Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

I wondered how much different this whole situation was from a dream. The escape pod control panels in the West District were damaged from the shock and didn’t display anything on the screens or respond when buttons were pressed, but when I went to the South District, I discovered the escape pods were functioning normally. It was possible that the people who escaped through them hadn’t died. And maybe the shootout hadn’t happened in the East District either.  

As I watched Kang Soojung walking ahead, I called out to her in an unknown anxiety.

“Be careful! More prohibited items could have been brought into the underwater base. Who knows what else they snuck in other than the kid!”

Kang Soojung looked at me with an odd expression, then waved her hand largely and caught up to Jung Sanghyun ahead.

Yoo Geum-yi, Lee Jihyun, and I started heading towards the South District. Yoo Geum-yi occasionally glanced at the people now the size of a pinky finger. Seeing that, Lee Jihyun asked her.

“Does it bother you?”

“Yes…I’m not sure about the others, but I’m worried about the kid that went with them. What if he gets hurt? Team Leader Kang doesn’t like taking kids when escaping, right? Wouldn’t it have been safer if we took the sleeping kid instead of leaving him to someone like that?”

“It’ll be fine. On a moral level, the Deputy Team Leader has at least some basic line she doesn’t cross. And no matter how much Sanghyun acts out, he can’t ignore the Deputy Team Leader’s orders.”

In pure curiosity, I asked the obvious question to her.

“Why can’t he ignore them?”

At that, Lee Jihyun lightly laughed. As we passed the Central District Theater 1 heading towards the South District, Lee Jihyun spoke slowly.

“Deputy Team Leader Kang was a heavyweight boxing champion. There was one time in the past when Sanghyun openly ignored work orders from the Deputy Team Leader. And also one big incident when Team Leader Shin was away on vacation that really blew up.”

Ah. So that’s why his teeth… To ordinary people, Kang Soo-jung’s teeth would look perfectly healthy, but I could see several teeth crowned from fractures. Deep Blue Underwater Dental had no policies related to mouth guards.  

I’d never made any here, but in regular dentistry we could custom make mouth guards for patients – every so often there would be boxers or taekwondo athletes coming in to get fitted for them. Of course, more often there were people coming in because they hadn’t worn mouth guards and had cracked teeth, lost teeth, or hairline fractures in their jaw bone.

“Did she beat him up?”

“According to Sanghyun, after exchanging a few words with the Deputy Team Leader, they peacefully resolved their misunderstandings.”  

“Huh…I see.”

“The Deputy Team Leader isn’t the type to see someone intentionally ruining work or not doing it properly and think ‘Ah, that kind of person, I should give them less work, no work at all.’ He tries to make them do it anyway, even forcing them. Because if that person doesn’t do their job right, the coworkers around them have to take on that burden instead.”

That’s only natural for a superior to coordinate, but once you actually go out into the workforce, there are tons of people who aren’t like that. I’ve seen it many times – an employee slacking off, a boss buddy-buddy with that employee, and the increased, unfair workload dumped onto the employees who then have to pick up their slack.

After my father passed and my family fell upon hard times, I worked all sorts of part-time jobs. More than once, just because I worked diligently, the slackers’ jobs got thrown to me with everyone saying “That’s just how he is,” and the boss giving me their work. Without paying me any extra, either.

 “So she’s fair?”

“She’s the best to work with. Along with Team Leader Shin. I’ve worked at a few other places too, but more often than the intensity of the workload, it was awful bosses and colleagues that made me quit. At least here, the work may be hard but there’s less external stressors.”

I recalled the story of Shin Haeryang punching someone for Baek Ae-young. It seemed Team Leader Shin kept that kind of stress from reaching the employees. Upon hearing Jihyun’s words, Yoo Geum-yi sighed in relief.  

“That’s good to hear then.”

“Right now, Sanghyun is desperate to get away from the Deputy Team Leader somehow.”

“Why?”

“He probably wants freedom.”

“Is he not very free right now?”

Lee Jihyun smiled awkwardly and opened her mouth to reply but quickly crouched down. Kkeuddeugeugeugeugeuk! From far away came an enormous sound, and the floor shook. Woowoowoowoong! The entire ceiling and walls were vibrating.  

I shook back and forth with the building, and afraid the kids in my backpack would get crushed under me if I fell backwards, I tumbled forwards onto the floor. Ow, I’m gonna die . Glancing to the side, Yoo Geum-yi had already safely fallen to the floor. Lee Jihyun was the only one still standing among us. It was about 2-3 minutes before the shaking finally lessened somewhat. Lee Jihyun looked around before helping Yoo Geum-yi up first, then grabbed and pulled me up while saying:

“Let’s hurry. The shock could have sealed off the South District living quarters.”  

When Yoo Geum-yi asked if it was an earthquake, Lee Jihyun shook her head and said:

“I don’t think so. Probably not.”

Lee Jihyun grimaced as she looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds before speaking.

“If it were an earthquake, it would have been magnitude 8 or higher. If that were the case, us still being alive would be a miracle in itself.”

