Ch.179Mom, I Love You (2)

After Sol-young and Teacher Miso’s wedding,

our household returned to its normal routine.

Since my son had already moved out a month before the wedding,

I didn’t feel a significant emptiness from his vacant room.

It might be because I’m not really Ban Do-young, but

unlike me, Mom, Dad, and Si-young probably feel a bit of loneliness.

Perhaps the main reason I don’t feel Sol-young’s absence is

because the newlyweds’ home isn’t that far from our house.

It’s close enough that we might run into each other on the street without even trying to make time to meet.

Since most of our daily living areas overlap, rather than mourning the departure of the eldest son,

the rest of the family, including myself, decided to look forward to those chance encounters somewhere in the neighborhood, like little strokes of luck.

That would be more fun anyway.

“Do-young, Si-young. Could you come out here for a bit?”

So, during the vacation period after the wedding.

Mom suddenly called for me and Si-young, who were in our rooms.

“Hm? Mom, what are you doing?”

“Cleaning Sol-young’s room.”

“Ah, cleaning your independent son’s room while shedding tears of maternal love, feeling both pride and regret as you sense the presence of the child who has left your side?”

“Why would I want to sense his presence? Gross.”

“Hehe, no. It’s not really like that.”

*Thud*

Mom placed books, magazines, and women’s clothes that were our size

that had been stored in Sol-young’s bookshelf and closet onto the floor.

“I’m organizing all the things you two stuffed into his closet—clothes that didn’t fit in your own closets and books or magazines you were too lazy to throw away while your brother was in the military.”

“…Oh.”

“…Oops, we’ve been caught.”

Women can wear more types of clothes than men.

Men rarely wear skirts, but many women like to wear pants,

and while men can’t wear women’s underwear, women can wear men’s boxers like shorts.

With a wider variety of wearable clothes,

it’s inevitable that the number of garments in the closet increases.

It was also inevitable that we would put clothes we rarely wore or didn’t want to throw away

in the eldest son’s closet since he wasn’t coming home.

“At first I thought this maid costume was your brother’s because it looked like men’s clothing, but the buttons around the chest area were burst open. It’s yours, right, Do-young?”

“Well, in Scarlet’s case, there would be no chance of her chest bursting anything…”

“I’m seriously going to kill you.”

“Even though your brother is away from home a lot, you shouldn’t stuff your things into his room like this. Take everything back to your own rooms.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Following Mom’s instructions, I gathered the clothes and books we had put in Sol-young’s room.

During finals period, I had hidden some panties in there as “side dishes” for Doha-min while he was staying in Sol-young’s room.

Unfortunately, there was no sign that he had touched any of them.

Tsk, he couldn’t even take what was offered.

“This is a problem. I don’t have space in my room.”

“No excuses, organize properly. I was actually planning to do this right after Sol-young was discharged from the military. The wedding just became a more urgent matter, so I put it off for a while. If you don’t have space, then organize. Be bold and throw away clothes you don’t wear or books you don’t read.”

“But that’s wasteful. Can I just put them in the dojang storage since it’s too much trouble?”

“The dojang storage belongs to the dojang, not our house. You can’t keep personal items there. Besides, do you want to go up and down from the basement to the third floor every time you need something from there? That would be even more troublesome.”

“Well, I guess you’re right. Mom, you’ll be 50 next year. Unlike us, stairs probably aren’t so easy for you anymore.”

“My daughter? If you’re making fun of your mother for being old, you should at least beat me in kendo once before saying such things.”

“I’m sorry.”

Before she could tell me to go get a bamboo sword from the storage,

I obediently focused on clearing away my clothes and books as Mom instructed.

“Wait, Mom.”

“Yes?”

“This isn’t ours.”

While Si-young and I were sorting through and identifying our belongings,

we found a thick book that didn’t belong to any of us.

[Wonsuk Middle School 32nd Graduation Album]

[Class 3-3, Number 19, Cheok Jun-sook]

“…Isn’t this Mom’s middle school graduation album?”

“…Ah. I forgot I put it here because I had nowhere else to store it.”

“So Mom was using oppa’s room as storage too!”

We had more similarities than we realized.

“Wow, is this Mom’s middle school graduation photo?”

“My goodness, this brings back memories. Mom also had such innocent days.”

Pausing our cleanup of Sol-young’s room,

we sat in a circle around Mom’s middle school graduation album, admiring her middle school days.

Indeed.

Mom at her middle school graduation boasted visuals that were in no way inferior to the current Ban Do-young.

Although her uniform and hairstyle had a somewhat old-fashioned feel, that vintage look was actually appealing.

