked local dishes to survive, and the old couple started to see him as their own grandchild.

While Edward was working for them, after a while, the old couple, citing their age, left the restaurant to Edward and returned to their homeland for retirement. After Edward ran the restaurant alone, I came to the orphanage to pick me up when he could stand on his own feet. Since then, I have been helping Edward in the restaurant business.

After the old couple left, the only thing keeping the shop afloat was a few of the old couple's friends who put up with the subpar meals Edward cooked and gave extra money to buy food.