The Unbelievers Chapter 71

The restaurant owner placed a fried egg in front of Eunseong, who was struggling to force his food down.

“I don’t give that Dongjun guy one. I never give him two. I’m only giving this to you.”

“Thank you.”

She believed that Eunseong must have some unspeakable circumstances. She stood up with a pitying smile on her elderly face.

As he walked out after dinner, his chest felt stuffy as if he had indigestion. He stopped by a nearby pharmacy to buy digestive medicine and went back to the motel.

He hated the walk to work, feeling like a cow being dragged to a slaughterhouse. He wanted to run away this instant. A sudden, surging desire to contact Choi Jungeon rose up within him.

He trudged along, dragging his heavy footsteps. Seeing a police car standing in front of the motel with its warning lights flashing, it seemed another troublesome “guest-scum” was causing a scene.

By now, he was sick of this daily routine and felt nothing. Eunseong headed toward the counter. The owner, a familiar police officer who usually came by, and Kim Dongjun all turned to look at Eunseong at the same time. He bowed his head awkwardly in greeting and tried to head to his spot, but the owner spoke up with a look of disgust.

“See. Didn’t I say he’d cause trouble? There’s no such thing as a bastard who only causes trouble once. A bastard who does it once will do it twice, three times, I tell you!”

Are they talking about me?

Eunseong became bewildered. The owner’s displeased tone and unpleasant gaze flew toward him menacingly.

“Mr. Lee Doyun?”

“…Yes?”

“You are Mr. Lee Doyun, right?”

“Who…, me?”

The face of the police officer he had been on familiar terms with was also full of cold hostility. He was holding a piece of paper. He looked down at the paper in his hand and turned his head toward Eunseong to verify his face.

“Mr. Lee Doyun, right? The wanted thief.”

“Me?”

“This person is you, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know such a person. My name is Seo Eunseong. Not Lee Doyun.”

“When I asked to see his ID, he said he lost it. He asked for all his wages in cash, and he even pinned it on Dongjun once, saying he got ten million won stolen here!”

The owner blathered on to the police about everything that had happened, acting as if he was beyond flabbergasted.

“Eunseong, are you really Lee Doyun?”

“Who, who is that. It’s not me. Isn’t there some mistake? I don’t even know a person like that.”

Of all things to happen in life, now this was happening. The one who was truly flabbergasted and felt like they would die of absurdity was not the owner, but Eunseong. There was no one he knew by the name of Lee Doyun; it was a name he was hearing for the first time in his life. Theft, being wanted—Eunseong was so flustered in his despair that he even stuttered his words.

“We’ll find out whether it’s you or not once we go to the police station.”

“I told you it’s not me! I don’t even know who Lee Doyun is!”

“That’s why I’m saying let’s go to the station together first. We’ll talk about the details there.”

The whole world was oppressing him. It was such a mess that he wondered how things could get this twisted. To think that a stranger he had never heard of was masquerading as him and was a wanted criminal pursued for theft.

The police officer, who tapped Eunseong—who was too wronged to even speak—and put him in the police car, still checked the face of the wanted man against Eunseong’s face again as if he couldn’t believe it. He was twisting his brow in a loathsome scowl, as if the favor he had felt for Eunseong until now had been betrayed.

“…I really don’t know who Lee Doyun is. It’s a name I’ve heard for the first time.”

Eunseong kept muttering the same words like a person who had lost their soul. No one listened to him or believed him. He felt as though the words he spoke were failing to reach anyone, merely echoing in empty air.

“I’ve heard people say they didn’t do such a thing, but this is the first time in my life I’ve heard the lie that they didn’t know their own name. Mr. Lee Doyun. Did you think we wouldn’t find out if you hid like this? Did you think you’d never get caught? The world is smaller than you think.”

The police officer was angry at the fact that he had been deceived all this time, not knowing that Eunseong—who used to calmly make coffee for him and greet him—was a wanted man, and he found it even more contemptible because of that innocent attitude that had fooled him, a policeman.

“…Sigh.”

He couldn’t get through to them. Eunseong sighed and leaned the back of his head against the back seat.

The police car started with Eunseong inside. After driving for about twenty minutes, the police officer called the detective in charge in front of the local police station.

“I’ve apprehended Lee Doyun. Yes, we’ve almost arrived and are currently waiting for a left turn at the intersection in front of the police station.”

The realization that this wasn’t some show but that he was truly being framed hit him with a distressing sense of reality as they arrived in front of the station. As if truly going crazy, Eunseong rubbed his face until his cheeks turned red.

“We’re not going inside? Can I hand him over here? Yes, ah, I understand. Yes.”

