Strangely, I'm Even Busier
"Hohoho, you had quite an interesting experience."
"No, it wasn't just some 'interesting experience,' you know? I almost got bitten. Seriously, if it weren't for Hwindung-i and the others, I'd probably be calling you from a hospital bed right now."
Dojin spoke in a mock-aggrieved tone at the director's reaction.
Yet, a smile lingered on Dojin's face.
It was because talking to Hye-seok had become comfortable at some point.
It really feels like I'm talking to my own grandmother.
It hadn't been like this before his regression.
Hye-seok had always been the same, but Dojin had kept his distance.
Back then, Dojin didn't have the luxury to look around him.
He had been solely focused on the goal of surviving on his own as an orphan.
He had tried to change a little after meeting Dohee.
But the harassment from his in-laws had only driven him further into isolation, turning him into even more of an outcast.
What a foolish way to think. There were so many good people around me.
Losing Dohee and going through regression had finally opened his eyes.
He realized that there had always been good people around him, like Seung-wan, Director Wang, and Yeong-jin.
That was why he had kept in touch with them consistently after quitting his job.
In the past, she had also reached out to Dojin periodically.
"If you saw what's piled up in front of me right now, Director, your laughter would stop instantly."
"Hohoho, why? Is there a mountain of gold or something?"
"I'd rather it be that; at least I could admire it. This is just gruesome."
As he spoke, Dojin looked toward a certain spot.
A pile of snake corpses lay there, every single one of them either with a hole in its head or its neck torn to shreds.
Ugh...
Even looking at it again made him grimace.
The problem was that the pile of over ten corpses was only a fraction of the total.
The number of snakes caught this time was roughly three times that amount.
The rest were either in the bellies of Hwindung-i and his family or left scattered across the ground.
Because the snakes had poured out all at once, they had simply killed them in a hurry and tossed them aside.
Once this phone call was over, it would be Dojin's chore to search for and collect every single one of them.
After all, he couldn't just leave snake carcasses rotting on the ground.
"But that is peculiar. Snakes in that area... It was never a place where snakes appeared."
"Really? Maybe it's because the land was left abandoned for so long?"
"No, even so, it is strange. I planted plenty of garden balsam and cherry trees so that snakes wouldn't come near..."
The director's words jogged Dojin's memory.
The very first thing the director had done after arriving at the orphanage was planting garden balsam and cherry trees around the building.
When the children, seeing cherries for the first time, asked why they were planting them, the director had replied:
"Cherry trees and garden balsam have been known since ancient times to ward off snakes. It's the wisdom of our ancestors."
He didn't know if there was any scientific basis for it, but miraculously, no snakes had appeared near the orphanage after that.
This was despite the fact that they used to show up quite often before, given that the building sat right on the border between the village and the mountain.
Come to think of it, there were cherry trees here too.
They were planted at regular intervals along the wall and the entrance to the mountain.
When he first saw them, he had just found it novel to see cherry trees after so long, but thinking about it now, it seemed this was also the director's doing.
But something was off.
There were no cherry trees on the land they had just cleared.
Searching his memory once more, Dojin mentioned this fact to the director.
"I don't know about the garden balsam, but there weren't any cherry trees."
"...Is that so? How strange..."
The director spoke in a puzzled tone.
She didn't think Dojin had misseen or was mistaken.
Since Dojin had grown up looking at cherry trees since childhood, she knew he wouldn't mistake them.
"Hmm... Dojin."
"Yes, Director. Go ahead."
The director, after a brief hesitation, called his name.
Her tone was far more serious than before, prompting Dojin to listen with equal gravity.
"When you take charge of the temporary shelter... be careful of the people from Mabong-ri."
"Mabong-ri?"
Dojin's gaze naturally drifted toward the direction of Mabong-ri.
Since the two villages were adjacent, his head turned instinctively.
However, the expression on Dojin's face as he looked toward Mabong-ri was far from pleasant.
Although both villages were now aging and facing depopulation, back when he was young, the relationship between them had been terrible.
