Please Look After Mom

Chi-hon narrates the Epilogue in the second person. She begins with a matter-of-fact update about her mother: “It’s been nine months since Mom went missing” (231). Though earlier Chi-hon wanted to flee to Chile because she couldn’t deal with her mom’s disappearance, Chi-hon is now in Rome, Italy. Her boyfriend, Yu-bin, asked her to accompany him there on a whim. He didn’t think Chi-hon would say yes, but she jumped at the chance to get away. The entire Epilogue consists of her visit to Vatican City.

Despite being on a group tour of St. Peter’s Basilica, Chi-hon ignores the guide and instead reads a letter from her younger sister, who writes about finding their mother unconscious near the shed, and So-nyo downplaying her health issues. This happened when the younger sister had just returned to South Korea from America, so So-nyo gave her a scraggly persimmon tree for her move to Seoul. The younger sister didn’t want to take the tree, but her mother guilted her: The tree would be a remembrance after So-nyo died. Though the younger sister planted the tree reluctantly, once So-nyo disappeared, the younger sister began taking care of it. When she uprooted it to replant it, she marveled at how deep the roots had burrowed.