RUMBLE, BOOM!
The powerful explosion noises rocked Jo Gyu-Min’s brain. No, forget brain, it felt like his soul was shaking from the impact noises!
The water's surface hovering near his chest splashed about and slapped Jo Gyu-Min in the face. Even though everything was vividly registering in his brain, it all felt so surreal to him.
The dark, suffocating space was filled with water up to his chest. And all this water was constantly splashing and tumbling about. Meanwhile, other panicking people near him were loudly struggling and clamoring in their bid to escape from here. And to top everything off, loud explosion noises and vibrations akin to a deity hammering the ground echoed nonstop.
Even the lights decided to join in on the fun by flickering back to life only to cut out again repeatedly. All these factors combined to shake Jo Gyu-Min up and unnerve him.
‘If there really is Hell, it must be something like this place!’
It was scary here. No, make that incredibly terrifying! Jo Gyu-Min could barely keep his wits up. However, he was quickly stunned back into reality by the sensation of the child’s shoulders in his arms.
‘Wake the f*ck up! Now isn’t the time to think about me!’
Jo Gyu-Min was an adult, yet he was this terrified, so imagine how much worse it would be for the Seongsim kids! It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck him when that thought popped up in his head.
If everyone had to be categorized as either a good person or a villain, Jo Gyu-Min wouldn't be able to stand on either side. His conscience wouldn't allow it. Even then, his head was still filled with nothing but thoughts of the Seongsim children's survival.
He was a perfect example of how a person's stance would change depending on the subject matter. Most people would prioritize the kids' safety if they found themselves in the same situation as Jo Gyu-Min.
‘I... I must get them out of here, alive!’
Jo Gyu-Min repeatedly burned the faces of the Seongsim kids hidden by the darkness in his mind. And those faces were stained by tears, their lips firmly clamped shut so they wouldn't be a nuisance to anyone!
Jo Gyu-Min gritted his teeth.
‘What should I do?’
He couldn’t think of a way out. However, it was his job to find a solution. Giving up because there didn’t seem a way was only possible during written tests!
He was emphatically not in a test. This was reality! He must find a way out, no matter what.
Just as Jo Gyu-Min’s thoughts reached that far...
RUMBLE!
Yet another powerful vibration rocked the aquarium building. The water filling up the space tumbled again and slapped the scared people’s faces.
“Fuu-wuuuph!”
The terror born from the cold water rising up to one’s face was on another scale compared to everything else.
Obviously, Jo Gyu-Min had experienced moments in the past when his life seemed under threat. However, those were just feelings he had. Now that the water was actually threatening him by reaching up to his face, however... His body reacted first.
Not only him, but everyone else urgently flailed about, trying to grab and hold onto something. Unfortunately, the only thing they could find in this space were the bodies of other people.
Human bodies got into messy tangles with other humans, and the last vestige of order quickly vanished into the ether.
They shouldn’t be criticized for this situation, however. No one should. People in desperation were supposed to even clutch at straws, after all!
Would people be able to think rationally when they couldn't move and the cold water had filled the space up to their heads? No! Since everyone wanted to live, it was only natural for them to instinctively grab and pull at anything and everything they could touch.
“C-Chief Jo! Apoohu! Chief!”
Jo Gyu-Min urgently looked behind him. One of the Seongsim kids couldn't win against the adults' pulling force and was getting dragged underwater. Jo Gyu-Min forced his body to move in that split second. He successfully grabbed the child's arm and pulled hard.VịSit no(v)3lb/!n(.)com for new novels
It felt like his arm was about to fall out of its socket!
“Uwaaaaaht!”
Jo Gyu-Min roared in anger. That was when a hand shot out of nowhere to grab him by his hair. Not only that, but more hands began scratching and clawing him in his chest. Someone even grabbed his waist from below, and it became nearly impossible for Jo Gyu-Min to think straight.
“Goddamn it! Calm down, you idiots! You gotta calm down first!”
This rise in the water level was only temporary. What happened was the vibrations had caused the water to ripple and hit people in their faces. That was all!
‘Dammit! Still, why is there so much water here?!’
It seemed this passage was situated lower than the surrounding areas. If the aquarium owners had potential emergency situations in mind while designing this place, the water should have flowed out of here by now.
However, that didn't seem to be it, as this water was clearly going nowhere.
‘Goddamn it! Why haven’t the people in the front moved out already?!’
This situation made no sense. So much time had already gone by, so shouldn't those people up ahead have reached outside by now?
At this rate, people trapped in here would end up drowning!
