I don’t know if I’m thinking this because I haven’t spent long living while rubbing shoulders with people from other countries, but I almost wish they’d just be racist and decide Asians have nothing to do with this kind of miracle, then scrape my name off the jewel. Then they could engrave someone they liked on it and call them their savior.
Judging by what Beth was doing, she was exactly the kind of savior who would suit a cult. I have no idea why it had to be me getting caught up in this mess.
Kim Jaehee, who’d apparently rambled incoherently to Shin Haeryang while high on drugs—had he not told the Infinite Church about what he’d gone through? Or had he told them and been ignored?
Considering Beth had asked me whether I was going to kill Kim Jaehee, maybe Kim Jaehee’s position within the Infinite Church was surprisingly weak. Maybe there were ranks among the believers, and those in the lower ranks were treated like trash. Or maybe Beth thought I was a crazed psychopath who needed sacrifices.
“So an Asian none of you expected has ended up in a position to sway your whole religion. Even a poker table would have more structure than that.”
Shin Haeryang, who was beside me, said it sarcastically to Joseph. The bound Joseph lifted only his head like a cobra, but perhaps because he had no retort, he merely huffed and lowered his head back to the floor. What was so predictable about a poker table? I had no idea at all.
Listening to Joseph mutter, it was full of things about how much he wanted to beat Shin Haeryang until it hurt. He was also saying he hoped the savior would help him do it, and that if I made even one sudden move to catch Shin Haeryang off guard, he would buy time for the savior to escape. I quietly turned my head as if I hadn’t heard. Shin Haeryang asked Joseph, who was steeling himself to harm him.
“Why today?”
“What?”
“Not a month from now, or two months from now. Why did this mess happen today?”
Ah. Right. That man didn’t have long left before he quit. If it were me, I’d be furious enough to burst, but Shin Haeryang asked in an even voice. Joseph held out, trying to get under Shin Haeryang’s skin.
“Why should I tell you?!”
“Just tell us. I’m curious too.”
Joseph looked at me with frustrated eyes, as if to ask why I wasn’t helping him. Even if you fight Shin Haeryang, Joseph, you’re the only one who’ll suffer. Let’s make this easy. Joseph let out a long sigh and answered Shin Haeryang.
“Probably because it’s one of the sea days or ocean days designated by one of the eight countries. And they said they had to hurry before the Greenland shark died.”
I understood that today was Ocean Day in Korea. Had they investigated all the event days of the eight countries included in the North Pacific Undersea Base and planned it around that? Were cults always like this? Giving meaning to things that were nothing special, risking their lives over things that meant nothing?
Couldn’t they pour that effort into reality to live decent lives? Ah… these were guys whose motto was going to the past in order to survive, so of course they wouldn’t work hard at living in reality. Then future plans probably didn’t hold much value for them either. But they had to do it before the Greenland shark died? Why did they need a shark in the first place?
“That scary-looking shark can die?”
“It’s a creature that lives quietly in the deep Arctic sea where the water temperature is extremely low, and it’s on the verge of extinction. Ones that can live five hundred years are dying before they even reach fifty. Their numbers had already plummeted because of overfishing, and even when people say not to catch them commercially, as if corporations are going to follow that properly. They say they’ll release them and then quietly kill them, or drag things out saying things like why do we even have to protect this, then kill them under the name of neglect. When it’s humans who melted all the Arctic ice in the first place. As far as I know, there isn’t much time left before the Greenland shark goes extinct.”
The one that bit into my side was a great white shark, not a Greenland shark. A really strange thought occurred to me. To officially become the savior of this Infinite Church, would I have to fight a Greenland shark too? Before the pain in my side and lower abdomen where the great white had bitten me could resurface, I quickly asked another question.
“Where are the Infinite Church believers spread out?”
Only after asking did I realize I’d said it like they were spores or germs, so I hurriedly added another question.
“I mean within the undersea base. Are they concentrated in the engineering teams, or are there a lot of them among the management staff, things like that.”
Joseph thought for a moment, rubbing his philtrum with his fingertips, then said,
“They said they tried to proselytize at least one person in every engineering or specialized job. Some joined, some didn’t, some just dipped a toe in, some believe passionately, some don’t believe but came because they needed money, some were after romance. I heard they used to screen people and take in the smarter ones, but because they’re short-handed, they’re accepting all the stupid ones too, so the quality of the new kids these days is bad.”
I was a little surprised because Joseph spoke like an old fogey. So followers of the same religion didn’t exactly embrace one another as equals.
“Do you know any Korean believers, Mr. Joseph? Or any East Asian believers?”
If someone I knew was an Infinite Church believer, I thought it would be better to find out here than after getting out of this place. Which would be less of a shock to my mind? Damn it.
“If I looked like the kind of guy who went around memorizing names well, then I must still look good in your eyes, Savior. Hahahaha! There’s… an engineering team with Chinese people gathered in it, and one guy has a somewhat unusual name. He glared at me like the geese where I lived—sneaky, expressionless psychos. Like a psychopath ready to attack at any moment, or like that son of a bitch over there. What was his name…? The pronunciation was unusual.”
What on earth were Canada geese like for him to say something like that? Joseph was probably talking about the engineering Team Ra, but I hadn’t had enough composure to examine the faces of every member of Team Ra in detail, so there was nothing I could say. But after hearing the crude descriptions from the Canadian, Shin Haeryang asked,
“Haoran?”
If Haoran had heard this conversation, a fight would have broken out immediately. Startled, Joseph opened his mouth wide and nodded like lightning.
“Yeah! That’s it! I knew you’d know! He’s close with you, right?”
Without even looking at Joseph, Shin Haeryang said,
“If you say that to Haoran, a fist will come flying right away. Have you heard the name Weiqi?”
