Mowing and Painting
"So, let's see. Is it... like this?"
"Oh, you're doing great. You'll get the hang of it in no time."
"Ah, yes. Thank... wait, why am I the one doing this?"
Seunghwan, who had been feeling a brief swell of pride at Dojin's praise, tilted her head in confusion.
She had been swept along by Dojin's sheer momentum and ended up learning how to operate the machinery, but the situation still didn't make any sense to her.
Dojin looked at Seunghwan and spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Didn't you say you wanted to start farming?"
"Pardon?"
"Weeding is the absolute basics of farming. If you say you're going to return to the countryside without even knowing how to do this, real farmers will get angry. They'll think you're looking down on their work."
"..."
"And this is actually the easy part. You don't have to stand under the scorching sun, and you don't have to bend over to pull them out by hand. You're just riding a machine and gliding back and forth. Surely you're not going to tell me you can't even do this?"
"No, it's not that... *Sigh*, fine. I'll give it a try. How much do I need to do?"
"What do you mean, 'how much'? All of it, of course."
"What? This entire schoolyard?"
Seunghwan cried out in shock at Dojin's words.
Even as she protested, her eyes instinctively swept across the schoolyard.
Aside from the paved path cutting through the center, the ground was so overgrown with weeds that you couldn't even see the dirt.
And she was supposed to clear all of this? With a machine she was riding for the very first time?
But Dojin wasn't finished yet.
"And it's not just the schoolyard. We have to do the whole property. Start from the playground over there and clear everything all the way to the warehouse."
"Ah..."
A groan of pure despair escaped Seunghwan's lips.
The warehouse Dojin mentioned was located way past the paved blocks.
She had no idea how long the schoolyard alone would take, and now she had to clear the playground and the area beyond the paved road as well.
Seunghwan was usually called a stone Buddha for her stoic nature, but right now, she felt utterly overwhelmed.
"You only need to do the areas where the machine can pass. I'll clean up the tight corners myself."
"Right... That is... incredibly encouraging."
With a reply laced with a perfect blend of resignation and irritation, Seunghwan began to focus on operating the machine.
She realized that if she wanted to escape this hellish chore, she needed to master the controls as quickly as possible.
Watching her, Dohee raised both hands in a cheering gesture.
"You can do it, Seunghwan! You'll get the hang of it in no time! I'll get the meat ready, so finish up quickly and let's eat together!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Huh? We have to eat later. Don't worry, Oppa, we bought instant rice and plenty of meat."
As she spoke, Dohee pointed toward the bags they had brought.
She gestured as if to say, The meat is right in there! Dojin smiled warmly like a proud father, but then he pointed in a different direction.
"Not that way. Over there."
"Huh? That's the main gate."
To Dohee's puzzled question, Dojin delivered a death sentence, his gentle smile never wavering.
"Didn't you say earlier, Dohee? That you'd go and help Seunghwan if she returned to the countryside."
"Uh? Y-yes, I did."
"Well, since Seunghwan is practicing before she makes the move, you should practice too. Coincidentally, there are a lot of weeds near the school wall."
"N-no, I don't think I really need to try it right now..."
She shook her head vigorously.
Dohee waved her hands and shook her head in a desperate refusal, but the smile on Dojin's face remained firmly in place.
"Oppa, you're so mean..."
Outside the school.
Dohee glared at Dojin as she looked at the thick patch of weeds growing along the outer wall.
"Hahaha..."
At least he had a conscience; Dojin kept his eyes fixed straight ahead as he operated the machine.
It wasn't the ride-on lawn mower that Seunghwan was using, but a self-propelled walk-behind mower that looked a bit like a stroller.
"This one is much easier to operate than the one Seunghwan is riding. Just turn on the power like this, and pull this lever..."
As Dojin pulled the lever on the handle, the mower began to move forward on its own.
It moved at a slow walking pace, but the grass and weeds in its path were neatly sliced away.
"Oh? That's neat. Is that really all there is to it?"
"It's a cheaper model that only goes straight, so you'll have to adjust the direction every now and then. Steering is simple, though. Just push the handle like this, and it'll turn."
Energized by Dohee's interest, Dojin eagerly explained the operation method he had just learned from the manual and YouTube.
He would only find out much later that the "cheap" machine was actually made by Cub Cadet—the same brand as Seunghwan's ride-on mower—and cost well over 1.5 million won.
"Oh, convenience is the best. I can definitely do this."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
"Huh? Where are you going, Oppa? You're not planning to leave Seunghwan and me here to work while you go play, are you?"
