Shin Haeryang spoke calmly, cup in hand.
“What you called a deal with Jihyeok is no different from simply handing the hilt over to the Muhan Church. First, we can’t expect them to treat someone humanely just because the Muhan Church told us to bring them in. Depending on what they need, they may resort to assault or torture. To begin with, I seriously doubt whether gun-toting religious fanatics even know the word human rights.”
“But…”
“Second, even if we send Aeyoung to the hospital on Daehando, it’s questionable whether we can expect treatment from the medical staff. Normally, when terrorists seize control of a hospital, they don’t leave the staff or patients unharmed. If the patients in the operating rooms are unlucky, they die with their bodies cut open, and the medical staff who remain faithful to their duty or aren’t afraid, along with the most critical patients, die first. The reason they’re merciless toward medical personnel is that the more they destroy the people and facilities capable of providing treatment, the more civilian casualties they can cause.”
That was horrifying. Aren’t terrorists not supposed to touch medical staff? Or not? If they thought that way, they wouldn’t be doing this in the first place, would they? But aren’t they supposed to minimize civilian casualties? Why would they want casualties to increase?
…To begin with, I’m just an ordinary office worker. My biggest worry should be something like what to eat for lunch tomorrow.
“Third, if the undersea base is in this state, Daehando is likely similar. It would be better than dying in seawater, but Daehando isn’t a safe place to take refuge. And if Aeyoung, Ms. Gayoung, and Mr. Tumanako go up to the hospital on Daehando, how can we know what they’ll go through there? We don’t even know the condition of Jihyeon, who’s on our team, or the deputy team leader. There’s a high chance that people with no combat ability will end up isolated together in a dangerous situation.
Fourth, Aeyoung’s gunshot wound was caused by the terrorists’ surprise attack, not by a bullet fired by Mr. Muhyeon. Mr. Muhyeon has no need to take responsibility for this. To use what just happened as an example, the engineers are responsible for repair issues related to the quarters. The reason Ms. Gayoung couldn’t escape was that the door wouldn’t open. Whether they break down the door or tear out the wall, the engineer or the engineering team leader has to take responsibility. The same goes for a team member getting injured. That’s my responsibility, not something Mr. Muhyeon should be responsible for.”
As I was listening to Shin Haeryang’s opinion, someone beside us cut in.
“Huh? Me?”
Kim Gayoung, who had been dozing off in the warmth while wrapped in an electric blanket, looked at us in surprise when her name was called. Then the strength left her hand and she dropped the cup she was holding, but Seo Jihyeok, who was beside her, swiftly snatched it up with his large hand before it hit the floor. Startled, Kim Gayoung bowed her head to Seo Jihyeok, then asked me and Shin Haeryang,
“Dropping the cup woke me right up. Haa.”
Kim Gayoung let out a deep breath, pressed herself tightly into the electric blanket, and said,
“I don’t know if I heard that right, but you’re saying you’ll hand me over to gun-toting terrorists? I don’t really want to go.”
Before Shin Haeryang could open his mouth, I answered quickly.
“Uh… It’s not that you’d be going alone, or that we’d be sending you with bad intentions. I was talking about going with you.”
“The dentist is going too? …I’m Kim Gayoung.”
“Ah, yes. I’m Park Muhyeon. Ms. Aeyoung was shot. We were talking about whether I could go to the Muhan Church people in exchange for Ms. Aeyoung, Ms. Gayoung, and Mr. Tumanako receiving treatment at the hospital on Daehando.”
“You’re going to hand over Aeyoung too? Not our Aeyoung.”
Listening to Kim Gayoung, who was wiping the drool from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, made me feel as if I were capturing Baek Aeyoung and selling her off. When I explained to Kim Gayoung that three people would go to Daehando with me as the condition, she looked at me as though asking what sort of nonsense that was.
“Are you the son of the Muhan Church’s leader or something, Mr. Muhyeon?”
“No.”
“Did you pay them a lot of money? Do you have some kind of network with the Muhan Church?”
“Pardon?”
“Uh… pull. Connections. A background. Western bastards prettify the buddy-buddy networking they use to carve everything up among themselves and call it a [network]. If you’re going to negotiate, I think you’d need to be worth three people to demand something like that. If they suddenly called your name and said they were taking you, why not ask them why they want to take you?”
I hadn’t gone out of my way to reveal my ability to Seo Jihyeok or Shin Haeryang, but it wasn’t because I didn’t trust them. If I explained to someone that I had the ability to go back to the past, then whether through coercion like torture or assault, or through a mistake or voluntary action, the Muhan Church believers would eventually find out about my ability. I didn’t want to let those lunatics know that their experiment had succeeded. If the Muhan Church believers asked whether I had the ability to return to the past, I would answer, “What the hell are you talking about?” I rolled the chocolate Yugeum had given me between my fingertips and said,
“If I ask, will they answer? To be honest, I do want to ask why they want me. I’m not so full of myself that I think they’ll exchange three other people for one of me. I do think it’s a bit of an unreasonable demand myself, but I heard somewhere that when you negotiate, you should ask high at first and then gradually lower it later.”
With a candy in his cheek, Tumanako shouted toward the clinic in an indistinct voice.
“I’m against it. I don’t want to go! There’s no negotiating with guys who show up with guns. They don’t do things that lose them anything. They clearly came looking for you, so you must be worth that much! …Even if you aren’t, I won’t hand you over! Who are they to order people to come and go? If that’s what they want, tell them to come here themselves!”
Which was probably why the Muhan Church people had come to get me. Originally, I had been at the Second Undersea Base.
