Returner’s Magic Laundry

A woman with a large-brimmed hat topped with an ornately folded ribbon, a bright dress with colorful patterns and a bag decorated with pearls in her hands.

Although it was familiar, it was a strange feeling because he was dressed in clothes that are difficult to find in this town.

Still, she has a plump back look that can't erase the feeling that she's seen it somewhere.

Her thin ankles barely supported her chubby body, giving her the feeling that she was about to fall.

'Where did you see... … .'

She looked back to see if she felt popular at that moment.

When she sees me, she looks at me at first, but she smiles broadly as she puts her glasses on her brim and puts them down.

“Hey, Aunt!”

When I said that she was familiar with her body shape, she was an aunt who looked exactly like my mother's.

“Ah, Annam is right!”

“Yes, it is me!”

“Oh my gosh, I’m not left!”

Her aunt threw her bag and ran to her with her arms outstretched and hugged her.

“Oh my, this bastard’s child. she was living well I was so worried about it that as soon as I got off at the airport, I ran away.”

Her weeping aunt's voice reached her ears.

“Are you from America now?”

It has been a long time since she moved to the United States because her aunt married an American man who had been sent to Korea.

It's been a long time since they stopped coming and going because they couldn't afford each other's expensive airfare and flight time of over 10 hours.

My mother and I occasionally talked on the phone.

When my parents died, my aunt was so ill that she couldn't come even if she wanted to.

“How is your body?”

My aunt had told me she had liver cancer.

Her maternal grandmother also died of liver cancer, so my mother and aunt were particularly concerned about liver health.

Because cancer has a lot of genetic influence.

"Yes? body? It’s a lot better.”

"That's fortunate."

“Don’t worry about me. I am worried about you living alone after losing both your parents.”

Her aunt brought tears to her eyes.

I hugged her again.

"I'm fine."

“By the way, is this your laundromat? The last time I saw it was a small old laundry... … .”

“I made money to expand the laundry.”

"Really? Oh my, what's going on with all this?"

The aunt looked around her laundromat in admiration.

Then Gangnam-young came out.

"welcome. Did you come to drop off your clothes?”

“Oh, Namyoung. This is my aunt. I just arrived from America.”

"Oh, I see. Good morning."

“Auntie, she’s helping out at our laundry for a while.”

“Oh, hello. Thank you. Thank you for helping Annam.”

“No, I am getting more help.”

* * *

I brought her aunt to her second floor home.

“Mom, what are you doing? It must have been difficult for her to get here alone. When I have free time, I will try to visit.”

She said she couldn't drink coffee, so she gave me flower tea.

“What are you coming? rural and far away. I have to get off the plane and drive another four hours.”

“Are Andrew and Jane okay?”

Andrew and Jane were my aunt's sons and daughters, my cousins.

"How are you."

When my mother was alive, Andrew and her aunt would come and stay for a month, but now her aunt's physical condition makes it difficult to fly.

“Can I stay here for a few days?”

"Absolutely. Not for a few days, but for a lifetime.”

Seeing an aunt who looked just like my mother, I desperately wanted her mother more.

Maybe her aunt feels the same way when she sees me, and she continues to have tears in her eyes.

“Hey, poor thing. How did you go so quickly with this?”

“… … I'm fine now."

“Would you like to go to America with me? There are cousins... … .”

“I’m really fine.”

In fact, her only relatives were her aunt.

Her father was the only child, and she had distant relatives, but news had long since ceased.

"okay. If you change your mind, just tell me.”

"Yeah. Get some rest.”

I put her futon in her bedroom so her aunt could lie down.

She said her aunt said she was fine, but she looked unwell.

She didn't seem to be getting better from her condition.

“Yeah, I need to get some rest. It's hard because I've been on a plane for a long time."

“If you had called in advance, I would have met you.”

“You should be able to find out where your phone number went. But you're looking after the laundry, so you're meeting like this."

"Yeah."

I lay her aunt on her bed and try to stand up, but she takes my hand.

“Can you spare some time?”

“Time? Where are you going?”

“Yeah, my house… … So, your maternal grandmother's house is empty. I came here on a whim to sort things out. I want to go there once before I die.”

“Mom, don’t say that.”

“I’m just saying. 'cause I'm fine I'm a little tired right now."

“… … .”

“I got a call from a real estate agent near my grandmother’s house. Who wants to buy the house?”

"Ah yes."

“I haven’t been selling it for a while, but I think I need to organize it now. I can’t keep it in the abandoned house.”

“If you tell me, I can handle it.”

“I just want to visit. Lately, I keep thinking of that house.”

So did I.

During vacation, I was left with my mother-in-law's house to play, so the memories of that time did not go away.

In particular, the memories of playing in the garden right behind my mother-in-law's house often came up in my dreams.

Memories are getting stronger these days.

“I thought I should go too. But I didn’t know that her maternal grandmother’s house was still there.”

“I thought your mom would clean it up, but she probably hasn’t.”

"Yeah. i See. Then take a break today and go together tomorrow.”

It was about a three-hour drive away.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Thank you.”

My aunt was tired, so she fell asleep quickly.

A look at her face showed that she was in poor health.

She must have come this far with the power to die.

Spreading her palms, she summoned the plants of the magical forest.

‘Everyone come out and help.’

Then, plants sprouted from the floor, walls and ceiling of the bedroom, and gradually grew to fill the space.

