Shin Haeryang answered me while keeping his gaze fixed forward.
“I expected you would object.”
Although Shin Haeryang rarely looked back, when he did, it seemed less about checking whether Kim Jaehui or I were following properly, and more about visually confirming the area behind Kim Jaehui, who was coming last. He probably knew we were following properly without even looking, just from the sound of footsteps. After all, he said he could tell whether Yu Geumi was climbing properly in the darkness-shrouded stairwell just by listening to her footsteps.
······Come to think of it, he was a strange person. I’d never paid attention to people’s footsteps beyond simply noticing someone was coming. What kind of thoughts did he live harboring every day?
“It seemed like the Team Leader was disappointed that he only got three escape pods.”
“I’m disappointed I couldn’t shove you into an escape pod. Sanghyeon isn’t interested in people, so he doesn’t ask these kinds of questions.”
Jeong Sanghyeon had seemed to like games; I supposed he was only interested in that. Kim Jaehui, who had been throwing questions at the back of the team leader’s head, laughed softly at that answer.
Shin Haeryang turned around and observed me and his team member as if we were troublesome cargo that had to be transported over 3km, then spoke.
“You’re right too. ······I did want to do that.”
I inwardly panicked and urgently asked Shin Haeryang,
“You’re going to knock everyone out and threaten me to get only your own team members out?”
“Yes.”
The man who had been briskly making his way down the Hyeonmudong hallway answered while pushing aside with his foot the garbage stuck to the floor or swept along by water. It seemed he was doing so because he was worried those coming behind might slip if they stepped on it.
“That is what I wanted to do, according to my own desire.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“······If it were the old me, I would have done exactly that.”
Shin Haeryang spoke as if it were an easy and simple matter.
“I would have started by knocking out or neutralizing anyone who opposed me. Of the seven escape pods, I would have kept five by threatening or coaxing you, reserving them for our team members, and sent Engineer Ga Team members to escape first. Even if there were objections midway, I wouldn’t have listened. Because my team members escaping this undersea base is my top priority.”
There was one nonsensical thing in the middle of all that.
“Do you think I would simply fall for Team Leader Shin’s coaxing or threats?”
Do I look easy? At my question, Shin Haeryang, who had been speaking without hesitation, abruptly closed his mouth. From behind me, Kim Jaehui’s suppressed giggles sounded loudly. When I glared at Kim Jaehui, he covered his mouth with both hands. No laughter escaped, but his eyes curved into round crescents as he shook his shoulders laughing.
I felt the urge to smack the back or the round back of the head of the person ahead, who had gone silent. While I was entertaining such violent thoughts, perhaps beginning to sense a threat to his safety, Shin Haeryang carefully chose his words and answered.
“······I would have used any means necessary to get what I wanted.”
How were you going to threaten me? By saying you’d send me a dozen dental patients or something? ······No. I didn’t really want to know.
“Of the remaining two, I would have left one for you. Partly as a gesture of sincerity for your cooperation, but also for the secondary objective of evacuating a Korean civilian, and to maintain a friendly relationship with Tamaki until my team members got out. And the last one, I would have incited the remaining people to fight for it, with the winner taking it.”
“I’ll grant you that my share would have been secured. But for the last escape pod, why make people obtain it through a duel······?”
It was fascinating to me that the word *duel* could be used by a modern, civilized person outside of a sports context. In Korea, the most we do to get something is buy it with money, take a test, or at most play rock-paper-scissors.
“If you plant the idea that something can be obtained through force, you can divert the attention focused on our team as we escape, because they’ll be too busy fighting each other.”
So they can’t pay attention to our team because they’re busy beating each other up, is that it? Hahaha. It was so absurd I laughed.
So this was what it meant to be the Engineer Ga Team leader; he really only thought about Engineer Ga Team. If I had been Korean or a member of Engineer Ga Team, he would have been a very reliable leader, but if I had been on another team, I would have been furious. There were seven escape pods, yet Ga Team, which arrived later at the escape pod port, monopolizes five of them. Anyone who protests is knocked out one by one by the Ga Team leader’s fists, so they can’t even object. Then he magnanimously says he’ll leave one, telling them whoever wins a fight can take it or leave it.
I could clearly see that under Shin Haeryang’s method, there wouldn’t be a single uninjured person left on Engineer Na Team or Engineer Ma Team. Do you want to see a dentist clutching the back of his neck from high blood pressure? Shin Haeryang hesitated, then added.
“······In particular, with my method, I don’t think Takahashi would have ever gotten out on an escape pod.”
Why wouldn’t Takahashi Yurie have been able to get out? I pondered Shin Haeryang’s words on my own but couldn’t come up with an answer. Did Shin Haeryang personally dislike Takahashi? Of course, that person was a workplace bully.
