The Unbelievers Chapter 18

When school finished, Eunseong returned to Yoo Siun’s house, which was guarded like a fortress. Identity verification at the entrance was thorough. Even when Manager Nam and Eunseong went to and from school, the guards did not let them in just by recognizing the car. He had to roll down the car window and show the interior to the security staff as if entering a military facility. The staff confirmed not only Manager Nam but also Eunseong’s face in the back seat before opening the barrier.

Even after passing the barrier, they had to drive up quite a bit to reach the house surrounded by a beautiful garden. As a high school student with a bit of social experience who claimed to know at least something about the ways of the world, Eunseong was realizing more clearly as time passed that he was likely the heir to no ordinary wealthy family.

The more he realized this, the more he couldn’t help but find his father’s actions—running away because he didn’t want to be the heir—mysterious. In addition, he was frightened by the future his father had feared, which had not yet been specifically revealed.

He looked into Seongha Momentum and Seongha Group, but there was no information to be found beyond what was on the internet. When he asked Yoo Siun, he was told to ask Manager Nam, and when he asked Manager Nam, the cycle continued as he was told to ask Yoo Siun. They both avoided answering. When he asked the bodyguards, they ignored Eunseong entirely, pretending not to see him.

He was also curious about the succession structure and the hierarchy that led his father to kneel before Yoo Siun and beg for forgiveness. It was common sense that his father, as the eldest son of the family, would have a higher rank than Yoo Siun, but his father had said that since he was struck from the family register, it was only natural for Yoo Siun’s rank to be higher and natural to kneel before him. If so, he didn’t understand why he, the son of a man struck from the register, met the criteria for being the heir. With the limits of the information Eunseong could access, there was no way to find out.

This was why Eunseong became even more obsessed with collecting money. If something happened, he needed money at the very least to solve it. Of course, the money he collected wouldn’t be a grand solution, but a person naturally felt more at ease when holding money in their hands.

Money accumulated much faster than when he worked part-time jobs. Eunseong sold everything he could put out for sale. He had long ago sold the iPad, watch, and laptop that Manager Nam had bought him, and he also put up the shoes, bags, and clothes tailored to his size at prices slightly lower than market value. Designer clothes and shoes were sold as soon as they were posted. Transactions were mainly done at school. Perhaps because it was a school attended by rich kids, the business in luxury goods was quite profitable.

If he said he wanted a new bag, Manager Nam bought him a new one without even asking what happened to the one he used before, and if he said he needed new clothes and shoes, the man usually brought what he wanted within a day. They were all brand-new products with the packaging unopened, contained in department store shopping bags.

Eunseong now boldly sent links to products he searched for on the internet to Manager Nam’s phone. However, he cleverly left appropriate intervals between them, fearing he might arouse suspicion if he sent them too often.

He made it look like nothing more than the vanity and fuss of a nineteen-year-old kid who had suddenly gone from a beggar to a prince and was anxious to enjoy the reality of becoming a nouveau riche. They wouldn’t imagine for a moment that he was selling it all off.

Whenever he got money, he hid it by sticking it under the table. If there was no space under the table, he hid it under the bed frame by taping it down meticulously. At this rate, he thought he might easily surpass ten million won by the time he took the Suneung.

“Thank you for the meal.”

Eunseong sat at the empty dining table, muttered words to no one in particular, and picked up his spoon. The helper was in the middle of boiling scorched-rice water in the kitchen. Manager Nam, who had brought Eunseong home from school, was away on business.

Today, again, food made with expensive ingredients that Eunseong had never eaten or even seen before was placed on the table.

After coming to this house, Eunseong tried pine mushrooms for the first time. It was a mushroom with a chewy texture like meat and a scent of wood. When he held a pine mushroom in his mouth and kept chewing, it had a sweet scent of pine. That didn’t mean they served excessive amounts; just the right amount was prepared with a suitable number of side dishes. Every single one of them was delicious.

When he ate delicious things, Eunseong thought of his father.

Even though his father had treated him like a burden he wanted to discard, he couldn’t help but think of him now that his living standard had changed so much. It was especially so because they were out of contact. His 5th cousin only said that he would be doing well somewhere.

No matter how excellent the side dishes were, a meal eaten alone wasn’t very tasty. Eunseong ate while playing a video on his phone. It was hard to get close to anyone in this house; neither the helper nor Manager Nam approached him with anything beyond standardized kindness.

