The Unbelievers

Chapter 91

Yoo Siwoon was summoned to Seongha headquarters. He didn’t bring Director Nam on purpose. Director Nam’s anxiety would show on his face when he was nervous.

After putting on a thick gold ring he took from the dashboard, Yoo Siwoon got out of the car and headed straight for the elevator. The executive-only elevator was designed to skip the middle floors, so it had only a few buttons. He pressed the top floor button and stepped back. The elevator door closed automatically after verifying Yoo Siwoon’s identity through the security camera and began to ascend.

After exiting the elevator, Yoo Siwoon walked slowly.

The top floor where the executive offices were located was quiet with no people around. Chairman Yoo’s personal secretary, whom he had secretly met at his residence not long ago, was sitting in front of the chairman’s office at the Taepyeongno headquarters. He greeted Yoo Siwoon formally with a bow, stood up, and opened the office door. There was no hint of anything unusual.

“Sir, Seongha Momentum CEO Yoo Siwoon has arrived.”

Yoo Siwoon entered. Yoo Seongil, Chairman Yoo’s son, looked up from his desk in front of a floor-to-ceiling window with the Taepyeongno skyscrapers spread out behind him. Chairman Yoo was nowhere to be seen. With the succession process now public, his son Yoo Seongil was handling the chairman’s duties.

Yoo Seongil greeted Yoo Siwoon warmly.

“Ah, yes. Welcome, Siwoon. Sorry for calling you when you’re busy. Please sit over here.”

“I thought the Chairman had called me.”

“Me calling you is the same as my father calling you. Why did you leave in such a hurry at the memorial service last time? We didn’t get to talk properly. Nothing special going on, right?”

The chairman’s personal secretary guided Yoo Siwoon to the reception table. Yoo Seongil also sat on the opposite sofa and instructed the secretary to bring the prepared tea. Sitting across from him, Yoo Siwoon unbuttoned his jacket to make himself comfortable.

Whenever Yoo Siwoon met the Chairman Yoo’s family, he deliberately dressed sloppily. His tie was loosened carelessly, and one or two shirt buttons were left unbuttoned. He wore a thick gold ring on his finger that was far from his actual taste.

He made himself look not like a respectable subsidiary CEO but like a low-class thug just waiting for an opportunity to beat someone up. He didn’t reveal his refined tastes for reading, classical music, and astronomy. Yoo Siwoon’s knuckles had rough calluses, as if accustomed to hitting people.

He had gotten tattoos to deliberately look rough to these people, but since Eunseong had said he found them attractive, Yoo Siwoon’s feelings became complicated when facing Yoo Seongil.

Today again, Yoo Seongil looked at the tattoos on Yoo Siwoon’s hands resting on his thighs with faint contempt and disdain.

Seeing that expression of unconcealed disdain, Yoo Siwoon felt relieved. It was clear they still didn’t know his true identity or what he possessed.

Yoo Siwoon involuntarily lowered his head, thinking of Eunseong, with whom he had reached climax by rubbing their private parts together on his bed a few days ago.

An anxiety that something might show on his face passed through him. When he thought of Eunseong, his expression wavered differently than usual. Misinterpreting this, Yoo Seongil snickered at Yoo Siwoon. It was an expression suggesting he believed Yoo Siwoon feared him.

“You don’t seem curious about what happened to Executive Director Kwon Junho.”

“I just heard that the Chairman handled it well.”

While searching for Eunseong who had left home, Yoo Siwoon needed bait to divert their attention elsewhere. He had thrown Kwon Junho to them, reporting to Chairman Yoo that he had been leaking Seongha’s internal documents.

By making the Chairman Yoo’s family focus all their attention on the traitor Kwon Junho, Yoo Siwoon had mobilized even law enforcement to find Eunseong.

Chairman Yoo usually left the handling of dissidents to Yoo Siwoon, but this case was different. Kwon Junho was a close associate of Chairman Yoo and someone closely related to the group’s power core. They would have needed to know how much he knew and how much he had revealed, and the Yoo family specialized in interrogation and torture. Yoo Seongil insisted on talking about things Yoo Siwoon had no desire to hear.

“We starved our dogs for four days before throwing him to them, but maybe because he was old, his meat was so tough and tasteless that it took a long time to process. Even the kids didn’t like it. They have their preferences too, you know.”

The Chairman Yoo’s family kept fierce dogs. They raised them loose in the mansion garden. Unlike Yoo Siwoon, they didn’t keep separate security personnel or bodyguards. People feared Chairman Yoo not because of his cruel nature. They feared him because common sense didn’t apply to him. Yoo Seongil also showed similar tendencies, taking after his father. He was someone who shouldn’t be handed power. Yoo Seongil would likely be as bad as Chairman Yoo, if not worse.

