there’s a glance at the offered hand.
she’s shaken hands with many people over the last few years who had turned out not to have the same friendly intent they offered at face value. perhaps she’d been too accepting of those offers to begin with… desperately in need of some kind of human contact. longing for a camaraderie that never blossomed - or turned sour. those survivors all too willing to take, take take… the only thing they gave was a torrid deception. and those scars borne from the aftermath, both mentally and physically… were a little too hard to dismiss entirely.
so there’s probably a - too long - pause before she finally accepts it. only the briefest touch - overstretching to maintain some kind of distance between them.
“kallie. and yes, i got in a couple of days ago. had the comfort of a quarantine room for a bit and apparently now i’m free to roam.”
or as free as anyone really was behind those walls.
it’s a startling and slightly claustrophobic change. exchanging the dangers beyond for a promise of relative safety. a few nights not sleeping with one eye open, restless and wary.
“don’t worry about remembering my face though… i’m not planning on staying.“
a small study of the place that the flowers might grow. she’s heard others talking before this. in smaller camps. in other places. arguing the validity of beauty over practicality. that there was no space for something as frivolous as a bloom when food was the utmost priority.
“in a world as gone to shit as this one - practicality trumps beauty. people dismiss things and people they don’t think are inherently… useful. pretty things don’t fill hungry bellies.”
“so - if anyone argues over their value - sunflower seeds are pretty good nutritionally too. fat… protein… fibre. they don’t spoil like fruit. they don’t rot like meat.”
a small shrug, the wire around her headphones swaying from the anchor around her neck. weighing up the decision of whether to speak up or not. because she has some. a handful here and there when she was hungry. in the bottom of her pack, wrapped and kept dry, a small variety of grains and seeds. it was always a risk - to show your hand. a risk to have someone - take that very thing from you and leave you with nothing.
“i might have something – if you’re interested in trading?”
Su-Jin noticed Kallie’s hesitancy and honestly, Su-Jin didn’t blame her for it. While Su-Jin had been lucky enough to have met those who would go on to establish the community here early on into the end of the world, she had still encountered less-than-savoury characters. Some of them were only in her life for a short while but there was the occasional lingerer. Good riddance to them all. But not everyone was awful, Su-Jin knew that, but trusting a new person blindly was not a wise move these days.
Even though Kallie claimed it wasn’t worth remembering who she was as she wasn’t planning on staying, Su-Jin still committed her details to memory. She often recalled those she had met before and had not seen since, hoping they were OK out there, somewhere. Was it a waste of her time to remember them? Maybe, but she liked the idea that someone remembered them. After all, no one could die as long as someone remembered them, right? It was the closest anyone could get to truly surviving this nightmare.
But Su-Jin wasn’t going to mention that now to Kallie. Something about the way Kallie held herself indicated she wouldn’t care for Su-Jin insisting on remembering her so she kept that information to herself. Instead Su-Jin focused on their actual conversation about the sunflowers.
“You make a good point,” Su-Jin admitted as Kallie pointed out the lack of nutritional value in most pretty things. “But this place could use the colour. We’re supposed to be making this place our home. Part of that is, yes, ensuring we have enough food to survive, but we have to feed our souls as well as our bodies if we’re gonna make it through.”
Su-Jin’s eyes went wide as Kallie offered a trade. She worried her bottom lip with her teeth for a moment, unsure if she was in position to use the community’s stock to make trades. However, Kallie had been welcomed into the Hospital by the Council. She’d be using the supplies while she stayed here anyway. So what was the harm?
“Colour me interested,” she told Kallie. “What were you looking for in return?”
