The Unbelievers Chapter 33

“I hate you, Mister.”

“…”

“I really, really hate you.”

He poured out his feelings—slashing through the air with the sharp edges of his words—declaring that he hated him, that he hated him to death, and that he hated him so much it made his skin crawl.

The person who had just been told he was hated wiped his face with dry hands, as if washing without water. The skin of his face shifted up and down under the pressure of his palms. Yoo Siun, who was leaning his elbow against the car window and cupping his chin, looked at Manager Nam, who was driving.

“Manager Nam, things must be looking up for you.”

“…Pardon?”

The back of Manager Nam’s hand, which was gripping the steering wheel tightly with both hands, flinched.

“Eunseong says he wants to live with you. Would you be alright with that? There is no law saying an incident like today’s won’t happen again, so do you think you can handle it?”

“Ah, well… I believe student Eunseong is just saying whatever comes to mind because he is angry.”

“Is that so? It doesn’t sound that way to my ears.”

“It sounds that way to mine. Since it is exam period, he must have been under considerable stress.”

Manager Nam exhaled even his breath cautiously as he made excuses for Eunseong’s unpredictable behavior. As he did so, he glanced at Eunseong through the rearview mirror. Eunseong, completely failing to notice Manager Nam’s hint to play along, spoke up.

“There was nothing like that. I’m bad at studying, so what stress? I just guessed on all the exam questions. I just hate him. I ran away because I didn’t want to live with him.”

As if dealing the final blow, Eunseong got angry, saying he hated him, truly hated him, and that Yoo Siun made him so miserable he was going crazy. The rims of his eyes, wet from crying, had turned red.

After a long silence, as the car stopped for a signal at a desolate intersection with no other vehicles or people, Yoo Siun spoke quietly.

“Until a house is arranged, you have to live with me even if you hate it.”

He spoke in a tone suggesting that acting like an adult meant enduring things no matter how much one disliked them.

“Until when?”

“…”

As if asking himself what the point was in arguing with such a child, his angry tone had subsided, returning to a timbre that was no different from usual.

“I’ll have it ready as quickly as possible.”

“How quickly is ‘as quickly as possible’?”

“…”

The expression on his face as he looked back at Eunseong was distorting to a level that suggested he had reached the limit of his patience. It held a questioning look, as if wondering what Eunseong hoped to gain by provoking him this much when his anger was already surging from the day’s events.

“I’m asking, how quickly is ‘as quickly as possible’?”

“Student Eunseong, the CEO was very shocked today. It took a long time to find you… and he worried a lot.”

“And? What about it? What does that have to do with me?”

“I think it’s best if you stop.”

“Stop what? He’s someone who hates even touching me, so why can’t I hate him? He’s someone who hates breathing the same air as me, so why can’t I hate him! Am I supposed to prostrate myself and bow, saying, ‘Thank you for your royal grace for giving me a place to sleep, feeding me, and sending me to school’? Who asked him to do that? Who told him he could just bring me here as he pleased? By whose authority! I’m going home! I’m going back! Find my dad!”

Eunseong shouted at Manager Nam, who was subtly applying pressure with pointed words to make him stop, and he also let out a yell at Yoo Siun, who was sitting beside him. Panting, he poured out his accumulated emotions—the terror that he might actually like him—in the form of different words.

Only the sound of Eunseong’s shouting breath trembled violently.

“Just… just let me leave. I don’t want to live here. I don’t want to be with you, Mister.”

“…”

Eunseong, who had basically pleaded, bit his lip. He straightened his body, which had been turned to confront them, and turned his head toward the car window. His vision was blurry with tears, making it hard to see ahead.

They could never know, and must never know, how hard and painful it was for Eunseong right now.

While thinking of a man who loathes me, I, my body… is becoming strange.

What am I supposed to do, what do you want me to do? How am I supposed to keep living in the same house, facing someone like that every day?

It’s not like you’d accept me if I said I liked you, it’s not like you’d understand my heart.

Moreover, he wasn’t just any man; he was his relative.

He kept swallowing to keep from crying, which made his throat feel tightly constricted. His chest felt as if it would burst with pain and frustration.

By the time they drove through the nearly empty roads and returned to Yoo Siun’s residence, it was past three in the morning.

He was already exhausted and tired in that state, but because he was facing off against Yoo Siun in a state of intense silence, Eunseong became even more fatigued. Manager Nam was cleared by the security staff and drove past the barrier toward the hill. The car stopped quietly upon arriving at the entrance of the villa.

After checking Yoo Siun’s stillness as he sat quietly, Manager Nam turned off the engine and got out of the car first. Once the two were left alone, the inside of the car became even more silent, as if tightening around the medulla of his brain.

In a protest to avoid looking at him, Eunseong deliberately whipped his head around to look out the car window and spoke.

“I’m going to live with Jungeon.”

“…I thought you said you were living with the Manager.”

“I don’t want to. I’m going to live with Jungeon.”

“Talk sense.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense? Jungeon said it was okay to live together.”

