Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The entire morning hours seemed to be a break for the engineering team since their team leader had left, and appointments had significantly decreased. I went ahead and confirmed all the appointments. After three days, I was finally getting the hang of working here. As I sent confirmation messages, Japanese patients came in one after another for their treatments at the appointed times.

The first five patients had common dental issues such as cavities, fallen-off ceramics from previous treatments, tartar removal, and periodontitis. However, the last patient was rather peculiar. A man named Tamaki Yuzuru had severely torn lips as if he had been biting them, but other than that, he seemed fine. However, when he opened his mouth, it was a complete mess.

I had never seen so much stomatitis1 before. Inflammations were densely packed, including under the tongue, causing me to frown just by looking at them. What could have caused this? Was there an explosion in his mouth? He didn’t answer my question as to how this had happened.RêAd lateSt chapters at nô(v)e(l)bin/.c/o/m Only

“Did you bite a sea urchin or a hedgehog?”

“No.”

And then there was silence. He either didn’t answer or responded very slowly when asked questions. I anesthetized him and cauterized the affected areas with a laser. As I burned each inflammation one by one, I felt we might exceed the next appointment time, so I sent a message to the next patient, asking for their understanding.

I advised him to gargle and prescribed medication for the inflammation and gargling solution. I also told him to avoid rough, hard, salty, and spicy foods, and absolutely no alcohol or cigarettes. He should get at least 8 hours of sleep, and I nagged him about this. Tamaki listened blankly and slowly nodded his head. Then, I handed him a vitamin candy that I had been eating from my pocket.

“Since these contain vitamins, have one when you’re stressed. Can you take a vacation?”

“No.”

Seeing some free time before my next appointment, I hesitated no more and took the central elevator. As soon as I reached the ground floor, I aimlessly walked around the artificial island. The wind blew fiercely. The white wind turbines of the wind power generators installed on the island spun wildly in the strong wind. As I walked a few steps, the intense sunlight attacked my eyes.

After enjoying the sunlight, sea breeze, and dust for five minutes, I felt a sudden urge to return to my warm, quiet, and still-empty dental clinic. It was cold, and the wind blew too much. I craved something sweet. I quickly took the central elevator and descended back to the underwater base. Then, I rushed to the coffee shop in the central building.

[Red Coral], located in the fourth underwater base, was a coffee shop run by a Japanese woman named Fumiko. Over the past few days, I had consumed at least two drinks a day, sampling most of the beverages available. The tastiest was the [Red Coral Coffee], a latte with three shots that felt like caffeine directly entering my veins. It was truly delicious, but my hands would tremble from caffeine after drinking it. Craving something sweet, I ordered an orange blended drink and waited for my next appointment.

There were quite a few chairs to sit on next to the café, and people who had ordered drinks from the café were either waiting, chatting, or arguing with one another. It seemed that a man and a woman had been arguing even before I arrived. In case they started fighting with their fists, I was prepared to intervene or call a medic, but they remained seated peacefully, baring their teeth at each other and exchanging fast, aggressive words until my drink was ready.

I sat on a chair, swallowing the well-mixed icy orange juice, pretending not to watch while keeping an eye on them. I noticed that most of the people around the café were watching the two of them just like me, and with a sigh of relief, I returned to the dental clinic where patients would be arriving.

On my way back to the clinic, I suddenly wondered how problems or conflicts would be handled here. I remembered reading something like the Underwater Artifact Protection Agreement in the underwater base guidebook. Maybe there’s something like an Underwater Base Staff Protection Agreement too? I still haven’t finished reading all my employment-related documents.

Looking at the shark’s skull in the distance, I suddenly asked myself, ...Am I tired? I held the Orange Blended with both hands.

Maybe it’s because I’m a newcomer here, but working at the underwater base still felt a bit awkward. The job itself might be quite different from what I experienced on land. There was no dental hygienist, no dental technician, so I had to do everything myself, which was utterly exhausting. Thankfully, there were only a handful of patients, and everything was state-of-the-art equipment; otherwise, I might have run away on my first day. ...Could I really have run away, considering how much they’re paying me?

It was clear that the laws here at the underwater base were different from those in Korea. After all, dentists can make dental prostheses here. When I asked Priya if I would be the only one using the dental clinic and if they planned on hiring more people, she said they had already posted a job announcement in Russia and New Zealand. Considering my own hiring process, it would probably take at least two months for a new person to arrive. I looked at the approaching shark’s mouth and thought. Alright. Let’s set the goal of surviving for the next two months.

D-Day 2

Inflammations inside the mouth, usually sore on the cheeks gums or inside of the lips.[↩]