Arit, a young archi­tect, arrives at Madam Oni’s house for a ren­o­va­tion assign­ment. The house strikes her as unat­trac­tive, with its chaot­ic roofs and peel­ing pink walls. Greet­ed by Lucky, a teenage gate­keep­er, she learns Madam Oni is absent but pro­ceeds to mea­sure the prop­er­ty. The com­pound feels oppres­sive, with over­grown gar­dens and loom­ing fences. As a junior at her firm, Arit is tasked with the ground­work, her mind already ana­lyz­ing the space despite her lim­it­ed role. She reflects on her uncle’s teach­ings about the essence of a house—questions of beau­ty, func­tion, and client needs—as she steps inside.

The house’s inte­ri­or is cool and eeri­ly silent, with no vis­i­ble air con­di­tion­ing. Arit metic­u­lous­ly sketch­es the lay­out, but the design con­founds her; rooms and cor­ri­dors lack log­i­cal flow. The décor feels dat­ed, with fad­ed car­pets, stuc­co walls, and vin­tage cur­tains. The absence of per­son­al touches—no pho­tos or art—adds to the house’s unset­tling empti­ness. As she moves through the space, her mea­sure­ments become dis­joint­ed, mir­ror­ing the house’s resis­tance to coher­ence. The kitchen, with its stark mar­ble coun­ters, offers no respite, and the backyard’s wild growth con­trasts sharply with the ster­ile inte­ri­or.

Madam Oni sud­den­ly appears, demand­ing Arit’s opin­ion on the house. Arit admits her con­fu­sion, and Madam Oni’s tone shifts from irri­ta­tion to des­per­a­tion, ask­ing if the house can be “fixed.” Arit deflects, explain­ing her role is lim­it­ed to mea­sure­ments, not design solu­tions. Madam Oni’s weari­ness is pal­pa­ble, and Arit sens­es an unspo­ken his­to­ry haunt­ing the space. The chap­ter inter­spers­es Arit’s present task with frag­ment­ed glimpses of anoth­er woman’s trau­mat­ic past, hint­ing at a con­nec­tion between the house’s dys­func­tion and hid­den suf­fer­ing.

Arit’s reflec­tions return to her uncle’s lessons, empha­siz­ing that a house is more than phys­i­cal structure—it car­ries the weight of its inhab­i­tants’ lives. The chap­ter clos­es with unre­solved ten­sion, as Arit grap­ples with the house’s enig­mat­ic nature and Madam Oni’s unspo­ken anguish. The nar­ra­tive sug­gests that the hol­low feel­ing Arit sens­es stems from untold sto­ries, leav­ing the read­er to pon­der the deep­er mean­ing of home and the scars it may con­ceal.