Even to Sin Haeryang's blunt question, Riko offered no answer. I couldn't tell if that was fortunate or not. My view was filled with nothing but the sight of Riko's back as she sat in the chair. Motionless as a statue, Riko left me no choice but to keep staring at her back.
Riko, who didn't so much as twitch despite the blood spattered on her shoulders and arms and Sin Haeryang's torrent of questions, began to terrify me. Even when called, there was no reaction at all. It had been nerve-wracking enough when she observed me from a posture looking down at me like Kim Jaehui did. To think that being forced to continuously watch the back of someone who wouldn't even look at me could be this frightening.
My eyes had been fixed on her light brown hair brushing her shoulders and the blood staining its edges before I forcibly turned my head away.
Sin Haeryang watched Riko in silence from inside the transparent decompression chamber. When Sin Haeryang stopped questioning the unresponsive figure, a tense silence settled over the hyperbaric oxygen therapy room. Only time flowed by, slowly and quietly.
Where did Kim Jaehui go? Why isn't he coming? When I waved a hand at Sin Haeryang from within my chamber, he turned his head toward me. I pointed at Riko, then showed him my open palm. I doubted whether Sin Haeryang had properly understood my question asking what Riko was doing.
Then Sin Haeryang conveyed the current situation to me with simple hand gestures. He raised and lowered one index finger, then raised and lowered another index finger; then he folded only one thumb while extending all the rest of his fingers. And he pointed all nine fingers toward Riko. 119? It seemed to mean that Riko needed medical help. There were only fifteen minutes left on my chamber's timer.
My anxiety only grew. Trapped inside the chamber, no one could help. Contrary to my anxious heart, my head coldly assessed the situation and shouted at me to use this time as efficiently as possible. With about fifteen minutes remaining, it told me to either close my eyes and rest comfortably to conserve my strength, or at least touch the ash powder I had been storing in my memory and figure out exactly what it was.
But the reality before me was too frightening and unnerving for me to have the composure for anything else. I could only stare endlessly at Riko's unmoving back.
I couldn't rest easy because of anxiety, and I was only putting off what needed to be done because of anxiety. If I were a human who didn't get swayed by emotions, I would have been able to live much more efficiently. Weighed down by worry and inexplicable anxiety, I felt as though I were staying up all night with wide-open eyes while everyone else slept.
While I had done nothing but breathe heavily inside the decompression chamber, the timer reached zero. Hearing the AI's guidance and greeting, I got up from the chamber.
Slowly getting up, I approached Riko, who sat in her chair. Riko was sitting blankly staring ahead; it seemed like her soul had left her.
I hastily gathered the clothes I'd removed beside the chamber and changed back into my original outfit behind Riko. Then with wet wipes placed in the corner, I carefully wiped away the flecks of blood from Riko's face, neck, arms, and hands. Fortunately, this blood didn't seem to be Riko's. For now, it was a relief that Riko wasn't injured.
"It's okay. Riko. It's okay."
Being in a situation that was anything but okay while spouting things like "you alright" was maddeningly distressing. Everyone in this therapy room knew that this situation was not okay right now. Even so, this was all I could do for the moment.
After wiping all the blood off Riko's hands, I fetched an old blanket that seemed to have been used by divers in the therapy room and draped it over the back and shoulders of Riko, who had become like a statue. Since there was still time left in Sin Haeryang's chamber, I took only the gun from Sin Haeryang's clothes and left the therapy room, but I heard human voices near the entrance to the diving area.
There, Kim Jaehui was conversing with two Church of Infinity followers with a cart between them. Pulling my balaclava up to my nose and pressing my hat down low, I lightly gave myself auto-suggestion in my mind.
I am a Church of Infinity follower. I am a madman who believes in a pseudo-religion.
...It doesn't seem to be very helpful. Determined to keep them from approaching the therapy room where Sin Haeryang and Riko were, I walked toward the three of them. Kim Jaehui looked at me and raised the corner of his mouth as he spoke.
"Hey. Sanghyeon. How's your body? Feeling a bit better after treatment?"
I tactfully nodded and approached the three. And when I saw a person lying on their side on the cart, covered by an apron, I froze solid. Meiji Jang was lying on the cart. Perhaps Riko had pulled the cart all the way here, because blood droplets continued to trail behind it.
Her chest wasn't moving up and down, as if she weren't breathing. With someone lying dead right there, Kim Jaehui spoke nonchalantly, slurping his nearly finished coffee.
"There's no one here but us."
"Yeah? Kim. I know you, but I've never seen him before."
Two men who appeared to be Church of Infinity followers greeted me. A man who affably introduced himself as Joy by pointing his thumb at himself pointed at the person beside him and said he was Ian. I scratched the back of my neck and awkwardly said my name.
"I'm Jeong Sanghyeon. I don't really like people."
