“The Rotten Orange”

Johnny
3 min readMar 4, 2021

My name is Shia Tshyu, when I woke up this morning, I found an orange is getting bad, the back side of it is covered by mold. I remember it was a orange being lively orange color, but now as it breathes as I am breathing in this tinny room. Time passes, and it dies. I carefully hold it up and trying to throw it in the food trash can, oh yeah, by the way, it is extremely strict that trash disposal must be done correctly in Seoul. Every kind of waste has its can, bag, and sticky tag. Right, right, even garbages have each of their places to go afterwards, I can hardly find my belongs in this city full of cars and roads. While I was transferring the orange, the dust of it’s suddenly goes into the air. This is the first I witness a life gets rotten, being digested by fungus and microorganism. It soothes me actually, because at least I am not the only living being in this space. After taking care of the orange I then saw the banana peel on an another table. I sighed, for time that abandoned me for long. I open the window, bright sun gets reflected by a glassy building opposite, projecting the lights into my room. I smiled, and getting ready to leave the house…

「一個爛橘子」

我叫夏哲宇,今天早上醒來的時候,發現桌子上的一個橘子已經軟塌塌了,背面還蓋著一層灰白色的霉菌。原本還橙黃橙黃的橘子,和我一起在這狹小空間裡一呼一吸,沒想到也發霉了。我小心翼翼地把橘子端起來打斷裝進食物垃圾袋裡,對了,忘了說, 首爾市的垃圾分類極其嚴格,每一種垃圾都有專屬的桶,袋,貼紙標籤。對啊,連垃圾都有各自的歸屬,而我卻在這車水馬龍的世界找不到定義。一碰手,就扇起一層細細的粉末,那是橘子被微菌分解的樣子,這是我第一次見到這樣的情形,原來這個房子裡不知不覺多了這麼多生命,想起來竟沒有那麼孤單了呢。收拾好橘子我又瞥見角落乾癟的香蕉皮,看來我應該是被時光拋棄很久了。雖然家裡沒有時鐘,但是一切的一切都在告訴我,時間流逝的迅速。我拉開窗簾,陽光被隔壁大樓蹭亮的玻璃外牆反射到屋子裡,我竟也笑出聲來。稍作收拾,我準備出門……

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Johnny

I am writing stories for Shia Tshyu, who moved to Seoul...