Joseph furrowed his brow and answered.
“I think the person who went around with Haoran was Weiqi. A gloomy guy a little shorter than Haoran, who barely talked?”
“Then that’s him.”
Joseph bared his white teeth at me as if asking for praise.
“Savior. I know two of them.”
“…How did you happen to know Mr. Haoran and Mr. Weiqi?”
“Our team unloaded some cargo that arrived at Daehando and delivered it to those two.”
No way.
“Was that cargo guns?”
“Yes!”
My head hurt. It wasn’t just me; Joseph’s answer seemed to leave even Shin Haeryang at a loss for words. When my expression didn’t look too good, Joseph dragged Shin Haeryang into it like a ghost.
“Ask that guy how he came to know Haoran and Weiqi too. It won’t be anything impressive.”
I don’t know. Now that I knew your team supplied weapons to the engineering Team Ra of the Fourth Undersea Base, I doubted Shin Haeryang’s story would be more unusual than that. But Joseph seemed to think Shin Haeryang would be more brutal than what his own team had done.
I didn’t agree with Joseph’s opinion, but out of pure curiosity, I asked Shin Haeryang.
“…How did you come to know those two, Haeryang?”
“Haoran tripped me in the corridor.”
“Uh… and Mr. Weiqi?”
Please. Say he helped you up after you fell.
“As I fell, I hit Weiqi in the face with the water cup I was holding.”
…Right. Shin Haeryang wasn’t more brutal. But I shouldn’t have asked. Now my head hurt twice as much. He definitely hit him on purpose. Depending on where on the face he hit him, the first place we needed to go would be either a dentist, a plastic surgeon, or an ophthalmologist.
“Are there no peaceful stories about the undersea base?”
Only after asking the question did I realize the people in front of me were a cult fanatic and a dental-patient generator, and that I’d made an impossible request. When Yu Geum or Kim Gayoung had been around, I think we’d talked about opening a bakery.
We were still trapped in a cramped, dark place with no promise of escape, yet the conversations were this different. In the darkness, the two men’s eyes glinted in my direction, then quietly scattered elsewhere.
Less than an hour after the food came in, Shin Haeryang suddenly stood up holding the gun, and the hearts of everyone in the consultation room dropped.
When I looked closely, Medic was trying to come through the door. There was a basket on Medic’s body, just like before. As if fed up, Shin Haeryang checked the basket and Medic’s body. Medic displayed a smiling face on its panel, meaning it had delivered the items safely and perfectly, then crawled out of Deep Blue.
Shin Haeryang had been extremely tense the entire time Medic entered and left Deep Blue, and only relaxed a little after checking even the contents of the basket.
“What’s inside?”
Shin Haeryang shone the penlight into the basket so I could see. I wondered if it was food again, and saw that it was full of desserts. There were cleanly washed fruits, cakes, and cookies. Since there were no separate forks, it seemed we were supposed to pick up the cake with our fingers.
Beyond the puddings with small spoons attached and the neatly cut roll cakes, there were wine bottles and beer cans in the basket as well. Did the Infinite Church believers think the people trapped inside would drink alcohol in this hostage situation? …Well, from their perspective, it would be easier to resolve the incident if the other party got drunk and senseless.
As I looked at the cans and bottles full of various drinks, I suddenly found a warm thermos and held my breath. Just in case, I opened it, and the hot scent of coffee rushed up. Coffee. Holy shit. It’s coffee! It must not have been brewed long ago!
I had only opened a small thermos, yet the scent of coffee spread through the entire consultation room. A smile spread across my face as I smelled it. The moment I saw that devil’s drink full of caffeine, my fingers started trembling on their own. I desperately held back the urge to take a sip right away.
I knew all too well the sensation of coffee warmly heating my mouth and smoothly sliding down my throat, so resisting the temptation was incredibly difficult. Wow. It looked seriously delicious. I swallowed the intangible coffee through its aroma and twisted the thermos lid shut with trembling hands. Coffee in a situation this hard and stressful.
When Joseph saw the brand of beer can he recognized under the penlight, he asked for just one, but no one listened to him. This time as well, Shin Haeryang refused the food. Then, holding the thermos, he asked me, who was half out of my mind.
“Are you going to have some?”
“……”
The words of refusal wouldn’t come out right away. I thought it was fortunate the Infinite Church believers didn’t know much about Koreans after all. From swimming out of my flooded quarters until now, there had been many hardships, but to think refusing a single cup of coffee would be this hard. Now that I thought about it, if there had been cup noodles with the previous food, I probably would have eaten it without caring what happened later.
Afraid that “Yes!” would reflexively come out at Shin Haeryang’s question, I shook my head first. Then I answered with a sigh.
“…I’m not going to drink it.”
Regretfully, I pushed the thermos full of coffee back into the basket. It was as if adhesive had been smeared on the thermos; it wouldn’t come off my hand easily. Shin Haeryang glanced into the basket without much emotion, then carried the whole thing over and practically tossed it into the treatment room. The scent of coffee still remained, wrapping around the consultation room. What the hell is with your self-control? You’re making me, an older adult, feel ashamed.
With three men sitting in the darkness, there wasn’t much to say. It was awkward enough to kill me. To gain information about the Infinite Church, I asked Joseph questions this way and that, and Joseph answered my questions as best as he could remember. Other than my questions and the complaints Joseph occasionally spilled out, it was utterly quiet.
Shin Haeryang, who had been as still as if he were dead, sometimes stretched by extending or folding his arms and legs, as if to announce that he was still alive. If not for that, I would have forgotten there were three of us in this consultation room.
That was when a voice came from the radio.