The Unbelievers

Chapter 12

The car left the outskirts where Eunseong lived. After about an hour of driving, the surrounding scenery began to change noticeably. The road signs indicated they were crossing the Han River bridge.

As time passed, Eunseong’s tension eased slightly. He lifted his head and looked out the window. Having lived in the underdeveloped outskirts of Gyeonggi-do, the heart of Seoul, which he was seeing for the first time, looked like a different world. Even the air felt different.

While Eunseong was momentarily distracted from his fear and absorbed in sightseeing Seoul, Yoo Siwoon was checking something on a tablet PC.

They hadn’t moved away from the city center but rather entered it, yet the surroundings became peaceful, leading to a quiet and beautiful forest path. Eunseong stared out the window with wide eyes.

They passed through a barrier guarded by security personnel and drove up a well-paved road. Below, they could see the Han River flowing leisurely and the now smaller skyscrapers. The car stopped in front of a mansion that was hard to believe was in the middle of the city, like a resort carved into a mountain, after climbing the hill for quite some time.

Yoo Siwoon got out of the car first, leaving behind Eunseong, who was tightly clutching his bag like a refugee. Soon, the door on Eunseong’s side opened.

“May I take this for you?”

The subordinate who had ridden in the car with them pointed to the bag and asked. Expressing his determination not to entrust it to anyone else, Eunseong gripped the bag tightly and got out of the car before being dragged out.

Green arborvitae trees surrounded the area like a fence, blocking outsiders’ views, and a large hanok-style building stood proudly in a ㄷ shape. In front of it, an elaborate garden was in full bloom under the early summer sun, with golden osmanthus, crape myrtle, and other unidentifiable flowering trees.

It was a scene so splendid it felt unreal. The hanok and the surrounding landscape blended elegantly and harmoniously. Eunseong had never thought about it before, but he suddenly felt very shabby in his school uniform and was embarrassed. He tightened his grip on his school bag.

“Shall we go in?”

Yoo Siwoon entered the mansion first. Eunseong, not wanting to be left alone in the garden, followed him.

The interior of the mansion, while based on a hanok style, was decorated with sophisticated colors that seemed like they were from a house seen on TV.

“Only you and I will be staying here. This is your room. You can use this.”

He guided Eunseong to the room.

The room was so luxurious that Eunseong felt embarrassed about his reluctance to come. A large bed, a desk and bookshelf considerate of his student status, a sofa and table large enough to lie down and roll around on, and even a vase with flowers on the table.

Eunseong suddenly felt like an orphan who had been adopted from a poor household into a wealthy home. Clutching his bag tightly, he awkwardly stood and looked around the room Siwoon had shown him.

In his previous home, the neighbor’s window was right outside, so he couldn’t open the window freely. It was common to see the neighbor lying spread-eagled in just his underwear when opening the window, so he only opened it slightly for ventilation and usually had to live with the curtains drawn, making the place gloomy.

What he liked most about this room was the floor-to-ceiling window that offered a clear view of the lush green garden. The shape of the window, which framed the outside scenery like a picture, revealed the aesthetic sense of the homeowner. The afternoon sunlight, which Eunseong had never enjoyed in his life, streamed in brightly, tinting the white bedding golden. He could feel the sunlight to his heart’s content. His mouth opened involuntarily.

“Do you like it?”

“What? No. It’s not like that. It’s not mine anyway, right?”

Eunseong hid his admiring expression and pouted his lips.

“It’s yours.”

“…”

The owner of this house was ahjussi. He also owned the scenery outside the window that made one want to appreciate it like a work of art in a large frame. The tattoos on his body no longer looked scary or dirty. They seemed mysterious again.

“My room is across the living room. The dressing room and bathroom are inside here.”

Eunseong looked where he was pointing. Indeed, there was another door inside the room. Having lived in a house with only one bathroom, Eunseong had to go outside even when hiding in a locked room to avoid his drunk father, all because of the bathroom. From then on, he had desperately wanted his own bathroom. His exceptionally neat personality played a part, but if only the bathroom had been inside, he wouldn’t have had to endure the fear of opening the door and going outside.

“You can start school from next Monday. I’ll take care of the transfer procedures, so just rest this week. You can move freely anywhere inside here. You can go out to the garden too. Just know that the glass greenhouse is off-limits because we’re growing temperature-sensitive plants there.”

