The vast and blue sea.
The sea, with its gentle breezes creating small waves, was concealing its deep azure secrets.
Separate from that, the surface was exceptionally stable, giving the impression that numerous ships should be floating about.
However.
Despite that impression, the expansive sea was eerily quiet, evoking a sense of unreality.
At a glance, it might not seem particularly unusual.
After all, the vast ocean stretched endlessly, its waters a deep blue, rippling under the phrase “endless sea.”
But if this wasn’t the middle of the vast ocean, where no land was in sight, but rather the shoreline close to land, it would be quite different.
Close to land, the sea couldn’t help but bear the marks of human presence.
Nearby were the beaches, and beyond that, villages where people lived.
Farther away were fishing boats setting off for the season, and patrol boats keeping watch over the nearby waters.
However.
There were only traces of people who had frequented the beach until recently; no signs of human activity were visible now.
In the villages, where the sounds of daily life should have echoed, an unsettling silence reigned, sending chills through the air.
The fishing boats that were supposed to have gathered the ripe seafood and the patrol boats around the islands were nowhere to be found.
The sea, which now carried a somewhat eerie atmosphere, was only inhabited by birds scavenging the food left by the people who had been there.
The snow-white birds, scavenging for food, somehow looked as if they had been tinged with a gloomy hue.
The salty sea breeze, mixed with the air, seemed to be the only thing reminding anyone that this was reality.
Into this quiet space…
A black car came speeding down the road.
The vehicle speeding along the coastal road seemed oblivious to the strangeness of its surroundings and continued on without stopping.
The vehicle, a stark contrast to the serene environment.
Was this incongruous sight stimulating something?
The sea, which had been calm until now, suddenly began to feel restless.
The white birds, sensing danger, dropped their food, gathered in a panic, and flew away in large flocks toward the opposite side of the sea.
In that instant.
A deep rumble…
The surface quivered as if an earthquake had struck.
The massive shuddering soon turned into violent waves.
The waves reached the land, sweeping away whatever traces of human existence remained.
Greedy fangs were revealed, but there was no prey in the sea that they desired.
Creeeek!
The sudden fangs of the sea even lunged toward the black car speeding along the coastal road.
But it wasn’t a normal car; the black vehicle cut through the water and continued down the road, though its speed slowed inevitably.
For a moment, the car skidded awkwardly but continued as though nothing had happened—yet…
BOOM!
There was a tremendous sound, like an explosion.
From the depths of the sea emerged a massive silhouette.
The giant silhouette that appeared, together with waves incomparably larger than before, cast its immense, bulky body over the coastal road.
Dimly visible within the suffocating shadow it created was the black car, unable to escape.
Though the vehicle had slowed down, it sensed danger and accelerated, regardless of the slippery road.
Ultimately…
An eerie, incomprehensible cry sounded, and…
A massive form plunged to the spot where the car had been moments ago.
KRAK! CRASH!
Its goal seemingly to consume the vehicle, the monstrous silhouette that arose from the sea took a huge bite out of the coastal road.
The road that had been torn away by the massive jaws left a scar that appeared to have been crushed by some enormous presence.
Gulp Gulp.
Though the bulky silhouette, having grounded its weight on the shoreline, should have floundered on land, it did no such thing.
Instead, it hovered in midair as if swimming underwater.
WHOOSH!
As it ascended, whipping its tail, the ground split open and the sound of the air tearing apart was deafening.
VROOOOOM!
The identity of the massive silhouette, emitting a sound like that of a colossal steam engine in motion, was…
…A whale of an indeterminate size.
But this didn’t swim—it flew through the sky.
The whale, spouting water from its blowhole, moved its immense body toward the vehicle that barely escaped.
Its movements clearly targeting the black car.
After a brief glide through the air, the whale lunged toward its prey at high speed.
Its massive mouth opened wide, barreling toward the car speeding along the road.
KRICK! SCREECH!
The odd sound of concrete and steel grinding together filled the air.
The car, unable to escape the shockwave, wobbled precariously, barely keeping its balance.
Miraculously, the skill of the driver managed to maintain the vehicle’s stability.
However, as though compensating for that balance, misfortune struck the car.
Chunks of concrete, the ground itself displaced by the impact with the whale, flew toward the car.
CRACK!
KRAANG!
The stones struck the rear of the vehicle, shattering the door and the glass, intruding aggressively into the interior.