Auntie seemed to be sleeping in her nature.

A little orange sun shone on her aunt's body, her pure air purged her aunt's lungs, and the healing waters of her plant leaves fell drop by drop into her aunt's mouth. .

Her dark aunt's complexion begins to brighten.

* * *

The next morning, I started her car and waited for her aunt.

Unlike yesterday, my aunt came out with a more slender body.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I took too long.”

"No. You can do it slowly.”

“You know. It takes a long time to prepare for where I am going.”

When her aunt went out to her local market to shop, she would never go out unless she was perfectly dressed.

So she used to fight often with my mother.

By comparison, she said that my mother had no interest in her decorating.

“But why am I in such a good mood today? It’s strange.”

“I think it’s because you slept well.”

"is it? I was tired of meeting, but today I feel really light.”

"That's fortunate."

It was thanks to her magical forest taking care of her aunt.

“Then I will leave now.”

“Yes, yes. let's hurry. It’s exciting to see you going back to her hometown after a long time.”

I also had a lot of anticipation as I was going to my mother-in-law's house after a long time.

How much would it have changed?

Is the backyard still there?

If she hadn't sold her maternal grandmother's house, if she had known she would have gone down and cleaned it at least once.

In fact, she had a lot of work after she returned, and she had completely forgotten about her mother-in-law's house.

“Mom, how many years have you been visiting?”

“Well, has it been 10 years? Every time I come to Seoul, I said I should go once, but every time I didn't. Her parents' ashes were enshrined in an ossuary near Seoul because your mother wanted them to be buried nearby."

“Looking at my aunt, it reminds me a lot of the past.”

“Since I’m getting older, I keep thinking of that house. I want to live in Korea, but my family is in America... … .”

Again, her aunt's eyes turn red.

“If your mother were still alive, your heart wouldn’t be so empty.”

Finally, the aunt sobbed silently.

I opened the car window and let the air in, holding back my tears.

The car drove for about three hours to reach my mother-in-law's house.

My mother's house was located at the far end of the village, so I had to go through the village road to enter.

“Nothing has changed. as it is After all, the countryside is different from the city.”

My aunt opened the car door and took in the air.

“The air is still the same. Coming here, it feels like the pain has completely healed.”

“The air is really nice.”

As I headed to my mother's house, the scent of pine needles grew stronger.(Read more @ hotmtlnovel.xyz)

“I knew that the stronger the scent of pine needles, the closer to my house. The acacia flowers are not in bloom now, but in summer the two scents mixed and vibrated throughout the village.”

“I have many memories of going to the back garden to meet when I come here and playing in the soft pine fields.”

“Hoho, you should have met. When I wake up in the morning, I go to the garden and play, because I haven’t eaten and played all day.”

“I don’t know why either. I liked it so much and it was so comfortable.”

“Once you go, they say they have built a fortress in the garden. They said that the earth was destroyed, and only Dongsan must be protected until the end... … . Whoops. If you go to pick it up for food, don't you scream at me that a mold monster has invaded me?"

At her aunt's words, I could feel something passing by, scratching my head violently for a moment.

Like a thin film that comes off when you buy a scratching lottery ticket and scrape it with a coin, my memory was being peeled off by something.

Earth's destruction, mold... …

Peeking through the cracks, the childhood memories gave me a sense of déjà vu.

“My, did I say that?”

"It did… … oh, oh my! Be careful!”

I looked up at my aunt's sudden scream and looked up to see that my car was driving into a paddy field.

If you hadn't hit the brakes in a hurry, you might have wasted the day pulling the car out of the paddy field.

Before that, I hurriedly turned the steering wheel to avoid the situation.

“Is the road too narrow? The road is still there. If you run into an oncoming car here, there is no way to get out of it, and in the end, the person who lost the snowball fight was white and had to take the car out. Let's get out of here quickly."

"Yeah."

I came to my senses, and as I walked for a while, a familiar family member caught my eye.

It was a structure that surrounded a large yard on three sides with a green roof, and the two floors were connected and the other one was separated by the passage leading to the backyard.

But looking at the roof, they were all connected.

The house was cleaner than expected, and there were traces of repairs to the old place as if someone had touched it.

“I paid the locals to take a look at the house. If it is not touched by people, it will wear out quickly.”

“The yard is clean too.”

“Aww, it was really neatly maintained. That’s why no one wants to buy it yet.”

I passed the grassy yard and sat on the familiar floor.

I looked around, feeling the texture of the floor that was cracked and rougher than before.

“I don’t have a lot of household items.”

“Yeah, I just put a few things together. Are you hungry? Shall we eat here? Looking at the vegetable garden next to the yard, there were a lot of vegetables. Maybe someone who takes care of it raises it, picks it up and eats it.”

“Can I just eat without permission?”

“I will go. I’m going to get some ssamjang and other things.”

“I will go. It’s hard.”

"no. You should also say thank you. not far from here You're looking around here."

"Yeah."

Auntie walked slowly out of the yard.

I sat down for a while, then opened the door to the other room and fell into the memories.

‘Shall we go to the back garden after a long time?’

Coming down from the floor, I went through the aisle next to the kitchen to the back garden.

Read more @ hotmtlnovel.xyz. Chinese MTL Fan-Fiction/Second Element novel can be read @ HotMTLNovel for free.