The Unbelievers Chapter 14

Eunseong swallowed a mouthful of rice and asked Manager Nam, who was standing at attention.

“I looked it up on the internet earlier. About Seongha Momentum.”

“…”

“My 5th cousin gave me a business card. It said Seongha Momentum on it.”

“…”

“It’s one of the Seongha Group affiliates, right? What kind of company is it? Is that also a company I’ll inherit later?”

“Your school uniform will arrive once you finish your meal. The measurements were based on what you were wearing earlier, so if it’s uncomfortable, please let me know immediately.”

“Am I not allowed to ask about the company?”

“I do not know much about it, so please ask the Representative later.”

“Fine… It’s a bit ridiculous that you seem to work for that company but don’t know much about it, but I understand.”

As if Eunseong’s words had displeased him, Manager Nam’s eyebrows twitched at a sharp angle.

Eunseong pretended not to notice and picked up his chopsticks. In the dining room where only the sound of eating had remained, Eunseong’s voice threw out another question.

“But I couldn’t bring anything from home. And I can’t get in touch with my father. What do I do about things like textbooks?”

Manager Nam paid attention to Eunseong’s words. While he was sparing with words regarding the company or the 5th cousin, Yoo Siun, he seemed to care about Eunseong’s requests and related matters.

“I didn’t bring textbooks, workbooks, or anything.”

“I will prepare them according to the curriculum of the school you will be transferring to.”

“Also, I didn’t bring my laptop, iPad, or AirPods. You know those are essential for going to school, right?”

“If you tell me the model names, I will go buy them.”

“Ah, I left my Apple Watch behind, too. I don’t really know the model name, but I think the newest one will do. The one I used before was practically new since I hadn’t bought it that long ago.”

“Understood.”

Manager Nam answered readily that he would do so.

Observing his complexion, Eunseong mentioned everything that came to mind. No matter what Eunseong requested, the man replied like a parrot that he would prepare it without talking back.

Eunseong didn’t even have a laptop, let alone an iPad; he had wanted to buy things like an Apple Watch or AirPods, but they were expensive items he hadn’t even dared to dream of while he was busy trying to scrape together money to leave home.

“The Representative told me to prepare a phone with a new number as well. Shall I get the same model?”

“If you’re buying a new one anyway, I think it would be good to get the most recent one. Is that okay?”

He asked for the best new one, if possible. Manager Nam nodded readily.

“Of course. Then I will buy the best one that has come out recently.”

“Yes, with the largest storage capacity. I need to play games… If the storage is low, I can’t install many games.”

“I see. I will buy the one with the largest capacity.”

“Thank you.”

The 5th cousin had said he was protecting Eunseong to ensure he wouldn’t be forced to do things he hated, and Manager Nam was trying to buy him everything he usually wanted to have.

Since this was the first time in his life such a thing had happened, Eunseong felt flustered yet secretly pleased.

Eunseong nodded his head in thanks, indicating he would gratefully accept whatever was given, and finished the rest of his meal.

Once he was alone again, Eunseong looked around his room with a fresh perspective. He entered the dressing room inside the room. In the dressing room, which clearly showed signs of very meticulous care for him, there were high-end brand backpacks, various types of shoes, and an ample supply of clothes that fit his size perfectly.

He came out after showering and picked out some pajamas. His actual flesh and blood, his father, had never provided such an environment for Eunseong. He had never once considered things from Eunseong’s perspective. Yet this 5th cousin, whom he had never even met, had thoughtfully prepared everything from underwear to pajamas so that Eunseong wouldn’t feel uncomfortable or have to say a word of complaint.

There were traces everywhere of a long preparation to bring him here. Moreover, despite saying it took a long time to find him and his father, every single clothing size the 5th cousin had prepared fit him as if they were custom-made. Eunseong felt strange.

Drying his wet hair with a towel, Eunseong pulled down a pair of silk pajamas. He changed into the ivory pajamas and did up the buttons.

He checked his reflection in the mirror. He didn’t look awkward, as if he were wearing clothes that didn’t suit him. He looked natural. He looked as if this was how he was meant to be. His face, which bore a fitting resemblance to his mother in the photograph, had a somewhat aristocratic feel. It was difficult to explain the strange sense of déjà vu—as if he had been living a lie, mimicking the wrong people while losing his status, only to finally return to his proper place, a place fitting for his rank.

Did my face always look like this?

