One Day, I Picked Up a Mom - Chapter 7

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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One Day I Picked Up a Mother – Episode 7

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“That damn bitch!”

Iban had gone out saying he was meeting a friend, and I was on my way back after stopping by the bathhouse alone to wash up.

At the sudden cursing, I turned my head to see a grandmother who had dropped her cane and fallen on the street, waving her arms around angrily.

When I looked toward where the old woman’s finger was pointing, I saw a woman just entering a building.

The woman entered the tea house without even glancing at the old woman.

The tea house she entered had its doors locked shut even though the sun was high in the sky today.

The grandmother, who had been cursing loudly in excitement, suddenly turned her head to look at me.

“…Are you alright?”

“Look at that rude thing! She knocked someone down and didn’t even say a word of apology!”

Even though I extended my hand, the furious grandmother was busy cursing at the woman who had already disappeared.

“Well, let me help you up first.”

“…Yes, thank you.”

After I picked up her cane as well, she finally seemed to calm down a bit and spoke with a sigh.

“Tsk, I’ll never walk down this street again. You be careful too.”

Then she immediately gave advice in an irritated voice and spat on the ground.

“You’ll catch diseases if you carelessly wander around the red-light district.”

“…Red-light district?”

“Yes, those things.”

The grandmother’s finger quickly swept over several buildings.

“Ah…”

“Tsk, this alley wasn’t like this originally. But at some point, those things started crawling in one by one and ruined the whole neighborhood.”

The grandmother let out an irritated lament and quickly left the street. Her steps were fast as if she was worried about catching germs.

‘I thought they closed because business was bad…’

I stared blankly up at the building, having learned this new fact.

Then the curtain swayed slightly. It seemed like I made eye contact with someone behind the curtain.

“What the…”

A chill suddenly swept across the back of my neck.

I hurriedly left that street just like the grandmother had done.

My increasingly fast steps had almost turned into running by the time I reached home.

It wasn’t because I suddenly got scared remembering Iban’s words about murders happening frequently here.

It wasn’t that…

I was afraid that someone who recognized me might come out of that building the grandmother had pointed to.

Even while thinking it couldn’t be, unable to suppress my anxiety, I opened the drawer as soon as I got home.

And I took out the clothes I had checked while cleaning before.

Dresses and blouses with deep necklines, tight skirts and flashy underwear. Colorful cosmetics, quite a lot of perfume, and even high-heeled shoes.

To me who had possessed this body, it just seemed like someone who liked flashy things, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

The laundry area, the market, even the bathhouse.

I had wandered around various places in the village, but all the people here wore loose shirts and skirts.

“But there’s even a child…”

I wanted to deny it somehow, but the clothes in the drawer were too similar to what that woman entering the closed tea house was wearing.

Yes, that woman who was pointed at as a prostitute was also wearing high heels and flashy, deeply cut clothes in bright colors.

“Haah…”

A sigh flowed out of my mouth at the obscene clothes in my grasp.

I knew it was hasty to determine the occupation of the person I possessed based on these clothes alone, but I still couldn’t shake the thought that she was a bar woman.

It was strange from the beginning to have so much cash while living in a house that seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

Even when I wandered around the village, no one approached me – was that also because they wanted to avoid getting involved like that grandmother and ignored me on purpose?

“She worked at a bar even though she had a child?”

I swallowed another sigh that was about to come out and closed the drawer.

If that was really the case, this was a much worse possession than I had thought.

Until now, I only thought I was just a lower-class person from the slums and an irresponsible parent indifferent to the child.

If that wasn’t the case, there were several issues I needed to reconsider.

Even though I had swept and cleaned every corner of the house, not a single penny came out of the house.

All the money this woman had was that purse that was in the coat pocket.

And this woman had taken that and gone all the way to the capital.

“Really, what reason would there be to move around with all your wealth!”

Something didn’t feel right.

What if the owner of this body was involved in some terrible affair she couldn’t handle?

