The Unbelievers Chapter 63

“You can just go get it yourself, can’t you?”

Kim Dongjun asked back, bewildered, since it was a simple matter of going and picking it up.

“…Actually, I didn’t just leave home; I ran away.”

“What?”

“My family situation is a total mess…”

Eunseong lowered his head gloomily. Kim Dongjun’s expression crumpled along with his. A sigh flowed from his mouth, as if the story was obvious without needing a long explanation.

“What, is it something like loan sharks? Is that why you asked for your pay in cash?”

Instead of answering, Eunseong simply gave a single nod. Kim Dongjun—the man who had said every minute and second was money to him, and that anyone wasting his time was causing him financial loss—said he would go pick up the bag as soon as he had time. Of course, considering Eunseong’s pitiful circumstances, he declared in advance that he wouldn’t take any money for it.

Even when Eunseong shut his mouth gloomily, he didn’t pry into the circumstances any further. Just as Choi Jungeon’s family had misunderstood, he misunderstood on his own and pitied Eunseong. Because of that, he tried to treat him even better.

∞ ∞ ∞

“This is the bag Mr. Eunseong hid and left behind in the subway station restroom. He changed his clothes and slipped away. Since you said nothing came up on the cloned phone either, it seems he moved quite deliberately this time, just as you expected, Representative. But even so, he is still within the palm of Buddha’s hand.”

“…”

“I figured he might come back for it, so I put an identical one in its place and deployed staff. We are narrowing down people suspected to be Mr. Eunseong through CCTV, and we’re searching the surrounding area as well. We are also continuously monitoring that friend of his. We’ll find him soon.”

Yoo Siun opened the heavy bag that Manager Nam had set down on the table. It was the bag of someone going on a trip. It contained clothes, underwear, socks, well-worn books, and even small things like a toothbrush. Furthermore, his own zip-up shirt was folded neatly inside, though he didn’t know where Eunseong had gotten it. He held his shirt for a long time.

It seemed he had taken the valuables with him at least. In any case, it was a bag containing household items needed immediately. It would be uncomfortable without them, and in this cold weather, he hadn’t even packed a proper coat. On top of that, frigid weather with flying snow was persisting.

Aside from the nervous anxiety that Eunseong might be taken by someone else, his face grew darker at the thought of the hardships and the foolishness of a child who had run away in the middle of this cold winter.

Should he not have rejected him like that?

Because Eunseong had said such audacious things, Yoo Siun had been flustered. He had been too busy suppressing his own heart.

Should he have spoken in a soothing way, like Manager Nam suggested—saying he would think about it, or let’s talk later, or that he wanted to do the same but it was painful because he knew he shouldn’t?

Could he be that irresponsible as an adult?

To say it was painful because he knew he shouldn’t even though he wanted to. If he had said that, Eunseong would have misunderstood and harbored a vain hope that would never come true. That would have been playing with Eunseong’s heart. He had promised the boy’s father that he would take responsibility for him. That he would protect him no matter what.

Manager Nam observed Yoo Siun’s darkened complexion.

“Please do not worry too much. He will show up to get the bag.”

“The contents are things he could just throw away.”

“No. Those are things Mr. Eunseong treasures. I know.”

“…”

Manager Nam was full of conviction. Yoo Siun stared in silence at the humble, old, but well-worn belongings. It was Yoo Siun who wanted to believe that was truly the case. He rubbed his weary face with his hand.

“How about asking the monk?”

“If that person could truly see, there would be no reason for him to be so obsessed with money.”

Yoo Siun’s eyes were particularly cynical; he expected nothing at all from that direction.

“I saw him on the day of the memorial service, and he looked as though he had something to say. Why not check on the other side’s movements at least?”

Yoo Siun had also frequently locked eyes with Master Manpo that day. He was a man who never missed an opportunity to make money. It meant he had information.

“Representative.”

Manager Nam, who had been watching his legs shaking anxiously under the table, called him again. It was a nudge to take some action. Yoo Siun suppressed his rising anxiety and stood up.

As the car entered the yard and came to a stop, the sound of gravel being sharply scraped rang out. Manager Nam got out of the car first and opened the trunk. Yoo Siun, who had become haggard in just a few days, also got out of the back seat. Manager Nam took a box wrapped in a luxurious cloth suitable for a bribe out of the trunk.

Hearing someone arrive, the inside of the monk’s quarters became frantic, and then the door to the monk’s room burst open. A middle-aged woman wearing a long skirt was in the middle of rushing out while hurriedly straightening her clothes.

Smoothing her disheveled hair, the woman hid her embarrassed expression and vanished, as if fleeing, toward the communal kitchen along the veranda.

