The Unbelievers Chapter 53

Yoo Siun poured the coffee. The clear brown liquid fell into the glass.

As temperatures dropped with the onset of early winter, the heater activated automatically, and a faint mechanical hum could be heard.

Three months had passed since he last saw Eunseong after that day.

Eunseong had recognized the fishy scent of the grass immediately. Mistaking the smell of the grass for alcohol, he had asked if Siun was drunk.

Yoo Siun had made contact with Eunseong on purpose. He had made him smell it. Praying that Eunseong would not react to this scent, praying that he would not react to him, Siun had approached Eunseong closely for the first time.

If Eunseong were the “Great Rift,” he would lose his reason as if he had swallowed an aphrodisiac and would crave the one whose spirit eyes were open. Upon smelling it, Eunseong had wrapped his arms around Yoo Siun’s neck and rubbed his lips against him before losing consciousness and going limp in his arms that day.

Until the very last moment, Yoo Siun had been hoping that Eunseong was not that being. It was with a heart desperately wishing it weren’t so that he had consumed the Jeokdan and sought Eunseong out.

Hoping desperately that he would not resonate, pleading inwardly for him not to show any reaction. If he were not that being, Yoo Siun could honestly acknowledge his heart’s attraction to Eunseong. And so, he offered a prayer to a transcendent being for the first time, begging that it wouldn’t be him.

As he approached the confused boy, let him smell his own scent—that of a Seongha bloodline—and received the collapsing Eunseong in his arms as the boy crumbled as if he had swallowed an aphrodisiac, he felt a sorrowful tremor.

Two emotions, a terror akin to despair and an extreme ecstasy, struck his entire body like goosebumps.

He realized then that this tremor was what was meant by the prophecy describing a blue-yellow horse appearing from within rain clouds alongside the sound of thunder. It wasn’t a lie. That nonsensical prophecy book was the truth.

The “Great Rift” existed in the world, and that boy was Seo Eunseong.

Without even stripping his clothes to check for the mark, Yoo Siun, having confirmed the existence of the prophecy solely through the way the boy resonated with him, froze while holding Eunseong in his arms.

That night, after laying the preciously held Eunseong on the bed and staring at him for a long time, Yoo Siun made a vow.

That he would never see him again, that they would never meet again.

That he would never, ever again covet those lips sweet as honey and those eyes as lovely as lilies.

That was the end, and the last of it.

He cut off contact after that. He did not go to see him, just as he had resolved. He ignored Eunseong’s calls as well. During the first month, Eunseong sent Yoo Siun messages or called him. He even ignored the contact asking him to send a photo of the hatched baby crow-tit.

Then, Eunseong, exhausted by the lack of response, stopped sending texts or making calls, and they had been living in total severance for two months now. Like strangers who did not know each other at all.

Manager Nam reported all news regarding Eunseong every day. Yoo Siun did not ask first. While living as if he had no interest, in reality, all his nerves were focused on Eunseong. Very occasionally, he checked what Eunseong was doing or what the boy was thinking through a cloned phone.

“I haven’t been able to bring up the topic of studying abroad yet because his feelings toward you, CEO, don’t seem very good. At any rate, he is studying quite hard. His grades have improved a lot, too.”

“I see.”

“Are you aware that the college entrance exam is next week?”

“Has time passed that quickly already?”

He responded indifferently.

However, Yoo Siun had been counting down to next week’s exam since last month.

Looking through the cloned phone, Eunseong, who had publicly declared he wouldn’t go to college, seemed to have some interest after all; he often searched for things like “In-Seoul universities for grade 3 or lower,” “departments with low admission scores,” or “unpopular but promising departments.”

Then, by chance, he would search for all sorts of things: “marriage between people with the same surname and origin,” “relationship of a first cousin once removed,” “how a younger person confesses to an older person,” “how to date someone 14 years older,” “Cornell University Facebook,” “Cornell University Yoo Siun,” “Seongha Momentum CEO Yoo Siun,” “Seongha Momentum CEO Yoo Siun ex-girlfriend,” “Cornell University Si-woon Yoo”—and not stopping there, he was searching for everything imaginable trying to track Siun’s hidden private life.

The season changed from summer to autumn, and now it was winter. Greenery crumbled into autumn colors, and autumn colors into fallen leaves, then the weather turned abruptly cold.

While repeating to himself that he must not pay attention, Yoo Siun looked in on Eunseong every day through the CCTV installed in the penthouse. If Eunseong’s clothes seemed thin, he sent a coat or a down jacket through Manager Nam. Rather than Eunseong, who said he liked him, Yoo Siun, who had said they must not like each other, was chasing Eunseong more desperately.