Our pace quickened. Being trapped in a place with the water level rising, I didn’t want to experience that again – not a second, third, no, adding that damn cable car, it would be the fourth time. I was scared every time I had to go into the water.  

We walked briskly until we arrived at the connecting passage between Jungang-dong and the South District. After a long period of silent walking, Lee Jihyun asked me:

“Dr. Moohyun. When you said more prohibited items could have been brought in, what sort of things did you mean?”

Hm…I shouldn’t talk about the animals.  

“With the passed out drunk Russians and people hiding somewhere smoking cigarettes pretending not to and the kid hidden in an empty room, I wouldn’t be surprised if guns or drugs appeared too.”

Come to think of it, no drugs appeared. Never show up, ever. Guns are troublesome enough already. My words indirectly informed Kang Soojung that clashes with people could occur, but not sure if she understood. Lee Jihyun seemed to be deep in thought. Then she asked me:

“Doctor, does Jihyuk smoke?”

Ah! Caught off guard by the sudden probing question, I contemplated for a few seconds how to respond before answering. Didn’t she say Seo Jihyuk liked Lee Jihyun? 

“I cannot disclose patients’ medical information to others.”

“He said he quit. Okay, got it.”

Just where did she make that deductive leap from what I said? As I was flustered, Lee Jihyun naturally glanced at me, and afraid confirming anything more would be damning, I hurriedly shut my mouth. Lee Jihyun went on:  

“Let’s head to the escape pod bay first, then the living quarters.”

“Why not go to the living quarters first?”

“I have several reasons, but in our current situation, if any functional escape pods are left, it’d be best to send people off in them as quickly as possible. No need to struggle in this ocean any longer than necessary.”  

As she walked ahead of Yoo Geum-yi, Lee Jihyun gazed at her back and said that. Then she turned to me.

“And my going to the South District has the goal of rescuing the 5 trapped people in the living quarters, but more importantly securing any remaining escape pods. That takes priority over rescue.”

As we walked through the passageway connected to the South District, I noticed Lee Jihyun muttering something small. When I asked what she was saying, Lee Jihyun spoke a bit shyly.  

“Um…since I’m Christian, I was praying to God asking Him to save us.”

“Is it effective?”

“Well, we haven’t died yet.”

Yoo Geum-yi, listening to my conversation with Jihyun, softly laughed. Without stopping, we briskly walked down the passageway and at the entrance to the South District, were met with a large sculpture of a tiger. the West District also had a quadruped animal statue when entering, but it didn’t resemble a tiger at all.  

Right at the corner of the South District, Yoo Geum-yi headed straight for the research center. Then she stopped in front of what looked to be a gigantic mass that was blocking the way – a door-like thing that seemed to completely obstruct the path leading to the research center. I don’t think that was there before. Yoo Geum-yi frowned at the door-shaped blockade before raising her hand to the panel beside it.  

[Beep. the South District Research Center is closed.]

As Yoo Geum-yi pressed the panel multiple times unsuccessfully, Lee Jihyun approached and tried pressing it with her own hand. But it didn’t open even for an engineer. What about me? When I placed my palm on it, still nothing. As Lee Jihyun fiddled with the panel, she told Yoo Geum-yi:

“They’ve got it locked so that only Director-level or higher can enter.”

“Under what circumstances would it be closed off?”

At my question, Yoo Geum-yi chewed her lip for a bit before replying: 

“There are many reasons. Could be a fire, or gas leak. Closing off the research center is for lab safety. Since the lab closest to here is the Deep Sea Bio Center, Director Angela Malone probably closed it off. Lab safety management responsibility lies completely with each Center’s director.”  

Upon hearing that name, I immediately envisioned long blonde hair swimming through the ocean. It was my first time seeing something like that outside the base. Could Center Director Angela Malone have been on her way to close off access to the research center? Lee Jihyun swiftly concluded:  

“Now that we know we can’t enter, let’s go check out the escape pods.”

Yoo Geum-yi gazed at the door regretfully before turning away. She said her advisor and labmates were all at the research center. As someone who never went through grad school, I can’t fully understand her feelings, but from the rants I’ve heard from acquaintances in Masters/PhD programs, Yoo Geum-yi’s career that spanned several years was now left up in the air. Plus with acquaintances you saw daily suddenly gone missing…

In my dream, I knew Yoo Geum-yi had given up on heading to the research center to rescue Kim Ga-young. But the current her doesn’t know who she’s waiting to rescue. Should I tell her? But the present me doesn’t know who Kim Ga-young is either. As we walked, I opened up my tablet to check the posts on the underwater base message boards.  

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Title: People are on their way to the South District living quarters

Content: Provide accurate info on the number trapped and identities to aid rescue efforts.

Comments

HELP: Actually only 1 person is trapped in Room 77, not 5.  

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…I could feel how much deliberation it took for Kim Ga-young to post that comment. I informed the people ahead of me walking about the content of the post.  

“It says only 1 person is trapped in the South District living quarters, not 5.”

“Did they leave a name?”

“No.”  

Wise. Nodding, Lee Jihyun lightly replied:  

“I figured that’s how it would be.”

“Huh?”