“…But how old are you, Woonghee-ssi?”
Why was she asking? Like a typical Korean, did she need to sort out the hierarchy?
“Twenty-six.”
The woman’s eyes widened into circles.
“Really? Crazy, really?”
Paeng Hana crouched down and moved her hands diligently. She stuck her fingers into the gaps between the unsplit firewood and spread them wide to the side.
“I thought you had just turned twenty. I can’t believe we’re only two years apart.”
Snap—the firewood tore apart. The woman’s forearms were as thin as matchsticks, but she used her body cleverly.
“…Um, honestly, I suspected you at first, Woonghee-ssi.”
“…….”
“I mean, suddenly they said the captain died. The lifeboat was torn up.”
This was a story he had already eavesdropped on once. He had gathered information by hiding gloomily behind a rock.
“But now that I see you like this, I understand. That there’s no way Woonghee-ssi would do that. …I’m really sorry, I apologize.”
“It’s fine, even I would have been suspected.”
Woonghee pulled the machete from the firewood as if it was no big deal.
“But who the hell was that bastard?”
Paeng Hana muttered as if talking to herself. Her upturned eyebrows wriggled.
“He must be dead, right?”
Then she asked this slyly. A smile that seemed uncomfortable hung on her lips.
“…Who knows.”
“I was the last one to escape then. But I didn’t see any strange person.”
It was a problem Woonghee had pondered as well, but he still hadn’t found an answer. However, the consolation was that there was a high probability that person wasn’t on this island. If someone was hiding, wouldn’t they have been discovered by now?
The place was teeming with beasts, and humans were wandering around like this.
“Back then, Managing Director Gi-nim evacuated everyone else first and escaped last.”
Managing Director Gi did? Even hearing this story, rather than thinking that man’s character was better than expected….
It felt like he had properly adorned not just the shell but controlled things deep inside his mind.
“It’s embarrassing to say, but I was drunk and not in my right mind, and Ijun waited his turn thinking that the lifeboat Managing Director Gi-nim took would be the best one….”
Ah, now his curiosity was somewhat cleared. He had wondered why this particular group of people gathered on the island. There was a good reason.
They were bound together by drunkenness and greed. As if punished, only sinners had fallen on this island.
“But if that murderer bastard is still alive….”
The woman whispered secretly. In between, she looked around quickly. Checking if anyone was listening.
“I think it might be Director Hwang.”
She added in a lowered voice.
“…Director Hwang?”
Woonghee blinked slowly. Swoosh—the sea breeze blew. His eyelashes fluttered.
“I mean, you know, they say the witness is likely to be the culprit.”
That man, no matter how you look at him, seems like a psychopath. The woman bared her teeth fiercely.
“Plus, he’s abusing his power a lot right now, saying he’s making a raft.”
Whenever he got the chance, Director Hwang would yell loudly and smack the back of the assistant director’s head repeatedly. That raft was quite heavy, so when they floated it on the sea, it kept sinking and sinking again.
“He asks me what strength a woman has. He just wants me to wait on him.”
“…Crazy bastard.”
“He told me to massage his shoulders—am I really crazy? That man, acting like he’s Managing Director Gi-nim or something.”
Director Hwang’s personality was getting worse and worse since coming to the island.
No, it wasn’t just Director Hwang. Should he say that everyone here was shedding a layer of their shell? Now that there were no spectators watching. They just threw away all pretenses.
“Since I’m stuck doing this grilling, cutting, and cleaning, I don’t get much food.”
He thought that one’s position in society would continue even on this small island. Paeng Hana, who was goddess-level in Korea, was here peeling shrimp shells like this.
“So I came here shamelessly like this.”
Then she muttered softly again that she was sorry. The woman who had tied her hair with something randomly cut from vines slowly tucked the hair flowing behind her ear into her ear.
“I ignored you when things were hard for you, Woonghee-ssi. And I couldn’t even properly thank you for saving me from the raft back then.”
Woonghee slowly shook his head. That day, the woman tried to defend him, but it was he himself who stopped that. If this woman was needlessly excluded from the group for taking his side.
This woman would lose both food and the group that would protect her.
