I had no idea what Shin Haeryang meant by saying that. I’d expected him to say we should get Shuran, who was connected to Baek Aeyeong, or his own deputy team leader, Kang Sujeong, out of here. I looked in turn at Baek Aeyeong and Tumanako, Kang Sujeong, Shuran and Shin Haeryang, Sumire, and John Doe, then shook my head.
“I remember the Birkenhead. Thank you for the offer, but I’ll yield it to someone else.”
The rescue priority is women and children first. That order was created so everyone could survive together. The harder and harsher the situation, the more necessary it is to rescue those with lower chances of survival first. Basically, while young men with stamina and strength endure the danger, the rescue of the weak is quickly completed, and by being rescued last, everyone can escape danger.
Emotionally, I was frantic to get out of the undersea base, but I was supposed to accept an escape craft from Tumanako or Shuran, who looked far smaller and weaker than me, and ride it out? I might not be brave, but I’m not a coward. And I know shame.
Tumanako, wearing one of the two cardigans and draping the other over her head like a jangot, said,
“So we just give our opinion on who we want to ride the escape craft? Me! Me! I’d like me to get out.”
Kang Sujeong lowered her gaze, stared blankly at the crown of Baek Aeyeong’s head, and said,
“I’d like Aeyeong to get out.”
Baek Aeyeong, startled at suddenly hearing her own name, rolled her eyes around and answered,
“······I was going to say Shuran, like before. Then I’ll say Deputy Team Leader too.”
Shuran looked at Baek Aeyeong and Kang Sujeong, then let out a sigh and said,
“Me too, Deputy Team Leader Kang. Aeyeong doesn’t listen to me anyway. She always does whatever she wants.”
“You only figured that out now?”
“Listen to me for once!”
Kang Sujeong looked at Aeyeong and Shuran fondly, as if watching chirping chicks. Then, from beside her, Sumire cut through that warm and fuzzy atmosphere and said,
“Me too. Deputy Team Leader Kang.”
“Well, well? You’re choosing me? Why would you?”
“Because I don’t want to see your face.”
“Ha. That little thing, seriously. I can’t even smack her.”
The two tablets in Kang Sujeong’s grip creaked with an ominous sound. John seemed to have an opinion, shouting, “Mmmph!” but no one untied his mouth. Shin Haeryang quietly listened to everyone speak, then urged Kang Sujeong.
“Please board the escape craft quickly.”
“Seriously, me? Not the doctor?”
“There’s not much difference.”
At Shin Haeryang’s words, Kang Sujeong looked at me, then swiftly denied it.
“No. We’re completely different.”
I sympathized. Aside from both being Korean, there wasn’t a single thing Kang Sujeong and I had in common. Our builds, ages, personalities—everything was completely different, wasn’t it?
Kang Sujeong handed the two tablets she had been holding to the team leader. Shin Haeryang made Kang Sujeong stand on the designated circle, then spoke in a low voice, almost a whisper.
“If we still haven’t escaped after three hours, flee together with Lee Jihyeon and Yu Geumi. Jihyeon knows the location.”
“What location?”
“The location of the boat and the satellite phone.”
There was a boat and a satellite phone? Like me, Kang Sujeong’s eyes widened as if this was the first she’d heard of it, and she asked the team leader again.
“Our team has a boat and a satellite phone? Didn’t the country refuse to support us?”
“The boat is hidden at the foot of the island. It’s quite small and we left it in a remote place, so it probably hasn’t been discovered. There are two numbers saved in the phone, and you must request rescue from both numbers. The satellite phone won’t catch high-frequency signals inside buildings or under a roof, so use it where you can see the sky.”
“Uh. Team Leader. I’ve never driven a boat in my entire life.”
Swept up in information like a tidal wave, Kang Sujeong stammered in a flustered voice.
“All I have is a Class 1 regular driver’s license. Are you telling me so confidently to drive the boat and run because Jihyeon or Geumi knows how to operate one?”
“One of the three of you will be learning this time, then.”
“What? Wait.”
Shin Haeryang struck the button on the wall with his fist. There was a beep, and before Kang Sujeong could say anything more, the escape craft instantly closed and launched outward as if flying. Baek Aeyeong looked at the spot where the escape craft had disappeared, then said to Shin Haeryang,
“That junk boat looked unreliable.”
“Even so, it should be able to get as far as the Solomon Islands or the Republic of Fiji.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to tell her to hide in the boat and wait until we come? There’s no way we’ll take three hours to get out of here with our skills, right?”
“······Just in case.”
Shin Haeryang, trailing off without confidence, asked me,
“Can we leave the undersea base without any problems?”
The question came at me all at once, like a sudden punch. My body stiffened at the unexpected situation. I couldn’t answer right away and stammered.
“Uh, um. That’s.”
“I understand.”
“I haven’t answered anything yet?”
“You have answered.”
“What did I answer?”
“It seems many problems will arise.”
His tone wasn’t particularly sarcastic or anything. He simply said it flatly, then looked at Tumanako and said,
“······Let’s go to the submersible port and check the situation. If we can’t escape from there, we’ll leave Cheongryong Wing altogether.”
