The Unbelievers Chapter 65

He should have never said he didn’t want to live with him from the very beginning. Then he wouldn’t have had to hear those relentless and cruel words about how it was a trashy thing to do.

“…”

Eunseong flopped onto the bed as if collapsing. His hair spilled to one side. He stared blankly at a stain on the dirty wallpaper before turning on the cell phone he had gotten from his friend.

He searched for Seongha Momentum for no reason, searched Yoo Siun’s name, and looked up articles mentioning his company, only to suddenly sit up roughly as if sickened by his own actions and wanting to quit it all.

“So pathetic, seriously.”

He poured curses on himself for clinging to lingering attachments even though he had run away specifically to escape.

He had left the house because he decided to end it. He never wanted to be entangled again. He didn’t want to waste a single bit of Yoo Siun’s money on clothes or food.

It couldn’t be said that he was entirely without a vengeful desire to remain a painful blemish—an unfulfilled task—for that man with his strong sense of responsibility. Eunseong’s existence was closer to a mandatory assignment he had to complete. That was why he had planted people in the subway station restroom, waiting for Eunseong to return for the bag.

A strange sort of stubbornness rose within him, and huffing pointlessly, Eunseong sprang up from his seat. He put the hat he borrowed from Kim Dong-jun on his head and left the staff quarters. To live here from now on, there were too many things he needed immediately.

Five in the afternoon was the time for his shift change with Kim Dong-jun. Seeing Kim Dong-jun go straight to school after finishing work served as a stimulus for Eunseong to set concrete plans for his life.

He had worked night part-time jobs before, but nothing wore down the body quite like having day and night flipped. It was the nature of the human body to live during the day when the sun was up and sleep when the sun went down to function normally.

Under the fence provided by Yoo Siun, there was almost nothing that made Eunseong’s life difficult other than the act of liking him. After spending several months in total comfort, the night shift was not as easy as he had steeled himself for. On top of that, he thought there were only many “trash” customers at bars, but the motel was even worse.

“What do you mean there’s no room? How many rooms are in here, and you’re saying there’s no room?”

“You have to reserve through the app. The reservations are all full, so there are no vacant rooms right now.”

“What’s an app? Fuck, so people like me who don’t know how to use a cell phone can’t even sleep? Ordering a single hamburger was enough to make life miserable, and now I can’t even sleep in a motel?! Because I don’t know how to use a cell phone?!”

A middle-aged man with dark circles hollowing out his eyes roared. The exhaustion of wanting to sprawl out and sleep anywhere immediately was vividly revealed in his expression.

Eunseong honestly wanted to give him a room if there were any left. Among the walk-in guests, there were occasionally people unfamiliar with app reservations. They were mostly older guests, and since the building was in the process of automatically changing its system to be operated without staff during remodeling, app reservations took priority.

“There’s another motel across the street. Please try going there.”

“I’m dying of fatigue and you’re telling me to walk all the way there again?! You bitch!”

Even though Eunseong gave him detailed directions, the man didn’t even pretend to listen. The middle-aged man continued to shout at the top of his lungs and cause a scene. He sat down on the floor and even chased away incoming guests.

“Stop using foul language.”

Eunseong’s patience was also reaching its limit. He scowled. His words didn’t come out kindly.

“Fuck, the curses are coming out, and you’re telling me not to curse? Not even to curse?!”

“I’m also someone’s precious child, you know? I said stop cursing!”

“Fuck, here you go. I cursed! Fuck! You brat who still has wet ears!”

“Ah, I said stop cursing!”

Unable to take the customer’s disrespectful speech any longer, Eunseong started using informal language back and fought with him.

“Huh, what kind of low-life is this?” The customer said exactly what should have been said to him, clicking his tongue in disbelief and screaming at Eunseong that he’d rip the “fucking bastard” to death, but as is the nature of such people, he only made a loud ruckus with his mouth.

Eunseong ended up reporting it to the police. This was already the second time today the police had been dispatched. Since they ran into each other several times a day, Eunseong was now on a first-name basis with the police. He made a cup of coffee and handed it to the responding officer, apologizing for the trouble. This was also a tip written in the manual Kim Dong-jun gave him.

“You haven’t been working here long, right? I don’t think I’ve seen you. It seems like the staff here changes every day.”

The officer made conversation while sipping the coffee.

“The hyung who works during the day said he’s been here over a year, but I guess the night shift is hard so it changes often. I started the day before yesterday. I’m sorry for constantly reporting.”

