GB 9

Number 8, with his face resting on his folded knees, nodded off while dozing.

He woke up again, not because of the high tide tickling his toes or the warm sunlight enveloping his back.

It was because of a noise coming from afar.

Number 8 opened his eyes hazily, at first thinking he might be hallucinating. But as he rubbed his eyes and squinted to look more closely, he became certain it wasn’t a hallucination. The shape of an approaching ship was becoming clearer and clearer.

Number 8 stood up abruptly, his eyes wide open. It was getting closer, but its shape wasn’t familiar. Not knowing what the adults’ ship looked like, Number 8 hurried back to the village.

“Where’s Number 3? Where is he?”

When he asked the leader’s sister who remained on the island, she shook her head, saying she didn’t know.

Number 8 ran to the forest lake that Number 3 liked and found him there.

“Brother! Brother! A ship is coming! Could it be the adults’ ship?!”

Number 3, who was swimming in the middle of the lake, jerked his head up and quickly got out of the water.

He knew the adults who went out to sea wouldn’t return so early. Still, thinking that such a quick return might mean they had found something really good or it was a special case, he ran to the beach with Number 8.

By then, the ship had already come quite close to the island.

Number 3 made a visor with his hand, half-covering his eyes as he looked intently, then muttered, “I can’t tell.”

He didn’t mean he couldn’t tell if it was our ship or not, but that he couldn’t tell what kind of ship it was at all.

Number 8’s eyes widened at the growing silhouette. It was really… really big. It seemed bigger than the wrecked ship where he had picked up the man, his first and only souvenir, and even bigger than the adults’ ship. Number 3 and Number 8 exchanged glances. Seeing the fear and anxiety in each other’s eyes, they both ran back to the village.

“A ship, a ship has come! But it’s not our ship! It’s big! Very big! And it has a flag!”

At this, the leader’s sister sprang up. She put her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly, and people came out all at once, each running into the forest.

“You two go hide somewhere too. Don’t come out until I tell you to!”

At the almost barking order, Number 3 and Number 8 ran to their respective hiding places. Number 8’s hiding place was, of course, the cave where he had hidden the man.

The ship’s noise seemed to be getting closer and closer. Number 8’s heart pounded. The adults had repeatedly warned that they should be careful of any ships or people other than those they could call ‘family’. This fear had been instilled since childhood, inflating to the point where anything unfamiliar was reflexively imagined as some huge monster. Moreover, the thing coming to the island now didn’t have nice buttons visible, nor was it lying helplessly alone. It was just a huge monster that couldn’t be picked up or saved.

Number 8 curled up deep inside the cave, shivering. In the darkness, he could see an empty tin can. Ants were lining up to enter and exit it, as if trying to lick up the last of the syrup.

To kill his boundless anxiety, Number 8 fixed his gaze on this procession, enduring time alone.

‘If that man were here, I’d be less scared. He didn’t seem to know where to hide at times like this. I could teach him… I could even give him a name.’

It was really good that he hid here. Thinking about the man he had lost, a loneliness much greater than fear or anxiety overwhelmed him. As large as the man’s body, which must have been two or three times his size.

Number 8 stayed hidden like that, not knowing how time was passing, until even the ants no longer came.

‘When should I go out? Could it just be a passing ship? Where are Number 3 and the other adults? How did they know to appear when the leader wasn’t here?’

With no one to answer him, Number 8 could only imagine as he pleased. Especially desperately useless imaginings to escape from the distant and terrifying reality.

‘When I go out again, will I have a thick beard like the leader? If it’s a passing ship, where was it going? Number 3 and the adults haven’t forgotten about me and started eating dinner, have they? If it’s a new ship the leader acquired, what would they name it?’

The leader was someone who insisted that ship names should be taken from women’s names. At such times, the leader’s sister would snort, asking if he still believed in such old-fashioned superstitions. The leader, after earnestly persuading that naming ships after women prevents them from sinking, had given it a name he had never heard before in his life. What was it again…?

No matter how much he wracked his brain, he couldn’t remember the name, and there was a limit to forced imagination. Number 8 looked at the darkening outside and then lowered his gaze.

‘Surely I’m not the only one left alive…’

He hated that thought. He hoped it wasn’t that.

Number 8 wrinkled his nose and pressed his stinging nose. He couldn’t cry again. It wasn’t like he was crying from pain.

But this silence without a single noise was too overwhelming. He pushed the ground with his toes, and finally stretched his numb body to crawl slowly. His destination was where the empty tin can was. He grabbed the can and looked inside the empty interior, raising and lowering it as if it were a telescope. Raise it to cover his eyes: darkness. Lower it: dark cave. Cover: darkness. Lower: cave. He repeated this several times. Raise to cover: darkness, lower…

“Ah. Here you are, as I thought.”

When he lowered it….

