The Unbelievers Chapter 69

“Are you saying I’m wrong?! Are you saying I’m wrong?!”

“That was my entire life savings. It’s money I gathered while working part-time for years.”

When Eunseong pleaded with the feeling that he wouldn’t even argue over who was at fault if he could just have it back, the man grew even more furious.

“So what do you want me to do about it? You want me to pay you back for money that might not even exist, which I didn’t even take? I saw a young kid struggling and tried to be nice by looking out for you and helping you, and you repay my kindness with hostility! You arrogant brat!”

“…So you’re saying you didn’t take it, hyung?”

Eunseong squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and asked. He truly hoped for a shred of truth.

“Why would I take your money! Am I a thief? I have never once laid a hand on someone else’s property in my entire life!”

Stamping his feet as if he were dying of injustice, Kim Dong-jun roared at him to bring evidence if he had any. He swung his hand threateningly in front of Eunseong as if he might grab him by the collar.

“…I’m sorry. My money disappeared, and I acted too hastily.”

“Fuck, you’re really pissing me off. Why suspect me just because your money is gone? Do I have to deal with this suspicion just because we share a room?”

“…”

“Ha, they really say you shouldn’t take in a black-haired beast. Shit.”

He spat on the floor with a “ptui.” The saliva landed on the top of Eunseong’s foot as he stood with his head bowed. Eunseong lifted his eyes and looked at him defiantly.

“What are you staring at? What did you do so right that you’re looking me straight in the eye?”

“Did you really not take it, hyung?”

“Why, you little…!”

His hand shot up into the air and instantly slapped Eunseong’s cheek with force. With a loud “crack,” Eunseong’s head snapped to the side. Eunseong gripped his struck cheek with a dazed expression and looked at Kim Dong-jun. The area where he was hit burned hot in an instant.

“Keep flapping that mouth. You piece of shit. Seriously. Do you want to die?”

“…”

“I said, keep flapping your mouth!”

“…”

Reasoning was impossible. Eunseong just stood there, staring at him. Kim Dong-jun, who had been huffing and puffing while stamping his feet and kicking surrounding objects like someone with intermittent explosive disorder, finally calmed down after a long while and returned.

“Go empty all the trash cans in every room and vacuum the hallways.”

“…”

Eunseong’s working hours hadn’t even started yet, and it was a task Kim Dong-jun was supposed to do, but Eunseong didn’t have the confidence to face him any longer, so he turned away hurriedly.

To make such a mistake…

He shouldn’t have trusted a person so easily.

He should have been suspicious from the moment the man acted nice.

Knowing that the world couldn’t possibly be this kind to him.

A sense of helplessness, hollowness, and a despair of not knowing what to do next made his consciousness melt away like porridge.

With a hollow mind and a blank expression, Eunseong mechanically did the work Kim Dong-jun ordered. Then, thinking “no way,” “I must be mistaken,” or “I put it somewhere else and just can’t find it,” he hurried back to the room and searched the bag again. He flapped the bedding to check inside and crawled on the floor to re-check the bottom of the frame he had already checked and re-checked. While there wasn’t much of value anyway, everything else was exactly where it should be; only the envelope of money was gone.

“What do I do…?”

Since the only suspect was strongly denying it, he couldn’t press further, nor could he recklessly search the man’s belongings.

Eunseong felt it would actually be better if it were his own mistake—if he had lost the money envelope himself. If he had just lost it, rather than Kim Dong-jun taking it. Then he wouldn’t feel this hollow and wronged.

It became the afternoon of the day the theft occurred, and Eunseong’s shift began. Kim Dong-jun glared at Eunseong coldly and left the spot in a flash without saying a single word.

Eunseong let out a grim sigh and sat at the counter to check the reservation status. Guests were coming in one after another, but even as he tried to focus, his mind was filled only with thoughts of the lost, stolen money.

“Excuse me, there aren’t enough towels in the room. Towels.”

“…Yes?”

“I’m asking for more towels. Exactly how many times do I have to say the same thing?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I’ll give them to you right away.”

Eunseong went into the supply closet, took out the towels, and handed them to the guest who had come down to the counter.

“You should put these in their place promptly; do I really have to come down here to beg for stuff like this? Seriously, this is annoying. I’m going to write a really bad review. What kind of service is this?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hmph.”

The guest displayed a surge of irritation and headed for the elevator. Eunseong, who had been bowing his head and apologizing again, lifted his gaze and made eye contact with the owner.

“Why are you so spaced out? I told you that you need to stay sharp because it’s busy at the end of the year, didn’t I?”

