Moon's Labyrinths

Jimin was so baffled by the woman’s words that her head started to hurt. She never expected such words to come out of that woman’s mouth.

“… did… you… just… say manners?”

She was so angry that she was having a hard time talking. Her breathing was rough. She desperately tried to find words. It was as if she was grinding out her words. She wished this damn woman could feel her anger, and she would just fuck off. However, Ahjung didn’t care about others. She was tactless. If she was tactful, she wouldn’t have been able to live such a shameless life until now.

“Manners! It seems you didn’t learn well from those women! This is why a stepmother is only a stepmother! A stepmother can’t hold a candle to the real mother! It is his fault too! He needlessly died so early, and he made you suffer...!”

Bam!

A loud sound rang out in the room. Ahjung shut her mouth. Jimin had thrown her nameplate. It brushed by Ahjung’s head before rolling to the floor.

“Let me say it again…….”

Jimin chewed on her lips as she spat out her words. She was glaring so hard that her eyes looked like they were about to pop out.

“If you insult them once again, I won’t hold back.”

It was as if all the yelling before had been a lie. Jimin’s voice was low, but anger had permeated throughout her voice. The amount of anger couldn’t be compared to her earlier shouts.

This time Ahjung couldn’t come up with a reply. At this rate, Jimin might murder her if she took the wrong step.

Click!

“What’s going on!”

Sungyoon opened the door, and he entered the office. He didn’t want to get in between other people’s fight, so he had been standing outside the door. He quickly came into the office when he heard the loud noise ring out from inside the office.

When Sungyoon entered, Ahjung saw an opportunity. She quickly walked towards the door. It seemed she planned on giving up for the day. Since a third party had entered the room, Jimin wouldn’t try to kill her. Still, Ahjung was worried about being slapped by Jimin. This didn’t mean Ahjung retreated without getting the last word in.

“You should think about this! I made this match for you! I’ll schedule a date, so you better come when the time comes!”

“Don’t make me laugh!”

Ajhung’s proposal was not even worth a thought. Jimin turned her down. Ahjung paused at the doorway to glare at Jimin, and Jimin glared back at her. In the end, Ahjung snorted as she quickly exited the office.

“Hah-ah~!”

Tuhl-suhk!

Jimin fell into her chair. Her face looked really gaunt.

“Welcome, Mr. Sungyoon. I showed you an ugly side of me.”

“Is she your mother?”

He picked up the nameplate near his feet, and he put it back on top of her desk. Sungyoon queried her as he looked at the door where Ahjung had left.

“Sometimes, giving birth to a child doesn’t make you a mother.”

“I agree.”

Jimin intently looked at Sungyoon when he chimed in with supportive words. Sungyoon looked down at Jimin as if he was puzzled by her response.

‘Now that I think about it, this man’s wife was quite the gold digger too.’

Maybe, this was why Jimin was treating Shinhae as if she was special. She saw herself within Shinhae. As she thought about the previous investigation into Sungyoon’s life, she covered her face with one hand. It was said that misery loves company. The fact that she felt interested in him, because of the way he had reacted to this situation was hilarious. It was so hilarious that she felt like she was losing her mind.

Sungyoon didn’t rush her and waited for Jimin to calm herself. He didn’t ask any questions, and neither did he offer any words of consolation. He just stood there in silence. Jimin preferred it over empty platitudes and fake sympathy. He was hurt in a similar way as she was. It was enough that he could relate to her.

“She wants me to marry.”

Maybe, this was the reason why she spoke. She spoke about something unnecessary.

“Marriage…?”

“That’s right.”

Sungyoon thought for a brief moment. He didn’t know what kind of relationship Jimin had with her mother. However, the earlier spectacle made it obvious that they had a poor relationship. It was really bad. It especially seemed most of the hatred came from Jimin’s side.

“I don’t know if I should be saying this, but that woman is like Mr. Sungyoon’s ex-wife.”

Sungyoon’s expression visibly worsened.

“You know she is trash.”

He openly insulted his ex-wife. However, Jimin didn’t disagree with him for using the insult. No, she actually went further than Sungyoon.

“Yes, she is trash. She can’t be recycled. She is the human equivalent of nuclear waste.”

Sungyoon remembered that Ahjung’s voice had reminded him of Miyun. It seemed his instinct had been correct.

“If it is a marriage recommended by that person… It isn’t something that I should congratulate.”

If Miyun appeared in front of him with a prospective marriage partner in mind for Shinhae, he would probably rip her mouth off her face.

“That’s right. She only knows about money. When she married my father, he was a well off 2nd Gen Connector. She married my father for his money.”

As he heard more about Ahjung, it sounded like she was a twin of Miyun.

“She spent my father’s money in foolish ways, and she neglected her family to play around outside. Father always had to remain on the Moon for an extended amount of time, so I was left alone with that woman on Earth by myself. No one could stop her. Well, she did as she liked until my other mothers came into my life.”

‘Other mothers...’

It was an odd turn of phrase, and it stuck out in his mind.

In this era, it was common to see Connectors marry again. It was almost rare to see someone, who didn’t remarry. Traditionally, it was common for rich men to have a second family. Of course, this was all done in secret. However, Connectors were quite liberal about their polygamy. It was an open secret.

Of course, the general public didn’t see it in a favorable light. Any Connectors participating in polygamy were looked down upon. Still, the general public couldn’t openly express their objection against their lifestyle.

