Scraping By
Today was another exhausting day, nothing special about it.
After finishing work and clocking out, Lee Heewoo plugged in the electric blanket he’d left unplugged as soon as he got home. Then he pressed the yellowed, grimy switch to turn on the light, and the harsh fluorescent glow spread out, brightening his field of vision. Of course, inside that fluorescent light, dead moths and bug carcasses were piled up.
Once the light was on, he could finally see white puffs of breath bursting out with each exhale in the bone-chillingly cold room. Lee Heewoo didn’t even think about taking off the worn padding jacket he was wearing and just wriggled, wriggled his way into the electric blanket. The electric blanket that had just been plugged in was still too early to be warm, but if he waited just a little, it would heat up nice and hot.
“Haah, I can live now…”
In winter, he could finally thaw out his hands that turned bright red and curled up from the cold. His hands, with skin peeling white on the backs, had many small scars here and there as if they’d been through quite a lot.
It was about ten minutes later when Lee Heewoo, who had been curled up between the old blanket and electric mat for a while, finally got up. After warming his body to some degree, he could finally move somewhat decently. He had to move quickly now—only then could he get things done without falling asleep.
‘When you get back, wash up. Every nook and cranny, behind your ears too. Got it?’
By the time he entered the bathroom, which was the same temperature as outside, washed with ice-cold water, and came out, the electric blanket had warmed up nicely. Lee Heewoo headed toward the yellowed refrigerator placed in one corner of the narrow room.
He took out a couple of side dishes he’d been eating for several days, and scooped out yellowish rice that had been cooked about two days ago from a floral-patterned rice cooker that looked like something he’d picked up somewhere, digging deep with the rice paddle. It would be nice to freeze the rice for storage, but the freezer had long since broken down, so he’d been using only the refrigerator for ages now. Anyway, once he unfolded the worn low dining table and set all of that down, his evening meal to wrap up the day was complete.
Since the entire floor was bone-chillingly cold except for on top of the hot electric blanket, meals were of course also eaten on top of the mat. Lee Heewoo picked up a spoon that was so old it had lost its shine, going past smooth and slick. Then he naturally turned on the TV with the remote.
‘Watch the news and live your life.’
It was a TV with a fat back that was hard to find nowadays, but for Lee Heewoo it was his only channel for knowing how the world was turning. It was a TV his grandmother had picked up by chance while collecting cardboard.
The TV was so old that only a few cable channels barely came through, but it was still okay. In a room suffocating with nothing but silence, only when the anchor’s stiff voice flowed out could he barely manage to swallow his food.
—We bring you breaking news regarding an unidentified celestial object that shook the skies across the entire world this afternoon on December 12th.
It was when he was placing a piece of aged kimchi on top of the rice that had yellowed in color but still retained some warmth. Lee Heewoo stopped mid-motion with his spoon, blinking as he stared at the anchor on screen.
—Starting approximately one hour ago, the same object was detected by multiple observatories and satellites around the world. Initially classified as an ‘asteroid’ upon discovery, real-time footage and radar analysis have revealed that its identity appears to be a ‘massive artificial structure.’
At that moment the screen switched and a structure floating in the sky was caught on camera. Lee Heewoo moved the spoon he’d paused and brought it back to his mouth. Chew, chew, gulp. Even while mechanically swallowing his food, he didn’t take his eyes off the screen.
Soon the anchor asked a reporter for live coverage of the local situation and the broadcast screen switched over. At the same time, the voice beyond the screen changed to a man’s low voice.
—Yes, I’m currently at the vicinity of an observatory located in the outskirts of the metropolitan area. The footage visible behind me now has been transmitted in real-time over the past 30 minutes by multiple satellites and civilian observers. After enlarging and performing spectrum analysis on this footage, the possibility of an artificial structure has been raised based on regular lines and light patterns on the surface.
“Oh… how interesting.”
Lee Heewoo muttered to himself even while shoveling rice into his mouth with big spoonfuls. It was an old habit. He’d been living alone for so long that if he didn’t talk like this, he felt like he’d forget how to speak.
—According to the defense authorities’ opinion just announced, the surface of this structure is periodically emitting light and phenomena disrupting the surrounding electromagnetic field are being detected. Scientists on site are not ruling out the possibility that this is a ‘massive alien battleship.’
Aliens, aliens huh.
Even while hearing that aliens might be invading Earth, Lee Heewoo seemed to have no particular thoughts about it. By the time the news was ending, his meal was also finished, so Lee Heewoo tidied up the dinner table appropriately and then neatly finished brushing his teeth.
He had to save on electricity, so he turned off the TV that had been on until then. The TV was still making a fuss about breaking news regarding the alien battleship that had appeared today, but it wasn’t particularly important to Lee Heewoo.
“I set the alarm, so… I’ll just sleep for four hours…”
Lee Heewoo picked up his flip phone to check the alarm time he’d set in advance. It was an alarm he’d set for several years already so of course it would ring, but it wasn’t the alarm that was the problem—he was worried the old phone might have broken down.
Current time: 12 AM. If he slept for four hours starting now and woke up, he’d have to go to work at the convenience store starting at the crack of dawn.
