Moon's Labyrinths

“You shouldn’t yell out so loudly in this place . It isn’t dignified . ”

The name of the lady who had spoken was Hahn Aiin . She had long hair, and a solemn air surrounded her . The bubbly bobbed-hair woman was named Yoo Hweeyoung, whom Hahn Aiin was scolding .

“So what? This place is noisy anyways . Also, I wasn’t that loud . ”

“It was loud enough . The fact that others are loud doesn’t give you the right to be loud also . ”

Suddenly, the two women started a light verbal sparring . Jimin let out a bitter laughter .

‘The two of them haven’t changed at all . ’

They bickered with each other, but it looked like playful banter between close friends . Even though both women had opposite personalities, they didn’t clash . They supplemented each other’s shortcomings, and they had looked after Jimin’s father Jungbum in the past . They were the ideal mothers in her mind . They were completely different from her real mother . She thought about these two step mothers that were standing in front of her .

‘If these two were my real mothers . . . ’

It was a sentiment she had felt all through her childhood . This feeling once again quietly washed over her like a rising tide . At that moment, she felt a small hand tug at her clothes .

“Huh?”

Jimin turned towards the direction where her clothes were being tugged . Shinhae looked a bit shy as she looked toward Hweeyoung and Aiin . The two of them also picked up on Shinhae’s presence, and they turned their gaze towards the child .

“What’s wrong, Shinhae?”

“Unni . ”

Shinhae pointed towards the two ladies .

“These aj—”

Suddenly, Shinhae closed her mouth . She placed her hand over her mouth . She was deep in thought as she directed her gaze towards Jimin, who looked at her in puzzlement .

‘Unni hated it when I called her ajumma, right?’

She was about to ask who these ajummas were . However, she remembered the incident where Jimin had really hated being called ajumma . Shinhae once again turned towards the two ladies . They looked a bit older, but they were very pretty . They were on that borderline of being called ajumma or unni, and for Shinhae, it was an ambiguous situation .

But she firmed her resolve as she opened her mouth .

“Who are these unni?”

Shinhae made the best possible choice by choosing that word .

Hweeyoung and Aiin looked surprised . Shinhae wondered if she had chosen wrong, and she shrank back a little bit . Soon, Shinhae’s body was rocked .

“Kyaaa! What the heck? Unni? Did you just call me unni?”

Hweeyoung suddenly hugged Shinhae . She didn’t care if Shinhae had spaghetti sauce around her lips and started to rub her face against the child’s cheek . The little girl did not know what was going on . If she were a cartoon character, her eyes would have been spinning at this moment .

“Jimin! Who is this kid? I don’t know who she is, but her parents taught her well!”

Jimin could only let out an awkward laughter . Age was a topic that had a profound effect on women . It was especially true that after a certain age, women became really happy when one told them they looked young . Hweeyong and Aiin were starting to feel their age, and the feeling of getting old was coming on stronger in recent days . That was why Shinhae’s words were sweeter than honey to them .

‘This is the result of me reinforcing the word unni to her . ’

Jimin correctly guessed Shinhae’s inner thoughts . However, she felt a complicated emotion . She had put in a lot of effort so she could hear the term unni from Shinhae . But now she was also lumped in with these women .

“Look! Isn’t this kid really cute?”

Hweeyoung showed Shinhae to Aiin . The child was being swung around by Hweeyoung like a doll, and Aiin could see that the girl was overwhelmed . Aiin let out a sigh, and she lightly slapped Hweeyoung’s hand .

“You are causing a lot of trouble for the little girl . ”

“Oh my! Really?”

Finally, Hweeyoung let go of Shinhae . Shinhae shook her head a couple times to recover her senses, and then she immediately jumped down from the chair . She ran to Jimin’s side . She hid behind Jimin as she warily watched Hweeyoung .

“Look what you did . ”

Hweeyoung could not respond to Aiin’s admonition . She just smacked her lips .

“You lose all control when someone talks about your age . What kind of clothes are you wearing? Do you think you are in your 20s?”

