The Unbelievers

Chapter 27

Just then, the dull footsteps of an adult were heard. Eunseong, who had been keenly alert, hurriedly looked back and, though no one was there, he suddenly grabbed Choi Jung-eon’s wrist.

“What are you- What!”

“Come quickly. Hurry! We need to go!”

Gripping Choi Jung-eon’s wrist tightly, Eunseong ran away. They dashed through the alley and sprinted across an intersection where the pedestrian signal had only a few seconds left. Choi Jung-eon’s friends couldn’t follow them and were left stranded on the other side of the street as the signal changed.

Eunseong stretched out his hand towards a taxi waiting by the roadside. He roughly shoved Choi Jung-eon, who had been dragged along in confusion, into the back seat first, then hurriedly climbed in beside him.

“Ahjussi, please go quickly, hurry. Please start driving fast!”

Startled by Eunseong’s urgent shouts, the taxi driver stepped hard on the accelerator. The car took off as if making a sudden start. Eunseong held his breath and looked around through the rear window of the receding car. Fortunately, there was no sign of anyone chasing them.

“What are you doing right now?!”

Choi Jung-eon shouted as he straightened up from his nearly fallen position.

“…Haa, haa, haa.”

Only when the school was far behind did Eunseong finally let out the breath he had been holding. He looked back at Choi Jung-eon, who was sitting with a dumbfounded expression. Although it happened to be Choi Jung-eon he had met by chance in this situation, the fact that he had encountered someone he knew brought a wave of relief that made his whole body feel weak.

“Jung-eon…”

Eunseong suddenly hugged Choi Jung-eon. Frowning at this unexpected action, Choi Jung-eon froze like a statue when Eunseong embraced his neck. Choi Jung-eon stretched out his arms, urgently grasping at nothing like someone hanging onto a taxi driving with its door open.

“Choi Jung-eon, you crazy bastard… you son of a bitch. How are you, how are you here?”

“…”

Hugging him tightly, Eunseong buried his face in Choi Jung-eon’s sweaty neck and tried to catch his breath. He was trying to regain a sense of reality. After a while, Eunseong separated from Choi Jung-eon, who had remained frozen like ice, not returning the hug but just holding his arms outstretched, and looked at him anew.

“Where should we go? Student, where to?”

Eunseong came to his senses at the driver’s question and turned his head. Questioning eyes were anxiously scanning Eunseong and Choi Jung-eon through the rearview mirror.

“For now, let’s go towards your place… to your neighborhood. Where’s your house?”

Eunseong asked Choi Jung-eon. In his confusion, Choi Jung-eon gave his home address. It was over an hour away by car. The taxi driver, with a distrustful look, asked if they had enough money for the fare. Eunseong took off the backpack he was wearing and took out two 50,000 won bills, handing them to the driver. The taxi driver said he would take the 100,000 won upfront and give change upon arrival.

Choi Jung-eon grabbed Eunseong’s shoulder to make him look at him. When their eyes met, he asked accusingly:

“What happened to you? Didn’t you transfer schools?”

Eunseong was acting like someone being chased. Choi Jung-eon fiercely furrowed one eyebrow.

“Well… you see, it’s…”

“Did your father end up selling you to debt collectors?”

“Huh?”

“I’m asking if you were sold to loan sharks. Those guys that day were loan sharks, right?”

“…Y-yeah. That’s right.”

Eunseong nodded, agreeing that was what had happened. The face of his cousin uncle, who had placed a wet towel on his forehead when he was sick, taken photos of the mother bird who hadn’t abandoned her eggs, and checked outside without complaint when Eunseong said he heard strange noises in the middle of the night, flashed through his mind. But he turned his head as if to ignore it and agreed with Choi Jung-eon’s words.

“Haa, shit. I knew it. I knew this would happen. Did you know your father disappeared too? Isn’t your house empty now?”

“…”

“What happened? Did those bastards at least let you go to school?”

“…How did you know I was here?”

Eunseong asked. Choi Jung-eon replied that he had secretly searched the computer in the teacher’s office without the homeroom teacher knowing.

Eunseong was so grateful for Choi Jung-eon’s presence, appearing at the right moment when he needed him, that he could have cried, almost forgetting all the misdeeds Choi Jung-eon had committed against him before.

“I’m so glad. I didn’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do. I just… just ran away without thinking.”

“Let’s go to my neighborhood for now. Then we can report to the police or something.”

“…No, not the police. The police can’t know.”

“Shit, what the hell have you been doing? Okay, for now, I got it.”

If they reported to the police, their location would surely be discovered immediately. These were people who had managed to find him and his father, who had been living under changed names.

Eunseong quickly took out his phone and turned it off. There was now nothing that could give Yoo Siwoon a clue to track him.

