“Will those anxious feelings go away once that period passes?”
The Birth of Such an Innocent Story: Baek Su-rin's New Short Novel

A novelist who looks into the heart of someone who faintly asks, “Are you feeling better?” and adds “a clean smile that doesn’t seem to be tainted by resignation” while remembering only the “warmth here and now.”
A novelist who has won awards such as the Munji Literary Award and the Lee Hae-jo Novel Literary Award, and was selected as a “Young Writer Who Will Lead the Future of Korean Literature” by Yes24 readers in 2019, and is currently showing the most promising progress.
A new novel by young author Baek Su-rin, who has received support from readers and critics alike for her delicate narratives in works like “Falling in Fall,” “The Dismal Light,” and “Dear, Dear,” has been published.
The eighth short story in the Mind Walk series, “Don’t Disappear Tonight,” follows Park Wan-seo’s “Three Wishes,” Jeong Yi-hyeon’s “A Good Person, So to Speak,” Lee Ki-ho’s “It’s Not a Big Deal,” Kim Soom’s “Are You Living as You?” Lee Seung-woo’s “Made Tears, Held Back Tears,” Kim Geum-hee’s “I Think About It for a Very Long Time,” and Son Bo-mi’s “Fireflies in Manhattan.”

Joo-hee, who is spending a vacation with her husband at the airport due to the sweltering heat, recalls the dazzling summer days of her childhood and the brilliant days of her father's youth, now a stubborn old man ("Perfect Vacation").
'She', who suffers from insomnia worrying about the company, people, and next month's heating bill, shares warmth without calculating the cost and profit with an old dog that she rescued on a road at dawn and brought into her home ("The Warmth of That Dawn").
To celebrate their fifth anniversary, 'we' go on a second trip to Japan, but feel the air of emotions subtly different from five years ago and realize a certain ending ("A Certain End").
The author depicts with his characteristically delicate eye the poignant scenes of time, people, and emotions that have now disappeared, such as the moment of his parents' first love while waiting for the morning sun to rise during his first trip abroad with his mother ("Before Sunrise"), the hazy feelings that I, an unmarried freelancer, recall when I reunite with my former lover who was a college couple but is now married after twenty years ("Only When I Close My Eyes"), and the secrets of her life that "she" reveals while waiting for the family of a dying patient on a snowy day in a nursing home in an unfamiliar foreign country ("An Unhappy Night").
These thirteen stories, warmly calling out “what I have lost, what will never return, what comes back to me only when I close my eyes and then drifts away again,” and “all those things I lost before I even knew they were mine,” are filled with a thoughtful heart that embraces the subtle cracks of life.


Additionally, this book adds to the pleasure of viewing by displaying illustrations by illustrator Joo Jeong-ah, who is beloved for her unique colors and stories.
The illustrations, which bring the story to life and stimulate the imagination, maximize the book's appeal.

The details of loss that you only realize when you suddenly stop and look back while walking forward without thinking.
Where have all the innocent promises we made with our fingers linked without fear, the innocent faith in tomorrow, the dreams that were as vain and beautiful as soap bubbles, and the days when we were easily shy at the slightest noise gone?
The protagonists of the short stories in this book are all ordinary people.
People who live their daily lives without even realizing that they are losing something because they have no time to look into their hearts.
Perhaps what I wanted to do was to paint the landscape of their hearts on their behalf.
Even if it disappears after tonight, it is the act of capturing in words certain signs and traces that clearly exist now.
Recording the small but crucial moments that occur beneath the hardened outer shell of the heart.
--- From the author's note

“Yeah, it was a wonderful day,” she agreed.
It was a really wonderful day.
But she couldn't even explain to herself how that day was different from other days, so she didn't tell anyone else.
But every time she took off her socks to apply lotion or trim her toenails and looked at her sunburned feet, she remembered the salty wind making her lips sticky, the hot sand burning her soles, and the overwhelming landscape of sky and sea.
As time goes by, you stop thinking about that day.
--- From "One Fine Day"

How on earth did Joo-hee know that it was her father's head? But it was definitely her father.
A father in his late thirties who was young, energetic, and had too many things he wanted to accomplish to live his entire life as a salaryman, and who was losing sleep at night.
My father, who never imagined that just a year after quitting his job to start a business, the economic crisis would hit and he would be chased by creditors for a long time after that, during those glorious summer days.
--- From "The Perfect Vacation"

But it was so cold outside that she quietly opened the end of the blanket she was wrapped in.
So that I can come into her warmth.
Then the dog, who would soon become her companion, with whom she could share softness and affection, warmth that could not be calculated, and vulnerability that could not be helped, rose.
It's still early in the morning.
The dog leaning on my arm felt warm.
And she finally fell into a deep sleep, feeling the small beating of her heart against her arm.
--- From "The Warmth of That Dawn"

When the wind blew, the light green dogwoods swayed, the red swarthy flowers swayed, and my sister's short hair swayed like black waves.
My sister's cheeks, which were always red in my memory.
My older sister's sparkling eyelashes, which would come to me and blow my wounds when I fell down while running and scratched my knees.
--- From "Spring Day's Zoo"

