“What is it you’re curious about?”
Trying to hide my tension made my voice come out a little sharp, but Sin Haeryang, who had come closer, took off his gun and set it down on the floor to his right. It was on the opposite side from me and the unconscious John Doe, and far from Tumanako as well. Then he leaned back against the elevator wall. With his hands clasped together and resting on his knees, Sin Haeryang hesitated slightly before asking.
“Why are you so terrified?”
I had expected an interrogation along the lines of, You’re actually a believer of the Infinite Church, aren’t you? or, Where did you get all that knowledge you have? If you confess every last detail, I’ll spare everything but your life.
So I had been wound tight, ready to somehow insist that I had nothing to do with the Infinite Church and that I was just an unlucky dentist who had gotten dragged into this. Trying to act calm, I answered back like someone caught off guard.
“Me?”
“You’ve been frightened ever since we first met. Especially after our group got guns, your condition started getting worse, and after Henry escaped, your reactions have been close to panic.”
“I… I think I’m perfectly fine.”
“Your pupils have been dilated the whole time from excessive adrenaline secretion. I thought that was just how they normally were, but Jihyeok said it wasn’t. Check your pulse.”
I dazedly checked my pulse, and it was over 140 beats per minute. I was someone whose normal numbers were almost closer to low blood pressure. My body was going insane. ……Then my mental state probably wasn’t normal either.
“Are you afraid of guns?”
At Sin Haeryang’s question, my gaze moved to the gun on its own. The gun itself wasn’t frightening. Even a gun dripping with grass-green jewels was just a lump of metal if you threw it on the floor. I was afraid of people. Why could they become that cruel? They didn’t have to go that far.
“Rather than guns, I’m afraid of the person holding the gun.”
“So am I.”
“There’s something you’re afraid of too, Mr. Sin Haeryang?”
Even with that kind of physical ability, height, and build, he had something he was afraid of? Sin Haeryang laughed lightly and said,
“I’m human too. Of course there are things I’m afraid of.”
Before he had even finished speaking, the power suddenly went out. Experiencing a blackout in the elevator had become familiar by now. As long as no one suddenly touched me like a ghost, I wasn’t going to be startled.
Tumanako started whimpering, What? What is it? Why is this happening? When Baek Aeyeong began explaining the backup power that would kick in after five minutes, Seo Jihyeok sighed and turned on the light from his pad. Because of the pad’s light, I could only make out people’s silhouettes. I took a flashlight out of my bag and shone it toward the elevator wall. Once it got brighter, people’s faces relaxed a little too. Sin Haeryang looked at the flashlight beam and said in a subdued voice,
“Before I hear your story, I’ll tell you a few uninteresting updates about myself.”
“Yes? Yes.”
“I am scheduled to resign in three weeks.”
“What?!”
This was the first I’d heard of it. Was this something everyone at the underwater base already knew, and I was the only one finding out now?
“I’ve already moved almost all my things out.”
I’d thought his belongings were stored in the drawers or wardrobe in his room, but apparently not. I thought minimalism was this man’s interior design principle, but it turned out there was nothing there because he was moving.
“Ah! So that’s why there was hardly any luggage in Room 22. Then is Mr. Seo Jihyeok resigning too, by any chance?”
I asked because I wondered if that almost entirely empty room might have been Seo Jihyeok’s, and Sin Haeryang confirmed my question.
“Yes. Jihyeok leaves a week earlier than I do. Aeyeong has two more months left. She came in two months later.”
Baek Aeyeong heard her name and glanced over this way, then at the mention of two months, I heard her mutter quietly. It was a curse to the effect of, They called her in because they needed her in this shitty place, only to leave first among themselves.
“You have no intention of extending your contract?”
“I would like to, but the places I’m currently contracted with did not agree to an extension. In particular, the Korean government notified the company I belong to that they would be ending the contract.”
“May I ask why? Did the contract period expire?”
“They said I had damaged Korea’s image and reputation, and that protests had come in from other countries.”
“Huh.”
I understood what that image-and-reputation part was about. But did they really have to cut him off? Making counseling or human rights education mandatory seemed like a decent method too. Look at Gang Sujeong. She beat people up with words instead of fists. Sin Haeryang’s way of talking seemed more than enough to drive an opponent mad, so couldn’t they just make him swing his fists a little less?
If the team leader got cut like this, what happened to Engineering Team A? Did Deputy Team Leader Gang Sujeong become team leader? ……If Team Leader Sin Haeryang left, would the truckloads of dental patients coming in decrease? Then what would happen once the patients who had traded punches with Sin Haeryang heard the news? As if it were nothing important, Sin Haeryang spoke about his resignation.
“The old perception of Korean engineers was that they were either ATMs or punching bags, so I’m not sure what image there was left to damage beyond that, but apparently that’s not how the outside judges it. ……The other teams do not know this yet.”
“You’re telling me before anyone except Team A members?”