In particular, they spoke even less after Eunseong started asking about the family, and sometimes they ignored him as if they hadn’t heard. So, Eunseong also stopped asking about the family or the succession conditions for the heir.

While Eunseong was eating dinner alone, Yoo Siun appeared. Eunseong stopped the video playback. Although he had seen him drinking coffee this morning, it felt like they were meeting for the first time in days. Seeing him, Eunseong smiled brightly without realizing it.

“Are you coming home now?”

“Are you having dinner just now?”

He checked the watch on his wrist. He seemed to think seven-thirty was a late time to have dinner.

“Have you eaten, Mister?”

“No, not yet.”

“Then let’s eat together. I just started eating too.”

Even though his rice bowl was half empty, Eunseong spoke. Yoo Siun seemed to hesitate for a moment, then pulled out the chair across the table from where Eunseong was sitting and sat down. The distance between the ends of the table, which looked big enough for ten people to sit at, was further than when they faced each other at the island table.

“Representative, you’ve returned? Shall I set the table for dinner if you haven’t eaten?”

“Yes.”

The helper, discovering Yoo Siun, rushed over and asked. Her kind tone was exactly the same as when she treated Eunseong.

Eunseong stared at them blankly. The helper was standing right next to him while asking. Yoo Siun was said to have severe mysophobia. That was why he was extremely careful about Eunseong approaching him, and if he did, the man backed away like opposing poles of a magnet.

Although it was only for a very short moment, even though the helper stood right beside him, the man who was said to have mysophobia didn’t even show a hint of flinching.

While receiving Eunseong’s curious gaze, he sat down and adjusted his slipping tie, then stood up as if realizing something. He washed his hands at the sink provided on one side of the dining area and returned.

Eunseong set his phone down horizontally on the dining table. Still holding his chopsticks, he waited for the meal to be served in front of him.

A dinner no different from the spread Eunseong received was placed before him. Even the composition and placement of the side dishes were identical.

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you come home at this hour. You always come home late.”

“…”

About to start his meal, he looked up and gazed at Eunseong.

“There’s no one here… the lady only sets the meal and leaves, Manager Nam just doesn’t seem like a person, and the bodyguards I occasionally run into outside don’t even answer me. I think they hate it when I ask about the company.”

Eunseong prattled on alone. After listening quietly, he asked.

“Haven’t you made any new friends at school?”

“I’m a senior. No one is interested in others.”

“Is the schoolwork manageable?”

“Mister, what university did you graduate from?”

“A place called Cornell, in America.”

“Then you must have been good at studying?”

“I suppose.”

Whenever Eunseong asked a question, he answered in short phrases. Regardless of whether the other person answered briefly, Eunseong didn’t mind. It was much better to sit across from someone and eat dinner than to be alone in a silent place. Only now did it feel like a house where people lived.

“I’m at the bottom of my class; is that really okay? Don’t you have to be good at studying to become the heir?”

“I’ll set you up with a tutor if necessary.”

“I don’t want to. I said I hate studying.”

“…”

“I’m not a middle schooler; I’m a senior, so what’s going to change by studying now?”

“Is that what you think?”

“Yes, that’s what I think.”

“Then do as you wish.”

“What’s that? Is that all?”

Eunseong got annoyed at his indifferent reaction. Even though he had forcibly taken him from his father, saying he absolutely had to protect him, the way he treated Eunseong was almost at the level of neglect. Since it looked like he was grumbling about the man not giving him attention after being the first to say he hated tutors or studying, Eunseong shut his mouth.

“…How is your body?”

“Pardon?”

“Your body… is your condition okay? Summer is coming and it seems the rainy season is about to start.”

Summer was a season when the body was worn out due to heat and humidity. However, this didn’t apply to this house, where even the air was managed to be clean without room for a single speck of mold.

Since Eunseong was transported back and forth in a car, his actual walking had decreased lately. He didn’t even have a chance to sweat, nor did he have time to feel the heat. Even now, his side felt chilly.

He thought the man would nag him about why he wasn’t studying if he didn’t do it, but he just kept saying irrelevant things as if he weren’t interested. Eunseong, becoming irritated, answered sharply.

“It’s not that summer is coming; it’s summer right now.”

“Ah, I see.”

It was an attitude of having no interest in him whatsoever. When Yoo Siun had nothing to say, he just kept throwing out questions about how his body was.