The Unbelievers

Chapter 69

“Am I wrong?! Tell me if I’m wrong!”

“That’s my entire savings. It’s money I’ve saved working part-time jobs for years.”

Eunseong pleaded, just wanting the money back without blaming anyone, but this made him even angrier.

“So what? You want me to pay for money that may or may not exist, that I didn’t even take? I tried to be nice and help you because you seemed young and struggling, and this is how you repay kindness! You insolent brat!”

“…So you’re saying you didn’t take it, hyung?”

Eunseong asked, squeezing his eyes shut then opening them. He was hoping for an honest answer.

“Why would I take your money! Am I a thief? I’ve never touched someone else’s belongings in my life!”

Kim Dongjun stomped his foot, acting extremely offended, and yelled at Eunseong to bring evidence if he had any. He waved his hands threateningly in front of Eunseong as if about to grab his collar.

“…I’m sorry. I lost my money, and I acted too hastily.”

“Damn, you’re really pissing me off. Why suspect me for your lost money? Do I have to face this suspicion just because we share a room?”

“…”

“Hah, this is why they say you shouldn’t take in black-haired beasts. Tsk.”

He spat on the floor. The saliva landed on Eunseong’s feet. Eunseong raised his eyes and looked at him challengingly.

“What are you looking at? What have you done right to look at me with those eyes?”

“You really didn’t take it, right?”

“This kid, really!”

His hand suddenly rose in the air and then struck Eunseong’s cheek hard. With a sharp sound, Eunseong’s head turned to the side. Eunseong looked at Kim Dongjun with a dazed expression, holding his slapped cheek. The struck area immediately felt hot.

“Try saying that again. You little shit. Really. Do you want to die?”

“…”

“I said, try saying that again!”

“…”

Words were useless. Eunseong just stood there looking at him. Kim Dongjun stomped around, kicking nearby objects like someone with anger management issues, before finally calming down after a while.

“Go empty the trash cans in every room and vacuum the hallway.”

“…”

It wasn’t Eunseong’s shift yet, and it was Kim Dongjun’s job, but Eunseong quickly turned away, unable to face him any longer.

To make such a mistake…

He hadn’t been quick to trust people.

He should have been suspicious from the start when someone was being nice.

The world couldn’t be this kind to him.

Feelings of helplessness, emptiness, and despair about what to do next flowed through his consciousness like porridge.

With a blank mind and dazed expression, Eunseong mechanically did the tasks Kim Dongjun ordered. Then, thinking “surely not, it must be a misunderstanding, I must have put it somewhere else and can’t find it,” he hurriedly went back to the room and searched his bag again. He shook out the bedding to check inside, lay on the floor to check under the bed frame he had already checked multiple times. Everything else was there, but only the envelope of money was missing.

“What should I do…”

Since the only suspect strongly denied it, he couldn’t press further, and he couldn’t rummage through his belongings without permission.

Eunseong almost wished it was his own mistake, that he had lost the money envelope himself. If Kim Dongjun hadn’t taken it, if he had just lost it himself. Then he wouldn’t feel this dejected and wronged.

In the afternoon of the day the theft occurred, Eunseong’s shift started. Kim Dongjun glared at Eunseong coldly and left without a word.

Eunseong sat at the counter with a gloomy sigh and checked the reservations. Guests kept coming in, but even as he tried to focus, his mind was full of thoughts about the lost, stolen money.

“Excuse me, we’re short on towels in the room, towels.”

“…Pardon?”

“I said we need more towels. How many times do I have to repeat myself?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I’ll bring them right away.”

Eunseong went to the supply closet, took out towels, and handed them to the guest who had come down to the counter.

“You should put these things back in place promptly. Do I have to come down and beg for this? Really, it’s annoying. I’m going to write a really bad review. What kind of service is this?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Geez.”

The guest headed to the elevator, expressing irritation close to anger. Eunseong, who was apologizing with his head bowed, looked up and met eyes with the owner.

“Why are you so out of it? Didn’t I tell you to stay alert during the busy year-end period?”

Eunseong felt dismayed at showing a mistake to his employer when he should have been demonstrating his competence.

“I’m sorry.”