Manager Nam cleared his throat with a Ahem. Soon after, Master Manpo’s voice was heard along with the sound of scurrying.

“Come in.”

Yoo Siun stood still for a moment to give him time to pull himself together, then took off his shoes and stepped up onto the wooden floor. Manager Nam sent him in with the cloth-wrapped box.

Inside the warm monk’s room, a heap of blankets was rolled up in one corner. Master Manpo was in the middle of fastening the buttons of the vest he wore over his Buddhist robes. One sock was pulled up to his ankle, while the other was draped on, halfway between being on or off.

“I should have called before coming.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s just a laywoman who looks after our housekeeping; she was cleaning the room and clearing out the trash and such.”

Perhaps he felt embarrassed despite being a monk, as Master Manpo avoided Yoo Siun’s eyes and rambled while pulling up the other sock.

Yoo Siun, who wasn’t curious about the fake monk’s private life and didn’t want to know more, sat on a cushion and slid the box forward.

“What is all this you’ve brought again?”

“Don’t you have something to give me?”

A slight irritation from being tired, which made him not want to talk for long, hung over his cold face that had remained hidden and unrevealed. Only then did Master Manpo’s eyes narrow as he saw Yoo Siun fail to hide his emotions for the first time. He had an exceptional ability to read people’s minds through intuition.

“New news, there are always plenty of new stories overflowing.”

Seeing Master Manpo, whose face had been flustered by the sudden guest but was now overflowing with composure, Yoo Siun thought, ‘Oops.’ Yoo Siun’s expression soon returned to normal, but it was after he had already revealed his anxious true colors. Only a few words had been exchanged, but a fierce reading of each other’s minds took place through expressions alone.

“Let’s get straight to the point. I thought this was a place of practice; does a layman have to know every detail down to a monk’s business?”

He tried to package it with the fastidiousness of the privileged chaebol class, acting as if it were unpleasant to sit facing him in the space where he did such deeds, but Master Manpo had already noticed that something had happened to agitate Yoo Siun.

“It seems that after the one-sheet payment and the exorcism took effect, Seongha Construction found something.”

“…Found something? Are you talking about the being from the prophecy?”

“Yes, the ‘Great Rift’ that you people are so desperate to find.”

Yoo Siun failed to hide his inner thoughts this time as well. Confusion flashed in his eyes. Anxiety that Eunseong’s existence might have been discovered by them clawed sharply at his chest.

He shouldn’t have dithered; he should have sent him abroad immediately. He should have changed his name and age and hidden him in a place where no one could find him. He had kept Eunseong close until winter using the Suneung as an excuse. While being unable to give the boy even one thing he wanted. While being unable to even go near him or touch him.

“There is a reason why I make sure to give that family’s attendant a generous amount for his service fees.”

Master Manpo’s hand was placed with a thud on top of the cloth-wrapped box Yoo Siun had pushed forward. He roughly gauged the size of the box with his touch. Soon, his hand was blatantly fumbling with the bundles of cash.

“Where and what did they find?”

“I don’t know if it’s the being from the prophecy or not, but it seems they did find someone. Here.”

He handed a memo of the address he had memorized to Yoo Siun. As if that was enough for the information fee, he blatantly unwrapped the cloth in front of Yoo Siun, took out the stacks of fifty-thousand-won bills, and checked how much was there.

It was Taebaek, Gangwon-do.

He had thought Eunseong’s location, wandering somewhere in Seoul, had been discovered. Yoo Siun’s eyes became puzzled as he looked at the completely unexpected location. Master Manpo, who was counting the money, glanced at him.

“It seems it wasn’t the place you expected?”

“Yes. It’s a place I never would have thought of.”

“Since the people from Seongha Construction have probably already visited, I don’t know what might be left. But go anyway. Who knows if you’ll get some crumbs at least?”

“Then I’ll be going now.”

“Sure. And please forget the embarrassing thing you saw today.”

At Master Manpo’s words, a smile appeared on the corner of Yoo Siun’s mouth. He tried his best to smile, but he doubted whether it came out properly.

Having received the address and left the quarters, Manager Nam had turned Yoo Siun’s shoes in a direction that made them easy to put on. He slid his feet into the shoes and stepped down into the yard. The mountainside was dry with bare branches and fallen leaves.

As soon as he got into the car, Yoo Siun handed the address to Manager Nam.

“It’s Taebaek.”

Manager Nam entered the address into the navigation system. A small-scale medical center was located right near the address. Seeing that there was nothing else around, it seemed to be the place where the medical center had found something.

“It comes up as a medical center.”

What on earth could be at a medical center?