Four years have passed since the narrator first met Ki-Tae, and he's still not sure what to make of him. He's worried about the giant bag, the mask, and the fact that he hasn't been able to leave his room for a few days. He wonders if something's happened to him, and wonders if he might be dead. When he finally arrives at the hotel, he sees Ki-Tae's face, which he thinks is "good looking and childish" . It's a bit far to walk and the bus is taking a long time, so the narrator decides that he'd like to get out of the hotel and have some fresh air. The narrator tells us that he has been staying in the hotel too much, and Ki-Taie doesn't seem to be talking much. He seems to be about twenty-one or twenty-two years old, which is a bit of a departure from the narrator's usual age range. He tells the narrator that he needs a boat to go out into the open ocean and learn how to scuba dive. Ki-Tiea is the best instructor in the town, and that's why the two of them are able to get along so well. He also says that the lesson between them was different from anything he experienced before, and it's nice to be able to learn something new from someone who's been teaching you for so long. He asks the narrator about his mother, who used to be a diver, and how she taught him how to dive. He says that his mother was a good teacher, but that he can't draw it himself, because the dog is so