YM778.TV Chapter 4: Lighting a Fire.
“Are you two a couple?”
Squeak!
Squeak!
They both nodded at the same time.
‘Damn!’
Being caught between a rabbit couple…
He once had no friends with matching free time in college, so he had to eat with a couple. It was awkward, but he couldn’t eat alone for a whole semester, so he joined them.
One day while eating together, a sudden tension arose between the couple, leading to a heated argument. . Sejun felt very uncomfortable while being stuck between them.
And then I acquired the skill to eat by myself.
After that, he vowed never to eat with a couple again…
Squeak, squeak.
Feeling Sejun’s strange mood, the husband rabbit rubbed its face against Sejun’s hand, trying desperately to win his approval to stay. It was a desperate gesture to protect their home.
‘Working so hard to protect their family…’
Sejun’s heart softened. He felt ashamed for still being stuck in the past.
‘That’s right. They were a couple, and these two are a married couple.’
Sejun didn’t know the profound world of a married couple.
“Alright. You can stay here. But it’s not for free.”
He didn’t expect anything in return.
Squeak!
Squeak!
Upon Sejun’s approval, the rabbit couple nodded vigorously and ran to a corner of the cave, digging a burrow to create their own dwelling.
“A burrow?”
Watching the rabbit dig the burrow, Sejun had a sudden idea. He wondered if they could dig a burrow to get out of here.
‘Stupid me! I only thought about the hole above because it was there!’
“Rabbit!”
Squeak?
The husband rabbit, busy digging the ground, peeked out at Sejun’s call.
“Can you dig a tunnel to get out of here?”
Squeak…
The rabbit thought for a moment and shook its head.
“No?”
Swish, swish.
The rabbit began drawing a picture on the ground. It drew the cave where Sejun was and started digging deep underneath.
And then,
Whoosh.
It poured water from the watering can into the dug hole. The bottom of Sejun’s cave filled with water.
“Ah. The bottom is all water.”
Squeak!
The rabbit nodded.
“Okay. Keep doing what you were doing.”
Squeak!
The rabbit went back to digging its burrow.
At that moment,
Beep, beep.
The alarm rang. The smartphone battery was at 100%. Considering the discharge rate of the laptop, it seemed like he could recharge it once more.
[May 16th, 6 AM]
Sejun’s daily routine began.
First, he checked the tomato seedlings.
“Good job, guys.”
(…T…)
Now, the green leaves were fully blossomed. There was still no news from the sweet potato field.
Sejun went to the pond, washed his face, and watered the field.
And then,
Snap, snap.
He broke off some leaves so the tomato seedlings could get some sunlight. The more he broke the leaves, the thicker and more split the stems became, producing more leaves. At first, there were about three leaves per plant, but now there were eight.
“Will it become chore to break these later?”
Sejun dried the torn leaves in the sunlight. The leaves that were already in the sun had now hardened, almost moisture-free.
Crunch.
Sejun finished his morning work while eating the freshly torn leaves. Now, after 8 hours, he just had to break the leaves once more and water them to finish the day’s work.
Sejun, who had finished his work, sat in his designated seat and stared blankly at the sky.
How long had he been staring at the sky?
Ooook! Ooook!
Boo-woo! Boo-woo!
“Huh? What’s this noise?”
Sejun looked in the direction where the noise came from. It was the sound coming from the rabbit couple’s burrow.
The sound stopped abruptly.
“What was that?”
Just as Sejun was about to stare at the sky again and zone out
Ooook! Ooook!
Boo-woo! Boo-woo!
The sound was heard again. Listening carefully, it was the sound of panting.
‘No way?!’
“These guys!”
As soon as the rabbit couple made their home, they began breeding activities.
Afterward, the breeding activities continued several more times.
A few hours later.
At 2 pm, Sejun got up to do his afternoon work.
At that time,
Peek.
Pee.
The rabbit couple came out of the burrow happily together.
And quickly started doing the farm work Sejun was about to do.
Peep-peep.
Swoosh.
The husband rabbit hummed while watering the crops with a watering can, and
Vzz-vzz.
Snip-snip.
The wife rabbit accompanied her husband’s song by cutting the leaves with scissors.
The husband sang and the wife followed. It reminded him of the phrase “husband sings, wife follows.”
However, what bothered Sejun was something else.
“What are those things…”
It turned out that the watering can held by the husband rabbit and the apron worn by the wife rabbit were items.
Water kept coming out of the watering can non-stop. And the apron seemed to have a space magic on it, as the wife rabbit took out farming tools like scissors or shovels whenever she needed them.
He was a bit envious. They had such equipment. He had to dig and tear with his hands and carry water.
Watching the rabbits work made time pass quickly.
But soon, he got bored. At that moment, he saw the light passing through the PET bottle, refracting and concentrating into a strong light.
Seeing that, an idea came to mind. He remembered a scene from a TV show where survival experts used PET bottles filled with water to start a fire.
‘Should I try to start a fire?’
It seemed like the well-dried leaves would burn well.
“Alright.”
Sejun got up and collected the well-dried leaves.
And then,
Swoosh. Swoosh.
He tore the leaves thinly to gather them well in the center, so the fire could catch easily.
And Sejun began to focus the light on the dried green onion leaves using the PET bottle filled with water like a magnifying glass.
Squeak?
Squeak?
When Sejun stayed still in the same position for more than 20 minutes, the rabbit couple approached him. They seemed curious about what the farm owner was doing.
