Seo Jihyeok, after hearing Baek Aeyeong’s impression, said,
“I don’t like that guy much either. Honestly, I haven’t seen a single person from Korea, China, or Japan who likes him.”
I… didn’t know. It wasn’t as if I knew Michael Roaker well. I’d probably met him for far less time than the people here had. Kim Jaehee moved the prosthetic parts of his little finger and ring finger, checking their motion, then said,
“He seemed fine to me. He doesn’t pay much attention to us. In either a good way or a bad way.”
At Kim Jaehee’s words, Seo Jihyeok arched an eyebrow and said,
“So you’d rather be neglected than interfered with? I’d like him to stick his nose in a little more actively. I wish that bastard would handle things in the North Pacific more fairly than anyone. Honestly, if he just did his job properly, things between the engineers wouldn’t be this much of a mess.”
According to Seo Jihyeok, depending on what the higher-ups did and how they did it, this undersea base could become either hell or heaven. In particular, his argument was that if Michael Roaker, who oversaw and managed the engineers, just acted properly, relations among the engineers could become far better than they were now.
The engineers who came from each country differed in culture and language, and in personality and race as well. In a situation like that, people forcibly gathered together to get work done could cooperate amicably with one another, but every little thing could also become a provocation or a problem between them. Mediating and managing that was the job of Michael Roaker, the head of engineering. Seo Jihyeok was speaking heatedly, saying that because the man either neglected things or took the side of certain countries, fights were always breaking out and disputes kept arising.
Seo Jihyeok seemed to really hate incompetent superiors. Had Seo Jihyeok ever served in the military? Would that have been the Korean military? If he had experience serving in the military, I was starting to become genuinely curious about how he had lived through it. Kim Jaehee laughed as he listened to Seo Jihyeok and said,
“On this Daehan-do, I don’t think a fair judgment is possible unless you’re a whale or the Dragon King. Or unless you’ve got a nuclear submarine.”
Had Roaker often sided with the Americans? Seo Jihyeok asked Kim Jaehee with a sigh,
“Jaehee. You don’t have a nuclear submarine hidden somewhere, do you?”
“If I had something like that, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Hand it over to me cheap.”
Baek Aeyeong kicked a piece of plastic trash lying on the floor far away with her foot. As the plastic, which had been used to wrap a famous chocolate, rolled along the floor, a cleaning robot came whirring over, gulped down the trash, and disappeared.
“If I were the Dragon King, I’d drive out all the humans who came under the sea. I’d kick them in the butt and tell them all to get out of my ocean. I won’t eat rabbit liver either, so I’d tell you all not to eat sea creatures.”
“Why?”
“I’m tired of living with people in an undersea base.”
Good. I inwardly agreed with Baek Aeyeong. I wanted to be driven out of the sea quickly. Seo Jihyeok chuckled and said to Baek Aeyeong,
“Dragon King. Let me eat benchi, at least.”
“What’s that?”
“Um… pomfret?”
“Absolutely not.”
Jeong Sanghyeon removed a chip from the game console he had been carrying around. Then, with a tearful expression, he threw the remaining wreckage toward a cleaning robot. Jeong Sanghyeon muttered to Baek Aeyeong,
“Yeah. It’d actually be much better if you became the Dragon King. Roaker only takes the white people’s side.”
Kim Jaehee said to Jeong Sanghyeon,
“But instead he tells us to settle whatever Asians do among ourselves. Isn’t that fine?”
Jeong Sanghyeon shook his head as he watched the cleaning robot clear away the remains of the game console.
“When Daniel tripped me with his foot, that Roaker bastard only listened to Daniel! He said I’d fallen while walking and was trying to pin it on him! My game console got smashed back then too!”
Jeong Sanghyeon checked the state of the memory chip, put it in his pocket, and let out deep sighs. Kim Jaehee shrugged as he looked at Jeong Sanghyeon.
“I always told you not to play games while walking. I think you were a little at fault too.”
“Wow. Hyung. That’s too much! You’re supposed to take my side!”
“I’m always taking your side. You’re a terrorist and a cultist, but I’m still on your side, aren’t I?”
“I don’t think you are! …I remember the team leader protesting to Team Leader Jennifer back then. What happened with that, anyway?”
Shin Haeryang looked around Jungang-dong, withdrew his arm from Seo Jihyeok’s shoulder, and said,
“When I told Jennifer, she said it was none of her business. She said that unless her team members killed each other or killed members of another team, she wasn’t going to care, so I shouldn’t talk to her about trivial things like that.”
Seo Jihyeok replied as if he found that absurd.
“For someone like that, Jennifer sure pays a lot of attention to her own team members. When that bastard tripped that short girl—I think it was Irina or Sophia—and Vladimir broke his nose over it, she immediately sent a letter of protest to Russia.”
Listening to that story, Jeong Sanghyeon’s eyes shone as he said to Seo Jihyeok,
“That incident made me like Team Leader Vladimir. How cool is that! He’s tall. He’s in great shape. If I were just a little taller, I’d take care of someone like Daniel with one hand. Seriously.”
Shin Haeryang walked while untying the parachute cord around his wrist, then, hearing Jeong Sanghyeon’s comment, advised him,
“He’s dangerous, so don’t go near him. Never be alone with him in a confined space.”
