Rainbow City Chapter 3

“But it’s still better than being a freshwater crayfish. You won’t die from being caught off guard, right?”

“I wasn’t surprised.”

As the doctor said, his face was expressionless and unfazed. Kwak Soohwan held on to the elevator door and waited for the doctor to get off.

[It is dangerous to forcefully hold on to the elevator door. Major Kwak Soohwan, please follow the etiquette when using the elevator.]

“On the topic of machines.”

Kwak Soohwan followed behind the doctor who started walking slowly.

“Do you know where you’re going? It’s been so long since you worked here, do you even remember?”

“Major Kwak Soohwan, from my understanding, this building is safe. I don’t know if I will ever need to go out, but I would like you to take care of my security only if I leave the premises of the building.”

The doctor spoke slowly but boldly to Kwak Soohwan.

“Nay.”

If I did that, Lieutenant Jang would definitely nag his ears off. Kwak Soohwan gestured in front of him, telling him to walk quickly.

The doctor was intuitively sure this man would tire him sooner or later. Plus, he might be gay. He obviously tried to insert his penis in his mouth. Otherwise, it could just be closer to an animal in heat. Of course, it didn’t matter.

The shelter boasted a fairly high level of security, and the research building in particular was maintained more thoroughly. It was because numerous dangerous viruses, bacteria, and vaccines were preserved here.

The doctor remembered that after about 50 meters from the elevator and around the corner, there was a laboratory he had used earlier. His steps were slow, but he was walking steadily toward the lab when he stopped in front of a transparent glass door. Then he turned his body and looked at Kwak Soohwan. He had his cape draped over his arm as if it were unwieldy.

“You can see me off here.”

Kwak Soohwan also thought that it was better to guard the door than to stay in a boring laboratory. When the identity of Dr. Seok was recognized through his fingerprint, his information was displayed on the screen.

[Adam virus researcher Seokhwa (34 years old) recognized, open.]

“Well, then.”

Seokhwa nodded his head and entered the transparent laboratory. His name was as stiff as his expression.

***

Some things didn’t change even though the world had become this way, and one of them was that shelters were still non-smoking buildings.

Kwak Soohwan, who became frustrated with being stuck inside, took a jeep and loitered around under the pretext of patrolling. The rule was that two people should be on patrol, so Lee Chaeyoon was also there.

Kwak Soohwan, who parked his car near the southern end of Wonhyo Bridge, could smell the smoke from Lee Chaeyoon’s cigarette.

“You wacko, let’s trade with me. hm?”

“What?.”

“You like sceneries. How about you go to the field and I’ll help the doctor?”

Lee Chaeyoon, who had been to Uijeongbu where the emergency was reported, sucked on half of the cigarette in one go.

“Yeah? Let’s trade.”

“I was delegated this mission instead of going to the brig, don’t you know that?”

“If we both say we wanted to trade our mission, wouldn’t they agree to change?”

Lee Chaeyoon also had a point. He would rather do fieldwork where he could run wild than stand guard in front of the lab.

“How about it? Want to?”

As Kwak Soohwan followed the billowy smoke with his eyes, he said indifferently.

“Sure, if you add one carton of cigs into the mix.”

“Fuck off. No can do.”

On the day he was brought to military court, all of Kwak Soohwan’s alcohol and cigarettes were confiscated. Since he was forced to remain cold turkey from drinking and smoking, he accompanied Lee Chaeyoon to try smoking vicariously.

“What’s the Doctor like? When I looked into it, I found out that he was quite old. I think he dated a few people but is single now?”

Kwak Soohwan tilted his head. When he heard that Dr. Seok had a relationship with someone, he felt strange.

“It has been a while since he has been in Seoul, so where did you hear such news?”

“The guy from the cafeteria said that? He said he eats like a rat. I heard he is so weak that he fell face-down into his soup?”

“He’s that kind of guy. If he had blown me, he would have suffocated on the spot.”

Kwak Soohwan chuckled.

“You wacko! You! I was so right, you did take your dick out and tried to insert it into his mouth! I caught you red-handed and Lieutenant Jang thought I was bullshitting!”

“You’re noisy. Oh look, that bastard is trying to climb up the barbed wire.”

Kwak Soohwan plugged his ears with his fingers, removed them, and pointed to the end of the bridge with his hands. The 2km radius of the building was a clean area like Jeju. However, there were times when people got lucky like that.

Kwak Soohwan took out the sniper rifle placed inside the jeep and placed it on his bonnet. He set the scope to 4x magnification and found the sniper target. Looking at the body slumping on the barbed wire bordering the bridge, it seemed like he had been infected with the virus for about three months. People called the unidentified virus, Adam.

Wasn’t it ironic, that Adam, who was the beginning of mankind, was used as a nickname for the very thing that was making mankind cease to exist?

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to blow that bastard’s head off?”

This time Lee Chaeyoon put two of her cigarettes in her mouth.

“Major Lee, shall we place a bet?”

“Bet? What bet?”

Lee Chaeyoon, who was not good at betting, had her eyes sparkling.

