prolog

Part 1
1 Blue Spring
2 Departure
3 08:49
4 09:45
5 blue pants 1
6 Blue Pants 2
7 Escape
8 Jindo Gymnasium
9 voices

Part 2
10 Anna
11 Lies
12 Struggles
13 Resolutions
14 adults
15 Flash Mobs
16 Today I Live
17 If it were me

Part 3
18 Unsent Texts
19 Sister
20 Trauma
21 Interviews
22 families
23 Small Wishes
24 holes
25 reserved characters
26 Dream of that day
27 Spring Picnic

Author's Note

Like a deep, dark hall
Memories of that day

The work begins from the perspective of survivor 'Minyong'.
Min-yong, a Jeju truck driver, finishes work on land and loads his truck onto the Sewol ferry bound for Jeju at Incheon Port with his fellow drivers.
As the departure is delayed due to thick fog, he considers taking his car and heading to Mokpo, but soon after, he hears news of the departure and boards the Sewol.
The next day, April 16th, at 8:49 AM, while resting after breakfast, the ship suddenly tilted with a loud noise.
As I was putting on my life jackets and trying to climb up onto the deck with my colleagues, I heard a shout, “Sir, please help me!”
The central hall of the Sewol ferry became a cliff as the ship tilted at a right angle.
Minyong used a fire hose to pull students out of the hall, and the rescued students remembered the blue pants he was wearing, earning him the nickname "The Blue Pants Man."

Although he saved over twenty students and was rescued himself, Minyong suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder after that day.
Even as time passed, the regret I felt for the children I couldn't save did not go away.
For him, who suffered from severe trauma to the point of attempting suicide several times, the memory of the Sewol ferry disaster is still like a 'hole', a deep, dark hole.
Seven years have passed, but for him, the Sewol Ferry disaster is still ongoing.


The trauma of survivors and
Life after the disaster

"Hole" deals with the stories of the Sewol ferry disaster survivors, but devotes a significant portion of its narrative to the perspectives and stories of their families rather than the individual victims.
If Part 1 of the work depicts the situation at the time of the Sewol Ferry Disaster from Min-yong's perspective, Parts 2 and 3 unfold from the perspectives of the second child, who was a high school student at the time of the disaster, the eldest child, who graduated from the Department of Emergency Medical Services, and Min-yong's wife.
Min-yong's family, who live through "the tomorrow the Sewol friends wanted to live" and "the April 16th of the father who couldn't get out of the Sewol," become a strong support for Min-yong, who has 'changed' after the disaster.


But there are moments in the lives of victims' families where they want to run away and feel resentful.
By depicting these moments as they unfold, "Hole" demonstrates that the damage from a disaster extends beyond the victims themselves to their families and communities, and that the role of family, community, and even society is essential in recovering from the damage.
Miryu, a member of the 416 Sewol Ferry Disaster Writers' Group, said, "Finding the truth is about putting the pieces of the incident together and creating words to remember together.
“When we hold the country that did not save accountable, the feelings of guilt, anger, and sadness that wander can also find their place,” he said, pointing out that uncovering the truth about the disaster and determining who is responsible is important in itself, but also for the survivors.

I will remember,
I still remember

"Hole" is the story of not only the 24 Sewol Ferry survivors living in Jeju, including Kim Dong-su, but also of all 172 survivors across the country who are still suffering from trauma.
Among the Sewol survivors, the 'ordinary' survivors who were not Danwon High School students lived in different places and had no connection with other passengers, so they were relatively less recorded and remembered.
The "hole" serves to fill that void.

Mr. Kim Dong-su was able to endure the trauma that was difficult to overcome thanks to his strong family, but also because there were people who listened to, remembered, and talked about the Sewol ferry disaster again, as if to say, "I will remember."
By remembering the Sewol ferry disaster from Kim Dong-su's perspective through "Hole," the Sewol ferry disaster becomes something that happened not only to those who boarded the ferry, but something that we all experienced together and are still experiencing today.
Isn't that the passage where 'the person who wants to forget even for a moment' and 'the person who promises not to forget' meet?
On the 7th anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster, reading 『Hole』 together is an act of saying that we still remember.