I don't know how long I had been standing still on the stairs, but at Baek Ae-young's words, I moved hurriedly as if stung by a whip, nearly falling over. Park Mu-hyun's quiz time ended like this. I wish he had offered a prize.
Baek Ae-young, holding a flashlight, was waiting for us at the top of the high stairs. With patience, then irritation, and then patience again, I climbed each step until I finally reached a position where I could see Baek Ae-young's face. He stopped there, not going any further. Yoo Geum was also standing beside Baek Ae-young, leaning on her knees. The two of us, who had merged, panted heavily as we looked at the two people standing at the top of the stairs.
"Are you resting there?"
"This is the end."
At Baek Ae-young's answer, I shook my head and looked around. Apart from a few more dimly lit stairs behind Baek Ae-young, there were no more stairs. No more stairs. No more stairs! I exclaimed, waving one arm in the air. I forgot my fatigue, and a smile naturally formed on my face.
Yoo Geum lay on the floor, panting and exclaimed, "I'm so excited!" Seo Ji-hyuk also sat on the floor, muttering something like, "Kill me, kill me." I couldn't tell if he was sleeping or dead. Baek Ae-young was stretching her limbs, and the way she was contorting her body made me wonder if human joints could bend like that. She groaned.
When no one moved as Shin Hae-ryang had said, I got up, crawling. No, I can't just let him wander around in the dark alone. As Shin Hae-ryang moved away from the group, darkness immediately enveloped us. Relying on the blue light around my neck, I repeated to myself, "It's not scary, it's not scary." My legs trembled as I got up from lying on the floor. A newborn calf would walk better than this. Thinking that I would be fine today but wouldn't be able to walk tomorrow after a night's sleep, I followed Shin Hae-ryang down the stairs.
He only glanced back once when he saw me coming down. He didn't try to stop me. Shin Hae-ryang went down another landing and stared at the wall for a while with his flashlight. He knocked and scratched the wall, then went down more stairs. He repeated similar actions at the next landing. Each time he went down the stairs, he checked the wall, and watching him descend silently into the darkness, I was overwhelmed with despair at the thought of having to do this again.
Do we have to walk 4000 steps back to the Third Undersea Base? After climbing so hard? The urge to cry welled up inside me. My body was so tired that my mind was also exhausted. As a storm of pain raged in my head, destroying the carefully built confidence, Shin Hae-ryang stopped at a landing and knocked on the wall with the back of his hand. It made a hollow sound. The wall was covered in mold. It made sense, given the dampness and moisture here, and the fact that insects crawled around. Shin Hae-ryang touched the wall, then knocked with his fist and searched his backpack for a screwdriver. It seemed he had taken it from Baek Ae-young's bag at the Third Undersea Base. He then stabbed the wall with all his might using the screwdriver.
I expected it to bounce back, but the tip of the screwdriver went straight into the wall. When he pulled it out and threw it on the floor, I asked, "Here?"
"Yes."
My heart pounded in my ears. A lump rose in my throat. A beam of light came through the small hole the screwdriver had made. As soon as I saw the light, my eyes welled up. I could hear Seo Ji-hyuk cursing Shin Hae-ryang in my ear, even though he wasn't there. Damn team leader.
"Can you explain more?"
"It seems they added two layers of drywall. Due to the moisture, it has grown mold and rotted. As you can see, the screwdriver can penetrate it, so we can tear it down and get out."
He was saying that this was a partition wall connected to the stairs. I felt my legs give out and I slowly sat down on the stairs. We don't have to go back to the Third Undersea Base. We don't have to go down those damn 4000 steps again. We can get out of here. Tears welled up in my eyes.
"Stay here. I'll bring the others."
I nodded. As Shin Hae-ryang climbed the stairs past me, I shouted at his back, "Won't they come if we call them?!"
But Shin Hae-ryang continued climbing. When the sound of his steps stopped, I realized, with a dazed mind, that he had gone up because of Seo Ji-hyuk. I was so out of it. The sound of people descending the stairs began. I had no strength left to climb up. I crawled to where Shin Hae-ryang had been standing and swept the floor. I found the handle of the screwdriver.