But I had prioritized evacuating Takahashi Yurie first, following the principle that women, children, and the elderly should be prioritized in a disaster. Under Shin Haeryang’s approach, why couldn’t she get out? I pondered, then gave up and asked Shin Haeryang directly.
“Why couldn’t Takahashi get out?”
“The harder the situation, the more people seek out the weak.”
Shin Haeryang seemed to think this was an answer, but I couldn’t understand it at all. What was he talking about.
“······Please explain in more detail.”
Shin Haeryang made a slightly uncomfortable expression, but it vanished in an instant.
“The more difficult and cornered people become, the first thing they do is attack the nearest weak person. To escape a painful and difficult situation, they do not attack the social structures or power groups that caused it. Because resisting the strong is difficult, arduous, and the risk of retaliation is high. So they choose the easiest option of looking away, or they vent their twisted anger by finding the easiest prey nearby to take out their frustration on.”
Shin Haeryang paused for a moment. Then he continued in a chill voice.
“If Mark, Bart, Leonard, Sato, Takahashi, and Yamashita were told to determine a victor through fighting, the victor might as well be predetermined as Yamashita. What kind of hellscape the losers might create in this Hyeonmudong after I’ve left on the escape pod is none of my concern. However, I can roughly guess what vented frustration Takahashi, placed in the position of the new weakest, would suffer at the hands of the losers.”
I felt sick just imagining it. It’s okay. Takahashi Yurie got on the escape pod. That won’t happen.
Shin Haeryang checked the end of the hallway and continued.
“I······ was a bit surprised that you chose to send Takahashi out. Takahashi Yurie is one of those who bullied Tamaki, and even if you sent her out on an escape pod, not only would there be no benefit for you, but the very attempt to evacuate her was a dangerous decision that could have turned Tamaki’s gun barrel toward you.”
I suppose Shin Haeryang was incredibly surprised inwardly when I called Takahashi’s name.
“Did you expect such disorder to occur even while Mr. Tamaki was aiming his gun?”
Shin Haeryang raised the corner of his mouth and answered simply.
“You can’t shoot five moving people at once with a gun. And seeing as Tamaki only shot those who came within six meters of him, he doesn’t seem to blindly believe in his own marksmanship.”
I didn’t know what to say. There was only one reason I sent Takahashi.
“I was taught that in dangerous situations like this, the weakest should escape first. I simply applied what I learned on the spot.”
Having heard my answer, Shin Haeryang hesitated slightly and answered.
“It’s······ usually not easy to do that.”
He probably had more experience than me in completely chaotic situations. Is that so? Usually, people like Shin Haeryang or Yamashita punch their way through the crowd to be the first into the escape pods, and then the next wave of people swarms in, screaming and fighting to board, leaving their lives to chance to escape, or not.
Well. Even at the Jujakdong Research Center, there had been a severe shortage of escape pods, but at first, they tried to send out minors in as orderly a manner as possible. People don’t seem to be as broken in humanity as Shin Haeryang expects. When terrified by fear or driven to despair and panic, their judgment clouds, and they begin making wrong choices.
“Then why didn’t you stop me when I called Takahashi’s name?”
Why didn’t you threaten me to cancel calling her name?
As soon as Shin Haeryang exited the hallway completely, he hid his body toward the [Crocodile] and gestured to Kim Jaehui and me. When we hid our bodies in the spot Shin Haeryang indicated, he answered in a low voice.
“You might not have known, but Tamaki was watching us the whole time. He was observing with eyes that questioned whether the person who seemed to care for the weak was instead someone who merely reproduced another weakling. Tamaki probably wanted me to do things my way. He probably wanted to see the engineers fighting each other, tearing each other down, raging over the few escape pods, and falling apart.”
Shin Haeryang let out a low sigh and spoke to me.
“Because you chose the things I would not choose, I left the decision to you. Thank you for getting my three team members out.”
“That was simply the right people getting out. It’s nothing to be thanked for. Let’s get out quickly too.”
Kim Jaehui grabbed my shoulder from behind, and I jumped in surprise.
“I’m the weakest of the weak, Savior. I believe you’ll save me someday.”
“I understand escaping, but as for salvation, please save yourself.”
“I want to obtain it easily by relying on others. I don’t want to save myself the hard way.”
I’m going crazy. I should have put Kim Jaehui on the escape pod first. When Shin Haeryang suggested resting here for just two or three minutes, I collapsed onto the floor.
“I’m just asking out of curiosity.”
“Yes.”
“May I ask when you first hit someone at this undersea base?”
As soon as he heard that, Kim Jaehui burst into laughter.
“Ah. I heard it from Jihyeok hyung. His self-justification was incredibly long.”
“It was my first day on the job.”
What would you have to be doing to start throwing punches on your first day?