Author's Note

Be careful not to touch each other
- Hug the cactus
- #cyborg_positive
- The Melon Seller and the Violinist
- Daisy and the Strange Machine
- Planetary Bookstore
- Wish Collector
- Enough with the sad love songs
- Uncaptured landscape

There is a different way of life
- The Swamp Boy
- Leaving Simon
- Our house Coco
- Contaminated area
- Other inhabitants of Earth
- Beyond the edge

“Can I hug you just once?”
Fourteen strange and sensual stories
Kim Cho-yeop's new short story collection, which opens new horizons for Korean science fiction literature, has been published.

For Korean literature readers, this era will probably be remembered as 'Kim Cho-yeop'.
In just four years since he began his full-fledged literary career with his first short story collection, "If We Can't Travel at the Speed ​​of Light," in 2018, he has meticulously carved his name into a prominent place both inside and outside the literary world.
Considering the works he has consistently produced, fueled by his exceptional imagination, the numerous achievements and accolades Kim Cho-yeop has earned in a short period of time seem well-deserved.
The twelfth short story in Mind Walk is 『Planet Bookstore』 by Kim Cho-yeop, a novelist who opened a new horizon for Korean science fiction literature.
He unfolds fourteen stories collected from “Village of Refreshing Stories” with great excitement.
The works, which start from the reality we stand on, head toward the cosmic world while embracing contemporary issues such as disability and hatred, conflict and coexistence between different species, and environmental destruction.
Pahira, a patient with 'contact syndrome' who feels terrible pain when anything touches her body as a side effect of surgery ("Hugging the Cactus"), a professor who lives as a maladjusted person in a world where he can understand tens of thousands of galactic languages ​​thanks to an implanted interpretation module in his brain ("The Planetary Language Bookstore"), a frail unknown boy who suddenly appears in a swamp where a mycelial network is building a collective intelligence ("The Swamp Boy"), and the mysterious owner of a strange restaurant located on the side of a rest area on the verge of ruin ("Other Residents of Earth") are all oddities and strangers in this world.
By allowing readers to directly encounter the lives of others, others different from themselves, and minorities, Kim Cho-yeop seeks to move beyond recognition and affirmation of diversity and seek coexistence.
The short stories of Mind Walk have been loved by many for their harmonious combination of text and pictures.
This year's 『Planet Bookstore』 features Dion Choi, an up-and-coming illustrator who is active in Korea and New Zealand and is gaining attention for his surrealist paintings.
The lyrical paintings, with their soft and warm colors and fairytale-like imagination, enhance the lingering feeling of the story.

“Is love not causing pain, or is love enduring pain?”
A warm gaze that secretly delves into human emotions

Kim Cho-yeop first presents eight works that evoke various emotions such as love, compassion, joy, wonder, and sorrow.
It features characters in a 'virtual present' who live in different times and spaces, longing for the past and looking forward to the future.
Pahira, from "Cactus Hug," is a contact syndrome patient who designed a "vacuum house" where all objects in the room automatically avoid her.
Not only did he destroy four assistant robots in half a year due to his eccentric temper, he also threatened the new assistant robot, 'Me'.
But unlike previous robots, I stop the violence and learn that Pahira has a painful past.


“I opened my arms and hugged him.
I held on to it till the end.
Holding back screams and tears, I felt a pain like a knife cutting through the surface of my skin.
While thinking, is love not causing pain, or is love enduring pain?
(…) At that time, unfortunately, I realized that pain was love.” _From “Hugging a Cactus”

"Planetary Language Bookstore" is set in a bookstore on a "failing rural planet" where only a few hundred people in the entire galaxy can speak "Planetary Language," in an era when real-time translation of tens of thousands of galactic languages ​​has become commonplace.
I, a bookstore employee, have been keeping a close eye on a suspicious woman who has been visiting the store for the past week, and that evening, I am perplexed when I hear news about an intergalactic terrorist organization.
The next day, he finally talks to the woman who came back without fail, and an unexpected truth is revealed.

Even in this age when every human brain is equipped with a pan-universal interpretation module that supports tens of thousands of galactic languages, some people still crave the exotic experience of strolling through a bookstore filled with unfamiliar foreign languages.
The experience of being a complete stranger.
An experience where no words are absorbed as concrete information and just pass me by as scenery… … .
_From "Planetary Bookstore"

Even in the world beyond the universe, there is a longing and yearning for analog.
Ricky, the photographer of "Landscapes That Don't Capture," receives calls one day from several clients complaining of problems with their photos.
In a world where people can easily take photos themselves with public drones or recording robots, there are those who choose to take 'classic photos' by paying a lot of money.
Ricky is surprised that no beautiful scenery is captured in a specific area of ​​the planet Mulion-846N.

Ricky loved his job, traveling the universe and documenting people's special moments, but he also felt the pressure of being responsible for someone else's special moment.
It was a responsibility that seemed a bit out of place in an age when anyone could record themselves in nanoseconds with a drone, but the romance of classical photography was precisely that kind of precarious ground.
_From "The Uncaptured Landscape"

The stories unfolding in different times and spaces may seem unrelated at first glance, but they are connected in that they all touch on universal human emotions.
Kim Cho-yeop readily shares his imagination with the reader, making them feel a strange nostalgia for an unknown place they have never been to.



“That doesn’t matter.
“We are happier than before.”
A world beyond where we measure the distance between different beings

The next world to open is a six-part story about the encounter and coexistence of humans and alien species.
The protagonists sometimes fight with or distance themselves from the strangers who invade their territory, or sometimes embrace and coexist with them.
Kim Cho-yeop avoids hastily delivering a message of hope, but instead encourages readers to think deeply about who the original inhabitants are and who the infiltrators are.

A swamp that maintains its ecosystem by decomposing and digesting the corpses of living things.
One day, a boy dressed in rags, looking like he might collapse at any moment, comes to the swamp.
The swamp mycelial network is watching the boy, who exudes a sense of resignation instead of the will and desire to live.
But the boy refuses to become one of them and struggles to find a different way of life.
"The Boy in the Swamp," which depicts a world where the apocalypse has arrived, stands out among the works included in "Planetary Bookstore" for its tension.

Individuality, that's what made me the most unhappy and lonely as a human being.
At the same time, it kept me alive.
It is not a contradiction to be an individual being and at the same time a part of the whole.
Or perhaps the whole thing doesn't exist in the first place.
_From "The Swamp Boy"

"Other Residents of Earth" depicts a story that takes place in a deserted American diner, even in a sparsely visited rest stop.
The restaurant owner, a "super taster" with an exceptional sense of taste, and Dahyun, who has never experienced the sensation of deliciousness, become close as they share their experiences with taste.
However, Dahyun, who felt awkward about the restaurant owner's expression that was strangely out of place, is startled by what he says next.

Of course, as a restaurant owner, you probably have nothing to say to a customer who finds it difficult to taste the food.
Dahyun was glad that the president didn't seem embarrassed, offended, or sympathetic.
When I tell similar stories to others, I often get responses like, “Poor thing, you must have no joy in life.”
There are so many different kinds of pleasures in life.
The reason I readily brought up the topic with the CEO was because, even though it was our first meeting, I felt a strange sense of trust from him.
_From "Other Inhabitants of Earth"

Through a single incident of encounter between humans and other species, Kim Cho-yeop emphasizes the importance of different beings living together.
Ultimately, we come to realize that his novels are imaginary worlds that transfer the concerns and questions we face in reality here and now.
This collection of short stories, which not only captures the primal pleasure of a "story" but also encapsulates the thematic consciousness that runs through his works, will provide readers with a richer reading experience.