The Unbelievers Chapter 4

‘Fuck! This bastard even looks like an unlucky piece of shit, is he dying to go to hell?! Huh?’

Several men with massive shoulders kicked the stomach of someone who was sprawling on the dark floor along with harsh curses. It was the man who had hit Eunseong yesterday. In the video, those who appeared to be a group were snickering on the side while blowing out cigarette smoke and spitting phlegm onto the road.

There was a woman with him… Eunseong’s eyes busily searched for the man’s companion on the screen. Seeing as the woman was not there, she had clearly run away or the man alone had been dragged off. The man, who had mistaken recklessness for courage and believed bravado was strength, curled his body into a ball while pouring out groans that were no different from vomiting blood under the thugs’ kicks.

Thud, thud, thud!

The sound of heavy blows hitting something with weight rang out without rest.

‘To my dongsaeng’s friend’s face, fuck! You laid a hand on him? You son of a bitch, who do you think you are, you bastard! You son of a bitch! Die!’

The kicks that made one frown just by looking at them continued against the opponent who was curled up and not moving as if dead, accompanied by huffing curses. Eunseong had considered himself quite physically resilient because he was used to being hit by his father, but it was a delusion. This was the first time he had ever seen someone else being beaten collectively like this in reality, not in a movie.

Toward Eunseong, who had frozen while hugging his knees, Choi Jungeon’s eyes sparkled with a gaze seeking praise.

“This is the bastard, right?”

The man being beaten like a piece of livestock, unable to even let out a scream, was indeed the man who had grabbed Eunseong by the collar and slapped him last night. His face was not visible, but that unique jacket was definitely the clothing that person was wearing yesterday.

“…What is this? What have you done?”

He looked back at Choi Jungeon with eyes that couldn’t believe it. Choi Jungeon smiled as if he were proud.

“I asked some hyungs I know for a favor. How could I stay still when I heard you got beat up? I have to get revenge for you. Eunseong, does it hurt a lot? Should I blow on it for you?”

Eunseong’s face turned deathly pale as he properly witnessed collective violence being wielded by grown men for the first time—something he had never even experienced to this degree.

Choi Jungeon brought his mouth close to Eunseong’s frozen cheek and blew a breath on it.

“Why are you so stiff, our Eunseong.”

“…Hey, Choi Jungeon. Are you crazy?”

“Eunseong, I did good, didn’t I. Give me a kiss.”

“Ah, fuck, that bastard was making a fuss earlier saying he had to brush his teeth, fuck, that’s gross! Eunseong, run away!”

One of the guy’s friends, seeing Choi Jungeon trying to press his lips against Eunseong, let out a disgusted shout and cackled with laughter.

Eunseong reflexively pushed Choi Jungeon’s face away with his hand. Even as his cheek was pushed back, Choi Jungeon smirked.

“Is our Eunseong feeling a bit better now? I asked them to beat him the fuck up. Fuck, the hyungs said he wasn’t moving, so they don’t know if he’s dead. So they got scared and threw him by the riverside and ran. If he’s dead, it’ll be on the news, right? Since it hasn’t come out yet, I guess he isn’t dead.”

A voice without a shred of guilt or fear spoke jokingly in a taunting manner.

“I did good, right? I told you to praise me for doing a good job.”

Choi Jungeon grabbed Eunseong’s hand and forced it to stroke his own head. Eunseong pulled away from the hand gripping the back of his own.

“You’re joking, right? You’re playing a prank, right? This is just a joke between you guys, right?”

Eunseong couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t the Choi Jungeon he knew. Seeing Eunseong backing away bit by bit from where he sat, Choi Jungeon’s eyes, which had been smirking the whole time, froze coldly.

“What, I feel like I did something worthy of praise, am I wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

“…Are you crazy?”

“No, I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy mentally or physically, I’m normal, and I reacted in a very normal way. Someone hit our Eunseong, and leaving that alone is what’s crazy. Isn’t that right?”

“…”

“That’s what’s crazy. Eunseong. Fuck, if a friend gets hit unfairly and you just leave it be, that person is a bad guy and a crazy one. Hey, isn’t it? Fuck, did I make some mistake? Why is Eunseong’s face like that? You look like you completely stepped in shit. Am I shit now?”

Choi Jungeon turned his head toward his friends and asked. While delivering a heated speech, he argued with his friends and got angry, asking what he had done wrong to make Eunseong’s face freeze white like this, and saying he should be receiving an award, so what was going on. Eunseong abruptly stood up from his seat.

“Where are you going? There’s still a lot of lunch time left.”

“Let go, you bastard.”

“I’m not finished talking.”

“I have nothing to say. Let go!”

It wasn’t the kind of violence he had seen to the point of being sick of through his father. It was an act close to murder. He shook his hand off with all his might, but it was in vain. On the contrary, more strength went into Choi Jungeon’s hand. Choi Jungeon grabbed Eunseong’s wrist and tightened his grip with a strength so intense it was terrifying.

“I said I’m not finished talking.”

“I’m leaving.”

“Sit down.”

“…”

“Sit down, Eunseong.”