“Wait, if Mom already looked like this in middle school, why am I…”

Si-young’s gaze, alternating between Mom at her middle school graduation and her own reflection, looking down at one spot with emptiness, was a bit pitiful,

but I found that pitiful gaze amusing, so I continued flipping through the album.

“Whether it’s the sports day photos or the festival photos… Mom’s face appears quite often.”

“Well, I suppose the teachers who took the photos back then recognized a beauty in the making?”

“I bet the photographer was definitely a man.”

Normally, besides individual portraits and class group photos,

it’s rare for one’s face to appear in group event photos like sports days or festivals.

If your face is captured even in a small corner somewhere,

you’d be surprised, thinking, “Oh, my face appears here too.”

But despite accounting for coincidence, Mom’s image could be spotted at quite a few events.

She had once been a physical powerhouse who even made it to the national youth kendo team.

It’s understandable that her face would be prominently featured in sports day photos, where she was bound to be a central figure.

But even in events like school trips or festivals where she wouldn’t necessarily be a main character,

she always managed to make her presence known in at least one photo somewhere.

“Looks like our mom was popular. With friends and teachers alike.”

“Hehe… That’s why my daughters grew up to be so pretty, right?”

“But… where’s Dad? I found Mom right away, but I can’t find any student who looks like Dad no matter how hard I look. Was Dad not as popular as Mom back then? He’s nowhere to be seen.”

“Ban-thief unnie, are you stupid? They were in different grades. Of course, only Mom’s classmates would be in her graduation album.”

“I know that, but he could have been somewhere in the sports day audience or among the festival gallery. Like our Ban-chip looking at Junsook noona with an adoring expression.”

“Ahaha. That would have been nice. But no matter how hard you look, you won’t find Dad’s face in Mom’s album.”

“I guess he had no presence in middle school, or maybe our dad was also a tiny shrimp like Doha-min back then…”

“Your father was in elementary school at that time.”

“…”

“…”

He really was a little kid.

“Hehe… Your father. He was so cute back then… *slurp*”

“Oh, look at the time! I forgot I had a modeling job for Teacher Jung today! I need to go right now!”

“W-wait, Do-young! You can’t just leave with the room in this mess…!”

“I’ll finish cleaning when I get back from work! I’m heading out now!”

“I-I also promised to check out clothes at the station with my friends. I’ll be going too.”

The moment we saw Mom licking her lips while reminiscing about Dad from that era,

both Si-young and I judged that we couldn’t continue the conversation and fled the scene.

**

“…These kids. Leaving without finishing the cleanup.”

In the end, all the remaining clothes and books became the responsibility of Junsook, the mother and housewife.

There was no way she could tolerate leaving this mess until the two returned.

Her hands had to move first.

“Sigh… That Do-young. Leaving her room in complete chaos again.”

Junsook let out a deep sigh the moment she entered Do-young’s room, her hands full, pushing the door open with her hip.

The clothes Do-young had been wearing until just recently were strewn across the bed like a snake’s shed skin.

It was good that she wasn’t just playing around during the vacation but had started a part-time job.

‘That Doha-min jerk might be good at studying, but he might not make much money later, so I should at least prepare a way to earn money in the future, right?’

Though her reason for starting the job was a bit strange, it wasn’t incomprehensible.

However, why she would leave her discarded clothes unorganized every time she went out

was something that even Junsook, as her mother, couldn’t understand.

Si-young’s room was the same.

Just slightly better than Do-young’s.

It couldn’t be called neat.

It wasn’t for nothing that Junsook had followed them all the way to their study abroad location.

“I can’t keep cleaning your rooms forever…”

Junsook neatly folded the clothes scattered around Do-young’s room,

then opened the closet to put them away.

*Thud*

As Junsook opened the closet, a piece of clothing that had been precariously hanging on a hanger fell to the bottom of the closet.

As if no longer surprised, Junsook smiled slightly and picked up the fallen garment.

“Even if you don’t have occasions to wear it during vacation, you should at least hang your uniform properly. Geez.”

Just as she was about to put the neatly straightened uniform back in the closet, it happened.

‘Hmm… I guess it would be a bit difficult for her now. What good is it if the chest fits? Her waist probably wouldn’t fit anymore.’

‘Well, I guess you’re right. Mom, you’ll be 50 next year. Unlike us, stairs probably aren’t so easy for you anymore.’

‘As Junsook said, she’s become a frumpy ajumma.’

“…If I wanted to, even now I could…”

Junsook found herself staring intently at Do-young’s uniform she was holding.

When she came to her senses, Junsook had already buttoned up all the buttons on Do-young’s uniform.