The Unbelievers Chapter 43

“What should we do about Eunseong’s tutor?”

“He said he won’t do it.”

“You are planning to send him to a school abroad, correct?”

It was impossible here. There was a limit to how long Eunseong’s existence could be hidden. His goal from the beginning had been to wash Eunseong’s identity and send him abroad so that no one could find him.

Eunseong was someone who had already tried to run away from home to leave his abusive father. Judging by that independent personality, Eunseong would likely be happy to go overseas if given the chance, even without needing a complicated reason.

Yoo Siun had not brought up that topic yet. He intended to wait until the college entrance exam was over. Whether he studied or not, Eunseong was, in any case, a sensitive high school senior and a minor. It didn’t seem like the time to send him off alone without a guardian yet.

“When do you plan to tell Eunseong?”

“I’ll have to find an opportunity after the exam. Seeing how he’s doing, it doesn’t look like his scores will be good anyway, so pushing for study abroad would be persuasive.”

“Are you saying you’ll tell him that late? If he wants to enter a school next year, even starting preparations now is late. If he isn’t going to a domestic university anyway, he doesn’t need to take the exam; instead, he needs to focus on getting a language score. I was planning to set him up with a native English speaker for tutoring.”

Manager Nam’s words made sense, but it wasn’t meant to be that fast. Yoo Siun felt as though his inner desire to not let Eunseong go had been discovered; though he agreed with Manager Nam’s words, he did not give an answer saying he would do so.

“I don’t know if I’m just harboring needless concern, but…”

Manager Nam hesitated, unable to speak out readily.

“Go ahead and tell me.”

Yoo Siun, who had been sitting toward the computer, shifted the direction of his gaze toward him.

“It looked to me as if Eunseong likes you, CEO.”

“…Pardon?”

“I think Eunseong likes you.”

“…What nonsense.”

It might be hard to believe, but that was how it looked to Manager Nam’s eyes. Every time Eunseong opened his mouth, he talked about Yoo Siun. He kept asking things like why Yoo Siun didn’t have a lover, if Manager Nam really knew his private life properly, and whether there had been anyone he had dated seriously in the past. He wasn’t asking about the company or the succession like before; now, he had no interest in that side at all and showed curiosity only toward Yoo Siun himself.

“Did you not feel it, CEO?”

“No, not at all. On the contrary, he’s on the side of disliking me.”

Yoo Siun looked at him with a flustered expression as if he had heard something completely out of the blue.

“Disliking you? Does someone bring up the person they dislike that often?”

“It seemed to me there was something going on with that friend named Jungeon, not me. The two of them talk on the phone often…, and he seemed quite affectionate with that person.”

Manager Nam was the one who spent more time with Eunseong. Yoo Siun, without realizing it, tentatively asked about Choi Jungeon as if testing Manager Nam. Hearing that Eunseong liked him—while thinking it was nonsense and that such a thing must not happen—Yoo Siun’s desire to confirm that fact grew like a bellows, more than his feeling of rejection.

“No. That friend is just a real friend. It’s that person who likes Eunseong. Eunseong has no interest in that friend.”

“Are you not misunderstanding something? Are you not just thinking that way for no reason?”

“Because you said there is such a thing as ‘resonance,’ I had a pointless thought…. I apologize.”

Manager Nam quickly apologized.

He had heard that the ‘Great Rift’ would only resonate with a specific bloodline, such as the ‘one with open spiritual eyes,’ Yoo Siun. If Eunseong was the ‘Great Rift,’ then resonating with Yoo Siun was the beginning of the prophecy. He didn’t know how or in what way resonance occurred, but if Eunseong was indeed that being, resonance might not be mere heat, but a movement of emotions.

“It makes no sense.”

Eunseong knew Yoo Siun as a relative—his father’s cousin. He knew they weren’t strangers but blood relations, so liking him, and resonance on top of that—to Yoo Siun, who didn’t even believe in that prophecy, it was talk that didn’t even sound like words.

Yoo Siun sharply turned his gaze back to the monitor screen. Perhaps feeling sorry for bringing up a useless story and making him upset, Manager Nam bowed his head and left the office.

The sound of the door closing reached him beyond the monitor. Yoo Siun stopped his hands, which were about to tap on the keyboard.

He hadn’t been able to think in that direction.

Rather, Yoo Siun felt as if he had realized his own heart at this moment through Manager Nam’s mouth.

Is that why I haven’t made him move and keep holding onto him…?

I…, I, toward that child….

He shook his head. Not only did it make no sense, it was something that must not be.