Hweeyoung’s clothes were clearly something the younger generation commonly wore . However, it wasn’t as indecent as Aiin made it out to be . She looked vivacious, yet she didn’t look cheap . At the end of the day, she wore clothes that suited her . She still retained most of her beauty from her youth, so these clothes looked very good on her .

“What is wrong about a woman that is sensitive to her age? Also, you have to work harder as you get older . If not, you’ll age faster . If I wore drab clothes like you, I’ll look much older . ”

Hweeyoung wiped away the spaghetti sauce on her cheek, and she shot some sharp words towards Aiin .

At a glance, one could see that Aiin was wearing conservative clothes . Her clothes were unadorned and modest . However, this didn’t mean her clothes were bland . Her individual fashion style shone through the conservative clothes . These types of clothes looked great for her since she had an elegant look .

In the end, the verbal sparring started again . Jimin had experienced this countless times, so she stopped paying attention to it . They fought like cats, but they always made up . In the end, they laughed with each other as if the argument never happened . They shared a husband, so they were supposed to be in competition . They could be called rivals in love, but the two women had overcome that . They had become close friends, and they built up their friendship over time . In some ways, their bickering was an expression of familial love .

While Jimin waited for the light verbal sparring to die down, she tried to soothe Shinhae . Jimin smiled as she wiped away the sauce around Shinhae’s lips . She explained that the two women weren’t scary people . Shinhae had been specially suspicious of Hweeyoung . However, she accepted Jimin’s explanation and returned to her seat .

“Who’s kid is this?”

Hweeyoung stealthily sat next to Shinhae, and her eyes shone .

“She isn’t your daughter, right?”

There was a playful light in Hweeyoung’s eyes . She knew it wasn’t true, yet she knew she had found a way to tease Jimin .

Aiin looked at Hweeyoung as if she was pathetic . She sat between Jimin and Hweeyoung, and she looked on with question in her eyes .

“She’s not . She is the daughter of someone that was hired by my company . ”

“Company?”

Hweeyoung’s face stiffened a little bit, and the light in Aiin’s eyes also subsided a little bit .

“Are you still doing that?”

“Yes . ”

Jimin looked away as she answered Aiin’s question .

She really respected these two women, but she didn’t like talking about this topic with them . The two women were the main opponents of her plan to create a company and find Jungbum .

In the beginning, Jimin couldn’t believe it . She wondered if these two women were like her mother . It made her wonder if they married her father for his money . However, as time passed, her company wasn’t going as well as she hoped . But even though these two women weren’t related to her by blood, they continued to pour unending love towards her . It made her realize that she had been wrong .

They truly were worried only for her .

“It’s fine . This is the last one . ”

This was why Jimin no longer wanted them to worry . She told them about her decision .

“Last?”

Hweeyoung asked in surprise .

“Yes . I came to the conclusion that my work is useless, and I’m starting to run out of money . ”

Finally...

She was barely able to squeeze out the words that she had accepted not too long ago .

Hweeyoung and Aiin stared into Jimin’s eyes . It was as if they were searching her soul . Jimin’s shoulders hunched a little bit . It was like the times in her childhood when she did something wrong . She remembered them scolding her in this fashion . It didn’t matter how old one was . Most children became nervous under the scrutiny of their mother . It was a natural reaction .

“Alright . If that’s your choice, I’m glad to hear it . ”

Hweeyoung no longer scrutinized Jimin, but it didn’t sound like Hweeyoung had accepted her answer . In fact, the atmosphere around them became heavier .

“Is that what you really want?”

This time the question came from the other side . Aiin was looking at Jimin with calm eyes, but her daughter had shut her mouth . The silence continued for a bit .

“Don’t be mean to unni!”

A very cute voice broke the silence . Three pairs of eyes simultaneously landed on Shinhae . Shinhae had balled up her hands into cute fists, and she was glaring at Hweeyoung and Aiin . A mere 5 year old was glaring at them . Instead of it being scary, her glare looked really cute .

