[2019, May 23rd | Thursday, 12:00 PM]
[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts - 2]
[Ghost Story Points: 781]
[Causality Rate: 32%]
As soon as the 4th period ended, we ran out of the classroom.
And just as we had pre-ordered through the app, we received the food from the delivery man who arrived at the entrance right at 12 o'clock.
"Thank you."
"Enjoy your meal~"
The students glanced at us as we ordered delivery food even though it wasn't even Friday, when we usually had CA sessions, but we just hurriedly ran up the stairs again and went up to the 5th floor.
Soon, the six of us gathered into the clubroom.
"Who ordered the chicken karaage rice bowl?"
"That's mine."
"What about the tonkatsu pork cutlet?"
"OWO~ that's mine."
Soon, each of us grabbed our lunchbox and sat down on our usual seat, while Gyeongwon stood in front of the whiteboard and continued explaining.
"Now we just have to fill in number 4. 'Describe a rough plan of what kind of experiments you need to conduct to explore the chosen topic.' Listen while you eat. This goes without saying, we just need to build a full-size door, and that's it. But we can't bring something that big into the competition hall, but we can make a quarter-scale model right now..."
It wasn't like we were actually going to make it right now anyway, we just had to write down a rough plan.
We just listened casually while eating, and once Gyeongwon finished his explanation, he wrote down what he had just said on the application form and then opened his own lunchbox.
"We're done now. As soon as we finish eating, let's go submit it."
"Sounds good."
We hurriedly ate our meals, shared opinions to check if there was anyone who didn't understand anything, and about ten minutes before lunch ended, we all rushed to the teachers' office together.
Just then, the third-year science teacher, Choi Jungim, came in after brushing her teeth.
"Hello, we're here to submit the competition entry."
"Don't bother me~"
Since she was a teacher, we tried to greet her, but she just ignored us and walked past.
For a moment, the image of the first-year male science teacher who died from a heart attack overlapped in my mind.
Though both were science teacher villains from the same cult, the male teacher had a thick-skinned arrogance, whereas the female teacher had a twisted, psychotic harshness that felt different.
She just walked straight through the teachers' office and went into the break room.
"Making coffee again."
"F*ck..."
The manager of the break room's instant coffee, Choi Jungim, snapped at us.
"Just leave the application on the desk and leave."
"What if you later say you didn't receive it? Excuse me? Teacher?"
Gyeongwon called out to the teacher inside the break room and asked, waving the application form.
"We'll just leave it here and leave. We definitely submitted it."
The b*tch ignored us and kept making coffee.
I called Teacher Han Ari who was working in the back seat.
"Teacher, this is the application form for the preliminary round of school science competition. Could you please pass it to Teacher Choi Jungim?"
"Huh? Oh? Uh, okay. I'll pass it on..."
"Thank you."
Not knowing the situation, the teacher took the paper with a puzzled expression.
After repeatedly asking her to deliver it directly to the teacher, we left the teachers' office.
"This way, they can't give any excuses."
"Having a power struggle just over the application..…"
"Seriously, so annoying."
"Hayoon, go and give them a piece of your mind."
Hayoon just flicked her hair and ignored me.
* * *
The next day, Friday.
D-3 until the school preliminaries.
"Hello, kids~"
Teacher Jang Hwaeun came into the clubroom to supervise the CA session, but we just nodded lightly and focused on drawing the design.
"Here are the materials. A rectangular door frame and a matching rectangular door to fit inside. Then several neodymium magnets the same size as the metal butterfly hinges. We'll need to embed the magnets into both the door and the frame separately, so it looks like we'll need a multiple of the number of hinges."
"Kids, what are you doing?"
The Teacher sat down among us as Gyeongwon was explaining.
Sunah turned her head and whispered an answer.
"We're planning to bring an actual model to the competition..…"
"A model?"
The Teacher tilted her head in confusion.
"This school competition is just the preliminaries, so isn't it enough to just explain? You're actually going to bring a model?"
"We have to make sure we win..."
"Is that so?"
Once Gyeongwon finished explaining the model's structure, he started explaining how to actually build it.
"I checked with a woodworking shop, and they said there's nothing they wouldn't make as long as we pay. But we have to bring them precise blueprints, and the magnets or things like that, we have to get those ourselves and pass it to them."
"Hold on, hold on. You guys are planning to go to a woodworking shop?"
As she listened, the Teacher suddenly spoke up.
"We have a handyman here at school, don't we? You can just ask him. Why go all the way out somewhere?"
"…Handyman?"
"Yes."
We turned to look at each other.
"What's a 'handyman'?"
"Is it like a mechanic..…"
"No, no. The handyman uncle in the parking lot. We call him Mr. Joosa."
[T/N: Joosa (주사) in Korean means 'syringe/ injection'. 'Joosa-nim' literally means 'injectionist'.]
"We have someone like that at our school?"
"Of course! You guys didn't know?"
The Teacher's eyes widened in surprise.
