The Unbelievers

Chapter 66

As they walked deeper inside, a scene reminiscent of a horror movie unfolded. They had heard about cutting open bellies to determine if a target was pregnant, but that was done in hygienic conditions at Seongha Group’s affiliated hospitals, not in such an eerie place where ghosts seemed likely to appear. This place, like Yoo Siwoon’s barn, was merely a location for disposing of someone.

Inside the operating room with its broken glass door, an operating table, wheelchair, and faded surgical tools were strewn about the floor. As they followed the beam of Director Nam’s flashlight, both men held their breath.

There were distinct dried bloodstains on the operating table. Discarded latex gloves and scrubs littered the floor. Clear evidence of brutal acts remained.

Director Nam turned off the flashlight. They surveyed their surroundings in the dim light.

“Why do you think the monk told us about this place?”

“He might have wanted to let us know something was going on, or it could have been a ploy to make some pocket money. Or it might be a trap set by someone. There are quite a few others who are close to Master Manpo, aren’t there?”

“Could it be one of them?”

With his hands in his suit pockets, Yoo Siwoon’s shoe pushed aside a stainless steel table blocking the way. A loud screeching sound scraped their spines, then an eerie silence filled the air.

“Shall we look around more?”

“No. Let’s just go. I don’t think running into anyone here would be good.”

It would be awkward if they encountered one of his cousins. This level of uneasiness was something everyone in the Seongha family lived with, like karma.

As they left the operating room and walked through the abandoned building’s corridor, Yoo Siwoon’s phone vibrated. He took it out of his inner jacket pocket. As he stopped abruptly, Director Nam halted behind him with a tense expression.

The name “Seo Jeong-gi” was displayed on the phone screen.

“…”

He stared cautiously at the continuously ringing phone.

They had been searching for Seo Jeong-gi’s whereabouts. Yoo Siwoon felt he should tell him that Eunseong was going to study abroad far away. He wanted to say that Eunseong was safe now, that things like being captured and raped and impregnated wouldn’t happen in his life anymore. He wanted to tell him that Eunseong would live peacefully, safely, and more affluently than anyone else, so he shouldn’t feel guilty anymore and should live freely.

But now, instead of explaining Eunseong’s bright future, Yoo Siwoon found himself in a position where he had to explain Eunseong’s disappearance. He was at a loss for words. Even though they weren’t blood-related, they had lived as father and son for a long time.

“Hello.”

“Hello? Ah, are you acquainted with the owner of this number?”

The voice from the phone wasn’t Eunseong’s father, but an unfamiliar man’s voice. This phone’s last signal was detected in Seoul before it was cut off. Quite some time had passed since then.

Yoo Siwoon’s wary gaze fixed sharply on a point.

“…Yes. Where are you? Where’s my brother?”

“This is the Gangwon Police Station. How do you know the phone’s owner?”

“He’s my cousin. Why is the police…”

“I see. Please don’t be alarmed. Seo Jeong-gi has passed away.”

“What? Passed away? My brother?”

Yoo Siwoon’s eyebrows twitched. His surprised voice became rigid. He turned to look at Director Nam, who was already frozen in shock after hearing the phone conversation.

“Can you come here? We need to confirm the identity.”

“What do you mean, passed away? What are you saying? My brother died? Are you sure it’s him?”

Yoo Siwoon asked in disbelief.

The police officer reconfirmed the name Seo Jeong-gi. He briefly described his appearance. Over the phone, it sounded like it was indeed Seo Jeong-gi himself.

Urged by the police to come to the hospital for identification of the deceased, Yoo Siwoon belatedly came to his senses, agreed, and ended the call.

It was Director Nam’s voice that brought him back to reality as he stood there dazed.

“What was that call about? Eunseong’s father passed away?”

“The police say he’s dead and they need to confirm his identity now.”

“What could have happened so suddenly?”

“…We’ll know when we get there, I suppose.”

All sorts of thoughts swirled chaotically in his mind.

