Chapter 1
* * *
Swoosh───
The first thing I heard was the sound of waves.
Then came the sand in my mouth.
"Ptooey! Cough, cough!"
Wow, I thought I was going to die.
But we're alive, right?
"Are you awake?"
When I opened my eyes, I saw Assistant Manager Kang Seoyoon.
Had both the assistant manager and I survived?
"Where are we?"
"It looks like we washed ashore on a nearby deserted island."
"…An island?"
Looking around, it really was an island.
Endless ocean, an unending stretch of beach……
And, inland, a dense jungle.
"Didn't the plane crash?"
How did we survive?
"It did crash…."
And yet, both the assistant manager and I were way too unscathed for that.
"Woojin, I'm glad you're safe. Assistant Manager Kang was worried when you wouldn't wake up."
Manager Han Jia was nearby, too.
"You were worried about me, Assistant Manager?"
"Well, you're one of my employees."
Looking around, I saw quite a few survivors besides us.
Maybe around thirty?
"Are all of them castaways?"
"Yes. They're all passengers from Sehan Air Flight SH712, the flight we were on. They say there are 33 of us, including you, Woojin."
"A lot of people survived."
"And it's such a relief none of us were seriously injured~."
Manager Han chuckled in her usual unhurried manner.
"If rescue is delayed, it'll seriously disrupt the company's operations, Manager."
"But…… there's nothing else we can do but wait for the rescue team."
"Does GPS not work either?"
Han Jia nodded.
"…No. The internet's down, too."
Quite a few people on the beach were holding their phones up, waiting for a signal.
But it seemed no one had managed to contact the rescue team directly.
"Let's all make a distress signal."
As if she couldn't bear to sit still, Seoyoon said firmly.
"Should we? Now that Woojin's up… we can count on you for the heavy lifting, right~?"
Huh? Me?
If you think about it, this doesn't have anything to do with work…
"Woojin, what are you doing? Hurry up and get moving."
"Understood."
I was a little dumbfounded by how naturally they treated me like a servant, but I decided to go along with it.
In any case, it was something we absolutely had to do to survive…
We gathered supplies scattered near the wreckage.
Quite a lot of things had survived mostly intact, including bags and checked luggage belonging to passengers I didn't know.
"We should use the black clothes."
Following Seoyoon's suggestion, we used black clothes and bags to make a huge distress signal on the shore.
S O S
It took about an hour.
"Phew, now let's wait for rescue."
Standing on the most visible part of the shore, writing SOS and waiting for the rescue team.
That was about all we could do right now.
"The expo schedule… the buyer meetings, too…. Sigh……."
Seoyoon sat crouched down, muttering at the ground, apparently worried about the work she hadn't finished.
As the person in charge of the event, it was only natural she was anxious.
Meanwhile, I even felt relieved at the thought that I wouldn't have to deal with a cosmetics expo.
Unlike the assistant manager, I had no passion for the company whatsoever.
Even if the schedule had been thrown completely off, I had nothing to regret.
It's not like I had any particular attachment to my life as it was.
That didn't mean I was okay with dying at any moment, but when the plane's fuselage tilted, I thought I was dead.
And yet, I survived?
If anything, it felt like I'd been given a second life.
If I said that thoughtlessly right next to her, she'd probably slap me…
In any case, I'd thought of this as basically my last assignment as a temp, and I never dreamed I'd be made permanent.
If you asked whether there was something else I wanted to do, not really.
I took off my jacket and set it aside, leisurely enjoying the island weather.
'Hmm?'
Just then, something shimmered before my eyes.
Letters……?
No, I couldn't even tell if they were letters.
The texture of the waves, the flow of the wind, the way sunlight broke across the sand.
At some point, parts of nature like that began to look like patterns with meaning.
Even though it made no sense, somehow I felt like I understood what they meant.
The air on this island…… was moving as if it were alive.
"Assistant Manager, can you see that?"
"Huh? See what?"
Had she not noticed?
"Has the rescue team arrived?!"
"No…."
"Is this really the time to joke around?"
She can't see it? Maybe only I can read it?
If I put what I understood into Korean…… would it be 'change'?
A little while later.
By dusk, the rescue team everyone had been hoping for still hadn't arrived.
"Woojin, Assistant Manager Kang. I got some food and water from the communal supplies. Here."
Manager Jia gave us the food and water distributed from the shared supplies.
One 500 mL bottle of water each, plus a few crackers from the plane.
