Kang Sujeong spoke to me as she walked, loosening up her wrists, shoulders, and forearms.
“This is partly me worrying for nothing. Judging from the last thing you broadcast, if you shared that information out of a desire to help others without asking anything in return, then as the deputy team leader of Engineer Team A, I’m grateful beyond words. Making it out alive will be the way we repay your intentions and actions, Doctor.”
Kang Sujeong continued with a sigh.
“It feels strange for me to say this when I live here, but in this underwater base, there are more than a few bastards who live like complete trash. I don’t know how people who don’t understand repaying sacrifice will judge your attitude. You should be worried about the ones who’ll block your path, asking what your intentions were in sharing that information or demanding you hand over more.”
Kang Sujeong spent a long time loosening her fingers and wrists, trailing off at the end. I answered her slowly.
“······Then there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Even if they shook me down, it wasn’t as if anything more would come out. For an instant, a pitying look crossed Kang Sujeong’s face, as though she were looking at someone naive. Soon, expressionless again, she murmured.
“I’ve often seen good people offer kindness and goodwill, only to get worn out and give up in the end. I hope that doesn’t happen to you, Doctor.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Seo Jihyeok, who had been walking ahead, turned his wrist a few times while holding the scissors. He didn’t seem very pleased about having kitchen scissors in his hand. As Kang Sujeong began looking at her tablet while walking, Seo Jihyeok, passing by Theater 2, suddenly asked us behind him.
“Why sharks?”
“What?”
“Pardon?”
“Sharks. Sharks. Doctor, did you call them the Infinite Church in your broadcast? You said they worship sharks. I mean, they are the nastiest-looking things in the sea, but if it were me, I’d use a cool-looking ray or the biggest creature, a blue whale, as the symbol. Why did they have to choose sharks? Do Greenland sharks taste especially good?”
That was what he’d been most curious about after hearing the broadcast? The reason I’d obtained even a little information about sharks was because of things I’d picked up professionally, not because I was interested in marine life. How would I have known there was a great white shark named Deep Blue? To begin with, I hadn’t even known people gave sharks names like pets.
All I’d ever done was come across news about the ocean through despair-inducing newspaper articles once in a while while working. I’d only read things like how fishery resources had fallen to less than one-twentieth of what they had been in 2000, how most coral reefs were dead and the oceans were empty, or how, despite commercial fishing bans being implemented worldwide, there were still fishing boats engaged in illegal fishing. I explained to Seo Jihyeok only the things I had happened to learn about sharks.
“There are no dental clinics in the world of sharks. No dentists, either. There’s probably nothing more foolish than opening a dental practice exclusively for sharks. They don’t get cavities. Their teeth are coated with fluorine compounds from the start. So no matter what they eat, even if they never brush their teeth their entire lives, they don’t get cavities. I’ve heard that even if a tooth falls out, it grows back within two or three days. They have seven rows of teeth, and though I haven’t asked, I doubt they have any intention of getting orthodontic work done either.”
If people’s teeth grew like sharks’, every dentist would become a beggar. Seo Jihyeok, who had apparently visited a dentist not long ago, looked shocked and said,
“They don’t get cavities even if they don’t brush? I’m suddenly really jealous of sharks.”
At Seo Jihyeok’s words, which were dripping with sincerity, Kang Sujeong narrowed her eyes into triangles as if he were disgusting and said,
“That’s what you’re jealous of?”
“Deputy Team Leader. I get cavities once in a while even though I brush properly! If I got them because I didn’t brush, at least it wouldn’t feel unfair. Imagine I kissed someone. What if I brushed my teeth until they wore down and gargled three times, but still gave the other person cavity bacteria?”
“I don’t think you need to imagine something that has neither possibility nor use.”
When Kang Sujeong cut him off, Seo Jihyeok shook his head and said,
“Ha. Sometimes I swear you’re the cruelest person on our team.”
“······Since tens of millions of germs and bacteria get transferred when you kiss anyway, you don’t need to think only cavity bacteria will be transferred.”
That was one of the reasons the exchange of saliva absolutely had to be based on mutual consent. At my words, Seo Jihyeok stared at me in horror, then soon looked as if he were about to vomit.
I recalled Seo Jihyeok’s room, which had seemed to contain almost nothing. It appeared he paid a great deal of attention to hygiene. Kang Sujeong also fell into thought while holding her tablet. To bring the two of them back to reality, I explained briefly.
“Don’t worry. If your lifestyle habits are good and your immune system is strong, there won’t be any problem.”
Judging by Seo Jihyeok’s expression, it didn’t seem to comfort him much.
“That sounds to me like you’re saying if your lifestyle habits are bad and your immune system is a mess, problems will happen one way or another.”
“If you reach that state, cavities will be a secondary issue, so don’t worry about it.”
Perhaps my answer unexpectedly convinced Seo Jihyeok, because after thinking for a few seconds, he nodded and asked another question.
“What else is there about sharks?”
He had good concentration. I had already forgotten what we were talking about. Kang Sujeong looked at Seo Jihyeok and asked,
“What do you know?”
