From what I could hear, it seemed like Sin Haeryang was openly treating Ramunas like a beggar. Was he trying to provoke Ramunas into charging at him in anger so he could use that as an excuse to subdue him?
“It’s not petty cash. I’ll pay fair wages for the work done.”
“How much will you pay?”
When Gang Sujeong asked as if curious, Sin Haeryang called out to the other party as if trying to stop her.
“Deputy Team Leader Gang.”
“You’re curious about the amount too, Team Leader.”
Once the sharp tension had subsided somewhat, Ramunas’s voice followed.
“I’ll give ten thousand dollars just for telling me where he is. If you bring him to me, a hundred thousand dollars. It doesn’t matter whether he’s alive or dead, but I would prefer him alive as much as possible.”
Ramunas was speaking as if I were some protected marine species that had been caught.
“If I find him and bring him, what happens to this person called Bak Muhyeon?”
“You just need to get the money. You don’t need to know what happens after that.”
I imagined Gang Sujeong pointing at the sand pit where I was hiding. Come to think of it, it reminded me of the time she had pointed her finger at me thinking I was a follower of the Muhan Order. Ah. No way.
“Deputy Team Leader Gang. Aren’t you going too far? You want to sell out a dentist who doesn’t even have fingers? He must not have a single friend since he just joined recently; don’t you pity him?”
Every time Kim Jaehui spoke, the beach bed vibrated slightly. It seemed she was sitting on the beach bed set up over my body. As Kim Jaehui spoke as if trying to stop Gang Sujeong, my faith in Gang Sujeong only grew firmer in my heart. Please pity me a little.
I never really understood why people who were buried alive in movies died, but if my face hadn’t been sticking out, I would have died long ago. So this is what it feels like to be crushed by sand.
But thanks to Kim Jaehui, Ramunas might not have noticed my position yet. It didn’t seem easy to find a well-camouflaged target with the naked eye. I hoped he would continue failing to find me and leave quickly.
“I’m the most pitiful one. It’s right before payday, so I’m terribly strapped for cash. ……I do need money, but I’d feel awful if I told you the location or handed someone over and they died because of me. You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
Ramunas didn’t answer Gang Sujeong’s question at all. Gang Sujeong, too, was silent, perhaps appalled by Ramunas’s reaction. While an uncomfortable silence lingered among them, I tried to breathe as slowly as possible through my nose. It didn’t help much. I felt like I might pass out.
“Even if you or I don’t kill him, eventually those Muhan Order bastards will find Bak Muhyeon, toy with him to their heart’s content, and kill him. People like you and me just need to make money in the middle.”
“Why does the Muhan Order want Bak Muhyeon?”
To Sin Haeryang’s question, Ramunas avoided answering precisely.
“I don’t know either. I think he’s an ordinary person who got unlucky and entangled with a crazy cult, but I don’t really want to know. I just plan to bring them what they want and get paid.”
“If they want an Asian, it doesn’t necessarily have to be Bak Muhyeon, does it? There are plenty of people with black hair and black eyes. I can recommend a few Chinese or Japanese people living on Daehan-do. By the time a couple of fingers are cut off and a few toes are gone, anyone would introduce themselves as Bak Muhyeon if someone just poked them in the side.”
Gang Sujeong spoke to her team leader as if dumbfounded.
“Team Leader Sin. If you cut a sweet potato into potato-sized pieces, does it become a potato?”
“As the saying goes, a chicken instead of a pheasant. If there’s no suitable person, you could probably catch someone similar and substitute them.”
Perhaps Sin Haeryang was asking whether, if they couldn’t find Bak Muhyeon, they should just grab any Asian and beat him up. Having heard Sin Haeryang’s opinion on whether substitution was possible, Ramunas scoffed and said:
“You seem to have quite a few people you don’t like. I have no intention of scamming lunatics like the Muhan Order. I don’t want to face the fanatics’ revenge. So will you do it or not?”
Gang Sujeong let out deep sighs and asked:
“……Do you actually have the money? I need to know for sure if you have enough money to keep your promise.”
“What I have are precious metals of equivalent value.”
Hearing those words, Gang Sujeong showed open disappointment and asked:
“So. You don’t have cash?”
“It’s better than cash. Easy to carry. You can sell it at auction or dispose of it through a broker, but if you don’t plan to sell, it would be fine for you to wear it yourself.”
At Ramunas’s answer, Gang Sujeong’s voice dropped and she spoke fiercely:
“……Hey. Get lost. Unless you want to get beaten.”
“What?”
“Are you trying to order people around with no money right now? My credit card payment is due tomorrow, and you think I can dispose of precious metals through some damn broker? Auction? Jaehui. Is this the latest scam trending these days?”
Kim Jaehui took Gang Sujeong’s side and said:
“He definitely seems like a scammer. Look at his eyes. There are many scammer types among people like that. And look at me. They say you can get your nose cut off before your very eyes, and before I knew it, my calves were gone and my fingers were gone too. *Sob sob sob.* The world scammed me.”
