The child opened his eyes and was met with the faces of terrified adults. The child, too, began to grow frightened upon seeing strangers surrounding him.
"Who are you? Where is this? Where's Dad?"
A sliver of light from the door fell across the child's tearful face in the lingering darkness of the theater, and I felt like I was about to cry too. Outside, people's screams continued without end. Yu Geumi shushed the child, placing a finger to his lips, then whispered, "Don't cry. Don't cry."
"Shh... be quiet. What's your name?"
While Yu Geumi distracted the tearful child, I rummaged through my backpack using only my fingertips, pretending to look for candy. If I gave him something to eat, he would quiet down. Only after plunging my hand into the backpack did I remember the snake inside, and I cursed inwardly as I rummaged around.
"Henry. Where's Dad?"
"Your dad went to work right now. ...What's your dad's name?"
"Leonard Sanders."
Yu Geumi's eyes sharpened.
"Is your father that Leonard Sanders, the American engineer? Is your mother's name Nevaeh Hopkins?"
"You know my mom and dad?"
"I'm Yu Geumi. I ran into your mom and dad sometimes at the lounge. Don't you live with your mom?"
"Today is Dad's day to play with me."
Yu Geumi let out a groan. I pulled out chocolate bars and candies at random and held them out to Yu Geumi, who then passed them to Henry. Henry accepted them from her as if it were only natural. I didn't know who his parents were, but you shouldn't teach a child to accept food from strangers so casually.
"I'm a friend of your mom. If you stay quiet, we'll go meet your dad when he finishes work."
The child looked at the candy with a troubled expression.
"I can't eat candy because of my cavity. Mom said I'm not allowed."
To help Yu Geumi, I quickly jumped in with support. It's okay to eat! It's okay!
"I'm a dentist. It's fine to eat. After you finish, I'll check if your teeth are okay."
Distracted as I was pulling candy from my bag, I also pulled out a whale plushie and held it out, but the child shook his head at the orange, thirty-centimeter whale plushie.
"I'm not young enough to play with things like this."
Henry answered calmly. Even though he had woken up in the dark surrounded by several adults he didn't know, the child hadn't cried. If it were me, I would've bawled my eyes out, asking where this was and who they were and screaming for my mom. How brave. Adults hug things like this and tremble while getting dental treatment. In Korea, kids usually held onto dolls well during treatment, but were American kids different? Kim Gayeong observed the child and asked,
"How old are you?"
"Seven."
"If you're seven, you're all grown up. Right?"
"Exactly. That's right. At seven, you'll be driving and drinking in no time."
When I asked this to Seo Jihyeok to get his agreement, he seemed flustered and spewed nonsense. Sin Haeryang, who had checked on our localized chaos with only a roll of his eyes, heard sounds outside the door and gestured for us to be quiet. Panicked, I covered Henry's mouth with my palm. Henry brushed my hand away as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Unlike me, who was fraught with anxiety at the situation of people screaming outside the theater, the child asked all too calmly,
"Why?"
"Let's stay quiet. We can't let the people outside hear us."
"Then you could've just told me to be quiet."
At the logical words of this seven-year-old, I was at a loss for words. So, as if zipping my lips shut, I covered my mouth in the air; the child mimicked me exactly, zipping his own lips shut. Was a seven-year-old supposed to be this smart? The kids who came to the dentist—whether they were seven, seventeen, or twenty-seven—all screamed "Euaaah!" so I could never really tell.
The multimedia room doesn't lock. Instead, the rule was that if the multimedia room was closed, people assumed someone was using it and didn't enter. If it wasn't in use, it was left slightly ajar. Whether Sin Haeryang had left it open when he came in, a shaft of light from outside entered the dark multimedia room.
We were holding our very breath when a silhouette passed by, briefly blocking the light. The tension was so high that if someone had tapped me on the shoulder, a scream would've burst out right then. At that moment, someone suddenly opened the multimedia room door and burst in.
I noticed that the whale plushie I'd been holding had vanished, and that Baek Ayeong was pressing a blade against the newcomer's temple. The one who'd grabbed the intruder's head, slammed him to the floor, and stuffed the plushie into his mouth was presumably Sin Haeryang; the one pinning the struggling body with her own while holding a knife was Baek Ayeong; and the one catching the wildly kicking legs seemed to be Seo Jihyeok. Kim Gayeong recognized the person and said,
"Huh? Ms. Smith."
"Who?"
When I asked, Kim Gayeong quickly answered,
"Jennifer Smith. Leader of the Engineer Ma Team."
I'd heard that Engineer Ma Team was where all the Americans gathered. At Kim Gayeong's words, I could see the strength leave the struggling legs. However, Seo Jihyeok didn't let go of the feet he was holding. Sin Haeryang quietly said to Jennifer,
"I can't guarantee what I'll do if you scream. If you'll stay quiet, nod your head."
Jennifer's head, flattened against the floor like a frog, nodded. Even so, Baek Ayeong remained still without withdrawing the knife. In the darkness, only the blade glinted; rather than pulling away from near Jennifer's eyes, it moved down toward her cheek. Sin Haeryang pulled the plushie from Jennifer's mouth and subtly kicked it toward me with his foot. When I picked it up, the tail was soggy with saliva from having been in her mouth. Ignoring my dumbfounded expression, Sin Haeryang asked the woman named Jennifer,
"What happened in Hyeonmu-dong?"