“Be at least half as good as Dongjun. Just half.”

“…”

The owner clicked his tongue, looking at Eunseong with disapproval. Eunseong, who had been planning to discuss the missing or stolen money with the owner, realized at that moment that he shouldn’t even bring it up, and groaned in despair.

∞ ∞ ∞

After the money disappeared, the relationship between Kim Dongjun and Eunseong quickly became awkward. Kim Dongjun only spoke to Eunseong when giving orders and, unlike before, showed no consideration for him. He called Eunseong out for miscellaneous tasks even outside of his working hours.

“Isn’t this your job, hyung?”

“So you’re refusing to do it?”

“I’ll do it during my shift, then.”

“Is there a separation of my work and your work here? We should help each other when we’re busy.”

“I’m saying this because you keep ordering me around even when it’s not my time.”

“Okay. I’m sorry. I’ll just do it myself.”

When Eunseong protested about being woken up after working all night or not being allowed to eat, Kim Dongjun surprisingly backed down meekly today. Eunseong, breathing heavily from the argument, turned away with a slight grimace and froze. The owner had appeared silently behind them without notice.

“…You’re here.”

Eunseong bowed his head in greeting. Having not been able to sleep for even two hours after his shift, dark circles were prominent under Eunseong’s eyes.

The owner frowned at Eunseong disapprovingly.

“I didn’t think you were like this, but you seem to have bad tendencies. I heard you lost your money and tried to pin it on Dongjun? And now you’re openly disobeying and talking back? Are you trying to do whatever you want because the owner doesn’t come often?”

“Pardon?”

“What, I heard it was over ten million won?”

When the owner brought up the money story that Eunseong had been trying hard not to think about, Eunseong felt like he would go crazy from the injustice.

“The money I brought when I left home really disappeared. I put it in the room, I put it away safely, and even the salary I received the day before disappeared. Everything else is there, only the money is gone, I’m telling you.”

Although it had been a few days since the incident, Eunseong wanted to settle the dispute even now. Only Eunseong and Kim Dongjun had access to that room, and the CCTV footage from when the money was lost had been erased. From Eunseong’s perspective, all circumstances were suspicious. Hoping that if the owner intervened, he might still be able to find the money, Eunseong pleaded for help.

“So you tried to pin it on the hyung you share a room with? I guess you thought you might be able to extort money if you caught someone softhearted. You thought, if one of two people sharing a room didn’t take it, who else could have, right? Am I wrong? Did you even have that much money in the first place?”

“…”

“Boss, please stop. What if customers come?”

“Dongjun, you’re too soft, that’s why this young punk is lying so shamelessly. Are kids these days so cunning?”

“It’s not a lie. It was really there. I put it in my bag, and it disappeared. How could I leave home without a penny?”

The more Eunseong spoke, the more frustrated he became. His chest felt so tight it was starting to hurt.

“So you’re suspecting your hyung? What, you suspect your hyung first when money goes missing? You didn’t even consider the possibility that you might have dropped it or lost it somewhere?”

The owner wouldn’t listen to anything Eunseong said at face value. He had already formed a negative prejudice against Eunseong.

“…How could it disappear from my bag unless someone took it? It was there just the night before.”

“Look at this kid. You little brat, are you trying to teach me? Who doesn’t know that? Logically, who would I believe? Between a suspicious guy who asks for his salary in cash and someone who has worked diligently here for over a year, who would you believe? If you were me. Tell me.”

“I’m not suspicious at all.”

The more this went on, the more stubborn Eunseong became. He protested that it was unfair and unjust.

“If you’re not suspicious, why can’t you use a bank? Is it right to keep such a large sum of cash in a bag? You should have put it in a bank, of course.”

“…”

“What is this? Are you a criminal? Show me your ID.”

“…”

“I said show me your ID!”

The ID he had received at eighteen was left at Yoo Siwoon’s house. Anyway, there was nothing Eunseong could do with his identity right now.

Eunseong, who had been standing silently unable to respond to the demand for his ID, finally spoke.

“…I lost it.”

“Right, you lost it. Is Seo Eunseong your real name?”

“It is real. Right now, due to circumstances… so…”

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to let you go.”