If Eunseong liked someone, he had assumed it would be the friend named Choi Jungeon. He had heard the sound of a phone call while passing by the bedroom door. To Choi Jungeon, who was grumbling about missing him, Eunseong replied that he missed him too. He even said without hesitation that they should go play somewhere together once the exam was over.

He had never said such things to him. Every time Eunseong opened his mouth, he only got angry, as if everything was Yoo Siun’s fault, as if it was Yoo Siun’s mistake. Eunseong had even run away to Choi Jungeon’s house because he disliked him, and he had never shown a smiling face in front of Yoo Siun. He only stared at him resentfully with pouting, sullen lips, because Siun tried to keep him locked in the house.

Yoo Siun’s hand caressed the space between his eyebrows. He fell into worry.

That he likes me…?

It can’t be. He shook his head and erased Eunseong’s face, which was filling up his mind.

Yoo Siun picked up the receiver.

“I received the contract via email. Have the person in charge and the director come up to my room.”

Yoo Siun, who had ended up breaking the promise to go exercise together because of work despite having promised to leave early, returned home with an order of tteokbokki as an apology, even though Eunseong hadn’t asked for it.

Holding the bag containing the tteokbokki, Yoo Siun stood blankly in front of Eunseong’s door, simply raising and lowering his hand, wondering whether to knock or not.

“….”

It was because Manager Nam had said that useless thing during the day. He said it seemed Eunseong liked him and asked if he hadn’t experienced the resonance mentioned in the prophecy. Manager Nam was a sharp person. He had a keen eye and was quick-witted. He wasn’t the type of person to say such a thing without any basis.

While thinking there was no way that was true, Yoo Siun was subtly bothered by it. No, he was overtly bothered. He retraced every single action Eunseong had shown. The way he had been counting the number of times they had touched especially weighed on his mind. However, counting and numbering the times they touched might not be because Eunseong liked him, but perhaps his own way of finding out whether Yoo Siun’s mysophobia was real or a lie.

Furthermore, Eunseong had even run away because he disliked Yoo Siun. He had said openly in front of Yoo Siun that he disliked him so much, and that he had left home because he didn’t want to live with him.

Unlike before when he lived freely, Eunseong now had to live with restrictions on every single action. Yoo Siun regarded Eunseong’s last runaway as a sort of protest because he felt frustrated and uncomfortable.

Re-evaluating Eunseong’s personality—one that was honest and unable to hide emotions—there was a high possibility he did such a thing not because he liked him, but because he truly disliked him and wanted to escape. It was an undeniable fact that Yoo Siun was keeping Eunseong only in the house as if imprisoning him, not letting him go out, and keeping a person nearby to monitor him.

And yet he likes me…? That is nonsense.

He was having such thoughts while standing in front of Eunseong’s door when the door swung open, causing Yoo Siun to flinch.

“…What are you doing?”

Eunseong asked him with a blunt look, wondering what on earth he was doing in front of someone else’s door. Yoo Siun, who had been thinking of nothing but Eunseong, hid his expression and slightly lifted the bag in his hand.

“Ah, this. I bought tteokbokki.”

“When did I say I wanted to eat tteokbokki?”

“You didn’t say that.”

“Did you buy it because you couldn’t keep the promise, because you’re sorry for being late?”

“Right, there’s that, too.”

Eunseong pouted his lips, looking at the bag in Yoo Siun’s hand and then at him alternately. The sullen face softened slightly and took on a faint smile.

“…It looks delicious. I was coming out to eat something because I was hungry anyway. It’s not like I was waiting for you, Mister.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Do you want to eat together?”

“I’m fine. I can’t eat spicy things.”

“What flavor did you buy?”

“Just normal?”

He hadn’t bought a specific flavor. He had just brought what the shop gave him.

“The normal flavor isn’t that spicy. Try some. I don’t want to eat alone.”

Without even waiting for the hesitating Yoo Siun’s answer, Eunseong took the bag from his hand. Eunseong, who normally would have taken it into his room, headed for the dining area first. Yoo Siun watched that back silently before moving his feet.

He took off his jacket, hung it on a dining chair, and washed his hands. Eunseong, who was gathering dishes and forks and putting them on the table, portioned out the tteokbokki and placed it in seats facing each other quite far apart, just like when they had meals.

Even though he was the one who had distanced Eunseong by bringing up mysophobia first, he felt inwardly disappointed seeing Eunseong now accepting that fact as a matter of course and showing a cautious side. As expected, Manager Nam was definitely misunderstanding something. If he liked him, he would have tried to sit close by using whatever excuse.

Yoo Siun sat where Eunseong had placed the tteokbokki. Eunseong also sat far away from him and picked up his fork.