Seo Jihyeok sighed as he said that.
“And besides, even if you call it protection, it’s not as grand as it sounds. It’s not like I’m providing close protection. Most of what’s happened at the undersea base so far has been petty misdemeanors. Theft, assault, stalking. Creating a sense of unease, noise violations and residential intrusion, lurking in the rooms they broke into, fraudulent transactions, fraudulent gambling, drug solicitation, public urination, begging, littering, continuous harassment—I’ve only intervened a little in matters like that.”
Seo Jihyeok had been counting them off on his fingers, but he ran out of fingers after ten. Even petty misdemeanors would feel completely terrifying, like felonies, if you actually experienced them. Besides, why the hell did so many incidents keep happening?
I asked, having heard something strange mixed in among them.
“What do you mean by public urination and begging?”
“There was a Korean woman he liked, and when he asked her out, she turned him down. So the crazy bastard pissed in front of her door and ran off.”
He’s out of his mind. I understand that people in serious need of psychiatric treatment are sent back to their respective countries.
“Th-that... I can’t comprehend that with common sense.”
“Begging means demanding money to buy a meal.”
“...But food is free at every meal in the undersea base, and snacks are practically free as well.”
Smiling lightly, Seo Jihyeok nodded as he spoke.
“I agree with you, Doctor. Anyway, as for how I handled that crazy bastard—I brought every piece of clothing he had in the dryer and dumped the laundry and the guy himself right on top of that piss. He probably wore them as they were, or rewashed them and wore them. The team leader switched rooms with that woman for about a week, and I heard nothing like that happened after that. Also, if you ask me, I think our damned team leader committed most of the fraudulent gambling and assault. I... aside from cursing out our team leader with the other team’s guys during downtime, I haven’t really handled anything major. I only did a few things the team leader ordered me to do now and then. If you call this protection, the guys who get paid for dedicated security would laugh at me.”
If I had worked at the undersea base without people like Shin Haeryang, Seo Jihyeok, or Baek Aeyeong, it would have been nothing short of hell. I found it even more amazing that they steadily hired women and disabled people like me for such a place. Whether they knew about the situation at the undersea base when hiring or not... Once I get out of here, I’ll grab the person in charge of my hiring by the collar and ask them.
“Then even if you don’t go out of your way to save Gayoung or me, it won’t cause any contractual disadvantages for Haeryang, Jihyeok, or Aeyeong, will it?”
“That’s right.”
“I was going to talk about it after Haeryang arrived, but since Jihyeok is here, there’s something I’d like to discuss.”
“There were a few things I wanted to ask you, Doctor, without the team leader present.”
“Jihyeok, you ask first.”
Looking exhausted, Seo Jihyeok slouched slightly in his chair and asked.
“Jihyeon and Team Leader Gangbu are on Daehan-do, right? Not caught up in this shitty shootout, or lying somewhere shot like the Russians.”
“Yes. The two of them took an escape pod out.”
“I... don’t really believe it, but let’s say they got out like you said. Still, I’m curious why it’s those two.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m talking about Jaehui and Sanghyeon. Schrödinger’s waterfowl is a gourd dipper, but from what I’ve seen, neither of them is the type to yield an escape pod. Their personalities are very... since they’re protection targets, I won’t say more. Honestly, if it weren’t for Jihyeon when I first came here, I would have paid the penalty fee and left. I would have hung onto the departing helicopter and escaped. So why couldn’t those two take the escape pod?”
I recalled Jeong Sanghyeon, who had rushed to board the escape pod after hearing my broadcast despite Shin Haeryang trying to stop him. I thought for a moment before answering.
“It wasn’t that they didn’t want to get out. They just had bad luck.”
“...Why are those Muhan Church cultists targeting Muhyeon?”
“I don’t know either. There’s nothing I can properly tell you about the Muhan Church cultists.”
I told Seo Jihyeok a mix of lies and truth. If I were to explain why the Muhan Church cultists were targeting me, I would also have to explain the paranormal phenomenon of me living the same day over and over to him, and I doubted someone who didn’t believe in resurrection would believe such a story.
Moreover, I couldn’t confidently answer a single question about how that phenomenon occurred, or why it had to be me. ...No matter how much I thought about it, I sounded like a con artist. A clumsy one at that. Even if you were selling fake supplements, you’d at least explain what ingredients were in them. All I could say was that I didn’t know anything.
Seo Jihyeok listened quietly, then spoke to me.
“Do you remember how I lied in Jungang-dong and said you were dead?”
“Yes. I remember.”
“They don’t seem to think you’re dead.”
“Excuse me?”
“Even while spraying bullets, they carefully collected the three corpses I’d claimed on the spot. They probably planned to show the bodies to people who knew your face to confirm whether Park Muhyeon the dentist was really dead, or to see whether he had died, or they seem to have some separate method of determining survival among themselves. The important thing is that those bastards don’t believe the person they’re looking for is dead.”
“Why... how do you know they don’t believe it?”
