The Unbelievers Chapter 78

In the end, from Eunseong’s perspective, Yoo Siun and his family were synonymous with mortal enemies. Since Eunseong was young when he was born, he did not know the detailed circumstances.

Yoo Siun’s father had been involved. His father, a rarity in the Seongha family, was a non-believer with a sound mind, just like Yoo Siun.

He had performed menial tasks and stayed away from the center of power, never harboring greed. It was to this father that Seo Jeonggi had reached out for help, delivering the news that a mark had been discovered and the being of prophecy had been born.

Traitors were hidden everywhere. Eunseong’s existence was discovered almost immediately. His biological parents died on the spot in a car accident while fleeing from forces trying to kidnap Eunseong. That entire sequence of events began from the mouth of Seo Jeonggi.

Yoo Siun’s father tried his best to protect Seo Jeonggi and the baby, but after Eunseong’s parents died, Seo Jeonggi trusted no one. He took the child and went into hiding. Yoo Siun’s father created new identities for them and watched over them from afar, providing appropriate help whenever they were in danger without Seo Jeonggi noticing.

Just like Yoo Siun, his late father had been forced to handle all sorts of dirty work as a henchman for his eldest uncle on the fringes of the family, and he loathed the household.

He feared that Yoo Siun would grow up to live just like him. He hoped that Yoo Siun would one day be able to dominate the Seongha Group, and he had spent a long time working behind the scenes to make it so. He cherished Yoo Siun, his hard-won son, and taught him carefully so that he would not be brainwashed and could grow up with a sane mind.

The responsibility his father carried naturally passed down to Yoo Siun.

Yoo Siun, who returned to Korea at twenty-four after graduating from college in the United States, saw Eunseong for the first time then. Eunseong was ten years old.

Eunseong was playing with friends at a playground. As twilight settled, the friends he was playing with returned home one by one at their mothers’ calls, but Eunseong remained alone at the playground until the very end.

Eunseong was waiting for the drunk Seo Jeonggi to fall asleep. Yoo Siun still vividly remembered the emotion that had pressed heavily on his chest back then.

He was feeling a similar emotion now. He never imagined he would become this close to the Eunseong who had been playing so diligently by himself in that darkened playground, and he certainly never imagined they would become like this.

Eunseong, who had felt so precious and heartbreaking even then, felt even more so now.

Eunseong, who had been rubbing the bridge of his nose and his forehead against Yoo Siun’s chest for a long while, rested his chin on that chest and looked up at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I thought you were just brave on your own; I didn’t know you were such a whiner.”

“Can’t you not go to work today?”

“… If I don’t, then what do I do.”

“Can’t you just stay with me instead of going?”

“What would the two of us be doing if I didn’t even go to work.”

“We don’t have to do anything. We can just be together.”

Eunseong’s chattering tickled his ear and seeped inside. He twisted his shoulders and neck together as if he had actually been stimulated.

When he kissed Eunseong, Yoo Siun fell into the illusion that his entire body was melting from an indescribable sensation. He would be in a state of ecstasy, unable to stand with a sane mind. He became afraid of himself, thinking that if he fell into such a state again, he might really do something to Eunseong.

He simply endured it, looking down at Eunseong as if he were a cicada clinging to a log. The weight leaning against his chest was welcome and warm. Yoo Siun’s hands, wanting to touch Eunseong’s warm back, clenched into fists behind that back and then relaxed, in a private struggle.

For the first time in his life, something precious had appeared, and it just happened to be the being of prophecy who would conceive a breeder’s seed. Yoo Siun could not distinguish whether the being of prophecy came first or the twenty-year-old boy named Seo Eunseong came first. Even though he had loathed and hated those who followed those unrealistic prophecies, he had ended up harboring that very being in his heart.

Furthermore, it wasn’t as if he had suddenly discovered Eunseong; Yoo Siun had watched Eunseong’s entire growth process from a distance for over ten years. He held the complete memory of how he grew, what he looked like, how much he had grown in height, and those tiny hands and feet becoming what they were now. Perhaps because of that, Eunseong felt more heartbreaking and precious.

“I heard kids these days are scary, and it’s true.”

“Are you scared of me?”

“I am.”

“….”

“Very much.”

Yoo Siun ignored the constantly clinging Eunseong and spoke to the face that was staring back at him poutily.

“Is it a secret from the Manager?”

“I’ll tell him later. Not now.”

Eunseong nodded against Yoo Siun’s chest. His chin tickled the man’s chest.

