To become a new voice in youth literature
Winner of the 1st Modern Literature*Miraen Youth Literature Award

The 'Modern Literature*Miraen Youth Literature Award', established by Modern Literature, the birthplace of modern Korean literature, and the educational publishing company Miraen, with the awareness that literature that can foster creative thinking and limitless imagination in young people is necessary, is presenting its first award-winning work.
The award-winning novel, “If I Could Melt,” by Im Go-eul, received praise and support from the judges, who said, “It presents a literary perspective on young adult novels,” and “It is not a story that separates from the reader the moment the book is closed, but a story that amplifies in the reader’s mind.”
Author Im Go-eul meets young readers for the first time with a worldview she has painstakingly built, detailed descriptions that support it, characters steeped in reality, such as school violence and college entrance exam competition, and weighty ethical questions.

"If I Could Melt" is the story of two teenage sisters who have the ability to thaw frozen humans in a world where the entire Earth has been rapidly cooled to minus 200 degrees Celsius by a mysterious external force.
By granting the two sisters the dual authority to either freeze or thaw the world, the work reveals a new, never-before-seen 'eco-post-apocalyptic panorama', creating "a dilemma of not being able to recognize the frozen person and yet having no choice but to carry out the task of thawing them with hope, which is placed throughout the work, resulting in empathy with various emotions such as tension, fear, relief, and anger."


The judges' comments, such as "The idea that the subject of saving people is youth is truly a choice fit for the future," and "I want to cheer on the path the characters in the novel are running on" (Gu Byeong-mo), and "If you could thaw a frozen person and bring them back to life, who would you save? If the revived person wants to thaw someone else, what should be done with that desire? These comments did not miss the serious questions that a youth novel should ask" (Kim Min-ryeong), herald the birth of a powerful writer who will become a new voice in youth literature.

Rather, it was Seojin who was unlucky.
I've never felt so lucky in my life.
Even now, I am breathing without freezing.

--- p.14

Frost was never the type to give in.
Seojin knew, but he got to know her even better as he spent all day with his younger brother.
Frost wins somehow, by any means necessary.
Just like now.
Even if I have to freeze myself.
Now, Seojin does not see the frozen human as dead.
So, as Frost said, his claim that the ice people were not dead but in a state of temporary suspension was completely correct.
Seojin was wrong, and Seori was right.

--- p.18

Seori was very disappointed that he could not use the defrost machine.
My grandmother would complain whenever she had the chance, saying she couldn't understand why only my older sister was allowed to use the machine and why she wasn't.
Seojin knew why her grandmother did that.
It wasn't that I treated Seojin differently because she was my older sister.
If Frost had the authority to operate the defrost, this underground space would be bustling with people by now.
And accidents would have happened every day.

--- p.48

What Seojin wanted was for the world to remain unchanged from its current state.
Maintain the status quo.
For Seojin, ‘change’ always meant something that went for the worse.

--- p.59

“I think that if I want to melt someone too much in life, it would be okay for me to freeze again.
But first, let's look for frost."
--- p.67

The reason Seori woke up Giyujin was because she wanted Seojin to be afraid of the present world, not the past.
I hoped I wouldn't have nightmares calling out Ki Yu-jin's name in my sleep.
Ki Yu-jin was needed for this wind.
The Giyujin in Seojin's memories was becoming stronger and stronger.
I had to let the real Giyujin know that this wasn't the case.

--- pp.98-99

As expected, Grandma was fair.
Even in normal times, I never gave anything extra to Seojin just because she was my older sister, and I never unconditionally protected her.
But I was so shocked to learn that only Seo Jin could use the defrosting machine.
There was a hidden meaning behind why my grandmother did this.
It was clear that my sister had given me time to recover.
The problem was that it didn't get much better.

--- p.101

"You hate waking up? Do you know how many people are frozen right now, with no hope of ever thawing again? The Earth is actually finished.
Even if we prepare for planetary migration, it will be difficult for the currently frozen humans to survive until then.
So you don't think the melted one was chosen?"
“Choice? So you’re saying you chose me as if you were some kind of god?”
--- p.107

“The world is frozen over, but the two of you survived together. There must be a lot to think about.
“Later, when everyone has melted away, will the time you two spent enter history? Or will it just be considered frozen time, nonexistent time?”
So, the sun wasn't impressed by the two lonely survivors in the frozen world, but rather by the debate that would unfold when the Earth melted.
It was funny that he was still on the same side as the frozen people, even though he himself had melted.
Are you really going to freeze again? There's a difference between freezing because you have no choice and freezing by choice.

--- p.122

“What should we do from now on?”
Hyesung, who had his chin resting on his hand, asked as if he was talking in his sleep without saying anything.
Seori wondered how far ahead 'forward' was asking.
How long has it been since Seojin thawed, and are you asking about your future plans for living in the frozen world?
If it was the latter, even Frost didn't know.

--- p.147

The sun didn't readily come up with the idea of ​​melting mom and dad.
What do you mean, what do I do after melting it?
"Then should we just call our psychiatrist first? Are you having a hard time, hyung?"
The sun hugged the yellow yarn and sobbed.
“Let’s melt God.
“I think it got frozen somewhere by mistake.”
Hyeseong quietly hugged the sun.

--- p.178

If you melt someone, you're bound to have problems.
In the future, I didn't want to create problems and waste time and energy solving them.
So when Seojin came to the room and asked if there was anyone he wanted to melt, he answered that there was no one.

--- p.181

Of course, Seojin had no plans to melt the person Giyujin wanted.
It was a question that came up because, at this moment with Ki Yu-jin, he knew who he wanted to melt.
Seojin wanted to melt the weak people.
I wanted to melt the good people who clearly existed but seemed to not exist in the world.

--- p.197