The Unbelievers

Chapter 36

“He said he was a reporter from Herb Post. He’s a journalist who was on the blacklist for writing an article about the Yeongsepacheon religion. It seems he hid in the bathroom of Seongha Group’s headquarters until nightfall. He accessed confidential documents, and given that he broke through security, he likely has connections with an inside employee. The CEO asked if we could find him. What should we do?”

“…”

Yoo Siwoon activated the incinerator without responding to Director Nam’s question, as if he hadn’t heard it.

The already lifeless man rolled forward inside the machine, his head dropping between his legs. When Yoo Siwoon closed the door and pressed the button, a large flame erupted in the furnace. Through the viewing window of the steel drum incinerator, large enough to fit an entire cow, the image of the man catching fire was visible. As if finishing a task, he checked the inside one last time and then closed the viewing window.

“You do as you’re told if you don’t want to end up like this.”

Yoo Siwoon brushed off ash that had spattered onto his jacket with the back of his hand. His job within the family was to clean up the messes left behind by CEO Yoo.

Director Nam’s expression turned dissatisfied at Yoo Siwoon’s attitude, which didn’t even allow for lamentation.

“For the CEO to be in charge of a subsidiary company and still be ordered to do such things… the CEO is really cruel.”

Director Nam, who had been assisting Yoo Siwoon for a long time, spoke resentfully with his head bowed. As a member of Seongha Group and one of the few qualified as “those with opened spiritual eyes,” Yoo Siwoon might have felt insulted, but he seemed indifferent.

Standing with both hands in his suit pockets, he kicked at the dirt floor with bored toes. He had to wait for the incineration to finish. Human bones looked completely different from animal bones.

“It’s because we’re family that he entrusts this to us. He can’t trust outsiders. That’s how CEO Yoo works, and that’s how we’ll do it too. Trash like this should be cleaned up by family.”

“But why does it have to be you, CEO… Ah, I’ve said too much again… I’m sorry.”

“Go buy some drinks for us.”

“Yes, understood.”

The smell of burning human flesh was already spreading through the chimney, so Director Nam wanted to leave. No matter how many times he’d done this, he still couldn’t get used to disposing of corpses. Yoo Siwoon, who had been doing this since childhood, was nonchalant.

Director Nam felt even more apologetic and grateful to Yoo Siwoon for always being so considerate. Given everything he had and would have in the future, Yoo Siwoon had no need to consider or even be conscious of the existence of a mere subordinate employee, yet he always took care of Director Nam when doing these uncomfortable tasks.

Director Nam knew well that among the members of Seongha Group, who didn’t treat anyone outside the chosen ones as human, Yoo Siwoon was the most humane.

Because he was humane, he thought a lot and had many feelings. Because he was humane, he knew better than anyone that Seongha’s cult group, trying to control the country’s politics and economy, was insane, and he was wary of them.

Though he was doing this work calmly now to hide his true feelings, Yoo Siwoon was the one who despised CEO Yoo, the head of the Seongha family, more than anyone and wished for his downfall.

“Then I’ll be going now.”

Director Nam left the barn where a faint smell of excrement was spreading. Dogs had been barking excitedly from a nearby kennel for a while. They must have smelled the burning human.

As Director Nam departed in the car for the city, over an hour’s round trip away, Yoo Siwoon put a cigarette in his mouth and felt around inside his jacket for a lighter.

He found the lighter in an inner pocket and lit it. In the darkness, a small flame illuminated the surroundings. Yoo Siwoon’s face was briefly revealed before disappearing again. Darkness prevailed once more. As he inhaled, the cigarette’s ember glowed red in the darkness, glinting like an animal’s eyes.

There was a sound of the reporter’s body, crumpled inside the steel incinerator set to maximum heat, collapsing. It was like loosely stacked bonfire logs burning and crumbling.

With heat twice as intense as a regular crematorium, it didn’t take long for the body to be reduced to bones.

Yoo Siwoon stepped back and sat carelessly on the edge of the barn building. With the cigarette in his mouth, he tilted his head back to look at the stars, unusually visible in the black night sky. The Milky Way was clearly visible in this unpolluted area.

“Phew…”

He lowered the cigarette from his lips and exhaled smoke.

Just then, he felt a light vibration in his chest. He took out his phone to check the incoming message.

[Who should I tell about the strange noise I just heard? Should I call 112?]

He had the illusion of hearing Eunseong’s grumpy voice, hiding timid anxiety for fear of rejection. Yoo Siwoon smirked. He looked down at Eunseong’s message quietly, cigarette in mouth, drawing on the filter.

