episode_0092

After eating the meal Lina prepared for me, I rolled around on the sofa in the living room. I guess I was suffering from food intoxication, but I couldn’t overcome the laws of nature and ended up falling asleep.

“Uh… Sir?”

The first thing I did when I woke up was to look for the old man. He was the owner of the shelter and the center of attention for the members of the shelter.

Above all, there were more than one or two things that had piled up, so I needed to get them done quickly.

“Ah, Mr. Do-Hoon has already left for the dam. He asked me to tell him, ‘I’m leaving you behind because you’re sleeping too well.’”

Mr. Cheon Deuk said as he organized the medical supplies in the cupboard. The cupboard that Mr. Cheon Deuk could reach had supplies lined up on each floor. Except for the alcohol and gauze boxes, they all had unfamiliar names.

“Oh, I see… Did you think I would understand? How could this damn old man leave me behind?”

“Isn’t that something to get angry about? Do-hoon often went by himself, but when it was really necessary, he always took Dan-hwa with him. He went a long way this time, and I heard it was very dangerous. I think Do-hoon was considerate of Dan-hwa.”

I looked at Mr. Cheon Deuk with displeasure. I had a strong feeling that this person was on the old man’s side rather than mine.

If someone saw you, they’d think you were a lawyer that the old man hired with money. Why are you desperately making excuses when you’re not even your own?

“Dad, is this okay?”

“Oh, Hwaryeon. You’re getting pretty good at it now. When you’re suturing, just like you did just now, use the thread…”

Just as he was about to say something, Hwa-ryeon appeared holding a strange lump of silicone in her hand and spoke to Cheon-deuk.

In a situation where a mother and daughter were talking so seriously, I suppressed my discontent inside, thinking that it was inhuman to say anything.

“Are you going to raise your daughter to be a doctor?”

“Well, this is all I’ve learned. Hwaryeon can’t just sit still and eat. I thought it would be good to learn medicine to be of some help, and Hwaryeon also had similar thoughts, so somehow… hahaha.”

I felt my boiling stomach calm down at the sight of Cheon Deuk smiling awkwardly.

Yeah, seeing people I thought were burdens now trying to do their part, I guess my hard work wasn’t in vain.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can forgive me for throwing you into the dam and leaving you there.

Wasn’t that a separate matter? This was something that needed to be dealt with and disciplined as soon as the old man returned.

Hayura, how long has it been since you came back from that old lady’s shelter and started acting on your own?

“Hwa-ryeon and Cheon-deuk must have been doing that, and how were Lina and Hye-ji doing in the meantime?”

“Well, Ms. Lina was the one who did all the housework, and Ms. Hyeji was locked in the studio all day, only seeing each other during meals, right?”

As expected, the answer I received was exactly as I had expected. In fact, I had not expected anything different from what I had heard, so I was not disappointed.

“Well, as expected.”

On the contrary, if that expectation had turned out to be wrong, it might have been a little more difficult. If the two of them had done something on their own while I was away, I don’t know what the outcome would have been.

“Sister, would you like a snack?”

“Okay. Who eats something sweet as soon as they wake up?”

They say even a tiger will come if you call it, said Lina, carrying a plate full of fruit.

However, I knew that if I ate and slept and then ate again, I would gain weight, and I was still in the prime of my life, and I didn’t want to gain weight and feel embarrassed when I did things with older men, so I flatly declined.

“Yes…”

Lina’s sullen face was obvious. She looked down and weakly placed the plate of fruit on the table, like a dog that had been refused a walk.

“It’s not that I won’t eat it, it’s that I’ll eat it later. Why are you complaining about something like that? You’re not a girl…”

I tried to comfort her by saying something to comfort her as she looked gloomy, but for some reason her reaction was lukewarm. Cheon Deuk and Hwa Ryun turned their gazes toward me, and for some reason their eyes seemed to be filled with thoughts like, ‘Isn’t this too much?’

That gaze was so stinging that I took apart every word I had said and reviewed them, correcting any minor, non-critical errors.

“Well, you and I are both girls. What is it… I’m just telling you not to take things you say without thinking to heart. You know that’s what uncles always say.”

“Yes… Sister.”

Lina finally showed signs of agreement with what I said. She looked at Cheon Deuk and Hwa Ryun with a full heart of wondering how good my skills were, but they were giving her even more awkward looks than before.

‘Isn’t this real?’

I couldn’t stand it because he was looking at me as if he couldn’t say anything out loud and that it didn’t seem right.