It was awkward, since two of the three people I’d thought of sending up to Daehando were saying they didn’t want to go. The remaining one, Baek Aeyoung, didn’t seem likely to agree either. After hearing Tumanako, Shin Haeryang swallowed the water that had gone completely cold and said,
“They’ll come this way anyway.”
“Pardon?”
“After they comb through Baekho-dong with a fine-tooth comb, they’ll probably come to the dental clinic. Where else would a dentist who’s only been employed for five days go besides his quarters, the cafeteria, and the dental clinic?”
Hey. There’s a dentist right in front of you who’s only been here five days. And if you put it that way, it makes me sound like I have no social life. …No, but how did he know? Now that I thought about it, I had only been living by going around that area.
As I laughed in disbelief, Seo Jihyeok, who had been quietly leaning against the wall, rolled his eyes and said,
“Now that I’m listening, there is a way to handle this situation in the simplest manner.”
“What is it?”
I brightened and asked Seo Jihyeok. But even before hearing Seo Jihyeok’s opinion, Shin Haeryang shook his head from side to side. Seo Jihyeok, however, ignored Shin Haeryang’s signal to shut up.
“So, at the very least, in order not to lose out in this negotiation, we can’t hand over the dentist, but Aeyoung’s thoracic surgery has to be completed successfully, right?”
“That’s right.”
Seo Jihyeok nodded solemnly and said,
“Then let’s just say the doctor was a woman.”
“…What?”
Did I hear that wrong? Shin Haeryang brought the cup in his hand to his lips and said,
“…I’m the one who swam through subzero water, but you’re the one who left your mind somewhere.”
Despite Shin Haeryang’s ensuing rebuke, Seo Jihyeok frowned as he looked back and forth between Baek Aeyoung and me, then said,
“We claim that her gender was registered incorrectly because of a computer error when she joined the company. In reality, her body is female, but the system mistakenly registered her as male. Well. It’s not like computer errors only happen once or twice. Besides, you said he’s only been employed for five days anyway. He probably hasn’t had contact with many people. If the Muhan Church is looking for him because they think he’s an important figure, then even if she has a gunshot wound to the chest, they’ll operate and save her.”
I refuted Seo Jihyeok’s absurd and bizarre claim head-on.
“Over the past five days, around twenty patients have visited this Deep Blue. Even aside from patients, there are people I met in Baekho-dong, people I met in the elevator or cafeteria, people I met in the corridors or laundry room, and people I met while buying coffee at the café…”
Seo Jihyeok came closer, observed me for a moment, and began spewing nonsense.
“Our dentist doesn’t seem all that big either. You don’t look even 170 centimeters tall. Couldn’t we try claiming our Aeyoung, who barely reaches 160 centimeters, is the dentist Park Muhyeon?”
“I have the average build of an ordinary man, and I’m 175 centimeters tall.”
Do you have any idea how hard I worked on lower-back rehabilitation exercises back in the day? I had plenty of muscle and everything! I had a six-pack back then! If I hadn’t been in that traffic accident when I was young, I would’ve grown another three centimeters! I lost height because of the surgery! Of course, because of the memories of exercising back then, I don’t do it now, but I still have the stamina to carry you up the stairs!
“You’re sensitive about five centimeters.”
“May I cut five centimeters off you, Mr. Jihyeok?”
I’ll attach it to myself. When my gaze turned toward the scissors on the square tray, perhaps sensing a threat to his safety, Seo Jihyeok swiftly moved far away from me. Then, looking at Baek Aeyoung’s ponytail as she lay on the unit chair, he said,
“Then even if we set the physique aside, we can put a doctor’s coat on her and cut her hair a bit to match the similarity in appearance. As it happens, there’s a hair designer right here.”
The hair designer standing by the door looks like your bullshit has knocked her soul out of her body. Shin Haeryang snorted and said,
“You won’t die from a terrorist’s bullet. You’ll die by Aeyoung’s hand once she wakes up.”
Ignoring Seo Jihyeok’s remark, I collected the cups Kim Gayoung and Shin Haeryang were holding. Then I poured warm water into them and handed them back. After taking a sip, Shin Haeryang closed his eyes as if exhausted and said,
“I could point out countless objections to your plan full of holes, but if I had to refute just one thing, Mr. Muhyeon looks like a man even from a hundred meters away.”
“We have our well-built deputy team leader too.”
“Deputy Team Leader Kang also looks like a woman even from a hundred meters away.”
“Aeyoung’s condition is only going to keep getting worse. If she stays like that for about ten hours, she’ll die. The good thing about this plan is that it will show us how they treat Park Muhyeon.”
“Isn’t it that you want to test just how poor the eyesight and intelligence of those lunatics from that religious group are?”
“I only see bad points. I’m against it too.”
I quickly expressed my opposition. Beside us, Kim Gayoung had been laughing so hard her whole body shook, and then she said,
“Jihyeok, you don’t know how famous Aeyoung is. If the new dentist’s face looked like Aeyoung’s? The moment he got off the helicopter, a photo of his face would’ve swept through the undersea base, the dental clinic would’ve been bursting with appointments from day one, and dozens of cups of coffee would’ve been delivered to the dental clinic every day. There would’ve been a truckload of people already playing an imaginary wedding march in their heads and picturing having two kids with him.”
I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Just then, a sudden creeeak! came from the ceiling. It sounded like someone was about to make an announcement.
[Aah. Mic test! Mic test! Ah! Nobody’s coming! See, Jaehui-hyung! I told you they’re all dead!]