BLDS Chapter 184

Jung Sanghyun had turned on the broadcast function on his pad, and it seemed he was arguing with someone nearby as their bickering came through the broadcast. Kim Jaehee’s voice occasionally mixed in, trying to stop Sanghyun.

[It’s been 30 minutes and nobody’s coming! I told you the team leader, Jihyuk hyung, everyone’s dead! If they were alive, they’d be here! We need to save our own lives first. (Sanghyun, staying quiet gets you halfway there. Just stay still and don’t do anything weird.) You’re the one who needs to stay quiet, hyung! Ahem-hem. Infinity Church people, listen. I was with Park Moohyun until the end. If we report his location, will you protect the informants? (Sanghyun, stop it.) …Ah, Jaehee-hyung! I’m telling you I’ll take care of you too! Ah! Just stay still!]

What are you trying to say?

Kim Jaehee’s voice could be heard quietly scolding Jung Sanghyun, asking why he was broadcasting when they should just stay hidden quietly in a corner.

[I can’t give you information unless you answer. Ahem. Then I’ll cut the broadcast until you answer. What was it? Ah! Over!]

Then Jung Sanghyun’s broadcast cut off. Shin Haeryang, who had frozen like someone hit the pause button when the broadcast started, began drinking water from his cup again, while Jihyuk remained silent as if someone had gagged him.

Ga-young seemed startled by the sudden Korean coming from the speaker. After staring blankly, she turned to Shin Haeryang sitting next to her and asked in confusion.

“Isn’t that Sanghyun’s voice?”

“Yes.”

Shin Haeryang answered shortly, as if tired. Jihyuk looked toward the clinic door, then turned to Shin Haeryang and asked.

“Team leader, I’ll go out briefly and come back. Just stay here and warm up your frozen body. Won’t take long.”

Before Shin Haeryang could answer, a sharp sound came from the broadcast system, followed suddenly by a man’s voice.

[If it helps us find them, we’ll guarantee your lives.]

The message was simple. And that was it. It was a deep, low English voice that sounded familiar somehow. Where had I heard it?

Jihyuk frowned at the broadcast, while Shin Haeryang finished his cup and returned it to me.

“Thank you for the water.”

“Ah, yes.”

Then he started folding up the blanket wrapped around him. After placing the well-folded blanket on the floor, just as Shin Haeryang picked up the gun he’d set down, the broadcast started again.

[Ah, really? I recorded that! No taking it back! Ahem! We were coming from Central District when we split up with Park Moohyun. He said he was going to South District quarters to look for that ahjumma– I mean researcher Kim Ga-young. If you check the underwater base bulletin board, she plastered it with posts about water leaking into her room and the door not opening, asking for help. Such a nuisance. Really. In this situation, you should escape on your own. Why ask for help when everyone’s so busy? Ah! Park Moohyun is with this fierce woman called Tumanako. Be careful.]

Tumanako started breathing heavily in irritation. She began practicing swings with the shark ornament in her hand as if it were a golf club or racket. Every time she swung her arm, the shark ornament made whooshing sounds. She seemed to be imagining smashing Jung Sanghyun’s head with it.

[I’m Jung Sanghyun from Engineer Team A, and the person with me is Kim Jaehee. Ah! Hyung! I’m not done talking! Don’t shoot us two, okay? And I tried to convince Park Moohyun to go to Infinity Church since we were in Central District. But that dentist acted all righteous but didn’t want to sacrifice himself, wouldn’t listen. If you find him based on this tip, I get 95% credit and Jaehee hyung gets 5%. Ah, hyung! Don’t you know how loyal I am? Taking care of you like this. I am.]

Hah. Jihyuk was now holding his forehead and brushing his fingertips around his eyebrows. The broadcast probably gave him a sudden headache. I think I heard him sigh and mutter “stupid bastard” under his breath.

At first, I was scared when he said he’d report my location, but listening to Jung Sanghyun’s broadcast made me think it might be for the best. The Infinity Church would head to South District after searching West District, which meant we’d have time to avoid them.

Perhaps because we hadn’t moved together long, almost none of Jung Sanghyun’s information about me seemed important except my final destination. Strangely, though he couldn’t know much about me, his broadcast continued.

