Food endlessly came out of the basket. Judging by the amount, it looked to be well over three servings. I felt a bit odd saying this with food right in front of me, but my appetite faded in inverse proportion to the quantity. Shin Haeryang thoroughly searched inside the basket with a penlight. To check for any electronic devices or bombs planted inside, he emptied and practically overturned everything the basket contained, but it seemed there was nothing.
My desk, which I had used in the counseling room, was on the verge of overflowing with food and drinks. I slipped my hand under the rice ball container and my palm felt warm. It seemed to have been made not long ago. When an unfamiliar party sends food, the biggest worry is, of course—
“Is it poisoned?”
Joseph, who had been lying on the floor, replied as if he felt wronged by my suspicion.
“Savior! We would never put something like that in the food!”
Well. Given what you people have done, I suspect what this mini hamburger patty is even made of. I squinted my eyes and asked Joseph.
“Something like sleeping pills, maybe.”
“Ah…….”
It seemed even Joseph couldn’t be sure about that. Deny it, at least.
Shin Haeryang shook out the basket and checked it as if disassembling a medic, but he didn’t seem to find anything particularly dangerous. With no anomalies discovered in the items brought in from outside, Shin Haeryang seemed to quickly lose interest. He stared at the food that had completely occupied the desk with an indifferent face and didn’t touch it at all.
The smell was no joke. I realized once again that skewers of various grilled meats and gimbap were foods that smelled intensely. As lunchtime passed, I had no appetite, and Shin Haeryang seemed the same. While the two of us who could move freely simply left the mountain of food sitting there, Joseph, whose hands and feet were tied in contrast, seemed to be growing frantic. Only the scent of food quietly filled the room as time passed.
Should I send the food back? Then wouldn’t that be an obvious hostile act toward the Infinite Church? But then again, everything Shin Haeryang had done so far was a hostile act against the Infinite Church, so sending the food back wouldn’t be such a great discourtesy, would it? I was thinking things like whether it wouldn’t be better than leaving it here. As no one touched the food laid out on the desk, Joseph—perhaps thinking it would remain abandoned like that forever—shouted toward Shin Haeryang.
“I’ll check what’s inside the food! It’s all going to get cold!”
Shin Haeryang looked at Joseph and raised an eyebrow. He didn’t seem particularly interested.
“You people don’t seem particularly scared even though a hostage-taker with a gun is insisting he’ll kill your Savior. And you said you didn’t need food.”
When Shin Haeryang kicked the underside of the desk, the food on top shook violently. ……Right. It didn’t seem like the Infinite Church was particularly afraid of Shin Haeryang. Even though he had shot three people and sent them to the hospital, the other party’s attitude toward him seemed to be merely “somewhat annoying.” Elizabeth, who had sent so much food in particular, seemed unable to even imagine that the hostage-taker Shin Haeryang would starve me, their Savior. As if your will and actions are worthless to us. The food arranged on the desk gave me the feeling that the Infinite Church was lecturing the hostage-taker to remind him of the hierarchy…… It must be my imagination, right?
As Shin Haeryang had accepted the food basket from the Infinite Church but wouldn’t hand it over, Joseph spoke as if he were being treated very unfairly.
“You might not eat, but you should at least let me and the Savior eat! Are you going to keep starving us like this? What are you going to do if the hostages starve to death? I’ll check whether it’s poisoned or not! If I look fine, you can eat too, can’t you!”
……It seemed Joseph was hungry. I was worried that Shin Haeryang might seal Joseph’s mouth with his fist, but Joseph didn’t seem to have such worries even though his lips were swollen. Was I the only one worried? If he was starved, he’d probably keep babbling like that.
“How about letting Mr. Joseph eat the food.”
Shin Haeryang looked at me once, then picked up the container holding the sandwiches. After lightly checking the inside, he set the container filled with a large quantity of sandwiches down on the floor and pushed it toward Joseph. Joseph’s face visibly brightened. Lying on the floor, he squirmed to raise himself, confirmed the contents were sandwiches, and asked Shin Haeryang a question.
“Can’t you switch it to hamburgers?”
Shin Haeryang didn’t even answer Joseph’s words. Joseph, who had been grumbling, tore open the packaging and grabbed a sandwich in one hand. And without properly looking at the filling inside, he bit down in a huge mouthful and chewed. Letting out a satisfied groan from deep in his stomach, he devoured a palm-sized egg sandwich in the blink of an eye. Then he grabbed a second tuna sandwich. Is the Infinite Church starving its people?
I was first bewildered by Joseph’s nimble actions. If you’re trying to check whether the food is strange…… shouldn’t you at least smell it first? I won’t tell him to rub it on his skin and see if it swells or itches. But he should at least touch a small amount to his lips or put a tiny bit in his mouth and chew it. And if his mouth itches, stings, or his throat feels like it’s burning after eating just a little, shouldn’t he be ready to spit it out immediately? Is it okay to just eat like that?
