"Say, Su?" I called out to her while she was stuffing her face with food like there was no tomorrow. Her cheeks were so puffed out, she honestly looked like a damn pufferfish on the verge of exploding. The sight was almost comical—her little hands clutching at the food, her jaw working desperately as if she couldn't swallow fast enough.
"Hmm?" She looked up at me at last, her big eyes blinking as she tried to process my voice through her overstuffed mouth. That tiny, muffled sound and the way she tilted her head… it was ridiculously cute. But that cuteness hit me with a bitter edge, because I knew what it meant. She wasn't just eating greedily because she loved the food—she was cramming it down like someone afraid it would be taken away at any second. Her whole posture screamed it. Even when her gaze met mine, there was this flicker of wariness in her eyes, like she was guarding her plate against me, shielding what little she had managed to claim for herself.
