Jiwon POV.

"Mom's dead," and my world felt silent as soon as those words uttered by my daughter, Jiyoon during the sudden phonecall on my home from work.

I drove my car to the side of the road and felt my fingers trembling in shock. It was a news that was unexpectedly hard to bear. 

In all honesty, my wife had dementia. She got it unusually early on in life. She was just 30 when she was diagnosed with that freaking disease. Still, there was no way I would have to expect this kind of news ever in my life.

The funeral was held as simple as possible. My fellow co-workers said that while my wife was home alone for a bit, she accidentally started a fire in one of the rooms and suffocated on the smoke. They even found my wife's fingerprints all over the front door. 

Well, she didn't even know how to do something as simple as unlocking the door. Or that if she had just screamed, someone would have come and help her...

Thinking about it back, my wife, Kim Jisoo was very sincere and kind. She loved her family more than everything and raised our daughter well. Even after she had dementia, she tried to keep things as normal as possible,

As I looked at her funeral portrait, I sighed. This is such a tragedy, but... Why can't I cry?

.

.

.

Maybe it's because in my mind, I had already left my wife 3 years ago.

I wasn't a bad husband, but you couldn't exactly say I was a good one either.

Like most people, you couldn't easily become a family man once you're used to being a busy policeman.

But I can't deny that I didn't really put much effort into it.

When I think about the fact that I don't really have any memories of us after our marriage, I realized that I really just lived for work. I never even gave my wife any memories to forget.

That morning, I woke up as usual after turning off the alarm and naturally murmured, "Honey-" before I realized she was gone. I sighed and only touched the place that she left beside on that bed. It felt warm as if she was just there.

As I walked out of my room to the dining room, I smiled as I saw my daughter preparing breakfast for us, but then, my eyes widened as widely as ever when I saw a person that I never would have expected in the kitchen.

"Dad, come and get breakfast together-" but I fell backward in reflex, because of the shock. I freaking saw my own dead wife in front of the sink washing the dishes there!

"Dad?" My daughter asked worriedly as she came to me.

"T-there! There!" I frantically showed her to the direction where I saw her mother, "Over there! A ghost!!"

I saw my daughter bit her lips before saying, calming me down, "What are you talking about, Dad?"

"Your Mom over there!" I said again earnestly as she didn't seem to believe me at all and only replied with a small cry, "Oh Dad, you poor thing..."

"It's true, though," I almost cried too and she only hugged me, "Dad, you have to calm down and rest..."

My daughter thought I was still in shock from losing my wife. That's what she told me at the local hospital too.

Whether it's a delusion or a ghost...

I didn't want to see it any more.

I still need to come to work after all.

I slapped my cheeks to snap myself out of it and slowly came out of my room after keeping the medication pills in the drawer. When I glanced at the kitchen, I sighed out of relief once I saw no figure of my wife there. It was gone. I must be imagining it. I must be losing my mind-

I screamed again as I saw her not far, in front of me, doing something while standing there. I fell down again, slumping into floor, and ended up curling there, against the wall.

Just... How?

Why?

But then, as I watched her for awhile, I realized that her movement- it seemed as though she was... Hanging the laundry..?