Eunseong tried to understand Yoo Siun’s position. Even if the kinship was distant, they were strictly blood relatives.

If it were said that two such people had come to want each other, it was an emotion others could not understand. Still, if they were caught by Manager Nam, Eunseong could make Yoo Siun’s excuses for him. It was all his doing. Clinging to a man who said he didn’t want to and demanding feelings, hurting and leaving home and causing worry because that man rejected him, shaking a man who was being cautious—it all started from Eunseong.

Yoo Siun, who had been watching intently, lowered his head and overlapped their lips. Lifting his chin high, Eunseong swallowed the overlapping lips and his breath. These were definitely the lips he had tasted for the first time last night.

As they intertwined and bit their deeply entangling tongues, Eunseong felt the flavor of the coffee he drank. He could fully understand why the man insisted on grinding the beans fresh every day.

While they were mindlessly digging into each other’s lips, the sound of a door in the distance startled Eunseong so much that he pushed him away and stepped back. Yoo Siun’s thumb wiped the lips that were drenched with saliva. His startled heart went pitter-patter. Yoo Siun, who walked away first while patting Eunseong’s shoulder, informed the newly arrived Manager Nam of his departure for work.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Why aren’t you going to work? Are you really not going?”

Eunseong asked, glancing back at Manager Nam, who was monitoring and following him, wondering why on earth he was doing this here.

“Why do you keep asking the same question since yesterday. I am here to work right now.”

“No… I mean, why aren’t you going to the office.”

Eunseong asked in a voice that was crawling.

“The CEO went, didn’t he. The CEO and I have a good division of labor. If one is missing, the other fills in, and the company runs fine on its own even if I don’t go, so you don’t need to have any trivial worries.”

“This is clearly surveillance.”

“Who told you to run away from home? You made a big mistake, Mr. Eunseong. From now on, I’m going to stick to you like a leech, so be prepared. Twenty-four-hour exclusive security.”

“I told you, there was a reason I had to leave.”

“I’m saying that very ideology is the problem. If another reason to leave comes up, will you leave again then?”

Manager Nam furrowed his brow even more grimly than before and watched Eunseong. Eunseong was appalled by the expression that renewed his vow to follow, accompany, and monitor him everywhere except for the bathroom.

“I said I’m not leaving.”

“You went through a lot of trouble, didn’t you?”

“Yes… I suffered a lot. That’s why I won’t leave.”

“You said you wouldn’t leave before, too.”

Manager Nam was unwavering, as if he would never believe anything said. Eunseong let out a small sigh.

Feeling that he had pressured him too scarily, Manager Nam asked in a lighter tone to change the mood.

“What was the hardest thing? When you left home.”

“… My heart.”

“….”

Manager Nam felt like he knew why Yoo Siun was attracted to Eunseong. It wasn’t because he was of a bloodline destined to be attracted to a “Great Rift.” Aside from that, Eunseong was honest and pure in his own right. If he was like this even to him, he certainly wouldn’t hide anything from Yoo Siun, and he must have approached him with a dazzling speed, as bright as light. If it were Eunseong, he would have been more than capable of clinging to Yoo Siun—who never opens his heart—and asking him to kiss him, and perhaps it was even understandable why Yoo Siun had pushed Eunseong away with such cruel words.

Just then, Manager Nam’s phone vibrated. After stepping out for a moment to take the call, he came back in. Manager Nam held a document envelope in his hand. He placed a paper he had taken out of the envelope onto Eunseong’s desk.

“What is this?”

“Documents. The study abroad documents we were preparing.”

“… Am I going to study abroad? Mister said he wouldn’t send me.”

“Who, the CEO?”

“Mister said if I don’t want to go, don’t go.”

“When did he say that?”

“The day I came home.”

Eunseong lifted rebellious eyes toward Manager Nam, who was spreading several pages of documents on the desk and urging him to sign. It seemed that after being told to soothe Eunseong and cater to his moods so he wouldn’t run away again, Yoo Siun had simply told him to do whatever he wanted.

“I’ll check that with the CEO later, so sign first.”

“I’m not going.”

“Did the CEO really say you don’t have to go?”

He had said to cater to his moods, but he hadn’t said to lie. The plan for Eunseong’s escape overseas was intended to proceed even more swiftly now.

Seo Jeonggi, who was being interrogated about Eunseong’s existence, had been murdered. The other side already knew who had taken Eunseong and who had identified the body of the deceased Seo Jeonggi. They were buying time by using a body double for Eunseong, but they didn’t know when they would be caught—or if they had been caught already. It meant there was no more room for delay.