Grabbed around the waist by Sin Haeryang with one arm, Tumanako was lifted more than 20 centimeters into the air. Yet Tumanako, brimming with fighting spirit, thundered at Jeong Sanghyeon.
“I'll show you how savage I am! I'll obliterate your head! You'll never be able to set foot in a hair salon again!”
Tumanako's kicks and punches aimed at Jeong Sanghyeon were spent on empty air. Occasionally, Sin Haeryang's body was struck by Tumanako's blind fists or kicks, but he didn't so much as flinch. Sin Haeryang spoke while holding Tumanako fast.
“You were Tumanako, if I recall. I don't know what happened, but please calm down.”
Gim Gayeong, restrained by Gang Sujeong, was in a similar state. Gang Sujeong was practically hugging her to hold her back. It seemed Gim Gayeong's feet were off the ground, too.
“I haven't hit him enough yet! Let go of me! ......Hey. Come here. Where do you think you're going? You didn't expect me to survive, did you! You thought I'd die miserably! Not a chance. I'm going to put you through the exact same agony! I'll make sure nobody can help you! I'll laugh at you until you die! I remember every word you said!”
Though Jeong Sanghyeon had been beaten without understanding why and rolled across the sandy beach, rather than the pain, he seemed dumbstruck by the sight of someone being furious with him down to the very tips of their hair. Emma, beside him, was the same. Gang Sujeong tried to soothe Gim Gayeong—who was suspended in mid-air, kicking up sand toward Jeong Sanghyeon with her toes—and said.
“I don't know what happened, but can't you hit him later, Ms. Gayeong? Honestly, I don't really feel like stopping you either. I'll even set a date and time for you! I'll arrange a ring! I'll lend you gloves! I'll cheer you on! Let's fight later!”
“That bastard did something wrong!”
At those words, Gang Sujeong—whose grip had momentarily slackened, nearly letting Gim Gayeong go—nodded and said.
“Of course he must have! There are plenty of times when I want to beat the people I meet at work to a pulp, too. It's not just one or two of them. No—Sanghyeon, why did you make Ms. Gayeong so angry! Sanghyeon, say something! Ah, you cut your tongue.”
“Come here. I think I can run away! I'll turn you into dough!”
While the Engineer Team A members held back the angry crowd, Jeong Sanghyeon gave up on resolving the situation and ran toward Gim Jaehui to escape. Not missing the moment Jeong Sanghyeon looked back while running across the sandy beach, Gim Jaehui quickly slipped his prosthetic leg in front of Jeong Sanghyeon's foot.
Losing his balance as he ran, Jeong Sanghyeon crashed into a beach bed and rolled across the sand. Fortunately, it was the opposite side of the sandy beach from where I was hiding.
Gim Jaehui whistled, pretending ignorance of what he'd done, but I had clearly seen him stick his leg out. Covered in sand, Jeong Sanghyeon wept as blood flowed from both nostrils. Really......what a mess. To the others, it must have looked like Jeong Sanghyeon tripped while fleeing and rolled across the beach. Thanks to this commotion, Gim Gayeong belatedly noticed Gim Jaehui's presence and spoke.
“Gim Jaehui? He was alive, too? Ms. Sujeong, let me go and I'll use words. Like a civilized person. I'll use language.”
To my eyes, Gim Gayeong looked ready to rush straight at Gim Jaehui or Jeong Sanghyeon the moment Gang Sujeong loosened her arms. At her repeated requests, Gang Sujeong quickly called her team leader to determine the truth.
“Team Leader Sin!”
“It's obviously a lie. Ms. Gayeong. Did Jaehui perhaps do something, too?”
“Yes. He sold people out to the Infinite Church together with Jeong Sanghyeon!”
“That’s right! He acted completely atrociously!”
“......”
At Tumanako's shout, Sin Haeryang's expression grew grave. Perhaps Sin Haeryang was thinking that what Gim Jaehui and Jeong Sanghyeon had done was similar to the harm inflicted on Riko.
“Oh dear.”
While Gang Sujeong let out a sigh, Gim Jaehui—whose name had been called—calmly smiled at Gim Gayeong and asked.
“Me?”
To my eyes, he looked like he was smiling as usual, but to Gim Gayeong's eyes, it must have seemed incredibly brazen.
“Pretending you don't know anything!”
Ms. Gayeong. He's probably doing that because he really doesn't know anything. ......Or perhaps not. Maybe he knows and is merely pretending. Jeong Sanghyeon, who had been rolling on the sandy beach, groaned in pain as he got up. Now Gang Sujeong, who had been trying to mediate, got angry and shouted at Gim Jaehui.
“Jaehui! What have you been doing!”
“I don't know.”
“No wonder...... Riko also started hitting Jaehui the moment she saw him. It seems there are more than one or two people who want to beat Jaehui right now. I don't know how many stupid things you've committed in just one day, but please maintain your composure for now.”
“......Riko hit him, too? Isn't she the barista at Undersea Base No. 1?”
“Look at Jaehui's face. One side of his face is swollen. That's from Riko hitting him. Don't bother hitting a man who's already been beaten. How about saving it up and hitting him later?”
Gang Sujeong seemed to be aiming for the anger to subside with time. But Gim Gayeong did not appear to be someone who put off today's business until tomorrow.
