When they had passed more than halfway through the connecting corridor, Sin Haeryang slowed his pace. In a corner of the hallway lay a collapsed man. When we approached and checked, it looked as though he had struck his head hard against the long metal handrail running along the corridor wall. The area near his hairline was caved in.
Seo Jihyeok approached, carefully examined the surroundings and the man, then turned him over. He was on guard as if a bomb might be wired to the corpse. A face soaked in blood was revealed. Ah. A familiar face.
Was this man’s name Kevin Wilson? They said he was from Engineering Team Ma. Is Kevin a common name? The other Kevin I came to know was a researcher who carried an axe around. This man had died right in front of the corridor leading to Jungang-dong before. Judging by where he was dead now, he had died in the middle of the corridor from Jungang-dong to Baekho-dong.
Why had he died differently than usual? It was absurd, but until I saw the body, I had completely forgotten about this man’s death. Was it because I had gone through too many incidents and accidents? ……To think I could forget the first person I ever declared dead. Incredible. The memory of being horrified at the sight of the corpse was still vivid.
Is there no way to save this man? Every time I see him, he’s always dead. When I quickly pronounced him dead, Seo Jihyeok took a photo with his pad and scribbled the time over the picture with his finger. Sin Haeryang, watching him with an unsteady gait, suggested we walk a little farther and rest. Once Kim Jaehee and Jeong Sanghyeon, who had fallen the farthest behind, had all gathered, we were given a three-minute break.
I carefully set Baek Aeyeong down on the floor. Kim Jaehee’s actions were a little rougher. Jeong Sanghyeon practically rolled onto the floor, and perhaps because he had no strength to get up, he lay still exactly as he had been rolled. Baek Aeyeong, lying flat on the corridor floor with her fingers laced behind the back of her neck, began counting the time aloud. I lay down on the floor as well.
Seo Jihyeok was standing with his body leaned against the corridor wall. Come to think of it, the only place where all three of them had rested together was that place with the 4,300 steps. One of them was always keeping watch separately. Sin Haeryang, who was sitting on the floor, asked Kim Jaehee, who was crouching.
“Name the believers of the Infinite Church.”
“What if I lie?”
When Sin Haeryang turned his head and looked at Kim Jaehee, after a moment, Kim Jaehee averted his gaze into the distance and slowly said,
“First, Elizabeth Hweber, Jamal Green, and Ronald Weiss. Have you heard of them?”
After thinking for a moment, Sin Haeryang shook his head.
“I don’t know any of the three. Muhyeon. Do you know any of them?”
I only know one.
“I know Elizabeth Hweber.”
“What does she do?”
“She’s a white woman with long, white hair, and she looks to be in her early thirties. She’s about 170 centimeters tall, has deep double eyelids, and her eyes were very large. She has a firm, square jaw, and she’s a beauty who naturally draws the eye. Her whole body was covered in jewels. She said she’d had the experience of dying and coming back to life through the same day repeatedly, like me. She seemed to be one of the leaders of the Infinite Church.”
I thought for a moment, then added my personal impressions of Beth.
“Her behavior was a bit…… cruel. She’s someone who can hurt others as much as necessary if she has to. She felt like the typical fanatic you think of when you imagine a cult.”
When my rambling explanation ended, Sin Haeryang looked at Kim Jaehee with an expression asking whether what I’d said was correct. Kim Jaehee shrugged.
“With that kind of appearance, I think she’s qualified to have that level of madness. Beauties can’t help but be violent. When you’re not ordinary, how hard must it be to survive in this harsh world?”
Jeong Sanghyeon, who had rolled once on the floor, asked from beside Kim Jaehee as if curious.
“What on earth does that person look like for you to say that?”
After thinking it over, Kim Jaehee said in a slightly flushed voice,
“To put it simply, she looks like silver made into a person.”
At the word silver, Baek Aeyeong’s body, which had been lying down, bent forward, startling me. Did Elizabeth look like that? I had met that person twice, but aside from the jewels hanging all over her body, all I had thought was that she looked as though all the pigment had drained from her.
Now that I think about it…… she is beautiful to a chilling degree. Baek Aeyeong, who had been listening to Kim Jaehee’s description, frowned and stared into the air as if imagining it, then shook her head as if brushing it away. Then she lay flat on the floor again.
Kim Jaehee’s head turned toward Sin Haeryang. And he stared at him. Seo Jihyeok, who had been leaning against the wall and looking toward the end of the Jungang-dong corridor, saw Kim Jaehee’s behavior and vigorously shook his head from side to side. Sin Haeryang looked back at Kim Jaehee expressionlessly and said one thing.
“Explain Jamal Green and Ronald Weiss.”
“What’s it like living life with that face?”
Why ask something like that? Sin Haeryang answered as if it were nothing.
“My face is a target. Is Jamal Green Black?”
“Aww. No fun. ……Yes. That’s right. He’s Canadian, and he’s about…… 180 centimeters tall, and his hair is white too. Because of his hair, I couldn’t really tell his age. He wears a large ring on his index finger. He had it on every time I saw him, and he was always listening to music. If you talk to him, he’ll answer, but he doesn’t seem to like conversing with ordinary believers. I went up to him and asked what song he was listening to, and he told me the singer’s name, so I looked it up. He was listening to songs by a singer who lived almost seventy years ago.”