About 10 minutes passed, and the rabbits started dozing off, seemingly bored.
At that moment
Smoke started to rise from the finely torn pile of green onion leaves. An ember was created.
‘It’s working!’
Sejun concentrated even more on shining the light from the PET bottle on the ember. The ember grew stronger, and the smoke became thicker.
“Whoo! Whoo!”
Sejun carefully blew air into the finely torn leaves containing the ember.
The rabbit couple woke up from the sound of the blowing and looked at Sejun.
And then
Squeak!
Squeak!
They were astonished to see the smoking green onion leaves.
After blowing for a while,
The fire started and flames burst out.
“Hehehe! I did it!”
Squeak.
Squeak.
The rabbit couple looked at Sejun with admiring eyes. They didn’t have any items that could start a fire among their belongings.
The first thing Sejun did when the fire started was to roast green onions to eat. He just wanted to fill his stomach with something warm.
The dried green onions had become too hard to eat, like firewood, so he roasted the ones he had picked today.
As the surface of the green onion turned black from the roasting, Sejun lifted it by holding the end.
And then
“Ouch! Hot! Hoo.”
He placed the blackened green onion on another leaf and peeled off the burnt skin while blowing on his fingers.
He lifted the roasted green onion and put the peeled part in his mouth.
Puch Puch.
‘…So sweet!’
Sejun’s eyes widened at the incredible taste. It was like sugar was running wild in his mouth. An intense sweetness exploded.
Sejun quickly threw a few more green onions into the flames and began eating the roasted green onions hurriedly.
Squeak?
Seeing Sejun’s reaction, the husband rabbit bravely placed a green onion into the fire.
And shortly after,
Squeak!
Squeak!
The rabbit couple ate the peeled roasted leeks with emotional expressions. All three of them ate with enthusiasm, getting black smudges on their faces.
On the 7th day of being trapped in the tower,
Sejun went to sleep after filling his stomach with warm food for the first time.
Beep-beep. Beep-beep.
[May 19th, 6 am]
On the 10th day of the disaster.
“Alright.”
Sejun got up energetically today as well.
Squeak!
Squeak!
The rabbit couple, who had woken up first, greeted Sejun.
“Yeah. Good morning.”
Splish-splash! Splish-splash!
Sejun went to the pond to wash his face and sat down in his spot.
Squeak.
The wife rabbit brought the roasted green onion.
“Thanks.”
Sejun said as he received the food.
~ Munch ~Gulp. ~ Munch ~Gulp.
While eating the roasted green onions, Sejun looked at the field where the crops were planted. The green onions had already been harvested, and the ground was damp. The rabbits, who had woken up early, had already finished their work.
On top of that, the wife rabbit had prepared a meal. It was so nice that they took care of it themselves.
However,
“……”
There was even less to do in a place where there was already little to do.
“I need to move around a bit.”
Today, he decided to transplant the cherry tomatoes that he had put off. It was time to transplant them because if they grew too close together, they wouldn’t be able to absorb nutrients properly.
Sejun dug the soil with his hands, made a place to transplant the cherry tomatoes, and
With a small spoon-sized shovel, the husband rabbit carefully scooped and moved one by one. They also moved the six new sprouts they had planted later.
A total of 58 sprouts were planted in six rows of 10 each.
“Whew.”
Seeing the neatly planted sprouts in a row brought a sense of pride. Sejun was proud of doing even small things these days.
As soon as Sejun finished transplanting the cherry tomatoes, he started a new task.
Making torches.
He wove several leaves together to make a handle and wrapped the end with finely torn dried leaves hundreds of times.
Dried green onion leaves seemed to be suitable for torches as they maintained the fire for a long time. The green onion leaves burned for so long that there was no need to manage the fire separately.
At first, it would have been tedious to continue, but now he found pleasure in using his will, body, and effort to create something essential to his life.
After investing several hours, he made a torch and an alarm rang to notify it was time to sleep.
[May 20th, 6 AM]
On the 11th day of the disaster, the morning dawned.
“Alright!”
“Peep!”
“Peep!”
“Right, good morning.”
As soon as he got up, he greeted the rabbit couple and went to the pond to wash his face.
The pond was brighter than yesterday. Sejun, who had always been uncomfortable with the darkness when washing his face, installed a torch by the pond first.
“Nice. Hehehe.”
Sejun looked at the burning torch and brought his face closer to the pond to wash his face.
At that moment,
Splash!
A fish suddenly jumped out of the pond and tried to bite Sejun’s face.
“Ugh?!”
Sejun hurriedly leaned back. The fishy smell of water from the fish’s body brushed past his nose. He barely dodged it.
The fish that fell to the ground wriggled to return to the water.
“What… what is this?!”
Sejun, who was flustered, approached the wriggling fish and took a closer look.
It had golden stripes on a black background on its body and sharp teeth.
He could have had his nose cut off if he was just a little bit late.
Sejun pushed the fish to the opposite side of the pond so it couldn’t escape.
He then examined the pond.
“Oh!”
Inside the pond, several fish of the same species that had just attacked Sejun were swimming.
“Why are they here?”
While Sejun was thinking about the reason,
The fish wriggled to escape back to the pond.
‘I don’t have time for this!’
Sejun hurriedly caught the fish that had fallen to the ground.
On the 11th day of being trapped in the tower, they finally had the chance to eat fish.