The snow crunches underneath my boots as I walk along the sidewalk, the cold wind blowing some of the snowdrift into my face and making me pull my scarf up and my knit cap down to cover more of my face. Winter really has been making its presence felt these last few days, and I can't wait to get back inside, but right now, I have somewhere to be. It's Saturday evening, and in recent weeks, to me that means dropping by Kuru's place and cleaning up for him. I've been friends with Kuru for a few years now, and he's always been a programmer ever since I've met him, but recently, he's been working heavily on some AI program project he's been particularly proud of. Because of that, he's been putting a lot of time into it, which means that there's not a lot of time left over to keep his apartment in shape. While I don't really understand what this AI thing he's working on is all about, the enthusiasm he shows whenever he talks to me about it is kinda infectious, and I have a fair bit of free time, so why not spend my Saturday evenings at a friend's place and help him out at the same time?

Eventually, I arrive at the apartment complex that Kuru lives in, and at this point, the sun has completely disappeared, making way for night. The wind blowing the snow past the streetlights makes for a nice bit of wintery atmosphere that I genuinely enjoy, though I will definitely be enjoying it a lot more once I'm inside, and so I quickly make my way to the entrance and step in. Heading up the stairs to his apartment, I dig the spare key he gave me out of my jacket pocket, then unlock the door and enter the small antechamber of the apartment, where I take off my winter jacket, boots, hat and scarf before slipping into the house shoes I left here for my weekly cleanup visits.

Taking a quick look into the small kitchenette, I notice that apart from the coffeemaker, nothing much seems to have been used, which does seem a bit worrying. Is he eating enough? Maybe it's time to bring up his overworking habits... so far, I've just kind of silently accepted it, hoping that my support in cleaning his place up will take some of the work off his shoulders and let him take a bit more of a rest, but it seems he's just taken that time and put it into more work on his AI program. That wasn't what I had intended, and maybe I have to make that a bit more clear to him.

Stepping inside the combination office and bedroom that makes up the main room of the apartment, I knock on the door frame to make my presence felt. "Hey, Kuru, how's it going?" I ask in the direction of the desk where he still sits despite it being the evening, and on a Saturday to boot. All that comes back from Kuru is a vaguely acknowledging grunt, which at this point I'm used to. When he's in the zone, he's not much of a talker, and so I get to work. Looking around, the room isn't as messy as it could be, but definitely not as well kept as it could be. I start by cleaning up the empty fast food containers—suppose that answers my question why the kitchen hasn't been used—and generally get the floor into a more presentable state, picking up old discarded clothes and such and putting them where they belong. Then, I grab the duster I left here for me to use and give the entire room a good dusting, because while there hasn't been a lot of buildup since I last cleaned here last week, I might as well do things right. And finally, I make the bed, which is simple enough, as it hasn't been disturbed all that much since last week. Again, that's pretty worrying—what did he do every night, just drag himself from his office chair and fall on the bed?

My thoughts are then suddenly interrupted by the now familiar sound of Kuru's fist slamming onto his desk. Something must have frustrated him again, and I'm sure I'm going to hear about it in a few seconds. Sure enough, without me saying a single thing, he immediately volunteers the information. "Ugh, why the fuck isn't the AI working again... fucking service providers. People always get mad at me for this." he sighs in frustration as he spins his office chair around to face me. "I can't even do anything about this. The provider has to get off his ass and fix this, and I just get to wait."

Now that I'm done cleaning up, I take a seat on the bed and get my first good look at Kuru's face today. I'm pretty sure the bags under his eyes have gotten worse, and his eyes themselves look tired, like they're just about to fall shut and all that's keeping them open is willpower and caffeine. Offering up a sympathetic smile, I reply "Well, I suppose that means that you can take a break now, right?"

But Kuru just shakes his head. "I still need to talk to the web devs, and there's a couple features I still could be adding... there's still so much to do." he says, waving his hand dismissively.

I'm not giving up now, though. I have an opportunity to pressure him a bit on his overworking, and I need to take advantage of it. "Never mind the web devs. Kuru, when did you last eat?" I asked, cutting straight to one of the core issues.

"Um, the last time I ate? Yesterday, maybe? It's fine... I just need to add this one feature and then I'll be done for today, I promise. Then... then I can take a break, OK?" Kuru answers, exhaustion clearly audible in his voice.

I know Kuru. That one feature is going to be several hours worth of work. I can't let him get that past me—I need to cut this off right now. "No. You need a break, in fact, you need a long rest. And you need it right now. You need a square, full meal, too. C'mon, Kuru, you know that. Just..." I pause for a moment. This is the moment to make my move. Standing up from the bed, I spread my arms wide. "...just come here."

He looks away, clearly a bit flustered, unsure of what to do now. I can tell I've struck a nerve a bit, and he starts stammering a bit. "But... but... the users..." he begins before I interrupt him.

"C'mon, Kuru. No more buts.