I hung up and returned the phone to Baek Aeyeong. Baek Aeyeong pulled back the curtain around the next bed, woke Jeong Sanghyeon by punching him, and asked if he wanted to call his family. Since his tongue had been stitched up and it would be hard for him to talk, she said that if he wrote it down on paper, she would relay it for him. Jeong Sanghyeon scribbled in a mess, [I hate it here so much! Mom, Dad, save me! I’m going to run away!]
Baek Aeyeong let out a deep sigh, then called Jeong Sanghyeon’s parents and said, “Hello, I’m Sanghyeon’s coworker. Sanghyeon is doing well. Unfortunately, he injured his mouth a little, but other than that, he’s perfectly fine.”
When Jeong Sanghyeon violently dragged his pen across the paper and wrote, [Why aren’t you telling them exactly what I wrote?] Baek Aeyeong turned toward him, extended only her middle finger, and continued relaying things like, “Yes, yes. He’s perfectly fine. You don’t need to worry.”
When Jeong Sanghyeon wrote in huge letters, [Tell them I want pork cutlet, so prepare some for me,] Baek Aeyeong stared soullessly at the words for a moment before saying, “He says he’ll be a filial son for the rest of his life. He says he wants to devote his flesh and bones to supporting you,” making me cover my mouth and laugh beside her. [When did I ever say that!] The short call ended without reflecting Jeong Sanghyeon’s wishes in the slightest.
Kim Jaehee, who had been dragged back by Shin Haeryang, said that forget calling his family, he didn’t even want to send a single frequency in Korea’s direction, and told them to just kill him instead.
Shin Haeryang said that if he didn’t behave, then as his workplace superior, he would contact Kim Jaehee’s family on behalf of an employee who had suffered an accident at work. He threatened Kim Jaehee, saying he would make a fake call along the lines of how much he loved every member of his family and how he would come see them soon.
Kim Jaehee made a show of diving onto the hospital bed and lying down, and Shin Haeryang pointed at Baek Aeyeong with his index and middle fingers before pointing straight at Kim Jaehee. It probably meant to keep a close eye on that bastard. Shin Haeryang left to handle the discharge procedure and payment. I asked Kim Jaehee, who was lying there looking troubled.
“Where did you go?”
“They’re reporting on TV that the undersea base was attacked by terrorists. I was watching a broadcast drone try to get close to the island to film it, then fall into the sea, when I got dragged back.”
Right. He said it was on TV. I kind of want to see that broadcast too.
“You don’t want to call your family?”
When I asked in a whisper, Kim Jaehee glared up at the hospital ceiling for a long while before asking me back.
“...Are you going to tell your family what happened at the undersea base?”
“I don’t know.”
I hadn’t thought about that yet. I couldn’t believe that I was actually able to return to my family’s arms. Hearing my mother’s voice made it feel a little more real, at least.
“I don’t really know which you’d prefer, being treated like a madman or like a normal person. I don’t recommend it.”
“I see. I’ll keep that in mind.”
I don’t really want to tell my family. There had been good things too, but there were far too many horrifying parts. How was I supposed to explain that people from a cult had called me a savior, hung a jewel around my neck, pressed their lips to the hem of my clothes, held my hand and dragged me along, then tried to make a wish and strike me down with a knife?
Mother would still believe her eldest son’s words, even if only roughly, but Mujin was a very realistic guy. I could already imagine him saying something like, “Hyung must have had such a hard time,” while secretly searching things like hallucinations experienced in disaster situations or trauma treatment centers.
“...I’m starting to think it would be better not to tell my family as much as possible. I’ll probably explain it as just, I woke up and there was water coming into the room, so I was startled.”
Kim Jaehee turned only his head, which had been facing the ceiling, toward me. No one had known, but Kim Jaehee had two broken ribs. He confessed that it was probably because he had been kicked, then said the infuriating nonsense that it hurt less than the burns, so he could endure it well. For broken ribs, the only treatment was time.
“As expected, there’s no one you can talk to about this besides me, right? I’m the best, aren’t I?”
It seemed no one had believed the stories Kim Jaehee had experienced.
“You’re right. There’s almost no one I can talk to besides you, Jaehee. If I want to spill my story today, you have to listen.”
“Mm. Fine. We’re friends, so I’ll listen.”
Every time I meet Kim Jaehee, I’ll have to grab him and check the condition of his teeth. Whether it’s alcoholism or drug addiction, addicts’ oral health becomes terrible. Religious addiction should be the same. The more depressed or deeply despairing a person becomes, the worse their oral health gets along with it.
When anxiety, depression, and lack of sleep continue, and the more stress one receives, maintaining hygiene becomes bothersome, so neglect is inevitable. Simply being alive consumes too much energy, leaving no room to pay attention to that. I’ll keep observing you. Then even if your mental state isn’t good, at least your teeth will be fine.
Someday, when his mind became all right too, he would at least think that he hadn’t lost his oral health.
We were discharged and moved to a hotel. As soon as I entered the hotel room, I washed carefully and changed into the clothes in the paper bag. Washing took three times longer than usual, but I was optimistic that the time would gradually shorten.
Henry was sleeping spread-eagled on the bed in the farthest corner. Seo Jihyeok, who had yelled at Jeong Sanghyeon to go wash before he killed him, snatched the hair dryer from my hand and dried my hair for me. Seo Jihyeok took a comb from who knew where and combed my hair this way and that. “What style would you like today?” Seo Jihyeok, who had been combing my hair confidently, asked hesitantly.
“Uh. Sir. Actually, I’m not very good at handling hair. But. Could I... cut it a little?”
