Watching the backs of the two people heading toward the escape pod port, I shouted.
“Can’t we all go in together?”
Just thinking about those two entering the Cheongnyong-dong escape pod port while I waited outside made my head throb. Sin Haeryang opposed my proposal like a blade.
“There may be armed personnel waiting inside. It’s safer for you to wait here while we go check.”
He seemed to be predicting that some of the Engineer Lathim people might be waiting inside to shoot whoever entered. Sin Haeryang’s prediction had been somewhat correct, as something like that had actually happened before. I didn’t know about Hong Tao, but Zixuan had once attacked Seo Jihyeok.
“So doesn’t that mean we should go in together?”
Only with many people could we confront a small number of armed individuals. At my answer, Sin Haeryang faltered, then shook his head and spoke.
“The fewer people directly exposed to danger, the safer it is.”
“Then I’d like you to at least change the members going in together. Ms. Ayeong, Haeryang-ssi, and Jihyeok-ssi all going in at once. Or everyone here going together.”
Sin Haeryang’s eyebrows furrowed, as if he couldn’t understand what I was saying. Seo Jihyeok, who had been listening silently, asked me.
“You don’t like me and the team leader going together?”
“Yes. To be exact, it just shouldn’t be the two of you entering the escape pod port.”
Even if I changed the team to Baek Ayeong and Sin Haeryang, what if one of them got shot? Gang Sujeong asked me, seeming bewildered.
“What problem arises if two people go?”
“I’m worried they might get shot.”
Hearing my words, Sin Haeryang immediately answered.
“Does sending more people mean they get shot less? The casualties will be greater.”
“That might be true. But I think it would still be better than Seo Jihyeok-ssi and Sin Haeryang-ssi going together like this.”
Sin Haeryang didn’t try to persuade me more than three times. He seemed to have decided to ignore my stubborn, unreasonable opinion. I grabbed the shoulder of Sin Haeryang, who was trying to turn around. He did stop, but since he was staring at my hand on his shoulder, I took the hint and pulled back.
Am I being too sensitive?
Maybe I am.
But what if the same thing keeps happening again?
What if I keep my mouth shut and Seo Jihyeok gets his leg injured again this time?
Seo Jihyeok spoke, a barbell tucked under his arm.
“Well. It’s not exactly a combination I’m fond of either. I have an allergic reaction called emotional anxiety whenever XY chromosomes exist around me. Especially the higher their social status is than mine, the worse the symptoms get. A male superior within a three-meter radius? All I can think about is removing the causative agent.”
“Try it.”
Sin Haeryang said, looking at Seo Jihyeok.
He was expressionless as usual, but I felt like he was cursing him out with his gaze alone.
Seo Jihyeok’s allergy symptoms are the same as mine?
I mainly use avoidance therapy, though.
But wait, is it really okay to say that so bluntly with his superior standing right next to him?
Is it a lack of formality, or are they that close?
Baek Ayeong looked at the two men with a pathetic expression, then looked at me with the same expression and spoke.
“If all three of us go into the escape pod port, there’s no one among the nine remaining here who can fight.”
At Baek Ayeong’s words, Tumanako flared up and shouted.
“Who can’t fight?! I fight super well. Yu Geumi! You say something too!”
If only Tumanako hadn’t been shivering from the cold and wiping his streaming nose with the back of his hand, those words might have gained even a little credibility. Startled by Tumanako’s voice calling her, Yu Geumi said,
“Researchers should know their place. I only handle drug-addled subjects under twenty centimeters.”
Gang Sujeong swung a kettlebell with a whoosh and came to a simple conclusion.
“Ah. If two go, one gets shot? Then three people can go and come back quickly! Teacher. Who do you think is going to get shot?”
“Jihyeok-ssi.”
“Hey. Jihyeok. You hear that? Be twice as careful.”
Whether because they could delay no longer, Sin Haeryang gestured, and Baek Ayeong sighed as she took off her gun and hung it over I Jihyeon’s shoulder. I Jihyeon, suddenly burdened with about eight kilograms of weight, swallowed hard. Baek Ayeong said simply,
“If anyone approaches, shoot immediately.”
“You said to only shoot when they’re identified as hostiles. What about the safety?”
“Shoot with the mindset that if you don’t shoot, the people behind you will die. If anyone blames you, say our team leader told you to shoot. You can shoot just by pulling the trigger.”
“Ayeong-ah. If you give this to me, what will you do?”
“It’s a secret, but I’m going to take the team leader’s.”
Baek Ayeong whispered the last part to I Jihyeon, but the hallway was so quiet that everyone nearby could hear it. Baek Ayeong took out a pair of scissors from her left pants pocket, slipped her fingers through the handles, spun them around, and then entered the escape pod port—Sin Haeryang, Seo Jihyeok, and Baek Ayeong, in that order.
Watching the door of the escape pod port close, Gang Sujeong asked me.
“Did we really have to send three? Even I didn’t think our team leader’s judgment was wrong.”
“We just need to send three and have nothing happen.”
“That guy. It was according to my decision just now.”
“Who?”
“Our team leader. A Korean who values time and efficiency like gold, I tell you. We got delayed by thirty seconds because of this ridiculous discussion? I joined this team late, so I haven’t seen the team leader beat a Korean yet.”
“Come on. No way.”
No matter what, efficiency doesn’t heal gunshot wounds. Last time, two unarmed people went in, but this time, there’s one person armed with a gun, plus two people carrying dumbbells, barbells, scissors, and knives. There’s no way they’d come back injured after sending such capable people.
Tell him to hit me if he wants. I want to get a taste of that famous fist…… on second thought, I don’t. As if things weren’t already headache-inducing enough, losing my teeth is horrific just to imagine.