“You’ve had it hard. Anyway, these scammer bastards always say they won’t give money but bring some weird thing saying you can exchange it for money. What’s the difference between guys who bring jade mats or germanium bracelets and you?”
Ramunas’s flustered voice followed.
“This type of precious metal is something punks like you would rarely even see…….”
“Wow. And that costs over ten thousand dollars? Look at the thing. You’re trying to trick me with some cheap toy ring that even my six-year-old nephew wouldn’t play with? Let go. Team Leader Sin. Let go of my arm. I’ll talk this out. We’re so broke we have to drink seawater instead of buying water; where do you get off lying to us?”
“Deputy Team Leader. Please calm down.”
I heard sounds like Sin Haeryang grabbing and restraining the seemingly angry Gang Sujeong. Sin Haeryang seemed to be laughing. I think Kim Jaehui was laughing too.
Voices buzzed loudly for a moment, but when Emma screamed at them to be quiet, that subsided too. After Sin Haeryang’s blatant order to leave, Ramunas’s voice was no longer heard. After some time had passed, Gang Sujeong cautiously asked Sin Haeryang:
“Team Leader. How much longer do I have to keep my hands on my hips and huff?”
Sounds of Sin Haeryang moving around could be heard before he spoke to Gang Sujeong:
“It doesn’t seem like any listening devices were installed. You can stop now.”
If I opened my mouth, sand would rush in immediately. My nose was practically buried in sand too. Fortunately, Kim Jaehui seemed to have gotten up from above me, and the weight crushing my body instantly decreased. At least I would survive. Gang Sujeong let out a deep sigh and spoke:
“Team Leader Sin. I can’t do this. I can’t live like this. I’ve lived honestly. I’m so ashamed. What kind of act is this?”
“For someone who says that, you’re quite good at it.”
“That’s…… not a compliment I’m grateful for.”
“During sparring, you used to throw fakes as naturally as breathing.”
“That’s different from this!”
As Gang Sujeong’s aggrieved voice echoed, Kim Jaehui leisurely asked Sin Haeryang:
“Didn’t Aeyeong say she was protecting us from afar? Can’t we tell her to shoot people like that with a gun if they approach?”
“We can. She’ll shoot if I signal. But did that guy act threateningly?”
“He was a threat to Muhyeon.”
“From a distance, Aeyeong would only see him as a diver who just came out of the sea. Besides, if gunshots echoed across the beach, they could be heard on the other side of the island.”
“Is that so? Then it was better to chase him away quietly? Mr. Muhyeon. Are you alive and well?”
“…….”
“Are you dead?”
“…….”
Without saying anything, I waved my left hand, which was exposed to the outside. Save me. At that, the people around me hurriedly removed the towel wrapped around my head and dug away the sand around my neck and face. Then they wiped my face, soaked in sweat, with the towel. Gang Sujeong was making a fan with her hand from the side, her face surprised.
“Doctor. We thought you were dead. You startled me.”
“I couldn’t speak because of the sand.”
“How did you chase that big guy away? Fortunately, you were able to chase him off with words.”
“Thank you. Good work.”
Kim Jaehui spoke as if bragging:
“I was sitting on top of Muhyeon.”
“I almost died. I was going to bury you here too, Jaehui.”
“But thanks to me, he didn’t seem to know Muhyeon was here.”
“…….”
Right. I didn’t even have the strength to be angry. Still, Ramunas left. Gang Sujeong didn’t have to use her fists or a broken glass bottle. How fortunate. As my entire body went limp from extreme tension and fatigue, I saw what Sin Haeryang was holding in his hand. Sin Haeryang placed a large oil canister on the ground. His body reeked strongly of a burnt smell and the distinctive odor of fuel.
“The tracker doesn’t know the exact location. He aims to capture or kill Muhyeon, but it will take time to close the distance while following the trail. That’s fortunate.”
“What is that oil?”
“I went to see if anything usable was left, but everything was burned or wrecked. I used the boat as firewood to build up the fire more and brought the remaining fuel.”
“What is this oil used for?”
“It’s fuel for a motorboat.”
“We barely have any fuel in the boat, so are we supposed to ride out into the open sea?”
“Yes.”
Gang Sujeong seemed too afraid to ask about her future any longer. I thanked the people around me for hiding me. I asked them to call Jeong Sanghyeon, who was sitting apart in the distance, and with a single jerk of Sin Haeryang’s chin, Jeong Sanghyeon sat down in front of me with a sullen face.
“Thank you for saying you didn’t know me when I was questioned earlier.”
Jeong Sanghyeon mumbled something at me with a towel in his mouth, but I couldn’t understand him. When I couldn’t make out what he was saying, Jeong Sanghyeon repeated the same words about three times, then stamped his feet in anger, kicked the sand, and went to another beach bed.
“I can’t quite tell what he’s saying. I thought I was pretty good at understanding people who mumble.”
“He was saying that if the dentist suddenly gets dragged away or dies, when is he going to get his own teeth treated?”
Whether Kim Jaehui had understood Jeong Sanghyeon’s words, she translated them for me and then flipped the towel back over my head.