Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Scrap-Picking Kids (3)
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There's a saying that parents are a child's whole world.
I'd only seen the siblings' mother as a drunken leech who stole money from her own kids.
" I wish Mom would go back to being her old, gentle self."
But even someone like that trash...
To the siblings, she was irreplaceable family.
" I miss the mom who used to bake cakes from scratch starting at dawn on our birthdays."
Memories I knew nothing about, ones they shared together.
" I miss the Christmases when she'd secretly dress up as Santa and leave presents by our bedsides."
Memories they could cherish forever.
" I wish we could go back to those summers when we'd head to the beach together, and she'd make spicy fish stew with the fish we caught ourselves."
Precious gems of memories, tucked deep in their hearts, ones even time couldn't erase—the ones she'd created for them.
" I want to see the mom who would smile and hug us when my little brother and I ran to her room, scared of the thunder."
Tears welled up in Ji-young's big eyes. With a blink, they spilled down her cheeks in fat drops.
" If I could have one wish, I'd turn back time to the days before Mom quit her job."
Since I understood her feelings now, I released the hypnosis.
She flushed red, embarrassed at having cried in front of a man like me, flustered and at a loss.
"Uh, C-C-Cafe Owner? S-S-Sorry! I don't know what came over me..."
" No, it's fine. Thank you for being honest with me."
"Um... about the job, just until today..."
" Didn't I tell you? I'll take care of everything."
With the hypnosis lifted, the girl no longer believed my words.
Of course. Wishing to turn back time was an impossible dream, so it was natural she wouldn't buy it.
" Come on, shall we pray?"
" P-Pray? "
But I could make it happen. I had their resumes with their home address, so I could visit their mother and hypnotize her anytime.
The issue was that a sudden change in her behavior would raise suspicions, so I needed to create some plausible trigger, even if just for show.
" Yeah. Pray. I believe in a god who grants wishes if you pray earnestly enough."
" ...Cafe Owner? "
Her skeptical gaze grew even wider.
What could I do? An ability to instantly change people couldn't be explained away as mere connections.
So, blaming it on a god who answered prayers was the best way to ease her doubts, even a little.
" Come on, it doesn't cost anything. Just try it once. Cup your hands like this..."
" ...Okay."
" Pray fervently in your heart to the god."
" But what god is it? Jesus? Buddha? "
I hadn't thought of that.
Never expected her to ask for the name.
" ...Novellia? "
" Novellia? "
It just popped out randomly when put on the spot.
What did the name matter? I was the one making it real.
" Alright, let's pray."
Ji-young closed her eyes and prayed, still eyeing me with deep suspicion.
I watched quietly until the right moment, then spoke up.
" Your wish will come true soon."
" ...Cafe Owner, you're not going to try and get us to join some cult or buy weird stuff, are you? "
What a sharp kid.
" Nothing like that."
I smiled and headed outside with Ji-young. The staff looked at her with worried faces, and a few were patting Ji-hwan's back to comfort him.
" Sis! "
His eyes were red—he must have been crying.
Ji-young stroked the head of Ji-hwan, who came toddling over like a hamster, and smiled as if nothing was wrong.
" Everything's gonna be okay, so don't worry."
Even though she'd been crying her eyes out herself.
Sisters really were something else.
" Cafe Owner, we'll head out now! "
" Take care going home."
After sending the staff off, I was alone in the cafe.
I checked the address on the kids' resumes.
" Hmm, should I sneak in? Or call her out? "
I wanted to fix things without the siblings finding out.
As I pondered while closing up and stepping outside, someone was waiting for me.
" Hehe, Cafe Owner? "
It was the siblings' mother.
She'd rushed off earlier, but now here she was, trembling as she pleaded with me earnestly.
" Um, about the kids' pay? Could they maybe get it now? "
Now that I knew her situation, I realized she was begging for booze money.
" Perfect timing."
I'd never expected an opportunity like this to fall right into my lap.
I extended my hand to her.
" Let's talk."
＊＊＊
" Ngh... "
Yoo Si-yeon, the single mother of Yoo Ji-hwan and Yoo Ji-young.
She had a long dream.
" I used to be quite the success story myself."
Even though she lacked the talent to become a Hunter as an Awakener.
It was a dream where she spilled every detail of her glory days to someone—back when she'd studied hard, landed a job at a major corporation, and climbed the elite track as a promising young talent.
" Once life got comfortable, the greed kicked in."
She wanted a family she could be proud of, nothing to envy in others.
