A husband who had devoted himself entirely to his work, spending his days on business entertainment and drinking, suddenly lost his wife when she developed early-onset dementia and passed away. The cause was smoke suffocation from a fire she accidentally started while alone in her room. He regretted that he had focused solely on work and never given her memories to cherish.
The morning after the funeral, the husband woke up to be shocked by the sight of his wife in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. Apparently, she was visible only to him. Thus began a strange married life, living alongside the days of his wife's memories. At first, he was startled, but he gradually grew accustomed to it and started following her actions.
His wife’s cognitive spirit seemed to trace back to the day three years prior when her dementia first manifested. On that day, the place she visited was a hospital. Emerging from the hospital with a gloomy expression, she had been diagnosed with dementia and wept alone in the empty house. Quitting his company, the husband began following his wife's spiritual projection, gradually learning about her daily life little by little.
As time passed, their daughter decided to get married, and they reported the news to the wife’s spirit. The wife was spending more and more time spacing out.
The day before their daughter's wedding, the husband asked his daughter where the iron was so he could press his shirt. Hearing this, the daughter offered to do it for him. However, her hands began to shake violently. The cause of the fire the wife had started was an iron—an accident that happened while the daughter had looked away for just a moment. Sensing the guilt his daughter was carrying, he immediately took over the ironing.
Once he finished, he went to the bedroom where his wife should have been, but she was gone. Panicking, he searched outside, but she was nowhere to be found.
At that moment, a certain place crossed his mind. It was three years ago, the day he first learned of her dementia. Having gone to the supermarket, she had gotten lost, been rescued at a park far from home, and escorted home by the police in the middle of the night. Hurrying to the park, he found his wife sitting blankly on a bench. He draped an umbrella over her and spoke to her, reminding her how he had persistently pursued her before they started dating until she finally said yes. With that, she began acting as though she were talking to someone. The police found and rescued her, and she safely returned home.
Two years passed. The wife’s dementia progressed to the point where she could no longer do housework. One day, while watching the news late at night, the wife—whose face had been almost expressionless for two years—changed slightly and smiled. Seeing this, the husband looked up on the internet what news had aired on this exact day three years ago, and found it was a report on golden bell flowers (forsythia) in full bloom, announcing the arrival of spring. In reality, he had proposed to her in a place where forsythia bloomed profusely during this season. She had remembered that.
Time flowed on, and the memories of the wife's cognitive spirit reached the day she died in the fire.
The time the fire broke out. He tried to open the door to the bedroom where his wife was, but was too terrified to turn the knob. On that day, the daughter had actually been about to iron a shirt. Seeing this, the wife had offered to help. However, exhausted from caring for her mother, the daughter had snapped and brushed her off with a cold remark. Just then, the daughter received a call from her boyfriend and had to head out. Saying it would only be for a short while, she put the iron away on a shelf and left. The wife had witnessed this.
After the daughter left, the wife took out the iron and pressed the shirt in her place.
Finishing the ironing, the wife moved to another room. However, she had left the iron plugged in. Smoke began to billow from the iron, and in the blink of an eye, the room was filled with thick smoke. The husband shouted at his wife's spirit, "Run!" but she only crouched down in front of the door. The husband unlocked and opened the door, but instead of fleeing outside, she collapsed right in front of the threshold.
Witnessing his wife's final moments, the husband desperately spoke to her, "It must have been so hard... I'm sorry." At that, his wife's hand gently reached out toward him. He tried to grasp it, but her spirit vanished.
The wife's memories ended here, and her spirit never appeared again.
And so, time passed—twelve years later. The husband died. At his funeral, the priest placed a stalk of forsythia as requested. In the afterlife, holding a single forsythia flower, the two were reunited at last.
(End)
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