Currently, moonstone and oil were the lifeblood of the global economy. The only reason why oil was considered to be an important resource was the fact that not enough moonstones were being excavated. If one took that into account, moonstones were much more important compared to oil. Moonstones could create energy without creating pollution. Unlike other resources, the product created after extracting energy from the moonstone could be used in other helpful ways.

That was the problem. The moonstones were precious, and they were in demand. However, there were a fixed number of Connectors, and they could excavate only so many moonstones.

First Gen Connectors awakened from a population of normal humans. Their parents weren’t Connectors. The probability of a regular human awakening was merely 0.0001%.

The odds of being hit by lightning were around 1 in 600,000. The odds of winning a lottery were 1 in 8,150,000. The odds of becoming a 1st Gen Connector were higher, but not by much. These were poor comparisons, but all the examples were astronomically low in probability. If one put it in perspective, the probability of a normal human awakening as a 1st Gen Connector was shockingly low.

However, this changed if one had a father or a mother as a Connector. In the cases where both parents were Connectors, the probability of the child awakening as a Connector was over 80%. Moreover, the level of power they possessed differed too. When compared to the abilities of the 1st Gen Connectors, the 2nd Gen Connectors had twice the quantity and quality of magical energy. This was the conservative estimate. Some 2nd & 3rd Gen experienced a boost that was dozens or even higher in magnitude. That was why the 2nd and 3rd Gen were treated better than the 1st Gen.

This was the reality, so the government weirdly promoted polygamy amongst the Connectors. The 1st Gen Connectors were much inferior in terms of ability compared to the 2nd and 3rd Gen Connectors, and the probability of a 1st Gen appearing was almost a miraculous event at 0.0001%. This was why it was better to increase the population of the 2nd and 3rd Gen, who were superior in ability.

If one ignored the moral hazards of polygamy, it was a great way of increasing the number of children sired by Connectors.

“Thankfully, my father found out the truth about that woman when my other mothers came into our lives. She was sent packing. Even then, she was unsightly as she tried to extort money from my father.”

It had caused a very big wound to form in Jimin’s young heart.

“She almost used me as if I were a hostage.”

Even if a mother neglected, hit, and cussed out a child, the mother was the whole world to the child. Her father had to leave for the Moon often, so she had to rely on her mother. Of course, her mother had been the world to her too.

However, it ended when her mother callously grabbed her arm. She had screamed at her father to give her money. When that happened, Jimin realized that she was only a means for her mother to extract money from her father. She was merely a tool.

“In the end, my father got fed up. He threw money at her in order for her to give up full custody. My life wasn’t bad afterward. My mothers were very good people. My father doted on me. However, my birth mother started to slowly appear in my life after 10 years. She had been irresponsible with her money. She showed up only after she was broke.”

Jimin suddenly stood up, and she opened the refrigerator in the corner of the room. It seemed she was thirsty. She didn’t even use a cup. She started drinking straight from the bottle. A stream of water fell down her lip, but she didn’t care.

Sssk!

After she moved the bottle away from her mouth, she roughly wiped at her mouth. Normally, she was elegant and cool. However, right now, she was acting out of character. It was proof that her heart was greatly troubled right now.

“She’s been like that ever since. She circles around me like a hawk. She only thinks about ways to squeeze a few bucks out of me. She even had the audacity to show up to my father’s funeral to ask about her share of the inheritance. If not for my other mothers stopping me from doing it, I had almost slapped her that day.”

At that moment, Jimin’s expression indicated that she hadn’t been happy when her mothers had stopped her from hitting Ahjung. She looked aggrieved by the fact that she hadn’t been able to hit her birth mother on that day.

Sungyoon was diligent in listening to Jimin’s words. He wasn’t being sympathetic just because she was his president. He was sympathetic because what Jimin had gone through was surprisingly similar to what Shinhae had gone through. This was a cautionary tale. If he allowed Miyun to do her bullshit, the same thing could happen to Shinhae.

“You must really hate that woman.”

“I hate her. She hated me too early on. Unlike my siblings, I’m not a Connector. She didn’t need me after my father's death, because I couldn’t give her money..”

She had memories of Ahjung staring at her with unhappy eyes in her childhood. At the time, she had spoken these words.

‘You are a worthless piece of trash of a daughter. You couldn't even become a Connector..’

“She had neglected me after I failed to awaken as a 3rd Gen Connector. Why would such a woman start to act like a mother to me now? Why would she recommend marriage to me? Hmmph. What an obnoxious bitch.”

She spoke to herself, but one could hear anger and sadness within her voice.

‘The fact that her child didn’t become a Connector was the sticking point?’

From Sungyoon’s perspective, the woman’s actions were despicable.

Shinhae was Sungyoon’s daughter, but she couldn’t become a 2nd Gen Connector. A child was only born with the potential to become a 2nd Gen Connector if, at the time of conception, one of the parents was already an awakened Connector. However, Shinhae was born before Sungyoon awakened as a Connector. She could technically become a 1st Gen Connector like Sungyoon. But, she would have to overcome the 0.0001% probability to do so. However, she couldn’t become 2nd Gen Connector Woo Shinhae even if she was the child of Connector Woo Sungyoon.

Sungyoon welcomed this truth. In the first place, he had no desire to let Shinhae work in such a dangerous field of work. Sungyoon couldn’t understand Ahjung, who had berated her daughter for not becoming a money-making Connector. He didn’t plan on trying to understand her.

“That woman is really trash. You must have suffered a lot.”

Sungyoon spoke in a low voice. Unlike his usual monotone voice, Sungyoon’s voice was filled with sincerity.

Jimin, who had been fuming, looked up at Sungyoon.