My life is going to be a complete mess from today onwards.
No, it's not 'it seems like it will happen', it's 'it happened'. It happened completely against my will.
Yesterday I had to give up my room.
In a 32-pyeong apartment, my parents lived in the master bedroom, my older brother lived in the sunny middle room, and I lived in the small room. There were four of us living there.
But starting today, my maternal grandmother will be living in our house.
My older brother is a senior in high school and is a man, so he feels uncomfortable living with his grandmother, so we swapped rooms and he uses the small room alone, and I have to live with my grandmother in the middle room, which used to be my brother's room.
This is purely determined by the parents' will.
“No! I’m in my third year of middle school now.
“I’m at an age where I need my own private space!”
"What kind of private thing is this, a third-year middle school student? Stop talking like that, like frying an egg! When grandma comes home, you'll be responsible for taking care of her."
There is no bolt from the blue like this bolt from the blue.
My will was ignored from the beginning.
It's already a big deal to have my room taken away, but Mom wants me to take care of my grandmother too! Isn't this just unbelievable, unbelievable?
--- pp.7-8

For the first time after liberation, people became one in heart and mind and shouted "Manse".
Now, we hugged each other and cried in joy, saying that a better world had come.
But at some point, people's gazes began to change.
The word 'red' drifted like smoke and permeated every household.
The word 'red' was a word that could cover everything.
The neighbor who shared the ancestral rite meal with me started to snitch and reported me.
I learned more than you.
That you live better than other people.
It is said that he gave the name of communist to the person who lent him food to fill his hungry stomach so that he would not pay back the loan.

Those who had a sense of shame became shameless, and conscience lost its place in the face of hatred and loathing.
People were taken to the police station in broad daylight and in the dark of the night.
The people who were taken away disappeared without anyone knowing.
Those who were beaten to death and then released were lucky.

--- pp.30-31

My grandmother's words that North Korean soldiers were people just like us gave me a lot to think about.
Mom, when Dad was in school, there was something like an anti-communist poster drawing contest.
They used to portray the North Korean military as horned goblins and include phrases like, "Let's beat up the communists!"
But even before that, my grandmother, who lived even longer, considered the North Korean military to be just like us! These days, we think of North Korea as a socialist country, a nation of the same people, but distinct from us.
Thoughts forced upon us for some purpose can blind us.

But each and every person is different.
They look different, and their height and build are different too.
Everyone's growth and living environment are different.
Just as our appearances are different, our thoughts are also different.

--- p.75

The neighborhood kids and Isu were looking at what Ilsoo was pointing at, but Samsu's body went down the slope before his eyes.
Among the brothers, Samsu was the quickest and had the most impatient temper.
He was also very greedy and always got scolded by his father.
“Hey, I saw it first, so it’s mine!”
Ilsoo yelled, but Samsoo just snorted.
“The first one to pick it up is the owner!”
Samsu said he quickly picked it up, worried that his older brother might come down and steal it.
That's right! It was a shell.
Our Go-eun is also quick-witted.
But picking up the shell turned out to be just removing the detonator.
It was his quick body and hasty temperament that drove him to death.
"bang!"
With a sound, Samsu, who had just taken human form, disappeared from the world.
The shock left Ilsoo, Isu, and the neighborhood children stunned.

--- p.90

“Eunbi, what is the opposite of peace?”
“Hey! Chae Go-eun, are you calling that a question?”
“No, I asked because your answer is important to me.
“Since we’re going to do the assignment together, I should hear your thoughts as well.”
"Conflict! Or war! Even a grade schooler can answer that question!"
“Right? Then why do wars break out?”
“That, that’s it…….
Hatred and greed.
The greed to only eat well and live well in one's own country.
“What… …could it be because of something like that?”
Eunbi was slightly flustered, but she spoke her mind clearly.

“I guess so? But even now, wars are raging all over the world.
“Can the leaders of a country that started a war achieve its goals through war?”
“Well? Hmm…….
How would we know that?
“Right? Ordinary people like us wouldn’t be able to know that.
So, who is war for? Even if the nation benefits from war, is it right to sacrifice personal happiness for the sake of the nation's interests?
--- p.126

It was unfair that I couldn't blame anyone or complain about the death of a child during the war, but that didn't mean I hated the North Korean army as if they were my enemy.
What I hated was the war, not the people.

'It's a war where we have to fight the enemy, so we have to shoot guns and rain down shells.
In the meantime, innocent people die, and children die.
'It was all made like this by war!'
"Why do people hate each other? They drew a line, like the 38th parallel, on the road they used to travel freely, preventing them from even crossing, and now they're starting a war!"
No matter how much I tried to understand, I couldn't understand war.

'Why do wars happen?'
'Did Samsu just die because he was unlucky?'
'Was Samsu's death inevitable during the war?'
Questions that follow one after another.
It felt like I was holding a thread that wouldn't come undone.

--- pp.156-157