Eunseong put his face close to the mirror. He stared intently at his own features. Perhaps because of the lighting in the dressing room, his damp skin looked milky white.

He didn’t know how or why, but overnight, Eunseong had returned from the position of a beggar to that of a prince. He had lived his whole life thinking he was just a beggar, but he was actually a prince of noble blood.

However, the position of a prince was by no means easily obtained. It was a position that required paying a grave and heavy price, doing distasteful things, and even killing people if necessary. Perhaps he would sometimes have to make decisions even more severe than murder. Because he hated that, his father had lived in hiding, even changing his last name.

Leaving the dressing room, Eunseong finished organizing the bag he had brought from home. Since he had only picked out the essentials, his luggage was modest.

Unpacking his bag while wearing silk pajamas in a lavishly decorated room, the bag looked old, dirty, and shabby, as if it had belonged to a real beggar.

He took out a small hand pouch he had hidden at the very bottom of the bag. Inside the pouch, which was stained and worn where it was touched most, was about three million won in cash.

Holding the pouch of money, Eunseong paced the room anxiously. Although it was a large space, there was no suitable place to hide something. He tried hiding it under the bed, then under the mattress, then under the pillow, then in the desk drawer, changing locations here and there to hide the pouch, but it felt like it would be discovered immediately no matter where he put it.

Eunseong took only the money out of the pouch and wrapped it in paper. He fetched some tape, crawled under the sofa table, and fixed the envelope of money tightly to the underside of the table.

He immediately sat back up and felt around underneath the table with his hands, but his fingertips touched nothing. No one would imagine that money had been hidden here.

Eunseong pretended to be a helper cleaning. He pushed a vacuum cleaner back and forth, bent at the waist, and peeked under the table. He could catch a glimpse of the table’s underside, but the whole thing wasn’t in view.

Having moved busily to hide the money, a light sweat broke out on his forehead. He was discarding the old bag and moving his belongings into a new luxury brand bag he had taken out.

Knock, knock. At the sound of the knock, Eunseong was startled and flinched, but then he felt relieved by the fact that all of this was his and answered, “Yes.”

“May I come in?”

“Yes, come in.”

At the polite request, Eunseong murmured in a small voice.

He set the bag he had been packing on the table down onto the sofa. He didn’t want to look like a beggar who had become a prince overnight, fussing over and touching things that were his with too much scrutiny. He lifted his head toward Manager Nam as if asking what was the matter, as if he had lived like a prince all along.

The man was holding shopping bags full in both hands.

“I have prepared the school uniform and the items you requested earlier. You can try them on and tell me if there is anything uncomfortable.”

“Is it washed?”

“…Pardon?”

“The school uniform. You brought it after it was washed, right?”

“I’m not sure. I received it directly from the supplier.”

Manager Nam seemed somewhat flustered, as if he hadn’t thought that far.

“You should have given it to me after washing it. Usually, when you first buy clothes, you wash them before wearing them. New clothes have so much dust on them.”

“I see. Understood. I will have it washed and brought to you.”

“Is my 5th cousin not back yet?”

“He usually returns late. If you tell me, I will relay it to him.”

“No. I’ll do it. I know his phone number. Is the phone newly activated?”

Eunseong took the shopping bags the man had set down. A new phone, an iPad, a watch, wireless earphones, a laptop. All of them were brand new, with the packaging not even opened.

“I’ll set it up myself.”

“Yes, then.”

Manager Nam left, taking the shopping bag with the uniform back with him. After confirming the door was closed, Eunseong pulled out the newly activated phone. He transferred the data from his old phone to the new device.

The first thing he did was save Yoo Siun’s phone number, then he installed a used-goods trading app. He searched for the market price of the unopened new products Manager Nam had bought him. After getting a sense of the average used-market price, he put them back into the shopping bags without opening the packaging and tucked them neatly into the bottom drawer of the dressing room.

“Since no one knows what might happen…”

Unless one was a fool, there was no way all of this was free. Eunseong wasn’t so stupid as to blindly believe the words of a 5th cousin he had never seen before in his life. Nothing in the world was obtained for free, and nothing happened for no reason.

He vowed to save more money since he didn’t know what might happen.

Since it seemed they wouldn’t allow him to do part-time jobs, he planned to save diligently, sell things off, and squeeze out everything he could until then; if he saw any bad signs, he would run away immediately. If he could just make enough money to live for about a year, there would be no problem leaving for anywhere.

He warned himself not to trust anyone for the time being—no matter how well they treated him, do not trust them.