Three Days Left
Three days until the day of reckoning.
And today was Friday. Which meant… we just had to submit by this coming Sunday.
In other words, once our time at the club was over today, I would have to head home and put on what amounted to a one-man superhuman show all by myself.
“Minjae, I’ve organized everything up to here into a document. This is probably the final version.”
“Thank you. You worked hard, noona!”
“Mm, no. Now it’s your turn to work way harder than me.”
“Ahaha… It’s fine. I’m enjoying it, after all.”
Fortunately, the planning side had wrapped up right on schedule. The early-stage gimmicks, backgrounds, and overall concept had already been planned out to perfection, and Sebin noona had even prepared the future development direction and points to add later, sending them over to me as files.
This was more than enough. Once I showed her how, Sebin noona picked it up quickly. Visualizing her own ideas in concrete detail was no longer a major problem for her. All I had to do was give occasional feedback from the side.
If anything, noona seemed far better suited as a planner than as a programmer doing the direct development. She’d said she was in the creative writing department… Maybe that was why the game’s overall worldbuilding and NPC dialogue were all top-tier.
Thanks to her growth, things here were progressing smoothly. But Nari… Nari was the wild card.
“Nari? Once we part ways today, we won’t even have time to meet up and discuss things together.”
“……I know. I’m working on it too. Just wait a little longer.”
“You know we only have three days left, right? Today’s already almost over, so… it’s basically just two days now.”
“I said I know.”
From then on, Nari still hadn’t produced a single proper illustration. It seemed like she kept drawing and then scrapping them… Even when I told her to just do it roughly and send it over, her pride apparently wouldn’t allow it, and she insisted she would redraw them from scratch.
Honestly, even I felt a little bad about hounding her like this. After all, Nari was incredibly sensitive and prickly right now. If I rubbed her the wrong way even a little, it felt like she might snap at me on the spot.
So I had no choice but to read the room and say things carefully. Still, with so little time left… I had to push her, even if it meant tiptoeing around her mood.
“Nari… You’re okay, right? Let’s head home, get our energy back, and focus.”
“Yeah… Unnie. Sorry.”
“Hm? Why are you suddenly apologizing? You haven’t done anything you need to apologize for yet. It’s fine.”
On the way back home from the club room, Nari and noona had that exchange. After being so prickly with me the whole time, watching her apologize to noona like that left me feeling a little unfairly treated.
“And… Minjae! I’m counting on you. Hang in there until Sunday! If it gets too hard, call me. I’ll come over with snacks or something.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Leaving the entire finishing work to you alone doesn’t sit right with me either…”
“Hahaha, it’s fine. My turn has simply come, that’s all. Once the work is done and we successfully submit, can I call you then? As a way to celebrate together.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be waiting!”
When we reached the main gate, I exchanged those brief goodbyes with Sebin noona and parted ways. After that, I had to walk a little farther with Nari.
Our routes home overlapped, after all.
Walking with Nari today somehow felt awkward in a way it never had before. We had grown close so quickly that there had never been any awkwardness between us from the start, yet today it felt like a slight distance had formed between us.
“Nari, you don’t have to rush so much. I trust you… I was hovering too much earlier, wasn’t I? Cut me some slack. I just really want to do this competition properly.”
“Yeah. I get it.”
“Applying the art doesn’t take that long, so even if you send it by Saturday night, it’s fine.”
Nari simply nodded in reply.
After that, silence settled over us once more. We parted without any real progress in the conversation.
That side of Nari felt awkward, sure… but people can’t always stay the same. Especially for someone in the art field, mental management only got harder the closer a deadline loomed.
I would try to understand.
I had a mountain of my own work to do now… so I would focus on that.
And so Saturday arrived, and from Friday night until one in the afternoon on Saturday, I sat in front of my computer, completely absorbed in the work.
Even so, I kept slipping into the messenger Nari and I used, checking whether she might have come online.
But Nari remained offline the entire time. Whether she had deliberately turned the messenger off or truly wasn’t doing anything at all, I had no idea.
Just in case, I kept checking my email as well. Every free moment, I opened it with the hope that Nari might have sent the illustrations by mail. Still, nothing came.
She has to send them by tonight at the latest…
For now, Nari’s side was still stuck in place. But I had a mountain of my own work that needed doing immediately, so I couldn’t spare the attention. The way things were going, it seemed best to finish my part first as quickly as possible, leave only Nari’s portion, and then try contacting her.
Fortunately, my own work progressed smoothly. From the midpoint onward I had built up some know-how and picked up speed, so I could process things quickly. AI technology was so good these days… I could pull a code draft in no time and just revise it.
“Minjae, is the work going well?”
“Yes… I think I’ll finish faster than expected. Maybe even today?”
“Really? That’s amazing… But doesn’t your voice sound really rough?”
“Hahaha… Maybe because I still haven’t slept. I should drink some water or something.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard. It’s until midnight on Sunday. At that pace, you could take it a little easier.”
“Well… Nari still hasn’t sent the art, so I’m pushing a bit to finish all of my part first.”
“What? Seriously? She still hasn’t sent it?”
“Yeah… Well, Nari must have her reasons. For now I’m just trying to focus on what I can do.”
In the middle of working, noona called to check in for a bit. I took the chance to rest a little and chat with her briefly.
After that, noona said she would try contacting Nari herself and hung up.
Well… this competition wasn’t just mine; noona was taking it seriously too. She must have been just as worried.
Please let her get through to Nari and make some kind of progress.
After that I simply adjusted my posture again and quietly did what I had to do.
