New World with Four Husbands-Chapter 129: A new friend

"Not good with kids?" Renaldo raised an eyebrow at Coco, "Why is he crying then?"

Coco stared at the little boy before she turned to the butcher and shrugged her shoulders. "I ignored him the whole time you were gone and.. Well, he was right. It was childish of me. I should have used my words and faced him like a grown up."

"Well?" The pink haired woman turned back to the little boy and tilted her head, "What did you do, Rey? You know, I have known Coco for my whole life—"

"Ayo, what—" Coco’s eyes went wide and were about to stalk towards Jacques, but Renaldo grabbed her arm to stop her.

"— And I know that she’s not the type of person who would ignore someone, child or adult alike, unless that someone really did something to make her uncomfortable." Jacques ignored Coco’s reaction and continued talking to Rey, "So? What did you do that made her upset?"

The butcher let out a huff and released Coco’s arm before he went to his working station to pick up where Coco left off.

He nodded his head in approval when he noticed how clean she ripped the scales off the tough crocodile, leaving the meat still proper and intact.

Well.. Except for the head, but all is well.

It will still sell anyway so he’s not too worried about a head being split open.

He grabbed a clean rag and dipped it in the water before cleaning the splattered blood all over the wall, courtesy of Coco’s handiwork, and making sure that his work space was clean.

All the while listening to his wife sort out the situation between their friend and the little boy.

"I just asked Rogue to grab her because she was planning to run away after giving the dinner meat yesterday.." The little boy murmured under his bread while keeping his gaze on the floor, "But she got out almost immediately. She was strong and even made a fuss about me being cute."

"What? I never said that you’re cute! I said that kids are cute! Not you specifically!" Coco retorted back, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she placed her hands on her hips.

"And that was before you told that guy to touch me! Did you not know how much it hurts me? My husband had just finished cleaning my wounds and that guy grabbed me too tightly!" Coco frowned as she recalled how much it sting.

Jacques gasped and her eyes went wide. "Are you okay? Are you still hurt?"

Coco blinked, her frown softening into a small reassuring smile as Jacques showed concern over her wellbeing. "I’m all good. It’s the only reason why I was upset. I didn’t want the guy to destroy Heiren’s hard work."

"Oh, thank goodness.. How about now? Is it still bleeding? Do you want me to check it just in case?" Jacques asked, her eyebrows creasing in worry.

"It’s fine, it’s fine." Coco dismissed her friend’s worry with a wave of her hand, "Anyway, back to the topic, I was upset with the stunt he pulled so I wanted to avoid him.. And because I’m not good with kids, but an apology would be a start."

The only kid I could handle was my youngest sister. Coco thought and kept her gaze at him, staring down.

"But it wasn’t me who did that to you!" Rey exclaimed, frowning at her.

"It wasn’t you who did it, but it was you who ordered it." Coco countered back as she crossed her arms, "You’re the young master of that guy so you need to be held accountable for what you asked him to do."

"What?! But— what.. What?! I didn’t— I, just what are you—" The little boy couldn’t form a sentence and kept stuttering on his words.

He teared up and turned to the pink haired woman. "Jacques! She’s being mean to me!"

"No, Rey." Jacques said and shook her head, "She was being reasonable and asking to apologize for something bad you did."

"But I didn’t hurt her!" Rey cried out and his tears fell from his eyes.

"Child." Coco sighed deeply and crouched down, "I didn’t say that you were the one who hurt me, okay? But what you did back there was not something you should be doing, right? Just what did it lead to?"

Rey sniffled and wiped his tears. He realized that Coco wasn’t trying to villainize him so he stopped trying to defend himself, instead, he reflected— a look of pondering crossing his features as he thought deeply about what happened.

"What did it lead to?" Coco repeated the question when she noticed that he had a certain look of acknowledgement in his eyes.

"Hurting you.."

"Exactly." Coco smiled softly and nodded her head in approval, "And if you hurt someone? What do you say?"

"I’m sorry." The little boy mumbled as he stared at her, his eyes still glossed with tears, but the crying stopped, "I ended up hurting you. I’m sorry.."

"Apology accepted." Coco started with a laugh accompanying her words, "Wasn’t so hard, was it? If you know that you did something wrong, always start with an apology."

"Okay." The little boy sniffled and nodded his head in understanding, "Does that mean that you’ll be my friend now?"

"Aye, aye, captain!" Coco gave a playful salute to the boy and smiled brightly, which made him brighten up significantly and return the gesture clumsily.

"Aye, captain!" Rey exclaimed, a large smile forming in his face.

Amidst the interaction between the two, there was a married couple who had been watching what happened with a fond smile, a look of pride and joy in their eyes as they witnessed a friendship form.

"Now that you two have made up, let’s eat the food we bought." Jacques said, grabbing the bag from the table.

"Nice! I have some fruit with me. Want some?" Coco offered as she stood up.

"Aye, aye, captain." Jacques smiled.