After the school in Mabong-ri closed down, older kids from Mabong-ri would come all the way to Jeong-a Elementary School to pick fights with them on more than a few occasions.
Every time that happened, the children's squabbles would inevitably escalate into fights between the village adults. Perhaps because of that, he still felt a lingering aversion to Mabong-ri.
"I've only heard rumors, but their youth association president is... a bit lacking in character, to put it mildly. Right now, there's no interaction and everyone minds their own business, but once the temporary shelter is built and equipment starts coming in, there's no telling what might happen."
"Hmm, is that so?"
At the director's words, Dojin's eyes flashed with a sharp light for an instant before returning to normal.
This was the aspect of him that had changed the most after his regression.
He would no longer just endure everything in silence like he used to.
Living like a fool had cost him his beloved wife.
He was prepared to be more resolute and cold-hearted than anyone else if the situation called for it.
"It's just a hunch, but if you get the chance later, you might want to look around the border of Mabong-ri. Those people might have taken the cherry trees."
"Yes, I understand."
Dojin replied immediately.
He didn't dismiss it as a mere possibility.
He knew Hye-seok wouldn't say something like this without a good reason.
If she went out of her way to mention it, it meant there had been numerous similar incidents in the past that Dojin had been unaware of.
"..."
He hung up the brief call and stood staring in the direction of Mabong-ri for a moment.
Just then, a voice called out to him from behind.
"Oppa, are you done with your call?"
"Huh? Ah, yeah."
"Here. You worked hard in this heat."
Dohee handed an iced Americano to Dojin as he turned around.
Already sweating from standing under the blazing sun, Dojin eagerly took the cup and took a long draft.
"Ah! Whew, I feel alive again."
"Is the work not finished yet? You're going to roast to death if you stay out here like this."
Dohee said worriedly, scanning Dojin's attire.
Unlike yesterday, Dojin was wearing thick work clothes and heavy work boots today.
It was the perfect outfit to get heatstroke in, but she couldn't bring herself to stop him.
She had already seen the video of what had happened yesterday.
"Ugh, just thinking about yesterday makes me so mad at you!"
"Haha..."
Dojin laughed awkwardly at Dohee's words.
Even he had to admit he deserved the nagging for yesterday's stunt.
The work clothes aside, I should have told them before they watched the video.
Dojin hadn't said anything because he didn't want the two of them to worry, but the action cam recording his every move had no such reservations.
After mindlessly handing over the action cam and taking a shower, Dojin had only realized his mistake when he saw their pale, terrified faces.
What followed was entirely predictable.
He was subjected to a solid hour of nagging from both of them for going into the work so carelessly and for trying to hide the incident.
The result of that lecture was his current attire.
"Yeah. It's almost all done now. I just need to gather the cleared weeds and clean them up later."
"Be careful. You never know what might pop out of there next."
Dojin nodded at his girlfriend's warning.
It was a pile of weeds that had harbored dozens of snakes.
It wouldn't be strange at all if there were still snakes that hadn't made it out, or some other dangerous creature lurking inside.
"Just in case, I sprayed herbicide. Even if something was in there, that probably took care of it."
While herbicide wouldn't kill snakes, snakes absolutely detested the smell of it.
Any remaining ones would have fled from the scent.
Once he gathered the herbicide-soaked weeds and the snake carcasses to burn them in a bit, the weeding work would be complete.
"I didn't expect just clearing the weeds to take two whole days."
"It couldn't be helped. Not with that many snakes coming out."
Dojin nodded in agreement with Dohee's words.
Even he had never seen so many snakes in his life.
Even Seung-wan, after checking the footage, was at a loss as to how he should edit the video.
"So, is most of the work done until they build the temporary shelter?"
"No, it's only just beginning."
"Huh? What else is left?"
"I have to manage the drainage channels. Now that the weeds are gone, the condition is worse than I thought. I might even have to lay down new ones entirely."
"Ah, right. That was one of the conditions, wasn't it?"