[It shows when you’ve read it]

Eunseong was treating Yoo Siwoon like an old man who couldn’t properly use a phone. He was urging him to reply, saying he knew when messages were read. With the cigarette clenched between his lips, Yoo Siwoon moved his thumb to compose a message.

[I’ll tell the security team to check.]

[Don’t you think I would have done that first?]

[What did they say?]

[They said there was nothing, but I definitely heard something. I’m not lying]

“I’ll… tell them… to check again… carefully.”

Muttering to himself, he sent the message and lowered his phone. As the light illuminating his vision disappeared, so did the pain stinging his eyes. He hadn’t slept deeply for several days due to his many thoughts.

It didn’t have to be him specifically. There were more capable people who could protect Eunseong well if paid. There wasn’t much benefit for either of them in being close.

Yoo Siwoon knew he was being stubborn. He had promised to prepare a separate place for Eunseong to live, boasting it would be ready in three weeks at most, one week at least, but more than two weeks had passed without any results. The issue of Eunseong moving out was sinking below the surface again.

Eunseong had declared not only to Yoo Siwoon but also to Director Nam that he wanted to move out and live separately, that he hated Yoo Siwoon for taking away his father. It was an unprecedented tantrum.

Recalling Eunseong’s face, pleading with tears in his eyes for him to understand how much he hated him, Yoo Siwoon smiled faintly again like someone without a care in the world.

“…”

He hadn’t had much to smile about in his life. There hadn’t been many joyful things, and for someone who had lived as a henchman for the family elders, cleaning up filth, disposing of bodies, and sometimes even committing murder while diligently looking for opportunities to overthrow them, there was nothing to look forward to, nothing to smile about, nothing to ponder over repeatedly. But lately, Yoo Siwoon found himself smiling more often.

He tilted his head slightly as he looked down at his phone, as if looking at an incomprehensible foreign language.

Eunseong was busily typing something. It seemed he was about to throw another fit.

A place for Eunseong to live was already prepared without Yoo Siwoon needing to do anything special. He could stay in one of Yoo Siwoon’s empty penthouses. With a security team stationed there and professional guards protecting the building 24/7, it was as secure as Yoo Siwoon’s house, or even the Seongha Group’s main house. Adding private bodyguards might even make it safer than staying with Yoo Siwoon.

There was no reason to live together if Eunseong hated it.

Yoo Siwoon didn’t want to keep caring for and tolerating someone who said they hated him. Living separately would solve the problem simply.

But.

[What if I keep hearing noises? Can I stay in your room? I’ll be in your study, I’ll be studying]

“Haa, okay… do as you like. No, that’s fine. If you’re comfortable there, no no, if you like it there, no, um.”

Yoo Siwoon wrote and deleted messages repeatedly. His phone was the same model as Eunseong’s. When composing a message, it showed that he was typing, and Eunseong could see this, just as Yoo Siwoon had seen earlier. Even if Eunseong was naive, he would notice if a long time was spent crafting a short message.

[I’ll check when I get back. Don’t go into the study.]

[I’m already in here]

The reply came immediately. Yoo Siwoon let out a deflated laugh. He didn’t dislike behavior that deviated far from his expectations, and Seo Eunseong had a cute side despite his boldness.

[Please don’t touch the desk.]

[I wouldn’t touch it even if you told me to I’m just going to listen to music or can I look through the telescope?]

“…I thought you were going to study.”

Yoo Siwoon was a classical music enthusiast. There were no albums in the study that Eunseong would likely listen to. It was all piano concertos and orchestral symphonies. However, the sound quality from the high-end speakers was not just good, but produced such high-quality, strong vibrations that even a layman would inevitably be drawn in, even to completely unfamiliar pieces. Music appreciation and celestial observation were the only hobbies Yoo Siwoon, who had little interest in worldly pleasures and amusements, spent money on.

“…”

Just then, there was another sound of bones collapsing. The less dull sound indicated that the incineration was progressing smoothly.

Yoo Siwoon took the cigarette from his mouth, holding it between his fingers, and exhaled a long stream of smoke. He opened the viewing window of the incinerator and tossed in the cigarette butt he had smoked down to the filter. The most efficient way to dispose of any trash was to burn it.

He stood up from where he had been leaning his weight with just his backside perched. He habitually shoved both fists into his pants pockets and tapped the ground with the toe of his shoe.

He waited boringly for the final incineration process. If he could grind the bones in the crusher and bury them in a hole before Director Nam returned, all the work would be finished.