The Unbelievers

Chapter 82

Eunseong checked the photo of his birth mother that he had put in his bag again. He was grateful in a way that Kim Dongjun hadn’t carelessly thrown away his belongings and just left them. The photo of his birth mother was more valuable to Eunseong than the money Kim Dongjun had stolen.

Director Nam signaled the bodyguard to depart quickly. The car left the shabby alley without hesitation.

Eunseong, who had been planning to teach Kim Dongjun a lesson, had slapped him hard and left, but his expression was more sorrowful than relieved.

“How did it feel to experience it directly?”

“What do you mean?”

“I consume, therefore I am.”

“It just… makes me feel like life isn’t all that special.”

He reflected on the moment when he had brought those who had bullied him to their knees using Yoo Siwoon’s wealth. It was so easy, almost trivially simple. With just the flick of a finger, Eunseong was able to bring a specific space under his powerful control, and that thrill was still faintly reverberating.

It would have been nice to show something more impressive. It might be fun to appear as an interviewer if Kim Dongjun showed up for a Seongha Group interview, asking if he remembered him. The vulgar desire to confirm their difference in status kept arising as new fantasies.

The desire wasn’t just a delusion for self-comfort. Eunseong could make it a reality whenever he wanted. It was scary and thrilling at the same time.

“By the way, I heard that the 10 million won you said you lost was actually stolen. Should we punish them?”

“…No. They must have become miserable with that money. That’s enough.”

The car left the secluded alley and entered the main road. Eunseong could see in the side mirror the car carrying his bodyguards following behind. He was a very important person, and he was savoring that fact right now.

“Ahjussi said that if he becomes the successor and inherits the group, he’ll have to make decisions that sometimes involve killing people, that it’s a position where such decisions have to be made.”

“…Yes.”

“He said he doesn’t want me to do that.”

“So that’s what the CEO said.”

“I can’t believe that Dad gave up this position because of me. Sometimes he beat me so severely that I doubted if he was really my biological father. He didn’t show love either. Sometimes he treated me like a burden. He wanted to abandon me, but he was afraid of feeling guilty if he did, so he couldn’t abandon me or do anything else… There were times when it seemed like he was hoping I would leave on my own. That’s why I tried to leave home.”

“…”

“I don’t understand. That he gave up all of this for me.”

Eunseong truly couldn’t believe that his father had given up wealth and comfort, a prosperous future, a rich and perfect background where hardship couldn’t intrude, an upper-class life where he could achieve anything he wanted with just a fingertip, all because of him. That he had abandoned the sweetness of power and pride that only a member of the Seongha family could feel, all because of him alone. It seemed more credible if there was another reason.

“There’s another reason, right?”

Eunseong, who had been talking as if to himself while looking out the car window, turned his head towards Director Nam sitting next to him. Director Nam felt a pang but didn’t avoid the eyes that met his directly.

“That was the first time I met your father. I don’t know well why he chose such a life either. There are cases abroad where famous chaebol heirs refuse their inheritance because the business goes against their beliefs, and they go live in the forest, self-sufficiently. They say that’s a more valuable and happy life.”

Eunseong thought he was talking nonsense. Director Nam wasn’t a member of the Seongha family, so he couldn’t even imagine what Eunseong was feeling right now.

Only those who had experienced it could know. How sweet, how drug-like this infinite sensation was, feeling like you could manipulate the entire world at will with all the power given to you, and how chilling a thrill it gave even with just this much.

“No. It’s not like that. Dad wasn’t happy. Would a happy person beat their son until his bones break?”

Eunseong, who had once had his arm bone broken, unconsciously touched his wrist.

“There’s another reason, right? There’s some other reason why you keep trying to send me abroad, isn’t there?”

“You said the CEO told you it’s a position where sometimes cruel decisions have to be made, right?”

“Yes.”

“The CEO is someone who suffers when making such decisions. He just wants you not to go through such things. I can’t tell you the details, but Seongha Group doesn’t only do clean business.”

“…”

Although it was an unsatisfactory answer, Eunseong seemed to understand. He nodded as if agreeing with something to himself, then turned his head back to the car window without asking anything more.

∞ ∞ ∞

Team Leader Lee Junseung of the Violent Crimes Unit stopped the car in front of the barrier and lowered the window to have his face and ID checked by the security guard. The guard, who looked like a special forces member on a mission with a black mask covering everything below his eyes, checked the photo on the ID and Junseung’s face several times with sharp eyes before giving a hand signal.

