Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea - Chapter 94

I took a few steps back at Kevin’s shouting, and faced off against him in that position. Kevin seemed extremely bothered by me approaching him, or maybe he didn’t like my greeting.

I brought my backpack to the front, unzipped it slightly, and reached inside. Fumbling around, I took out a bottle of saline solution, a spray disinfectant, and a few packaged painkillers.

I knelt on one knee and heard someone inhaling sharply in the distance. I began rolling the saline bottle like a bowling ball towards Kevin. The cylindrical bottle tumbled and stopped at Kevin’s ankle. Next, I rolled the spray disinfectant.

Even as I rolled the items to him, Kevin didn’t look at what they were. He only watched my actions. The painkillers were what Kim Ga-young had brought from Yoo Geum-yi ‘s lab, and I tossed the remaining two pills in their container. The painkiller bottle flew in an arc and landed lightly next to Kevin’s instep.

From my observations, most Koreans don’t take pills without water, but foreigners just swallow them dry. I’m not sure why. Maybe I just haven’t seen Koreans swallowing pills without water. As for water to take with the medicine… they could scoop up the draining seawater with their hands. I tried it and it was fine. But rather than drinking that seawater, I’d prefer swallowing the saline solution. It’s salty water either way.

I said something I would never tell a patient at my clinic.

“Treat yourself.”

Without taking his eyes off me, Kevin felt around his ankle and picked up the round saline bottle, holding it up towards me. Keeping both the bottle and me in his field of vision, he quickly glanced at the item in his hand and set it on the floor. He was checking the disinfectant and painkillers in the same way.

It seemed he believed that the moment he took his eyes off me, I would rush in to close the distance and attack, or the people keeping their distance would run over and jump him. I’m not sure why he thought that. Pointing at the bottles, I said,

“Wash the wound area thoroughly with saline, then disinfect with the spray. The painkillers will make it hurt less if you take them, or you can keep hurting without them.”

You need to see the wound to know what it looks like. I think I acted in a way that wouldn’t get me kicked out if I stood before Hippocrates. It may surprise most people, but dentists also take the Hippocratic Oath. Kevin frowned, gripping the axe handle, and asked,

“What’s your name?”

Zipping up my backpack, I returned the question in an equally dry voice.

“What’s your name then?”

I heard a sharp inhalation behind me. What if Yoo Geum-yi  was mistaken or you’re a twin and a different person? Kevin gave me a displeased look and spat out his name.

“…Kevin Roy.”

“Park Moo-hyun.”

“Mister Park. There’s no guarantee you won’t attack me if I let go of this axe.”

“Keep thinking that then.”

Kevin looked taken aback. Even if I said I’m harmless, have no intention of harming you, won’t attack you needlessly, and will treat you if you allow me, could he really believe it?

We were strangers, and we met under circumstances too perilous to instantly trust each other. And while I’ve countless times soothed frightened children to treat them at the dental clinic, what power does a doctor have if an adult refuses treatment? I’d just say something like “Come back when you feel like getting treated.” Besides, Deep Blue is closed and I’m on vacation.

“I don’t want to imagine you chopping me with that axe while I’m treating you either.”

“What do you gain from this?”

Kevin’s words made me smile wryly. Realizing my laughter might seem like mockery to him, I erased the smile tugging at my lips and retorted,

“Would I gain anything?”

Deep creases formed between Kevin’s brows. After a while, he sighed.

“If you don’t attack me first, I won’t attack you either.”

As soon as I heard that, I wanted to expand the scope of this promise a bit.

“Do that for the others too. If the people here don’t attack you, you don’t attack them either.”

Not a bad idea, right? Those people probably don’t want to be needlessly terrified when they see you either. Same for you. But I can’t make promises for everyone, so if you get attacked, fight back. Quite fair, no? However, Kevin shook his head.

“Just you. They haven’t done anything for me.”

I let out a deep sigh and approached slowly with both hands raised. I carefully unwrapped the towel around his calf. The calf had merely been tightly tied with a towel after something sharp had deeply punctured and exited.

No matter how many times I looked at it, this wound seemed to need at least ten stitches. As I looked at the calf and reached for my backpack, Kevin panicked.

“What are you trying to do?”

“I’m getting tape from the backpack. To stop the bleeding and stick the tape on the wound.”

