Inside the escape pod port, all the people I knew had already gathered; there was only one person I was seeing for the first time. Because of his pale red hair, I initially thought he was a foreigner, but hearing him converse with Jeong Sanghyeon, I realized he was Korean.
His bangs fell to the corners of his eyes, and perhaps because his hair had grown long, the back was tied up in a small bun. He had multiple earrings and piercings in both ears, and tattoos crept up his neck and the sides of his ears, which couldn’t be fully covered by his engineer suit. From a distance, I thought he was simply wearing an engineer suit, but when I drew close I saw that the suit’s pant legs had been cut off above a certain point. And both legs below the knees were prosthetic.
He had been sitting on a waiting chair beside the escape pod with his hands clasped, but upon seeing us, he rose. A man exceeding 180 cm waved his right arm in our direction.
Up close, I could see that the little and ring fingers of his right hand were fitted with finger prosthetics. They were black, so from a distance, they had looked like finger gloves.
Because of my spine and eye, I had seen quite a lot of them in the wards, but this was the first time seeing any inside the undersea base. Prosthetics and assistive devices vary by body part, but unless the user undresses, they don’t stand out much. Moreover, these days they’ve become so elaborate that they’re hard to identify quickly with the naked eye, and since most people use electronic prosthetics, they’re generally not easy to spot.
If not for the hair, his legs would have caught my eye first. I thought the man was wearing black pants engraved with an unusual pattern. Or perhaps he had plucked a few grapevines from the grape farm at Undersea Base 1 and wrapped them around his ankles and calves.
Upon close inspection, they were the latest electronic prosthetic legs, extravagantly decorated with green and light green against a black base. I recognized that prosthetic series because it had been stocked at my friend’s orthopedic clinic; basically, they’re shipped from the factory in white. They make it possible to add designs to suit the buyer’s taste, and it looked like this person had incorporated a vine plant image in green on a black base. Does he like plants?
Quite a lot of patients order custom external designs to match their skin tone, so it had been a while since I’d seen someone decorate them black like that. My friend, going on about “red of passion,” had ordered one painted bright red, but recently he spouted nonsense about “black of style” and switched to a pitch-black one not long ago.
Looking at this person’s prosthetic hand, a thought suddenly crossed my mind—is black the trend these days? I just hope that trend doesn’t reach teeth.
“Hello. I’m dentist Bak Muhyeon.”
Could this person be Kim Jaehui? Having spent five days greeting people and shaking hands so often, I had almost reflexively extended my right hand. A man with gentle corners to his eyes, in contrast to his flamboyant appearance, casually grasped and shook my right hand.
Ah. Right. Come to think of it, if you just take the elevator up for ten minutes from here, you can get prosthetic maintenance done at Daehan-do Hospital, can’t you?
If your body is impaired, even going to the hospital becomes a major undertaking. Whether you have a dark past or an injury in your past, living near a hospital is a necessary condition for survival. Being able to visit the hospital directly from your quarters, plus receiving periodic psychological therapy for free. Depending on the person, this might be a decent workplace.
Lose a body part, and social anxiety and depression come hand in hand like old friends. Chasing them away with nothing but personal willpower is nearly impossible. Now that I thought about it, an undersea base might not be a bad place for a disabled person to live. Of course, I’m going to resign.
The cumbersome process of going to America to have a new prosthetic eye surgically implanted, plus the surgery costs for two people, nursing fees, and rehabilitation expenses all poured out as hospital bills, so the bank balance of a fairly well-off four-member middle-class family evaporated, literally as if it had never existed. While I was mulling over that unsettling past, Kim Jaehui abruptly spoke to me.
“It’s because of a landmine.”
“Excuse me?”
“I get asked so much. When I was young, I didn’t know it was a landmine; I picked up some box and dropped it, and it exploded on the floor. That’s how I ended up like this.”
During my hospitalization, I’d heard all sorts of causes—congenital deformities, tumors, frostbite, various accidents, thromboangiitis obliterans, and so on—but a landmine was a first. Was he from Hwanghae-do? I’d heard that when it rains there, landmines are everywhere.
Now that I thought about it, almost no one in the undersea base had asked about my eye, unlike in Korea. Probably because they had no interest in me. That subtle indifference felt good, yet I felt lonely, if only by the tiniest bit. Since the other person had disclosed his, I shared my information as well.
“It was a traffic accident.”
“A walking landmine, then.”
Huh? He’s not wrong. Jeong Sanghyeon beside me acted as though he could barely see me, and even when I greeted him, he treated me with the same indifference. Jeong Sanghyeon spoke to Seo Jihyeok, who was lost in thought, with visible anxiety.
