Moon's Labyrinths

“What?”

Jungmyun was taken aback .

“I said I don’t want it . ”

Sungyoon repeated himself in a calm manner . The scout looked into his eyes . The eyes staring back at him looked like they were made out of glass .

However, Jungmyun re-centered his mind . As a scout, he had met all kinds of people . Of course, he had also met truly trash people over the course of his career . In comparison to them, Sungyoon’s cold and brusque manner was almost cute .

He was that much of a pro .

‘Is he playing hard to get? Or does he really have no intention of signing this contract?’

By the look on Sungyoon’s face, it seemed it was the latter . However, Jungmyun didn’t take Sungyoon’s words as his final answer . It was pretty common for clients to manage their facial expressions to get slightly more advantageous terms on the contract . There was a reason why it was called a poker face .

“May I know the reason?”

Sungyoon didn’t even look at the terms of the contract in front of him as he answered the question .

“I made a contract with my president . ”

“If you are worried about the contract you signed first, you don’t need to ponder on it . It doesn’t matter what clauses were added . I’ll be sure to break all of it . Of course, you won’t suffer any negative consequences from it . ”

Jungmyun’s words were overflowing with confidence . Small companies like Jimin’s company could be bullied by them, and he was working with this underlying belief .

He was trying to change Sungyoon’s mind, so he wanted to make his company look appealing . However, Sungyoon had experienced losing everything when a large corporation had come at him with the same attitude . Jungmyun’s tactic backfired .

Sungyoon pressed down on the urge to cuss at this man .

“My president picked me up when I was struggling . I have no thoughts of leaving her . Please leave!”

Sungyoon gave his final decision, but Jungmyung was like a persistent door-to-door salesman . He continued to solicit Sungyoon .

“If your answer is rooted in a feeling of affection or indebtedness, it is all the more reason to move to a new company . This industry is strictly run on a business relationship . Your president picked you when she saw Mr . Sungyoon’s abilities . Even if you feel indebted, such emotions will only cause you harm in the long run . I’m sorry to say this, but if feelings of affection come into a business relationship, it never ends well . ”

However, Sungyoon wasn’t showing an ounce of interest in his words . Jungmyun became a bit discouraged .

“Life isn’t all about affection or indebtedness . From what I learned in life, such emotions aren’t as sacred as the world makes them out to be . ”

Sungyoon’s eyes twitched a little bit .

Life! That word got on his nerves .

The man in front of him looked to be of the same age as him . He might even be a bit younger than Sungyoon . However, Sungyoon didn’t think the man in front of him had undergone through the same degree of hardship as him . From the vibe he gave off, this man had lived the life of an elite .

He had walked a perfectly paved road in life, yet he wanted to lecture Sungyoon about life .

It was laughable . He almost snorted in derision .

Sungyoon pushed the documents and the business card toward Jungmyun .

“Please leave . ”

“Mr . Sungyoon?”

“Please leave . ”

Sungyoon told this oblivious human being to leave .

* * *

A red foreign car drove into Sungyoon’s apartment complex . The eyes of the nearby residents were drawn to the foreign car . This was an apartment complex occupied by ordinary people, so an expensive foreign car would naturally draw their gazes .

Click!

The door to the car opened, and a person got off . The interest from the surrounding people intensified as a blonde beauty emerged from the car . She was more beautiful than most of the women in movies . She looked glamorous, and there was an inner radiance to her . People became entranced by her . There was something about this woman that made one develop a deep-seated fondness towards her .

However, the blonde beauty was deeply worried at that moment .

‘I can’t believe Jimin is doing this!’

Chelsea had borrowed Jimin’s car to come here .

The previous day, Jimin had pretty much fled from Sungyoon’s house . She had locked herself in her room . Usually, Jimin got up at 6 AM in order to get ready for work, and would be out of the house by 7:30 AM . She lived an almost mechanical life, so the fact that she was breaking her schedule was a big deal .

Jimin had expected scouts to offer contracts to Sungyoon, but she had underestimated the shock she would feel .

‘Mr . Sungyoon is a problem too!’

He saw her leave like that, yet he hadn’t called her . Wasn’t it his duty to call and inquire after Jimin? The fact that he hadn’t contacted her made Jimin all the more afraid .

A day had passed . He would have made his decision . He would have either accepted or declined the scout’s offer .

Chelsea quickly headed toward Sungyoon’s house .

Ding dong!

She pressed the doorbell . She didn’t hide her displeasure as she crossed her arms . She waited for him to answer the door .

The front door opened immediately . If she saw Sungyoon’s face, she would give him a piece of her mind . However, Chelsea quickly relaxed her face .

“Unni!”

Shinhae had come out to greet Chelsea .

Even if she was in a bad mood, she couldn’t show such an expression in front of Shinhae . Shinhae glommed on to her leg . Chelsea lightly petted her head as she asked the question .

“Hello, Shinhae! Is your dad home?”

“Yes, he is!”

Shinhae called out to her father as she ran into the house . Chelsea followed after her and entered through the front door .

The first thing that greeted Chelsea was a sweet and fragrant smell . Chelsea liked sweet things, so her nose reflexively twitched .

“You are here, Ms . Chelsea?”

Sungyoon had come out . He looked like his normal self . In contrast to him, Chelsea and Jimin had stayed up all night in worry and fear . Chelsea felt anger rise when she saw no change in the man .

“Unni! Unni!”

This time she really was going to let her discontentment be known to him, but her attempt at giving him a piece of her mind was foiled once again . Shinhae was hovering around her .

The child pointed towards the oven .

“We are making cookies!”