Eunseong knew too well from a lifetime of experience what happened if he didn’t comply when they made that kind of face and said those kinds of words. Right now, he stayed still even if I treated him roughly, but no one knew what would happen if his eyes truly flipped. If he disobeyed Choi Jungeon and turned away, the protagonist in the phone video might not be that man from last night, but himself.

Eunseong sat back down beside him as if shrinking his body. He pulled his knees up and hugged them with both arms. He was scared enough to burst into tears. He didn’t know Choi Jungeon was a guy whose mind had snapped to this extent.

“Oh my, our Eunseong is scared. Was I scary? I wasn’t trying to be scary. Was I very scary?”

“You’re joking, right? You’re lying with someone else’s video, right? You’re just putting on a show even though you didn’t do such a thing, right?”

“Eunseong, you know.”

Choi Jungeon approached the crouching Eunseong by scooting on his butt, placed the arm that Eunseong had tried to reject firmly on his shoulder, and pressed his lips to his ear. Since the air conditioning wasn’t running yet, the inside of the gym was hot. The heat radiating from Choi Jungeon’s body was also hot, but Eunseong was cold. He was cold to the point where his bones felt chilly.

“Should I do this to your dad too? If I ask the hyungs, they might do it for me. No, if I ask them to do it, they’ll definitely do it. Because the hyungs think I’m cute.”

Choi Jungeon, with his lips against his ear, whispered with damp breathing.

Goosebumps rose across his back. Eunseong immediately shook his head. Even though he had cast such a wicked curse on his father—who had fallen asleep after throwing a fit while drunk—wishing he would just drop dead while drinking, or just die in his sleep after leaving the multi-unit house to him, Eunseong actually blocked the cold blue blade of death descending upon his father’s neck.

“You hate your dad.”

“What kind of bullshit… are you really crazy?”

“If I go to your neighborhood at night, I can hear the sound of you crying all the way to the end of the alley.”

“…”

“Should I not do it?”

He asked kindly.

“Don’t do it. Who asked you to? You lunatic! Mind your own business!”

Choi Jungeon patted and stroked Eunseong’s shoulder as he shouted while trembling as if in a fit and shaking off his arm.

“Then are you going to keep getting thrashed by your dad? Until you die? If a person keeps getting hit, you know? They eventually die. If you get hit for a long time, you die. Just like that bastard who hit you.”

“Choi Jungeon, why are you like this. You weren’t this kind of person.”

He had just thought of him as a kid who played around with some power in school and was admired by the other delinquents; he didn’t know Choi Jungeon was on such close terms with such dangerous people. The Choi Jungeon who was saying scary things was not the lacking fellow he used to treat carelessly.

“Eunseong, I’m talking about you right now. I’m not talking about myself.”

“…”

In other words, it was a threatening remark to shut up and just listen. Eunseong closed his mouth and stared at him with appalled eyes.

“Ah, Eunseong is truly pitiful. All the teachers ignore it, there isn’t a single adult who helps, and the police, fuck, they just come by and do a quick check-in and leave.”

“…”

“Eunseong gets hit by his dad and cries every night, but everyone in that neighborhood pretends they can’t hear.”

He was used to these things, but because he was speaking the truth, it suddenly made Eunseong flare up. Eunseong’s eyes filled with sorrowful tears. Seeing this, Choi Jungeon’s eyes distorted as if looking at something truly regrettable. He was displeased. He was dissatisfied with the victim’s attitude of refusing and saying no even though he said he had to keep Eunseong’s father alive and would help him.

Choi Jungeon’s hand gripped Eunseong’s head. When he roughly brushed the fine-textured hair seeping between his fingers in the opposite direction, Eunseong’s hair became a messy tangle.

“Eunseong looks like he’s going to cry. What should I do. I said I’d kill your dad for you?”

“Don’t do that.”

“Why not. I’m going to. I’m going to protect you.”

“What kind of nonsense… who protects whom. Don’t say such ridiculous things!”

Choi Jungeon finally pulled Eunseong—who was resisting so as not to be dragged by his strength—and made his tearful face bury into his shoulder. Eunseong, who had been struggling with all his might not to touch him, was forced to bury his forehead in Choi Jungeon’s sweat-smelling shoulder.

“Don’t cry, Eunseong. When you cry, it makes me feel strange.”

“…”

“I feel like I have to hold you and comfort you.”

He patted and comforted Eunseong’s back, which was trembling from fear, just as he said. While doing so, Choi Jungeon tilted his head to make the lips that had touched Eunseong’s earlobe touch even more, and tried to swallow the earlobe into his mouth every time he spoke.

When the guy acted unpleasantly, he had tried to ignore it by pretending not to notice, but now there was no space to escape. Choi Jungeon’s blatant words and actions flowed down Eunseong’s delicate neck and spine as a skin-crawling sensation.

Choi Jungeon, who was breathing out flushed breaths at Eunseong’s movements—which had frozen like ice—tilted his face even closer and lowered his volume so others could not hear.

“Eunseong, you don’t have anyone to protect you. You are alone. So I will protect you.”