The Unbelievers

Chapter 9

Confused by the bizarre scene unfolding before him, Eunseong called out to his father. His startled spine made him lift his head abruptly.

“E-Eunseong! Go outside. Okay? Your father is talking with a guest right now. Go outside!”

“…”

The ahjussi turned to look at Eunseong. His expression was cold, making it impossible to read his thoughts.

The father, who had been prostrating himself before a cousin much younger than him, was flustered as if caught in a scene he didn’t want his child to see. His complexion, already dark due to poor liver health, turned purple as he just shouted for Eunseong to leave. However, the ahjussi seemed to find the father’s gesture of repentance entirely natural and familiar. He looked at Eunseong without showing any sign of being affected.

“I, I was wrong. I’m begging you like this. Okay? Just leave our Eunseong alone. Please, please, Siwoon.”

“I haven’t said I would do anything.”

“Do you think this makes sense? She was the woman I loved! You know what happened to her! Just leave us alone! Let us live normally!”

The father shouted at the ahjussi while kneeling on the floor. Rather than shouting, it would be more accurate to say he was pleading.

The ahjussi’s face showed no sympathy for understanding the circumstances of his cousin who looked much older than his age. He only acknowledged with a low sigh that Eunseong’s surprised eyes were staring at them without moving.

“Hiding won’t solve this. How long do you think you can hide when everyone is out for blood?”

“Siwoon! Siwoon, please!”

“That’s why I’m saying I’ll take responsibility. To prevent such things from happening… no, we both know it’s nonsense. It’s better if I take him to prevent such things. That was father’s will.”

“I’ll, we’ll go somewhere else. Somewhere no one knows, even overseas… Pretend you didn’t see us. Pretend you didn’t find us.”

“The other side’s movements are ominous. It won’t be easy anymore. You know it’s already a miracle that we’ve kept this hidden until now. Being with me, under my protection, will be safer.”

The father was kneeling and pleading as if to a superior, while the ahjussi naturally listened to his entreaties like a king and continued speaking in a calm tone. When the ahjussi gestured to his subordinate to help the father up, the father stubbornly remained kneeling and repeatedly brushed off the hands trying to lift him.

“We don’t know who might attack first if we leave things like this. Anyway, it’s a problem that needs to be resolved within the family. Eunseong is surprised. Please get up, that’s enough.”

The ahjussi discreetly gestured to his subordinate. This time, the employee forcibly lifted the resisting father and sat him in an empty chair at the dining table. The father, looking drained and weak, sat down and gulped the water the employee poured for him. The father, not making eye contact with Eunseong who was standing there in shock, turned his head and said:

“…Eunseong, come here. Come here and greet him.”

“We already greeted outside earlier.”

The father couldn’t meet Eunseong’s eyes and just nodded weakly at the ahjussi’s words. The ahjussi stood up from his chair, leaving the father with slumped shoulders. He approached Eunseong, who was standing there fearfully.

Everything about the ahjussi’s attitude was strange. His tone towards the father kneeling before him was polite, but he was still walking around the living room in his shoes as if disregarding the entire household.

Eunseong was looking down at the ahjussi’s approaching shoes. No matter how much he disliked his father, no matter how much he wanted to abandon him, seeing his father kneeling and begging someone else stirred up a fiery hostility, regardless of how much he hated his father.

“Eunseong.”

The ahjussi’s low voice gently called Eunseong’s name.

Eunseong, keeping his gaze on the ahjussi’s shoes, said:

“Take off your shoes.”

“…”

“Don’t you know it’s common sense to take off your shoes when entering someone else’s house?”

The ahjussi finally looked down at his feet at Eunseong’s remark. He stared at his shoes as if he had just become aware of them. He didn’t take off his shoes and didn’t show much reaction to Eunseong’s request.

“I’ve finished talking with your father, so pack your things.”

“What are you talking about? Why was our dad kneeling before you, ahjussi? Our dad is much older than you!”

A sharp voice protested. The curiosity he had initially felt upon seeing the ahjussi had instantly vanished, leaving only the humiliation his father had suffered in its place.

“Eunseong, stop it. Come here. Come over here and sit down.”

The father waved his hand as if bothered, telling Eunseong to stop questioning why the ahjussi was treating him rudely. Eunseong had his fists clenched tightly. His eyes were glaring at the ahjussi, bristling with anger.