“What genre is this really?”

Was the money purse in the coat even this woman’s property to begin with?

I took out the money purse I had put in the cupboard and poured it onto the dining table. The purse was full of 100-loke bills.

That was quite a large amount even if it was all her wealth. Especially for a woman living in a house that seemed ready to collapse.

Based on the prices I experienced while shopping yesterday, it was enough to live on for about 2 years without working.

“Don’t tell me we were on the run, abandoning our house…”

Come to think of it, the person who went all the way to the capital didn’t have any luggage.

Seeing that she took only money without anything else, the thought that she might have really been fleeing in a hurry filled my head.

“But if some stupid possessor brought the child back home again…”

The more I hypothesized, the more chills ran down my spine.

“No, maybe this money purse belongs to someone else too…”

I looked around the shabby house again in a daze. I was frustrated with myself for not thinking of this before.

I had been too complacent.

“No, but seeing that no one has come looking for me yet…”

How could it be okay!

Again, what Iban told me this morning came to mind. That story about someone being strangled to death nearby.

“I need to leave this place again, even now.”

For my sake and for Iban’s sake, I had to leave this place as quickly as possible.

I wanted to find Iban right away and leave the neighborhood. But if I moved recklessly and things went wrong, Iban might be in danger too.

I didn’t even know who I should be running from.

…After all, running away required moving very quietly and carefully.

At least we needed an excuse to cover up if we got caught while fleeing, a justification for leaving the village.

“…”

I swept the coins on the table back into the purse.

I didn’t want to make the child anxious by revealing this fact for no reason. Even if there were problems, those were things I, not Iban, had to solve.

Let me think.

What excuse wouldn’t look like running away even if we were caught leaving the village with the child and money?

“…”

However, it wasn’t easy for a possessor who hadn’t even found out the name yet and had no information whatsoever to come up with an excuse that anyone would find convincing.

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“Iban, where on earth have you been? Why is your hair all wet again?”

It was strange. The woman’s voice was a bit higher than in the morning, and she looked somewhat anxious.

“…I just came back from washing up.”

“…I see. You went to wash up after playing first?”

But soon she returned to her familiar voice and tone.

The woman who had firmly locked the door hurriedly crossed the house to bring a towel.

“You’ll catch a cold walking around like this when it’s cold, Iban.”

Iban quietly looked up at the woman who was touching his face and hair with a worried expression.

Then he sat on the edge of the bed as the woman led him.

The woman brought a fluffy towel that seemed dried thoroughly in the sunlight and kept ruffling his hair.

“Nothing happened, right?”

The woman, who seemed somewhat worried, bent her knees halfway to meet his eyes and asked.

Iban simply nodded quietly.

“Good. But Iban, now that it’s getting cold, you can’t wander around like this. The days are getting shorter too, so you need to come home earlier. You understand, right?”

There’s no way there would be towels like this in his home.

It seemed this diligent woman had even done laundry in the meantime.

“I understand.”

Iban answered briefly and took the woman’s hand.

“But Mother, did anything happen to you today?”

For a moment, the woman’s eyes trembled slightly.

“Mother was just here.”

Then she shook her head.

“More importantly, did you eat something delicious with your friends?”

Iban pretended not to know about the coins still in his pocket and nodded.

“Mother made tomato stew, do you think you can eat some?”

Iban hurriedly nodded.

Soon Iban sat at the dining table with the woman, eating warm stew and soft bread.

“….”

However, all sorts of thoughts continued to tangle complexly in his head.

If the woman kept coming and going from this house, it wouldn’t be long before the hunched-over grandmothers who had nothing to do but look out their windows would surely start meddling.

They might directly ask who exactly she was and what kind of relationship she had with Iban.

And if they found out that he had deceived her….

Though he had been quite hungry from starving for a long time, Iban didn’t even realize that his red stew had completely disappeared into the bread, filled as he was with the worries occupying his mind.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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