Ch.56Chapter 56. First Test

Jinsoo woke up from a wet dream, cursing as he realized he had to wash his underwear first thing in the morning. At thirty-something, he never imagined he’d experience a nocturnal emission like some teenager.

“Ugh… Jinsoo?” Cuss appeared, rubbing her eyes.

“Oh, you’re up? Go wash up. I’ll make breakfast.”

Cuss was unusually early today—normally he had to tug at her tentacle to wake her. He quickly finished cleaning up and started preparing breakfast.

With groceries needed, the refrigerator was sparse. He decided to use leftover rice, heating it in the microwave while making fried eggs. He added soy sauce, sesame seeds, and sesame oil—which, predictably, came in a soju bottle. There seemed to be an unwritten rule that sesame oil must always be stored in soju bottles.

When Cuss emerged from washing up, her wet hair hung in front of her face like a ghost.

“I can’t see anything…”

“Pull it back, you idiot.”

“Mmm.”

She was still clumsy with hair care. Despite her attempts at brushing, it was a mess. Jinsoo had to sit her at the table and brush it for her.

“How do I eat this?” she asked, looking at the rice and egg.

“Mix it all together with your spoon.”

“Hmm…”

Her small hands worked the egg into the rice, the runny yolk seeping between the grains, turning everything a brownish color. She took a big spoonful, her eyes widening at the taste. Then she began devouring it without a word—her reaction said everything.

Jinsoo quickly ate some toast and went to change clothes.

“Hey, girl.”

“Yes…?”

“At least put your dishes away.”

While Cuss had become somewhat more docile lately, her manners hadn’t improved. After finishing a meal, shouldn’t she clear her dishes? Was he just her housekeeper?

“This won’t do. Time to learn proper dishwashing. Come here.”

“Mmm… I don’t want to. I need to go to school soon.”

“There’s plenty of time. Come here now.”

He dragged Cuss to the sink, put rubber gloves on her hands, and taught her step by step—applying detergent to the sponge, scrubbing off food residue, and rinsing. He guided her arms through each motion so she couldn’t claim ignorance later. Now he could make her do the dishes whenever he felt lazy. Maybe he should teach her cleaning too—turning Cuss into a maid didn’t seem like a bad idea.

“Jinsoo.”

“Hm?”

“Are you going to marry Juliane?”

“What?”

He was momentarily flustered. Right, she had witnessed everything last night.

“Will she really become my mother then?”

“Why? Don’t you like that?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it…”

“No?”

“Does that mean Juliane will live with us too?”

“Well, if we get married, I suppose so.”

“…”

Cuss looked up, meeting his eyes. What was with that pitiful expression?

“Don’t worry. It probably won’t go as far as marriage.”

“Mmm…”

Juliane would likely tire of him soon. People might initially be attracted to someone older and mature, but eventually they’re drawn to peers or younger partners. It was just a temporary infatuation. He shouldn’t get too excited either—if he didn’t expect anything, he couldn’t be betrayed.

After finishing the dishes, Cuss’s clothes were soaked. In the past, Jinsoo would have grabbed her by the hair immediately, but he’d mellowed considerably.

“Jinsoo, when I wear pants…”

“What about it?”

“Wrapping the tentacle around my waist is uncomfortable…”

True, hiding the tentacle by wrapping it around her waist was the only option when wearing pants. Since the tentacle was sensitive, keeping it coiled up must be uncomfortable. Wait, weren’t there places to store the tentacle? Two places… one of which should be deep enough…

“There’s no other way. Just bear with it.”

“Hmm…”

He decided to discard that idea. Cuss needed to use the bathroom too, after all.

While he was lost in these thoughts, the school bus arrived outside. They’d taken too much time.

“You look ridiculous. Hurry up and get on.”

“Wait, Jinsoo.”

As she climbed the bus steps, Cuss turned around.

“What is it?”

She climbed one more step to match his eye level, then leaned forward. Her lips touched his with a soft kiss. They were small and moist. But wait…

“…?”

“Mmm…”

Why wasn’t she pulling away? Her legs were trembling as she maintained her position, so Jinsoo grabbed her cheeks and forcibly separated their lips.

“Phew…!”

Cuss finally exhaled, her face bright red.

“I kissed you longer than Juliane did.”

“Uh… if you say so.”

It was only about five seconds, but to Cuss it must have felt like five minutes. She immediately darted into the bus without looking back. The bus driver watched them with an amused expression, which annoyed Jinsoo. That girl was just trying to compete unnecessarily with Juliane.

“Sigh…”

The bus departed, leaving behind a doting father figure. While the passionate kiss with Juliane had been nice…

“Tsk. Time to go to work.”

That static kiss—or rather, peck—wasn’t bad either. Maybe Bob was right about him being a pedophile. Damn, he wasn’t even sure anymore.

The commute was smooth, unusually free of traffic. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d driven without cursing once. The company was bustling when he arrived, with trucks constantly coming and going. All the mechanics seemed to have reported for duty. Was today component assembly day?

“Hey, component assembly got moved up to 8 AM.”

“Why?”

“We’re doing the first test at 6 PM.”

“…”

Damn it. That meant overtime again. His head was already starting to ache.