“Didn’t you go to school today?”

“It’s exam time. I ran out as soon as it was over.”

“Why?”

“To check if you, Seo Eunseong, you bastard, were hiding and living well.”

“…Are you planning to do something weird again?”

At Eunseong’s words, Choi Jung-eon’s face turned red.

“When did I ever do anything weird? Anyway, ahem, this isn’t the time for that, is it? Those guys didn’t seem like ordinary people. How much debt is there?”

“A lot. Really a lot.”

“…Haa, shit. He’s not a father, he’s an enemy. An enemy.”

“…”

“Have you been doing well?”

“…”

“I’m stupid for asking if you’ve been doing well. I was foolish.”

Choi Jung-eon examined Eunseong’s pale complexion. On the surface, Eunseong looked like he had been doing well. He had been eating and dressing well. He hadn’t been working part-time jobs, so he had slept well, and his complexion had improved. He had been living a life far from hardship. If Choi Jung-eon heard how he had been living, he would yell at Eunseong not to lie.

“Those bastards didn’t bully you or anything? You weren’t beaten up anywhere?”

“No, nothing like that.”

Eunseong shook his head, saying there had been no such incidents.

“They might have been polishing you up to sell you off, or feeding you well to harvest your organs. Do you know how common human trafficking is in our country?”

The taxi driver kept glancing at the students exchanging such grim conversation while driving. As an adult, he wanted to intervene somehow, but Choi Jung-eon’s expression was so fierce that he couldn’t bring himself to interfere.

“But were you glad to see me?”

“Huh?”

“I was really surprised earlier. I thought I was being sexually harassed.”

Rubbing under his nose, Choi Jung-eon grumbled that he was very surprised when Eunseong suddenly hugged him. If the person Eunseong met while escaping had been any familiar face, he would have hugged them and felt relieved regardless of who it was.

“Yeah, I was really glad. To see someone I know.”

“Ha, I’m the type you can rely on in times like this, right?”

“…”

Eunseong didn’t answer but just nodded in agreement to his words.

By now, Director Nam, having realized Eunseong was missing, would have reported it directly to Yoo Siwoon. Yoo Siwoon wasn’t just an ordinary citizen, but the CEO of a Seongha Group affiliate and a member of a chaebol family. Eunseong had seen it in movies and dramas. It was natural for them to hire professional personnel and use their power to find people. If he decided to track him down, he would search every corner of the earth, and it would be difficult to throw him off just by turning off a cell phone.

“Ahjussi, please stop here. I’m sorry. We’ll get off here.”

“But I received payment in advance. Just keep going.”

“No, we’ll get off here. There are circumstances.”

When Eunseong suddenly asked to stop the taxi, the driver instead increased his speed. Choi Jung-eon tapped Eunseong’s shoulder as he leaned forward between the front seats. When Eunseong turned to look at him, he gestured for him to move back. Eunseong sat back, and Choi Jung-eon thrust his upper body forward between the seats, bringing his face close to the taxi driver’s.

“We’ll get off here, ahjussi.”

“Ah, o-okay. Should I stop up ahead?”

“Yes.”

The taxi stopped near a subway station. Eunseong received his change and got out of the taxi. After anxiously looking around, he grabbed the wrist of Choi Jung-eon, who was standing blankly, and entered the subway entrance. He threw his phone into a subway trash can.

They boarded a train heading towards Choi Jung-eon’s house.

After confirming that the train was departing smoothly, Eunseong let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s not like we’re filming a movie… By the way, you don’t have your phone, right?”

“I just threw it away.”

“Ah, right. Do you want to sit here?”

Choi Jung-eon asked as a seat became available. Eunseong took off the bag from his shoulder, placed it on his lap, and sat down. The person in the next seat, recognizing they were together, said they were getting off at the next stop and gave up their seat. Choi Jung-eon casually bowed his head to thank the man and sat down next to Eunseong.

“It’s been over a month already, what have you been doing there?”

“I went to school. They let me go to school.”

“But if you can’t report to the police, what are you planning to do?”

“I’ll find a job that provides room and board. If I change my name and live in hiding, they won’t be able to find me.”

“What about school? Are you going to end up with just a middle school diploma?”

“I’ll take the test later or something. By the way, are your final exams over? They’re not finished yet, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Aren’t you studying?”

“Shit, you know my grades dropped a lot because of you, right?”

Choi Jung-eon suddenly raised his arm. Eunseong, hugging his bag tightly, also frowned sharply.

“How is that my fault? You’re the one who messed up.”

“You disappeared without a word overnight, how could I be in my right mind? Huh?”

“It’s none of your business whether I disappear or not.”

“Shit, you call that talking, now?”