"When the locker gets accidentally locked, the person who comes and opens it for us is Mr. Joosa!"
"Ahh~ that person…..."
Only then did the club members nod.
Now that I think about it, I definitely remember when some of the students who couldn't open their lockers told their homeroom teacher, a mustached old man in overalls came and cut the broken locks with a big bolt cutter.
"I thought he was just a repairman from outside."
"No~ He's part of our school! Since his workshop is inside the parking lot, you guys might not have known."
He usually picked locks on lockers, fixed broken desks or chairs.
He was the handyman of Nakseong High School, who lived on the school premises and fixed broken windows or doors, Mr. Kim Joosa.
Since there were usually close to a thousand people mingling in the school, including the faculty and staff, he was in charge of managing over two thousand pieces of furniture.
Because of that, although the title for a handyman may be different, it's a job that's often found in every school, but since their workshops are usually located in an inconspicuous place like the parking lot, ordinary students often don't know about their existence.
"…Will he do it if we ask him?"
"If I go and say that you guys are students preparing for the competition, he'll probably help you? I've gotten pretty close with him because we often greet each other as we go in and out of the parking lot~"
The Teacher spoke in a bright tone.
I couldn't help but wonder why someone so friendly and sociable would be ostracized by the other staff.
"He's not someone from the Void cult, is he?"
"Who knows? But from what I can tell, he doesn't seem like a bad person. Just a bit quiet, that's all."
So a classic quiet taciturn carpenter uncle.
Pop-
[Your understanding of the character Kim Joosa has greatly increased by 20.]
My understanding has increased even though I have only seen the side profile of his.
I guess he really was a typical quiet, hard-working uncle.
"Let's go together and ask Mr. Joosa. If it's for your experiment, it's not like it'll be done right away, and you might need to adjust things several times. Do you really want to be running back and forth to the woodshop every time? There's a master craftsman right here at school, so if you ask him from the start, things will go much more smoothly, don't you think?"
After listening carefully, it was indeed true.
Last time during the Fourincess incident, when we were heading to the cafeteria through the hallway, the Teacher seemed like she really did have a strong connection of information inside the school.
Gyeongwon nodded his head as he looked at me.
"Prez, I think it's a good idea. Sure, we can hire the woodshop people if we pay them, but they're outsiders, so if something comes up suddenly, you can't exactly call on them right away."
On the other hand, Kim Joosa, the handyman at Nakseong High, is always on campus, so even if we notice something just five minutes before the competition, we can run straight to him and ask for a quick fix.
Of course, if there was one thing that bothered me, that is whether he was a member of the Void cult.
'…Well, anyway, the model we're trying to make is such a simple structure that there doesn't seem to be any room for messing around.'
"Alright, let's go ask him. Thank you for the good suggestion, Teacher. Now, let's go right away!"
"Let's go~"
With only three days left until the competition and time running out, we decided to use our CA period to go straight away.
* * *
"This way, over here."
The Teacher soon led us to the parking lot adjacent to the cafeteria.
Students didn't really have any reason to park there before, so we hadn't come by often, but sure enough, once we went inside, there was a workspace roughly divided off with metal sheets.
"Mister Joosa~ Are you there~?"
Teacher Jang Hwaeun called out to the carpenter, drawing out her voice.
Soon, an old man poked his head out from inside.
"..."
'Wow.'
Gray hair and a stylish mustache.
A macho middle-aged man wearing a white tank top.
His wrinkled face made him look older than my dad, but the muscles bulging from his arms outside the tank top… even when he was just standing still, the veins stood out impressively.
'Is that what they call real, compressed muscle?'
Pop-
[Your understanding of the character Kim Joosa has increased by 10.]
"Mister Joosa~ There you are~ How have you been~? Of course, I saw you this morning too~"
Teacher Jang Hwaeun greeted him cheerfully with a bright smile.
But the mustached carpenter just stood there silently, without saying a word.
"What were you working on? Oh my, goodness! Another chair like this..."
Teacher exclaimed dramatically upon seeing a chair with one broken leg.
"Oh dear~ Those kids really go around damaging school property however they please! And all that is paid for with taxes..."
Kim Joosa's wrinkles around his eyes made it hard to read his expression.
While Teacher Jang Hwaeun cheerfully joked and laughed, he just stood there silently and stiffly.
'…Are they really close?'
The club members narrowed their eyes and glanced at each other.
But the Teacher didn't care either way, she laughed heartily and soon brought us over to introduce us.
"Mister Joosa~! These are the kids I'm in charge of! Say hello, say hello!"
"Hello."
"Hello..."
We hesitantly greeted him, but the wrinkles around his eyes didn't even twitch at all.
"These are my club kids. I've been in charge of them since the start of the semester and taking care of them~"
While the Teacher laughed brightly haha, and chatted away animatedly, the carpenter simply stood silently by the doorway, leaning against the frame.
At last, after chatting away to her heart's content, Teacher Jang Hwaeun got to the point.