“…”

Eunseong just looked at him without responding. Siwoon, who had been quietly observing Eunseong’s face, took something out of his inside jacket pocket and placed it on the table. The small rectangular paper seemed to be his business card.

“Here’s my contact information. From now on, Director Nam, remember the person you met earlier?”

“Who, the older man?”

“Yes, that man will take care of what you need. If you need anything, just tell the director.”

“What about you, ahjussi?”

“You can tell me too.”

“…”

“I’ve had clothes brought in, but I’m not sure if they’ll fit. Your father said he’d pack and send the things you left behind. There are clothes in the closet, so wash up and change. Well then, rest up.”

He had said he would explain things gradually, but he just pointed to the dressing room without much effort. As if he had nothing more to say, he looked at Eunseong for a moment before turning away.

As he opened the door and left, the already quiet surroundings became even more silent.

Eunseong stood still for a long time, hugging his bag. He watched the shadows of the setting sun coming through the floor-to-ceiling window before putting down his now heavy-feeling bag on the table.

“…”

He picked up Yoo Siwoon’s business card that was placed next to it.

The card, written in Korean on the front and English on the back, didn’t have office addresses or phone numbers. It simply stated his name and mobile number.

Instead of entering Yoo Siwoon’s contact information into his phone, Eunseong searched the internet for the company called Seongha Momentum. Seongha Momentum was listed as a subsidiary of Seongha Group, a large media conglomerate, involved in various businesses such as infrastructure, transportation, and shipping. When searching for words that might track Yoo Siwoon, like his name and his position as CEO of Seongha Momentum, there was almost no information available.

It just said that the company’s CEO was a 33-year-old man named Yoo Siwoon. It wasn’t a non-existent company, nor was it a small one.

Eunseong knew about Seongha Group well. Yoo Siwoon was a member of a chaebol group, which meant that his father and Eunseong himself were also part of that family.

Eunseong understood less and less. He unconsciously sat on the sofa to open his bag, and was surprised by its softness and comfort, making his father’s choice even more puzzling.

If he didn’t want to be the successor, he could have just stuck around as a chaebol family’s troublemaker and wouldn’t have lived like that. The more Eunseong encountered his current surroundings, the more questions he had about why his father had refused this wealth and lived in hiding.

Sitting precariously on the edge of the sofa, he didn’t let go of his bag even though no one was going to take it away.

This place was a space so different from the world he had lived in. The awkwardness and unfamiliarity, where even the air felt different to breathe, made Eunseong’s back feel stiff.

Eunseong called his father. He felt he needed to ask because he couldn’t understand at all. Before the call could even connect to his father’s saved contact number, a woman’s voice came through.

―The number you have dialed does not exist. Please check the number and try again.

“…What?”

The same voice played even when he tried calling again. It had only been about three hours since he left home, but in that short time, his father had gotten rid of his phone number.

Eunseong left the room holding his phone. There was no one in the living room. Hearing movement from the dining area, he walked in that direction.

Yoo Siwoon was standing at the island table in front of a large display cabinet, brewing coffee with a drip kettle. He looked up as he carefully tilted the kettle to pour hot water over the coffee grounds.

“Dad’s phone… He’s not answering. It says the number doesn’t exist.”

“…”

“Did you do this?”

As he poured the water in a circular motion, brown liquid flowed into the small glass pot along with the fragrant coffee smell. Without taking his eyes off the flowing coffee, he asked,

“Do you have something to discuss with your father?”

“I should at least tell him I arrived safely, right?”

“He’s probably left for somewhere else.”

“Left? Where to? When?”

“As I said before, there are many people looking for you. The price for hiding you and not giving you up won’t be light. Moreover, if they find out that you’re in my custody… no, that you’re with me, some might feel betrayed.”

“…Does that mean they won’t leave my father alone? Like, they’ll take revenge?”

“He would have gone to a safe place, so don’t worry. You probably won’t be able to contact him. It’s better not to in the future either.”

“I don’t understand. Why go this far… Is the lineage cut off or something? Are there no boys my age here at all?”

“…”

Yoo Siwoon had been keeping his eyes on the increasingly soaked coffee grounds and the brown coffee liquid. For Eunseong, everything was incomprehensible, and Yoo Siwoon was being excessively sparing with his words.