“I was too desperate to survive right away. It’s so embarrassing that I was selfish.”
Woonghee wasn’t disappointed or bothered at all. The woman had just acted like a human.
But aside from that.
Thinking about it, this woman was always excluded from hunting. They didn’t try to tell her, and they didn’t seem to bother taking her along.
The manager cherished her so much, worried that her hands might get scratched or her skin might get scraped, but exclusion disguised as consideration on this island was elimination.
Paeng Hana must know that too.
“I know it’s really shameless, but can you tell me how you catch shrimp so easily?”
Woonghee looked at her, a beta. Without makeup, she had a gentler impression than expected.
Her eyes were very large even without double eyelids, and her expressions were visible. Her face looked just like a puppy. Was that why? For some reason, he was reminded of Woongju. In exactly 10 years, Woongju’s eyes, her smiling lips might resemble this woman.
“…Bait.”
So Woonghee answered without realizing it. Faintly, barely trailing off at the end.
“Pardon?”
The woman asked, opening her eyes wide. What did he just say? Suddenly she brought her face close, so Woonghee blushed all the way to the bridge of his nose.
“Bait.”
Having a conversation this close to someone was something he really couldn’t get used to.
“Use small fish or shellfish as bait.”
The woman finally clapped her hands. As if realizing something, her eyes were full of joy.
“Ah, wow, I see. Shrimp are carnivorous too?”
“Yes, they’re fast so they’re hard to catch normally, but they gather around rocks.”
Woonghee gulped down the dry saliva filling his mouth.
“You can catch more after the typhoon passes. But the current is strong, so you have to go out after the waves calm down a bit.”
How long had it been since he had such an ordinary conversation? It was very awkward. Woonghee couldn’t find a place to rest his eyes. His pupils rolled anxiously.
“You shouldn’t eat clams if possible. Eat mussels or Korean mud snails instead. Things Koreans used to eat a lot.”
That was it. Woonghee turned his back sharply. It was a sign that he would cut off the conversation. He strode into the cave. Praying desperately inside that she would please stop visiting. His cheeks burned as if they were hot.
***
Woonghee was guarding the lighthouse alone. 4 AM. It was still when the beast of dawn had its head buried beyond that horizon.
Squeak, squeak.
The cry of a wild mountain beast echoed from somewhere, and black crows cawed ominously. They circled around the dim moon.
“Haaah….”
Woonghee yawned, opening his mouth slightly. He rubbed his thin eyelids roughly. Red streaks had accumulated thickly in his eyes.
He was killing time by moving his body diligently.
“What’s that…?”
Woonghee frowned. Because he saw a light coming up from below.
“Ahhh…!”
Then he heard a scream.
That was that woman again. He had prayed so much for her to please not come visit! Woonghee felt his temples throb.
He looked up at the sky, but the sun hadn’t risen yet. The fact that visibility was dark because they were closed in on all sides by dense jungle was a bonus.
“Ah, shit….”
Why on earth.
It’s not like this woman was crazy, but why would she come up here alone when it’s dangerous, so fearlessly!
Woonghee sprang up from his spot. The flames of the campfire he had lit on one side wavered.
Clutching his machete, he darted out quickly like a squirrel.
“Huh?”
He ran into Paeng Hana, who was slowly climbing up. Woonghee quickly scanned her appearance. Grass was stuck here and there, and she was sweating, but fortunately, she didn’t seem to be hurt.
“Where are you going?”
“Th-that….”
Woonghee couldn’t continue his words. He couldn’t bring himself to say that he heard a loud noise and thought he had encountered a wild beast, so he was on his way down in surprise.
Instead, Woonghee told a clumsy lie.
“To pick coconuts alone, you need a big pole. I was going to get one….”
“More coconuts?”
The woman tilted her head as if it was strange.
“There were tons of coconuts in the cave?”
Worried that his randomly made-up lie might be exposed. Woonghee turned his head away sharply and pretended not to know. He heard muttering from behind.
“Woonghee-ssi, are you the planning type? You’re really diligent.”
Phew, Woonghee let out a long sigh inside. He needed to firmly warn her never to come visit him again.
