Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 3

The green onion leaves cut easily with a crisp sound.

They felt firm and fresh.

As soon as Sejun chewed, a strong spicy taste filled his mouth. He felt hot all over. Sweat started to run down his face.

Sejun frowned and wiped his sweat. He kept chewing, but there was no sweetness, only spice.

‘I thought it would get sweet after the spice… but it’s just spicy!’ He realized the green onion was only about the spice.

Gulp.

The spiciness was gone quickly after he swallowed. His stomach felt fine, which was a relief.

‘Green onions are good to eat when I crave something spicy.’

Sejun kept eating the spicy green onion. He was hungry and needed to eat something.

Sejun ate a lot of green onion, about the length of his hand. He was sweating a lot. Strangely, the more he sweated, the lighter and better he felt.

Crack. Crack.

Sejun snapped off the green onions that were blocking his sunlight. It wasn’t *just* because he was angry about the lack of sweetness. Not really.

‘Well… let’s say it’s not entirely the reason. I was expecting a little.’

He laid the snapped green onions in a sunny spot. Today, he started his daily routine a little later thanks to the green onions, but it didn’t matter. His daily routine was just…

Trickle trickle.

Watering the crops for a bit,

“……”

And staring blankly at the hole in the ceiling.

But at least the green onions were something to look at. When he glanced away from the ceiling, he saw they had grown much taller.

“Do green onions usually grow this fast?”

He even used his phone to time them, just to be sure he wasn’t imagining it. They grew about 10cm every hour! Sejun had never farmed before, but he knew this was not normal.

“Could it be because I’m growing them in this tower?”

That was the only idea he had. These were just normal green onions from a shop. If green onions grew this fast normally, everyone would be growing them!

“But the other plants are still quiet.”

Sejun looked at the spots where he had planted cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes. He hoped they would grow soon too, if the soil was good.

But there was no change in the soil.

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

Just in case, he looked more closely.

“Huh?!”

Looking closer, the soil for the sweet potatoes was the same. But the soil for the cherry tomatoes looked a little bumpy. Sejun lay down and looked very closely at the raised soil.

“Oh! I see it!”

(…i…)

A tiny green sprout with a shiny blue tip poked out of the soil, like it was shyly looking around.

“One, two, three…”

There were a total of 52 sprouts. Sejun stared at the cherry tomato sprouts for a long time.

Sejun smiled to himself. “Cute.”

Seeing the tiny plants he had grown made him feel good inside, a warm and happy feeling.

Beep beep.

[May 15th, 6:00 AM]

Sejun woke up for his sixth day here. Yesterday, he had just watched the cherry tomato sprouts. They were growing slowly, but seeing them grow even a little made him feel satisfied, like he had eaten a good meal.

“Oof!”

Sejun got up easily. He felt lighter every day. At first, he thought it was just because he wasn’t tired from work anymore. But now, he wasn’t so sure.

“Let’s see if the sprouts grew!”

Sejun rushed to the cherry tomatoes as soon as he woke up. He was too excited to even wash his face first.

“Oh!”

(…”…)

The blue tips of the sprouts were starting to open a little. But then he saw a shadow over them. The green onions had grown tall again, blocking the sunlight from the small sprouts.

Crack. Crack.

Sejun quickly snapped off the green onion leaves again. “Whew.” He finished and went to the pond.

Splash! Splash!

After washing his face quickly, Glug. Glug. Glug. He filled bottles and containers with water and poured it on the soil around the cherry tomatoes, green onions, and sweet potatoes.

“It’s not that I hate you, green onions.”

He gave the green onions especially a lot of water.

When he finished watering,

Grumble.

His stomach growled loudly, telling him it was time for food.

“I need to eat breakfast.”

Sejun put one of the green onions he had just snapped off into his mouth.

Crunch. Crunch.

After only eating green onion leaves yesterday, he thought it would be enough to stop his hunger.

He didn’t feel hungry or weak. He felt like the green onions were giving him energy.

Most importantly, there were so many green onions! They grew about 180cm every day. It was too much, and he didn’t know what to do with them all.

‘I should dry them and save them for later.’ The green onions were growing like crazy now, but he wanted to be ready in case they suddenly stopped.

You never know what might happen. Who would have thought that he would be stranded in this unknown place?

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

Thud. Thud.

Sejun dug into the soil and planted the cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

And

Trickle trickle.

“Grow well,” he said as he watered them. Then he sat on his usual rock, where the sun was warm.

He felt good. He had done something useful today.

“The sky is nice.”

The blue sky was clear and bright. It was funny how your feelings changed. Yesterday, he thought the sky was boring, but today it looked beautiful.

He thought about it. He had been staring at the sky for days now. “When I worked at the office, I never even saw the sky for days… This is very different.”

But the good feeling didn’t last long. “Something is missing,” he thought. “I really want a cold drink right now.” He missed his old life in the city.

As Sejun looked at the sky and thought about his city life,

Beep. Beep.