"...A Japanese engineer opened fire. People were hit and fell. I ran and ended up here."
Only then did I understand why Baek Ayeong had stopped at Jungang-dong. So there had been gunfire. I hadn't realized that sound was gunfire. I'd thought it was the sound of metal bending somewhere.
"Are there any escape pods left in Hyeonmu-dong?"
When Jennifer sealed her lips, Sin Haeryang twisted the hand gripping her head about sixty degrees. Her head snapped around, and Jennifer's eyes met Henry's. Upon seeing Henry, Jennifer shrieked inwardly—*Why is the kid here?*—then groaned and answered,
"They were fighting over six of them. The Russian team, Japanese team, and Chinese team were screaming and fighting, so our team went over, and then a man from the Japanese team pulled out a gun and started shooting."
"Who from the Japanese team?"
"I don't know. They all look alike."
"What kind of gun was it?"
"I think it was a submachine gun. I couldn't see clearly because I was running."
"Did you go to Jujak-dong?"
"No."
"Cheongnyong-dong?"
"I haven't been there!"
"Baekho-dong?"
"We were in the middle of working! We'd been in Hyeonmu-dong for less than ten minutes, helping Mining Team 3 with robot repairs."
"Tell me if you know anything about any other team's situation."
"...Get your hand off my head, you bastard!"
Sin Haeryang removed his hand from Jennifer's head. Baek Ayeong pulled Jennifer away from Sin Haeryang and smoothed her disheveled hair with her hand. At some point, the knife that had been in Baek Ayeong's hand had vanished. Because the multimedia room was quite dark, Jennifer—who hadn't been able to clearly see which of the two had held the knife to her—assumed it had been Sin Haeryang. She scooted away and stuck close to Baek Ayeong.
Baek Ayeong quickly patted Jennifer's back. Immediately, a torrent of curses directed at Sin Haeryang poured from Jennifer's mouth. I watched the spectacle that had unfolded in just one minute with my jaw hanging open, and amid the messy atmosphere, Seo Jihyeok awkwardly asked,
"Uh... is that Daniel guy from the same team alive?"
"That bastard used me as a human shield when the bullets started flying!"
"Ah, that bastard hasn't changed."
From what they were saying, it seemed that after someone from the Japanese team had shot at his own team, a barrage of gunfire broke out. Daniel Rodriguez, a teammate, had used Jennifer as a shield while fleeing and escaped Hyeonmu-dong. Once Jennifer, who had been fuming with rage, calmed down a little, I cautiously asked,
"Was Kevin Wilson on the American team?"
"...Yeah. He said he had a bad headache, so he should be resting in his quarters."
Even as she answered, Jennifer's face had gone rigid. While I was looking at her and trying to decide what to say, Henry asked,
"What about Leonard Sanders?"
Jennifer saw the frantic X-signs and hand gestures from Yu Geumi and Kim Gayeong behind the child. She looked at the child's face and spoke,
"...He's working right now. I'm your dad's superior. Who brought you here?"
"Dad did."
Jennifer's face twisted into something gruesome, and she seemed to force her expression into a smile. Having some experience in society myself, it looked like Jennifer wanted to devour Leonard right then and there.
"Ah... I see. That's right~. Where did your mom go?"
"Mom went to see Grandma."
"...I thought it was settled that you live with your mom. Why are you here looking for your dad?"
Kim Gayeong grabbed her head as if a headache was coming on. Seemed there was a complicated family situation. To shift the subject, Yu Geumi asked Jennifer something else:
"Where were you heading?"
"I was planning to use the escape pod in Jujak-dong. The Russian guys said it looked like the Korean team had gone that way and hadn't come back, so they must've escaped."
A brief silence fell. The sound of Henry rolling the candy around in his mouth was the loudest thing anyone could hear. Jennifer looked at Sin Haeryang's face and spoke sharply,
"Seeing as you're back, I guess you didn't escape."
Sin Haeryang seemed to have decided to treat Jennifer's words like a dog's barking. I put the saliva-soaked whale plushie, which was being ignored by everyone, back into my backpack and said,
"You won't be able to escape using the Jujak-dong escape pod."
"Why?"
To Jennifer's question, Baek Ayeong answered with a sigh,
"Most of the escape pods in Jujak-dong were broken. Do you happen to know who inspected them before?"
"Not us. A month ago, we inspected the escape pods in Hyeonmu-dong with the Chinese team. It must've been Australia or New Zealand."
"Our team was in charge of Baekho-dong. We're on the same team as Australia. Because Australia didn't like inspecting together with China."
"Cheongnyong-dong must have been inspected by Russia and Canada. I had drinks with them after the inspection."
Seo Jihyeok trailed off, glancing at Sin Haeryang's mood. Kim Gayeong said with a frown,
"The Jujak-dong escape pods must have been inspected by the Japanese and New Zealand teams."
"Well... someone could have broken them after the inspection."
After Yu Geumi's words, a brief silence descended. The screams and gunshots from outside grew quiet, as if they had never existed.