Jihyo sighed. She paused for a while before replying.

“The world in my time, isn’t the same as the world now,” she said. “It’s just…. Never mind, you won’t understand anyway.”

Gary frowned. He wanted to press her for answers, but he noticed that it wasn’t just frustration in her voice. There was hurt, and fear. So he kept quiet.

“I have to stay here for a few days, until my transporter is fixed,” she told him, after getting back to reality. Gary offered her the bed, and she shamelessly accepted it.

For the next few days, Jihyo tried to fix her transporter, but to no avail. She was getting increasingly worried and frustrated. She finally decides to send a message back home for help, but she knows that given the distance from her era, it would take several weeks for them to get back to her.

You would think that she had her fair share of experience travelling across time, and she would adapt easily to any place, but not really. She doesn’t usually stay in an era for long, and even if she does, she lives in her transporter. Here, in the 15th century, there was nothing that she knows how to do- she couldn’t even set up a fire! She isn’t even used to the food here, nor the cold showers. Even Gary’s bed is too hard for her. Even though she did nothing to help Gary for repaying his kindness, he was patient with her, despite her constant complains.

“There is nothing for me to do here,” she grumbled again, for probably the hundredth time in the day. Gary good-naturedly tells her to try doing some housework to pass time, but she flatly refuses. And then she tells of story about how in her time, they have special robots that help them clean up the place.

But of course, boredom eventually gets the better of her, and she starts to clean up his shelves stacked with some bowls and other utensils. She notes how primitive it was to be still using bowls, because in her time, no one eats from bowls anymore. They just inject these substances into their body as nutrients, because they have no time to eat when everyone is rushing to save the world. 

She started to wonder how the make these bowls. She had seen a few before, in other eras, but she had never actually used one. She wondered why it had to be round shaped.

And then, the bowl in her hands slipped off, and shattered onto the ground.

“Oh!” she yelps, in shock. “Why do they use something so easily broken!” she thinks to herself, and tries to pick up the broken pieces. But she cut herself with a sharp edge.

Gary, hearing her yelp, came rushing in. The first thing he noticed was his broken bowl.

“Yah!!” he almost yelled in anger. Ceramics in his time were expensive. It took very long to mould the clay into shape, and even longer for it to dry in the furnace before it turns into usable ceramic. It may be easily broken, but it was the only thing they had.

But he soon noticed the cut on her hand, and his anger quickly dissipated.

“Are you okay?!” he asked, his voice full of concern as he took out his handkerchief to help her clean her wound.

“Don’t touch me!” she yelped, pushing away his muddy hands. Gary was stunned, but he managed to mumble an apology. He dusted off the dirt on his hands and passed her the handkerchief and some ointment gingerly, fearful of angering her again. He wasn’t angry at her outburst. He guessed he understood her. A young lady, stuck hundreds of years away from her home and her family- of course she would be easily frustrated.

Jihyo, on the other hand, was shocked that Gary didn’t lose his temper at her. She felt like she behaved rudely, even by her own standards. She imposed on him for several days, and he looked after her well, and yet, she still complains at his filthiness.