When Tumanako said he was done, I checked the mirror with some worry, but it was better than I’d expected. My hair as a whole was a pale sky blue, and running through it were very thin, rainbow-colored streaks, a pinch at a time. From root to tip, the dyed strands went red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple like a rainbow, but there were only about ten dyed sections, each thinner than a finger, so it wasn’t as horrific as I’d imagined.
It was as if the colors of a seashell or mother-of-pearl, reflecting light like a prism, had been applied to my hair. My family would be shocked if they saw it. Mujin. Your hyung went overseas and in just one week cut off a finger and dyed his hair. I don’t even know how much more I would have changed if I’d stayed at the undersea base longer. I probably would’ve gotten tattoos, piercings, and turned into coffee or something.
Once Jeong Sanghyeon’s hair was finished, it looked similar to the color of a male pigeon’s neck. Based in green, it had pink, blue, and purple all mixed in, so it was incredibly flashy. At first, when Tumanako grabbed him by the hair, Jeong Sanghyeon had looked like death warmed over, but once he saw the finished result, he was practically dying of happiness.
When Tumanako worked on Sin Haeryang’s hair, he took four times longer than he had with anyone else and paid special attention. He was so focused on cutting and dyeing that sweat beaded on his forehead and the bridge of his nose. Sin Haeryang occasionally seemed to want to step away because of calls, but Tumanako wouldn’t allow it.
The people around me and I looked at Sin Haeryang’s finished hair and gave Tumanako applause and thumbs-up. Tumanako was truly a genius. How could he make a person’s hair look this good? Sin Haeryang’s hair resembled a fish called a betta. The one I’d seen had a deep black body with dark blue fins, and it had swum through the water like an emperor.
The ends of Sin Haeryang’s hair looked dark blue depending on the light, and it suited his face perfectly. Tumanako wiped the sweat running down his forehead with his forearm and said,
“Whew. I poured my heart into this so I wouldn’t ruin his face.”
Sin Haeryang himself, however, showed no particular reaction when he looked at his dyed hair. His reaction was about as much as, So my hair has color in it. Because of that, Tumanako took the three of us to the room where the women were staying and asked for an evaluation. As soon as they said all three dyed men looked much better than before, Seo Jihyeok, who had been sitting quietly, belatedly asked if Tumanako could do his too. Apparently the others felt the same, because requests for dye jobs poured in from all over.
But Tumanako staggered away, then flopped down onto the bed and said,
“The artist has exhausted all his strength.”
And then he couldn’t get up until the next mealtime. In the corner of the hotel room where the women were staying, there was a cage, and inside it, a fluffy, dried cat was fast asleep. When Baek Aeyeong went to the hotel, she had also taken the bag with the cat in it, so it seemed she had washed and dried it before putting it in the cage.
According to Baek Aeyeong, the cat had put up a little resistance while being washed, but maybe because it was tired, it was completely out cold. I stared for a long while at the face of the cat sleeping inside the cage.
The survivors staying at the hotel all had different opinions about where to stay. Some said they would remain at the hotel and then return to Daehando, while others said they would go back to their own countries for the time being.
One of the most representative people who planned to stay in the Marshall Islands and then go to Daehando was Lee Seeun. Lee Seeun seemed frustrated by how intact the Daehando headquarters building looked in the TV reports that aired from time to time.
“If they tell me to return to normal duty within this week, I don’t think I’ll have a choice.”
Lee Seeun seemed to feel intense envy toward the undersea base employees who had become jobless after losing their workplace, while at the same time feeling relieved that her own livelihood had not yet been cut off and remained intact. And in the message window where the headquarters people gathered to communicate, she would get stressed out because people were spouting nonsense like, since the U.S. Special Forces had entered Daehando, killed the terrorists, and withdrawn, and since they were in the middle of recovering bodies and searching for the missing, didn’t that mean returning to work was possible?
Most of the undersea base employees, whose workplace had been completely blown away and who didn’t even have a single dollar in their pockets, chose to return to their home countries. Yu Geum stared blankly at the name of her advisor and her coworkers on the missing persons list.
At first, the missing persons list had contained the names of everyone who worked at Daehando and the undersea base. The names of the people staying at the hotel were all listed among the missing as well. Whenever survivors and the deceased were identified, people’s names were removed from the missing persons list and moved to either the survivors list or the deceased list. Yu Geum prayed toward the sea three times a day, asking that her advisor please be kept alive until my thesis passed.
After receiving a call from Nevae, Sin Haeryang carried the dozing Henry on his back and took him to the airport with Gang Sujeong. Most of the people staying at the hotel said goodbye to Henry as he left. Take care, Henry. Live healthy and happy. Eat lots and grow tall. Play a lot while you’re still your age. Study hard. Don’t choose a major related to the ocean. Brush your teeth well.
Later, according to Gang Sujeong, who had gone to the airport with them, Sin Haeryang saw Nevae arrive at the airport huffing and puffing, smiled brightly, and paid for first-class tickets home for the two of them.
“It was my first time seeing our team leader look so happy to see someone’s face.”
Sin Haeryang had bought them the fastest remaining tickets to Australia in order to send the two of them off quickly, saying it was better than watching no one come to pick them up, but apparently Nevae was extremely grateful for Sin Haeryang’s kindness.
