Seo Jihyeok picked up a chocolate bar. Then he carefully checked the expiration date and the condition of the wrapper, peeled it open, and took a bite. His jaw worked diligently before he let out a happy sigh.
Tumanako and I awkwardly opened our chocolate bars. I didn’t particularly like the intense sweetness typical of foreign snacks, and Tumanako didn’t look like she had much of an appetite. Even so, she tore the wrapper open with vigor and began chewing so hard I worried about the state of her teeth. It didn’t seem like she was eating because she wanted to, but because she had to.
I snapped off about a third of the chocolate bar, wrapper and all. Then I forced myself to chew only the smaller piece. The more that tongue-numbing sweetness entered my stomach, the more it churned. The artificial, sticky chocolate flavor sent dizziness rolling in like a tidal wave. I never knew I could miss hot coffee to wash out my mouth this much.
Seo Jihyeok finished off his chocolate bar in two bites. Baek Aeyeong was chewing hers little by little while stretching one leg out long. And Sin Haeryang sat leaning against the wall, completely motionless. He looked like a seated statue rising out of the floor, though over there, too, only his jaw and hands moved as he made his chocolate bar disappear in three bites.
I handed the chocolate bar, about two-thirds of it left, to the person beside me who didn’t have one.
“I didn’t put my mouth on it. Please eat it.”
Seo Jihyeok, who had been licking the wrapper with his tongue to eat the melted chocolate, looked at me and said,
“Finish your own share.”
“My stomach doesn’t feel good. I can’t eat it.”
There’s someone who can’t eat, isn’t there? Besides, if I eat any more, I think I’ll throw up. I leaned against the cart full of hair products and watched everyone else eat their chocolate bars in their own way.
As I sat there blankly watching their cheeks move, someone said something. I was spacing out, and only when Seo Jihyeok tapped my forearm did I realize that Sin Haeryang, sitting near the door, had spoken to me.
“Yes?”
“I asked what day it is today.”
“Uh... one moment.”
It was May. What day was it? When I hesitated for a few seconds before answering, Sin Haeryang asked another question.
“Doctor. What is your room number?”
“Baekho-dong, thirty... what was it again? One moment. It’s an even number.”
“...Who are your family members?”
“My mother and my younger brother.”
“How old is your younger brother?”
“Uh... I’m calculating. There’s quite an age gap between us.”
How old was he again? His age keeps changing every year. I get confused about my own age too. These days, it’s faster to remember the year of birth. Sin Haeryang didn’t wait for my answer and kept asking other things.
“Where are we?”
Around me, I could see hair products, hair dryers, and aprons.
“...A hair salon.”
“How many hours did you sleep last night?”
“...I don’t know. I’ve been living the same day for three days now. Probably. ...I don’t think I slept.”
Sin Haeryang suddenly asked an odd question.
“Do you remember my name?”
“Sin Haeryang.”
“What do I do?”
“You’re a tooth robber. I’m going to sue you soon for the crime of overworking me.”
Someone listening to the conversation let out a low laugh. Judging by the voice, it seemed to be Seo Jihyeok, but even with the loud snickering beside him, Sin Haeryang continued asking questions without so much as a smile.
“Who were you trying to give that chocolate bar to just now?”
“Geumi.”
The person who had been laughing suddenly began coughing. Cough! Cough! Hack, hack, hack! Someone was pounding their back as if trying to break it. Sin Haeryang looked at me calmly and asked again.
“Do you mean Researcher Yu Geumi from Jujak-dong?”
“Yes.”
“Was there a reason you shared it?”
“It seemed like there wasn’t enough food for the number of people.”
“No. Doctor, that—”
Sin Haeryang stopped Seo Jihyeok from cutting in with a look and said,
“Are you tired or sleepy?”
“Aren’t all working people like that?”
“What’s in your bag?”
“A cat and a snake.”
“May I look inside?”
“Yes.”
When I handed over the bag I had been carrying, Sin Haeryang held it in one hand and gave me the water bottle he was holding in the other.
“Swallow every last drop.”
“Has everyone else had some?”
“You’re the last, Doctor.”
While I was drinking the water from the bottle, Sin Haeryang opened the bag, checked inside, and handed it back to me. As I sat on the floor with the bag on my back, low, quiet voices buzzed in the distance.
“How does their condition look to you? You’ve been coaxing and placating them since earlier, but don’t make me burst a blood vessel. Spill it.”
“They’ll hear.”
“What matters to me isn’t whether they hear it or not.”
“...There are impairments in orientation, memory, concentration, perception, and emotional and thought function, and it takes too long to answer questions. On the way here, I also saw signs of persecutory delusion and anxiety disorder.”
Someone abruptly cut into their conversation.
“It’s because of stress. Half of every illness is stress.”
“Great White. Who here isn’t stressed right now? ...Maybe they already had some mental illness and missed the time to take their medication. The long string of nonsense earlier bothers me too.”
“That... contains too much information to be dismissed as simple nonsense. On top of that, it isn’t possible to fabricate such detailed content in a short period of time, and they don’t seem skilled enough at psychological warfare to deceive me deliberately. ...To my eyes, it looks like delirium.”
