Only then did I realize that I Jihyeon had assigned us our tasks without asking things like how well we could swim, or if we could swim at all. If it were me, I probably would have asked how well everyone swam and assigned the distance accordingly—farther for the strong swimmers, closer for the weak ones. Carter asked I Jihyeon,
“Which valve are you opening?”
I Jihyeon showed the map and pointed at two valves. It seemed she had told the rest of us to open one valve each while setting aside two for herself to handle.
“I’m taking this one and this one.”
“What? Two?”
“If you like going around opening two valves, would you like to switch with me?”
When I Jihyeon asked Carter with emotionless eyes, Carter turned to Kim Gayeong, who was standing next to me, and asked,
“......Miss Kim. Where are you going?”
“Here. Next to my research lab on the 1st floor. Why? You want to switch?”
Neither of those two locations seemed to be to Carter’s liking. Carter’s eyes met mine.
“Where’s the dentist going?”
“I’m going next to Laboratory 120, Mr. Carter. Where is Laboratory 120? This is my first time at the research center, so I don’t know the way either. If it’s close or easy from here, would you switch with me?”
At my question, Carter’s face scrunched up and he stepped back.
“Why do I have to switch valve locations with you?”
“Weren’t you going around asking others to switch?”
“It’d be unfair if I’m the only one far away.”
Leaving those words behind, Carter began talking with Benjamin while gripping a pad that was cracked in several places.
Funnily enough, nothing I had told Benjamin was a lie. ......I really didn’t know where Laboratory 120 was. I had memorized the location from the map, but it was questionable whether I could find my way there as well as I thought once underwater.
But everyone else seemed to know exactly where and how they needed to go. Well, most of these people were personnel who had worked at the Marine Pollution Center. They seemed to have a rough idea of which research labs were tucked away in which corridors, but listening to their conversation, it seemed like I was the one in the most trouble here, having entered this building for the first time. Or perhaps Yu Geumi, who was pale as a sheet and rubbing her waist.
“Is your back hurting a lot?”
“My back has never been great. But ever since I got hit by that chair, it hasn’t gotten any better.”
Could it be a herniated disc? I asked Yu Geumi again,
“Where does it hurt the most?”
“My back hurts. And my legs are numb.”
“Both legs?”
“Both legs.”
A herniated disc! Maybe not, though. Then again, wouldn’t it get a bit better in the water? I took a close look at the location Yu Geumi had been assigned. It was quite far from Laboratory 120. I cautiously asked Yu Geumi,
“Try talking to Jihyeon. Ask to be switched to a different location. Or to be left out altogether.”
Yu Geumi glanced at I Jihyeon and shook her head.
“I can’t say anything right now.”
Yu Geumi said, looking toward Carter.
“If I speak up, Jihyeon might make a special exception for me. And that special treatment would become ammunition for those people to attack Jihyeon. They’re already desperate to find the smallest fault; I don’t want to give them an excuse. They’d complain that I got left out and why didn’t they. I don’t want to become a burden to Jihyeon with a single word from me. She must be having a hard enough time as it is. ......Even if it kills me, I can’t do it right now.”
I was a bit surprised hearing Yu Geumi’s thoughts. ......Well. If the drainage system wouldn’t work just because one person was missing, then it was a problem with the drainage system, or escape by elevator must have been impossible from the start anyway. Besides, even without Yu Geumi pushing herself while injured, there were more than five men with perfectly fine bodies, excluding Canoe.
Healthy people just need to jump into the water twice. If things went wrong in this situation—if we all died because this didn’t work out—it wouldn’t be because of Yu Geumi’s back injury, but because of petty cost-benefit calculations and extreme selfishness. I tried to dissuade Yu Geumi two more times. But she stubbornly said,
“Getting in the water might ease the back pain a little. As you know, buoyancy reduces weight, which lessens the burden on the spine.”
“But it could get worse while swimming. I’m against swimming with legs that are cramping.”
“......You don’t seem to despise sick people.”
Well, everyone who comes to me is a patient. How could I work if I despised patients? People with perfectly fine teeth rarely come to a dentist—but I mean really rarely. Most who visit complain of some pain or discomfort somewhere.
If I think about patients or people with disabilities, there’s also someone in my family whose daily life is inconvenient, but...... No. Let’s stop thinking about it. Right now, I don’t want to get emotional, nor do I want to fall into thoughts of family in this situation. I gave Yu Geumi a simple answer.
“It’s probably because of my profession.”
“An injured person is a burden in this situation.”
Yu Geumi said this while holding her waist, and I was quite surprised inwardly. I shook my head and replied,
“By that logic, everyone here could be a burden. Because they’re injured, slow, old, ugly, or broke. Don’t have such self-deprecating thoughts.”