Thinking I should at least try to chip away at the drywall before the others arrived, I hit the wall with the screwdriver, but it was incredibly tough. How did Shin Hae-ryang manage to stab it with a screwdriver? Is drywall usually this hard? I couldn't tell if it was because I lacked strength or if the part I was touching was unexpectedly harder.
Sitting on the stairs, I held the screwdriver with both hands and hit the wall several times. I heard footsteps behind me, and then a tap on my shoulder. A hand was extended next to me, glowing blue due to the necklace. Handing the screwdriver to the expert, a large hand grabbed it and started punching the wall. After four punches, a hole the size of a palm appeared. Shin Hae-ryang used the screwdriver, his fist, and his forearm to break down the wall. He was almost like a human excavator. Eventually, he kicked the wall with his foot to make the hole bigger.
Dust filled the air, but an enormous amount of light came in from outside. After walking in the darkness, my eyes couldn't adjust to the light, making it hard to open them. When a hole big enough for a person to pass through was made, Baek Ae-young whistled softly and slipped out like a cat. She then knocked on the wall three times. From behind, I heard Yoo Geum's laughter.
Shin Hae-ryang explained that we had emerged inside the deep-sea aquarium of the Second Undersea Base, which is located at -200m. The deep-sea aquarium is set to open next year for visitors to the undersea base, so it was only partially constructed, with only a few species of fish introduced. People come here to feed the fish, clean the tanks, and plant aquatic plants, but fortunately, there was no sign of anyone.
Following Baek Ae-young's suggestion, we went to the nearest restroom from our location. Shin Hae-ryang seemed to have already mapped out the shortest route to the First Undersea Base in his head, but the others couldn't move like robots.
Especially Yoo Geum and I, we said we would die if we walked any further, and Seo Ji-hyuk, who couldn't curse his team leader, groaned and lay on the floor. Baek Ae-young glared at the people lying on the floor and complaining, and said to the team leader, "You can't expect others to have the same stamina as you or the team leader."
Seo Ji-hyuk, emerging from the restroom stall with the strength of both arms and one leg, said he felt like he was reborn as he washed his hands. Watching him stand on one leg and wash his hands at the sink made me feel uneasy, but Seo Ji-hyuk seemed unfazed. He then leaned against the wall, standing on one leg, and glared at his left leg, which hadn't "reborn."
Shin Hae-ryang, after using the restroom and washing his hands, rinsing his mouth, and washing his face, stood by the door as if on guard, watching for anyone approaching.
Seo Ji-hyuk, emerging from the restroom stall with the strength of both arms and one leg, said he felt like he was reborn as he washed his hands. Watching him stand on one leg and wash his hands at the sink made me feel uneasy, but Seo Ji-hyuk seemed unfazed. He then leaned against the wall, standing on one leg, and glared at his left leg, which hadn't "reborn."
Baek Ae-young suggested we rest in the restroom and wash up a bit. She said it would make us feel much better. We split into male and female groups to use the restrooms and agreed to meet in 10 minutes. Seo Ji-hyuk was the first to rush into a stall, using both arms and one leg.
Looking at myself in the mirror, I was a sight to behold. My hair was matted with sweat, and my body was covered in dust, as if I had worn a layer of dirt. My face and hands were black with grime.
I considered washing my hoodie in the water but decided against it, opting for a compromise with my hygiene standards. Instead, I went into a corner stall, took off all my clothes, and held my breath. I shook out my hoodie and training pants. If I could have opened the window, I would have. Outside the window, there was only water. Air circulation system, hang in there.
After shaking off the dust, I put my clothes back on and washed my sweat-soaked hair and face with water and soap at the sink. I couldn't stand the discomfort. I dried my wet hair with a suspiciously clean towel from the cleaning supplies cabinet (cleaner than my clothes) and rinsed my mouth with water. Just that made me feel much better.
I washed and dried the necklace in the water and returned it to its owner. Shin Hae-ryang, after using the restroom and washing his hands, rinsing his mouth, and washing his face, stood by the door as if on guard, watching for anyone approaching.
Seo Ji-hyuk, emerging from the restroom stall with the strength of both arms and one leg, said he felt like he was reborn as he washed his hands. Watching him stand on one leg and wash his hands at the sink made me feel uneasy, but Seo Ji-hyuk seemed unfazed. He then leaned against the wall, standing on one leg, and glared at his left leg, which hadn't "reborn."