“Calm down? Do you expect me to stay calm? Why are you getting involved in something like this? Huh? Why are you stepping into their business, whether they sell out the country or not?” 

I was so upset that I thought I would lose my mind. 

I’d heard that the current president had seized power with the help of the military. 

Let those corrupt people take power – it had nothing to do with us. 

I knew that one wrong word could land you in jail and that people were often maimed or even killed for speaking out. 

Families could be destroyed in an instant. 

And now my brother was involved in this? 

“Why are you getting involved in something like this?!” 

“Stop talking nonsense! If educated people don’t act, who will? Are you just going to stand by and watch while these thieves destroy the country right before our eyes?”

“Someone else can do it! There are plenty of others. Why does it have to be you? Don’t you care about me and Grandma? Right now, Grandma is…” 

My words caught in my throat. 

Grandma’s condition had been strange since last year. 

Every night she struggled to sleep, and sometimes she would lose her way home or get confused, not recognising people she’d known for years.

Neighbors had started saying she was showing signs of dementia, and more than once, my heart sank at the thought. 

I hadn’t told Jae-yeol about it because I didn’t want to distract him from his studies. 

But now this? What had he gotten himself into? 

It felt like my chest was going to burst. 

If I’d lost my parents and now my brother, how would I live? The thought made my vision blur with tears. 

He wasn’t thinking about our family—he was worrying about the state of the country—and now he was in this condition. I was furious at him. 

“What were you thinking?!” 

I screamed, overwhelmed by despair and anger, unsure of what else to do. 

“Shh, keep your voice down.” 

The man tried to calm me by grabbing my arm as my voice grew louder. I pulled my arm away and glared at him furiously. 

It didn’t matter that he was the handsome man I had met earlier by the sea. 

The fact that he brought such devastating news made me resent him just as much. 

“Let go of me! Who do you think you are to interfere like this?”

“Kim Soon-young, watch your words. This elder saved me—that’s the only reason I made it here safely.”

“Saved you? He should’ve just left you behind!” 

“Soon-young!” 

In a fit of rage, I left them behind, opened the door and walked out. 

*** 

Is this what it feels like when all the blood drains from your body? 

I felt like I wanted to die right then and there. 

Walking home had never felt so difficult. 

It was as if I were still carrying the heavy lead weights (yeoncheol) from my diving days, weighing down my entire body. 

That night, my brother didn’t come home. 

Even after yelling at him so harshly, I found myself, for the first time in a long while, cooking rice in a large pot and saving a portion for him. 

I also set aside a portion for the man who had helped him. 

“You crazy girl! Why are you cooking so much rice? Have you lost your mind?” 

Even my grandmother, who scolded me in anger, seemed pitiful. 

“I just wanted Grandma to eat more…” 

I replied with a sheepish smile. 

If only I were a fool, maybe life would be easier.

*** 

Where had my brother gone? 

In that condition… he was badly injured… 

I had no way of contacting him after I left. 

Was he being chased by the police? Was that why he was so cautious? 

Why had I gotten angry at him first, like an idiot? I should have listened to him, heard him out until the end… 

Or at the very least, told him to come home first… 

The guilt weighed on me constantly. 

Whether I was diving or walking, I couldn’t stop looking around nervously. Every night, I lay awake, consumed by worry for my brother. 

It wasn’t until five days later that something came to me—an agwi instead of my brother.

Crash! 

With a loud noise, something shattered on the stone steps in front of me. 

Startled, I looked up. 

I was on the western cliff path in Chungmu. The stairs, part of a hillside settlement where impoverished Koreans had lived after being driven out by the Japanese during the colonial period, were now littered with broken household items. 

A dented washbasin, a basket, and fish that hadn’t dried properly lay scattered on the ground. 

These items looked strangely familiar, and I held my breath. 

No, it wasn’t just familiar—these were our things! 

Shocked, I rushed up the stairs. 

Our house, with its crumbling walls, rusty jade-colored iron gate, and gray slate roof, looked like it could collapse at any moment. 

The noise was definitely coming from there. 

Grandma! 

Losing all composure, I quickened my pace, not even noticing when the bundle I was carrying slipped from my hands. 

I threw open the gate and rushed inside to find two men in boots rummaging through our shabby furniture, while another man in black stood in the yard. 

In front of them, my grandmother was lying on the ground, crying out in pain. 

Shocked, I immediately ran to her and wrapped her in my arms. 

“Grandma!” 

When I looked up, my body froze in horror. 

It was Agwi! 

The Agwi of the iron ship stood right in front of me. 

Everyone in this city avoided Agwi if they could. 

He was born and raised on the abandoned Iron Ship, a place where war orphans had been left behind. The children there were known for their cruelty and ferocity.

And Agwi was said to be the most wicked of them all. 

With his unsettling appearance—one eye seemingly pressed into his forehead—he was often compared to the monstrous fish of the sea, Agwi, or even called an akwi (evil spirit) because of his dreadful nature. 

I had occasionally seen boys in dark alleyways relentlessly beating up a weaker child or robbing money from them. 

From a distance, I was always busy running away.