I spoke while lowering my head and avoiding eye contact. It was incredibly difficult to ignore the corpse on the cart. I felt like I was getting a facial cramp. I was so tense that I felt slightly dizzy. I wanted to skip the greetings and interrogate them about whether they had killed Meiji Jang, but I held back. Unable to take my eyes off Meiji Jang laid on the cart, I asked the three people a question.
"Why... is she dead?"
I tried not to be conscious of the gun I was carrying. Both my attitude and English were atrocious, but fortunately, the opponents didn't seem to see through my pathetic acting. That was fortunate. I also don't know whether foreigners in movies or dramas are acting well or not.
The man who'd introduced himself as Joy shrugged and spoke.
"Dunno. We just followed the bloodstains. There was a trail of blood from the cafe all the way here. Aren't you guys supposed to be on guard instead of slacking off?"
He seemed to be saying that because he had seen me or Kim Jaehui come out of the therapy room.
"Slacking off? Sanghyeon and I were just getting treated because we're hurt. Sanghyeon couldn't even wear his translator because of hearing loss. He probably can't understand half of what you're saying!"
I repeatedly said in Korean that my ears weren't good and that I didn't know English well. Ian stared holes into me before asking Kim Jaehui.
"Besides the dead woman. Haven't you seen another woman who works at the cafe?"
"I saw her at the cafe about two hours ago, and haven't since."
Kim Jaehui shook his nearly empty coffee cup.
"We don't know who left her here like this either. We've been in the therapy room the whole time. We'll ask the kids on the diving side."
Joy looked at Meiji's corpse and spoke irritably.
"Then we can't use the cafe?"
Is that what's important? My heart turned cold. At Joy's question, Kim Jaehui slurped his drink through the straw and held out the cup with only ice left to Joy, asking slyly.
"You want a sip of this at least?"
"Get that away! I'll make it myself!"
Joy turned away, annoyed. Ian tilted his head and asked my name again.
"What did you say your name was?"
I almost said Bak Muhyeon but barely maintained my composure and answered.
"...Jeong Sanghyeon."
Then Ian looked at me and said, as if it were strange.
"I don't think that was the name."
It felt like my heart dropped to the floor with a thud. I felt like sweat was pouring out of every pore in my body. I asked back in a calm voice.
"Have we met before?"
"...I saw you a few times at the restaurant."
I'd been telling all sorts of people my name, so I couldn't even remember what I'd told this person. I'm going crazy. Kim Jaehui was watching me as if he were enjoying this. It was as if he were excited to see how I would get through this predicament.
"My name is Sanghyeon. Sanghyeon. Memorize it this time. I'll memorize yours too. It was Ian, right? I'll ask you next time."
I spoke in a tone dissatisfied that he hadn't memorized my name properly, but among the two syllables of the name Sanghyeon, I barely pronounced the 'Sang' and spoke the 'hyeon' unusually strongly. Muhyeon. It's Bak Muhyeon. I recalled my past from a few days ago, when I'd been going around making the same sound. Please. Fall for it. I hope your memory is as terrible as a goldfish's right now. I hope my pronunciation was terrible too. Please.
Ian looked at me, furrowed his brows, then nodded as if not remembering well. Then he glanced at Meiji Jang loaded on the cart once and turned away with Joy.
Please. Let's never meet again. Hurry and go back where you came from.
For some reason, Kim Jaehui suddenly shouted and called back to the two people who were walking toward the cafe.
"Hey! Joy!"
It felt like my breath stopped. I tried to stop Kim Jaehui, but the two turned around faster. Kim Jaehui shouted shamelessly.
"If you find Riko, let me know too! So I can have another cup."
Sweat trickled down my back. I wanted to smack the back of Kim Jaehui's head right then, but I held back. Joy showed his middle finger to Kim Jaehui, then resumed walking. Once those two had shrunk to the size of a thumb, only then did I let out the breath I'd been holding. And I looked at Kim Jaehui with a resentful gaze. But Kim Jaehui spoke to me with a smile.
"You're quite a skilled liar."
"Why on earth! ......Never mind. Did they fall for it?"
"So what if they did or didn't? Of course, it'd be best if they mistook the savior for Sanghyeon and let it pass, but it doesn't matter even if not. If they fight us right now, it's two against two, and it's disadvantageous for them too. If they don't believe it, they'll bring more next time."
Then he calmly placed the cup with only ice remaining on the floor. An approaching cleaning robot cleared the cup Kim Jaehui had discarded mid-drink and began wiping the blood from the floor. Kim Jaehui pointed at Meiji and spoke.
"I didn't kill her."
"I know."
I lifted the covered apron and checked her vital signs. Meiji was already dead. Just looking at the blood spilled on the floor, it hadn't seemed like she could have survived, but confirming it made dizziness wash over me. It seemed Riko had witnessed the moment of the shooting firsthand. Wondering who was coming out of the therapy room, I looked in surprise to see Sin Haeryang emerging carrying Riko on his back.