Chapter 86 – #86. Night Crop
“Ha… Life real.”
Four people who settled in an empty seat in the design studio.
Me. Hannah. Hwimin Lee. Kim Si-eun.
The four of us, who had become close to each other through the city planning team, were unwrapping the chicken we ordered for a late-night snack.
“Hey. Minho, go and throw away some chicken radish water.”
Huimin handed out disposable chopsticks and ordered me.
“Can’t you just eat it? It’s annoying.”
Do I really need to drain it?
I didn’t drink, but I still didn’t have the energy to crawl to the hallway.
“I will come and go. Brother.”
Naeun, who had been holding on to her phone saying she was writing a review event, got up from her chair.
“And. Lee Min Ho. She sends her own girlfriend like that.”
“That’s right. Minho oppa, I haven’t seen you like that.”
Hwimin openly booing. Shi-eun who helps by the side.
I started to understand a little bit that he originally hated his sister-in-law more.
“No. Come with me. Naeun. I have to wash my hands anyway.”
“Is it so. Then.”
I dragged my slippers and escaped the design room and stretched out.
“Oh, I am tired.”
“It’s still two o’clock?”
Hey You’re working all night until 2 am, and it’s really sad when you add the word ‘yet’ to it.
What the hell kind of life is this
In the design room at the time when testing and design deadlines overlapped, there was no time for the lights to go out.
More than half of the graders worked there without stopping, taking care of lodging and meals.
“But tired is tired. How is the progress?”
“People who are making progress have already gone home. Tell me what are you doing?”
She was right.
It was a wise answer.
The probability that a person with good design exists was extremely rare.
1 or 2 people per studio?
Even that, there were many cases where I thought I had done it like a beggar when I looked at it sober the next morning.
“But why did you follow me? Is the bathroom separate for men and women anyway?”
“Me? I want to be alone with you.”
To be honest, I stayed in the same space with Naeun for a long time, but we couldn’t even chat because we were far away.
Her seat is in the far corner.
I’m relatively seated inside.
Ten of her desks had to be crossed to reach her.
“Ugh… Don’t say something cheesy.”
Another abbreviation that always follows Talgun, Yajak.
Night work.
My girlfriend was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, but she still had a glow on her face.
The two of us stood in front of the bathroom at the end of the hallway.
“Rock Paper Scissors?”
“…Are you serious?”
“No, then should we go in and peel each of these one by one?”
Called economic damage. This.
“Hmm…”
Naeun, who was thinking with her arms crossed, soon clapped her hands to see if she had a good idea.
“Ah. Then do this.”
“How?”
“When my brother drains the water for the chicken radish, I will drain the water for him.”
There was a bit of a delay before I could understand those words.
I wondered what he was talking about, so I immediately laughed.
“Then, I’ll have to add 10 radishes each time I order chicken from now on.”
“You can’t use it if you play with food.”
Naeun is openly and straight-faced.
For anything like that, you spilled Coke on purpose at the theater.
Large size with two bites.
“How are you anyway?”
I silently reached out and took the chicken radish in her hand.
Entering the men’s bathroom, I first washed my hands thoroughly with soap.
The process of removing the bond marks left on each fingertip was still an unpleasant task even after four years.
After tearing off about a third of the chicken radish and draining the water, I immediately went back to where Naeun was waiting.
“…Old.”
I handed one of the two packs to Naeun.
“My brother is good. Flaw.”
She slapped her on my butt with one hand.
Hungry, I hurried my steps and quickly returned to the design room.
Si-eun and Hwi-min, who had everything set up to make it easy to drink Coke, were chatting with each other.
“No. So, oppa, you took that architect’s lecture last year?”
“Uh. The professor told me to contact anyone who is interested.”
“And. Oh my god. I really like him.”
Ah-oh. Talk like that until break time.
Na-Eun seemed to agree with what I said and put her chicken radish on the desk rather passionately.
“I will eat well~”
Naeun smiled and sat in her chair.
“Okay. Eat a lot and go to hell~”
This place where the fire did not go out was a hell of human life.
While eating chicken, we lamented our situation without fail and shouted to get rid of the gun.
But in reality, we have come a long way to say, ‘I’m really only going to do this semester and get rid of it.’
All that remains is one 5th grade graduation design.
It was madness to come all this way and beat me up for not getting my diploma.
