Inside the escape pod port, all the familiar faces were already gathered, with only one person I hadn’t seen before. At first, I thought he was a foreigner due to his light red hair, but after hearing him converse with Jeong Sanghyun, I realized he was Korean.
His bangs fell to his eyes, and perhaps because his hair had grown long, he had tied the back into a small ponytail. He had multiple earrings in both ears along with piercings, and tattoos peeked out from his neck and beside his ears, not fully covered by the engineer suit.
From a distance, I thought he was wearing an engineer suit, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that the pants portion of the suit had been cut off above a certain point. Below both knees were prosthetic legs.
He was sitting on a waiting chair next to the escape pod with his hands clasped, but when he saw us, he stood up. The man, who was over 180cm tall, waved his right arm towards us.
Up close, I could see that the little finger and ring finger of his right hand were also prosthetic. The black matte prosthetic fingers made it look like he was wearing finger gloves from afar.
I’ve seen quite a few due to spinal and eye issues in the ward, but this is the first ti I’ve seen one inside the underwater base. Prosthetic limbs and braces vary depending on the body part, but they’re not usually very noticeable unless the user undresses. Moreover, these days they’ve beco so sophisticated that they’re hard to quickly identify with the naked eye, and since most people use electronic prostheses, it’s not easy to notice them.
If it weren’t for his hair, his legs would have been the first thing I noticed. I thought he was wearing black pants with a unique pattern. Or maybe he had plucked a few grape vines from the First Underwater Base’s vineyard and wrapped them around his ankles and calves.
Upon closer observation, they were state-of-the-art electronic prosthetic legs, elaborately decorated in black with green and light green accents. I know this prosthetic series because it’s supplied to my friend’s orthopedic clinic; they’re typically shipped from the factory in white. This is to allow buyers to customize the design to their taste, and it seed he had opted for a black base with green vine-like imagery. Does he like plants?
Many patients order custom exterior designs to match their skin color, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen one decorated in black like this. My friend ordered a bright red one, calling it “passionate red,” but recently he switched to a pitch-black one, spouting nonsense about it being “stylish black.”
Looking at this person’s prosthetic hand, a thought suddenly crossed my mind: is black the trend these days? I hope that trend doesn’t reach teeth.
“Hello. I’m Park Moohyun, a dentist.”
Could this be Kim Jae-hee? Having shaken hands while greeting people for five days, I almost reflexively extended my right hand. The man with gentle eye corners, contrasting his flamboyant appearance, casually took my right hand and shook it.
Ah, right. Co to think of it, if we just take the elevator for 10 minutes from here, we could get prosthetic maintenance done at the Daehan Island hospital, right?
When the body is unwell, even going to the hospital becos a major task. Whether soone has a dark past or a history of injury, living close to a hospital is a prerequisite for survival. Being able to visit the hospital directly from the dormitory and receive regular psychological therapy for free… Depending on the person, this could be a decent workplace.
Losing a body part often brings social anxiety and depression hand in hand. It’s nearly impossible to drive them away with willpower alone. Thinking about it, the underwater base might actually be suitable for people with disabilities. Of course, I’m going to resign.
“Hello. I’m Kim Jae-hee from Engineer Team A. …Oh, your left eye.”
Jae-hee spoke as if exclaiming when our eyes t. It’s usually not very noticeable, but the color looks slightly different when light reflects off it. He noticed after all. I nodded slowly.
“Yes, I got one put in too. It cost quite a bit.”
“Sa here. My whole body is a money-eating hippo.”
Jae-hee said this with a light laugh. The black matte-coated fingers gently released my hand, mimicking the movent of his other fingers.
Prosthetic limbs need to be replaced every 2 to 5 years. Depending on who used it, how much, on which amputated part, and in what condition, the replacent ti can be even sooner. And these assistive devices aren’t cheap. They cost at least a month’s salary, and in the case of electronic prostheses, they can cost up to tens of billions depending on their functions.
Fortunately, our country has good health insurance, but I can’t imagine how I would have lived if I were Arican. I probably couldn’t have beco a dentist. I wouldn’t have even dread of paying for my younger sibling’s college or my mother’s back surgery with the money I earned.
Going to Arica to undergo the complex process of surgically implanting a new artificial eyeball, the cost of two people’s surgeries, nursing care, and rehabilitation expenses all draining away as hospital bills, the bank balance of a fairly well-off middle-class family of four literally evaporated as if it had never existed. As I was briefly ruminating on this troubling past, Kim Jae-hee suddenly said to ,
“It was because of a landmine.”
“Pardon?”
“People ask so often. When I was young, I picked up a box not knowing it was a landmine, dropped it, and it exploded on the ground. That’s how this happened.”
I’ve heard all sorts of causes while being hospitalized – congenital malformations, tumors, frostbite, various accidents, thromboangiitis obliterans, and so on – but this is the first ti I’ve heard about a landmine. Did he co from Hwanghae Province? I heard that place is full of landmines when it rains.