“Why don’t you go see him to give him some encouragement? It seemed like he was waiting for you, CEO.”

“What great help would that be.”

“He has probably folded his feelings of liking you by now. Hasn’t it been three months?”

Though he didn’t state the subject, Manager Nam was continuously talking about Eunseong. Yoo Siun turned to look at him at the cautious suggestion. He had checked Eunseong’s cloned phone for the last time, and unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The search terms he saw then were also related to Yoo Siun.

“If so, that’s a relief.”

“How about driving him to school on the day of the exam? There’s a justification for it, too.”

“No. There is no reason to see him in the future. Not seeing each other is beneficial for both of us.”

He told Manager Nam that he would never see Eunseong again, and he vowed it to himself. That was why he hadn’t even touched the Jeokdan since that day. He was someone who hadn’t believed the “Great Rift” actually existed, but now he had no choice but to admit it.

Despite clearly knowing the fact that he had to move further away and keep his distance, his inside was split in two. He was in the middle of a terrible struggle, and base desire continued to eat away at his reason. He knew very well that it wasn’t greed to become the successor, but greed for Eunseong himself, and that he missed the time they spent together.

Yoo Siun looked into the CCTV every day, putting off the work he had to do. As he kept watching, the greed to see more, the desire to see what was inside, grew to a bizarre volume. It was not a size of desire that a human could handle. From the moment he became certain that Eunseong was the “Great Rift,” he had, in effect, realized his own true feelings toward Eunseong.

“Still, shouldn’t you at least say goodbye to each other before Eunseong goes to study abroad?”

“What’s the point of seeing him? There’s no need.”

“You don’t need to be that heartless, do you?”

“If I’m not heartless, what can I do? If I give him even a bit of an opening and he says he likes me again, are you saying the two of us should start dating then?”

Yoo Siun looked back at him helplessly. The only thing he could do for Eunseong was to let him escape this land even one day sooner, before someone noticed his existence as a prophecy. That was the right thing to do, and it was also something Yoo Siun absolutely had to do.

“That’s not what I meant by… I’m sorry.”

Manager Nam hadn’t meant it in that sense at all. Eunseong didn’t even seem to like Yoo Siun anymore. He got angry whenever Siun’s name was mentioned. To someone who didn’t know the circumstances, it seemed as if Yoo Siun were some kind of sworn enemy of Seo Eunseong’s family.

He wanted Eunseong to know Yoo Siun’s efforts in caring for him so meticulously, and he wanted them to clear up any misunderstandings. Dating—Manager Nam, who hadn’t even thought in that direction, actually found Yoo Siun’s words strange.

Yoo Siun also looked somewhat frustrated and haggard.

“How is your condition? You look very tired.”

When Manager Nam asked in a worried voice, Yoo Siun answered in a softened tone.

“It’s always the same for me.”

Nothing had changed in his life. As always, he worked hard, diligently cleaned up his uncle’s messes, and tracked down the corruption of the Seongha Group. He still brewed and drank the coffee he liked in the morning, and insisted on solid-colored clothes because choosing was a hassle.

If there was a difference from before, it was that he had developed a habit of vacantly staring at the empty seat in the dining area that looked lonely when he brewed coffee, and every time he put on black clothes, he thought of himself reflected in the mirror as a crow. When he lay down to sleep, he heard the sound of a small animal moving and needlessly got up to check the surroundings. He no longer used the recliner where he used to often fall asleep while listening to music, leaving it always empty. The astronomical telescope remained fixed on the North Star, where Eunseong had last positioned it. In his spare time, he worked out like a madman, pushing his body to the limit.

And now, when he read the scriptures, he didn’t give a preposterous snort, but shuddered at the fact that it was true.

[Lips sweet as honey, eyes as lovely as lilies; since a swarm of snakes is in the abyss, they shall be visible only to those with open spirit eyes…]

To those with open spirit eyes, to those who consume Jeokdan, lips sweet as honey and eyes as lovely as lilies were a beauty that was difficult to bear.

“I am sorry I haven’t been able to pay much attention to you lately, CEO, because I’ve been looking after Eunseong. Once Eunseong goes to study abroad, I will serve you more diligently from then on.”

“…”

As Manager Nam said, Eunseong must leave for overseas soon. That was their plan. To ensure that no one—even if that person were Yoo Siun himself—could become the successor of Seongha through Eunseong, and to protect Eunseong from suffering terrible things. To do that, they must absolutely wash his identity and send him far away.

Yoo Siun asked himself. He asked his own heart, which did not want to send him away.

Just what do you want to do?