After pondering while combing all my hair backward, then sweeping it to the side, he looked at the wax and scissors placed on the simple dressing table and said something alarming. Seo Jihyeok showed me his own short bangs and said,
“Look at my hair. I originally grew my bangs long, but they kept poking my eyes so much that I tried cutting them myself, and my hair ended up like this.”
Hold on. I can entrust my life to you, but I can’t entrust my hair.
“I... see. Is there a reason you’re trying so hard to touch my hair?”
“I think it would be good for you to change your image a bit. Just enough that, when someone sees you from a distance, they won’t think, Ah, that’s Park Muhyeon!”
“...If possible, I’d like to entrust my hair to Tumanako.”
Seo Jihyeok snapped his thumb and index finger together, then ran out of the hotel room. Then he seemed to ring the bell at the room right next door and ask if it was possible. Soon, Tumanako, the relief pitcher, came into our room with a confident stride. Seo Jihyeok immediately quit pretending to be an amateur hairdresser and handed my hair over to Tumanako.
“I’d like to tell you to come hang out in my room, but almost everyone’s asleep. I’ll just cut it roughly here.”
“Thank you. Thank you.”
“Dr. Muhyeon. I could have done a good job too.”
“After cutting my hair, please do something about Jihyeok’s hair too.”
Seo Jihyeok and Tumanako spread newspapers wide across the floor. They also draped newspaper around my neck and shoulders like a cape. Tumanako observed me for a while, then began cutting my hair with scissors.
I could feel strands of hair falling with snipping sounds, sliding over the newspaper and dropping to the floor. Tumanako had also brought about ten hair dyes, saying he had bought them while shopping. They were simple dye products that developed color over time after applying the solution to the hair. Because they were eco-friendly, they had no smell and no toxicity, but their dyeing effect also wasn’t that great, so salons didn’t use them.
“What color do you like?”
“...Anything but white.”
“You have a lot of gray hair. A master doesn’t blame his tools. I’m not a master, so I’m going to curse the tools. If I do well, it’s thanks to my skill, and if it doesn’t work, it’s because of the lousy tools. Got it? (Yes!) To think I have to create art in such a poor environment... But I am a genius hair designer. Overcoming this level of adversity is only natural. I’ll do my best to make you look great.”
Tumanako, fired up, kept fiddling with my hair, touching it and combing it, but since there was no mirror in front of me, I couldn’t tell what I was turning into. It did seem like he was using the blue dye the most, though.
At first, when Tumanako picked up the blue, I was about to say that didn’t seem right, but later, when I saw him open all ten dyes a little at a time and use them, I gave up. Kim Jaehee also came over to watch before going in to wash. Occasionally, Baek Aeyeong or Kang Sujeong came over to look, exclaimed in admiration, then left.
The only thing I could do while entrusting my hair to him was watch TV, and every channel was reporting on the undersea base terror attack. They were speculating about Daehando’s current state, mainly using drone footage of Daehando or satellite images. To someone who had just come from there, some of it was right and some of it was wrong.
It seemed like the Marshall Islands were broadcasting content aired in the U.S. There was also an interview with a person who had escaped by boat and arrived in Hawaii. A woman whose face, arms, and legs were reddened by the sun, with a bandage wrapped around her forearm, shouted at the news correspondent. “I’m telling you, some total pieces of shit were shooting guns!”
Thirty minutes later, breaking news came in that the undersea base seemed to have collapsed. It was aerial footage of Daehando suddenly caving in, then about twenty percent of the island rapidly disappearing like a sinkhole. On TV, the same scenes were shown over and over without end. Like an undersea base caught in a loop, they played the scenes of collapse countless times, showing them, showing them, showing them, and showing them again, and occasionally a news anchor appeared to express concern about the survivors. Then the footage played repeatedly again.
The broadcasting station had apparently abducted an ocean engineering professor and a construction engineering professor from some university in a hurry, their neckties not even properly tied, and the two stood there pointing at the footage and frowning at each other. “If you look closely at this part of the footage here—” Tumanako turned off the TV with the remote.
“They said your dental clinic is gone.”
“So it seems.”
“My salon seems to be... gone too.”
“It seems so.”
I heard sniffling from behind me. With emotion welling up in my chest, I quietly called his name.
“Tumanako.”
Tumanako rested his head on my right shoulder. I reached only my right hand behind me, stroked Tumanako’s head, and patted the shoulder my hand touched several times. Perhaps Tumanako didn’t want to show his face. After staying like that for a few minutes, he lifted his head and, as if nothing had happened, worked on my hair while saying,
“It’s a good thing neither you nor I had been there long. We hadn’t brought much to the undersea base. Didn’t have much attachment to it either. Didn’t know many people. Hadn’t gotten close to anyone.”
Tumanako had been so happy when he got hired at the undersea base. Hiding the mess of emotions inside me, I expressed agreement with his words.
“You’re right. It’s a real relief that we joined late.”
Tumanako said there was a lot of dye left, and when he left my hair alone and tried to grab Seo Jihyeok’s hair after he came into the room, Seo Jihyeok hurriedly slipped away, saying he would procure food, and fled.
Instead, Tumanako grabbed Jeong Sanghyeon by the hair as he came into the room. At first, Jeong Sanghyeon tried to refuse, but when Tumanako said one word, “Sit here,” he stopped resisting, shut his mouth, and sat beside me. It looked like he was using a lot of green on Jeong Sanghyeon’s hair.
Tumanako stared carefully at Kim Jaehee’s hair for a while, then said he respected another hair designer’s work and left it alone. Instead, he grabbed Shin Haeryang by the hair as he came in and seated him beside me.