“We’re testing right away?”

“Yeah, some VIP is coming for the second test. That’s why we moved up the schedule.”

“What VIP?”

“A newly elected congressman.”

“Uh… who is that?”

“You wouldn’t know even if I told you.”

“…”

That was true. He had zero interest in politics.

“Oh, and by the way.”

“Yes, manager?”

“I thought a lot about what you said. So I added one test item. We’re going to ignite the engine while rotating it.”

The manager scratched the back of his head awkwardly. This was… quite unexpected.

“Are you insane?”

“What the hell? You complain even when I do what you suggested.”

“But how will we get to the second test? It’s obvious it’ll fail in the first. You said a congressman is coming!”

“A failed project is better than an exploded spacecraft. This isn’t right. No matter how I think about it, we can’t use loopholes just because something wasn’t in the requirements.”

“…”

Damn. The manager suddenly looked incredibly cool. He was willing to risk a project he was personally responsible for, just to maintain his integrity. That’s what a real man does. As expected of his role model.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing, sir.”

Having finished all the paperwork during yesterday’s overtime, Jinsoo had nothing to do today except watch the other engineers and mechanics work while cheering them on. Still, as one of the responsible engineers, he couldn’t leave the site, even if he didn’t understand much of what was happening. He trusted the manager and the other genius engineers to handle everything.

“Yes, I’ll be working late today. Yes.”

“Who’s that, Jinsoo? Your wife?”

While he was calling Juliane to ask her to watch Cuss a bit longer, his colleagues started teasing him with lewd grins. Despite explaining multiple times that he hadn’t thought about marriage yet, they wouldn’t listen.

Lunch was a rushed affair. Someone had brought random Subway sandwiches for everyone to choose from. The one Jinsoo picked was suspiciously loaded with jalapeños and pickles—a combination that felt deliberately malicious. He spent the rest of the day with a gurgling stomach while observing the engine assembly, which proceeded in an extremely solemn atmosphere. A single loose screw could cause an explosion mid-air.

“Manager, I need to use the bathroom…”

“Hold it, you bastard. You won’t die if you don’t go.”

“No, not that, you crazy person. Do I look like someone who masturbates at work?”

“We got a report once about tapping sounds in the bathroom. Wasn’t that you?”

“Why would you think it was me?!”

Unbelievable. There was some pervert masturbating in the company bathroom. In a workplace full of men, what could possibly be so arousing? It gave him chills to think there was a homosexual hiding here, after he’d escaped from that gay hellhole. There truly was no paradise in the places you flee to. Pure horror.

“Have some coffee while we work.”

By the time assembly was nearly complete, Jinsoo stepped outside for some fresh air and found the sky already growing dark. Why were they giving out coffee instead of dinner at this hour? He really needed to form a union someday to overthrow this terrible company.

“The first test of the Gryphon 9 engine will begin at 18:00. Repeat…”

Time had dragged on endlessly, but as the test approached, Jinsoo felt nervous. He hoped the project wouldn’t fail, for the manager’s sake. Or if it did fail, he hoped it would be due to minor defects that could be quickly fixed. If the fuel tank support failed because of the added rotation test, it would be a disaster requiring a complete overhaul.

Everyone gathered in the test room, looking down through glass windows at the large vacuum chamber below. The engine looked enormous from this perspective.

“Beginning first test.”

“Start with fuel injection.”

“Injecting liquid fuel.”

A trailer backed up and extended a pipe that connected to the front of the engine. The liquid fuel would flow through this pipe into the engine’s fuel tank, then into the combustion chamber in controlled amounts.

“Ready to ignite?”

“Ignite.”

With the manager’s approval, the engine roared to life, emitting shimmering heat waves from its rear.

“Everyone wearing sunglasses?”

“Yes!”

“Ignite afterburner.”

“Igniting.”

With a thunderous sound, red flames shot out, changing from red to yellow to blue. Four hundred seconds after startup, with no warning signs, the engine reached maximum output.

“Woohoo! Success! We did it!”

After maintaining maximum output for ten consecutive minutes, cheers erupted throughout the room. While engineers hugged each other in celebration, only the manager and Jinsoo maintained serious expressions.

“Rotate it.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said rotate it. RPM 60.”

“Ah, RPM 60…”

The engine began rotating along with the fuel supply pipe, quickly reaching a speed of one rotation per second. So far, no red lights had appeared on the control panel.

“RPM 100.”

“Increasing to 100.”

The massive engine was rotating at an incredible speed. It seemed like it might break loose and fly toward them at any moment. The engineers who had been cheering moments ago now watched in tense silence.

“Jinsoo.”

“Yes?”

“In aircraft rotation accidents, what’s the maximum RPM reached?”

“Average is 80, sir.”

“Sigh. That’s right, manager. Let’s stop now.”

“But every aircraft that exceeded 160 suffered engine damage.”

“…”

The Gryphon engine continued spinning at a fierce rate. The manager stared at it intently before finally speaking.

“Increase to RPM 180.”

“O-one hundred eighty…”

The engineers’ faces turned pale. The engine was spinning so fast it was difficult to track with the naked eye, vibrating violently. Soon, a red light appeared—a warning for the rotation fixture.