Chapter 3 – Sprouting

Crunch.

The green onion leaf made a cheerful sound and was cut off easier than expected. The texture was also good.

Hwah.

As soon as he chewed the green onion, a stinging spicy taste spread throughout his mouth. His body heated up from the spiciness. His pores opened, and sweat poured like rain.

Chew, chew.

Se-jun wiped the running sweat and kept chewing the green onion. However, the expected sweetness did not emerge.

‘I thought that because the spiciness became stronger, the sweetness would also become stronger…’

It seemed the taste was completely concentrated on spiciness.

Gulp.

As he swallowed the green onion, the spicy taste disappeared cleanly. Fortunately, he did not get heartburn either.

‘I can eat green onions when I crave something spicy.’

Crunch.

Se-jun kept eating the green onion, which was nothing but spiciness. For now, he had to soothe his hunger.

In that way, Se-jun seemed to have eaten about a span of the green onion while sweating profusely. For some reason, the more he sweated, the lighter his body became.

Snap, snap.

Se-jun, who filled his stomach with green onions, ruthlessly broke the green onions that made shade over his spot. He was absolutely not venting his anger because it wasn’t sweet.

‘Well… Let’s say it’s not “absolutely.” Because I did expect it a little.’

He spread the broken green onions in a sunny spot for now. Today, thanks to the green onions, he started his routine a bit late, but it didn’t matter. Since his routine consisted only of…

Trickle, trickle.

watering the crops briefly,

“……”

and staring blankly at the hole in the ceiling.

Still, something that would soothe his boredom a little appeared.

When he spaced out looking at the ceiling for a bit and then looked at the green onions, they had grown tall before he knew it.

“Do green onions originally grow this fast?”

Wondering if it was just his imagination, he even timed it with his smartphone. The green onion grew about 10cm per hour. An astonishing growth rate. Even though Se-jun had no farming experience, he thought this was impossible.

“Is it because I grew it in the tower?”

There was nothing else to suspect. It was a green onion bought at the mart. If the seed was originally a green onion that grew 10cm per hour, expressions like “gold green onions” and “onion-tech” would not have appeared.

“But there’s no news from these guys.”

Se-jun looked at the spots where the cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes were planted on both sides of the green onions. If the soil’s fertility was good, other things would also grow well.

However, there was no change in the ground.

“Is this soil only good for growing green onions?”

Just in case, he looked a bit more closely.

“Huh?!”

Looking closely, the ground where the sweet potato was planted remained the same, but the soil where the cherry tomatoes were planted seemed slightly bulged. Se-jun lay face down on the ground and stared intently at the bulging soil.

“Oh!”

It was there!

(…i…)

A greenish stem wearing a glossy blue head rose shyly between the dirt and revealed itself.

“One, two, three…”

A total of 52 sprouts had appeared. Se-jun stared at the cherry tomato sprouts for a long time.

“Hehehe. So cute.”

The plants he grew from seeds. Just looking at them made him feel proud and reassured.

***

Beep. Beep.

[May 15th, 6:00 AM]

Se-jun welcomed the morning of the sixth day. Yesterday, he spent the whole day just staring at the cherry tomato sprouts. Although they did not grow rapidly like the green onions, watching them grow little by little as time passed made him feel full even without eating.

“Up I go!”

Se-jun lightly stood up from his spot. Lately, his body was becoming lighter day by day. At first, he thought it was because the fatigue from overwork was relieved, but recently, he thought it might not be the case.

“Let’s see. Have our sprouts grown a lot?”

As soon as Se-jun woke up, putting washing his face and eating behind him, he went to see the cherry tomato sprouts. He was so curious about how much they had grown while he slept.

“Oh!”

(…”…)

The tips of the sprouts, the blue heads, were slightly split. However, a black shadow blocking the sprouts was cast. Before he knew it, the green onions had grown to Se-jun’s height again, blocking the light that should go to the cherry tomato sprouts.

Snap, snap.

Se-jun ruthlessly broke the green onion leaves.

“Whew.”

Se-jun broke all the green onions and hurried to the pond.

Splash! Splash!

He finished washing his face briefly,

Glug, glug, glug.

and filled the water bottle and plastic container with water to moisten the soil around the cherry tomato sprouts and the green onion and sweet potato fields.

“Hyung doesn’t hate you.”

He gave especially much water to the green onions.

By the time he finished watering,

Growl.

His stomach demanded compensation, as if unpaid labor could not exist.

“I should eat breakfast.”

Se-jun put one of the green onions he had just broken into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

As a result of eating only green onion leaves instead of sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes yesterday, he thought he could sufficiently fill his hunger.

He did not feel empty inside or lose energy. For some reason, he also felt like carbohydrates were being absorbed.

And above all, the quantity was large. Since it grew up to approximately 180cm a day, it was rather too much and difficult to handle.

‘First, I should dry them well and store them.’

Looking at the current situation, there was no way such well-growing green onions would suddenly stop growing, but he decided to prepare just in case.

No one knows what will happen. Who would have thought that he himself would be stranded in this place, not even knowing where it was.

He decided to plant the remaining cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes for more food in the future.

Thump, thump.

Se-jun dug the soil and planted the cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

And

Trickle, trickle.

“Grow rapidly.”

After pouring enough water along with the well wishes, he sat on his designated spot, the flat rock where the sun shone well. Having done productive work, his chest was filled with pride.

“The sky is nice.”

The blue sky was high and clean. A person’s mind was truly fickle. Just yesterday he thought it was suffocating, but today it looked good.

Come to think of it, he had been doing nothing but staring blankly at the sky for days.

“When going to work, I didn’t even look at the sky properly for days… I’m living in luxury.”

However, such feelings were brief.