“Uh. Sharks that attack people are extremely rare. And even those are picky eaters, so in the case of humans, they only taste the arms and legs. When they take a bite and spit it out, saying they’re just sampling, it just leaves the person full of holes.”
Seo Jihyeok scratched his jaw with his fingertips and continued.
“And things like, even if they look small underwater, they feel incredibly huge, or they approach without a sound, or if you actually run into one, you should stop and stay still without moving. If you urinate or defecate, throw up, or start bleeding, the shark might take interest, so you have to do it as far away from your body as possible. You also shouldn’t throw out food waste. And you shouldn’t dive at night.”
The more Seo Jihyeok folded his fingers while reciting what he knew, the more my side and stomach suddenly began to feel unbelievably itchy. When I was bitten by a shark, I couldn’t do anything. Rubbing my side, which had gone stiff with tension, I asked the two of them,
“Is there any effective way to avoid a shark attack, or any way to fight back if you’re bitten?”
Unexpectedly, Seo Jihyeok did not laugh at my question. Rather, he thought seriously and answered.
“Attack its eyes or its nose, something like that? I feel like you could punch or kick it too, but I’ve never fought a shark myself.”
Kang Sujeong, who had laughed at Seo Jihyeok’s words as if they were absurd, said,
“Then how is that any different from what you usually do?”
“Sharks are better than people. Fish don’t pick fights with me.”
It was more surprising that someone this tall and muscular had people picking fights with him. Just what kind of place was this underwater base?
“Deputy Team Leader, if you had to choose between fighting a shark or a lunatic, you’d choose the lunatic too.”
“······True. I think I’d feel guilty if I hit a shark.”
Apparently, she didn’t feel guilty hitting people. Listening to these people talk made me feel as if my own sense of morality were warping. Kang Sujeong denied all of Seo Jihyeok’s answers and explained to me.
“Doctor. First of all, attacking a shark’s nose is complete bullshit.”
At Kang Sujeong’s statement, Seo Jihyeok cried out as if wronged.
“That’s really what the safety rules say!”
“Shut up! ······Unless someone is used to throwing punches, do you think their fist will go straight for a shark’s nose or eyes? There’s something scientists racked their brains to create called shark repellent. Buy a can of shark repellent and spray it in an emergency, or there are electric shark-repelling devices. If you put one on your ankle and dive with it, sharks mistake humans for large whales and run away. Don’t listen to that gorilla’s nonsense. I recommend using the benefits of civilization.”
So things like that had been made to repel sharks. Then again, when there were repellents for mosquitoes and cockroaches, it would be stranger if there weren’t shark repellents. Seo Jihyeok said with a displeased expression,
“Wouldn’t it be better to practice a straight punch or a proper fist thrust than buy something like that?”
“Ah······ A proper fist thrust to catch sharks? Please. Stop saying weird things. Do you think the Doctor is like you or Team Leader Shin? Show some consideration for ordinary people. If he listens to you, what do you think the Doctor will think of our team?”
I already think you’re strange enough. But I was a working adult equipped with social skills, so I did not answer that way.
“I’ve heard both of your answers well. I’ll make an effort not to encounter any sharks.”
Forever, never again, absolutely not. While I cursed in my heart at the shark from the past that had mangled my lower abdomen, Seo Jihyeok asked Deputy Team Leader Kang with a furrowed brow,
“Then what do you know about sharks, Deputy Team Leader?”
“······They say sharks have to swim until they die. If they stop moving even for a moment, they sink just like that. I heard they can only barely breathe if they keep swimming without rest. So they can only sleep briefly or stop for just a short while to rest. I heard it’s impossible for them to fall deeply asleep. They spend their whole lives like that, with their mouths open and insomnia installed by default. Then, the moment they stop moving, they sink into the seawater and die.”
Kang Sujeong muttered halfheartedly while diligently checking her tablet. What a depressing piece of information.
“······Where on earth did you hear something like that?”
When Seo Jihyeok and I looked at Kang Sujeong, she shrugged and said,
“At a sleep course for modern people suffering from insomnia.”
“Did it work?”
“It worked for me. You don’t look at electronic devices before bed, you put your mind at ease, and you don’t dwell on embarrassing things that happened in the past.”
You manage to do the three hardest things before bed. I fail every single day.
“Was it a course held at the underwater base?”
“Yes. It was a course by Pamela Brown, and it was better than I expected. She also does sleep-related psychological counseling, and they say she’s pretty good. The people taking the course bought pajamas and pillows together, and we heard stories like this about creatures with sleep problems.”
Her name was similar to Elliott Brown, who had conducted my psychological counseling.
“Does she know Elliott Brown?”
“They’re identical twins. I don’t know if they don’t get along or if they just don’t want to go around looking exactly the same. Elliott has long blond hair, while Pamela dyed her hair and eyebrows brown and tanned her skin dark.”
As I listened to Kang Sujeong’s explanation, a person’s face flashed through my mind like lightning. I hadn’t recognized who it was then, but after hearing the explanation, I understood. It was the cultist who had pretended not to see us at the exhibition hall.