It was a shockingly meager meal.
"……Is this all?"
Seoyoon asked in surprise, and Manager Jia nodded with an uncomfortable look.
"We're very short on both food and water. Let's ration it and drink a little at a time."
Maybe there were just too many survivors for the amount of supplies?
If we couldn't find water by tomorrow, we'd be in danger……
"And…."
It didn't end there. Manager Jia continued, her expression dark.
The assistant manager seemed to know what was coming next; her face was beyond dark, practically rotting.
"I think we'll have to spend tonight here. I borrowed some blankets and cloth, so should we try to put up some kind of shelter?"
"……Yes. Understood. Kim Woojin, go look for some poles of a suitable length. I'll gather firewood."
"Understood."
I helped make a temporary shelter.
There wasn't enough room for one man and two women to sleep comfortably, but compared with the other survivor groups, this was about as good as it got.
This flimsy shelter that couldn't even block the sea breeze was where we had to sleep tonight.
'This is rough.'
I'd slept in the mountains during military training, but these rags made it painfully clear just how low our standard of living had fallen.
The women stared blankly for a while, as if they couldn't believe the reality they were in.
Back home, a warm meal and a soft bed would have been waiting for them—and, for Manager Jia, her young child and husband, too.
This was what their lives had become in a single morning.
"…At least it's not cold."
I could only mumble that in front of the two women who had been struck speechless.
The island's climate seemed somewhere between subtropical and tropical.
If the temperature fluctuated as much as it did in Korea, we'd have to worry about freezing to death at night.
But this warm weather kept making us sweat and draining the water from our bodies.
I began to think we might really be in danger if the rescue team didn't come tomorrow.
"…The rescue team will definitely come tomorrow! Let's keep our spirits up a little longer~!"
Manager Han Jia forced out the words, managing a smile.
Day 2 of being stranded.
In the morning and afternoon, the horizon was astonishingly still.
"……."
Seoyoon licked the mouth of the empty water bottle, then held it upside down and shook the last drop from the bottom onto her tongue.
Still seeming unsatisfied, she lowered her head with a haggard expression.
Manager Han Jia had undone two buttons of her shirt and leaned back, breathing laboriously, cleavage be damned.
From yesterday through today, even including the sweat we'd lost while sleeping, 500 mL of water was nowhere near enough to quench our thirst.
My own bottle now had only about two mouthfuls left, sloshing around inside.
Just then, both the manager and assistant manager glanced at my water bottle.
"Woojin~~. Do you have any water left?"
"Huh?"
I pretended not to hear.
"Can I have just a little?"
You think so?
I wasn't about to give up my precious water just because Manager Jia asked.
"This is mine."
"Aww."
"……."
Even if you act cute for your age, the answer's still no.
The assistant manager watching us just stared at my water bottle and swallowed dryly.
"Woojin, I'm sorry."
"Yes?"
"I asked you to come with us, and you got caught up in all this because of me……."
"It's not your fault, Manager."
Seoyoon said to the dejected Jia.
"Kim Woojin is also an employee, so he had to participate in the work. This is an accident, and it's no one's fault."
Hmm, that's true.
I don't blame anyone here.
But what if the rescue team never comes?
That thought had started to creep into my mind.
I wondered what the others were doing and looked around…
……My eyes met those of a blonde, busty gyaru playing on the beach.
What was that? A mirage?
"やっほー! 生きてる人、はっけーん!
(Yoo-hoo! Found a survivor!)"
Her voice was way too cheerful for the situation.
Long, wavy hair. Fair skin sparkling in the sunlight…
And a flashy bikini completely unsuited to the situation.
She alternated between flashing peace signs with both hands.
"What is she saying?"
"Do you need me to translate 'yoo-hoo' for you, too?"
"……."
The blonde gyaru trotted over across the sand.
Even the way she walked made her look like a tourist who'd come to the beach, not a castaway.
"韓国人? やば、国際交流じゃん! ルカ、日本から来たんだけどー。てか、みんな無事？ 無事っぽい？ うちら運よくない？
(Korean? No way, international exchange! I'm Luca, from Japan~. Anyway, is everyone okay? You look okay? Aren't we lucky?)”
I don't speak Japanese!
Why was she saying so much?
Manager Han Jia, who'd been listening beside us, answered gently.
"こんにちは。怪我はありませんか？
(Hello. Are you injured?)"