Number 8 slowly opened his lips to what he saw before him. His jaw seemed to go slack, his mouth opening involuntarily.

“I came to keep my promise.”

He was wearing black clothes like when I first found him, but unlike then, a man armed with all sorts of solid things stood there….

If covered, darkness; if lowered, gloom.

The man, as black as darkness itself, lowered the mask covering half of his face. Even without that, his remarkable voice alone was enough to recognize who he was….

“I hope you haven’t forgotten already.”

Showing a slightly stiff smile as if smiling was a very awkward and difficult thing to do, this person before his eyes was clearly his memento, the man.

“H-how did you know, why are you here…?”

“I said we’d go on a boat ride together.”

Yoon Moo-hwa, who answered brightly, bent down low to enter the cave. Then he glanced at the can Number 8 was holding. He could have asked why he was holding such trash, but Yoon Moo-hwa nonchalantly picked up the child. Number 8 missed the chance to drop the empty can.

“Do you still want to ride? The boat. With me.”

A blunt tone and word order that felt very awkward when addressing a child. Yoon Moo-hwa found his own words a bit funny and chuckled.

Meanwhile, the child never took his eyes off his face. He stared intently as if looking at the sun for the first time in his life. It was quite embarrassing.

“Did you come with other adults?”

“If you mean your leader, no. If you really mean other adults, then yes. That’s right.”

The village had already been subdued. Those who were aware it was pirate business and had cooperated were isolated, and children including Number 3 were taken to the dining area. Only after everything was settled did Yoon Moo-hwa come to get Number 8.

From the beginning, he seemed to know where the child would be. And that guess was right. Yoon Moo-hwa leisurely left the now quiet island with no more violent conflicts, reached the beach, and boarded the last remaining speedboat. All while holding Number 8 tightly in his arms.

“Don’t be disappointed that it’s a small boat.”

It wasn’t disappointment, but rather feeling intimidated by the presence of another man besides Yoon Moo-hwa…. He was just a little scared of the man who had become almost entirely black, with his eyes barely visible. Crucially, the size of the boat didn’t matter to Number 8. What mattered was that Yoon Moo-hwa had returned alive.

However, Number 8 soon completely forgot that the boat’s size didn’t matter. Not long after, a silhouette like a huge island began to appear before his eyes.

“Is, is that a ship?”

“Yes. Did you think this was the boat we’d be riding together?”

Yoon Moo-hwa laughed, tapping the bottom of the rubber boat, and slowly killed the engine, extending a hook to pull in the rope ladder lowered for boarding. Then he nodded to the lieutenant who came with them to hold Number 8 and help him climb the ladder.

“It’s quite high, don’t look down. Can you climb up?”

It was a bit dangerous, but other than this, the only way was to come by helicopter from land and board.

Fortunately, Number 8, who had been roaming huge mangroves since childhood, was quick.

“It’s okay if you fall. I can swim.”

“No, that would be troublesome for me…”

This isn’t like the coast. It’s the open sea. Yoon Moo-hwa smiled faintly and followed behind Number 8.

After a while, having successfully boarded, Number 8’s mouth fell open.

“Is this the boat you said we’d ride together? We’re riding such a, such a big ship?”

Although Yoon Moo-hwa usually rode even larger ships than this, he calmly replied, “Yes.”

Boarding after Number 8, Yoon Moo-hwa pressed the child’s ear, gently pushing it towards his body. It might have looked like he was just letting the child lean on him, but the real purpose was to prevent any possible noise from being heard. For example, the shouts of pirates in the isolation room.

Of course, considering the tremendous noise coming from the ship, it was unlikely those sounds would be heard.

Number 8 also seemed uncomfortable. As he wriggled his body, trying to pull his head out from under the palm, Yoon Moo-hwa slightly removed his hand and asked.

“What’s wrong? Feeling stuffy?”

“N-no.”

Number 8’s cheeks reddened slightly.

It wasn’t that he felt stuffy, but rather awkward and ticklish.

Especially under the covering palm. Probably because of the hair. Number 8, not immune to others’ touch and warmth, felt shy but answered in a small voice that it was okay, fearing the man might let go if he said he felt stuffy.

“When the ship starts moving, you might not adjust at first. You could get seasick.”

“Doesn’t it just float gently? Like when swimming?”

Yoon Moo-hwa shook his head as he headed towards his officer’s quarters.

Once fully inside the ship, he couldn’t carry Number 8 anymore. Yoon Moo-hwa, who had put Number 8 down, lowered his head. It was because of the slightly small passage for someone over 180 cm tall like him.

“Make way!”

“Make way!”

Number 8, holding Yoon Moo-hwa’s outstretched hand and following him, opened his eyes wide at the loud voice from the front. When he tilted his head to the side, he saw large adults pressed tightly against the wall.