What if the law is what brought about all these results?
What if someone else is doing what the law should be doing?

Author Jeong Yong-jun, who has been reflecting on the ontological basis of human nature in the most delicate language, has published a new full-length novel, “I Ask You.”
The author, who not only reveals the unique wounds of a human being and the heart that strives to understand that incomprehensible realm in a sensuous sentence, but also sublimates the misery of life into beauty by soothing the most vulnerable parts of humanity, calmly depicts the extreme sadness and love that a person can embrace by facing both the private and intimate violence and the public and enormous violence surrounding a human being on the edge of despair through this work, “I Ask You.”


The author examines how violence against infants and toddlers is etched into a person's life and contributes to their entire lives, and asks what "all of us," not just the vulnerable and weak parties, can do.
The fate of life, led by violence perpetrated in the name of love against a human being who can never be the object of someone's possession, and the imprinted violence that seeks to cover up and understand that vicious violence with love, will remain a source of concern even after the novel ends. However, the author's prayer to help and relieve that sorrow in a way that allows more people to know and understand it will become a bridgehead to protect our lives more beautifully.

A place where love rose and then disappeared.
I stared at the memory, which was as dented as its weight and volume, for a long time.
At first I was going to give you my organized answer, but later I found myself asking you.
What is a person?
What is love?
[… … ] This long, drawn-out muttering, which may be a prayer, a protest, a diary entry, a letter, or perhaps just a meaningless soliloquy, is my hope that it will be an answer to someone.
_From the author's note

“I’ve seen a lot of scripts that provoke viewers and make them angry, but the pottery episode was different.
What should I say, anger is anger, but it came across as personal rather than universal and social anger.
I could feel that he was overcome with intense emotions, but he was trying to keep his composure and speak calmly and logically.
Maybe it's ice surrounding the flame.
It's not easy to express... ... .
Anyway, it was good.”
--- p.24

A feeling of wanting to vomit, as if one had swallowed a living thing by force.
A certain guilt, as if one had harmed something weak and soft.
That horror.
I felt like something big was going to happen if I stayed still.
There is a person who has set himself on fire with a fire burning inside his body.
There are people who have died from organ melting due to extreme emotions.
Some people can't stand this feeling, so they hurt their loved ones and take out their anger on them.
Yoo Hee-jin felt a real sense of heat inside her body.

--- p.55

“That is the law we trust.
When you think about justice vaguely, it seems authoritative and fair, but in reality, it is nothing more than a judgment made by someone like Park Jun-su after searching through various precedents.
The law is not the law.
They're just people.
The police's feet and the lawyer's mouth.
The prosecutor's hand and the judge's head.
I don't think that a human being assembled like that is just and fair.
I don't think it's wise or humane.
Non-indictment and non-detention.
A criminal who makes a lot of noise when he enters, but is eventually quietly released on probation.
A villain who is released on bail and returns home without anyone knowing.
I've seen it countless times.
The man called law does not know about man.
I don't care.
But what he judges is justice? Because he is the law.”
--- pp.90-91

Yoo Hee-jin turned off the light, sat on the bed, and stared at a point in the pitch darkness.
The blackout curtains covered the window, so no light came in.
Yoo Hee-jin liked that feeling of being lost.
Feeling anxiety and fear that you might die.
Every time I trembled with fear to the point where my arms and legs went numb and my heart shrank with guilt, I felt an inexplicable thrill.
Something that doesn't get comfortable.
Not being able to fall asleep easily.
Not being able to enjoy even a moment of comfort.
To wander around death like that every moment.
Paradoxically, it was the only stimulus that kept Yoo Hee-jin alive.

--- pp.139-140

I left the path and went between the trees.
The fallen leaves are piled up so high that the ground is unclear.
My feet were completely submerged, and invisible branches and protruding roots caught my ankles.
I fell and rolled, but I kept going.
White breath that blooms whitely with your breath.
My heart was pounding and my calves were aching.
As I pushed against tree trunks, grabbed broken branches, pushed through sharp coniferous leaves, and crawled on ice-cold rocks and pebbles with my hands and feet, my palms were torn and my wrists were bloody.
A shadow wandering in the shadows.
When darkness falls on the forest, the trees, animals, objects, and scenery all become dark.
Until then, let's run as far as possible.
What's more important than moving away is what's not visible.
It seemed like Park Ki-jung was looking at him from somewhere.

--- p.330