"I think Ji-hyeon is the prettiest in our team. There's this girl in our team named Lee Ji-hyeon who is the prettiest and has a good personality. But it seems that with a worldwide perspective, that's not the case. Baek Ae-young was the most popular."
"Is that so?"
I looked at the light that was so high up I had to crane my neck to see it, then nodded.
"Well... why... there are some guys who are just scum. They keep confessing to girls and getting rejected, then they do it again and again. If you get rejected once, you should give up. The saying 'if you try ten times, even a tree will fall' is ridiculous. Do they think people are trees? How much axe work are they doing on trees that don’t fall? Don’t they even consider that the tree might get damaged? Selfish bastards. Why don’t they date Jin-ae’s team or go on leave and date someone? Or at least be single. I can’t understand why married guys are doing this."
"Wow..."
"The problem was that at least four or five guys liked Baek Ae-young. She said she had no intention of dating anyone. In this narrow, closed place like a submarine base, meeting a guy and doing anything would only bring bad things to her life. She also said it wasn’t her type."
"So what happened?"
"Ji-hyeon, who has a pretty face and an incredible brain, speaks five languages. She’s very smart. Usually, she acts like she doesn’t know five languages or even Korean, which makes her even smarter. Anyway, she overheard this and told our team leader everything."
Seo Ji-hyuk glanced at Shin Hae-ryang beside him. Shin Hae-ryang said nothing. Was he even listening?
"So what happened?"
"The team leader switched rooms with Ae-young. Baek Ae-young, as you can see, is the type who would gather materials if the team leader said he was going to cook doenjang with cement powder."
At that, a low laugh, like the wind escaping, came from the darkness. It was Shin Hae-ryang laughing.
"That’s not true."
"Anyway! During our team’s break time, Ae-young’s room was forcibly opened. It was bedtime, so the lights in our corridor were off. They thought she was sleeping. The guys must have been shocked. They thought Baek Ae-young would be there, but instead, a 193cm tall man was waiting in the darkness. And while waiting in the dark, he was bored and was exercising with a 20kg dumbbell borrowed from Joo-sung."
"Wow... so what happened?"
I stopped climbing the stairs to listen to Seo Ji-hyuk’s story, but Shin Hae-ryang urged me to continue. Reluctantly, I put my foot on the next step.
"The door was forcibly closed. One of the guys who ran away, we chased him down with Jae-hee and caught him. By the time we brought him back, the situation was already over. The three guys who entered the room were beaten to a pulp. Especially the one who was hit with the dumbbell, he tried to protect himself with his right arm, so his arm didn’t break, but when it fell, his foot did."
It’s all clear. Shin Hae-ryang, one of the parties involved, said nothing.
"Mr. Shin Hae-ryang, is this really true?"
"·····I don’t remember clearly. I only remember that they burst in while I was listening to 'Viva La Vida.'"
Inside, I was doing a breakdance to the thrilling story Seo Ji-hyuk was telling, but in my mind, I was more worried about how this was handled.
"·····So what happened? Did the police come?"
"Police? It would take at least two or three hours to bring them from Hawaii. Longer from Korea or Japan. Even longer from the U.S. When people heard the noise, they all came out of their rooms. The room was a mess with four guys causing chaos. Michael, the head of engineering, questioned everyone involved. The team leader was sleeping in Baek Ae-young’s room when the door suddenly opened in emergency mode, and those guys came in and started using violence. The four guys said they went to the team leader’s room to talk, but he suddenly went crazy and started using violence. Michael may laugh, but he’s not an idiot. If he were, he wouldn’t be the head of this chaotic place. Michael, who had heard everything, asked why four guys entered Baek Ae-young’s room during her break. The guys had nothing to say. They just made animal noises. Anyway, a while later, those guys suddenly rolled on the ground, even though they were fine. They said they had an accident while working. James didn’t teach them properly, so they got hurt by the dumbbells, and so on. A few of them were forced to return to their countries a few months later."