"んー？ないない！ちょっと喉カラカラで死にそーってくらい？でもルカ、基本元気系だから！
(Huh? Nope, nope! My throat's just so dry I feel like I'm gonna die? But Luca's basically the energetic type!)”
"She's Luca, from Japan."
"Luca seems healthy. We're the ones who feel like we're dying."
"Hmm, maybe it's because she's a gyaru? Japanese gyaru culture is fascinating~."
Luca smiled brightly, showing off her bikini.
"水は持っていますか？
(Do you have any water?)"
This time, Assistant Manager Seoyoon asked in clear Japanese.
"水？え、なんで？水ならめっちゃあるじゃん？
(Water? Huh, why? There's tons of water, isn't there?)"
"Where?!"
The assistant manager sprang to her feet so fast I thought she'd spotted the rescue team.
"She says she has a lot of water."
Luca put her hand on her hip and nodded proudly.
Then she pointed at the ocean.
"ほら！ あっち全部、水！ 飲み放題じゃん！ 無限ドリンクバー的な？
(Look! It's all water over there! You can drink as much as you want! Like an unlimited drink bar?)"
Silence.
All we could hear was the sound of the waves.
Swoosh───
I felt like I could understand what she meant without a translation.
"Assistant Manager."
"…No. Kim Woojin, don't ask. My head hurts."
"Did she just say we should drink seawater?"
"……Sigh."
The assistant manager clutched her forehead as if she had a headache and continued in Japanese.
"海水は飲めません。塩分が多すぎます。飲むと余計に脱水します。
(You can't drink seawater. It has too much salt. Drinking it will make you more dehydrated.)"
"えっ、マジで!?(What, seriously!?)"
Luca looked genuinely shocked.
Had she finally learned the truth of the world? This brainless gyaru.
"でも海って水じゃん？(But the ocean's water, right?)
"塩水です。(It's salt water.)"
"じゃあ、煮たらいける？ なんかお湯にしたらワンチャンない？(Then can we boil it? Wouldn't heating it give us a chance?)"
……
I didn't know what was being said, but Assistant Manager Seoyoon's eyes had gone dead as she explained.
Maybe she'd never met anyone like this in her life……
No, this was a first for me, too.
A busty gyaru smiling brightly while flirting like an idiot.
Her brainpower was inversely proportional to her radiant smile, making her the perfect counter to Assistant Manager Kang Seoyoon.
The three Koreans gave her incredulous looks, but Luca just flashed us a peace sign.
"ま、とりま生きてるし？ なんとかなるっしょ！ ルカ、こう見えて運だけは最強だから！
(Well, we're alive, right? It'll work out somehow! Luca may not look it, but my luck's the best!)”
"…Yes. Good luck."
Seoyoon ended the conversation in Korean, and the blonde gyaru, completely unfazed, ran back to the shore and started playing again.
……
That blonde gyaru's boobs were insane…
She had a body I really wanted to get my hands all over….
Ngh…
"……Phew, I wonder if it's dangerous for her to wander around alone dressed like that."
"I see you're pretty distracted by the alluring blonde Japanese woman in a bikini, Kim Woojin."
Oh, crap.
I was talking too casually since we weren't at the office.
I was about to get chewed out.
"Assistant Manager Kang~ Woojin's a man, too~."
"You two get along so~~ well, even being carefree about this when we don't know when the rescue team will arrive."
"I'm not that much of an airhead."
"I hope so. Since you're the only man here, all we have to do is keep an eye on you, Kim Woojin."
……Huh?
What did she just say? I'm the only man?
"What? I'm the only man?"
"What, you didn't know?"
When I heard that and looked around again, I realized that every survivor on the island besides me was a young woman.
I hesitated a little over whether Manager Han Jia, who was married, belonged in the 'young woman' category……
So 32 of the 33 people were young women, and I was the only man?
Quite the coincidence.
It was like some deserted-island harem story I'd seen somewhere.
"Ha, are you happy? With all these women around?"
"If I met a woman prettier and nicer than you, Assistant Manager, I might be interested."
"Wha…!!"
My counterattack made Seoyoon's face turn red.
Well.
Did she think I'd keep taking her abuse when we weren't even at the office?
I tossed the usual hierarchy aside and let her have it.
"Y-you!"
Her mouth fluttering in confusion was cute.
"We're not at the office, so I'm going to say what I want, too."
"Ahaha! Assistant Manager Kang~ That's what happens when you keep picking on him~."
"P-picking on him…!"
Jia, who'd been listening beside us, burst out laughing.