While frightened by their practice of feeding people to dogs, Yoo Siwoon also felt a surge of rebellious desire to overthrow them. To prevent any premature ambition to crush his uncle and cousin who had looked down on him for generations from showing, Yoo Siwoon maintained his usual firm expression. He put on the face of a loyal dog subservient to them.

As they sat facing each other, there was a knock, and the secretary entered to place tea in front of each of them. Yoo Siwoon lowered his gaze to look at the teacup and flinched.

“You’ve been drinking it well too, right? I drink it brewed like this as tea. It seems more effective that way. I’ve been drinking it even more diligently these days.”

“…”

“Drink up. It’s a bit fishy, but drinking it as tea is much better. We’re not chosen bloodlines for nothing.”

It was yakdan. Yoo Siwoon silently looked down at the deep green color and the herbs floating in the teacup.

Yoo Siwoon declined the tea, saying it wasn’t fitting for someone like him.

“I’m fine, thank you.”

“Don’t be like that, you should drink it diligently too. That’s how you’ll have children.”

“…”

“That guy Oseon drinks it so diligently. Every morning and evening without fail. He seems to think it’s some kind of aphrodisiac. I wonder if he’ll ever have a chance to use it.”

Yoo Seongil tilted his cup and drank the yakdan as if drinking premium tea. The fishy herb smell felt especially nauseating today.

A few days ago, Yoo Siwoon had lost his mind and said all sorts of things while excitedly rubbing himself against Eunseong’s body. He didn’t remember saying such things, but Eunseong said he did.

Eunseong said that Yoo Siwoon had said he wanted to impregnate him. Yoo Siwoon only remembered pressing his body against Eunseong’s, becoming aroused, and breathing heavily. Though Eunseong’s intense body heat still felt vivid on his skin, he truly had no memory of saying such things.

Did I really say that?

Is that my unconscious desire?

Yoo Siwoon rubbed his rough face with his hand. Just facing Yoo Seongil was exhausting, and he felt like going crazy with thoughts of Eunseong that wouldn’t leave his mind.

Yoo Siwoon and Eunseong had spent days accomplishing nothing, being awkward yet overly conscious of each other, like a newlywed couple who had failed their first night.

Yoo Seongil asked the dazed Yoo Siwoon:

“You really won’t drink it?”

“I’ll pass.”

“This is why I like our Siwoon. Obedient, doesn’t cross lines, knows his place.”

“…”

Yoo Seongil didn’t press further and drank the tea himself. Yoo Siwoon deliberately didn’t avoid Yoo Seongil’s gaze that was fixed on him.

He had done nothing wrong. Seo Eunseong had been under Yoo Siwoon’s protection since he first saw him over ten years ago when he was young, and though unintended, he was becoming more and more perfectly Yoo Siwoon’s.

Yoo Seongil, who had been staring intently at Yoo Siwoon, exhaled with disappointment and put down his teacup.

“You don’t seem to know. Father made you the CEO of Seongha Momentum to work. I like that Siwoon knows his place, but lately, I’m not happy with how you’re working. Should I report this to Father or not? Sigh.”

“What…”

Yoo Seongil picked up an envelope on the table and tossed it in front of him. Yoo Siwoon was already aware of the envelope’s existence. He knew well what was inside. It was the envelope he had given to Chairman Yoo’s personal secretary during their last secret meeting.

Documents detailing Seongha’s corruption that should never be revealed spilled out of the envelope. It included improprieties that would immediately restrict the Yoo family’s movements.

Yoo Siwoon pretended to be surprised at the contents. He found himself utterly despicable.

“Where did this come from?”

“You’re asking me that? Why are you asking me where it came from? You should know. Are you watching someone else’s house fire?”

“…”

Uncertain whether Yoo Seongil was asking knowing the answer or not, Yoo Siwoon kept his mouth shut. He might already know the source and be testing Yoo Siwoon. Yoo Siwoon was known for being taciturn even normally. When he remained silent, others would explain to him what situation he was in, and Yoo Seongil was no exception.

“Yoo Oseon was trying to meet a prosecutor with this.”

“…”

Fortunately, Yoo Seongil didn’t know that Yoo Siwoon was behind this plot.

“There’s this crazy bastard at the Central District Prosecutors’ Office. He was going to give this to him? It was probably intended to do something to me, right? Does he want to become Chairman? Why would Oseon dream such a ridiculous dream?”

“President Yoo Oseon?”