Don’t worry, Geumi! Objectively speaking, I’m the most useless one here! What can I possibly do without a dental clinic? Waste oxygen by breathing?! Right now, one of my eyes is spasming so badly I can’t even see properly! But I still try not to think so pessimistically. It’s not like thinking that way makes the situation any better anyway.
It suddenly occurred to me...... Was Yu Geumi thinking I would treat an injured person as a burden and abandon or neglect them? That would be a little sad. If you dig deeper into the “injured person” aspect, I’m disabled too. My back and eye surgeries went well, so outwardly both my eyes look almost the same, and I have no problems in daily life plus I can get insurance freely, so it’s a fact I sometimes forget myself.
Other people...... I don’t know. They might judge an injured person as a burden and discard them? It’s not like I have the ability to read other people’s minds. I gave up on trying to dissuade Yu Geumi and proposed a compromise.
“Geumi. Switch locations with me. You go to Room 120. I heard Room 111 is Gayeong’s lab, and since Gayeong is going to open a valve around her lab, wouldn’t you feel more at ease psychologically going to Room 120? You’ve been to her lab before, right?”
“Yes. I’ve been there many times.”
I didn’t know how often Kim Gayeong, who baked bread when stressed, and Yu Geumi, who loved bread, had visited each other’s labs, but it must have been countless times.
“Then just think of it as swimming to Gayeong’s lab. I’ll uh...... approach around the supply room and open the valve in your stead.”
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”
“Either way, it’s my first time going to Room 120 or the supply room. But it’ll feel different to you. You know the way better, too.”
She wouldn’t get lost or anything. My worries would lessen a bit, too. Let’s each go somewhere a little more comfortable, if only for one of us. That would be better for work efficiency, too. I now began looking at the location of the supply room Yu Geumi had been assigned. I checked the route again, figuring out where to jump from on the 3rd floor to get there as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, several people nearby finished lightly stretching to warm up and threw off all their clothes. Sam Young and Darnell James had already bared their upper bodies or even stripped off their pants completely and were entering the water. Sam plunged his lower body into the water and shouted raucously,
“Ah! Cold! Cold! Argh! Cold! Cold! Oh, Jesus! Oh, God! Oh, help me! Oh, Jee-zus! Oh, I’m freezing!”
“Ah, shut up!”
As James entered the water, he splashed a large amount of water into Sam’s face. While the two poured seawater on each other aggressively, Canoe watched the sight, shook his head, and slipped silently into the water in a straight line. Logan dipped his feet in the water, sighed deeply a few times, spat out several F-word obscenities, and plunged into the water. Carter and Benjamin were also preparing to enter.
Kim Gayeong stretched her calf and ankle muscles for a long time, then walked around the 3rd-floor corridor. Then she waved at Yu Geumi and me and slowly lowered her legs into the water. Kim Gayeong grimaced. From what I could see from afar, she scooped water in her hands and splashed it all over her body. When I looked over a few seconds later, she had already disappeared below the surface.
Yu Geumi, who had been readying herself at a spot a little further from where Kim Gayeong had submerged, was also slowly putting her body into the water. Just before being submerged, Yu Geumi said something to me.
“The water temperature is quite low. Don’t rush getting in.”
“......Good luck.”
Watching Yu Geumi enter the water, I took off my shirt. I had already decided in my mind to swim with my pants on. The moment I put my foot in the water with my upper body completely exposed, what came to mind was a curse directed at humanity itself.
Why...... why don’t human bodies have as much fur as animals? Why are we so weak that we feel the cold so sharply just from taking off a single piece of cloth? Or at least have thick skin so we could swim well. Are you sure we evolved properly?!
I endured the cold and splashed water on myself. I was doing this to avoid dying of a heart attack, but for a moment I wondered if I was really not going to die.
I Jihyeon watched everyone entering the water, then entered the seawater with practiced ease. Baek Aeyeong in the dream had said she couldn’t swim well, but I Jihyeon seemed to be a very good swimmer. I exhaled deeply, then inhaled deeply again. After repeating this motion several times, I took a huge gulp of air, puffed out my cheeks, and plunged my head into the water.
The water had looked incredibly dark from the outside, perhaps because it was inside a building, but once I was actually underwater, the visibility wasn’t terribly bad. It was just that all sorts of trash was floating around. I was slightly awed by the scene unfolding underwater; since I’d learned to swim in an indoor pool, this was my first time seeing so many structures inside the water.
I could only barely see about four or five meters ahead of me, but with a two-story building completely submerged, it was quite a spectacle. I felt a strange sensation, as if I had entered a treasure ship to hunt for treasure. After admiring it for about two seconds, I quickly began to descend vertically.