The Unbelievers Chapter 42

“Are you listening to me? What am I supposed to do, trapped here all vacation? I want to at least earn my tuition. Relying on others really isn’t in my nature.”

“…Tuition.”

He took a sip of his coffee, set the cup down, and suddenly left the dining room. When Yoo Siun returned a moment later, he was holding the backpack Eunseong used as a money bag. He placed the bag abruptly on the kitchen island and opened it to check the inside.

“This looks like more than enough to cover your tuition. Are you a bit greedy for money?”

“Ah, why are you touching someone else’s bag without permission!”

Eunseong snatched the bag he was peering into, quickly zipped it shut, and slung it over his back.

“I’m not taking it.”

Yoo Siun showed no interest in the money. He nonchalantly returned to his seat and drained the rest of his coffee.

“The Manager told me that you’re an incredibly busy and tired person, Mister. He said you don’t have the luxury to spare attention for me, so I shouldn’t bother you. That’s why I’m trying to live my own life by going somewhere out of your sight to work or attend an academy, so you don’t have to worry about me.”

Eunseong went in and out of his study whenever he pleased. He would even occupy the place where Siun was supposed to sleep and fall asleep instead. He would call him when he was staying late at work to say how incredibly inconvenient it was to live in a house that didn’t even get deliveries, saying he wanted spicy rice cakes today and a hamburger tomorrow. Then, Siun would pick up what Eunseong mentioned on his way home from work. Eunseong was clearly bothering him. And when Eunseong was accommodated, he would get angry at him for accommodating him.

“If it’s because of me, there’s no need for that. It’s not a bother.”

“….”

Having spoken while meeting Eunseong’s eyes, he lowered his gaze back to the newspaper as if it were nothing.

Eunseong gulped down his milk. He wanted to scold him—tell him not to speak that way, not to look at him with those eyes, not to let their skin touch four times, and not to act as if he were taking medicine for mysophobia.

To keep his feelings from being discovered, he had to leave this house. However, the man who had said he would look for a place for him to live didn’t bring up the matter, acting as if he had forgotten. Eunseong, who had said he would leave first, also didn’t mention the move, as if he had never said such a thing. As if regretting words spoken in the heat of the moment, he didn’t let them escape his lips.

“This is imprisonment.”

“Ha.”

He hadn’t intended to laugh, but Yoo Siun let out a hollow chuckle in spite of himself because it was so absurd and funny. However, the person involved seemed to take this situation of being unable to have his way quite seriously; he looked at him with an expression like a puppy about to bare its teeth and growl, as if protesting that he shouldn’t laugh.

At this rate, he might actually bite.

Yoo Siun muttered to himself.

“Imprisonment? I’m worried about you. It’s also a matter that concerns the security staff.”

“So you mean you’re just going to keep me locked up at home because it’s a hassle for the staff and it costs money and it’s annoying.”

“Do you not like the house?”

“…It’s not that I don’t like it.”

It seemed Seo Jeonggi had done a good job raising the kid to express his emotions honestly without hiding them, even if he had hit him. Eunseong couldn’t hide his inner thoughts very well.

“That’s a relief, then.”

“Just because I like it doesn’t mean it’s always good, you know?”

“It must be hard for anyone to live only doing things they like.”

“I’m also someone who looks at the spot before I lie down.”

“….”

He didn’t quite understand what that meant. While Yoo Siun was dwelling on Eunseong’s words, Eunseong let out a loud sigh for him to hear, as if he were fed up with Yoo Siun, who kept circling back to the same point and refusing to let him go out.

“Then is it okay to go out with you, Mister?”

“Me?”

Once again, he didn’t understand.

“I want to follow you when you go out to exercise in the evening.”

When Yoo Siun finished work early, he would dress like a crow and go out for a run after dinner.

“You won’t be able to keep up.”

“I’m good at exercising.”

“Exercise is good. It makes the body strong.”

At his indifferent permission, Eunseong’s expression brightened.

“That’s a relief. I would have been really annoyed if you said no to that too. The Manager has been picking on me so much lately. I guess my running away before was really traumatizing for him.”

After he took advantage of a lapse in security to escape once, the surveillance around him had indeed become stricter. Especially when he went outside, Manager Nam’s persistent gaze sticking to his back made his skin prickle. Not stopping at surveillance, Manager Nam would issue warnings at every opportunity. It was a request not to bother the CEO of his company anymore, who was already busy and tired and had no luxury to spare any attention for him.

“You left the only flaw on a man who is perfect at his job. Since he’s someone who has only heard that he’s capable, he must have been angry.”

“Did you scold him?”

“I don’t scold for things like that.”