Kim Jaehee muttered in a tone of incomprehension. I saw Baek Aeyeong’s eyes narrow beside him. As someone who loved songs by people from nearly a hundred years ago, it seemed Kim Jaehee’s remark had made her fist clench on its own. However, she didn’t lunge at Kim Jaehee or say anything to him.
I thought of the Black man who had pinned the brooch to my chest while putting his own ring on my finger. Was that man’s name Jamal Green? Recalling the white man who had been beside those two, I asked Kim Jaehee.
“Could Ronald Weiss be a middle-aged white man a little shorter than me?”
“Yes. Have you met him before?”
I thought for a moment, then answered Kim Jaehee’s question.
“I met him sometime this afternoon.”
I can’t explain it as yesterday, so my sense of dates is getting strange. Hearing my answer, Kim Jaehee smiled in a way I couldn’t quite understand. When Sin Haeryang jerked his chin as if telling him to continue, Kim Jaehee began speaking slowly.
“He’s white, has white hair, and is a middle-aged man about 170 centimeters tall. He used to be very fat, but he said he was going on a diet, and I guess it worked, because every time I saw him he was slimmer. He wears a watch on his arm, and it was so covered in jewels that I wondered if it was really meant for telling time. And I’m not sure whether he dislikes me or dislikes Asians. He’s never returned my greeting. He only looked at me like he was looking at a cow or a chicken. From what I heard other believers saying, he made quite a lot of money through stocks and futures. ……In one day.”
Baek Aeyeong listened quietly, then swept her eyes over Kim Jaehee and asked,
“It seems all the believers of the Infinite Church wear jewels. Do you have one on you?”
Kim Jaehee pointed to his ear with his fingertip so Baek Aeyeong could see clearly. Flicking the piercing with his finger, he answered,
“Mine is a piercing. This was surprisingly expensive.”
“Why do you wear it?”
Kim Jaehee hesitated for a moment, then answered with a sigh.
“Because I believe I can go back to the past. It’s foolish blind faith.”
“You’re already aware that you’re stupid. Do you really believe that?”
“Mm. To be precise, I have no choice but to believe it. Everything we have is in the past.”
“That’s called having lost it. ……Three minutes are up. We have to go.”
Baek Aeyeong, sitting on the floor, tried to get up by herself, but because she wasn’t in good condition, she failed twice. I quickly reached out a hand, but on the third try, Baek Aeyeong braced herself on her own knee and stood up alone. Then she said to me as if she didn’t need help.
“Thank you. I can go on my own now.”
I feel like I’ve seen a newborn calf take its first steps like that somewhere. Is she okay? Baek Aeyeong walked ahead first with an uneasy gait.
Jeong Sanghyeon was groaning as he lay spread-eagled on the floor, and only after Kim Jaehee and I helped him up together did he finally stand. As Kim Jaehee draped Jeong Sanghyeon’s arm over his own shoulder, he said to me,
“I thought there was nothing left in life that could surprise me, but life really is strange.”
“What is?”
“The guys who were desperate to be chosen didn’t get picked, but it seems someone who wasn’t prepared and knew nothing did.”
He spoke of the savior as if he were talking about a lottery, then laughed as if he found it rather satisfying. Then he stared at me as I supported Jeong Sanghyeon from the other side and asked,
“Do you have any jewels?”
“No.”
“Are you carrying anything related to sharks?”
“No.”
“Is there a past you want to return to, no matter what price you have to pay?”
A price. The very phrase paying a price is frightening. I thought for a moment, then answered Kim Jaehee.
“……No.”
“The Infinite Church is probably quite flustered too, don’t you think? They prepared three candidates, after all. But if it was you, Muhyeon, who had no connection to it and wasn’t expected at all, then those three are just, well. Finished.”
Seo Jihyeok smacked Sin Haeryang’s back with his palm as Sin Haeryang tried to stagger along on his own. Then Seo Jihyeok slung Sin Haeryang’s arm around the back of his own neck. The team leader stubbornly insisted that he could walk perfectly well by himself, but Seo Jihyeok completely ignored his team leader’s words. Half-listening to Kim Jaehee, Seo Jihyeok asked,
“What candidates are those?”
“Reserve candidates the Infinite Church prepared so they could go to the past. If they’re chosen, they become the savior of the Infinite Church.”
“Well, well? A savior? A mere human? ……I can’t understand it with my head.”
“Hyung, didn’t you say you used to believe in a religion too?”
Seo Jihyeok, his face twisting in every possible way, feigned ignorance and answered,
“No. I never did that.”
“Aww. Liar.”
“Jaehee. Keep three meters away from me too. If a religious nut comes within three meters of my radius, I’m going to attack on the spot.”
“Isn’t that religious persecution?”
Seo Jihyeok stopped after taking two steps and asked Kim Jaehee. Seo Jihyeok seemed utterly unable to understand Kim Jaehee’s attitude.
“……Why do you keep walking around smiling like that? Are you enjoying this situation?”
“I am.”
“We’re trapped in a leaking undersea base with no escape vessel?”
“Yes.”
“You said those Infinite Church bastards started a terrorist attack without even properly telling you. They might use you as a pawn and throw you away.”
“That’s how it is anywhere.”