“Don’t be sorry. This is our job. This neighborhood is a bit like that. Everyone is steeped in stress.”

“I’ve done several part-time jobs, but I think this one is the hardest.”

“You’re a student, right? You look really young. How old are you?”

A sound came from the device attached to his waist as if a radio call was coming in, but the officer turned it off immediately and asked. He was looking at Eunseong, leaning his upper body on his elbows as if he were about to climb over the counter.

“I’m twenty.”

In just one month, Eunseong would be twenty. Even though the person was a police officer, the lie popped out naturally. He felt a slight prick of conscience, but he barely even realized it was a lie. It was only after he answered that his heart began to race, fearing the officer might ask to see his ID.

The officer didn’t seem to have that intention and chatted about this and that while sipping the last of his coffee.

He seemed to find Eunseong curious—someone who had no traces of hair dye or ear piercings, which almost everyone his age had.

“I guess you’re an easy target because you look young.”

“Officer Kim, it looks like things are settled here, so let’s get going.”

A policeman who looked older than the officer looked around, returned, and gestured to him.

“Report it immediately if anything happens. Those kinds of nuisances only get resolved once the police show up anyway.”

Officer Kim crumpled the finished paper cup, threw it in the trash, and left.

Fortunately, once it passed three in the morning, the streets and the motel became quiet as if no such commotion had ever occurred. From one of the rooms, the faint sound of a loud argument could be heard, making Eunseong tense, but that quarrel soon died down as well.

Only then did Eunseong sit at the counter and nod off. After seeing off a guest who left at dawn while blinking his sleep-deprived eyes, Kim Dong-jun arrived for the shift change.

As much as there were big disadvantages, there was a big advantage: he could get off work in one second. Eunseong swapped with Kim Dong-jun, went into the staff room at the end of the hallway, and collapsed onto the bed, falling into a sleep that was no different from a blackout. He woke up around one o’clock after sleeping fitfully and ate breakfast at a nearby restaurant where the owner had arranged for a monthly payment.

Because his body was tired, Yoo Siun didn’t come to mind as much as one would think. If he missed anyone, it was Manager Nam, who solved everything from A to Z just by being told; it wasn’t Yoo Siun. In the face of life’s hardships, emotions were ultimately nothing more than a luxury, and Eunseong was gradually becoming accustomed to this daily routine.

The medical center building, which seemed to have closed down a long time ago, was covered in wildly grown weeds and dust. Standing in front of the abandoned building that stood all alone with nothing else around, Yoo Siun and Manager Nam remained silent for a while.

Manager Nam spoke up first.

“Are you perhaps thinking the same thing I am?”

“What thought?”

“To my eyes, this doesn’t look like an abandoned building, but a workshop.”

“…”

Yoo Siun was thinking the same thing as Manager Nam. The weeds that grew thick enough to hide the entrance and the iron door that looked like it wouldn’t even move due to rust were polished in specific places without any oxidation because someone had already opened and closed it many times.

If Yoo Siun had a barn, someone had this medical center. It was related to someone in the family, and he would be one of the breeders who takes Red Cinnabar every day, which can impregnate the being of the prophecy.

“Let’s go in for now.”

Manager Nam found a flashlight in the car and took it out. It was daytime, but gray clouds covered the sky gloomily. The inside of the building, where light did not reach, was pitch black, making it difficult to discern the surroundings.

Manager Nam, with the flashlight on, led the way, and Yoo Siun followed behind him. From the sky, where only the desolate sound of weeds being stepped on could be heard, snow butterflies fell. They looked up at the sky simultaneously. Looking at snow made Yoo Siun’s heart heavy. He wondered why the boy had left home in this cold winter of all times; it was as good as him having instigated it, but Eunseong’s foolish behavior made him feel stifled.

Inside the building that had once been a hospital, a stretcher cart with a torn cover was rolling around in the hallway. Patient gowns shed like husks and dirt-stained cloths that must have been towels were dropped here and there, and a nameplate for something like the administration office or treatment room was hanging in the air, swaying with one side fallen off.

“Is it just my imagination? It looks like there’s blood on the floor. Well, I suppose anything stained would look like a bloodstain to me now.”

“…”

Manager Nam’s flashlight illuminated the dirt floor. Round traces that had been wet and then dried remained in places. It wasn’t just his imagination; they were browned bloodstains, but Yoo Siun did not bother to add that.