Chapter 11: Magnolia Island
“Where shall we go now?”
After midnight, having shaken off all tails of pursuit, Yoon Hwa-kyeong asked as he parked the car in front of a small convenience store beside a dark one-lane national road. Lee Young-jin, staring at the black vanishing point at the end of the headlights’ beams, slowly replied.
“Just help me one more time.”
“Hmm. Strictly speaking, it’s not helping. We’re in an equal trading relationship,”
Yoon Hwa-kyeong said as he opened the car door and got out.
“Let me know if you need additional work.”
A short wink followed.
“Of course, it’s not just helping for free. There will be an additional fee. But don’t worry. I told you, I’ll give you a special discount.”
Then he smiled smugly, as if proud of himself for using the phrase ‘special discount.’
Ding-dong.
They entered the convenience store.
Yoon Hwa-kyeong threw instant hamburgers, gimbap, hot bars, sausages, coffee, sports drinks, bottled water, potato chips, dried squid, canned honey butter almonds, and chocolate bars into a small shopping cart. Lee Young-jin, following by his side, picked up a sugar-free soy milk. Yoon Hwa-kyeong snatched the soy milk from his hand and tossed it into his cart. Lee Young-jin, having his soy milk taken away helplessly, puckered his lips but was immediately stopped by Yoon Hwa-kyeong’s words.
“Of course, the additional fee depends on the task.”
Yoon Hwa-kyeong placed the heavy plastic cart on the convenience store counter and pulled a bundle of cash from the back pocket of his jeans. He pushed two fifty-thousand-won notes towards the counter, and the employee, yawning, scanned the barcodes on the hamburgers, gimbap, hot bars, sausages, coffee, sports drinks, bottled water, potato chips, dried squid, canned honey butter almonds, chocolate bars, and the sugar-free soy milk.
Holding the hefty plastic bag lightly in his arms, Yoon Hwa-kyeong once again opened the convenience store door. His gaze suddenly landed on Lee Young-jin’s wrist.
A vivid bruise on his pale wrist was starkly visible. Above it, green veins protruded, intertwining into the veins on the inside of his wrist.
“What happened there? Did I miss something? Did you get hit?”
Yoon Hwa-kyeong asked, blinking his long eyelashes.
Lee Young-jin looked down at his own wrist upon hearing that. The veins protruding grotesquely continued up the inside of his sleeve. He took a deep breath and slowly replied.
“Just… bumped into something while being pushed around, probably.”
“That must hurt. Does the convenience store sell any medicine?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Lee Young-jin shook his head, pulling down his sleeve to cover his wrist, and then slowly approached the car parked nearby. He opened the back seat door and took out a backpack he had thrown into a corner of the back seat. Leaning against the car, Yoon Hwa-kyeong unwrapped a hamburger and stuffed it into his mouth. The sound of chewing the thin meat patty smothered in ketchup and limp vegetables quietly filled the air. Lee Young-jin pulled the backpack out and turned it upside down on the seat.
Bundles of fifty-thousand-won notes wrapped in packaging tape tumbled out.
Yoon Hwa-kyeong’s gaze, while chewing the hamburger, suddenly shifted in that direction.
Lee Young-jin looked at him.
Their gazes met briefly in mid-air.
“Take me to Magnolia Island.”
“…Staying alive comes with an extra charge.”
Yoon Hwa-kyeong dropped the empty hamburger wrapper to the ground with a smirk.
“Since you won’t resist, I’ll waive that for you.”
Then they got back into the car.
The short forty-five minutes to Incheon Port.
Lee Young-jin quietly observed the vanishing point where two beams of headlight overlapped.
Magnolia Island.
A small island belonging to the Deokjeokdo Group, precariously attached to Incheon across the maritime boundary with South Chungcheong Province.
With an area of 7.36 square kilometers, a circumference of 23 kilometers, Kyunghwasan Mountain rising 102 meters to the north, and Danghwasan Mountain reaching 77 meters to the west, it features sharp, knife-like cliffs and rugged granite beaches.
Lee Young-jin faintly remembers waiting for the boat from Deokjeokdo to Magnolia Island, holding his mother’s hand tightly at three years old, 22 years ago. Winter. The sea breeze stung his cheeks. A group of fishermen, feeling sorry for him, handed the three-year-old Lee Young-jin several large hot packs. The warmth of those hot packs, the fishy smell of the pier, his mother’s hand patting his seasick back (perhaps the only remnant of his mother Lee Young-jin remembers), and after an hour and a half of navigation, his grandfather’s wrinkled face, standing tall like a dark shadow on the pier, endlessly watching the bow of the boat.
Until then, as many as sixty-seven residents lived on the island, leading a slow and unchanging life catching shrimp, rockfish, and flatfish. It didn’t take long for three-year-old Lee Young-jin to fully immerse himself in the slow current of such a life.