“Was Jihyeon noona not in her quarters?”
“Yeah. She wasn’t.”
“Then can I leave in an escape pod first?”
Seo Jihyeok, who had been caught up in a kidnapping theory, snorted.
“Don’t be ridiculous. If Jaehui doesn’t go first, no one here can board.”
“Ah! Why! You told us to stay here only until we went to the quarters and back!”
“Yeah! That’s not what you said before!”
Carlos was siding with Jeong Sanghyeon’s remarks from the side.
A check of the escape pods showed four remaining. Seo Jihyeok looked at Carlos beside him and said with a frown.
“Who are you? Don’t butt in here; go line up at that far end where you can’t even see. Engineer Team A has claimed all four escape pods exclusively! ... Hey! Jeong Sanghyeon! Did it take us 20 minutes to get here! Did it take 30!”
Having heard Seo Jihyeok’s words, Jeong Sanghyeon now began to snap at Kim Jaehui and urge him.
“Ah. Hyung! ... Hurry up and leave in an escape pod! You’re the one who has to go first so other people can board!”
“Aren’t you worried that your team members suddenly disappeared?”
Jeong Sanghyeon was stomping his feet anxiously, but Kim Jaehui looked completely relaxed. It was a composure unbefitting someone who had nearly died after being swept up by a missile during outer wall work and then had made an emergency entry into a leaking undersea base to escape it. It seemed only Jeong Sanghyeon and Carlos were frantic here.
“Do I look like something terrible is happening to me right now? Why would I worry about someone else?”
“Do you have some brilliant plan once we reach Daehan-do? Sanghyeon. Do you even know how to fly a helicopter or pilot a boat?”
“You just have to drive it! It’s not like I’ve only played one or two games! Ah, seriously! Hyung, I’ll take you with me!”
“I have a feeling Daehan-do is a mess too. Weren’t you the one who only played games about fighting or dating women?”
With that, Kim Jaehui laughed ha-ha-ha and patted Jeong Sanghyeon’s shoulder.
“Whether we wait here or go up and board a boat you pilot, both seem equally doomed. If that’s the case, I’d rather stay by my teammates.”
“Argh! Then at least let me leave in an escape pod first!”
Carlos’s face brightened upon hearing Kim Jaehui’s words, and he said.
“You’re not going? Hey! If one person from your Team A isn’t boarding, that means this person’s escape pod is mine!”
Carlos and Jeong Sanghyeon acted as if they would devour Seo Jihyeok to get on the escape pod, and Seo Jihyeok stood blocking them at the spot where Jaehui had been standing previously, as if he were listening to dogs bark.
Come to think of it, Shin Haeryang wasn’t with Engineer Team A. Looking at Engineer Team C, Vladimir wasn’t there either. Instead of silent Viktor, Nikolai was pointing at Seo Jihyeok and muttering some explanation; seeing that it wasn’t being translated, he seemed to be sharing what had just happened with Sofiya and Nikita on his team, using somewhat strong language.
Sofiya raised her head mechanically, nodding blankly at Nikolai’s words, then covered her mouth, staggered, and ran toward the restroom. Nikita, who had been standing beside Sofiya, slowly followed after her. Every time I see those people, I wonder—just how much have they drunk?
“Where did the engineering team leaders go?”
Surely the team leaders hadn’t escaped first in the escape pods? I asked Baek Aeyeong, who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, and she replied with a sigh.
“Two people have gone missing from each of our teams. They went to take a look around the Central Block with the Russian team leader. Ah. The fact that we went to the quarters is a secret. The team leaders told their respective team members to stay~ put here. They seemed to think that if we moved around on our own, we might disappear too. We haven’t moved a single step from here. Got it?”
Baek Aeyeong winked cutely at me with one eye. It seemed to mean “keep your mouth shut.”
Well. Shin Haeryang would probably know what his team members did the moment he saw them. Watching the water dripping at Seo Jihyeok’s feet, I asked.
“There are four escape pods left, and you haven’t launched them.”
“What if we find Jihyeon unni or the deputy team leader and they’re critically injured enough to need immediate evacuation to the hospital? This undersea base doesn’t look like it’s going to collapse within ten minutes. The team leader said he’d come back and make a decision within ten minutes. The Russian guys are the same. That’s why we’re not fighting as much, since there are so few escape pods.”
Carlos, the only non-engineer stuck between the two engineer teams, stomped his feet as if he were going crazy with anxiety.
Tumanako, who had been curiously looking around the escape pod port, approached Seo Jihyeok, pointed at the number indicating that four escape pods remained, and asked.
“So we just board the escape pods from here?”
Two people, then. Seo Jihyeok looked at Tumanako with a troubled expression.