Dohee's eyes narrowed as she spoke.
Her aura made it clear that if he did, there would be hell to pay.
Dojin chuckled and shook his head.
"Of course not. How could I play while the two of you are working? I have my own job to do."
"A job?"
Even while talking to Dojin, Dohee reached out to adjust the mower's path so it wouldn't go off course.
Looking at her proudly, Dojin pointed toward the school's outer wall.
"Yeah. The wall looks terrible, so I'm going to paint it. I knew I'd have to do it eventually, so I figured I might as well do it now while we're clearing the weeds."
Dohee turned her head and nodded.
The wall was indeed in terrible shape.
The murals and lettering must have looked beautiful once, but now they were peeling and scratched, giving off a rather eerie, abandoned vibe.
It definitely needed a fresh coat of paint, especially since Dojin was going to live here.
"Alright. I'll clear this area as fast as I can so you can start painting. You weeds are dead meat!"
"Haha, thanks, but don't rush so much that you hurt yourself. And if you can, keep an eye on the camera."
"Ah, you mean this?"
Dohee looked down at the action camera strapped to her chest.
It was the device Dojin had told her to wear when they brought out the mowers.
Dojin had also brought out a spare smartphone and a few other cameras from somewhere, mounting them at various angles along the wall.
"Yeah. I'm planning to combine your footage with Seunghwan's and upload our work today to YouTube."
"Oh! That sounds like so much fun! Got it, I'll make sure to get some great footage."
Giving a clumsy salute, Dohee turned back to the mower.
Seeing her enthusiasm even from behind, Dojin smiled and turned around as well.
He needed to move quickly if he wanted to get the painting done.
Thanks to the director, he had the equipment, but he lacked the most important thing: the paint. He had to make a trip to a paint store.
According to his search, the nearest paint store was twenty minutes away.
And that was by car, not on foot.
"Human nature is so fickle. I felt so burdened when I first got it, but now that I have it, it's incredibly useful."
Dojin quickly got the truck out of the parking lot and set off.
The sun was still up, but he couldn't afford to be complacent.
Since it was Saturday, he had no idea when the shops might close.
If he was unlucky, he might spend the entire day just driving around looking for paint.
"I wish they'd register their phone numbers online."
Dojin wanted to call ahead and confirm, but none of the stores listed on the map had phone numbers registered.
Even when he checked Street View, the stores either had no photos or their signs didn't display a phone number.
There was nothing he could do but go see for himself.
"Please let them be open."
Thinking of the two women clearing weeds back at the closed school, Dojin stepped on the gas.
"Thank you."
"Oh, no, thank you. It's been a while since we've had such a big customer."
Dojin smiled and accepted the owner's friendly banter.
Honestly, even Dojin had to admit he was a major customer.
He had purchased ten 18-liter cans each of white, black, and gray paint.
Since he bought both matte and glossy versions of each, that came to sixty cans.
He also bought five 18-liter cans each of yellow, blue, green, and red.
Again, buying both matte and glossy versions added another forty cans.
In total, he had purchased one hundred 18-liter cans, spending over five million won on paint alone.
On top of that, he bought paint hardeners to speed up drying and paint thinners to dilute the paint. To the store owner, he was practically a savior.
"Dad, I've loaded everything."
"Alright, good job. Wow, the truck bed is completely full."
Hearing his son's voice, the owner looked at Dojin's truck, a wide grin spreading across his face.
It had been so long since they had made such a massive sale that he couldn't hide his joy.
In exchange for keeping the shop open a little later on a Saturday, the father and son had welcomed a true VIP.
"Whew, thankfully that didn't take too long."
He was lucky that the closest store on the map was open.
Otherwise, he might not have returned until after sunset.
Even though he had rushed, over an hour had already flown by.
Loading such a large order had taken quite some time.
Speeding back with an anxious heart, Dojin let out an involuntary gasp as the school came into view in the distance.
"Oh, they're moving faster than I expected."
The closed school, which had looked like a haunted house from afar due to the overgrown weeds, was transformed.
Now, the suffocating weeds were nowhere to be seen.
While this made the unsightly outer wall stand out even more, it no longer looked like an abandoned ruin.
"Ah, she's still working on that side of the wall."
Slowing down, Dojin spotted Dohee's back as she guided the walk-behind mower.
She had finished the wall near the main gate, but the next section was still thick with weeds.
Looking at the overall progress, it seemed about thirty to thirty-five percent complete.
The same went for the school grounds inside.
"Wow."
As Dojin opened the gate and drove in, he was greeted by the sight of a clean schoolyard.