To this day, Lee Young-jin vividly remembers the sound of boat horns from the port, the sound of waves crashing against the cliffs, the sound of wind passing through holes in the breakwater, the clattering of rockfish heads on the clothesline, the sound of large magnolia flowers bending their necks and falling to the ground, the sound of a butterfly stretching on the fence, and the fishy smell, the salty smell of anchovy sauce, the damp smell of the tidal flat, and the harsh scent of Disc cigarettes his grandfather sparingly smoked.
And there was more.
The height of the low concrete fences, the number of jangdokdae (ceramic storage jars), the diameter of the iron pot used to boil shrimp, the distance from the squeaky gate to the tidal flats, the number of fishing boats moored at the port… Lee Young-jin remembered all of it clearly.
‘Didn’t I tell you not to go near the breakwater numerous times!’
His grandfather’s angry scolding and spooky stories meant to frighten him.
‘Didn’t they say a fisherman from the mainland drowned there about thirty years ago? He’s still trapped there, circling inside…’
Despite that, Lee Young-jin occasionally stood in front of the breakwater, staring at the endless line of tetrapods. This deviation was no different from navigating through a black world made of zeros and ones, lines of commands.
The arrogance of wielding limitless freedom and power.
‘Young-jin, you’re really smart.’
When had Teacher spoken to Lee Young-jin, peering into a computer at the village hall during a quiet afternoon? Puffed up by that comment, what had Lee Young-jin shown him?
‘With this, really…’
Teacher peered intently at the monitor and continued speaking.
“You can do anything. Yes… anything. There’s nothing you can’t do with your abilities.”
To Lee Young-jin, those words felt like a guarantee of freedom.
Beyond the endless waves and over the horizon. Anything. Beyond the cramped classroom mixed with the same old kids on the stifling island, to a place far away.
When left alone on the island, he thought of his grandfather’s ghost stories. Like the soul of a fisherman who fell off the breakwater and still hadn’t managed to escape, wandering endlessly through the gaps of countless tetrapods, Lee Young-jin himself was ultimately trapped forever between the cliffs and rocky valleys of Magnolia Island.
The car entered the dimly lit harbor’s public parking lot.
Yoon Hwa-kyeong parked the car haphazardly between the lines of the empty parking lot. As they got out of the car, the salty sea breeze grazed their necks. There was a smell of salt. Yoon Hwa-kyeong cast his gaze into the dark darkness. His eyes sparkled with a gleam. His large, swollen pupils turned to look at Lee Young-jin. Lee Young-jin quietly met his gaze and then nodded.
They moved silently.
Yoon Hwa-kyeong took the lead. He moved agilely and silently, like a large predatory cat.
They approached a small fishing boat docked at the pier. A captain in a blue jumper and black boots stood in front of it. Money exchanged hands without a word.
Yoon Hwa-kyeong leapt onto the swaying boat with ease. The small vessel rocked significantly again. He extended his hand to Lee Young-jin. Lee Young-jin grabbed his hand and climbed onto the boat.
The door to the wheelhouse was open.
Yoon Hwa-kyeong led the way into the wheelhouse. His steps over the high steel threshold were light. He walked confidently towards the complex navigation and operating systems. Since the engine was already running, it took less than five minutes to start the boat.
The waves were wrinkled like crumpled sheets.
The boat boldly cut through the pale frothy waves.
Lee Young-jin sat in a small chair arranged in a corner of the cramped wheelhouse, staring out the window at the wet waves.
He felt a tingling sensation as if glass beads were flowing through his veins. It was nothing but an illusion because the nano robots, being only 7 micrometers in diameter and smaller than white blood cells, swimming through his veins and arteries could not possibly cause any pain.
“Twelve hours…”
Lee Young-jin recalled the words of Kwon Shin-woo.
What happens when those nano robots racing through his veins reach his heart, his brain?
He rolled up his sleeve. Blue veins protruded from the inside of his elbow, extending up to his armpit. He gripped the side of his neck with one hand. The throbbing of his artery pounded loudly. Under the dim incandescent light, his reflection appeared in the window. A bluish bruise spread around his prominent carotid artery. He pulled up the collar of his T-shirt, wishing he had a scarf or muffler, and zipped his thin jumper up to his chin.
The small fishing boat, not even 5 tons, was running at almost 30 knots.
Yoon Hwa-kyeong’s driving was rough.
Although the waves tossed the small boat like a leaf, he was not afraid and did not reduce the speed. The digital chart in the navigation system changed its shape constantly. The boat was quickly approaching Magnolia Island on the shortest route.
This time, by not passing through the 74 kilometers from Incheon to Deokjeok Island, they could save a bit more time. At least they wouldn’t be twelve hours short.
As they got closer to Magnolia Island, Lee Young-jin’s mind calmly settled.
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