While calling Eunseong over, the father filled a glass with the detestable soju bottle and drank it as if quenching his thirst. Eunseong glared at the ahjussi, breathing slightly heavily, but obediently approached his father at his call, as if he had always followed and executed his words very well until now.

“Sit here.”

“Who is that person? Is he really your cousin? Why were you kneeling earlier? Are you stupid, Dad? Why are you kneeling? Who is he?! What wrong did you do exactly! Why are you kneeling before someone younger than you!”

Recalling the image of his father docilely kneeling and begging before the man, Eunseong’s voice grew louder. Even if he disliked his father, blood was thicker than water.

“Siwoon is… well, he’s your second cousin once removed. Your father has something to tell you that he hasn’t been able to until now.”

“Let’s not talk at length. I’ll explain as we go. Please pack the child’s things.”

Just as the father was about to explain something, clutching his forehead as if he had a headache, the ahjussi urged him.

“…Alright, I’ll do as you say.”

The father looked helplessly at his cousin for a moment before standing up. The smell of alcohol permeated every breath he exhaled.

“Things? What things?”

“Listen to your ahjussi’s explanation as you go. They’ll take care of the transfer procedures too. You’re going to change schools now and live in a better place, a better environment. You don’t need to live with a father like me anymore.”

“…What are you suddenly saying?”

Eunseong, who had long prepared to cut ties with his father and run away once he saved enough for a room deposit, now had to listen with a bewildered face as the person in question was telling him first that he didn’t need to live with him anymore.

“You knew I couldn’t take responsibility for you until the end, didn’t you?”

The father seemed both drunk and not drunk. His eyes were cloudy, but every word he uttered was imbued with Eunseong’s true feelings that he hadn’t dared to reveal, like a knife’s edge.

“…It’s not news that you’re incompetent, Dad. You’re sending me away so suddenly, out of nowhere like this? And to someone I’ve just met today?”

“Listen well to your ahjussi. He’ll protect you from now on. Got it? Quickly pack only what you need.”

“Who is that person? Is he really our relative? If he’s a relative, why were you kneeling before him! Is he really a relative? Are you trying to sell me off? You’ve got some debt, right? You’ve been gambling, right? That’s why you’re trying to sell me off, right?!”

“Stop talking nonsense. Hurry up.”

Although it was a home he was planning to leave on his own, and a father he was going to leave behind, this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. Eunseong got angry as if to assert that he never had the slightest intention of abandoning his father.

“How much did you get! How much debt do you have!”

“Haa, come here. Come here and listen to your father.”

Faced with the situation where his father was trying to get rid of him first, Eunseong vented his sorrowful indignation. Tears welled up in his eyes as he shouted, breathing heavily. Even he was surprised by the surge of unexpected sorrow.

The father grabbed Eunseong’s wrist and looked at the ahjussi with apologetic eyes. When the ahjussi nodded once, he took Eunseong into the room.

Once they were alone, Eunseong shouted even louder. Or rather, he demanded answers.

“Didn’t you hear me shouting outside earlier? I’m asking if you didn’t hear me calling for you!”

“What are you talking about? Calm down and listen to your father.”

“You couldn’t even hear that! Even though you’re not going to take responsibility anyway! How can you do this? How can you sell your son to someone we don’t even know!”

“It’s not like that, you fool.”

The master bedroom, permeated with a stale smell, was a desolate sight. The father’s hand, taking out cigarettes and a lighter from the jacket hanging on the yellowed wallpaper stained by cigarette smoke, was trembling so slightly it was barely noticeable.

He put a cigarette in his mouth and hurriedly lit it. It seemed that calming his own startled heart was more urgent than soothing his son who was crying and demanding to know why he was being abandoned.

He inhaled the cigarette smoke deeply, filling his chest, then exhaled slowly as he opened the window. Only then did the faint sounds of life from the alley outside seep into the room that had been as quiet as a vacuum.

“There were some circumstances. After your mother died, I cut ties with the family. I don’t know what kind of rash act it was… but at that time, it seemed like the best option. I couldn’t bear to live in that family anymore. I only thought about protecting you, whom Yunhee had given birth to. Maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t run away and just lived there, rather than ending up like this…”

He approached the window and, resting his elbows on the windowsill, continued speaking intermittently while inhaling and exhaling smoke.

“If I hadn’t seen Yunhee’s happy face holding you, I wouldn’t have ended up like this. If I hadn’t met her then.”

The father, lost in regret, mumbled words that Eunseong couldn’t understand, as if talking to himself.