Ignoring my concern, he crammed the second sandwich into his mouth and swallowed it instantly, his hand reaching for a third sandwich in a flash. I was bewildered a second time by Joseph’s actions, which barely used his teeth, and asked.
“Did you not have breakfast?”
Come to think of it after asking, I hadn’t eaten either. Joseph stopped the ham and cheese sandwich on its way to his mouth and answered.
“I’ve been busy since dawn. I couldn’t eat anything today. I’m so hungry, it tastes incredible.”
“What time did you start moving around today?”
Joseph looked only at the sandwich in his hand as he spoke to answer my question.
“I started moving around from 6 a.m. They said they’d cut the internet from 5 a.m., so there must have been teams that moved out even before that.”
When I stopped talking to avoid disturbing Joseph’s meal, he polished off the sandwich in his hand in just two bites. What are you going to do if it’s really poisoned, eating like that? Your original intention for eating the food was…… never mind. Eat a lot. If you’re going to eat anyway, chew it.
With Shin Haeryang’s permission, I gave Joseph a few canned drinks from the desk. Having chewed and swallowed the fourth salmon sandwich in three big chomps, he reached for the fifth peanut butter sandwich and spoke.
“These sandwiches are well made.”
Then he opened a canned drink and took a sip, wiping the beverage that had wet his beard with the back of his hand. Then, perhaps unknowingly rubbing his mustache and philtrum with the back of his hand, he groaned and complained of pain. Watching this, I was wondering what to do with the remaining food and glanced over the desk. Then Joseph spoke.
“Savior, did you at least have breakfast?”
“No. I was busy running away because the room was flooding.”
“Kaessaeki. What about you?”
No answer came back. Joseph, eating his sandwich vigorously, smiled at me and said.
“I think it would be okay to eat. It tastes good too. Our church wouldn’t do anything to the food the Savior is going to eat. ……Ke…… Keuack! Keuaaaaack!”
Suddenly, Joseph grabbed his own throat with both hands and screamed with a grave expression. Did he choke from eating too fast? Or did those Infinite Church bastards really put something in the food? I rushed to Joseph in alarm. Shin Haeryang, who had been sitting relaxed, immediately gripped his gun. Then Joseph released his hands from his throat, smiled at me, and said.
“The food is fine.”
Then he giggled. I feel like my liver is about to leap out of my chest. I really want to punch him. I was so startled it’s absurd, and now only laughter comes out.
What exactly are you trusting to act so fearlessly? Me? Are you doing this because you trust me? Do you think I can protect you from Shin Haeryang’s fist? Or because you think you can return to the past? Are you acting like this because you believe in the Infinite Church that has surrounded Deep Blue?
Due to Joseph’s actions, the remaining half of the sandwiches were snatched entirely into Shin Haeryang’s grip. And they returned to the desk where they had originally been. Though Joseph protested, the sandwiches never went back to him again. Instead, Shin Haeryang spoke to me.
“I don’t think there’s any major problem with the food. Even if there are drugs in it, they likely won’t cause serious harm to the human body.”
“Are you going to eat, Haeryang-sshi?”
At my question, Shin Haeryang shook his head.
“I won’t eat. Please eat if you wish.”
Constantly smelling the food and watching Joseph eat, I was gradually starting to feel hungry. Contrary to the feeling of not wanting to eat anything, I felt like I could eat if I tried.
The rice balls were sharply triangular, and even the seaweed wrapping the rice was neat. The gimbap varieties were tuna gimbap, anchovy gimbap, and vegetable gimbap—made so meticulously they were closer to art than food. Fish must be expensive.
Remembering how my side had felt like bursting while rolling gimbap to make it for my younger sibling, or how I had disassembled the gimbap while trying to cut the barely-rolled ones, I thought these foods must have required an enormous amount of effort to prepare.
The thought that a specific religious group had sent this food just for me gave me a strangely uncomfortable feeling. To think there was an unidentified group that put so much care into making food for me alone. We don’t even make this much food at home. Even when eating out, I don’t eat such a diverse variety of dishes.
They had collected all kinds of myths inside the deep-sea base. Are there myths or religious stories where you get sick from eating food? The first one that came to mind was Persephone from Greco-Roman mythology. To think she couldn’t freely leave the underworld just from eating a few pomegranate seeds. I wonder if Persephone, once she found out the truth, grabbed Hades by the collar.
It felt strange, as if all the food here were sacrificial offerings bearing the mark of the Infinite Church. Though the smell, color, and shape were all tempting, the rejection was almost instinctive. I’m someone who doesn’t believe in superstition, but perhaps I just don’t want to feel even a shred of goodwill toward the Infinite Church devotees after satisfying my hunger with this.
If I were being practical, it would be better to eat something. When I had climbed halfway up the four thousand stairs while crying, I had finished all the food that filled three bags, not leaving even a single candy. Back then, I hadn’t thought about this kind of aversion at all.