Summary

In “Autumn, 2015,” the narrator introduces Jiyoung, a 33-year-old woman. The narrator speaks in the present tense at first, then slips into the past. Jiyoung lives in Seoul with her husband, Daehyun, and her daughter, Jiwon. Daehyun works at an IT company, where he stays late every day and most weekends. Jiyoung takes care of her baby daughter by her own, except for the mornings when Jiwon goes to daycare.

On September 8, Daehyun first noticed Jiyoung’s abnormal behavior. As he was eating breakfast, Jiyoung opened the window and started doing a perfect impression of her mother. Jiyoung was cheerful and often did impressions of celebrities, so he did not think much of it, though he was a bit disturbed when he came home from work and saw her sleeping next to their baby, both of them sucking their thumbs.

A few...