Tumanako and I helped Sumire and John, who had fallen, back to their feet. Lee Ji-hyeon, who had been walking behind us, saw this and let out a sigh, speaking slowly.
“I thought I’d met plenty of strange people in my life, but the world truly is vast. ......Amen.”
Seeing Lee Ji-hyeon make the sign of the cross, Tumanako chuckled lightly from beside her. Seo Ji-hyeok turned the hand holding the dumbbell behind his back and approached Lee Ji-hyeon, asking.
“Tell me about the strange people you’ve met.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m curious. ......Focus especially on what kind of damage you suffered.”
Baek Ae-yeong approached my side, briefly checked the two people’s wrists, then fell back to the very rear of the group. Baek Ae-yeong probably thought the two of them fighting like that was one of their attempts to untie the ropes bound to their wrists.
I didn’t know how Sin Hae-ryang had tied their wrists with parachute cords, but even though the two struggled as if trying to devour each other, it didn’t come loose at all. John, who even had his mouth bound, huffed and puffed, barely catching his breath through his nose as he walked with Sumire on his back. If he was going to breathe properly, they probably needed to untie his mouth at least.
The moment I thought that, John suddenly tilted his head back. He struck Sumire’s forehead with the back of his head with all his might, making a loud thud. It was the kind of sound made when accidentally dropping a watermelon the size of a human head on the floor.
Perhaps shocked by his own action, John couldn’t walk properly and staggered greatly. I, who had been walking beside him, was horrified at this. ......Did he just get a concussion?
The two of them, carrier and carried, fell over again with a thud, side by side. Lee Ji-hyeon, who had been watching this scene absentmindedly, spoke to Seo Ji-hyeok beside her.
“......Now that I think about it, compared to the bastards here, the ones back in Korea were nothing but a drop of blood on a bird’s foot.”
Seo Ji-hyeok didn’t pay any attention to the two fallen people flailing their arms and legs like crabs. He simply looked at Lee Ji-hyeon and answered softly.
“Even a drop of blood on a bird’s foot is still blood that was spilled.”
I quickly approached and first checked whether the two were conscious. When I shook their shoulders and called their names, both of them poured out curses along with groans.
......Thankfully, they’re conscious. I tried to check for external injuries, but I couldn’t see because they wouldn’t cooperate. I tried to check for concussion symptoms, like whether there were external injuries or if their pupils were shaking—but pupils? Both of them were wildly shaking their heads and limbs to hit each other.
“Stay still. Please!”
When the group, which had been walking fine, stopped again, Sin Hae-ryang at the front and Baek Ae-yeong at the rear approached as if flying. Then, seeing the two fallen people, Sin Hae-ryang spoke to Baek Ae-yeong, who was holding a gun.
“If they fall over again, shoot them both.”
“Yes.”
And without even giving me a chance to interject, he returned to the very front. Sin Hae-ryang’s expression didn’t look much different from before, but it somehow didn’t seem like empty words. Gang Su-jeong looked at the two as if fed up, then left. Baek Ae-yeong looked down at the two collapsed on the floor and said.
“Hey. Even two bullets are a waste, so hold your breath and die for me.”
Humans can’t die by holding their breath. At that impossible request, Tumanako looked at Baek Ae-yeong with the same gaze she had been using on the people on the floor, as if dumbfounded. When Baek Ae-yeong’s eyes met Tumanako’s, she corrected herself.
“Was I acting too much like a miser? I should be a bit more generous, shouldn’t I?”
Tumanako spoke to Baek Ae-yeong like a sigh.
“I’ll give you ten dollars the moment we get out of here.”
Baek Ae-yeong stood still in her spot and watched over the two. So this had become the rear now. Having tried to grab and lift two adults constantly venting their irritation, I realized this wasn’t an easy task either. Seeing how much John hated carrying Sumire on his back, I thought it might be better if I carried Sumire myself instead.
Sumire, whose nose had started bleeding profusely, suddenly sniffled on John’s back and began to cry pitifully.
“Why do I have to suffer like this! What on earth did I do wrong! It’s too much! You’re not even human! Why are you doing this to me!”
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph! Mmph! Mmmmmph!”
John also started trying to speak with his mouth gagged upon hearing Sumire’s words. Baek Ae-yeong glanced at the line of people walking ahead and spoke quietly to the two.
“Be quiet. Before I get annoyed and knock you both down and shoot you.”
At her especially annoyed tone and bizarre forcefulness, the two immediately fell silent. I whispered to Baek Ae-yeong from nearby and asked.
“Are you really going to shoot them?”
“Do you think I’d shoot them as a joke?”
......No. I don’t know about Seo Ji-hyeok, but Baek Ae-yeong and Sin Hae-ryang didn’t seem like the type to joke about such things. If I were seeing Baek Ae-yeong for the first time, I would have thought she was joking or trying to scare them.
“No.”
Baek Ae-yeong looked at the pseudo-believer walking and the sociopathic engineer on his back, then hesitated before speaking to me.
