"Hey, old man, what do you think?"
The old woman looked at the old man, who had already taken a step back toward the house.
"..."
The old man didn't answer right away.
He furrowed his brows.
He looked as if he were trying to remember something carefully.
At first...
How many days had it been since they bought the little Plum Tree...
"I thought plum trees just grew this fast..."
The old man murmured.
Besides, he'd been a little out of it lately...
He'd become much less alert to things around him.
He hadn't noticed some obvious changes.
"I didn't even notice..."
The old woman rubbed her temples.
She saw it every day.
But sometimes, even when you looked at something every day, you didn't notice certain things.
Then you'd look again after some time had passed... and spot the change right away.
"Do plum trees grow this fast?"
The old man was puzzled.
As he remembered it, when they'd first bought and planted the little Plum Tree, it had only stood half a head taller than their grandson, who was still in kindergarten.
That was why the boy had so eagerly compared his height with the little Plum Tree and confidently declared that he drank milk every day, so he'd soon outgrow it...
But the Plum Tree in front of them now...
The old man looked up.
It was taller than he was.
It was still much shorter than the plum trees in the park.
But it was far taller than when they'd bought it.
And they'd only had this little Plum Tree for... The old man furrowed his brows... about two years, hadn't it?
Wasn't it growing a little too well?
Especially since the Plum Tree had fallen ill who knew how long ago, without