Had he asked them or something? I suddenly began to have a terrifying thought. Beyond Seo Jihyeok’s strangely stiff expression and Tumanako’s exhausted figure, I had a horrifying, cruel vision of Muhan Church cultists lining up outside the Deep Blue door with guns, watching us.
A chill began to run down my spine, but as if to shatter my imagination, Seo Jihyeok let out a massive yawn that nearly split his mouth, and with tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, he spoke simply.
“If they thought you were dead, they would have withdrawn from the 4th Undersea Base. They were swarming around the elevator area in Jungang-dong, then headed toward Baekho-dong saying you might still be there. I ran into the Chinese guys coming from the Cheongnyong-dong side, and they didn’t really know you. Have the Japanese ever come to the dental clinic to meet you?”
“...Yes. The entire Engineer Na Team visited the dental clinic once.”
“It seems the Muhan Church believers told people who knew your face to bring you to them.”
Oh. Right. About twenty people I’d treated at Deep Blue over the past five days would know my face. Wouldn’t they? I’d been greeting people diligently at the cafeteria. I’d been greeting everyone I met in Baekho-dong, too.
Did they think East Asians would remember another East Asian’s face better, so they told Engineer Na Team to bring me? ...Then does that mean the proportion of East Asians among the Muhan Church people is low? Seo Jihyeok rested his chin on one hand and spoke.
“Doctor. I asked Sato, who was on the verge of dying—the important thing is they said to bring you. Not to capture you. Do you happen to have a religion right now?”
Because Seo Jihyeok said it as casually as if asking about an item he carried in his pocket, I only understood after asking back, “You mean whether I have one?”
“I don’t have a religion. I’m non-religious.”
“It’s only a one-character difference; you don’t happen to have any separate connection to the Muhan Church?”
What was he talking about. ...It really was a one-character difference. I shook my head.
“I have no relation whatsoever, and I hope I never have any relation to them, ever.”
“I don’t know how valuable you are to those pseudo-religious bastards called the Muhan Church. But if it means Aeyeong can receive treatment at Daehan-do Hospital, I might be able to propose a deal to those pseudo-religious bastards again.”
And Seo Jihyeok, resting his chin on his hand, gazed at the unconscious Baek Aeyeong and fell silent. He seemed to be waiting for my answer. So... he wanted to hand me over in exchange for getting Baek Aeyeong hospital treatment, was that it?
“Mm. ...I understand completely. If someone like family were lying there injured by gunshot, and the cause was terrorists who came looking for a complete stranger, I would probably think the same way.”
When Seo Jihyeok had shouted to the Muhan Church cultists in Jungang-dong that he would hand me over, betrayal and loneliness had swept through my entire body; but perhaps because I had treated Baek Aeyeong since then, I didn’t particularly feel that this was a betrayal anymore.
Maybe because I knew Seo Jihyeok wasn’t someone who would easily discard a civilian like me, the thought that the current Seo Jihyeok was incredibly desperate passed through my mind, along with feelings of slight pity and sympathy.
I felt like I would have to meet the Muhan Church cultists someday. Perhaps I had reached a situation where I could no longer avoid it.
“What I wanted to discuss is actually quite similar. I was wondering if it would be possible to negotiate—if I make contact with the Muhan Church people—to send some of the people here to Daehan-do Hospital.”
“You can curse me out as an ungrateful bastard. ...You can even hit me.”
Jihyeok. What do you take me for? Do I look like someone who goes around cursing people out and beating them up?
“I don’t really feel like cursing you out. ...I don’t want to hit people.”
Seo Jihyeok let out a sound of exasperation.
“Even though a patient who just received treatment is saying he’ll grab the doctor and hand him over to the enemy for a price?”
“...I know better than anyone that Aeyeong’s gunshot wound can’t be treated any further at the dental clinic. And with Tumanako over there, and if Gayoung arrives here alive, then Gayoung too—that’s at least three people I’d like to see get out of the undersea base. I’m not sure if I’m worth three people. ...I have a feeling the Muhan Church won’t accept such an unfavorable negotiation.”
I was going to make sure Tumanako and Kim Gayoung got out of here no matter what. Why do good people have to suffer like this in a place like this? As for Baek Aeyeong... if I die, will her body be restored to its original state next time? Seo Jihyeok scratched his cheek while still resting his chin on his hand and said,
“This is something I’m only saying because our shameless team leader isn’t here. Don’t think my personal remarks just now reflect the entirety of Engineer Ga Team. Our team leader will probably oppose it. Team Leader Gangbu might agree, though.”
“Let’s say he agrees. Aeyeong’s condition is urgent right now. How do you think the team leader would oppose it if he were here?”
“You can hear that opinion directly from the team leader.”
Seo Jihyeok muttered under his breath without turning around—shit, he knew this would happen. Where does this bastard sprout from whenever it’s his turn to be the topic? Does he think he’s a mushroom? What the hell—he kept saying things like that.