On the fractured coastal road, skid marks were messily imprinted as the car, having lost its balance, scraped against the guardrail like a drunkard, sparking flames.
Still, the car maintained its balance, its doors gone but continuing to move forward.
Inside the missing door could be seen a woman with blood-streaked hair and blue slime-covered girls and dolls.
The woman with the blood-smeared head, possibly struck by debris, held one of the blue girls in her blurry gaze.
Clasped in her arms, the blue girl’s face swirled with complex emotions.
Regret, guilt, anger, helplessness.
Indescribable negative emotions churned within her.
Eventually, as the woman lost consciousness, the blue girl pushed everything obstructing her from lying down into her own body.
They dissolved instantly, and space was quickly made for the woman to lie down.
Having lain the woman down, the girl, with her spiky tentacle-like hair, turned her gaze to the whale floating in the sky.
Or so it seemed; it was uncertain whether she truly looked because vision held no significance for her.
Yet it appeared that she was looking at the whale.
A clear sense of animosity could be felt.
The blue girl, touching the spiky tentacles on her head, held the doll and the small girl resembling herself in her arms, then…
She leapt from the swaying car.
Did she think the massive whale was targeting her?
Her thoughts were unclear, but…
The figure of the blue girl leaping from the car was distinctly visible.
SPLASH!
The blue slime scattered in all directions as the girl’s silhouette rolled on the broken road.
Though the sudden impact caused her body to momentarily slip away, she quickly restored her original form and faced the whale, which seemed to be observing her.
An overwhelming disparity.
A gap so vast it seemed no fight could be established, making her actions appear merely as bait.
A frail figure that seemed to have abandoned her own life.
Meanwhile, the briefly faltering car rapidly left the scene, and…
The whale, instead of chasing the car, remained on the shore, facing the blue girl standing there.
It lunged toward her, its enormous mouth wide open.
The girl seemed to find a sort of solace in the fact that the whale was targeting her.
Clutching the doll and the small girl resembling herself, she was…
ENGULFED.
A cloud of dust rose as the surrounding ground succumbed under the whale’s weight.
Even the rising dust couldn’t obscure the whale’s massive form.
SWISH.
Having slammed its massive body onto the ground, the whale soon stirred its sluggish frame and gradually ascended into the sky amidst the dust, as if it had only aimed to eat the small blue girl.
The whale, which had devastated its surroundings, floated gracefully through the sky before disappearing amidst the approaching storm clouds.
Though the blue girl would seem absurdly small to fill the whale’s belly, it appeared satisfied…
…For the moment.
As the whale and the blue girl vanished from the sky, helicopters arrived late, causing commotion.
One of the helicopters that approached in formation landed near the car that had stopped shortly after.
The people who descended with stretchers placed the unconscious woman, bleeding from her head, into the helicopter.
Also aboard the helicopter was the disheveled man who had been in the driver’s seat.
The man looked at the woman on the stretcher with a troubled expression before recalling the whale and the blue girl that had disappeared into the sky, and sighed.
What the man could do immediately…
was to hope the woman would be safe.
And also hope that the helicopters he had summoned could locate the whale.
At the very least…
He hoped the blue girl swallowed by the whale would be safe.
It seemed unlikely, but he hoped nonetheless.
Because it was necessary…
Because thanks to the blue girl’s choice, it felt like he and the woman could anticipate a future.
—
Dark.
Dark and damp.
I became aware that I was in a situation akin to a sewer, yet even more dreadful, and it made me laugh.
But I don’t regret it.
She got hurt because of that guy.
I hadn’t thought I had grown so attached to Han Seori, but it seems I relied on her more than I realized.
Whatever… that so-called ordinary man… no, Kim Cheon-soo.
He didn’t abandon the wheel even in such a situation, so perhaps he deserves to be called real Kim Cheon-soo rather than just a commoner.
Anyway…
I think I’m inside the belly of the whale.
On the bright side, Daesik and Sosik are with me too.
It’s partly because the whale, which clearly targeted me, had to take them in from the car as well, but…
I suppose it was somewhat reassuring.
…Just hoping this isn’t a mutual suicide.
Whatever… for now.
I’m alive, aren’t I?
I decided to think positively.
Alright.
Now what should I do?
I feel like Pinocchio swallowed by a shark.
…
