episode_0021

My shelter with my uncle.

No, it would be no exaggeration to say that the winter I spent in my shelter with the stupid, useless, nosy old man with a wall window was a repetition of boring and monotonous days.

To take it a step further, you could say that these are days where you can enjoy freedom, peace, and a certain abundance.

When I wake up in the morning, I take a shower, eat breakfast, chat with my uncle, or crawl into a warm room, read a book under the blanket, and eat breakfast again.

The feelings of a farmer who has just finished a year of farming and is spending the off-season are probably similar to mine.

It didn’t matter to me and the old man because we didn’t go outside whether there were zombies roaming the streets or if it was freezing.

I don’t know about other people, but we work very hard in all seasons except winter, so we don’t have any shortage of supplies.

It was like saying that winter is a season without any stress factors, except when a cold wave comes and the water pipes connected to the water tank freeze.

But, that is now all a thing of the past.

Will the days come again when we only have to worry about freezing due to extreme cold?

Wouldn’t it be hard? Well, this place is no longer just you and me, after all.

Wheein. Wheein!

“Haa… Are you crazy?”

When I open my eyes in the morning, the sound of an electric drill wakes me up. I don’t need to check who the owner of the sound is.

Lee Hye-ji, except for that idiot, there was no one to turn on the drill since morning. You crazy bitch, coming into someone else’s house and causing noise pollution.

Could it be that you didn’t receive proper home education?

Well, from the first time I saw him, he seemed more interested in the combination of machine parts than in social life and human relationships.

Following in the footsteps of his great father, he must have opened his eyes to a strange wall. It was clear that he felt an orgasm every time he heard the sound of a drill.

It was certain that the lust-crazed men would wake up in the morning and relieve their desires by turning on an electric drill, like putting up a tall tent.

Perhaps it was because my deep sleep had been interrupted. Every thought that came to my mind felt like a mess.

I scratched my head, which was a bit disheveled due to my sleep. I just felt annoyed and irritated. Even if I woke up in the morning, my hair wouldn’t be this messy.

When I thought about it, it was clear that the stress of having so many family members in the shelter was keeping me up at night.

I quickly put on some clothes and went out the door. I needed to stop Hyeji’s drilling.

“Hey, aren’t you going to turn it off?”

“Huh? Yeah!”

At my one word full of discomfort, Hyeji immediately turned off the drill. The terrible noise that had been echoing throughout the house disappeared without a trace.

It’s much better.

“What the heck do you do every morning?”

“Hehehe, sorry! You know what? There are so many parts of the shelter that need reinforcement or improvement! I think I need to work hard to finish it before winter!!”

Wheeing!

The drill started spinning again. I wondered if I should hit Hyeji in the head.

Is this the process through which a conversation is formed? If you are capable of normal thinking, you will be able to understand that what I said was meant to tell you not to turn on the drill in the morning.

“Turn it off.”

“The boiler is a bit old, so if I add a few filters, the efficiency will go up a bit, right?”

Knock, knock!

As I watched him tighten the bolts while muttering to himself, I felt like the devil inside me was awakening. Do I really have to do this in the morning? There’s no need for that.

Did you dislike me that much? So much so that you woke me up in the morning and drilled me?

If not, who asked you to do it before the end of winter?

at all.

Of course, I, and the old man, were not dissatisfied with our current shelter life to the point of asking or requesting something like that.

He hit the back of Hyeji’s head while she was fiddling with the parts.

“Evil!”

A scream escaped Hyeji’s mouth. Honestly, I felt that the pain I felt from my palm was greater than the pain Hyeji felt.

I clearly hit my head, but why does my hand hurt more? I promised myself not to hit my head next time.

It would be better to hit or pinch the back.

Anyway, there were more than a few inconveniences that came with this weak body.

There’s nothing I like.

“Why, why…?”

Hyeji looked at me with her eyes filled with resentment. It seemed like she didn’t even realize what her fault was.

“What do you think when you see me? For those of you who lack empathy, I’ll add that I was sleeping in my room just a moment ago.”

“You sleep a lot? You sleep late? You’re lazy?”

I almost swore. It was clear that Hyeji had a natural talent for making people angry.

It was to the point where he seriously considered hitting the back of his head one more time, ignoring the pain in his numb palm.

I looked up at the clock on the wall. Unless my eyes were deceiving me, the hour hand was pointing between 7 and 8.

Outside the window, the sun was just rising from the horizon, turning the frost into dew, as if to tell us that it was still early.

“You can’t say it out loud.”

I decided that I had to correct Hyeji’s behavior.

*

After finishing the simple training, I dug into the blanket to catch up on some sleep, but the sleepiness that had already left me did not return.