"Mister Joosa, so actually~ these kids are entering a competition soon! Some kind of exhibition? A showcase-type event, and they need to make something to present there!"
Then the Teacher turned to us and gestured eagerly.
"Come on, kids, show him quickly!"
"H-here it is…"
Soon, Gyeongwon hesitantly stepped forward and handed Mr. Joosa a sheet of paper.
A neatly drawn blueprint measured with a ruler and a doorframe embedded with magnets.
"Um, it's 70cm tall and 45cm wide… and the door inside is 50cm by 33cm..."
But the mustached Mr. Kim Joosa didn't even glance at the blueprint, he just remained silently leaning against the doorway, completely unmoving.
Gyeongwon awkwardly continued explaining, holding the blueprint up in midair with no one looking at it.
"S-so, if you could carve grooves at one-third intervals to insert magnets there… w-we're going to attach hinges here, you see? So the hinges will stay in place just with the magnetic force. Of course, we won't be using any nails or anything like that…..."
"..."
"Do you… understand...?"
Then, all of a sudden, Mr. Kim Joosa, who had been standing like a statue by the doorway, silently reached out, took the blueprint, and pulled out a pen tucked behind his ear. Without a word, he began sketching something quickly over the blueprint.
"..."
"..."
Then, Mr. Kim Joosa silently handed the blueprint back to Gyeongwon.
There was a wooden board drawn on it along with the numbers '3×30'.
Gyeongwon stared at the updated blueprint for a moment, then quickly nodded in understanding.
"…Ah, yes, that's right…! This is better than just screwing it together…..."
When I gave a curious glance, wondering what he meant, Gyeongwon whispered that he would explain everything later.
"…Really? Okay."
It seemed like a brilliant idea had just sparked in between the smart aspiring science high school student and master craftsman Kim Joosa over a blueprint! I couldn't believe they exchanged ideas in an instant.
"If you look here..."
"..."
For now, I decided to let Gyeongwon handle figuring it out.
Gyeongwon was busy looking at the blueprint and explaining the rest, and Mr. Joosa was just leaning back on the door with a blank expression.
"Then please take care of it~"
"I-I'll come by later to deliver the necessary materials like the magnets. Please, take care…."
"Goodbye..."
"Thank you..."
Then Mr. Joosa silently slipped back into the workshop once again, without saying a word.
We left the parking lot with awkward expressions.
"…Is he always that quiet?"
"Huh? What? Quiet?"
The Teacher made a surprised expression.
"No? He's not that quiet? Why do you think that?"
"…Why do I think that?"
Well, it's because from the moment we met until we parted, he didn't say a single word.
"It's just, he didn't change his expression at all… he just kept leaning against the doorway…"
"Ahh~ that's it~!"
With a hearty laugh Teacher Jang Hwaeun patted our backs.
"He was just messing with you! Now, let's head back to the clubroom! You said you still have materials to deliver, right?"
We went back up to the clubroom and bought several neodymium magnets from the Store window.
[Strong neodymium magnets (2 pieces) 50mm x 25mm x 5mm — 1 point]
The club members quickly brought the package from the hallway.
Each of them unwrapped the packaging and marveled as they handled the magnets.
"Wow, they're this strong and only 5,000 won each?"
"If you mishandle these, you might lose a finger or two…"
I also touched the magnets myself and couldn't help but marvel at their strength.
Since I had only ever seen and heard about this material news reports in the future, I had never actually seen it in person, so I was a bit skeptical. But after handling the magnets we would use for the project, I became completely convinced.
"Not just doors, these could probably lift an elephant too, right?"
"And the price is really cheap too…"
"Whoa, crazy. Hey, check this out."
Jinhee chuckled as she tossed two magnets into the air, making them snap together.
The magnets vibrated with a faint buzzing sound as they fused midair and spun powerfully back around.
"Hey, be careful. Each one has a magnetic force of 50 oersteds. If you're not careful, you could seriously lose a finger."
"Wow..."
The teacher also looked amazed as she touched the magnets.
"At first, when I heard your explanation, I thought, 'What the heck is a magnetic hinge…?' No matter what, I couldn't imagine a magnet holding up a door… but this really works."
"It was sold in the future because it worked."
I smiled softly as I packed up the magnets.
"Alright, let's head back to the parking lot. We need to deliver these magnets."
A moment later.
"You go..."
"No, you go..."
We pushed each other's shoulders nervously, afraid to face the quiet Mr. Joosa again.
* * *
When we entered, the handyman, Mr. Kim Joosa, was already working on the doorframe model.
We greeted him quietly and handed over the magnets. When we mentioned that the competition was Monday afternoon and asked when it might be finished, he didn't even look back and replied.
"Morning."
He gave a short reply.
"M-Monday morning, right?"
Nod.
"Th, thank you..."
"We'll bring something for you when we come Monday morning..…"
Still giving no response, Mr. Joosa continued sawing steadily, the veins in his muscular forearms standing out with every motion.
We gave a polite bow to the quiet, mustached man, then slowly backed away and slipped out of the workshop.