"You scolded your subordinate for drooling over a woman in a bikini. We're here for work.
This isn't the office, but this is still an extension of work. I'm your superior, and you're…."
Wow. Is she a machine gun?
I was stunned watching her talk without taking a single breath.
"Isn't work on hold? It's not like we can prepare for the expo here."
"……Ugh…! You're awfully confident, as if you were hoping this would happen?"
The rebellion of a useless new hire who'd been nothing more than a tool for heavy lifting.
Seoyoon, whose sense of hierarchy had been ingrained in her, must have found it hard to accept.
Her reaction was pretty satisfying.
"If wishing could make a plane crash, I would've won the lottery ten times by now."
"You don't back down even an inch. Is this your real personality, Kim Woojin!?"
Hahaha.
She's flustered. So flustered.
She snapped at me like I should go back to groveling as I always had, but there was no reason to be intimidated.
"If that's your real personality, Assistant Manager, you'll have a hard time getting married."
"……G-ghk. None of your business!"
Was that some weird noise?
Seoyoon fumbled for a response, her face bright red and lips moving, when the manager cut in.
"All right, all right~ That's enough. You shouldn't fight, especially in a situation like this."
Manager, perfect timing.
Man, how long's it been since I got one over on the assistant manager?
After landing a few heavy body blows, I felt so much better.
"All that talking made me even thirstier. What are you going to do about it?"
"The manager's holding back, too. Try building up some self-control."
"Fine. So that's how you're going to play it? Keep it up, and when we get back, I'll work you to the bone until you can do a full day's work."
Unfortunately, temp Kim Woojin would not be getting hired full-time.
If I went back to working at a convenience store or being unemployed, I'd never get to bicker with a pretty boss like her again.
"I'll go ask the flight attendant if there's any water left."
The manager stood up.
"I'll come with you, Manager."
"No, Assistant Manager Kang, you stay here and rest."
Could there be any water left?
Yesterday, there'd been piles of supplies, but today the shore was littered with empty bags, belly-up like dead fish.
The first round of scavenging was over, and all that remained was junk no one would want even if it were given away.
The assistant manager didn't seem to expect much, either.
I lifted my water bottle to drink what was left, and the assistant manager's eyes followed it.
"……."
"……."
Ah, damn it. Fine. How much would two mouthfuls of water even quench my thirst?
"Here. Drink it."
"I won't say no, Kim Woojin!"
The assistant manager immediately snatched the bottle and gulped it down.
……She really can drink.
"Haa~~~. Thank you~."
This was the first time I'd ever heard the assistant manager say thank you during my time at the company.
"What got into you?"
"I did a good deed that might be the last one of my life."
"Do you really have to say something so ominous right now?"
"Don't cry over it. It'll make me regret giving you that water."
Seoyoon let out a hollow laugh, as if she couldn't believe it, then said:
"Still, talking like this, I feel like I know what kind of person you are. At the office, you were always tight-lipped."
"What kind of person am I?"
"……."
Seoyoon couldn't answer right away. But….
"Who knows. Still, it feels like I'm finally having a conversation with a real person, so I don't mind."
"Is that so?"
"Anyway, why hasn't the rescue team found us? The island's pretty big, and our signal must've been lost nearby."
"I don't know."
Nobody knew.
There were thousands of large and small islands in our country.
How many of them were unnamed?
Slosh.
'Huh?'
What? Hadn't the assistant manager drunk all the water?
There was a little water in the bottle she'd returned to me.
Also, a character reading 'Water' shimmered before my eyes. It seemed only I could see it.
What on earth was this?
I held the water bottle as if touching the letters with my finger.
And then……
Glug, glug, glug, glug.
Water began to well up inside the bottle like spring water.
"O-oh!"
"W-what is that? How did you do it?"
The assistant manager's eyes went round.
A literal miracle unfolding before us!
What was this, really?
"How is water flowing out?"
"I just did it, and it worked."
Water gushed out of the bottle's mouth!
Before she had time to consider whether it was safe to drink, Seoyoon covered the bottle opening with her mouth and sucked.
"Hwoop. Gulp, gulp…. Slurp! Gulp!"
Seoyoon drank the water so eagerly her throat bobbed, then let out a satisfied breath, her eyes unfocused as if she'd gotten a massive dopamine rush.
"How does the water taste?"
"Ah…. It's the best…."
……I grabbed the bottle again.
The water gushed out again.
Just like magic.