prolog
Part 1 Unknown
Part 2 Cases
Part 3 Acceleration towards you
Part 4 Sparkle

Author's Note

You who remained unknown
χ that I must save

One snowy winter, a phantom snowflake begins to appear in Yuri's right eye, who is about to turn seventeen.
Yuri, who was wondering about the identity of the snowflakes that she could only see with her right eye, which had a cornea transplant, brings up a question she had been keeping hidden.
I just wanted to know who the donor was who donated the cornea.


Yuri, who puts aside the tiresome advice to “be grateful for being able to use your head” (page 73) and to prepare for the future diligently, decides to find the answer to the question she has been putting off.
After searching, he finds out that the person who donated his organs to five people, including Yuri, on Christmas Day five years ago and passed away was eighteen-year-old 'Lee Young-jun', and that there was also 'Zion' who had been sending letters to Young-jun for several years through the 'Letters to Heaven' website.

As Yuri reads each letter Zion sent to Youngjun, she gradually learns what kind of person Youngjun is.
Zion's letter is full of sentences remembering the departed Youngjun.
Yuri reads the book that Youngjun liked, makes a lot of snow ducks on the bench where Sion stops to remember Youngjun, and reads Sion's letter while looking out at the river.
Yuri begins the act of remembrance that should have been done five years ago, but belatedly.


My lips were trembling because it was cold.
My fingers were numb.
But I thought it would be nice if there was just one person besides me, even if it was just the wind blowing across the river, who would understand Zion's heart.
(Page 88)

Some shaking is inevitable
To keep the center and land safely

Since the accident, Yuri has been suppressing a tangled web of emotions: guilt toward her younger brother, who has been in a vegetative state ever since, sadness and bitterness at seeing her parents living a different life than before, and hatred and resentment toward her grandmother who abandoned her at the scene of the accident.
It was because he was the 'beneficiary' who had the good fortune of receiving a transplant that he was able to vent his negative emotions.
Although Yuri always “covered her ears” and “chose to turn away” (page 74), she decides not to turn away from the enlightenment she gained from getting to know Zion.
It was just that I had accumulated a lot of complicated pain within myself.

That feeling, in fact, was a feeling of regret.
My good fortune is someone else's misfortune.
Because that hurts me too.
(Page 88)

Yuri and Sion, who met in person through letters and talked, embark on a trip to see Lee Young-jun's hometown through his eyes.
Perhaps it was because she had decided to face the feelings she had been ignoring? Yuri was shaken by the uncontrollable outpouring of emotions, as if swept up in a turbulent current.
All of this felt like it came suddenly, but in fact, it was a question that Yuri had to ask herself at least once.

I rubbed my eyes with my hands.
It was bitter.
Even when I scratch and get angry, the spheres in my eyes float leisurely inside me.
As if it would be like that forever.
(……) I couldn't stand it.
Hunger, curiosity, failure.
(Page 163-4)

Now open your eyes that you have been closing
Time to look at the dazzle within me

"Sparkle" is a small travel story, but at the same time, it is a huge story about one person's life coming to life.
Yuri, who used to mock herself by saying, “Some dreams remain dreams without being realized” (page 76), gives a firm answer to the question of what her dream is. She closes her eyes countless times, but opens them again and looks ahead.


In Sparkle, nothing that could happen with a one in ten thousand chance happens.
But why does this novel “make us believe in miracles once again”?
This is because Sparkle tells us that the brilliant light of growth often shines through broken cracks, that we may close our eyes for a moment to that harsh glare, but that life is about opening our eyes again, and that our lives are a miracle because everyone can experience that brilliance.


We look forward to seeing Yuri's tough flight through turbulence and cold fronts in the future.
Although it will be swayed countless times to find its center, everyone who reads Sparkle will be able to fly with Yuri.
As a winner of the Changbi Youth Literature Award, this is a work that will remain as a splendid light for young people going through a cold season.

If you've ever felt like closing your eyes in the murky fog that obstructs your vision in everyday life, I recommend reading Sparkle.
Kim Ji-eun (literary critic)

From the author's words

In the photo taken outside the airplane window, the early morning sun was shining brightly.
I closed my eyes for a moment because of the glare, but I will open my heavy eyelids again and become a writer who reaches out to the world.
I will write to guide someone to the next step, just as I received the faith.
Drawing passionate moments for everyone who meets 『Sparkle』.