Dohee clapped her hands as she recalled Dojin's words.
On the day he received the proposal from the director, Dojin had shared the details with the two of them.
The two had been genuinely surprised by the news of acquiring more land, but they had felt uneasy about giving up a share of the channel in exchange.
Since the shares belonged 100% to Dojin, neither Dohee nor Seung-wan was in a position to object, but they were genuinely worried about him.
Fortunately, they looked relieved after hearing that the director only wanted a mere 10%, and even that was in exchange for the land.
"Is digging a new drainage channel something you can do easily?"
Dojin shook his head at Dohee's question.
As Dojin had learned while researching this time, drainage work around the land was far more complicated than he had anticipated.
If the experts introduced by Yeong-jin hadn't handled the administrative procedures, he wouldn't have even dreamed of attempting it.
"Normally, it's very difficult. That's why I'm planning to use the existing channels as much as possible, but I'm not sure how it'll turn out."
The state of the drainage channels revealed after clearing the weeds was quite disastrous.
Leaving aside the various piles of trash, the real problem lay in the concrete flume blocks, which were damaged by debris and rocks.
Water was supposed to flow along the channel, but the blocks themselves were cracked, causing leaks everywhere.
If left like this, the entire area could end up flooded in the event of heavy rain.
"For now, I think I'll have to clear out the debris piled up in the channels first before making a plan."
"You're going to clear all of that by yourself, Oppa? It looked completely blocked in the video. Should I help you?"
Dojin looked at her with slightly surprised eyes.
Lately, she hadn't been stepping foot outside Sekki House.
Even though the land was attached to Sekki House, he could guess just how much courage it took for her to make that offer.
Sensing her sincerity, Dojin stroked Dohee's hair and spoke.
"It's fine. I figured it would be too tough, so I bought some equipment."
"Equipment?"
"Yeah. There's actually quite a lot of equipment for maintaining drainage channels. Fortunately, they said the domestic brands perform well, so I bought a few different types."
Living in the countryside actually required better equipment.
Since there was no backup labor and time was always short, one had to bridge the gap with machinery.
Moreover, Dojin wasn't short on money, so he hadn't hesitated to make the purchase.
"They said it would arrive around today... Ah, is that it?"
In Dojin's line of sight, trucks were passing through the main gate.
Speak of the devil, the equipment had arrived the moment he mentioned it.
"Thank you."
"Please contact us immediately if any issues arise."
"Will do. Have a safe trip back."
Perhaps it was because he had purchased multiple pieces of equipment during this economic downturn?
The equipment company had delivered them in person.
A business card they had handed him was now held in Dojin's hand.
Seeing him buy so many machines, they seemed to have mistaken him for someone running a related business or managing a work crew.
Once the trucks departed, Dojin scratched his head as he looked at the machinery lined up in the corner of the schoolyard.
He had bought them because they seemed necessary, but the thought of actually operating them made him sigh.
"Hmm, learning how to use these is going to be a chore in itself."
Of course, the company had explained the operations in detail.
They had been highly proactive, providing manuals and even showing him instructional videos.
But in the end, it was Dojin who had to operate them.
On top of that, considering the sheer volume of work ahead, it was hard not to feel a bit drained.
"Phew, let's worry about this tomorrow. Today, I'll focus on today's work."
Turning a blind eye to the immediate future, Dojin drove his truck out of Sekki House.
It was time to collect the herbicide-soaked weeds and the snake carcasses.
It would be trouble if he dragged his feet and Hwindung-i or the other goshawks ate the carcasses lying on the ground.
This was because Dojin had sprayed herbicide across the entire plot of land while finishing up the weeding.
On a hot day like this, eating a snake that had been dead for a day and soaked in herbicide would definitely result in something far worse than a simple stomachache.
"Is it just my imagination, or am I busier now than when I worked at the factory?"
His pockets were overflowing with money.
He even had a massive house to live in with the people he cherished.
Yet, for some reason, Dojin found himself busier than when he was working three-shift rotations at the factory.