The officer finished the call. Eunseong grabbed the front seat and said urgently.

“Please let me make a phone call. Just one phone call.”

“I’ve agreed to hand you over to the detective in charge right here in front, so tell him.”

“I’ll just make one call. It’s really not me. I don’t even know who Lee Doyun is. It’s not me!”

“Everyone says that. Everyone says it’s not them. It’s amazing how everyone says the exact same thing.”

The officer looked back at the unfairly shouting Eunseong with a chillingly cold gaze and retorted nonchalantly.

The police car received the signal, turned left, and entered the police station parking lot.

Someone was waiting for them. The officer got out first, greeted him, and relayed the situation. He gestured with his head toward the wanted man, Lee Doyun, sitting in the back seat. The police car was structured so that the door could not be opened from the inside unless it was opened from the outside.

A detective who looked worn out and tired from work approached and opened the car door. He leaned down, looked inside, and said to the trembling Eunseong.

“Get out.”

“Please let me make one phone call. Ah, or please contact CEO Yoo Siun of Seongha Momentum. He’s my first cousin once removed. Please let me call Mister. I didn’t do that! I don’t even know who Lee Doyun is! My identity was stolen!”

He was already struggling to death, and he had tried so hard to live somehow by escaping from that man’s comfortable protection like a runaway—the man who said they would become human trash if they liked each other—so Eunseong was reaching the point of anger over why nothing was working out. The sense of injustice made the corners of Eunseong’s eyes turn hot.

“I get it, so just get out for now. I’ll let you make a call once we get to the station with jurisdiction.”

The detective hurried him to get out with his hand while continuing to look around the surroundings. At the promise that he would let him call Yoo Siun, Eunseong got out of the car and moved to the vehicle he was pointing at.

The officer saluted the detective and glanced at Eunseong. Once Eunseong got into the car, the detective also thanked the officer for his hard work and got into the driver’s seat.

The detective looked through the rearview mirror at Eunseong, who could not hide his nervousness and anxiety. A piercing gaze scrutinized Eunseong meticulously through the mirror. Eunseong, failing to notice his gaze, sat perched awkwardly on the seat and bit his fingernails.

“Mr. Seo Eunseong?”

“Yes?”

“Would you like to put on your seatbelt?”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

Eunseong instinctively buried his back deep into the seat, found the seatbelt, pulled it across his chest, and fastened it into the buckle.

The car driven by the detective left the police station parking lot and merged with the cars on the road. A procession of vehicles with glowing red taillights was cutting across the city center.

Eunseong, who had been looking out the car window with anxious and nervous eyes, suddenly realized something and stared at the back of the driving detective’s head.

“What is it?”

The sharp detective keenly felt the gaze and met Eunseong’s eyes through the rearview mirror. Eunseong stared quietly at his face for a moment before shaking his head.

“No, nothing. But I’m really not Lee Doyun. I’m not that kind of person.”

“I’m sure everything will be revealed once we get there.”

“…About what I asked earlier, to let me make a call. Could I do it now?”

“I don’t think you’re in a position to make such a request.”

“…”

“Let’s go quietly.”

Eunseong reached out his hand quietly and toyed with the buckle fastened to the seatbelt. He lowered his vision and looked for the car door handle. The detective’s modified car, like the police car, could not be opened from the inside. There was no door handle itself.

How did he know my name?

The detective had called him Seo Eunseong a moment ago. If it was a crime by someone named Lee Doyun who had stolen his face, it was only natural that they shouldn’t know of the existence of “Seo Eunseong.”

Goosebumps rose along Eunseong’s spine. He didn’t know what was wrong, but he instinctively felt a chilling sensation that something was very, very wrong.

“Where are we going right now?”

“Didn’t I tell you earlier we’re going to the station with jurisdiction.”

“…”

The officer hadn’t had any problems when handing him over, so this man must be a detective. Eunseong toyed with the buckle, swallowed dryly, and asked.

“Where is the station with jurisdiction?”

“The Regional Investigation Unit.”

“Where is the Regional Investigation Unit?”

“…Hmm, shall we just go quietly?”

Eunseong shut his mouth at the polite tone telling him to shut up. His throat kept feeling dry. His heart was beating so fast that he thought the detective might hear the sound, so he even breathed out carefully.

He couldn’t even open the window. Eunseong sat quietly with bated breath. There was nothing he could use as a weapon. He had seen a way to escape a submerged car on TV before. It was to pull out a detachable headrest and use the sharp support part to break the window and escape.

Eunseong toyed with the front seat, ready to detach the headrest if necessary. The detective only glanced back at Eunseong but did not stop him.