141. Eight and Eleven
next day.
As expected, most of the first classes after the start of classes in March were canceled.
Let the students know in advance… .
As I was leaving the classroom, the phone rang, and when I pressed the call button, I heard a welcome voice.
– It’s Jungho, it’s me! Eunseong.
“Hey—! long time no see!”
Eunseong was discharged in July last year, and this guy… The only thing I saw once when I was discharged is because I am so busy.
ah… ! not. i’ve been busy
Making detonators and detonators for explosives, making robot arms for drones… All his mind was devoted to extracting gold bars.
I smiled and continued.
“Did you go back to school this semester?”
-right. As a restaurant manager, I thought I was going to have a brain freeze while reading my major. haha-!
Eunseong worked as a manager at the Yeongdeungpo branch of ＜Dongchimi Barbecue> after being discharged from the military. According to Yun Seok-yi’s brother, while Eunseong was working, the restaurant’s sales increased by a whopping 35%.
Eunseong continued speaking in a serious voice.
-By the way, it’s Jungho… Su-yeol hyung told me this… .
Su-yeol hyung is Sergeant Su-yeol when he was in the army. Su-yeol hyung joined a major newspaper as soon as he graduated last winter, and he keeps in touch with us often, not to mention Eun-seong, who is a junior in the same class.
Eunseong, who hesitated for a moment, continued.
-In an article on the Internet… Did you know that your picture came out?
“Did my picture appear in an internet article?”
-Yes, I just checked, and the article is now on the main portal.
After saying thank you for letting me know, I finished the call and headed straight to the school computer room.
When I connected to the Internet portal, I was able to find the article that Eunseong said at the top of the portal.
But this title is… … .
＜UN ambassador participating in the illegal comfort women demonstration>
Yesterday, the UN ambassador and I stayed in front of the Japanese embassy until the Wednesday rally was over, and after that, we ate together and talked about the comfort women issue.
Mostly, the UN ambassador asked me questions and I answered them… There weren’t many answers to his sharp questions.
After eating in shame, I returned to the officetel and searched the Internet for materials. However, one thing was certain: ＜Wednesday Assembly> was not an illegal assembly.
The reporter deliberately picked a provocative title with the lie of ‘illegal demonstration’, and it was clear that the article reached the top of the portal, recording a large number of views as the reporter intended.
The article was not very long.
The fact that the UN ambassador, representing the United Nations, attended the 3.1 commemoration ceremony itself was a violation of international diplomacy, and it was also reported that participating in an illegal assembly of comfort women violated the UN Charter.
And in the photo uploaded with the article, the UN ambassador and I were having a conversation.
Since the article was posted on the main portal, many people might have seen the picture, but it didn’t seem like a big problem.
Still, just in case, I scrolled down and checked the comment window.
– What kind of disrespect in diplomacy? Are you a Japanese journalist?
– I am a participant in the demand meeting. It’s not an illegal gathering. Already a month ago, the Jongno Police Station reported an outdoor rally.
– Violation of the Charter of the United Nations? You crazy journalist! Have you ever read the UN Charter?
-Aha! You’re a young reporter who specializes in plagiarism. I’m writing articles like this, because plagiarism can’t be done anymore. One kid, I’ve been eating and drinking hahahaha
-shitty yellow journalist, hansaekki. lol
I scrolled up to see the reporter’s name.
＜Senior Correspondent Hansegi of the Korean newspaper>
Also… You’ve been a journalist for a century.
However, there was a familiar expression in the comments, and it was the English expression ‘yellow journalist’ and the word ‘brother’ and ‘yellow journalist’.
what… ? Why does it feel so familiar?
Let’s reminisce for a moment, four years ago, in the summer of 2000… At the time of the reunion of separated families between the two Koreas, the comments on an article written by a reporter Han Century came to mind.
The Korean comments containing the expression ‘one child’ had almost the same content, and the comments written in English had the exact same expression.
In other words, it is the same person who wrote the comment 4 years ago.