[Honestly don’t know why you’re looking for that dentist, but he said he was going to the South District quarters even though he was too weak and pathetic to even open a door, acting all high and mighty about saving someone. Honestly, I hate people who have no ability but preach morality and judge others the most. Such guys think they’re angels or saints. When you strip these guys bare, you’re lucky if you just find dust—more likely tons of food waste and nuclear waste pouring out. They force troublesome things on others while not taking responsibility themselves, and try to guilt-trip people by asking if they have no pity when they don’t join their stupid actions. I don’t know what wrong Park Moohyun did to Infinity Church, but catch him quickly and leave the underwater base! Ah right! Over and out!]

I had no particular thoughts about Jung Sanghyun’s slanderous broadcast about me. It wasn’t worth the time to explain to him that I wasn’t that kind of person. …Just visit my dental clinic once later. Hey, you’ll need to eat somehow too. Unless you’re a shark, you’ll visit a dentist at least once in your life.

It reminded me of guys in college who cursed me out saying I was seducing all the women. Back then, I was incredibly busy with multiple tutoring jobs, searching for my missing father, and going to hospitals for rehabilitation.

I’d just lent or shown pens and notes a few times, but rumors had already made me into a tyrant enjoying debauchery with all the women in the department. Isn’t it amazing how such rumors spread when I couldn’t even drink alcohol because of medication? That’s when I learned there were lots of people with too much time on their hands.

Deep Blue’s indoor temperature, which had felt warm if not slightly hot, now seemed to have dropped about 10 degrees. After waiting a few more minutes, there were no more broadcasts. Particularly, there was no response from the Infinity Church side. Feeling people watching me, I hesitated before speaking.

“You probably won’t believe this, but I’m not as bad as the broadcast made me sound.”

I said this worried everyone might flee Deep Blue, but no one moved. Even Jihyuk, who’d said he was going out, stayed put. Shin Haeryang had only stood up but hadn’t moved.

“We know.”

Ga-young, sitting across from me, tapped her fingernails against her cup making rapid clicking sounds. She seemed to be shaking less, but had no intention of emerging from the electric blanket.

“Um… I didn’t know until that broadcast that Moohyun had so actively tried to save me. When I was trapped in the room, I thought maybe no one would come to save me. Everyone would be too busy escaping to read the bulletin board posts. I figured they’d all left on escape pods.”

Ga-young, holding her water cup, let out a heavy sigh.

“Do you know what I thought about when the water reached my shoulders?”

Must have been scary. With freezing water rising while trapped in a room, I’d probably just cry my eyes out.

“That the water pressure might help open the door a little? Or thoughts about family?”

I’d probably desperately think about my mom and disobedient younger brother. Ga-young shook her head.

“No. I thought if I couldn’t get out of this room, I hoped no one could leave this underwater base. …Terrible, right? I prayed for horrible deaths for everyone—the person who installed my door, the engineers who inspected it, the culprits who let water leak into the underwater base, the people who ignored my screams and pleas for help, those who read my posts but turned away, everyone who took the South District escape pod. If they didn’t die horribly, I swore while crying that I’d become a water ghost and hunt them down one by one for revenge. Even though my family holds so many ancestral rites, I never believed in ghosts. I completely dismissed the nonsense of old men in gat hats saying ancestors would help if you performed the rites well. But when facing death, I couldn’t even cry for help anymore, just cried about becoming a water ghost and dragging anyone down by their ankles.”

Ga-young looked at her reflection in the water cup with a gloomy face, then pointed at the person wrapping parachute cord around his forearm and said.

“I was out of it while Team Leader Shin was rescuing me, but as I came to my senses, all the sadness and rage from what happened in my room came flooding back. But listening to the broadcast, regardless of the content, I learned that a complete stranger had tried to save me. That gives me… some comfort now. Thank you.”

Taking a deep breath, Ga-young said expressionlessly.

“That fucking bastard Sanghyun. If I get my hands on him, he’s really dead.”

I suddenly remembered something from the darkness. Hearing Ga-young say it, it didn’t feel like empty words. Tumanako’s face had turned red from practicing swings, and she was breathing heavily. Then she turned to me and said.

“Infinity Church whatever, shouldn’t we deal with that bastard first?!”

“How could I deal with someone who said such things on broadcast? It’s annoying but we have to let it go.”

When I responded that way, Shin Haeryang, who had been silently keeping his mouth shut, answered coldly.

“Jung Sanghyun and Kim Jaehee just accepted a terrorist organization’s request and cooperated by providing information.”

“Huh? Oh. Oh! That’s right! Then what happens?”

Jihyuk answered Tumanako’s question.

“They’re fucked. Those bastards must have really lost it.”