“…Were you very angry with me that day?”

“….”

Eunseong asked cautiously after leaving a small bite mark on a red, round apple. He peered at his face with slightly raised eyes. Yoo Siun shook his head while taking a sip of coffee.

“Then what?”

“I was worried.”

“…Ah, I see.”

The tense expression he held while tentatively observing Yoo Siun immediately softened.

It was an emotion that could not be expressed by a clichéd word like “worry.” Yoo Siun had been flustered that day. The sensation of his heart sinking made his fingertips cold. He hadn’t even imagined the assumption that Eunseong could be taken by the other side. It wouldn’t just end with losing Eunseong’s presence. It was a matter directly linked to his life.

The only ones who knew of Eunseong’s existence were Yoo Siun, Seo Jeonggi, and Manager Nam. That was why he hadn’t even considered it a runaway. He naturally assumed it was a kidnapping. Moreover, he never dreamed in his life that it was a runaway carried out because Eunseong disliked him and didn’t want to live with him.

It seemed that acting so clinically to keep a distance from Eunseong had hurt the child. Yoo Siun no longer recoiled or backed away when Eunseong approached him abruptly like before. Instead, he nonchalantly created a gap so that Eunseong wouldn’t notice.

Furthermore, Eunseong understood Yoo Siun’s obsession even less because of the proactive behavior of a boy who said he liked him. That boy wanted to touch Eunseong, wanted to kiss him, and wanted to meet him. Siun had happened to overhear a phone call before, and the boy told Eunseong he was pretty as often as he breathed.

Yeah, you’re fucking pretty. Our Eunseong is fucking pretty, aren’t you? Fuck. But I’m going crazy with annoyance because you transferred and I can’t see you anymore.

Even while hearing such things, Eunseong agreed with his words as if it were nothing.

Right? Objectively, aren’t I really decent? Everyone in the neighborhood knows I was popular, right?

Eunseong had considerable confidence in his own appearance. As if craving the affection he didn’t receive from Seo Jeonggi from Yoo Siun, he acted like a cat thrusting its head forward to be petted, as if Yoo Siun, who wasn’t born with such a personality, ought to find him pretty.

…He is fucking pretty.

He washed his face with his hands. He rubbed his face roughly with his large hands.

“CEO, it’s time for you to head out.”

Manager Nam entered and reminded him of the time as he was idling with Eunseong. Yoo Siun moved the coffee cup he had finished to the sink and turned away after grabbing his phone.

“Have a good day.”

Eunseong said goodbye after taking a crisp bite of the apple.

“…Right.”

Trying his best not to look at Eunseong if possible, he gave an awkward goodbye and went outside with Manager Nam.

Seongha Momentum was located about thirty minutes by car from Yoo Siun’s residence. Since he had become the CEO of the affiliate, he had left the Seongha Group affiliate building and was renting one floor of a separate building.

As soon as he arrived at his private office and sat at his desk, Manager Nam held out a document envelope.

“This is the list I requested from the Seongha Mulsan Audit Office. I’ve narrowed it down to only the suspicious individuals among the log records from that day and the employee roster.”

“Was there something strange?”

Yoo Siun, who was turning around after taking off his jacket and hanging it on a coat rack, asked Manager Nam, who looked somewhat uneasy.

“…A record was left of accessing internal documents from the desk of a new employee in the marketing team, but upon investigation, the employee in charge was on annual leave that day. I checked the employees who went in and out at that time via CCTV, and Executive Director Kwon Jun-ho of Seongha Mulsan was…”

“He’s one of the Elders, isn’t he?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“He’s a dissident.”

Yoo Siun tossed the thick document envelope onto the desk as if there were no need to look at such a thing anymore.

“I’ve edited the CCTV footage to show only Executive Director Kwon in a way that isn’t conspicuous.”

“Please set up an appointment.”

“Understood.”

“Avoid this evening. I’m going to head home early today.”

“Yes, I will avoid this evening and set it up as soon as possible.”

Yoo Siun instructed him to do so and sat down. He turned on the computer and looked into the monitor. When he accessed the intranet, emails that needed to be processed were piled up.

As he began his work, Manager Nam asked him.

“How would you like to handle your attendance at the Seongha headquarters meeting next week?”

“There’s no need to stand out by being absent.”

He replied while checking a contract proposal submitted by the sales department. Since taking over Seongha Momentum, the company’s sales and profits had been growing in a slow but clear curve, in accordance with his personality that disliked standing out. Yoo Siun was a meticulous person. He even fabricated absurd mistakes, as if he had deliberately lost a large contract to a competitor. He was adept at hiding his claws and concealing himself in the brush, acting as if he had no business talent or ambition.