As he waited for the traffic light to change at a crosswalk with a sharp wind blowing, Sangjun wondered what it was that robbed us of even the slightest bit of space to consider the plight of others.
That's what makes us obsessed with our own suffering. Meanwhile, the pedestrian traffic light turned green, and the people standing next to Sangjun rushed to cross the street.
Sangjun, who was about to enter the crosswalk, hesitated for a moment, then turned around and headed back to the food stall.
To buy tteokbokki and sundae.
Sangjun thought, “I shouldn’t forget the salt container either.”
This world pushes people to breathe, constantly makes them miserable, and encourages them to be cruel to others, but even in this world, all he wants to give his wife is love.
--- From "The Beach Towel Everyone Needs"

But this was Tokyo, and in the heart of Tokyo, where we first slept together, the moment I saw Sunghoon's neat forehead as he gently placed the chicken skin skewers on my plate with his chopsticks, just like he used to, I felt something that had been floating away, crumbling and crumbling, being carried back to my shore by the high tide.
--- From "Some End"

But I don't go.
Instead of going, I just stand there and look out the window at the setting sun.
Thinking about how lonely the word "next" is, thinking about some endings that slowly approach like the twilight of night but suddenly make you realize that there is no turning back.
--- From "Some End"

Now Youngmi knew that no one in the world could make another person completely happy, but that fact no longer bothered her.
--- From "Before Sunrise"

While waiting for the sun to rise, the image of the lovers in the rain came to Youngmi's mind.
A young man runs to a stationery store in the pouring rain to win the favor of a woman he likes, and a young woman gazes longingly at the man's wet back.
The subtle waves and breaths that passed between young lovers.
The hesitant and tentative gestures they exchanged.
They will now walk with one umbrella.
From a distance slightly closer than before the soles of the shoes came off.
Every time our shoulders bump into each other, we are conscious of each other's materiality.
Then they will part ways in front of the woman's room.
Will we ever meet again? Under the bright yellow umbrella, they'll undoubtedly exchange shy smiles.
--- From "Before Sunrise"

I felt like the life I lived was a series of days where I gradually adjusted the things I had dreamed of.
Like the siblings in the fairy tale who walked while throwing away pieces of bread on the roadside to avoid getting lost, Minju walked while discarding the details of her dream one by one, but she couldn't tell where she was in life, and even less knew where she was headed.

--- From "Always a Happy Ending"

Those were really good days in their own way, but I was worried that things could go on like this forever.

--- From "Always a Happy Ending"

“……Are you feeling better?”
Mr. Park looked at her with an expression that said he didn't understand what she was saying and placed the paper cup filled with tea back on Minju's desk.

“Will those anxious feelings go away once that period passes?”
In response to Minju's question, Mr. Park smiled silently and said, "No matter what the ending is, if you just realize that the movie always starts again after cleaning up the popcorn that someone carelessly left behind, everything will be okay after that."

--- From "Always a Happy Ending"

At that time, we were at an age where we didn't know how much time was wasted, even if we sat on the bathroom floor of a pub and cried for no reason, waiting endlessly for our friend to stop crying.
It was an age when we would fight loudly over trivial matters, talking about justice, but then easily become comrades after a breakup.
Forty was an unimaginable unknown, and I was anxious every day, thinking that my life had to be decided before I turned thirty.
Days of reckless indulgence in the irresponsibility and freedom that only that age allowed, while teetering between the confidence that I could do anything and the anxiety that I couldn't do anything.
--- From "Only When I Close My Eyes"

As I listened to his story, which had become more talkative than before, a vision of myself in my early twenties, sitting next to him and running through the darkness that felt like black paint had been spilled, flashed through my mind.
When we were still together, he didn't even have a driver's license, let alone a car.
Why did we have so little back then? Even while I was dating him, and even after we broke up, I wondered for a while if I had had a little more—be it beauty, talent, or a generous heart like a philanthropist—would our relationship have been different?
If, that is, if only, if it weren't for me, if I were a better person.
So, did I feel more loved? I could confidently tell anyone that I liked myself much more now than I did then.
Because now I no longer need to struggle to become something I am not.
Because now I can finally fully love being me.
And I know that in the future I will become more and more like that person.
But as I listened to his story, I found myself missing everything I had lost, everything that would never return, everything that only came back to me briefly when I closed my eyes and then drifted away again.
All the things I lost before I even realized they were mine.
--- From "Only When I Close My Eyes"

A sliver of light filtered through the small window, barely allowing them to read each other's expressions.
--- From "The Dismal Light"

The girl nodded.
The boy put his ear to the girl's round, swollen belly and waited for the baby to move.
“Honey.
“What did you say earlier?”
"what?"
“Hope, that’s what they were saying.”
“Hope is a miracle?”
“And again.”
“You mean hope spreads like fire?”
The boy stood still in the darkness with his ear against the girl's stomach.
The sound of waves could be heard from somewhere far away.
--- From "The Dismal Light"

A night when everyone leaves the past behind and looks forward to the future.
A night that speaks of hope rather than failure.
A night when snowflakes fall like a blessing, like comfort, to some, covering up their mistakes.

--- From "A Night When Nothing Happens"

While she was talking, somewhere under a roof, old people were crying like babies and dying, and babies with faces like old people were sticking their heads out of their wombs.

--- From "A Night When Nothing Happens"