An alert popped up on his smartphone that the battery had dropped below 20%. He had set it to low power mode and only looked at the screen when necessary, but he couldn’t completely prevent battery drain.

“Let’s charge it with this for now.”

Sejun opened his laptop and pressed the power button. The smartphone, which consumed less power than the laptop and told him when to wake up and go to sleep, was more useful.

Click.

The laptop screen turned on, and an Excel window appeared with the work he had been doing. It was a quote he was sending to a client, work he couldn’t finish at the company and was trying to finish at home.

Click.

Sejun closed the Excel window without saving. He didn’t care about the work anymore.

“Someone else will do it for me.”

He felt a little sorry for the person who would have to do it instead, but it wasn’t like he could do it anyway.

Sejun connected his smartphone to his laptop and charged his phone. He also turned on low power mode on his laptop to reduce battery consumption.

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

Looking at them again and again made him feel good.

He was on one of the higher floors of the tower, where the weather was always clear.

As he was looking at the cherry tomato sprouts,

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Water dripped from above.

“What? Is it raining?”

Sejun knew it wasn’t rain right away. On this floor of the tower, it was always sunny.

‘Could it be a monster?’ He felt a shiver of fear and quickly looked up.

But

“Huh?!”

A small white rabbit was looking down at him from the hole in the ceiling, drooling.

‘Is that a monster too?’ Sejun wondered if this rabbit was dangerous when,

Squeak!

The rabbit made a soft, sweet sound and jumped down. Plop.

“Huh?!”

Sejun was surprised and reached out to catch it, thinking it might be a monster.

But the rabbit used its long ears to guide itself, missed Sejun’s hand, landed on his shoulders, and then jumped to the ground. “……” Sejun felt silly with his hand still reaching out.

Then,

Squeak.

The rabbit stood on two legs and pointed a paw at the green onion. It was walking like a person!

“Are you asking if you can eat it?”

Squeak!

The rabbit nodded quickly. Its eyes seemed to beg him for some.

“Here.”

Crack.

Sejun snapped off a whole green onion leaf and gave it to the rabbit.

Squeak!

Crunch. Crunch.

The rabbit began to eat the green onion Sejun gave it very quickly.

Crack. Crack.

While the rabbit was eating the green onion, Sejun snapped off the green onion leaves. He decided to snap them all off while he was at it.

Sejun was planning to cut the green onions once at 6 AM and once at 2 PM. That way, the cherry tomato sprouts could see the sun.

Crunch. Crunch.

The rabbit kept eating the green onion carefully. But it only ate a small piece, about the size of two fingers.

Sejun looked at the rabbit and then looked back at the cherry tomatoes.

“Huh?!”

(…’ ‘…)

The ends of the cherry tomato sprouts were gradually opening. It looked like leaves would be coming out soon.

How much time had passed?

Snore.

He heard the rabbit sleeping next to him. It must have been sleepy after eating its fill. It was kind of cute snoring softly.

Then,

Squeak?

The rabbit woke up suddenly, as if it felt Sejun looking at it.

Flap.

The rabbit shook its head to shake off the sleep.

And

Squeak!

It jumped up happily.

Thump.

Holding a green onion, the rabbit climbed back up the hole easily. Squeak. Before it left, the rabbit lowered its head to Sejun, like it was saying thank you. ‘It just ate and left.’ Sejun thought. But he waved goodbye anyway. He was happy to have company, even for a short time.

The rabbit left while Sejun was waving.

“……”

He didn’t realize how much he liked having the rabbit around until it left. He felt a little lonely again.

Sejun stopped thinking about the rabbit and looked back at the cherry tomato sprouts. They had grown a bit more and were opening their leaves wider. “Keep going, little guys.” Soon after, (…Y…) The cherry tomato sprouts started to open two small green leaves, one by one. The leaves were delicate and bright green, and it was amazing to see them grow.

Beep beep.

[May 15th, 10:00 PM]

The alarm rang to signal dinner.

But he didn’t want to sleep today. He wanted to stay up and watch the sprouts grow.

“…!”

Slap. Slap.

Sejun woke up feeling something lightly hitting his cheek.

“Huh? What is it?”

When he opened his eyes, the rabbit that had run away yesterday was hitting Sejun’s cheek with its hand to wake him up.

“Ugh. What time is it?”

Sejun checked the time.

[May 16th, 5:00 AM]

It was an hour earlier than he usually woke up.

“But what’s with that outfit?”

The rabbit was wearing a straw hat with holes for its ears and holding a watering can in its hand.

Then,

Squeak.

He heard another rabbit cry.

“Huh?”

Sejun looked where the sound came from and saw another slender rabbit wearing an apron.

And

Bow.

The rabbit made eye contact with Sejun and bowed politely.

“What’s going on?”

On his seventh day here, Sejun woke up early, and it looked like he wasn’t alone anymore. Two rabbits were now with him in the cave!