“But something is lacking. If only I had coffee here…”

He wanted to drink an iced americano with an extra shot so badly. He missed civilized life so much.

When Se-jun looked at the sky and recalled city life,

Beep, beep.

A notification appeared that the smartphone battery had fallen below 20%. Although he set it to low power mode and looked at the screen only when necessary, he could not completely prevent battery consumption.

“Let’s charge it with this first.”

Se-jun opened his laptop and pressed the power button. The smartphone, which consumed less power than the laptop and informed him of waking up and sleeping times, was more useful.

Chime.

As the laptop screen turned on, the Excel window he was working on appeared. It was a quotation to be sent to a client, which he had not finished at the office and had intended to wrap up at home.

Click.

Se-jun coolly closed the Excel window. Of course, he did not save. Although it was a quotation he had spent days writing, he did not regret it at all. And it would have been too late already.

“Someone will do it instead of me.”

He felt a bit sorry for the person who would replace him, but it was not a situation where he could do it anyway.

Se-jun connected the smartphone to the laptop and charged the phone. He also turned on low power mode on the laptop to reduce battery consumption.

And while the smartphone was charging, he stared at the cherry tomato sprouts.

Watching them again and again made him feel good.

As he was staring at the cherry tomato sprouts for a long time like that,

Drip, drip, drip.

water fell from above.

“What? Is it raining?”

Se-jun knew it wasn’t even as he said it. Except for a few floors, the tower always had clear weather.

‘Could it be a monster?!’

He got goosebumps as he imagined a monster that would be dripping saliva while looking down at him. Se-jun hurriedly looked up.

However,

“Huh?!”

At the hole in the ceiling, a small white rabbit was looking down through the hole and drooling.

‘Is that also a monster?’

While Se-jun was worrying if the rabbit in front of him was a ferocious monster,

Squeak!

As the rabbit made eye contact with Se-jun, it made a cute cry and jumped down the hole.

Hop.

“Huh?!”

Dangerous!

Se-jun panicked and unconsciously reached out toward the rabbit, not even knowing if it was a falling monster.

However, the rabbit adjusted its falling direction with its long ears, avoided Se-jun’s hand, stepped on Se-jun’s shoulder once with both feet, and landed safely on the floor.

“……”

He felt very embarrassed holding his hand out in the empty air.

Then

Squeak.

The rabbit walked on two legs, approached cautiously, and pointed at the green onion with a trembling finger. Seeing it walk on two legs, it was not an ordinary rabbit.

“Are you asking if you can eat it?”

Squeak!

The rabbit replied and nodded its head vigorously. Its eyes were filled with urgency, begging for consent.

“Here.”

Snap.

Se-jun broke off the entire green onion leaf and gave it to the rabbit.

Squeak!

Munch, munch.

The rabbit began to eat the green onion Se-jun handed over frantically.

Snap, snap.

While the rabbit was eating the green onion, Se-jun broke the green onion leaves. He decided to break them all while he was at it.

Se-jun planned to cut the green onions once at 6:00 AM and once at 2:00 PM in the future. Only then could the cherry tomato sprouts see the sun.

Munch, munch.

The rabbit was still eating the green onion diligently. Even so, it had only eaten about the length of two finger joints.

Se-jun looked at the rabbit and then looked at the cherry tomatoes again.

“Huh?!”

(…’ ‘…)

Before he knew it, the tips of the cherry tomato sprouts were gradually widening. It seemed leaves would grow soon.

How much time had passed like that?

Purr.

He heard the sound of the rabbit sleeping next to him. It seemed sleepy now that its stomach was full. Sleeping softly, it was quite cute.

Then

Squeak?

Sensing Se-jun’s gaze, the rabbit woke up with a start.

Shudder.

The rabbit shook its head and shook off sleep.

And

Squeak!

It jumped with a energetic cry.

Land.

The rabbit lightly climbed up the hole holding the green onion in one hand.

Squeak.

Before leaving, the rabbit bowed its head to Se-jun to express gratitude.

‘Are you running away after only eating?’

Although it was ungrateful, Se-jun also waved his hand. It was brief, but he was glad.

While Se-jun waved his hand, the rabbit left.

“……”

They said you might not notice someone’s presence, but you would notice their absence. Even though it was really brief, he felt empty.

Se-jun put his emptiness behind him and stared at the cherry tomato sprouts again.

Meanwhile, the sprouts exerted strength and spread their leaves more fully.

“Cheer up, guys.”

After a while,

(…Y…)

As if knowing Se-jun’s waiting, the cherry tomato sprouts began to fully spread two green leaves one by one. Although tender, the sight of the leaves full of vitality sprouting squirmingly was quite marvelous.

Beep. Beep.

[May 15th, 10:00 PM]

The alarm announcing dinner rang.

However, he did not want to sleep today. He wanted to sleep after keeping watch on the sprouts growing.

“…!”

Slap, slap.

Se-jun woke up feeling something lightly slapping his cheek.

“Huh? What is it?”

Upon opening his eyes, the rabbit that had run away yesterday was waking him up by slapping Se-jun’s cheek with its hand.

“Umm. What time is it?”

Se-jun checked the time.

[May 16th, 5:00 AM]

It was an hour earlier than his usual waking time.

“But what is that outfit on you?”

The rabbit wore a straw hat with holes for its ears to slip through, holding a watering can in its hand.

Then

Squeak.

Another rabbit cry was heard.

“Huh?”

When Se-jun looked at the source of the sound, there was one more slender rabbit wearing an apron.

And

Bow.

The rabbit that made eye contact with Se-jun bowed politely.

“What is this situation?”

Day 7 of being stranded. He woke up a bit early, and the rabbit couple joined the cave.