Seo Ji-hyuk fell silent, as if his explanation was over. I felt a chill run down my spine from the creeping unease.
"What about official intervention? Police or military?"
"·····This submarine base is still being claimed by eight countries. Who’s going to bring their country’s law enforcement here? The Dragon King would probably make a faster judgment. Anyway, because of the mess in Ae-young’s room and the threat that if we didn’t move to a different building, everyone in the most remote cafe in Mozambique would know about this, our team leader managed to get us moved to Baekho-dong. The other engineers are all in Cheongryong-dong."
"The Russian team is also in Baekho-dong, right?"
"The Russians were even more intense. They tied up an Australian guy who entered a woman’s room without permission, and tortured him for 18 hours. He was sent back to his country from the hospital."
Good grief. What am I hearing?
"Is there no way to enforce laws against such crimes?"
"·····The higher-ups are discussing it, but when it will be decided is unknown. All the countries are fighting over whose submarines can patrol near the submarine base. Recon drones are crashing into each other. The U.S. military is openly saying they will build a naval base right next to the submarine base, so everyone is fighting again. If a problem arises here, there’s a lot of debate about which country’s laws should apply."
Shin Hae-ryang, who had been listening quietly, interjected.
"·····Officially, no one is allowed to be armed inside the submarine base. It’s a kind of extraterritorial area. They say it was designed this way so that people could live together based on cooperation and reconciliation, transcending race, nationality, gender, and age, when the submarine base was first being built."
"·····The idea itself is good. But it seems difficult."
It’s very idealistic. It seems the submarine base was designed like a utopia, but it doesn’t reflect the desires of the people living in reality. Of course, it would be great if everyone lived like that. But it seems people’s consciousness isn’t that high. Isn’t it too much to hope for? Shin Hae-ryang continued.
"According to that idea, each country is supposed to screen people to ensure they are as ethical and have no major issues in building relationships with others, but I doubt they are doing it properly."
"Screened?"
"Yes."
What does that mean? Was I screened when I came in? What did I get screened for?
"I was also screened to come in here. What kind of screening do you go through to enter the submarine base?"
"Didn’t you take a personality test?"
"·····Yes. I took it twice online. I also had an interview."
"Besides that, there were probably a few more tests on ethics and ideology that you didn’t know about. They probably excluded anyone with a fine of over 300,000 won. I’m not sure about the rest. They were implemented after I came in."
The only sound was the steady climbing of the stairs. After a few more steps, Seo Ji-hyuk exclaimed, "Ah!" I thought his leg might be hurting, but he was looking at me and shouting.
"So! The reason women changing rooms with others isn’t really suspicious is this!"
More than that, Seo Ji-hyuk’s good memory was proven to me. My mind was more focused on the chaotic state of the submarine base rather than the suspicions about Kang Soo-jung and Yoo Geum.
I stroked my forehead a few times and, recalling the strange dental appointment, said,
"Mr. Sato seemed to have a deep grudge against Mr. Shin Hae-ryang."
Seo Ji-hyuk chuckled.
"Well, when our team leader was punching Sato, breaking his right arm, right hand, right foot, and right... you know what, he only broke his fingers."
Seo Ji-hyuk, swinging his arm like a boxer, accidentally stepped with his injured left foot, causing us all to stumble and fall. "Whoa!"
"·····"
As we got up, neither I nor Shin Hae-ryang said anything except for groans. But Seo Ji-hyuk seemed to think the silence was a rebuke.
"Uhh... I’m sorry, both of you. It’s tough helping a 96kg guy climb the stairs. Please bear with it a little longer. When I get out of here, I’ll buy you drinks."
"Didn’t you say there’s no alcohol here?"
"That’s why I’m saying it."
Seo Ji-hyuk’s absurd statement made me laugh despite the effort. It felt like we had climbed more steps than when we were quiet.
But if I asked Yoo Geum, we probably hadn’t climbed that many. At first, I kept asking how many steps we had climbed. Now, I hardly ask. It’s only disappointing or exhausting if the number isn’t what I expected.