Co to think of it, hardly anyone in the underwater base has asked about my eye, unlike in Korea. I guess it’s because they’re not interested in . I liked that subtle indifference, but also felt just a tiny bit lonely. Since he shared, I revealed my information as well.
“Mine was a traffic accident.”
“A moving landmine, then.”
Huh? That’s right, isn’t it? Jeong Sanghyun, who was standing nearby, barely acknowledged , and even when I greeted him, he treated as if I barely existed. Sanghyun spoke anxiously to Seo Jihyuk, who seed lost in thought.
“Jihyun noona wasn’t in the dormitory?”
“No, she wasn’t.”
“Then can I take the escape pod first?”
Seo Jihyuk, who had been absorbed in his kidnapping theory, snorted at those words.
“Don’t be ridiculous. If Jae-hee doesn’t go first, none of the guys here can go.”
“Ah! Why! You told to just wait here until you ca back from the dormitory!”
“Yeah! But this is different!”
Carlos was supporting Sanghyun’s statent from the side. Checking the escape pods, there were 4 left. Seo Jihyuk looked at Carlos next to him, frowning as he spoke.
“What are you doing here? Don’t butt in, go stand at the end where you can’t be seen. Engineer Team A has chartered all 4 escape pods! …Hey! Sanghyun! Did it take us 20 minutes to get here? Or 30 minutes?”
Hearing Seo Jihyuk’s statent, Sanghyun now started urging Kim Jae-hee with irritation.
“Ah, hyung! …Quickly get in the escape pod and leave! You have to go so that others can go, right?”
“Aren’t you worried that team mbers suddenly disappeared?”
While Sanghyun was fidgeting and stomping his feet, Kim Jae-hee seed very relaxed. It was a composure unbefitting soone who had nearly died from a missile while working on the outer wall and had urgently entered a leaking underwater base to escape it. Only Sanghyun and Carlos seed anxious here.
“What good would I be right now to worry about others?”
“Is there any brilliant solution if you go to Daehan Island? Sanghyun, do you know how to fly a helicopter or drive a boat?”
“You just drive it, right! It’s not like I haven’t played a ga or two! Ah, really! I’ll take you with , hyung!”
“I think Daehan Island will be a ss too. Didn’t you only play fighting gas or dating gas with girls?”
Then Kim Jae-hee laughed heartily and patted Sanghyun’s shoulder, saying,
“Whether I wait here or get on a boat you drive up there, it seems equally dood. If that’s the case, I’d rather stay with my team mbers.”
“Augh! Then at least let take the escape pod first!”
Hearing Kim Jae-hee’s words, Carlos’s face lit up and he said,
“You’re not going? Hey! One person from your Team A isn’t going! Then this person’s escape pod is mine!”
Carlos and Sanghyun behaved as if they were about to eat Seo Jihyuk alive to get on the escape pod, while Seo Jihyuk stood blocking them in the place where Jae-hee had been standing earlier, as if he were listening to dogs barking.
Co to think of it, Shin Haeryang isn’t here with Engineer Team A. Looking at Engineer Team D, Vladimir was missing there too. Instead of the silent Viktor, Nikolai was muttering sothing while pointing at Seo Jihyuk, and judging by the lack of translation, he seed to be sharing what had just happened to Sophia and Nikita in his team with sowhat intense words.
Sophia absent-mindedly nodded chanically to Nikolai’s story, then covered her mouth and staggered towards the bathroom. Nikita, who had been next to Sophia, was slowly walking, following her. Every ti I see those people, I wonder, how much did they drink?
“Where did the team leaders of the engineering teams go?”
Surely the team leaders didn’t escape first in the escape pods? I asked Baek Ae-young, who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, and her answer ca with a sigh.
“Two people from each team disappeared. The Russian team leader and ours went to take a look around the central building. Ah, it’s a secret that we went to the dormitory. The team leaders told their team mbers to stay put right here. They probably thought we might disappear if we moved around on our own. We didn’t move an inch from here, okay?”
Baek Ae-young winked at cutely with one eye. It seed she ant for to keep quiet about it.
Well, I think Shin Haeryang will know what his team mbers did as soon as he sees them. Looking at the water dripping at Seo Jihyuk’s feet, I asked,
“There are four escape pods left, but you haven’t launched them.”
“What if we find Jihyun unni or the deputy team leader with critical injuries that require imdiate hospital transfer? It doesn’t seem like this underwater base will collapse in 10 minutes, right? The team leader said he’d co and make a decision in 10 minutes. It’s the sa for the Russians too. We’re fighting less over the few escape pods we have.”
Carlos, the only non-engineer, fidgeted anxiously, stuck between the two engineering teams. Tumanako, who had been looking around the unfamiliar escape pod port, approached Seo Jihyuk, pointed at the number showing four escape pods remaining, and asked,
“We can escape by taking these escape pods, right?”
Two people. Seo Jihyuk looked at Tumanako and his expression beca troubled.
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