I wondered what on earth Shin Haeryang was thinking. Had he always been like that? When I’d gone around with Shin Haeryang before······ I had just gone wherever he told me to go and done whatever he told me to do. I hadn’t really had an opinion of my own.
The back of my neck and my back felt as chilly as the empty space. I was afraid to ask what the temperature was right now. I remembered that I had put towels in my bag. I took one out and wrapped it around my neck like I was tying it there. Sumire was looking at me, so I asked,
“Would you like a towel?”
“······Why did you do that to your neck with a towel?”
“Because it’s cold.”
When it’s cold, the best protection against the cold is a scarf and a hat. If you had to choose only one, it should be the scarf. Sumire frowned as though what I’d done was an insult to fashion itself, then shook her head. Even though she was dressed fairly thinly, she had never once said she was cold or anything like that.
Now that I looked, only Tumanako, Sumire, and John Doe were in ordinary clothes, while everyone else was wearing full-body suits. As Tumanako left the escape craft port, she whispered to me in a weak voice.
“How close are you with Engineering Team A?”
“······There isn’t really anyone I could say I’m close to.”
It had only been five days since I came here. I said that while ignoring the sense that I’d already been here for more than a week, and Tumanako frowned before speaking.
“It’s just. Seeing how they use the escape craft, I feel like since I’m not a Korean citizen, I’ll end up being the very last to leave. You and I are both not close with those people, probably. I’m anxious I’ll be the only one left behind. I’m being too honest, aren’t I?”
Tumanako spoke with a face full of anxiety.
“······It’ll be okay. I think last place will probably be me. They’ll say the people who came first should leave first. If we go out first-in, first-out, wouldn’t I leave after you, Tumanako?”
“I was anxious I’d be left behind, but hearing that does make me feel relieved. Let’s go out together. In the end, no one gets left behind. How’s that?”
Perhaps she recovered quickly from disappointment; Tumanako said it to me with a smile on her lips.
“Sounds good. When the next escape craft comes, let’s insist that you absolutely have to ride it first, Tumanako.”
“If you come to my salon to get your hair done, I’ll dye it so it shines like a prism. It’s the most expensive dye.”
“Is that really a good thing?”
“The trend these days is for your hair color to flash and shine whenever light hits it. I’ll set aside a day and turn you into a sparkling peacock.”
Seo Jihyeok was waiting for people outside the escape craft port and said,
“Did Jihyeon go up?”
“Yes.”
At that single answer, Seo Jihyeok lightly nodded. Then, as soon as he had taken three steps, Baek Aeyeong took his gun from him again.
As we walked, Sumire muttered something into John’s ear. But John completely ignored Sumire’s words and kept walking. John was walking behind Shuran, and apparently that wasn’t what Sumire wanted.
Sumire muttered something into John’s ear again, and John ignored Sumire once more. Before I could ask what was going on, Sumire bit John’s ear hard. John sprang up in shock and stepped backward, then deliberately slammed Sumire into the wall with a bang. Sumire, whose back had struck the wall hard, bit the back of John’s neck with her teeth, wearing a ghostlike expression.
Now that the situation had reached this point, Seo Jihyeok, who had been trudging along after having his gun taken away, approached and asked with a sigh,
“Why now? What is it this time?”
“Mmmph! Mmph! Mmmph!”
“He suddenly shoved me into the wall.”
“Mmph mmph! Mmmph!”
“I guess he got tired of carrying me. He’s a cultist, right? His stamina’s terrible. He keeps staggering.”
John, apparently ready to explode, thrashed wildly while carrying a person on his back, his mouth gagged and his hands tied. More precisely, with Sumire on his back, he hopped up and down in place on both legs. Seo Jihyeok stared at that blankly, let out a laugh of disbelief, and pulled the cord tied over John’s mouth to undo it. Then John immediately shouted at us.
“This crazy woman! She told me to change direction to her quarters in Cheongryong Wing!”
Then, perhaps because he found many things unfair, tears streamed down his face. Sumire looked at John with a frown. Then she said one thing.
“A man, and with so many tears. And tattling too.”
“Hey. You, Sumire or whatever your name is! Get down right now! You people, untie this! Whatever religion I believe in, there’s no reason for me to be treated like this! You’re all in the wrong! Why the hell are you doing this to me! Why did you stick me with this insane lunatic—”
John couldn’t finish because Sumire slammed her forehead into the back of John’s head with a loud crack. John trembled without a word at the sudden pain.
Just watching from the side was enough to make me shrink back. Was I too timid? Had I lived without seeing enough strange people in my life? I thought I’d had a decent amount of experience dealing with people in society, but the people and situations I encountered after coming to this undersea base were always fresh and astonishing whenever I saw them.
Sumire shook her head as if she were dizzy. John’s body, struck in the back of the head, gradually sank downward. When John collapsed onto the floor, Sumire naturally ended up sitting on the floor as well. Sumire shook her head hard once and said,
“I want to go to my room. I kept saying that. The Cheongryong Wing quarters are right next to the escape craft port, so I was only telling him to go there.”