Although weeds still grew thick in other corners of the campus, the main yard was completely cleared.
"Seunghwan is really fast."
Having finished the schoolyard, Seunghwan was now clearing the playground.
Perhaps because she knew how to drive, she operated the machine with impressive skill, easily clearing weeds even in narrow, tight spaces.
Spurred on by Seunghwan's pace, Dojin quickly parked the truck and checked the paint.
He pulled out the matte white paint and the hardener.
He might paint murals or write something on it later, but for now, he planned to cover it all in clean white.
Opening the paint, Dojin poured the paint and hardener into an empty bucket at the designated ratio and mixed them.
"My factory experience is coming in handy at a time like this."
At his old factory, all the employees repainted the walls once a year.
The work was done during regular weekday hours and counted as normal working hours, so the employees never complained.
Having been in charge of preparing and setting up the paint back then, Dojin was quite familiar with the process.
"Alright, the prep work is done..."
Having finished preparing the paint, Dojin turned his gaze to the equipment he had laid out this morning.
Among the wide variety of tools—some of which made him wonder why they were even included—was the exact item Dojin was looking for.
"I've never used one of these before..."
Dojin's eyes grew serious as he examined the equipment, which looked a bit like industrial vacuum cleaners.
The machines he was looking at were paint sprayers, also known as airless sprayers, which sprayed paint instead of applying it by hand.
Dojin had only seen his factory manager use one to paint a warehouse a few times; he had never operated one himself.
"The operation seems mostly the same."
After reading the manuals for the machines, Dojin nodded.
Fortunately, the manuals had been translated into Korean, making it easy to understand how to use them.
After looking over the options, Dojin chose the largest sprayer.
Not only did it have the best specs in the manual, but it also had wheels, making it much easier to move around.
"Alright, let's go."
Placing the bucket of mixed paint onto the sprayer's holder, Dojin wheeled the equipment out of the main gate.
However, the machine, which had rolled smoothly at first, began to wobble.
Clack, rattle, clatter.
Checking the suddenly shaking machine, Dojin looked around and clicked his tongue.
"I'll have to repave the path later, too."
He hadn't noticed it before because of the weeds, but the paved blocks and asphalt paths were in terrible condition.
Many of the paving blocks were cracked or missing entirely, and the asphalt was riddled with potholes.
It could barely even be called a paved road at this point.
Having to navigate the machine along the few intact sections of the path took longer than expected.
"Whew, I'm exhausted before I've even started."
Fortunately, the actual painting went smoothly.
The sprayer required electricity, but he had anticipated this and brought along a diesel generator.
Chug-chug-chug-chug.
Pshhh, pshhhhh, pshhh!
As the roar of the generator and the hiss of the paint sprayer filled the air, a clean, white wall began to emerge in their wake.
"Wow, what is all this? It's so clean. People won't even recognize the place."
Aside from a brief moment of surprise when Seunghwan came out after clearing the weeds, the exterior cleanup of the school was completed without any major incidents.
*Crackle, pop, crackle.*
"Wow, this is so nice."
"Now I get why people talk about 'campfire spacing.' It's so relaxing, I can't take my eyes off it."
"Alright, this is the last of the cooked meat. Let me know if you want more. I can always grill some more."
Setting down the plate of meat, Dojin carefully examined the fire the two women were staring at.
The flames dancing over the makeshift brick fire pit were still visible, but they had died down significantly compared to before.
Seeing this, Dojin grabbed a large armful of weeds from the pile he had stacked a short distance away and threw them into the fire.
*Whoosh!*
Because the weeds weren't completely dry, the flames shrank for a moment before suddenly roaring back to life.
The two spectators behind him cheered.
"Ooh!"
"Nice! Fire!"
"...Are you sure what I grilled for you was actually meat?"
Seeing their excitement grow by the minute, Dojin couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.
"Oppa! Stop working and come sit down. You worked hard today too."
"Yeah. Alright."
At Dohee's urging, Dojin tossed in one last armful of weeds and walked over to join them.
"It's so peaceful here. It's quiet, the air is clean, you can see the stars in the sky, and there are no stressful BJ dramas..."
At Seunghwan's words, Dojin looked up at the sky.
It was definitely different from the sky he used to see from his dormitory.
Yet, despite pointing it out, Seunghwan's expression was growing increasingly dark.
She was no longer talking about absurd things like returning to the countryside to farm, but she seemed deeply troubled about her future.
Seeing her like this, Dojin finally decided to speak the words he had been debating in his mind.
"Seunghwan, would you like to work as a freelancer until you find a new job?"