Somerset Beggars

How foolish was the girl to be fooled by the beggars in town? It was obvious they were all waiting for her because probably every time she passed by, she would always make time for them. Didn't she even realize that. Besides, it was okay to be generous but to give your own shoes to a beggar just because you don't have any more coins to spare was simply outrageous, beyond foolish than he can ever imagine!

"Here," The girl successfully untangled the pair from her neck and she immediately handed it to the beggar whose face became too frantic for such an unexpected gift.

However, Hawk couldn't take it anymore, so before the beggar could walk away with the girl's shoes, he intervened.

"Wait!" He shouted and both the girl and the beggar looked to where the boy was standing. Looking straight to the beggar, he shouted again with a demand. "Give it back to her!"

The girl instantly made a face when she realized who it was. She faced him with two hands on her waist, "I give it to him already, you dumbo little pumpkin!"

Seeing that the beggar didn't heed his demands, the young Monsanto ran and grabbed the shoes away from him "I said give it back to her. It's hers. You won't even make a use of this as it doesn't fit you in the first place," He then carefully hung the girl's shoes in his own neck and grabbed something in his purse. It was some spare coins he kept and he gave it to the beggar in exchange for the girl's shoes. "Take this and go. This can buy you enough food for the day"

The beggar who had now some coins in his hand was greatly satisfied and so he left. The girl however wasn't pleased about Hawk's intervention and confronted him right away, "What's that for?"

Hawk did not answer her question. Instead he kneeled on his feet and positioned one shoe to the girl's feet. "Wear it. You'll eventually hurt your feet if you continue walking barefoot,"

The girl did not expect such a gesture from him, especially that few days ago, that same boy had gone berserk just because he couldn't accept defeat. Not wanting to cooperate with her, she declined immediately, "No, I won't"

"Just put on-"

"I know why you are here," She cut him off and proceeded to launch an unannounced confrontation the young Monsanto wasn't prepared for. "All the boys didn't want to play with you anymore unless you apologized to me? Right?"

"Well.." Hawk seemed to have lost his tongue. The boys in the village indeed refused to play with him and even so became friends with him because of how he acted previously. Worst, words of how Hawk had gone berserk over a basketball game reached his 'papa's' ears and he wanted him to apologize or he'll be grounded forever.

His 'papa' who was his butler, of whom his parents have entrusted him was more than a servant to Hawk. As a servant of Monsanto's he had seen first hand how the adult Monsanto's were and how their big prides and bad deeds caused them the current misfortunes of their family. He wished then for Hawk not to follow the same path and so ever since Hawk came in his custody, he tried to teach him the good ways and discipline him as much as he could. This was the reason why he wanted Hawk to be humble and apologize for his mishaps.

However when he approached the boys, they all agreed that they would only deal with him when he apologized to the girl they played with that day and so he looked for her. Problem was that aside from the girl having a smart mouth and unending wits, Hawk wasn't really into apologizing. In fact, he had never apologized to someone before as his status as a young master of the Monsanto family gave him that kind of benefit where you don't need to apologize to anyone you've wronged.

"Well what? Are you ready to apologize to me?" She demanded. Unfortunately her demand only made the young Monsanto scratched his head without even saying a word.

"Don't tell me you don't know how to apologize?" She added as Hawk wasn't answering.

"I sure not…" His voice was low as he seemed not willing to admit that there was something in the world he wasn't capable of doing and that is how to apologize when you've wrong others.

"What?" The girl heard his answer for the first time yet it seemed like she couldn't believe it. Is it even possible that there was someone who didn't know how to apologize?

"I don't know how to apologize," Hawk repeated it again for her.

The girl blinked for a moment trying to rationalize what she just heard. She looked at Hawk thoroughly from head to foot with her two big round eyes. Her incredulity got her lost for a while.

"You don't know how to apologize?" She repeated her answer just to make sure she wasn't just hallucinating. Hawk answered with a nod right away and only then did the girl realize he wasn't bluffing or so. When she had a gasp of everything, instead of becoming annoyed with the boy, he pitied him. For him to not know how to apologize only meant he must have not been taught well by her parents, or he might have no parents to start with.

The girl cleared her throat and uttered, "I'm sorry.."

"What?" Hawk was confused.

"I'm sorry," The girl repeated. "That's what you say to someone when you want to apologize to them. Also you need to be sincere as it is the sincerity that makes one forgive you more than the word sorry itself,"

There was huge silence between them after that. They both contemplated on what they both heard that moment. Soon, the silence was cut off by the young Hawk as he spoke, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you and I'm sincere with it,"