“I want to go home…”
Eating food should have given me strength, but all that came out of my mouth was a pitiful sigh.
“…Me too.”
Naeun, who was sitting next to me and sipping a cola, also sympathized with my words.
“…Shall we go home?”
The lure of returning home creeps in around 3:00 in the morning.
In fact, I didn’t even dare to go back after this timing.
It was because when I went home at 5:00 in the morning, I could only sleep for two or three hours at home, so I changed my mindset to just sleeping in the design room.
“No way. You know you will definitely regret it the next day when you go home.”
Naeun caught my heart that I wanted to escape.
“If you get sleepy, come to my place instead. I’ll wake you up.”
“How?”
Naeun smiled and put her hand on my thigh.
“Delicious.”
…I had the urge to lie down on the floor, saying I was sleepy, but after cleaning up the trash, I sat down in front of my laptop again.
“Whoa. Seriously, I’ll finish cleaning up the drawings by tomorrow.”
Huimin, who had already started working again, glanced at my screen.
“…Do you think it will be difficult until tomorrow after doing that much?”
Of course, there are no windows, furniture, or level representation yet, but this is enough for a man.
Last time, I finished it in a schedule that was tighter than this.
“Don’t be mean. You deceiver bitch.”
Feeling grumpy for no reason, I shouted a word at Huimin and immersed myself in my work again.
* * *
04:37
Roughly the time when the first buses start moving.
It was winter, so the sun hadn’t been seen yet.
Silence came to the design studio, which had been quite noisy until two o’clock.
The living people were only wiggling their fingers like zombies, and I saw many people who pressed the siren button and slept with their heads down.
When she turned her head to look at Na-eun, her dozing figure caught my eye.
Naeun’s head, which rides the rhythm on the wrong beat.
I got up from her seat and went over to her to tell her to sleep.
I dragged an empty chair from the seat next to her, leaning on her chin and staring at Naeun’s face.
Her face shakes from her drowsiness.
Raising my index finger, I gently pressed her cheek.
“…Ah!”
She opened her eyes wide and looked at me, probably because of the unfamiliar sensation.
“What is it. When did you come?”
“You just fell asleep.”
“Mistress… How long have I slept?”
“I don’t know. I was doing mine.”
Naeun looked at her time and sighed deeply.
“It’s ruined.”
Naeun, who covered her laptop screen, stretched her arms out on top of her desk.
“Did you do a lot?”
“If I had done a lot, I would have gone home.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
Watching her droopy, I told her what she was originally going to say.
“Sleep comfortably. Shall I lend you Rakura-kura?”
There was a cot that Huimin and I had found behind my seat.
“No. I have to do this Instead, let’s go get some fresh air together.”
“That’s good too.”
At times like this, getting a breath of cool outside air was a good way to wake up.
“Is it so. Then go.”
“No. Aren’t you going to wear clothes?”
December now.
I didn’t know if I would freeze to death if I didn’t wear a coat.
“Yes. I’m not going out.”
“Then let’s go around indoors?”
“Outside the design room is enough. I’m dying of cold, what are you going to do?”
Naeun grabbed my hand and dragged me out into the hallway.
It was dawn, and the hallway, which was only partially lit, created an atmosphere like a horror movie.
I just wanted to walk around the hallway and go in, but Naeun dragged me down one floor, as if she had a destination somewhere.
“…Where?”
“Good.”
What could be good about this cursed architectural college building?
Not expecting anything, I just let her go where she led me.
“…Here is?”
No. 308.
A small seminar room that I sometimes come to during critique.
For some reason, Naeun knew the password there.
Tirori.
Eventually, the lock was unlocked and Naeun went inside without even turning on the light.
“How do you know the password here?”
“It was there when I worked at the department store for a while.”
She thought she could do that, but I can’t quite figure out why she brought me here.
In the blinded vision.
The saying that when you lose your eyesight, your other senses become more sensitive, seemed to be true.
“Brother. Shall we wake up together now?”
Naeun whispered in a small voice.
“What are you going to do?”
“I drained the water earlier, so now it’s my turn to drain it.”
“Did you mean that?”
I thought it was just a joke and laughed it off.
Seruk. Squeak.
The sound of clothes falling to the floor.
“Where do you want to take it?”
“Hey. Twice because you got two?”
“Eh?”
Naeun who sounds like an idiot.
I don’t think there will ever be a case of chicken radish drying up in the refrigerator in the future.
