Kang Sujeong thought over the broadcast contents, and, apparently finding it more absurd the more she considered it, said to Shin Haeryang,
“I knew you went around throwing punches at the bastards who picked fights. Honestly, I’d have to be blind not to. Some guy who was giving me shit suddenly doesn’t show his face for a month, then he’s getting implants, getting his teeth regenerated, whatever, flying in and out of Hawaii like it’s his backyard. I know there are people who won’t listen no matter how nicely you talk them around, but you never shared with me that you were going around breaking things.”
“······I told you it was handled well.”
Seeing the rare sight of Shin Haeryang flustered, it seemed he had not told Deputy Team Leader Kang Sujeong the specifics of how he had handled things.
“I think his name was Ichida? You said he voluntarily provided his laptop?”
“Voluntarily······ he left it at a café.”
“You said you persuaded Suzuki well with words. Was that persuasion getting rid of his car entirely?”
“······He’ll behave himself until he buys a new car.”
“And what about the helicopter? This is the first I’m hearing of it. Wasn’t that an accident caused by poor piloting?”
“It was necessary for the entirety of Engineer Team Na to fall into the sea.”
Every so often, Seo Jihyeok stamped his feet in frustration at the team leader’s curt, unfriendly answers. He tried to side with his team leader by wedging his huge body between the two of them, only for Kang Sujeong’s large hand to grab his face and push him back. (Urgh!) Kang Sujeong pondered Shin Haeryang’s answer for a few seconds, but then she scowled and asked again.
“What necessity would that be?”
It seemed Kang Sujeong could not, with her own head, come up with any reason why people needed to be rinsed in seawater. I, listening beside them, was the same. Was there really any need to smash a helicopter just to drop people into the ocean and fish them back out? Shin Haeryang answered simply.
“I needed to destroy the electronic devices they had.”
Kang Sujeong, looking at Shin Haeryang as he answered expressionlessly and without any particular guilt, let out a sigh and asked in a conflicted voice,
“Were the things you mentioned actions connected to the safety of Engineer Team Ga?”
“Yes.”
“······I’ll ask any further questions or reprimand you once we’re back in Korea.”
“Thank you.”
Shin Haeryang checked the time on Michael Roaker’s pad, then began accessing the video feed through the engineer program. Kang Sujeong, who had been watching what Shin Haeryang was doing, began attempting the same access on Shin Haeryang’s pad. Then, as if recalling past events, she fell into thought and occasionally snapped her fingers. Snap!
“No wonder! That Suzuki bastard was jumping up and down at me, making a scene and asking where I’d hidden his car, so I thought he’d gone insane and started yelling at him, asking why he was looking for his car from us.”
Aah! While Kang Sujeong let out a sigh-like groan, Seo Jihyeok, beside her, put the dumbbells down on the floor and stretched both arms straight up toward the ceiling as he said to Kang Sujeong,
“That bastard will never again pull that hand crap while saying he’s giving people rides at the airport.”
“The result was too extreme. ······I recommended psychiatric counseling to that Suzuki bastard because I thought he had a persecution complex.”
“If you didn’t know anything, Deputy Team Leader, then later, when someone asked, you’d be able to answer with certainty that it wasn’t something we did.”
“Are you kidding me?! I never imagined our team members would be going around committing crimes like this! I already thought even assault was going too far!”
“······Please continue not knowing from now on, too.”
Seo Jihyeok subtly turned his head away from Kang Sujeong’s glare. Baek Aeyeong took her eyes off the door and slowly approached. It seemed the people who had been in front of the door had already disappeared during the broadcast. Since no one was trying to enter Ophion, the taut tension eased, if only a little. Tumanako and Yugeum, who had been half-standing, were sprawled out on the floor before I knew it. Baek Aeyeong approached Kang Sujeong and said,
“Deputy Team Leader, you’re bad at lying, so it shows on your face. And part of it was to keep you from getting dragged into it if it became a problem later.”
“······How very grateful I am. Truly. Such incredible consideration, it brings tears to my eyes.”
Despite Kang Sujeong’s sarcastic words, Baek Aeyeong paid them no mind. Sitting on the floor beside the deputy team leader, Baek Aeyeong grinned foolishly, then failed to suppress one corner of her mouth from curling upward and said,
“I’m revealing this so the team leader doesn’t end up taking all the blame unfairly. I did Wei Qi’s boat. It was a bit of a pain handling it right before the typhoon.”
“······Why did you do that?”
Kang Sujeong asked, looking at Baek Aeyeong in a drained voice.
“I was minding my own business, and he picked the fight first.”
After hearing Baek Aeyeong’s confident answer, Kang Sujeong laughed hollowly and replied weakly,
“······Right. Good job. Really. Well done. What about you?”
Her tone did not sound like praise at all. When Kang Sujeong looked at Seo Jihyeok, Seo Jihyeok glanced once toward Lee Jihyeon and shook his head vigorously.
“I behaved myself and lived kindly.”
“Don’t bullshit me.”
“I’m such a timid person by nature that, among the three of us, I was the best behaved.”
“I believe you the least.”
“Waaah. That’s so mean.”
Seo Jihyeok pretended to wipe the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand. Kang Sujeong swept a hand broadly over her face. It seemed she was quite shocked to confirm the immoral conduct of her team members, who had gone far beyond rock bottom.