At that time, the IP address of the comment was near LA, California, but the IP of the comment is not California… Come to the small town of Allenwood, Pennsylvania.
I looked up other articles by a century-old journalist. Between 2002 and 2003… Except for a period of about a year, every article by a reporter of a century had the same comment.
This is enough… stalker level. With the thought that if you were a journalist of a century, it would be worth it… I felt a chill in my spine without realizing it.
4 months later.
July 2004.
The officetel door swung open and In-cheol came in. But again, this guy is barefoot.
“hey-! Wear slippers as a real human being.”
Incheol laughed at my words and said.
“Because the hallways here are cleaner than the floors in our house. haha-!”
Four months ago, as soon as Incheol checked the $200,000 deposited in his Swiss account, he signed a contract for the sale of officetel room 809, and now we have become neighbors with the hallway in between.
“Jeong-ho, do you think it’s okay to leave today?”
“It’s okay. The waves are too high and dangerous.”
In response to my question, Incheol waved both hands and said.
“No, this is really good.”
“Still, the waves are over 1.5 meters high… .”
Incheol cut off my horse and said.
“Don’t really worry! I am a veteran with over 500 hours of fishing boat driving time.”
“Fishing boat driving time? Do you have anything like that?”
“Of course! If you drive more than 500 hours, you can even surf in a two-ton boat!”
“Don’t be kidding me, man!”
Seeing my serious expression, In-cheol also corrected his expression and said.
“When sea people look at the weather forecast, what is more important is the wind rather than the height of the waves. If the waves are high and the wind is blowing, the principle is not to set sail. But today, the wind is weak off the coast of Incheon.”
Incheol continued to speak with strength in his voice.
“And if it’s dangerous because of the waves, the fishing boat rentals won’t even lend you a boat! Jung Ho! Don’t procrastinate, load up your car and leave! yes?”
In-cheol guy… The body is very sweet.
For the past four months, Incheol has visited my studio in the basement of Yunseong Soft, without taking a day off. It was to confirm the production process of ‘Washbasin’.
For reference, the name ‘washbasin’ was coined by Incheol, which is a device that directs the explosive direction downward.
The principle is simple.
Put explosives on the inside of the washbasin, and turn the washbasin upside down to cover it. Then the explosives will be concentrated on the floor because the explosives are reasonably far from the floor.
of course… In theory, that is.
It was difficult to find experimental data to control the direction of the explosion, and there was a criminal record (?) with Team Leader Kim Jung-soo last time… It was not in a situation where I was able to search the Internet recklessly.
In other words… It means that you have no choice but to pop it directly in the water.
I nodded at Incheol’s suggestion to leave, and we loaded up a washbasin made of different shapes and two 1.2 kilogram TNT explosives into the car and headed to Yeongheungdo, Incheon.
Jindu dock in Yeongheungdo.
Incheol borrowed a fishing boat and started it, and set off for 43 kilometers southwest of Yeongheungdo.
Incheol’s words were right.
The waves were quite high, but the wind was not that strong.
In Cheol’s words… It is said that the high waves here are waves that come from a point with strong winds in the distance, and the more distant the waves, the longer the interval between the waves.
For reference, when driving a boat, dangerous waves are called waves that hit the batter. When a ship hits a wave, it staggers once and then rebalances, but it was the principle that when the second wave hits before balancing, the ship goes sideways. Therefore, it is said that the longer the wave interval, the easier it is to drive the boat.
While we were talking about the waves, we arrived at the place to test the washbasin, and said Incheol, who checked the GPS coordinates.
“Everything has come. It’s all reef down here.”
“OK. By the way… This makes my stomach churn.”
I didn’t know about it until now… When the engine was turned off and the boat stopped, it was difficult to walk on the boat without lowering the center of gravity and holding the railing.
“It is very difficult at first, but you will get used to it quickly.”
At Incheol’s words, I nodded and started preparing to launch the underwater drone.
It was to take a picture of the bottom of the sea. By checking the image of the floor before and after detonating the explosives, you will be able to confirm the effect of the washbasin.