Whether aliens invaded or the world ended in an apocalypse, going to work was an unchanging fact.
* * *
Bababam bam. Bbambabam bam!
The tacky alarm sound filled the small studio room. As soon as the alarm rang, Lee Heewoo got up like a machine, rubbing his eyes as he started tidying the blanket.
‘When you wake up, fold your blanket first.’
The blanket with its loud floral pattern was old and smelled musty, but it was the only thick winter blanket he had among his blankets. Thick cotton blankets were expensive so he had to use it preciously.
After meticulously unplugging the electric blanket cord and finishing his preparations to leave, Lee Heewoo grabbed just his crossbody bag and burst out. To catch the first train going to the downtown area, time was pretty tight.
It was when he grabbed and put on his sneakers that looked like the soles could fall off any moment, so worn out they were, and went outside. Since Lee Heewoo lived in a steep hillside neighborhood—in a semi-basement studio of a multi-family house built at the very top at that—when he left through the front gate, he could see the city below spread out completely. But what caught Lee Heewoo’s eyes today wasn’t the ground but the sky.
There was a battleship floating up in that sky.
—Scientists on site are not ruling out the possibility of a ‘massive alien battleship.’
“…Is it really a battleship?”
A battleship like the ones he’d seen in cartoons or on TV when he was young. That massive battleship was covering the sky. Even the clouds could only barely peek their heads out from behind the battleship.
Lee Heewoo walked along going thump, thump while finding it fascinating. Then, spotting a bus approaching the bus stop in the distance, he hurried and ran out. But perhaps because his attention was caught by other things especially today, Lee Heewoo didn’t see the pebble on the ground and his foot ended up getting caught on it.
That was the moment.
Grab—.
Someone caught Lee Heewoo’s arm and steadied his balance in one go. In the space of “Whoa,” his body was straightened up, and Lee Heewoo raised his head to check the person who had helped him.
He lifted his head slightly, but to that extent he could only see the other person’s neck. Only after Lee Heewoo raised his chin all the way up could he barely see the other person’s face. It was a man.
An extremely tall and very handsome man.
“Ah, th-thank you.”
“……”
“I… I’m in a hurry, thank you so much.”
Since the man was staring at him intently out of nowhere, an awkward Lee Heewoo left the other person behind and ran toward the bus. The bus had almost arrived at the stop already. If he waved his hands from here, the driver would spot him and would wait for a moment.
Like that, Lee Heewoo left the man alone and got on the bus, leaving the scene. Naturally, he had no way of knowing just how persistently the man left behind stared at Lee Heewoo’s retreating figure.
When he arrived at the convenience store, it was about the same time as his usual work hours. Ding-a-ling, when he opened the door and entered, the part-timer from the previous shift gave Lee Heewoo a casual nod in greeting.
After quickly checking the cash and handover details, the previous shift part-timer left the convenience store in an instant. Now alone, Lee Heewoo moved busily from then on. He had to organize all the shipment that came in at 5 AM.
Carrying boxes, carrying more boxes, organizing all sorts of items from snacks to ramen on the shelves—an hour passed easily. When he’d finally finished organizing everything and sat down at the counter, morning had already approached.
Lee Heewoo grabbed one discarded triangle kimbap from the refrigerator in the back and returned to the counter. It was the one remaining Jeonju bibim triangle kimbap. Even until then, not a single customer had come. Usually around this time, office workers on their way to work would often stop by the convenience store, but today there were unusually no customers.
Just as he was tearing open the triangle kimbap and diligently chewing away, ding-a-ling, someone entered. Lee Heewoo left the triangle kimbap he’d been eating and stood up abruptly to greet them.
“Welcome.”
It was a greeting following the store manager’s policy to always stand up and greet customers when they came in. After giving the greeting, he looked at the customer who’d just entered, and Lee Heewoo’s expression became strange.
Their appearance was peculiar. Clothes plastered entirely in black didn’t seem to have much distinction between top and bottom. Was it a jumpsuit? He himself wasn’t interested in how people dressed these days, so maybe that kind of thing was trendy.
Since he wasn’t in a position to comment on a customer’s clothes, he silently watched him, and the customer approached in this direction. The man plastered entirely in black stood in front of the counter and tilted his head.
“Are you a Guide?”
“Pardon?”
A Guide? Was he talking about a tour guide?
Come to think of it, unlike his black hair, his eye color was unusual so he might be a foreigner. Lee Heewoo opened his mouth to respond.
“Are… are you looking for a product?”
“Are you a Guide?”
“Pardon?”
For a moment Lee Heewoo wondered if a new product called ‘Guide’ had come in and rummaged through his head. But no matter how much he recalled, nothing came to mind. While he was pondering, the man spoke again.
“I’m an Esper, you see. Would you like to check our matching rate?”
“Yes, y-yes…?”
Lee Heewoo closed his mouth. In the meantime, the man was spreading out his thick hand and holding it out. Lee Heewoo thought: Perhaps the customer in front of him might be mentally ill.
“I came to find my match, you see.”
“……”
He seemed to be mentally ill after all.