“Yes. There’s something I’d like to ask of you. If any of the Engineering Team A members you met today visit the dental clinic because they were assaulted, please contact me. I’ll leave you my contact information.”
When it came to Engineering Team A members I’d seen today, that was about Gang Sujeong and I Jihyeon. Yu Geum and Kim Gayoung were researchers.
“What happens if I contact you?”
“After I leave the underwater base, if there are no scheduling issues before my next assignment, I’ll rest for about three months. The nearby islands aren’t bad for a vacation. I’ll buy some food and visit to comfort them.”
And was it my paranoia to guess that he’d also take the teeth of the bastards who assaulted his former team members as a souvenir of his visit? I felt strange. This seemed like a secret known only within the team, and the fact that he had included me in it made it feel even stranger.
“What happens if I tell the other engineering teams about this?”
“If you’re going to tell them, I recommend selling the information for a high price. And if that happens, I think my farewell party will be held every day.”
It sounded like a party mixed with bloodshed and screams. Sin Haeryang answered expressionlessly, then thought for a moment and added,
“……The dental clinic will also get busy along with it. Still, things will be peaceful in three weeks.”
He seemed to think that while he was around things would be a mess, but once he resigned, nothing would happen. Considering Zixuan’s words and actions, it did seem like all the resentment toward Engineering Team A was concentrated on Sin Haeryang. Zixuan didn’t have a bad relationship with Gang Sujeong either, but he was hostile only toward Sin Haeryang. Was it too far-fetched to think this man had deliberately created that structure? Realizing that all of Sin Haeryang’s remarks were future-oriented, I asked blankly,
“You’re certain we can get out of here.”
“Yes.”
“……We might not get out. We might die here.”
Now that I’d said it, I sounded like a whining child. It’s because of what I saw. It felt like neither your nor my peaceful resignation would ever come to pass. No, if you died, did that get processed as an automatic resignation?
I didn’t want to be bitten to death by a shark, I didn’t want to be shot to death, and I didn’t want to see other people die that way either. I thought this was a modest wish, but at this underwater base, it seemed to be a wish harder to achieve than winning the lottery.
“You’re very worried that we won’t be able to escape the underwater base.”
Wouldn’t it be stranger if I weren’t? How were we supposed to flee to Daehan Road while avoiding the eyes of the Infinite Church believers in the Second Underwater Base? On top of that, as time passed, the underwater bases would come crashing down. If we didn’t get out before then, we’d die horribly. Sin Haeryang seemed to have interpreted my worries in a different direction.
“Do you not trust me?”
“It’s not that. ……We have no idea what’s going to happen from here on out.”
“? That’s what life is usually like.”
His tone made it sound like he was stating the obvious, and the words caught in my throat. Right. Not knowing was supposed to be normal. I had somehow come to know what lay ahead, but normally, it was only natural to live without seeing things like that.
“I’ve told you one of my secrets, so please give me one of yours, Doctor. Even something trivial is fine.”
I had thought Sin Haeryang would pressure and intimidate me with an interrogation close to torture, wringing information out of me like a dry rag. But he didn’t. It was so different from what I had expected that I was startled. Suddenly, I felt that whether I lied or told the truth, the other party would filter it out on his own. And no matter how I thought about it, I didn’t think I could placate him properly with lies. There was also the fact that I had the kind of face that showed when I lied.
The thought suddenly occurred to me that he could tie me up and sell me off to the Infinite Church, but while looking at the unconscious John Doe, I tried to get rid of that ominous imagination. One of the people who showed an enormous obsession with guns had put his gun down just because I was scared and was trying to talk to me. ……Maybe we could get out this time. Or maybe these people, at least, might succeed in escaping this place.
“I know a little about the future. I’m living May 31st for the third time.”
I honestly told him everything. I spoke about the people I had traveled with in order of our route, and since I summarized as much as possible, it wasn’t as long as I’d expected. Sin Haeryang asked detailed questions in between about things like the number of Infinite Church members and what had happened in the gemstone exhibition hall. I glossed over the parts related to life and death somewhat, but Sin Haeryang did not press me on those parts in detail. Without much reaction, he simply asked, Is that everything you have to say?
I let out a huge sigh of relief, then explained what had happened the second time. Summarizing that long day, all it amounted to was that we went to the Jujak Building and tried to escape through the freight elevator there.
Seo Jihyeok snorted and barely listened when it came to parts like his knee being shot by Zixuan, but the moment I Jihyeon appeared in the story, he crawled all the way over beside me, propped his chin on one hand, and began to concentrate. And every so often, he butted in with comments like, Jihyeon is pretty cool, right? Baek Aeyeong listened only to the beginning, then apparently got bored and started talking to Tumanako.
Just as I began talking about what had happened the third time, the lights came on and the elevator began moving. When I finally managed to bring the story up to the present, Sin Haeryang fell into thought. Seo Jihyeok’s reaction was simpler.
“I think the drug’s effect was too strong. I’m certain I only gave you half. Did you secretly take more? What kind of drugs were you doing before to come up with this stuff?”