When he brought Eunseong, he had provided Seo Jeong-gi with ample funds to settle somewhere and offered to help with identity laundering if needed. Contact had been cut off since the end of summer. When they tried to track his phone location, the signal was last detected in Seoul, after which the power was completely off and hadn’t been turned on since. Unable to determine Seo Jeong-gi’s whereabouts, they had been looking for him to inform him about Eunseong’s upcoming study abroad plans.

They immediately headed to the hospital the police had indicated. The officer who had spoken with Yoo Siwoon was already waiting in the morgue corridor. He ended a phone call as he saw Yoo Siwoon and Director Nam approaching across the corridor.

“You’re the cousin of Seo Jeong-gi, correct?”

A detective from the Gangwon Violent Crimes Unit introduced himself briefly, offering a handshake with his rough hand.

“What happened? How did my brother die?”

Yoo Siwoon asked, his face still showing disbelief.

“A dead body was found yesterday on a rarely used road. It was discovered about three to four days after the estimated time of death. We found the phone while searching the area. When we recovered the data from the initialized phone, only one contact number appeared. That’s why we contacted you.”

“…A dead body?”

As his heart sank, Yoo Siwoon thought of Eunseong.

They had discovered Eunseong’s existence.

The family hadn’t considered the strange behavior of Seo Jeong-gi, the eldest son who had turned his back on the family, as a simple escape. There were suspicious individuals. There had been several attempts to track down Seo Jeong-gi, who had suddenly disappeared. However, each time, Yoo Siwoon’s father had caused confusion, leading to failure, and the matter had fizzled out over time.

There had been some people before who felt disgusted or fearful of the reality of the heretics worshipping a new god and chose not to participate in family affairs or gave up their inheritance. While Yoo Siwoon’s father and Yoo Siwoon knew every detail of Seo Jeong-gi’s activities and always had people watching him, the others had lost interest in Seo Jeong-gi’s life or death since their last attempt to track him. Seo Jeong-gi’s sudden death and Master Manpo’s note hinting at the location of that death couldn’t be a coincidence.

“According to the autopsy, it seems to be a cerebral hemorrhage caused by external impact.”

“You mean…”

“It appears there was torture and beating. Do you have any idea about this? Any financial issues or relationships around Seo Jeong-gi? There are no records of what he did. His recent activities are also vague.”

“…No, not at all. I was in the process of trying to contact him. His communication suddenly stopped.”

“Anyway, please confirm the identity first. After that, we’ll treat this as a murder case and proceed with the investigation.”

While intuitively sensing what might have happened to Seo Jeong-gi, Yoo Siwoon pretended not to know and followed the police officer’s instructions.

“You can enter this way.”

Yoo Siwoon entered the morgue, guided by the police officer.

A body covered with a white sheet lay on a stainless steel table. As he approached, he felt a faint chill over the sheet, as if the body had just been taken out of storage upon his arrival.

The examiner came out and lifted the sheet covering the face. There were clear signs of beating. Yoo Siwoon’s eyes twisted slightly as he confirmed it was Seo Jeong-gi.

The ashen skin devoid of life, indicating a corpse, the bluish lips, bodily fluids that had flowed and congealed around the mouth, red lines as if drawn by a sharpened blade.

Even without rationally assessing that he was no longer alive, instinct could not help but recognize his state.

Yoo Siwoon slowly closed and opened his eyes, unable to look anymore, and turned his gaze away. A hot, sticky saliva passed down his throat.

“It’s… my cousin brother.”

A feeling of powerlessness washed over him, as if his knees were about to buckle.

They tried to find out. They tortured him to find out where Eunseong was.

It was impossible to know how much Seo Jeong-gi had revealed. Given this outcome, it was possible that they hadn’t found any clues, or they might have learned something and disposed of him once he lost his value.

Only Yoo Siwoon and his father knew the whereabouts of Seo Jeong-gi, who had become a forgotten existence to the family. It was Yoo Siwoon’s father who had aided his life in hiding, and it was also Yoo Siwoon’s father who had handled the traffic accident that led to the deaths of Eunseong’s biological parents at the time.

Could it be that Seo Jeong-gi had tried to make contact first, rather than them finding him?

Ominous thoughts began to consume Yoo Siwoon.