“Delirium? Does delirium behave that quietly? The guy who went berserk at the field hospital, saying ghosts were trying to kill him, was delirious too.”
“What’s delirium? No. No. Don’t answer. The three of us may be good at beating people up, but none of us can fix them anyway. Is there any solution other than getting out of here?”
“No. If the condition is serious, shouldn’t we tie them up?”
“It’s fine. I’m watching.”
“Hey. If you don’t want to get kicked out, be quiet.”
Someone said that while gripping my shoulder with their palm.
“This is my hair salon, so if you’re going to make noise, you need my permission. Either answer only my questions, or go outside and talk.”
The voices vanished in an instant. Tumanako slung a sturdy cloth bag over her shoulder and asked Seo Jihyeok,
“Hey, Seo Guide. When do you think we’ll be able to leave here?”
Seo Jihyeok, having been singled out, set the water bottle down on the floor, frowned, and said,
“That depends on how many intact escape craft are left in the escape craft port next door.”
“...I hope there are five left. Or more than that.”
At Tumanako’s wish, Seo Jihyeok nodded simply. Baek Aeyeong finished chewing her chocolate bar, then wiped her mouth and hands on a towel in the corner. Watching her, Seo Jihyeok said softly, as if sighing,
“Or I’d at least like there to be two.”
“Why?”
“I want to send Mr. Tooth and Ms. Hair out quickly. I’m exhausted. A guide’s future goal is either unemployment or going on strike.”
“I was exhausted too. Do you know how hard I worked to get here?”
“I know very well.”
Seo Jihyeok agreed with Tumanako, then looked at me and Tumanako and shrugged.
“You’re both tourists with exemplary attitudes. Well. One person’s condition is a bit bad, but you can’t always be in good condition, can you? Please continue maintaining that exemplary attitude.”
“What kind of people are tourists without exemplary attitudes?”
At my question, Seo Jihyeok lightly tapped the empty water bottle and said,
“Mm. People who suddenly start shouting and singing, or decide this is the perfect time to fight with other tourists, or try to drink or smoke, or try to hit the guide. People who should just lightly paste the tourist attraction onto their eyeballs and run, but refuse to leave. There are plenty.”
“Did that happen often?”
“Ah. A lot. Back when I was doing escort work, the kind of dogshit I had to put up with—”
“Nondisclosure agreement. You want to cough up a whole bucket of money?”
Baek Aeyeong lightly kicked Seo Jihyeok’s foot. Seo Jihyeok pouted and pouted, then made the excuse that he had only been about to say as much as wouldn’t get him caught, before shutting his mouth. Tumanako kept questioning Baek Aeyeong beside her.
“Can’t we just run straight to the escape craft port? Did we have to stop by all kinds of shops for two or three minutes each on the way to this hair salon? We could just run to the escape craft port, check the number of escape craft, and run straight to the elevator.”
Baek Aeyeong gave a small nod, as if Tumanako’s words made sense, and answered,
“We can do that. But I’d like to move through CCTV blind spots as much as possible. We haven’t been discovered yet, after all. The one mounted above the escape craft port moves every seven or eight minutes, so we only need to wait a little longer.”
“Who haven’t we been discovered by?”
Sin Haeryang stared at the closed door of the hair salon and answered quietly.
“Armed personnel are moving around outside. I saw them come down by elevator from the Second Undersea Base.”
At those words, Tumanako looked toward the salon door with a frightened expression, then lowered her voice much further.
“...Uh. I didn’t see them.”
“That is our job. You should continue not seeing them.”
Still a little tense, Tumanako placed a hand on my shoulder as I sat there quietly. Then she asked Sin Haeryang,
“They’re a good kid. Their memory seems to be going in and out, but they’re just in slightly poor physical condition. You’re not going to leave them behind, are you? ...Right?”
“We’ll take them. Delirium can happen to anyone. With treatment, they should improve.”
At Sin Haeryang’s confident words, Tumanako’s tense sigh settled. Her fingers lightly tapped my shoulder like piano keys, then curled tightly into a fist in apparent joy. Then, suddenly clenching both fists, Tumanako asked Sin Haeryang again.
“Hey. If I’d gotten delirium, would you have risked danger and taken me through those people with guns too?”
“Yes.”
“...That’s a lie, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Both answers came in the exact same tone. Tumanako’s fists trembled as she stared at Sin Haeryang. She looked as if she wanted to punch him with those fists right away. But she pressed that feeling down hard and said one thing.
“Give me your gun. Three of you have guns.”
“Do you know how to shoot?”
“No. Do you know how to throw a spear in a cool way?”
“No.”
“Yep. It’s a tie. Give me a gun too.”
Sin Haeryang lightly shook his head. When Tumanako looked at Seo Jihyeok and Baek Aeyeong, the two of them slowly backed away as if she might snatch their guns. Tumanako made a tearful face, but quickly wiped it away and said to Sin Haeryang,
“Then I’m going to immigrate to your country. I’ll get dual citizenship or whatever. I’m going to be Korean now, so you have to work hard to protect me.”