One or two at a time, people said goodbye at the hotel and left for the airport. Meiji and Riko were able to go back first. Australia took its citizens home the fastest. Maybe it was because it was geographically close.
“Come visit my country someday.”
Riko said goodbye, telling us to keep in touch, and left. Next was Tumanako. Until it was time for him to return to New Zealand, Tumanako dyed or cut as many people’s hair as possible.
For the people at the hotel, who grew gloomy and sad whenever the list of the dead was updated, hair styling was a fairly good change of mood. Before leaving, Tumanako hugged people, exchanged goodbyes, and parted with promises to meet again.
The visa and passport issues dragged on longer than expected. Sin Haeryang, Seo Jihyeok, and Baek Aeyeong completely blocked alcohol, cigarettes, drugs like betel nut or khat, and disposable indulgences at the source. People had no choice but to relieve their sadness through consolation by conversation, excessive exercise, decent meals, carbonated drinks and snacks, and ice cream.
Sad people inevitably gain weight or sleep a lot. But the people being reared at the hotel had to wake up at seven in the morning, be forced to take a one-hour walk, eat breakfast, and attend Kim Gayoung’s yoga class for an hour every day.
They had to experience Lee Jihyeon’s art class for an hour, read the assigned books, or swim for the designated amount of time. I thought I’d be given free time because of my hand, but I still had to at least put my feet in the water.
There was also time to write letters to our families. We had to write down things we wanted to do before the year ended, or foods we wanted to eat and places we wanted to visit when we got to Korea. We also gathered together and watched fun movies. Watching the news was limited to thirty minutes no matter how long. Calls with family could be made once every three days.
And they forced us to sleep at eleven at night. If anyone said they couldn’t sleep, Sin Haeryang or Gang Sujeong would give them counseling, so when eleven o’clock came, everyone put their heads on their pillows and pretended to sleep even if they couldn’t. Wasn’t this basically school?
Sometimes people we’d never seen before approached, wanting interviews or to take pictures, but each time, Baek Aeyeong or Seo Jihyeok, who happened to be nearby, refused to allow it. At last, the date for our return home was decided, and everyone staying at the hotel felt relieved. Lee Seeun half-cried, saying she wanted to go home too, but she had to return from the Marshall Islands to Daehando. She had to resume normal duty. Gang Sujeong, Baek Aeyeong, and Sin Haeryang took Lee Seeun back by boat and returned again in the afternoon.
“Teacher. Are you asleep?”
It was some time before dawn. Seo Jihyeok called to me in a small voice from inside the room. I had been tormenting myself, recalling the events at the undersea base and imagining what it would have been like if I’d done this or that, and I immediately sat up.
Seo Jihyeok said he was going out for a bit and asked if I could spare some time. At those words, I immediately ran out of the hotel room. Seo Jihyeok’s business was that he wanted to smoke and needed an accomplice. I hesitated for about three seconds at that, then nodded.
Even as I thought things like, I quit ten years ago, I followed him out in secret to smoke. The conversation I had with Seo Jihyeok while we smoked two cigarettes wasn’t anything special. We talked about foods we wanted to eat when we got to Korea, how we ended up joining the undersea base, and complaints we’d had about life at the undersea base.
Seo Jihyeok had done a lot of work he couldn’t openly write in the experience section of his résumé, so before he threw away his entire twenties, he had wanted to do legal work that he could actually list as experience. North Pacific undersea base engineer. In my eyes, it wasn’t bad experience. Seo Jihyeok said he’d thought the same and joined.
For a very short while, we joked around, smoked, and then returned to the hotel room. We entered the hotel room as quietly as possible, showered, brushed our teeth, changed clothes, and worked hard to conceal every trace of smoking. It had been a long time since I’d felt such a thrill. My heart pounded as if it would burst until I got back into bed, worrying that someone might have woken up. I fell asleep quickly.
From the next day on, I couldn’t see Seo Jihyeok anywhere.
When I asked where Seo Jihyeok was, an unexpected answer came back. Apparently Seo Jihyeok’s contract period had ended, so on paper, he had been processed as having resigned. And he had already said his farewells related to leaving the company to the people in Engineering Team A. They said he must have said goodbye to the rest of the people personally before he left.
Did these cold-hearted STEM bastards not even throw a party or buy a cake for someone leaving the company? If I had known just a little earlier... I hadn’t thought he would leave like this.
Seo Jihyeok’s spot in the hotel room even had the blanket all folded, and there was no trace of a person there, as if it had been an empty bed from the beginning. I looked at Sin Haeryang and Baek Aeyeong, the next ones scheduled to leave. Perhaps those two would also vanish without a trace like this once their contract periods ended.
Baek Aeyeong said she would remain in the Marshall Islands alone. Because of the cat and the gold, and because there were many things she had to stay behind and handle, she said she would come later, and only Sin Haeryang accompanied us. Kim Jaehee also said she didn’t want to go to Korea and would stay here, only to be kicked by Baek Aeyeong, who asked where a beggar with no ID and no money thought she was staying.
We boarded the plane and arrived safely at Incheon Airport. At the airport, our families seemed to have been contacted in advance and had come to meet us. I had vowed not to cry, but the moment I saw Mom and Mujin, I wrapped both arms around them and sobbed loudly. I missed you. I really, really missed you.