The Human Lighthouse
I pressed one hand against the ceiling, clutched the float tube with the other, and gasped for breath.
'Who the hell designed a building like this?'
The annex audio-visual room, set apart from the main building, had been designed for proper indoor temperature and soundproofing — money thrown at it until there was nothing left to spend….
'Good grief.'
Apart from two small windows up near the ceiling, the place might as well have been sealed completely airtight.
'They said headquarters staff use this room sometimes, too.'
Well, there you go. And that's how we ended up in this mess.
Thanks to that perfect airtightness, it seemed almost none of the water had drained out after the children finished evacuating.
'Not that the water wasn't rising fast enough on its own.'
By the time we arrived, the outside instructors had already ushered the remaining children out of the building.
Everyone except Seora.
"We just couldn't get close to her," they'd said.
Apparently the water spray swirling up around her made it impossible to approach.
The automatic door leading into the audio-visual room wouldn't budge, jammed by the swiftly rising water level and pressure.
In the end, I had no choice but to rely on the single float tube I'd grabbed and slip inside through the one window that connected the room to the outside.
"Seora, can you hear me?"
Seora, lying on the tube with her eyes half-lidded, answered.
"……Teacher?"
"Whew…. There we go. Our Seora's being so brave, not even crying. Was origami time fun?"
If losing consciousness once had already caused this whole flood disaster, I had no idea what would happen if she passed out again.
'So no matter what, I cannot let her lose consciousness.'
I calmly turned the tube around and slowly worked my legs through the water.
The flashlight Yoo Jinchae had pressed into my hands was probably sinking to the floor of the audio-visual room by now.
I'd dived the moment I spotted Seora — but if I let go of her while grabbing on….
So for now, I had to move by the light of the phone screens that Kwon Haeseong and Yoo Jinchae were holding up outside the window.
Far off, I could see two shafts of light entering the dark building.
I kept talking to her, watching Seora's eyelids as they kept trying to slip shut.
"What did you fold out of the colored paper? I heard you were going to put on a puppet show with it today — let's do one together sometime."
"……I folded a sailboat."
Seora raised a limp little fist and, inching it toward me, opened it.
There, in her small palm, lay a silver sailboat, soaked through with water.
"Whoa. Our Seora folds sailboats really well. Ooh, and it's silver? Pretty."
"I thought…. you'd be able to see it even from far away."
"I think you were right! I was swimming around trying to find you, and something flashed at me from under the water. Maybe the sailboat was telling me, 'Seora's over here, Teacher!'"
The building, once I was inside, was even darker than it had looked from outside.
Honestly, it was dark enough that I worried whether I'd ever find the child in here.
And yet, by pure coincidence, barely moments after I'd entered, I caught something flashing momentarily in the water.
'So I dove down, and there she was — Seora.'
Thinking about it now, the light from the phones that Yoo Jinchae and Kwon Haeseong were shining must have reflected off something in the water to make it look that way…. But either way, finding her fast was what mattered most. Did that sort of thing matter? Who knows.
"By the way, Seora — congratulations on your secondary awakening."
"Secondary…. awakening? What's that?"
Look at her, all wide-eyed all of a sudden.
Aigoo, this one can never resist being curious, can she?
"It means that what you just went through isn't something to be scared of — it's something to celebrate. Now you can use fire and water!"
"Then…. does that mean Oppa won't scold me?"
I didn't think Lee Seohyeok was the type to scold her over something like that.
I answered, keeping an eye on the approaching light.
"Of course not~ If Oppa scolds you, tell me. I'll say, 'Don't scold Seora!'"
"……Hee hee."
At last I reached the window, and Kwon Haeseong's thick, sturdy arms reached down.
I handed Seora up into them and then wedged myself out through the window.
"You've been through a lot. You're heading straight to the emergency center, right?"
"Yes, I need to get Seora checked out as quickly as possible. What about you?"
"Teacher Edeun and Teacher Sagwa are staying with the outside instructors to watch the rest of the kids, so Haeseong-teacher and I will follow you there."
"Understood. Thank you."
Right — better a former official handle things than an ordinary civilian like me.
Feeling how heavy my soaked clothes had grown, I climbed down the ladder.
'My legs are completely wobbly. I'm going to fall and break my neck at this rate.'
Not that it mattered now, but getting in there had been quite the ordeal in itself.
Scattered all around were the marks of how much effort it had taken to get through that window practically stuck to the building's ceiling.
'It was only because Kwon Haeseong stacked unused furniture from the storage room and classrooms against the outer wall like he was playing Tetris that it worked at all.'
Even then, it was barely high enough to reach with a single ladder in place.
Wobbling down the ladder, I then had to descend another flight of stairs made of furniture before both my feet finally touched solid ground.
….From head to toe, there wasn't a single dry spot on me.
But there was something else I needed to worry about first.
"Let's get moving to the emergency center."
***
Lee Seora lay in a corner of the emergency center, settled after receiving a sedative.
The area around her bed buzzed with the conversation between Lee Seohyeok, who had rushed over the moment he heard the news, and the medical staff — but the child herself was fast asleep, too deep in slumber to notice the commotion.
Lee Seora was dreaming.
A dream of a time long ago, when Mom and Dad were still by her side — a dream of the whole family going to the sea together.
A clear sky, refreshing waves.
Even her older brother, who had willingly come along on the family trip despite being buried in exam prep.
She built sandcastles with Lee Seoro, and piled up a sand grave on top of her brother's body.