I had assumed that since Kang Sujeong used to be a boxer, she would have gone around throwing punches with them, so the fact that this was not the case was even more surprising. Then again, she had said she tried to resolve things through conversation as much as possible. When I told Kang Sujeong my thoughts as tactfully as I could, Kang Sujeong said, as if feeling wronged about her image,
“Boxing has rules, mouthpieces, and gloves. We don’t beat people with bare fists like our team leader.”
“Ah······. That’s true. You’re right! It isn’t easy to deliver enough impact to knock teeth out.”
Now that I thought about it, if you hit someone’s jaw or mouth with gloves while they were wearing a mouthpiece, their teeth would not come out that easily. Most of the time, only one or two came in broken or cracked.
A boxer once came to the dental clinic, and I had a brief conversation with him. He said that the reason they wore mouthpieces and gloves was not only to protect their own wrists and fingers, but also to protect both their opponent’s and their own faces. Swinging fists without wearing gloves was nothing more than a fight. I see. Early on, I had vaguely guessed that Shin Haeryang might be a criminal, but he was just······ an actual criminal.
Thinking about it, compared to molars, front teeth were no different from glass. On top of that, because the cheeks, which served as cushions, were much plumper than the lips, the front teeth were more vulnerable to external attacks than the molars. And from a dentist’s perspective, performing a root canal on a front tooth was easier. A front tooth had one root; a molar had three. Also, when there was a problem with the front teeth, it was immediately visible to others, so people had no choice but to come to the dentist quickly.
It was not directly connected to life and death, but the front teeth were a troublesome area to have damaged. Did Shin Haeryang know that and target them deliberately?
It seemed Kang Sujeong had confirmed that CCTV access was impossible on Shin Haeryang’s pad. On Michael’s pad, the CCTV feeds were visible in real time. Seeing that, Kang Sujeong immediately put Michael down as the approver and began drafting an approval request document regarding the Baekho-dong barrier wall. Shin Haeryang saw what Kang Sujeong was doing and gave a slight nod.
Approval Request: Closure of Baekho-dong
Reason for Approval Request: Right now, quickly
When she submitted the request, the document Kang Sujeong had sent for approval popped up on the Michael pad Shin Haeryang was holding. Shin Haeryang processed the approval immediately without even looking at it. On Michael’s pad, the CCTV showed people moving from Jungang-dong toward Baekho-dong. Several men were running toward Baekho-dong with guns in hand, carrying an enormous hostility.
Kang Sujeong waited with the [Close with barrier wall?] [Yes] [No] buttons pulled up. Watching Michael’s pad, I asked Shin Haeryang,
“In a disaster situation like this, don’t people usually try to exercise patience and endure, or make more rational judgments?”
No matter what, did it make sense to fall for that kind of provocation? Whether it was a laptop, a car, or a yacht. Even if they were holding guns, they should at least be able to consider the possibility that the place they were rushing into was a trap. Shin Haeryang looked at several men who had been sprinting from Cheongnyong-dong and were now rapidly passing through Jungang-dong, and said,
“It seems there was a reward for living diligently.”
The CCTV footage followed them. Then, the moment the men passed through the corridor connecting Jungang-dong to Baekho-dong, Kang Sujeong let out deep sighs and pressed the [Yes] button.
As the barrier wall began descending at high speed, the men on the CCTV panicked and started turning back. But the barrier wall closed faster. Watching the CCTV, I grew curious about the situation at the Jujak-dong research center and asked Shin Haeryang,
“Can you also check the situation in Jujak-dong through CCTV?”
“We can see everything except the research center.”
“Why can’t you see the research center?”
“It seems there were several discussions about privacy violations and overstepping authority. Only the heads of the research center can view the CCTV there.”
Kang Sujeong looked at the pad her team leader had stolen and asked the thief,
“Why did you need CCTV authority at night?”
“······.”
Shin Haeryang, who had spoken without hesitation until now, closed his mouth like a clam and fell silent.
“It’s all right. You can say it.”
When Baek Aeyeong answered with her brows furrowed, Shin Haeryang looked at Baek Aeyeong once, then slowly said to Kang Sujeong,
“Some bastard pulled Aeyeong’s hair, and apparently there was a dispute over it. They said it happened below the CCTV angle.”
Kang Sujeong asked Baek Aeyeong gently. It was completely different from the way she spoke to Shin Haeryang and Seo Jihyeok.
“You weren’t asleep at night?”
“······I couldn’t sleep, so I was on my way to look at the night sea.”
“Is your head all right? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“My hair’s fine, but I beat the shit out of him.”
A smile formed around Kang Sujeong’s mouth, and she patted Baek Aeyeong’s back with her hand, as if proud of her, and said, “Good job.” When Kang Sujeong looked at Shin Haeryang, Shin Haeryang slowly answered,
“When I checked in order to delete the footage, the engineering team leader authority within the undersea base had almost all disappeared. There hadn’t been any separate notice either.”
“So as soon as you met the chief engineer, you swiped his pad.”
“To begin with, that white supremacist isn’t someone who would be walking around at that hour. And······.”
“And?”
“······When I greeted him, he became strangely tense and started watching me carefully.”