As I opened the backpack, pushing the cat aside to find what I needed, Kevin’s expression turned bizarre upon seeing the contents. I poured saline over the wound, washed my fingers, and pressed gauze on it. After the bleeding subsided a bit, I rinsed the wound again with saline and disinfected around it.

“Was this wound from the axe by any chance?”

The gash was on the fleshy part of the calf. Kevin didn’t answer. I manually pulled the torn wound closed as much as possible to make the flesh adhere and stuck multiple layers of tape over it. I’d need a needle and thread to suture it. Let’s minimize the wound gaping for now. Kevin furrowed his brown brows and asked,

“What’s with the cat inside?”

“It’s not one I raised, so I don’t know. …Do you happen to know a lot about snakes?”

“No.”

“What about sharks then?”

“…Are you messing with me?”

“No.”

Which part sounds like I’m joking? Having used up the scant gauze and bandages, I tore the towel I was using into long strips and wrapped his calf. Looking at Kevin’s leg, I asked,

“Ah, right. What’s your religion?”

“Why are you asking about religion?”

“Pray for your leg to get better soon.”

“…I believed until yesterday but not starting today.”

My hands were a complete mess when the treatment was done. All I could think about was running to the bathroom to wash my hands about five times. I felt burdened by the other person’s brown eyes boring into me. Doctors are very used to patients staring at their face when they have nowhere else to look, but it was doubly burdensome for me since this wasn’t a clinic and the treated area wasn’t inside a mouth.

Feeling my face burn, I looked around and saw the others also watching with folded arms as I provided treatment. …Well, there’s nothing much to see besides the water draining. When the treatment finished, I stood up to check the water level.

Looking down at the first floor from the second floor railing, a tremendous amount of water had drained. Lee Jihyun, who had been slumped in a chair, was now getting up and heading towards the stairs. Kevin, gripping the axe handle again, slowly stood up leaning on the axe. People seemed to want to go to the stairs leading to the first floor, but they were wary due to Kevin’s presence.

However, Lee Jihyun passed right in front of Kevin and descended the stairs, not caring whether he was holding the axe or not. As Kevin slowly went down the stairs after her, the others followed, keeping a distance of 2-3 meters.

On the first floor, the water level was between the ankles and calves. Washing my hands once in the seawater to avoid falling, I slowly walked to the elevator. People who had already arrived were boarding the open elevator. The elevator interior was huge. Lee Jihyun had removed the control panel cover and was examining the inside. I entered the elevator and checked the maximum occupancy.

[Passenger · Freight]

[3750 kg]

[50 persons]

No wonder the elevator was so big – the capacity was immense. It was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside. The central elevator in the main building was also huge, but this was no joke either. What’s the per-person weight limit? Yoo Geum-yi  was also looking at the maximum occupancy and simply told me,

“75kg per person.”

Hearing that, Kim Ga-young smiled slightly and said,

“Well, I’m definitely not 75kg.”

Is 75kg the standard weight per person in elevators? I had never thought about this topic before. There are 12 people here, so can’t we all fit?

As I was trying to recall my most recent weight from the company health checkup, Sam frowned at the kilograms and asked Yoo Geum-yi ,

“How much is that in pounds?”

“…Oh. One moment. …Uh, about… 166 pounds?”

Sam fell silent. Then he stared at the maximum occupancy sign as if glaring would change the numbers.

The woman named Emma was sitting crumpled in the corner of the elevator floor. She seemed utterly indifferent to her legs and bottom getting wet. Unlike when she appeared fine on the second floor, she now looked extremely exhausted. I wanted to talk to her, but she was hunched over with her head in her hands, shutting out all external stimuli. I didn’t want to bother someone who seemed worn out by the very idea of conversation.

As people boarded the elevator one by one, Benjamin asked Lee Jihyun impatiently,

“Will it work? Or not?”

“Wait.”

“How long do we have to wait? I went diving and pulled this elevator out of the water because of what you said.”

“I said wait.”

“If this doesn’t work! Hey! You’ll have killed everyone here! Killed them all! The people here could’ve all gone to the bio center but stayed here trusting you!”

Lee Jihyun raised her head from the elevator panel and looked at Benjamin. But Kanu cut Benjamin off first.

“If it doesn’t work, we die here then.”

“Maybe you have no problem living or dying here since your days are already numbered, but not me!”

“It’s about the same whether we get out by elevator or not, so quit whining.”