She gathered seashells with Mom, and walked along the beach riding the horseback ride Dad gave her.
'This is so fun!'
'Lee Seora, come with me!'
'Lee Seoro, hurry up!'
'Seora, Seoro, come ride the float with Daddy.'
She'd been playing with Dad and Lee Seoro in the shallows when, in an instant, her body slipped right out from between the floats she'd been straddling.
She swallowed water and coughed a few times, but Lee Seora was happy — before she knew it, she was face to face with Dad, who had scooped her up.
'But…. honestly, it was scary.'
For a while after that trip, she'd been afraid of water. The sensation of stinging eyes and nose, of being unable to breathe, was no small shock for a child.
But when she realized that her parents were no longer with them….
Lee Seora made herself picture the sea she'd feared, and worked to love the water.
'I was scared, but I can't ever play like that with Mom and Dad again. So I have to keep it as a good memory! And keep remembering it, forever.'
I have to love it. Fear can't be allowed to stop me from loving what I love!
But however stout her resolve, it would have been a lie to say a trace of fear didn't still linger in some corner of her heart.
Perhaps it was because she had come to understand that if she ever fell into the water again, there was no longer a father who would come to save her.
Sometimes the fact that she could never love the sea wholeheartedly made her so sad she'd cried in secret where Lee Seoro couldn't see….
"Thank you, Teacher. And I'm sorry…."
"You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm just glad Seora's body is okay."
"The secondary awakening…. I never saw that coming, either…."
The dream blurred at its edges, the sensation of waking creeping in.
And the very first voices that reached her were her brother's and her teacher's.
Lee Seora blinked. Through her heavy eyelids, she saw Lee Seoro asleep, clutching her hand tight.
'Why is Lee Seoro sleeping here?'
He was sleeping with the corners of his eyes all red, which struck her as funny.
'And he's always the one telling me I'm such a baby for going to bed early.'
She turned her head, and in that instant her eyes met her older brother's, who had been looking down at her.
Lee Seohyeok leaned in close, making a snuffling sound.
"Seora?! Are you okay? Does anything hurt? Why didn't you tell me? Your body felt weird — why didn't you say something to me?!"
He grabbed her cheeks in his hands, his face full of alarm….
But Lee Seora pressed her lips tight shut.
Because…. if you say your body feels weird, then that means you're sick. Even she knew that much.
"It didn't hurt that bad…. I was just a little cold, that's all…."
"You still should have told me!"
Lee Seohyeok only raised his voice out of worry, but at the scolding sound of it, tears nearly sprang from Lee Seora's eyes. So before she knew it, she shouted right back.
"I can! I can only be healthy, that's all!"
"……What?"
"You and Lee Seoro are good at so many things, and you can do so many things! I'm not like that! All I am is healthy!"
"……"
"You said being healthy is the best thing there is…. So why are you getting mad at me?"
For a moment, Lee Seohyeok seemed at a loss for words and simply stood there. Then, calming his breath, he brushed back Lee Seora's damp hair.
When he spoke again, his voice was thick with moisture.
"Being healthy is the best. That part's true…. But what I said wasn't 'I don't want to know when you're sick.' If there's anywhere on you that hurts, Seora — your body or your heart — I want to know all of it."
"……Why?"
Why? He wants to know when she's sick?
Being sick is a bad thing, isn't it? Aren't you supposed to hide it?
"Because that's how I can be there beside you when you're hurting. You don't have to tell me the happy things, the good things — those can be yours alone. But the painful things, the sad things — you tell those to me until you're all grown up. Promise me."
"You…. want to know that badly?"
"Yeah. I really do. Otherwise I'll…. I think it would really make me sad."
When Lee Seora saw her brother's face looking like he truly might cry, she felt sorry.
"……Okay. I'll tell you everything from now on."
So you're not supposed to hide it when you're sick….
She'd thought that since being healthy was the best, she was supposed to hide it when she hurt.
"And you…. you're good at a lot more than just being healthy…. You eat so well, you shoot fire really well, and now you'll be able to use water too…."
She watched the tears well up in her brother's eyes, then spill down in fat drops. But Lee Seora's ears had latched onto something else entirely.
'Really? I'm good at a lot of things? Well…. Teacher did say I eat really well and that I'm really good, too! Oh right, I can use fire AND water now? Whoa…. I had a lot of good points, huh?'
Leaving Lee Seohyeok to his sniffles, Lee Seora could not stop marveling at her own rediscovery. Then, suddenly, she remembered the light she'd seen in the darkness.
Oh, right! Teacher!
Lee Seora hastily called out to him, the teacher standing near her bed among the other adults.
"……Hm? Seora, were you calling me?"
She saw him come closer and bend his head down toward her.
Ever since she'd spotted the 'human lighthouse' in the darkness, there had been something Lee Seora wanted to say.
Holding down her embarrassment with all her might, she gently took hold of the teacher's ear. And she whispered, small and soft.
"Thank you, Teacher!"
"Hm? For what?"
"The ocean isn't scary for me anymore. Not even a little. Really-really-really not scary anymore!"
I finally said it!
"……You did? That's wonderful!"
Seeing her teacher share in her joy, Lee Seora broke into a wide, beaming smile.
She knew now, you see.
That even without Mom and Dad beside her, if she ever fell into the water again, someone would surely come to save her.
From that day on, one single word took root in Lee Seora's heart for her teacher, Na Hwiyeon.
'Human lighthouse!'
Even if she should find herself adrift, all alone on a vast open sea someday, she knew she would no longer be afraid — not like before.