The heavy barrier, which looked too sturdy to break through by ramming with a car, lifted to allow Junseung’s entry. Yoo Siwoon’s residence resembled a well-maintained resort, to the point where it was hard to believe such a place existed in this complex metropolis.

As he drove up the single road, he clicked his tongue. Soon he saw Director Nam waiting for him. Director Nam, who had been standing with his coat collar up to block the cold wind, turned around at the sound of the car engine. Junseung parked the car where he indicated and got out.

“You must have had a hard time getting here.”

“Whew. I’ve only heard about the rich, but who would believe this is in the middle of Seoul? How many pyeong is this whole place?”

Junseung whistled as he looked at the well-maintained garden and the golf carts helping staff move around, despite the cold wave hitting for days in winter.

“I heard they built this after checking Yoo Siwoon’s fortune and consulting a geomancer. That Master Manpo or something? That pseudo-monk Yoo Siwoon believes in. They say he dumps so much money on him.”

Director Nam gave a slightly annoyed look, as if asking how he knew that. Yoo Siwoon didn’t give money to Master Manpo because he believed in him. He was just pretending while buying information with money.

“Looking at CEO Yoo Siwoon, it seems like he really likes superstition while claiming he’s not part of a cult. Ah, is it just because he has too much money to spend?”

“This way.”

Director Nam moved first without responding to Junseung’s sarcasm. Junseung followed behind Director Nam, looking around at the hanok building on the opposite side. That seemed to be where Yoo Siwoon actually resided.

After his police academy classmate, who had been investigating an unsolved murder case committed by the Yongse Pacheon Church, died under suspicious circumstances, Team Leader Lee Junseung secretly investigated the case and ended up joining hands with Yoo Siwoon, who had been watching and observing him.

The predecessor of the Seongha Group was a cult group called the Yongse Pacheon Church, which had been generating profits in its very form for two thousand years. They believed in a prophecy that if a man with a mark conceived a child from the breeder among their bloodline, that child would be an Asura, and that hungry ghost would rule the East.

They actually didn’t hesitate to commit all sorts of bizarre acts and murders to make a man give birth to a child, including attempts to transplant the fetus from a woman’s womb to a man when it was time to give birth. There were also unofficial stories that the massacres by Unit 731 in China and Korea were related to the Yongse Pacheon Church.

The Yongse Pacheon Church, fronted by the media conglomerate Seongha Group, had attempted to control the media to their advantage and had expanded their power by covering up incidents each time. However, even within this cult group, there were forces secretly moving in opposition. It was Yoo Siwoon.

Before entering the annex where the security staff resided, Director Nam stopped walking and turned to Team Leader Lee Junseung as if he had something to say. Junseung, who had been taking quick steps due to the cold, gave him a puzzled look, wondering why he suddenly stopped.

“What is it?”

“Have you said anything strange to Eunseong?”

Director Nam asked sternly. Junseung, who had been looking at him as if to ask what he meant, soon said “Ah” and gave a sly smile.

“…Well, I was just curious. Aren’t you curious, Director Nam? They say that boy is the famous ‘Great Gap’. The one mentioned in your prophecy.”

“That’s not true.”

Director Nam frowned. It was something that no one should know anymore, that Eunseong was the ‘Great Gap’.

“I heard that Seo Jeong-gi lived in hiding with him. Is it really not true? His biological parents died because of that, didn’t they?”

Junseung asked in an overtly suspicious tone.

“How could such a thing exist? Eunseong doesn’t know about the existence of his biological parents, nor how they passed away. He doesn’t know anything. What was your intention in saying such things to a child who knows nothing?”

“What intention, it was just curiosity.”

“Have you lost your mind? What were you thinking, carelessly saying such things that could expose Eunseong to danger?”

No matter how loose-lipped he was known to be, this mistake was unforgivable. Moreover, he was a police officer.

“Whether it’s true or not, he’s the one Seongha Group is desperately searching for. If there’s even a hint of it, it would be better to be careful. What’s wrong with him knowing? And I think it would be better for him to know too. If he knows he’s the seed bearer for a heretical group, he’ll be careful not to spread his legs carelessly anywhere. If he had known that, would the kid have run away so fearlessly?”

“Team Leader!”