“Let’s just get out. It’s very late.”

“…”

Yoo Siun got out of the car. He took the bag and school uniform from Manager Nam, who was standing there holding Eunseong’s luggage, and went into the house after receiving a deep, bowing farewell.

When Eunseong didn’t get out of the car, Manager Nam approached and opened the door. Despite the silent pressure to get out, Eunseong sat there stubbornly.

“Let’s get out now. It’s past three in the morning. The CEO is waiting.”

“How did you find me?”

Eunseong suddenly asked, looking up at Manager Nam. Even at the unexpected question, his expression remained as unshakeable as Yoo Siun’s.

“Get out quickly.”

“It was impossible to run away from the start, wasn’t it? That’s why you just let me be, even though I was selling off everything you bought me.”

“It’s late.”

“No matter where I run to… it’s no use, right?”

“Yes, it’s no use. Still, getting off the taxi immediately was a smart choice. Though, telling the taxi driver your destination was a very stupid thing to do.”

Ah, upon hearing the reason they had found him so quickly, the strength drained out of Eunseong’s entire body in hollow exhaustion.

“…Is Mister very angry?”

Eunseong looked back at the cold entrance as if chasing after Yoo Siun, who was already gone, and asked.

“All you need to know is that I have become extremely inconvenienced because of student Eunseong.”

Extremely—he spoke with such emphasis, as if pressing down hard with a pen while writing the word. It was a terrifying yet polite threat never to do such a thing again.

Eunseong got out of the car and walked toward the house with a trudge. Manager Nam spoke to Eunseong’s back.

“You’ll be skipping school tomorrow. It won’t really matter much even if you don’t take the exams.”

It was the moment he realized that saying he would live with Manager Nam, even if it was an empty remark, was a slip of the tongue he shouldn’t have made.

After lingering in front of Yoo Siun’s room—which gave off a chilly feeling as if blocking any approach—Eunseong returned to his own room and only managed to fall asleep at dawn.

The next day, Eunseong, who had slept late until noon was approaching, woke up in a disheveled state and sat blankly before pressing the button to draw the blackout curtains.

The bright midday sunlight shone into the room so white it was dazzling. The lush, beautiful garden that he had been sad he might never see again spread out like a fantastic painting.

Frowning and rubbing his sleepy eyes with the back of his hand, Eunseong belatedly discovered a new cell phone placed on the table.

The phone, which was already set up, was the same model as the one he had used before. Only Yoo Siun and Manager Nam’s contact information were saved. If he had known this would happen, he should have factory reset the previous one before selling it off. The only petty rebellion he could perform against Yoo Siun was to subtly drain his wealth.

Still, perhaps because he was so exhausted from all that commotion yesterday, he didn’t dream throughout the night. Sighing that it was a blessing in disguise, he grabbed the phone and lay back down on the bed.

“Haa…”

A commotion had broken out last night because of his lie. He wanted to apologize to Choi Jungeon and his parents. Since he didn’t know his contact information, he installed a social media app and searched for every name he knew. He searched for the school, navigated through, and found Choi Jungeon’s account. As soon as he sent him a DM, a message arrived.

[It’s me, Seo Eunseong. Sorry about yesterday. Did you do well on your exams?]

[Fuck where are you save my number and call me right now]

He called the cell phone number the boy provided. Before the ringtone could even sound once, Choi Jungeon answered the phone.

―Hey! Are you okay?!

The guy yelled at the top of his lungs. His ears stung, so Eunseong pulled the phone far away before bringing it back.

“My eardrums are going to burst. I’m okay. I’m at home now. I just woke up.”

―What, what, your relative’s house? Is that bastard really your relative? My mom says he’s the president of a damn huge company, is that right? What do you have to do with a tycoon?

“There are some complicated circumstances.”

Eunseong glossed it over, being too lazy to explain.

―What complicated circumstances? Is that man really your relative?

Choi Jungeon asked with a voice of disbelief, as if wondering if he was lying again.

“He is a relative. He’s my first cousin once removed.”

It would have been better if he wasn’t a relative but just some complete stranger. There were more than one or two problems, but the fact that he was a relative and a blood relation was just one of those many problems. Perhaps it was the biggest problem.

“I didn’t know either, but it seems my father did something and got kicked out of the family register or whatever. Anyway, I am from a tycoon family too.”

―What kind of bullshit is that?

“It’s true. There are automatic curtains in my room, so if I press a button, they open and close, and there’s a secretary too. He drops me off and picks me up when I go to school. Ah, you saw him back then too, I don’t know if you remember. There’s a mister who looks like an old fogey. I got scolded like hell by that old fogey yesterday too. He’s the type of old fogey mister who says ‘I won’t let you get away with it if you do it again’ in a damn polite way.”

Choi Jungeon gasped, saying he couldn’t believe it at all. Hesitating as he was lost for words, he asked again.

―Don’t lie. Then you lived in such poverty-stricken conditions? A guy who was damn poor? Getting beaten up by customers while working a part-time job?