But she had no romantic prospects, and she figured someone like her would qualify for single-mom benefits anyway, so she applied right away.
" And then I had the kids."
Around the time she became a young manager, her single-mom application was approved, and she got pregnant with Ji-young.
She had her first child, then rose to section chief and had her second, Ji-hwan.
" Those were happy times."
Raising kids was tough, but she hired a nanny and balanced work and home life perfectly.
She wanted to be a great parent to her fast-growing children, always showing them her proud, cool side.
" That's why, when I discovered my boss's corruption, I couldn't just let it slide."
No one would have blamed her for looking the other way.
It was corruption starting from the executive level—no need to poke that hornet's nest.
But her naive sense of justice, wanting to be upright for her kids' sake, reared its head, turning her into a whistleblower.
" It was anonymous. Or so I thought..."
Anonymity didn't hold. Upper management found out instantly that she'd blown the whistle, and they tormented her with petty tactics like reassigning her to limbo.
" My desk was gone. When I tracked it down, it was next to the bathroom. You know that misery? Sitting there all day with no work, just... existing? "
She endured it. For her kids, she could take any humiliation.
" Just once. Just one time, I got up during work hours for the bathroom."
The company used that as an excuse, claiming gross negligence, and fired her.
She didn't break. She could always find another job—her resume was solid.
" I never dreamed the whistleblower label would haunt me forever."
No company linked to her old megacorp would hire her.
She lowered her standards to small firms, but the megacorp meddled every time, pressuring them until they couldn't keep her and let her go.
" In the end, all I could do was manual labor."
But day labor wasn't easy for someone who'd spent her life at a desk.
In a worksite dominated by Reinforcement-skill Awakeners, she was dead weight, constantly chewed out, her pride chipping away bit by bit.
" That's when I started drinking."
To an elite like her, pride was everything—her lifeblood.
As it eroded, she turned to booze to escape reality.
But the more she drank, the more it drank her.
" Eventually, I couldn't face the kids seeing their pathetic mom sober."
Drunk, she forgot the shame.
But sober, she hated the drunkard she'd become, hated showing it to her children.
So she drank again.
Drinking daily cost her day labor gigs. She picked fights, swung fists, burned through her savings on settlements.
" I knew I shouldn't take it from the kids... I knew, but..."
Without booze, she couldn't face reality.
She stole from her hardworking kids—kids paying back the life she'd given them—making excuses about her own failures.
It shamed her, but so what?
That money bought booze that let her forget the humiliation and feel happy again.
" But why am I telling you all this? "
At that moment.
" Ngh... "
Yoo Si-yeon woke up. A headache unlike her usual hangovers plagued her briefly.
" B-Booze... "
She'd sought alcohol to forget reality again.
[You no longer crave alcohol.]
" Ngh... "
For some reason, she didn't want any.
" I need to drink... "
Still, her severe addiction drove her to lick the dew-like remnants from a bottle rolling in the corner, but her body rejected it.
[If you drink alcohol, you'll vomit it all up.]
" Blegh! "
Her body, obeying the hypnosis, refused alcohol now.
" Haa, haa... Why is this happening all of a sudden? "
Thirst made her hands shake violently. She fought it, scrounging for more booze, but the scattered bottles were empty.
" Ugh... Ji-young! Ji-hwan! "
She called her kids' names and staggered to their room.
They lived in a tiny flop now, sharing one room.
" Kids... "
Maybe they had advance pay from the cafe?
Or some emergency cash stashed away?
As she moved to wake her sleeping children for booze money.
[When you see your children, memories of happy times with them flood back.]
She couldn't bring herself to wake them.
" ... "
Gazing at her peacefully sleeping kids, memories surfaced of them all in bed together.
Her son clinging to her side, whispering "I love you."
Her daughter shyly kissing her cheek before bed.
" ... "
Come to think of it, those days were happy.
Was it the dream? Old memories kept resurfacing.
[You strive to be a good parent.]
" Ha, me and my... "
They say dwelling on memories makes you old.
Today, they kept nagging at her, and she headed to the kitchen.
" What did the kids like to eat? "
Even there, happy memories with them bubbled up.
Not this rundown flop, but their old apartment days.
Her kids' joyful smiles as they devoured her cooking.
" Been a while—let's make kimchi stew. Is there any kimchi left? "
Yoo Si-yeon rolled up her sleeves.
Her hands still trembled from alcohol withdrawal.
" ...Will they like it? "
As a parent.
As a mother, pulled by old memories, nothing could stop her from stepping back onto that path.