Jo Gyu-Min looked behind him toward the deeper part of the aquarium. Despite the darkness, he could see more water coming in. The water level had risen past his chest to reach the tip of his chin.
‘What about the kids?’
The Seongsim kids were somehow enduring while holding onto each other. The smaller kids were leaning on the taller kids’ shoulders and backs to stay above the water’s surface.
‘This can’t go on!’
This was all nothing more than a stop-gap measure. Soon, it’d become impossible to endure anymore.
Flames of determination burned in Jo Gyu-Min’s eyes.
‘The ceiling!’
Jo Gyu-Min's head snapped up to look above. He could see the damaged ceiling.
Just as the grim reality of death filled his mind, Jo Gyu-Min reflexively reached out. And someone... actually held his hand.
Jo Gyu-Min bit his lip, hard. His skin burst, drawing blood.
From regret to despair, many indescribable emotions washed over him at that very moment.
“Uwaaaaaaaah! Lee Hyeon-Su, you f*cking son of a...!”
KAAA-BOOOOOOM!
An explosion suddenly went off!
The moment the ear-shredding noise rocked the space, the whole world seemingly tumbled and flipped around. Before Jo Gyu-Min could figure out what happened, his body tumbled upside down and was thrown around repeatedly. It became almost impossible to get his bearings now.
‘Huh?’
However, Jo Gyu-Min still managed to sober up real quickly, thanks to something he thought he'd never see in this place.
“Light?”
Even as water rushed inside his mouth, Jo Gyu-Min still cried out at the top of his lungs.
“Light!”
There was light!
Only then did Jo Gyu-Min finally figure out what happened. There was a large hole in the wall, and the water was rapidly flooding out through it. People were getting washed outside along with the water, too.
Several men standing outside the wall were helping the drenched and dazed people to stand up and step out of the way to avoid getting injured.
‘We... We are saved!’
One thing was for certain... Jo Gyu-Min and the kids were safe now!
Jo Gyu-Min teared up at the sight of all the water filling up the space flooding outside.
“Dammit...!”
That must’ve served as a signal, as a different flood broke out all around him. And it was a flood of tears this time.
As the relief of knowing they were alive washed over, everyone broke down and began sobbing away.
‘What about the kids?’
Jo Gyu-Min urgently looked back. He needed to make sure the kids were alright! They could have gotten swept away in the middle of all this, after all!
“Jin-Seong! Where are you, Jin-Seong!”
“I'm here!" Han Jin-Seong replied loudly, his voice also heavily soaked in tears.
Jo Gyu-Min fully understood the boy’s sentiments, though.
“Jin-Seong, the kids... Let’s make sure that everyone is accounted for, okay? I know it’s tough right now, but we can’t relax just yet.”
“I know, Chief Jo. I’m doing the headcount right now.”
Jo Gyu-Min nodded slowly.
Not too long after that, Han Jin-Seong raised his voice. “Everyone's here, Chief Jo! And they are safe! They... they are... We are...”
Han Jin-Seong couldn't continue as he also broke down and sobbed. Jo Gyu-Min looked back at the boy and nodded slowly. By then, the water level had dropped below his knees.
Without even meaning to, Jo Gyu-Min plopped down on his butt. Not a single part of his body was fine. Relief flooding his senses robbed him of the last bits of strength propping his body up. All Jo Gyu-Min did then was just sit there and dazedly stare at the bright light pouring in through the large hole in the wall.
‘Light. Yes, that is light...’
Light held such a mysterious power to bring peace back into a man's frayed mind, now didn't it? If he could, Jo Gyu-Min wanted to stare at that light for the rest of his life.
‘...Mm?’
That was when Jo Gyu-Min finally noticed a silhouette of a person amidst the light. While the sunlight poured in from behind to create a sort of a halo, this person leisurely stepped inside.
Splash, splash...
This person waded past the water flooding outside to enter the passageway. The shadow of this person, who was a man by the way, grew larger as it loomed over Jo Gyu-Min. And when he stood right before the dazed man’s eyes...
Jo Gyu-Min’s jaw nearly fell.
“...Did you know I could clearly hear you on the outside?”
“...”
“So, I’m a f*cking son of a what now?”
“...”
“Get up, you little sh*t. Because you’re gonna learn I'm the son of what today!”
Jo Gyu-Min instinctively realized something while looking at Lee Hyeon-Su making a distorted face of an angry demon.
He realized his ordeal hadn't ended yet![1]
1. I almost TLed this line as “It was at this moment he knew... he f*cked up.” ☜