“Is that so? Then I'll take responsibility for the other side of his face right now.”
The situation was barely resolved through the persuasion and physical force of those over 190 centimeters tall. Since they were people without much stamina, they tired easily, and when their strength had sufficiently faded, Gang Sujeong and Sin Haeryang lowered the two people from mid-air to the ground.
Jeong Sanghyeon, completely covered in sand, had burst lips and a bloody nose from both nostrils, so he had to stuff the opposite end of the handkerchief he'd used to staunch his tongue into his nose. The Mingching woman tried to complain to the deputy team leader about her unfair treatment while saying it was both of their faults, but each time Gang Sujeong gave her a look telling her to shut up.
Gim Gayeong remembered every single word Jeong Sanghyeon had spat out on the broadcast without error. Having heard about Tumanako and Gim Gayeong's escape routes and their circumstances until now, Emma began to explain her own escape route.
The two researchers were insisting that their own memories were correct while putting forth the argument that there might have been some damage to each other's brains during the escape process. As examples, they spouted things about viruses or bacteria with quite complicated names, fungal or parasitic infections, or each other's hippocampus being insufficient.
But when the personal attacks that only served to wound the other party ended, the researchers were finding the common denominator appearing in their memories. Those two would probably realize soon that it was me.
The presence of Infinite Church cultists roaming about or the sound of gunfire didn't seem important to them. While the two researchers were aggressively recalling their memories from dawn until now, Sin Haeryang didn't pay much mind to the problem of everyone having different memories. The realist focused on the point that the people who had escaped the undersea base and come up to Daehan Island were attacking two specific team members.
“The undersea base survivors are desperate to beat Sanghyeon and Jaehui. At this rate, both of them will probably be beaten to death before tomorrow comes. Fortunately, the people we've met so far haven't had weapons, but we don't know how many more survivors will take revenge on them.”
“What are you going to do?”
“If those two are telling the truth, it's reason enough for me to slack off.”
Gang Sujeong now had to persuade Sin Haeryang with a look that said she had a headache.
“I want to tie those two bastards to a pillar in the headquarters building, install an electronic billboard on Daehan Island saying people with a grudge can come here and beat them, and I'll be standing in the very front row. ......Just dump them in Korea, Team Leader Sin. Think about resigning safely. It won't be long now. If it really comes down to it, bury those two under the sand. Not so the Infinite Church cultists can't find them—the survivors.”
Despite both the team leader and deputy team leader being in a situation that gave them headaches, Gim Jaehui sat down nonchalantly beside my head and asked.
“How much more do I have to get hit?”
“What?”
I......can't quite remember. So much has happened. For a moment, I was about to tell him he'd died nine times over, but I shut my mouth because he was someone who had actually experienced it. When I had been submerged in water without having gotten out of Baekho-dong, I, too, truly didn't know what Gim Jaehui had been up to. He must have acted according to his usual personality. I answered, lowering my voice as much as possible like a whisper.
“I don't know. If only you'd lived a little more decently, this wouldn't have happened.”
“I want to live only caring about myself, whether others live or die.”
“That's why you live like that in a disaster situation and get beaten up by the whole neighborhood.”
“Still, I think I lived more kindly than Sanghyeon.”
So you're saying you messed up less than him? I remembered someone telling me not to let others drag me down and to think about rising up instead. Was it Yu Geum?
“I see. Since you're saying you've lived kindly compared to Mr. Sanghyeon, you've lived a very proper life indeed.”
At my sarcasm, Gim Jaehui also closed his mouth. Gim Jaehui looked at Jeong Sanghyeon and seemed surprised to reflect on himself thinking he wasn't that bad. Perhaps, rather than the lesson that one should live virtuously because one's misdeeds come back around, he was shocked that his standard for comparison had been Jeong Sanghyeon.
“I......I've fallen this far?”
I decided to help Gim Jaehui escape his mental shock, if only a little. Truthfully, being buried under the sand, there wasn't much else to do anyway. If people realized I appeared abnormally often in their memories, I'd have a lot of explaining to do from then on.
Gim Gayeong and Emma had already claimed they were with me in their memories, while Park Muhyeon appearing in each other's memories was being dismissed as the other party's mental confusion. I gave Gim Jaehui some quiet advice.
“The Rhaphidophora you escaped with belongs to Ms. Tumanako. Go to her first and talk to Ms. Tumanako. Say that you rescued it from the hair salon. That it's in a safe place now.”
Gim Jaehui seemed to receive double the mental shock. He stared blankly at me, then spoke as if he were wronged.
“That one's mine.”
“That plant belongs to Ms. Tumanako. She said she received it as a gift from a friend.”
“If I hadn't saved it, it would have died in the seawater long ago. Plants don't have legs. And the owner threw it away and escaped like that.”
“But you rescued it, didn't you? You escaped desperately from the water-filled base, careful not to get it wet. It was hard going up the stairs, right? Tell Ms. Tumanako that, too. Tell her you escaped with difficulty carrying it, so please take good care of it. Promise you'll return it since you hid it well.”
Gim Jaehui stared holes into Tumanako, then answered, seemingly dissatisfied.
“I don't want to give it back.”
“It's a pretty plant even in your eyes, so how pretty must it be in the owner's eyes.”
“That’s exactly why I don't want to give it back. I rescued it with my own hands.”