Zone 3, Zone 1
Other memories
A life called you
Around midnight
Neighborhood 7
we are
A sister I know
Palbok Square

Commentary│So Young-hyun (literary critic)
One is too little, but two is too much

Author's Note

Kim Hye-jin's new short story collections, "About My Daughter" and "The Nine Times"

Since her debut in 2012, author Kim Hye-jin has been directly addressing the lives of those marginalized from the mainstream and the violence of hatred and exclusion.
If we look at the person he put forward, they are as follows.
A homeless man and woman who have made Jungang Station their last place in life (his first full-length novel, 『Jungang Station』), a generation of young people questioning life, livelihood, and ‘work properly’ (his first short story collection, 『Fish』), a mother with a lesbian daughter (his second full-length novel, 『About My Daughter』), a telecommunications company installer forced to resign (his third full-length novel, 『Nine Times』), and people living in a community divided by the gap between the rich and the poor after redevelopment (his medium-length novel, 『Fire and My Autobiography』). Through characters who fully embody the precarious desires and anxieties of our society, the author has portrayed the times and generations with weight and depth.


The works of Kim Hye-jin, a female novelist in her 30s who has been writing for eight years, differ from the works of contemporary "young writers."
This book departs slightly from the recent "trends" in Korean literature, such as feminism and queer issues, and includes those issues, but focuses more on issues of generation and era, specifically labor and housing.
The work silently depicts the characters' lives through calm and clear sentences.


This second collection of short stories is a collection of eight short stories that have been consistently published since the publication of the first collection of short stories.
The characters and motifs that became the seeds of the well-received mid-length and long-form novels published in the meantime are vividly captured in each piece, mirroring the issues the author has been interested in and paying attention to over the past four years, as well as the problems our era/generation faces.

“So, what I realized that night was the gap and disparity between us.
But if you weren't that kind of person, how could we be who we are?"

"A Life Called You" is a collection of novels written entirely in the second person.
It contains stories of 'me' looking at 'you', being curious about you, cherishing you, being annoyed by you, and feeling burdened by you.
Even though we are in a very close relationship, like lovers or friends, there is a gap between 'you' and 'me' for various reasons.
Sometimes it manifests itself in differences in the size of one's heart/emotions, in differences in one's salary, in differences in where one lives, and in differences in how anxious one is about the future.


Who are you?
In "Zone 3, Zone 1," 'I' and 'you' met by chance while taking care of a stray cat in the alley in front of the church.
'I' live in a place where redevelopment projects are progressing slowly, and 'you' live across the street where apartments are now built because the redevelopment project was carried out without a single public hearing.
'You' are "a person who thinks terribly of stray cats", "a person who knows how to buy and sell houses cleverly and make a profit", and "a person who tells me personal stories without any sense of caution" whom I met by chance.
He settled down in the redeveloped '1st district' and calls the neighborhood he lives in "3rd district". He is a person who "believes that old and outdated things should be torn down."
At the same time, he is “a person who waits for a cat that does not come for several days.”
In “A Life Called You,” ‘I’ and ‘you’ live together.
You, who was working as an activity assistant caring for a middle school student with a physical disability, were notified of your dismissal due to some well-intentioned action.
I am looking for a job, but sometimes I turn away without even submitting my application.
“You” are a person who “doesn’t know how to be treated and doesn’t know how to get angry.”
“He is a person who occasionally breaks down the boundaries between public and private life, and blurs the boundaries between work and life.”


Let us pay attention to the fact that the ‘you’ in the work is portrayed through the filter of ‘me’.
The 'you' of "Palbok Square", who cannot say anything bad to anyone and always takes the loss, is evaluated as "infinitely irresponsible, cowardly, and weak" through the eyes of "me", and the 'you' of "Knowing Sister", who is open and has no prejudice no matter who she meets, becomes a person who "maybe did not need to be careful or cautious about anything" because she grew up "under her mother's full support and protection."
However, 'I' do not only evaluate and criticize 'you' negatively.
To ‘me’, ‘you’ do not know that “you are someone I can never fully know” (“Zone 3, Zone 1”).
Because when I think about ‘you’, ‘I’ constantly reflect on the position I am in.


What are the feelings that ‘I’ look back on through ‘you’?
The 'I' in 'A Life Called You' feels suffocated and burdened by 'you' and wants to leave, but in the end, he makes a promise to take responsibility for the lives of the two of them for a while.
Because I think, “How could we be who we are” if ‘you’ weren’t that kind of person.
Because I know that “our lives could intersect and overlap like this”, “you” approached me without caution, without fear, and with good intentions.
Critic So Young-hyun, who wrote the commentary, wrote about this as “a filter called ‘I’ and a device called ‘you.’”
‘You’ triggers “the problem of the privilege of the gaze that is unconsciously installed and the preemption of that position” through the filter of ‘me.’


That gaze belongs to both the individual 'I' and the society that looks at them.
The more we learn about the beginning, continuation, and change of the 'I-you' relationship through the device of 'I' and 'you,' the more 'you' will eventually become "a person I can never fully know."

I wanted to write about you in the second person, and I thought I could, but I feel like these novels are just stories that start from me and eventually return to me.
Even a single word that I thought was very far from me is actually not able to escape the limitations of a human being.
_From the author's note

The problem of class × gender × housing

“But how did you two meet? (…) How on earth did you two recognize each other? Do you just recognize each other? Is there a way to find out? (…) Did you tell your parents you were living together? They don’t know the details yet, do they? I don’t think they even mentioned that.
(…) Yes, it is not an easy task.
If you think about that, you'll be upset too.
“Why is life like this, really?” (Knowing Sister), such absurd questions.
It is an insult that feels more indifferent because it does not contain any hostility or hatred.
The same goes for statements like “You can take it easy here” or “Everyone is a good person” (“Around Midnight”).
Going one step further from the 'I-you' structure, in short stories where they are presumed to be a lesbian couple, the gazes of 'good racists' and, conversely, the prejudiced stigma that the two young women encounter as they continue their daily lives in a safe living space make the work even more complex.

The more the ‘I’ of “Zone 3, Zone 1” meets ‘you’, the more clearly he feels the “gap between us.”
While the 'Knowing Sister' (「Knowing Sister」), who used to ask unpleasant questions without any ill intentions, is divorced and lives alone, and is struggling to pay rent, 'I-You' are 'landlords' who do not need to move and live in an apartment with a spacious veranda.
In fact, that house was 'yours', and after breaking up with 'you', 'I' had to find a small studio apartment with only enough space to stretch out and lie down.
Gaps that cannot be overcome with personal affection.
Different positions.
There is discomfort, rejection, and unpleasantness that follow, and what each person experiences in their own circumstances creates that person and reveals themselves in their attitude.


The issues of labor and housing, the intimate conflicts created by the relationship between a queer couple and the economic gap within the couple, and the various variations of 'I-You' who, despite this, try to closely observe, accept, and rely on each other's lives, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing.
The realistic scenery of life in the novel and the 'I-you' that we have encountered once or are facing now will be engraved in the hearts of each reader, leaving a different aftertaste.
As you read these works, you will come to picture the relationship with you that could never be mine no matter what, and the texture of the heart it creates.
(…) Even though we can only sense a mirage-like future that has not yet arrived, or perhaps will never arrive, the realization that “things once mixed can never be separated as before” will allow us to dream of a different life of companionship, and further, a different community.” (From the commentary, “One is too little, but two are too many”)