Ma Dong-su (馬東守) died on December 20, 1979 at 18 Sanoe-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul.
Ma Dong-su was born in 1910, the year of the dog, in Seoul, spent his childhood there, wandered around Jilin, Changchun, and Shanghai in Manchuria, and returned to Seoul after liberation. He lived through the Korean War and the era of Presidents Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee, and died at the age of 69.
In the year that Ma Dong-su died, Kim Jae-gyu, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, shot and killed President Park Chung-hee with a pistol.
Park Chung-hee served as the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th president.
Park Chung-hee was shot in the heart and fell to the ground, muttering, 'I'm okay, I'm okay... '
Ma Dong-su's death and Park Chung-hee's death have no relation other than the fact that they 'died.'
There is nothing special about Ma Dong-su's life.
Ma Dong-su died three years after being diagnosed with cancer.
The cancer, which started in the liver, spread to the stomach and intestines and even penetrated into the spine.
My bones were worn out and I sneezed, causing my joints to become dislocated.
Ma Dong-su's cancer was slow and long.
As the body deteriorated, the cancer's power proliferated, and even after Ma Dong-su died, the cancer remained alive in the body for three days and disappeared when the body was cremated.
Ma Dong-su's cancer was a separate life form that parasitized the human body but was independent of the human body.
---From "Father"

The carriage driver received a leave certificate from the administrative office at the battalion headquarters.
The senior sergeant said that since this is the first vacation since the suspension of vacation due to martial law was lifted, they should be aware of the gravity of the situation and strictly observe military discipline during the vacation period, be filial to their parents, familiarize themselves with the emergency contact network, and strictly adhere to the return time.
December 22nd… … .
The carriage driver repeated the date of his return three times in front of the senior sergeant and left the administrative office.
Private Oh Jang-chun ran out of the supply office.
Oh Jang-chun dragged Macha-se's arm and went into the break room.
There was no one in the break room.
Oh Jang-chun handed over a white envelope.
-Hey, you, go on vacation and have a drink.
-You, is this okay?
―Nimi… … .
Hey, who wants to see this?
Put it in quickly.
The envelope that Oh Jang-chun gave me contained 20,000 won.
It was more than six times the salary of a private.
Oh Jang-chun was working as an assistant to the non-commissioned officer in charge of fuel at the battalion headquarters supply department.
The difference between the logs submitted by drivers and the documents reported to their superiors was equivalent to the amount of fuel being leaked onto the black market.
---From "Eastern Front"

The inside of the tavern was filled with smoke from grilling tripe, and drunken horses clashed.
Everyone was talking, and the chatter was so loud that I couldn't hear anything.
Machase folded the letter and put it in his upper pocket.
I thought of the bird in the letter.
The people gathered in the tavern looked like a flock of restless birds, as if a single rustle would send thousands of them flying at once.
The birds in the letter were together but separate.
(……)
-Are you on vacation? It was cold.
Are you in Seoul?
He said.
Park Sang-hee's voice always had a nasal sound.
When I said, "Are you on vacation?", "Ni?" rang in my nose.
It sounded like a sound coming from a deep cave inside my body, not from inside my nose.
'You?' was soaked with moisture that had passed through the speaker's body.
If I were to draw Park Sang-hee's 'Ni?' in a picture, it would be concentric circles spreading out on the water.
The circular ripple came through the telephone line and entered Machase's body through his ears.
'Ni?' leaped over the distance between the mountainous highlands of the Eastern Front and Seoul in one breath and drove the carriage towards 'Ni?'.
---From "The Seine Bar"

-I was sad when I buried my father, but I was happy.
I thought that the world had been really difficult.
I stomped on the dirt, praying that this kind of life would never happen again.
My brother can't stand the pain of going through such a difficult time.
My brother is trying to avoid my father and is falling into another swamp. I'm going to live here.
Now that I'm married, I'll become a father.
-Are you tired? Should we lie down?
-No, it's okay.
Do you know who stole money at the restaurant earlier? He's a revolutionary.
My father's old comrade.
I don't know what the meaning was though.
I was scared because it seemed like that person came in place of my father.
It also seemed like my father wasn't dead yet.
-So that's why you looked tired today.
I guessed so too.
Park Sang-hee felt like the days she would have to live with this poor husband were far away.
I had to carry the weight of all the days I had lived and the burdens I had accumulated along the way, and cross the plains of time I had never lived through.
The edge of the field was not visible.

---From "The First Night"