In the end, the irritation that started because of Hyeji was not resolved, and I was hungry because I did emotional labor along with physical labor.

As I instinctively headed toward the table, a pleasant smell tickled my nose. It wasn’t the canned food I always ate, but it seemed like someone had cooked it.

“Lina seems to be a really good cook!”

I wondered who it was, but it was crazy bitch 2. I glanced at crazy bitch 2, Irina, who was smiling brightly at crazy bitch 1’s compliment.

“Actually, I was worried if I could do it well because it was an unfamiliar place, but I’m glad my sister said it was delicious… Ah! Do-hoon oppa, try this too. I made it because I had egg powder.”

I thought to myself, “It’s not just anyone who calls a crazy woman oppa to a man who would be hard pressed to be the same age as me even if you multiply his age by two.”

“Oh, thank you. I’ll eat well.”

Crazy guy, he likes being called oppa by a girl who is much younger than him.

The old man ate the egg dish on the plate Lina offered him as if he was closing his eyes. At first glance, it looked like scrambled eggs.

No, how do you make scrambled eggs? Can you make something like that with egg powder?

“ and…”

The old man gave Lina a thumbs up. The crazy woman 2’s actions were out of the ordinary, but it seemed that her cooking skills were quite decent in proportion to her monstrous behavior.

“Why, do you think it’s nice for a young bride to treat her heavenly husband to a hearty meal? It’s going to tear my mouth apart.”

“My lord… You’re really mean, sister.”

I felt dizzy when I saw a girl who was only a finger inch shorter than me, wearing an apron and blushing.

“You crazy bitch… and you said no to me?”

“But you are my sister. You know more about Dohoon oppa than I do.”

It was annoying to see her twisting her body. What’s more, she was talking as if she was looking at me and the old man as if we were on the same level.

“Please take him. I don’t care about that fucking old man.”

“Really?! Hehe… Ah! Sister, have some too. Here, bread and eggs! Sister and I will have to grow a lot in the future, so make sure to have some milk too!”

Even the nagging seems intentional to this extent. That crazy bitch Hyeji and this bitch are both equally annoying.

I decided to hold back from raising my voice at the dinner table and getting angry, because I was hungry and it seemed like it would ruin my appetite.

I took a careful sip of the sloshing milk to cool my stomach. The warm, rich taste spread through my mouth.

The bread and eggs were not bad either. Compared to the days when we used to eat from cans, it was a feast.

But how did you get the milk? Did you get the cows from somewhere?

“Eggs and milk too. Where do they come from?”

“Oh, do you remember when you helped Mr. Park last time?”

“If you know the squat leader with a bad temper named Park Seung-ho, you know.”

“At that time, there were things I was thankful for and they were leftover supplies, so I was told to store them and eat them in the winter.”

Although his personality is like a beggar, looking at this aspect, I think he’s not a completely unsuitable person. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll do it often.

“Well, I guess he meant it as an apology for the shitty thing he did last time. He doesn’t like to turn people under him out. It also means he wants me to take care of him next year.”

“I think so too.”

The old man nodded in agreement to the words I said in passing while shoving breakfast into my mouth.

“If it’s Park Seung-ho, is that the person you said was the leader of the Blue Apartment?”

“That’s right, he’s a person with many disqualifications to sit above others.”

He answered Cheon Deuk’s question right away, as he was eating at one end of the table with his daughter, Hwa Ryun.

“Where is there a person without flaws? Even considering those aspects, the people of Purunda Apartment think that he should continue to be the leader, so he is the leader.”

Where can you find a human being without flaws? Here we are.

Can’t you see that you’re supporting that damn old man for free and just silently putting up with the mess that the bastards are making in the shelter?

“It’s none of my business anyway, so I don’t care. I enjoyed the meal.”

I got up from the table. Even if I had a hearty breakfast, I wouldn’t have an appetite for lunch. If I wasn’t going to go out and was just going to laze around at home all day, this was enough.

“You ate breakfast, so are you okay now?”

As I was about to enter the room, Hyeji grabbed me.

“What.”

What’s okay? If you just grab someone and ask them if they’re okay… Ah, I get what you mean.

“Do it in the basement. Don’t be noisy upstairs.”

“The basement is… a bit gloomy…”

Hyeji trailed off and said something like that, as if she didn’t want to.

“Your drill is terrible, so you’re a good match.”

I said it with sincerity. If Gongsoon’s dazzling drill sound echoes in a gloomy place, wouldn’t the two negative energies be offset?

But despite my words, Hyeji still seemed reluctant to go down.

“If you don’t want to get left behind, go down.”

“Yes…”