Jeong Sanghyeon frowned and poured complaints at his team leader.
“Team Leader, seriously. You tell me not to get close to everyone. Isn’t that too much? If I do as you say, then on this undersea base I don’t have anyone I’m close to except my team members! I want to make foreign friends too! I want a foreign girlfriend! I want to go hang out on nearby islands with foreign team members too! Because of you, I have no human relationships at all!”
“You didn’t have any before either. Maintain that state until you resign.”
Shin Haeryang answered coldly. After hearing Shin Haeryang’s words, Jeong Sanghyeon pouted and muttered complaints, but they did not reach anyone’s ears. Seo Jihyeok rested his forearm on Jeong Sanghyeon’s head and spoke as if consoling him.
“Sanghyeon. Making friends at work isn’t such a good idea. Rather than being friends with Liam or Oliver, wouldn’t it be better to pledge yourself for life to a poisonous jellyfish?”
“Who said I wanted to be friends with Liam or Oliver? Women! Women! I want to be friends with women!”
“I’ll set you up with an imported female poisonous jellyfish. Geum said she researches jellyfish, so I’ll ask her for the flashiest, weirdest one and bring one over.”
“Hyung, are you really on my side?”
Kim Jaehee looked at the two of them and said as we walked past the entrance to Jungang-dong,
“David Wright, or was it Knight? The translator translates his name differently every time I hear it. There’s a tall man with sharp features and dark brown hair.”
“David Knight? The man with short hair and a really low voice?”
Kim Jaehee nodded at my question. Then he answered leisurely,
“Ah. I think that’s right.”
Seo Jihyeok quietly listened to my conversation with Kim Jaehee, then asked Shin Haeryang,
“Huh? That bastard you’re talking about. Isn’t he that crazy bastard who worked with the American team for about ten days before? The lunatic who came in as a substitute because the previous American team leader got into an accident while drunk driving…”
Seo Jihyeok stopped speaking midway. He looked toward Jujak-dong and came to a complete stop. Then, in a low voice, he said seriously to Shin Haeryang,
“Team Leader. Someone’s coming from far away.”
“Who?”
“From the Jujak-dong side. I don’t know who. Baek Aeyeong!”
Baek Aeyeong, who had been walking at the very front through Jungang-dong, stopped at Seo Jihyeok’s voice.
“What, idiot?”
“Who do you think that is up ahead?”
Baek Aeyeong looked in the direction Seo Jihyeok indicated, then asked again,
“Where?”
“There. Someone’s running from far away.”
“Where?”
“There.”
Seo Jihyeok pointed at a spot in Jungang-dong. Everyone looked where Seo Jihyeok was pointing, but nothing was visible. Baek Aeyeong narrowed her eyes.
“Do you think I’m you? I can’t see.”
“Isn’t the person running over there Camilla? Blonde, with really long hair. I can’t see the face.”
Baek Aeyeong tilted her head and asked Seo Jihyeok,
“How long is the hair?”
“Looks like it reaches the waist. They’re wearing white clothes.”
“Camilla cut her hair. She said drying it was too much of a pain, so she couldn’t grow it out anymore.”
“Really? I think… it’s not an engineer. I think it’s a researcher. Looks like they’re running while screaming, but they run terribly. They’re practically rolling.”
Then was it Angela? Director Angela Malone? I didn’t think I had ever met Director Angela Malone while she was still alive. She had always been the one to cut off the connection between the Jujak-dong Research Center and Jujak-dong.
Seo Jihyeok frowned and said,
“What is that?”
“What is it?”
“There’s something like a wall behind them. If it’s pouring out like that…”
Shin Haeryang and Seo Jihyeok shouted at the same time.
“Run!”
“Get away!”
Seo Jihyeok scooped up Baek Aeyeong, who was nearby, and tucked her under his arm. Wondering what it was, I looked closely and saw a person running from very far away, only to roll and fall to the floor as they ran. The problem was the wall coming behind that person.
I could see something like a massive wall gradually approaching. It was a vivid blue wall, and it drew closer with every passing moment. What is that?
As if the floor had seized my ankles, my body would not move. My eyes were fixed on that wall. Only that beautiful, blue, transparent wall was surging toward us. The wall began to smash apart the person closest to it, the vending machines, and the buildings. When I looked closely at the wall, I realized it was water. An immense volume of water was pouring out from the Jujak-dong Research Center toward Jungang-dong.
I looked at Kim Jaehee right beside me. Kim Jaehee was simply staring blankly at the oncoming torrents of water. As if he intended to surrender his body to that current without any resistance at all.
Shin Haeryang grabbed Jeong Sanghyeon, who was right beside him, and ran. I grabbed Kim Jaehee, who showed no sign of moving, and began to run, almost hauling him onto my back. The wall of water had felt incredibly far away, but it arrived in an instant. Kim Jaehee said to me,
“Leave me behind.”
I didn’t even have the room to say no. You and I are going to have a talk later. While I was running frantically, Seo Jihyeok, who was running at the very front, shouted, This way. After that, I ran with only Seo Jihyeok and Baek Aeyeong dangling under his arm in my sights. The instant I felt the back of my head turn cold from water, I was swept away by the current.