When the drone’s underwater camera was turned on, the bottom of the sea was revealed, and as Incheol said, the bottom was a reef.
“Five… ! The atmosphere here is a bit odd.”
It really is. Above the sea, it swayed with such high waves, and it was to the point that it felt eerie to see everything 60 meters below the sea, with nothing moving and stillness.
By the way… I was trying to memorize the terrain under the sea in the video… .
I think I focused too much.
“Incheol-ah… Because I checked all the video… Turn off the camera and lights… Drag it over the drone… put it up.”
As soon as I had finished speaking, I ran to the back of the boat, leaned my head out of the boat, and emptied out all the food I had for lunch.
After a while, In-cheol came up to me and patted me on the back.
“Jungho, are you okay?”
“A drone?”
“don’t worry. I put it all up and put it all together. How are you?”
“after-! My stomach is empty, so I feel better now.”
I slumped down on the bottom of the boat, got up quickly, and continued.
“eww… … The floor here is all wet.”
It was as if a rippling wave had crossed into the boat.
In-cheol sliced the ginger prepared with the ingredients for the spicy soup and handed it to me.
“Keep this in your mouth. It was a method taught by the men who fished with me, and it was said to be quite effective for seasickness.”
“thank you.”
The sweet smell of ginger spread in my mouth, and my stomach started to sink little by little thanks to the ginger.
I said to Incheol.
“Then let’s start working.”
I came out to the deck with a barrel of explosives, and In-cheol prepared washbasins of different shapes under the deck.
“I thought it would be light because it was so soft, but it is so heavy.”
“It needs some weight to do its job. But it’s not very heavy, actually, I made it slightly heavier than the specific gravity of water. It needs to be able to be dragged and moved by an underwater drone in the water.”
I plugged the cable into the washbasin, and pointed to the explosive barrel.
“In-cheol, prepare just one explosive.”
At my words, In-cheol carefully opened the barrel of explosives, picked up one of the two explosives, and handed it to me.
“Oooh… this scares me a bit It reminds me of the old days when I was training with grenades at the training camp.”
“It’s pretty big for a grenade.”
This explosive weighed more than 1.2 kilograms and was about the size of a handball and had to be lifted with both hands together.
At my words, Incheol smiled and said.
“If this explodes, a grenade on the ship! Do I have to jump out of the boat while shouting?”
“No, you don’t have time for that?”
“You don’t have time for that… What does that mean?”
“Grenades take about four seconds to explode. It explodes as soon as water gets into the glass tube here. I don’t have time to dodge and sleep.”
This means that the reactivity of metallic sodium is high. At my words, In-cheol’s expression changed seriously.
“It’s a bit scary to hear.”
“Is not it? Making 400 billion won is not easy.”
I picked up a piece of metallic sodium with tweezers, put it in the glass tube planted in the first explosive, and handed the explosive to Incheol and said:
“Hold this for a second.”
“OK.”
“It hasn’t blocked the glass tube yet. If you miss it, you’re in big trouble. Understand?”
“haha-! Don’t worry.”
I removed the second explosive from the barrel and placed a piece of metallic sodium into the glass tube. Polyacrylate beads were then placed on top of a glass tube. Then, using a thin skewer, he began to carefully push the polyacrylate beads into the glass tube.
When I pushed the marble half way like that, Incheol asked me.
“By the way, what about the red line drawn on the skewer?”
To detonate an explosive, the polyacrylate beads expand and break the glass tube. This means that unless the glass tube is broken, it will not detonate.
During the development of the detonator, I repeated the experiment of breaking the glass tube and found that the polyacrylate beads had to be placed at the end of the tube rather than at the midpoint.
So, the red line Incheol said was marked on the skewer to push the polyacrylate beads to the correct point.
The moment I was about to answer Incheol’s question… .
A large wave hit the side of the boat, and the boat shook violently with small sprays.
“Uh, uh!”
In-cheol staggered and missed the explosives he was holding, and the explosives rolled over and passed me and stopped at a pool of water.