He felt a sense of failure for showing a mistake to his employer when showing a good work ethic wouldn’t even have been enough.

“I’m sorry.”

“Be at least half as good as Dong-jun. Just half.”

“…”

Looking at Eunseong with a dissatisfied gaze, the owner clicked his tongue. Eunseong, who had intended to consult the owner about the whereabouts of the money—not knowing if it was lost or stolen—realized at that moment that he shouldn’t bring it up at all and groaned despairingly.

After the money disappeared, the relationship between Kim Dong-jun and Eunseong became rapidly awkward. Kim Dong-jun only spoke to him when giving orders, and unlike before, he showed no consideration for Eunseong at all. He even called him out during non-working hours to make him do menial chores.

“This is work you’re supposed to do, hyung.”

“So you’re saying you won’t do it?”

“I’ll do it during my working hours, then.”

“Is there really a distinction between my work and your work here? We should help each other when it’s busy.”

“I’m saying this because you keep making only me do it even when it’s not my time.”

“Fine. Sorry. I’ll just do it myself.”

When Eunseong protested because the man kept waking someone who had barely fallen asleep after a night shift to make them work, or preventing them from eating, Kim Dong-jun backed down timidly today for some reason. Eunseong, whose breathing had become heavy from the argument, turned away huffing slightly and then froze. Without a sound, the owner was standing behind them; it was unclear when he had appeared.

“…You’re here.”

Eunseong bowed his head and greeted him. Because he had come out after not even getting two hours of sleep following his shift change, the area under Eunseong’s eyes was sunken and hollow.

The owner frowned at Eunseong with a look of disapproval.

“I didn’t see it before, but this kid has a rotten attitude. I heard you lost your money and tried to pin it on Dong-jun? And now you’re openly disobeying and talking back? You’re trying to act however you want just because the owner doesn’t come by often, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“What, you said there was over 10 million won?”

When the owner brought up the money—a subject Eunseong had been trying so hard not to think about—Eunseong felt like he was going crazy from the injustice.

“The money I had when I left home really disappeared. I kept it in the room, I kept it safe, and the pay I got the day before is gone too. Everything else is there, but only the money is gone.”

Though a few days had passed, he wanted to settle the right and wrong even now. The only people going in and out of that room were Eunseong and Kim Dong-jun, and the CCTV footage from the time the money disappeared had also been deleted. To Eunseong, every circumstance was bound to be suspicious. Thinking he might still find the money if the owner helped, Eunseong made a plea for help.

“And so you pinned it on the hyung you share a room with? I suppose your intention was to extort money if you caught a weak-hearted kid. Your logic is: the two of us use one room, so if the other one didn’t take it, then who did? Isn’t that it? Did you even have that kind of big money in the first place?”

“…”

“Boss, please stop. What if guests come?”

“Dong-jun, it’s because you’re too soft that this little brat is lying without a shred of fear. Aren’t kids these days quite devious?”

“It’s not a lie. I really had it. I kept it in my bag, and it’s gone. How could I leave home without a single penny?”

The more Eunseong spoke, the more resentment flared. His chest felt so tight that he could actually feel pain now.

“So you’re suspecting your hyung? What, if money disappears, you just suspect your hyung first? Without even considering the possibility that you dropped it or lost it somewhere?”

The owner didn’t take anything Eunseong said at face value. He already held a negative prejudice against Eunseong.

“…I kept it in the bag, so how could it disappear? Unless someone took it. It was there until the very night before.”

“Oh, look at this one. A little brat staring me straight in the eye—are you teaching me? Who doesn’t know that? Logically, who would I believe? Between a shady guy who asks for his pay in cash, and someone who has worked here diligently for over a year—who would you believe? If you were me. Tell me.”

“I’m not shady.”

The more this happened, the more stubborn Eunseong became. He protested that it was unfair and unjust.

“If there’s nothing shady, why can’t you use bank transactions? Is it right to keep that much money in cash in a bag? You should have put it in a bank, obviously.”

“…”

“Wait a minute. Is this kid a criminal? Hand over your ID.”

“…”

“I said, hand over your ID!”

He had left the ID issued when he was eighteen at Yoo Siun’s house and hadn’t brought it. In any case, there was nothing he could do with Eunseong’s identity right now.

Eunseong, who had been standing there unable to answer the demand for his ID, finally opened his mouth.

“…I lost it.”

“Sure, I bet you lost it. Is the name Seo Eunseong even real?”

“It is real. It’s just that I have circumstances right now… so.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to quit.”