“Thank you for peeling it. The apples are delicious. Cheon-deuk and Hwa-ryeon are coming to eat too. Since Lina already peeled it, it would be a shame not to eat it.”

I tried to encourage Lina with a smile. Lina’s gloomy expression brightened up a little.

I did have thoughts like, ‘Do I really have to do this?’ but as we all sat together and ate fruit, my thoughts changed to, ‘What’s good is good.’

*

‘Drunk! Drrr!!!’

As soon as I went down to the workshop on the first floor, the noise I heard was truly deafening. The room was also filled with the somewhat pungent smell of oil emitted by the rotating drill.

“Be loud, if it looks like someone is here, be quiet.”

‘Bam! Crash! Crash!!!’

She tried to raise her voice, but it didn’t seem to reach her properly. Hyeji was busy turning a hand drill in front of a machine that she didn’t even know what it was used for.

“Hey!”

“Ah? Oh! It’s a pair of shoes?”

Even though the usually rambunctious guy was yelling right next to him, he didn’t startle him and reacted naturally as if he had never been there.

“What are you making like that again?”

“Hehehe, you’re curious about this? Hmm, that’s right. I think it’s the greatest thing I’ve made recently!”

I didn’t feel good. I felt like I had stepped on a landmine. I wondered if I would be able to get out before dinner.

“When we run our generators, we use fossil fuels, that is, oil, right? But since we don’t have an oil refinery, we have many limitations in terms of continuous supply. Above all, we are not an oil-producing country…”

Just hearing it gave me a headache. After the word “sanyu-guk,” a long list of technical terms that only Hyeji knew were listed.

As I listened to the explanation, I felt like my mind was gradually wearing down. I had to endure the strange phenomenon of my expression becoming blank and my head becoming dizzy for a long time.

“To put it simply, it’s an automatic oil refinery and a waste oil regeneration device! Even diesel or gasoline that has become unusable due to poor management can be turned into usable items if you leave it to this guy!”

I blinked. I erased all of Hyeji’s additional explanations floating in my head, leaving only the last words Hyeji uttered.

“Ah, it’s a refinery.”

He spoke his conclusion in a voice devoid of any soul. I was confident that I had understood Hyeji’s words accurately.

“No, it’s not a refinery. The official name is a high-density…” designed to dramatically increase efficiency and reuse rates for sustainable fossil fuel development.

“It’s called a refinery. Got it.”

Although Hyeji raised an objection, he lightly ignored it and spoke again. He couldn’t let Hyeji’s mouth continue to move.

“That’s not it!”

“That’s right.”

I grabbed Hyeji’s ear while she was trying hard to deny it. I saw a girl who was bigger than me being held by my hand and making a ‘eeek’ sound, and it was so insignificant and cute that I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ugh, what would a non-major like you know?”

“There’s something I’d like you to make more than that.”

“Ah! Okay! I can make everything except babies!”

Hyeji’s words made my head spin. No, why is the baby suddenly…

When I looked at Hyeji as if to say, ‘What on earth are you talking about?’, Hyeji’s face took on a sinister expression.

“Are you pretending not to know when you know? Or is it true that girls in love become fools?”

I grabbed Hyeji’s head. Hyeji screamed, “Ouch!” and made a fuss. She was wearing a work hat, so if my hands hurt, it would hurt, but her head wouldn’t hurt.

“Can you make a GPS transceiver?”

“It’s not difficult…but where are you going to use it?”

Hyeji asked me with a look of genuine curiosity. However, I decided to just ignore her since it was not my duty to tell her what it was for.

“There is a place to write.”

Hyeji’s eyes rolled around. It seemed like she was trying hard to think of something that, except for engineering, would have zero utility.

“When should I come and pick it up?”

“Tomorrow morning? I picked up some antennas and I can make it for you right away. I could make it a little faster, but can you tell me exactly what you’re going to use it for?”

“What are you going to do with it? You won’t have any use for it, so you don’t have to know.”

“Okay, I got it.”

Although Hyeji persisted, he kept ignoring her and tried to block her at the source, so Hyeji seemed to have given up.

I waved goodbye and headed up the stairs to the upper floor. Just as I was about to close the door and go upstairs, something I had to say came to mind and I turned back.

“It’s obvious. She’s probably trying to keep her husband from running away. That’s why it’s fun to watch. Hehehe, should I go and sneak a peek at Lina’s room later?”

It wasn’t intentional and it was really unfortunate for Hyeji, but I ended up listening to everything Hyeji had to say.

You’re spying on my room…

Perhaps, something like a camera had been installed while my uncle and I were gone.

“Hey! You crazy bitch!”

“Huh, huh…?”