I wanted to plop down onto the floor while waiting, but I didn’t want to lay or sit the child sleeping on my back—drooling away—on the cold floor. Standing and waiting with a child on my back, each second ticking by felt all too clear.
I don’t want to wait. I hate waiting so much.
The hallway was cold, making it hard to wait too. Though it was just three people missing, mentally I felt like I was facing the fierce winds of the North Sea alone. In the past, Yu Geumi and I had waited for two people, but now nine people were waiting for three. Somehow, even with more people around, I still felt like a child waiting for working parents to come home. Have I been emotionally dependent on those three? I don’t think so.
I Jihyeon seemed out of it, holding the gun received from Baek Ayeong. Syuran was saying something like “The gun’s really heavy, huh?” next to her, but it didn’t seem to be getting through at all. Gang Sujeong spoke to I Jihyeon, who was frozen like a statue.
“Jihyeon-ah. Isn’t the air a bit chilly?”
“……I wish no one would come. I feel like the gun barrel will suddenly bend into a U and fire at me.”
“Right. You’re not cold. Got it.”
Having checked on her pad that the Cheongnyong-dong corridor temperature was seven degrees Celsius, Gang Sujeong spoke to Tumanako, who was on the verge of losing his soul in a different way from I Jihyeon.
“Now I can feel that it’s a bit cold.”
“You can feel it now? I feel like I’m going to freeze to death any second.”
“Come here.”
Wearing my long-sleeved cardigan, Yu Geumi spread her arms wide toward the shivering Tumanako. Tumanako quickly went into Yu Geumi’s embrace. Yu Geumi hugged Tumanako like a mother bird cradling a baby bird. Perhaps because Yu Geumi was shorter than Tumanako, the two of them looked nothing but pitiful.
“You suffer from the cold severely.”
I’m cold too, but it’s still bearable. Tumanako sniffled and said,
“Try living in New Zealand. You don’t feel seven degrees unless you open a refrigerator. It’s warm in summer and even warmer in winter.”
Is it because he only skimmed world history? I couldn’t tell if this was true or not. Feeling sorry for Tumanako, who was chattering his teeth, I asked,
“I suppose New Zealand has only one season, then.”
They say Korea used to have four distinct seasons back in the day, but now it’s pretty much just two seasons.
Freeze to death or burn to death.
A New Zealand kiwi, who had never experienced weather that ran to such extremes, answered while shivering.
“There’s only summer. I’ve never seen snow in New Zealand in my life. Old people say there used to be glaciers and snow, but I think they’re all lies.”
“In Korea, too, snow only falls in Hamgyeong-do and Yanggang-do, and summer lasts almost seven months. Is New Zealand like that because of climate change too?”
“It’s probably because of immigrants. In this country, if anything is going wrong, it’s all the immigrants’ fault. Huh? That white Kiwi is doing drugs and loafing around on government benefits in broad daylight? Then it’s all the Indian immigrant who worked minimum wage who’s at fault. Huh? Winter has disappeared from New Zealand? Then I, who have lived here for thousands of years, stole winter from the Pakeha (Europeans) who arrived less than three hundred years ago.”
Yu Geumi giggled while hugging Tumanako. Gang Sujeong sighed and said,
“I’m definitely not immigrating to New Zealand.”
“Since China broke into eight pieces, Asians are thirty percent of New Zealand. You won’t be lonely even if you come. And since they only approve investor visas enthusiastically, the country has plenty of money. The welfare is decent too.”
“I’m not going because of that bastard Oliver.”
“Ah. There are a lot of racists too. It’s a country with no shortage of anything.”
Gang Sujeong laughed in exasperation at Tumanako’s tone.
I supported Henry’s bottom with one hand, and reached behind my shoulder with the other to touch Henry’s head. His cheeks, ears, and nose tip weren’t that cold. ……My hands are colder. Sumire, who had been on the pseudo-believer’s back, saw my action and spoke.
“Why did you have to send as many as three?”
“Because I thought it would be a bit safer for three to go rather than two.”
Sumire frowned and asked me.
“Huh? What are you going to do if those three take one of the three escape pods and go up?”
That was…… a scenario I had never imagined.
“They’re not people like that.”
How can I clearly judge people I’ve only known for a day?
But the answer to Sumire’s statement popped out almost like a spinal reflex.
Those three abandoning the people here and escaping in an escape pod?
……So such thoughts are possible.
Sin Haeryang hadn’t abandoned me even when bullets were flying, even though he thought I might be a pseudo-religious fanatic, and Seo Jihyeok had cast himself aside for fear of becoming a burden to others. As for Baek Ayeong—whenever I recalled her leading the way up the stairs, a flashlight in one hand and a cat in the other, a stone seemed to settle on my chest.
Honestly, I personally think it wouldn’t matter if any of the three took an escape pod and left.
I’d rather make an escape pod out of nothing and send them away from here.
As Sumire said, perhaps Sin Haeryang could take Seo Jihyeok and Baek Ayeong—who seemed to have worked with him longer than the people he had met at the underwater base—and flee.
I understand.
It’s a disaster situation; who could blame them for taking an escape pod and leaving right now?
It’s a situation where saving one’s own life is hard enough.
But for now, I wish they would yield just one spot for Henry.
We ended up experiencing this disaster because we came to the underwater base of our own accord, having signed contracts for work, but the child came here without being able to make any choice.
Seeing that he had been sleeping after taking sleeping pills, it seemed he hadn’t come here on his own two feet.
A child’s life being tossed around by adult circumstances should be limited to things like divorce or moving, not kidnapping via drugs, unexpected gunfights, or shark bait.