“Whoever succeeds in knocking that guy out with a rock on his head gets a pack of cigs. Bet?”

Lee Chaeyoon, who had two unlit cigarettes in his mouth, put them down on the bonnet and laughed. She picked up a rock from the street as if she had done this before.

Is it about 200 meters from here? Closing one eye to gauge her distance, she raised one leg like a baseball player and threw the entire force of her body onto her shoulder to launch her rock. It was because of me that she got the nickname, Bruce Lee. Lee Chaeyoon, whose body has evolved, has enough strength to break the facial bones of those guys with her bare hands.

“Hey! Did you see it?! You have to do something that makes sense in any bet, why do something this easy?”

Kwak Soohwan tapped Lee Chaeyoon, who looked triumphant, on the shoulder and gestured as if to ask her to look again. It must have been missed since the guy was still trying to get out of the barbed wire.

“What do you think, bet?”

“Don’t want to.”

Lee Chaeyoon tried to throw the stone again but Kwak Soohwan sniped first. As the bullet penetrated the top of the bastard’s head, he fell backward.

“Not worth the bullet.”

“Let’s go back. It’s time to watch Dr. Seok drop his face into his soup.”

“What?”

“It’s chow time.”

***

The menu in the shelter’s cafeteria was quite luxurious. Although Jeju Island was said to be a place where VIPs lived, the food consumed on land was often crops grown on Jeju Island. Also, some places were completely controlled, like Jeju Island, and they were called islands. Of course, since genetically modified crops were also being developed in this building, it was mutually beneficial.

Even after the announcement announcing dinner time was made, Seokhwa left the lab long after. He looked at Kwak Soohwan, who was standing guard in front of him. He had the illusion that the frost was still lingering on his uniform since he had been outside.

“Have you not eaten?”

“I was waiting for you to come out, Doc. There is no way for a soldier like me to enter the lab.”

“Let’s go.”

Although Seokhwa might have been offended by his defiant words, he did not show much of a reaction.

Kwak Soohwan thought that whenever he saw the doctor, he spoke sharply without realizing it. It was partly because he was interested in how that expressionless face could warp and show a dramatic change.

“I heard that our Dr. Stone’s name is Seokhwa, and in fact, it’s because your last name is Seok rather than Stone being a nickname because you go around picking stones all the time?”

“Major Kwak Soohwan, you are the first person to call me Dr.Stone”

“Well, everyone calls you Dr. Stone behind your back.”

“Sure.”

Seokhwa pressed the elevator button.

“My grandmother used to go diving at Jeju Island.”

Seokhwa only spoke after getting into the elevator.

“Diving?”

“Haenyeo”

“Do you think I’m asking because I don’t know the meaning?”

The elevator opened on the cafeteria floor.

“So what does it matter that your grandmother was a Haenyo?”

Kwak Soohwan asked Seokhwa, who was about to leave first, to finish his sentence.

“Seokhwa means oyster, not stone. I’m not Dr. Stone.”

Kwak Soohwan frowned as he watched Seokhwa slowly walk towards the cafeteria.

“Stones or oysters, whatever the fuck it is.”

He walked slowly so the distance between them began to widen before he knew it. He thought there might be Lieutenant Colonel Jang’s snitches somewhere here, so I approached Seokhwa with great strides.

“Dr. Stone, let’s go together.”

The cafeteria had already been swept by soldiers once, so it was quieter than usual. Seokhwa also knew that, so he walked out leisurely.

Seokhwa picked up the tray and slowly began to eat. Behind him was Kwak Soohwan. They said he ate as little as a rat, but the staff serving the food seemed to have not figured out Seokhwa yet, so they served him plenty of rice and side dishes. Seokhwa looked down at the plate and sighed softly. He soon found an empty seat, and Kwak Soohwan sat across from him.

Seokhwa held a spoon and slurped down the soup. While Kwak Soohwan was eating, he was counting down the seconds to when the doctor would sink his face into the soup. But as the minutes passed, he continued to eat. He ate so slowly that I thought he was chewing his cud like a cow.

“Dr. Seok, the Adam virus…”

Seokhwa had no idea that a story about a virus would come out of Kwak Soohwan’s mouth. He lifted his head.

“Is that true that it mutated again? The vaccine developed some time ago is no longer working.”

“…I heard it’s true. I am also trying to understand the situation.”

“Is it true that infected things don’t really have thoughts?”

“They only move based on instinct.”

“Survival instinct?”

Seokhwa blinked his eyes while eating the lightly seasoned fish cake.

 

 

T/N:

1. Haenyo/Haenyeo, lit. sea women, are divers situated in Jeju Island, who collect and harvest seawater plants and materials,  such as oysters and seaweed. If you want to know more about it, you can watch one 2D1N episode, where the cast goes to the seaside to help them and the episode itself is very sweet and funny.

2. One thing, Kwak Soohwan has a loose and rough mouth and I tried to make him seem as rough as he did in the raws. It might not coincide literally with the raws, since some liberties were taken here and there during PR.