It seemed that was the source of the sweet and fragrant smell filling the house .

For now, she pressed down on her grievance . She went to the front of the oven with the little girl, and she listened to her enthusiastic ramblings . Shinhae didn’t even pause as she continued to speak . However, her high spirits became a bit dampened in the next moment .

“Hey, Shinhae! Unni has to go have a little talk with your dad . I’ll be back . ”

“Yes!”

Fortunately, it didn’t hurt the feelings of the child . There was great anticipation in Shinhae’s eyes as she refused to move away from the oven . Chelsea left her and headed towards the master bedroom, where Sungyoon was present .

“What’s wrong?”

Sungyoon had his usual expression on his face as he asked the question . Chelsea had calmed down significantly while she played with Shinhae, so her voice remained relatively normal .

“You were scouted yesterday, right?”

“Yes!”

“... what do you plan to do?”

She felt nervous . Jimin’s future changed depending on how he answered this question . She gulped .

“I’m not going . ”

It was as if Chelsea had become nervous for nothing . There was no excitement or disappointment in Sungyoon’s voice as he spoke in a calm manner . Chelsea was like a suspect waiting for a verdict . She had been staring at Sungyoon’s mouth, and the tension dissipated in an instant .

“What’s wrong?”

When her nervousness went away, her body became awash with exhaustion . Unlike the relieved Chelsea, Sungyoon’s expression didn’t change . In fact, he looked at Chelsea as if she was acting oddly, and even asked if she was alright .

She wanted to pinch his expressionless face hard, but Chelsea barely held herself back . However, a funny thought came to her mind . In the past, she had really hated the idea of Jimin continuing to run her company . But now, she was panicking at the thought of Sungyoon quitting Jimin’s company .

“If you made the decision, you should have contacted us . We were worried . ”

“Worried?”

“Yes . I was worried you would accept the offer and move to a different company . Jimin was also worried . ”

Sungyoon thought for a brief moment .

“I see . I didn’t think this through . I thought I only needed to reaffirm my commitment to the company a little bit on my next trip to her office . ”

“You should have told us as soon as possible . Jimin is especially worried right now . ”

She was beyond worry . She was in a state of shock, and she had basically locked herself in her room . Of course, Chelsea didn’t reveal this to Sungyoon .

Sungyoon became a bit surprised .

“The president is cool-headed . I thought she would be making her next plans in an objective manner . ”

Sungyoon had seen Jimin laugh and play with Shinhae, but she wasn’t usually like that . Normally, she was a cold and determined woman . He never expected her to be so worried over a scout .

Chelsea shut her mouth . Jimin wasn’t as strong as Sungyoon thought . Her surface was covered with a shield of ice, but there was a brittle woman inside . She wanted to immediately fix the image he had of Jimin, but she would probably be overstepping her bounds .

“Still, you should contact her . ”

In the end, Chelsea shut her mouth . She didn’t talk about Jimin’s true self .

“Understood!”

Sungyoon picked up his handphone .

Chelsea stood up . She planned on giving him space, so he could talk to Jimin . She planned on using that time to play with Shinhae .

However, it seemed Chelsea had taken the man named Sungyoon too lightly .

Sungyoon fiddled with his handphone . His fingers awkwardly moved as he tapped at the display, then he put his handphone down .

“You aren’t going to contact her?”

Chelsea had been about to leave the room . She sounded puzzled as she asked the question .

“I already did . ”

Sungyoon showed her the display of his handphone . A familiar SNS app was open on the phone .

“... you sent an SNS?”

“Yes . ”

He stood tall as he said this . Chelsea had to close her mouth . She once again had this thought, but the person named Woo Sungyoon was a tough nut to crack .

In the end, Chelsea decided not to talk about the scout anymore . He did contact Jimin, so she no longer had to be worried about her .

When things were starting to wrap up, Chelsea became curious about something .

“So why did you turn down the offer from the scout? In terms of benefits, it must have been much better than what Jimin had offered . ”

“I have no idea what the benefits are . I didn’t look at it in the first place . ”

Chelsea became a bit surprised at his words .

“You didn’t even look at it? Why?”

Sungyoon had a small frown on his face . It seemed he was a bit annoyed at Chelsea being too nosy . However, he couldn’t get the shameless researcher to drop the subject .

“I felt a debt to her . But above all else, I made a contract with the president . ”

“... is that all?”

“Yes, that is all . ”

Sometimes saying one short sentence was far better than a hundred words of nothing . He was able to clearly express his true feelings .

Chelsea looked at him with an odd look in her eyes . Sungyoon just walked past her . He walked toward his daughter, who was waiting for her cookies to finish .

* * *

He was having a hard time keeping his heavy shoulders up today . It was as if he was carrying all the world’s pain, hardship, grief, and sadness on his shoulders . It felt as if a heavy weight was pressing down on his chest .

“Whew!”

He let out a sigh . He already sighed a couple thousand times, yet it just made him feel more frustrated . His worries weren’t showing any signs of disappearing .

The man named Kim Soobin went into a high-rise building in Gangnam . In the past several years, this building had allowed him to walk around with pride . It was the building owned by the preeminent conglomerate that he was contracted to . However, the building felt oppressive today . It was stressing him out . His feet didn’t want to move . He had to practically drag his feet forward as he continued to move .

He went past a familiar lobby . He took the elevator and pressed the floor he wanted to go to, and when the elevator opened its door, he walked towards the room he wanted to visit .

He gulped once again, and then, he opened the door .

“Welcome, Mr . Kim Soobin . ”

The person who would inform him about his future was inside this room .