“Jeez! Jimin’s bodyguard is really scary . ”

Hweeyoung’s shoulders shook from laughter, and Aiin also let out a small laugh .

Jimin silently held Shinhae’s hand . Her small hand was warmer than ever before to Jimin .

“I’m fine, Shinhae . ”

Shihae’s wide eyes looked at Jimin .

“Are you ok? Aren’t these ajummas being mean to unni?”

“A . . . ajum...!”

Hweeyoung’s mouth fell open . In a flash, she had fallen in class from unni to ajumma . Hweeyoung read Shinhae’s body language, and she realized that Shinhae was showing signs of never using the term unni for them .

“If you can’t really accept his death, you can continue your work . If you really are out of money, we’ll support you . ”

Jimin turned to look at Aiin . Aiin’s words had been really unexpected . However, she hadn’t misheard . At Aiin’s words, Hweeyoung nodded her head in agreement .

“Didn’t both of you oppose my work of finding father?”

“We opposed it . ”

Hweeyoung spoke .

“It was obvious that you’ll go through much hardship . ”

It was a thorny path . The moon was teeming with monsters, so there was no way it would be easy to find a missing person there .

“At the time, you hadn’t accepted his death, and we weren’t showing any signs of looking for him . In your eyes, you probably thought us to be cold . However, your father had accepted the incredible risk that came with his work . There was an understanding that he might never come back to us, and we were ready for it . He told us to consider him dead if he didn’t come back for a long time . ”

Jimin could hear sadness in Hweeyoung’s words .

“Your younger siblings are Connectors . They’ve experienced the danger of being a Connector . They felt it to their bones . This was why they were able to easily accept your father’s death . That is why all of us tried to stop you . We didn’t want you to live under the shadow of his death . We hated the idea of it crushing you . ”

“... so why are you offering money after so long a time?”

Jimin understood the feelings of her mothers now . She could understand the feelings of her siblings . However, she couldn’t stop it . A little bit of animosity entered into her voice .

“We never expected you to look for him for so long . ”

The one to answer was Aiin .

“You were persistent, and you didn’t stop looking for him for the past couple years . This might sound ironic, but we felt very thankful towards you . If you thought we were watching your venture with discontentment, you were mistaken . ”

Aiin let out a gentle smile as she spoke to Jimin .

“There is no way we could hate a child that is working so hard to find the remnants of our husband . ”

At that moment, Aiin’s face was filled with love towards her husband, and it overflowed with affection towards Jimin . It was the same for Hweeyoung . The animosity, which had taken hold in the corner of her heart, melted away when she heard Aiin’s words .

“That is why you should ask for support from us anytime you need it . We can’t fund everything, but we can help you up to a point . You should continue your work until you are satisfied . ”

“... thank you very much, mother . ”

She was so thankful for their care and affection . Jimin subconsciously lowered her head .

“However, I’m fine . Money is a problem, but in truth, I’m really tired . I can’t hold on to this for the rest of my life . ”

“Is that so?”

The two of them didn’t say anything . They didn’t praise her or berate her . They did nothing . They silently listened to what Jimin had to say .

“See? You saw us make up with Jimin unni . Can you call me unni again?”

It seemed Hweeyoung was trying to lighten the mood by speaking to Shinhae . Aiin, who had been anxious, facepalmed at Hweeyoung’s antics . Jimin couldn’t hold back a bitter laughter .

Shinhae looked back and forth between Hweeyoung and Jimin .

“Did you guys make up?”

“Yes . We made up! We made up!”

“You won’t be mean to unni again?”

“Yes, yes! We won’t be mean!”

Shinhae once again looked towards Jimin . Jimin gave a small nod .

“Yes . Ok, unni . ”

“Kyaaaaa!”

As soon as she was called unni, Hweeyoung hugged Shinhae . The little body of the child was shaken like a rag doll in Hweeyoung’s embrace .

“Stop it! You are embarrassing me!”

In the end, Aiin slapped Hweeyoung’s back hard with the palm of her hand .