Time slipped by once more. I had already watched the night twice—seen the sun set, rise again, and set once more. That meant it had been a full day since I last closed my eyes.
“Uwaaaaaah—!!”
I pushed the chair back and stretched. And that stretch carried the meaning of a signal that the work was completely finished.
Seriously… I had thrown myself into the work without even properly eating. As a result, I finished at a record-breaking speed that even surprised me.
Of course, that was excluding the work of applying the illustrations.
The time right now… was still Saturday evening. I planned to sleep a little and then get up. Nari’s art still hadn’t arrived, and I hadn’t slept a wink since yesterday. I needed to catch some sleep while I still had a bit of leeway.
How long had I slept…? I must have dozed off without even setting an alarm. When I opened my eyes, it was pitch-black night.
I jolted upright and checked my phone. Surely… it isn’t the completely fucked situation I’m imagining, right?
For a moment my heart plummeted. But thankfully, it wasn’t that.
It was only just past the turn from Saturday into Sunday.
Then I tapped the message notifications that had somehow piled up on my phone.
Those texts from noona. Judging by the content… it seemed no answer had come back from Nari yet.
And of course, Nari hadn’t sent me anything either.
That was when I slowly realized something was going wrong. Maybe I had realized it far too late.
I hadn’t been awake long, so my half-asleep mind snapped fully alert in an instant.
I immediately called Nari. But as expected, she didn’t pick up my call either.
Being generous… I could accept that she still hadn’t sent the art. But at the very least, we should be able to get in contact, right? What the current situation was… what difficulty she was facing. We needed to communicate those things so I could wait or offer help.
The way Nari was completely unreachable right now felt like… she had gone dark. And with less than a day left until the submission deadline, no less.
I’m going crazy. What am I supposed to do? In a situation like this, what should I even be doing?
There was nothing left that I could do now. I had already finished all of my own work; all that remained was waiting for Nari.
But if things kept flowing like this, what the hell was I supposed to do?
So the only thing I could do was keep calling Nari over and over. The rising anxiety was impossible to sit still with, so I had no choice but to keep dialing a phone that never answered.
After leaving maybe twenty missed calls…
Around two in the morning on Sunday, Nari finally picked up.
Every previous call had been cut off, so I hadn’t expected anything this time either. But at last, instead of the automated “the person you are calling is unavailable,” I heard Nari’s voice.
“Nari?”
“Yeah.”
I called her name carefully. It still didn’t feel real that the call had actually connected. Nari answered shortly. This wasn’t the time to answer so casually… yet she showed no agitation at all and left only that brief reply.
In other words, without any explanation of the situation, she simply answered my call. What kind of reaction was that supposed to be?
Maybe she still didn’t properly understand what was going on.
“You know we don’t have much time left until the deadline, right? What happened with the art? More than that, why are you only answering now?”
“……”
Maybe because of that attitude of hers, I wanted to stay as calm as possible, but the frustration made me put a little emotion into the question. Nari gave no answer at all.
I wish she’d say something… I’m seriously going crazy from how frustrating this is.
“What’s going on? Is something wrong?”
“Minjae, how are you feeling right now?”
“What…? How am I feeling… I’m so anxious I could lose my mind.”
“I see.”
I see?
Was that really what you said in this situation?
I didn’t even understand why she was asking that in the first place… Just what was Nari trying to say?
This hard-won connection… and Nari kept spouting incomprehensible things, pushing me closer and closer to my limit.
“Nari? You’re not joking around right now, are you?”
“Yeah. I’m not?”
“Th-then… should I just wait a little longer?”
“I have something I need to tell you.”
“Something to tell me?”
“It’s…”
“W-wait. Hold on. I’ll come to your place. Let’s talk face to face.”
I cut her off urgently. If I heard whatever that was over the phone and then hung up, there was no telling whether I would be able to reach Nari again. A strong anxiety hit me that this might be the last chance.
So I decided it would be far better to face Nari in person. At least if we met, I could confirm the situation somehow. At the very least, it wouldn’t completely slip out of my hands.
And the words Nari was about to say… from the very breath she drew to deliver them, I could tell something was off.
“Just send me the address. I’ll come right now.”
“Yeah, do whatever.”
I hung up.
I had no choice but to get ready quickly and go meet Nari. That seemed like the only opportunity left to me. The only thing that could create a variable.
In the middle of the night, I took a taxi… and rushed to the front of Nari’s place.
Honestly, I was so tense I could lose my mind. In other words, I was terrified. Even while riding the taxi, I had no sense of what was about to happen, and somewhere between my chest and stomach kept aching the whole way.
“Nari, I’m here.”
“Yeah, I’ll come down.”
I called from in front of her building to let her know I had arrived. Nari said she would come downstairs.
Right up until that moment, I kept thinking, Please let it be nothing serious. If we just pull ourselves together even now, everything will work out. No—I desperately wished for it.
The shared entrance door opened, and Nari appeared with complete composure. Not a trace of fatigue showed on her face.
“What’s going on? If something’s hard, tell me. If I can help, I will.”
The moment I saw her, those words tumbled out. It was my desperate hope that the situation wouldn’t take a bad turn, speaking first.
But Nari didn’t flinch in the slightest. Even seeing my anxious expression and hearing my anxious voice, her face didn’t change at all.
Then, with that cold expression, she opened her mouth.
“There’s nothing to help with. I didn’t draw a single picture. And I have no intention of drawing any.”
“What?”
“How is it? Feels good getting back exactly what you did?”