“Human nature doesn’t change. Even if you rinse them in prison for several years and pull them out, trash is just trash. I don’t think people like that can change. Anyway, she’ll live her whole life playing the victim, won’t she? She’ll never understand what she’s done. Don’t pity them. They easily take advantage of that kind of heart.”
“It’s not like I’m suggesting we take them because I like them.”
I was thinking rationally that we had to take them, but in my heart, I was already imagining throwing them to the sharks several times over. And I felt guilty wondering if I was imagining something too cruel. Baek Ae-yeong lowered her gun barrel and said.
“I know you’re moral and polite. But those crazy bastards use that all too well despite having none of it themselves. ......If the broadcast was right, everyone we’ll meet from now on will be like that too.”
The woman I met in the elevator came to mind. That chilling smile. She hadn’t hesitated at all to kill people. It had been as if a localized hurricane or tornado had swept through the inside of the elevator. Even now, it didn’t feel real. It wasn’t easy to accept that people devoid of conscience or shame existed in this world. It was even harder because it was something I took for granted.
I examine whether my words and actions go against my conscience. And I worry about whether the other party will be hurt when I say such things. Isn’t it natural to live life thinking this way? Of course, when things are hard and tiring, that self-check system breaks down a bit. However, conscience has always been my reliable compass. It keeps me from losing my way anywhere, and it helps me sleep with my legs stretched out.
There had occasionally been people I met by chance who completely lacked the filter of conscience. But there weren’t many such people. Were all those kinds of people specially gathered here?
Baek Ae-yeong spoke while looking at the back of Sumire’s head in a cold voice.
“Soon she’ll say it hurts and it’s hard, that she’s reflected on her actions while shedding tears, that she was wrong. The moment she says that, I’ll shoot her.”
“Isn’t it possible they really have changed?”
“I’ve never seen people like that actually reflect. Who knows. Maybe they’ll reflect a little when they’re seeing their life flash before their eyes just before death.”
At Baek Ae-yeong’s words, Benjamin suddenly came to mind. No, what on earth was he thinking when he covered for me? No matter how much I thought about it, he had been a cunning, evil bastard who didn’t know the meaning of social order. Looking at his actions and words, it didn’t seem like he even liked me. What on earth had gotten into him. Did he want to do a good deed before dying? Or had he been hit in the head and I missed it?
That bastard probably didn’t agonize over such things or have any anguish. Living badly a hundred times and doing one good deed doesn’t change one’s evaluation. But knowing that I was the only one who remembered what happened back then, my insides seemed to twist.
When I thought of Kevin Roy, whom I’d met at the research center, that feeling subsided at least a little. ......That guy had been covered in blood and walking around with an axe, but turns out he was pretty decent. Is it right to judge someone you haven’t even known for thirty minutes based on rumors or appearances and leave them to die?
I also understand the engineering team members’ judgment. They must have been through such things many times already.
Every time I try to judge something, I’m scared, hesitant, and wavering—I don’t know if this is something I’m good at. ......It was easier when I was examining teeth and worrying. You only had to look inside the mouth.
Baek Ae-yeong seemed to subtly want me to suggest leaving those two behind, or disposing of them under the guise of a mistake. ......Not yet.
Seeing the two somehow walking while hitting each other, I quickly walked over to Yu Geum-i.
Yu Geum-i had her hand on Henry’s shoulder with an exhausted expression, and when she saw me approaching, she asked.
“What about the people in the back?”
“They’re coming along well enough.”
Gang Su-jeong, who was beside her, let out a hollow laugh at my words. Henry asked me as if he had been waiting.
“What is that lady keeps saying?”
Upon hearing that question, Yu Geum-i spoke to me as if confessing.
“Mu Hyeon said he would come and explain.”
Henry didn’t have a translator in his ear. When I or Yu Geum-i explained to Henry, we used English. When talking among ourselves, we mixed English and Korean. Because of that, he couldn’t seem to understand what Sumire, who was speaking Japanese, was saying at all.
What should I say? That she tormented others for her own convenience and killed several people, and put countless people’s lives in danger? How do you explain that to a kid? After thinking briefly, I said.
“She says she wants to go home. That she misses her mom and dad.”
“Why is an adult throwing a tantrum like that? She’s not even a one-year-old.”
I’m at a loss for words. Sometimes when meeting kids, there are times when I can’t find the right thing to say.
“Right. Adults are often worse than children. Adults should set an example.”
Henry was wearing a thin short-sleeved shirt, and his body trembled. Was he cold? As I brushed Henry’s forearm, I realized we had just entered Cheongnyong-dong and furrowed my brow. The temperature was much lower than I thought.
“It’s colder than I thought?”
Sin Hae-ryang and Gang Su-jeong, who heard me, didn’t seem to feel the cold. Yu Geum-i, who was beside me, shivered slightly and said.
“That’s right. It’s so cold.”