Text 05

Author's Note 188

“Do you know how to eat bokguk?”
Like the fragrant scent of water parsley that releases dark red poison
Warmth that melts a cold heart

Du-Hyeon, the grandson of Geumgang Bok-Jip, calls himself 'Blowfish'.
It looks gentle on the outside, but it has teeth like nippers in its mouth and has deadly poison in its internal organs, which is similar to its nature.
When he learned that his mother had taken cyanide and taken her own life because of his father's harsh words, and when he saw on the internet that his father had betrayed him and his mother, a poison stronger than the poison of a puffer fish formed in Du-hyeon's heart.
The reason Duhyun was able to hold on was because his grandparents were always by his side, always ready to give him a hot bowl of bokguk.
Recovery was slow, but thanks to the generous love of the two, Du-Hyeon was able to cling to a simple but ordinary life.
Duhyun also had a friend named Junsu, with whom he could share his feelings and rely on no matter what the problem was.
Doo-Hyeon enrolls in a mechanical engineering high school to follow Jun-Su, who wants to earn money as quickly as possible to pay off the family debt and send his younger siblings to college.
The life-changing decision to choose one's career path was made on a shaky overpass.


Thinking about the future made me anxious, and I couldn't help it.

How would I describe my life?

While learning milling to cut iron and exploring the future, Doo-hyun and Jun-su feel firsthand what will happen when they go out into society as they watch Jae-kyung, a transfer student from the humanities department, confront Jang Gwi-nyeo, the president of Gwi-geum Korea.
President Jang Gwi-nyeo dismissed the accident that occurred while Jae-kyung's older brother Jae-seok was doing field training as something that could have happened.
Jae-kyung protests to the end, demanding an apology, and boldly declares her intention to change 'this backward world where money is everything.'
Du-hyeon, who learned about the world through his father who was always after money, and Jun-su, who learned about reality early on due to his difficult family circumstances, want to be a strength to Jae-gyeong.
“The world is not easy.
As teacher Jeong Myeong-jin said, “It’s especially so for you guys,” the world that is judged by money, academic background, etc. is extremely harsh on the specialized high school students who will soon have to go out into society.


What would happen to me if the red and black fruit inside me burst with an explosive sound?
Now is the time to clench your fists and let out the venom.
I want to shake off the past and fly lightly.

As October arrives, Du-Hyeon is unable to control his wavering heart.
Because it is the month of my mother's death anniversary and my father's release from prison is coming up soon.
Problems that we had previously closed our eyes to and covered up are now surfacing one after another.
Doo-Hyeon sees Jun-Su and Jae-Kyung steadily moving forward on their own paths, and realizes that it is time for him to move forward as well.
To do that, you have to face the truth about your tragic family and your inner self that you have tried to ignore and cover up.
In order to meet again the past that he had painfully cut off from, the mother he had tried to forget, his own emotions that he had suppressed, and the existence of himself, Du-hyeon visits his maternal grandparents' house. As he sees his maternal grandmother repeatedly saying "Oh my baby" in his arms, he realizes that "I" was a person who was comforted by his very existence.
It's not because of something you're good at or something you've accomplished, but simply because of your presence that your family's wounds are often healed.

I didn't want to live bound by conditions.
The conditions may not be qualifications.
“I was a man who could even carve iron.”

Artist Moon Kyung-min's work, meticulously polished like iron, is filled with the details of 'children lost on the road.'
Kang-tae, who calls himself the 'King of Self-Hyun' at the mechanical engineering high school, causes problems big and small as soon as he enters the school and is eventually in danger of being expelled.
The situation is no different for students in the humanities, whose path to college is set.
This is because Hyeong-seok, who went on to Ja-hyeon High School, which uses the same playground as Ja-hyeon Machinery High School, also appears to have lost his way.


Moreover, the author depicts adults who silently go their own way, showing various possibilities and hopes.
Through the lives of Du-hyeon's grandparents who open Geumgangbokjip 365 days a year by doing market shopping every morning, a professional man who tries to correct his mistakes, President Jang Gwi-nyeo who is confident that "I am the best even though I did not go to college or participate in anything like the Skills Olympics," and teacher Jeong Myeong-jin who is far from a teacher-like way of doing things but is devoted to a wandering student to the end, the author shows various paths to young readers.


So, Duhyun said, “I want to live a life where I have something to look forward to, no matter what I do.
Finding something I love and am good at, and doing it with the people I love.
And if I may add one more thing, I would like to express my small desire to become a good person who brightens the world.
It was on an overpass with a distant view of the road scenery.



My once broken soul was as clean as if it had been put into a precisely carved mold.
A fresh, warm energy swirled across the surface of my heart.
“What name should I give to this rippling heart?”

Duhyun is about to take the heaviest step in the world.
Author Moon Kyung-min, who began writing this novel “with the hope of a better world,” finds strength in the character of Du-hyeon.
Before Doo-Hyeon takes a step forward, author Moon Kyung-Min seems to blow a warm wind behind him and push him forward with all his might.
Life is tough and recovery is slow, but if Du-hyeon, Jun-su, and Jae-kyung face reality and decide to move forward, they will be able to soar with the venom they hold within them as their driving force.
In this surging heart, I hold the name of fighting spirit.

Sadness, frustration, resentment and anger can also become the strength of life.
I hope that the poison that has eaten away at his soul has become Duhyun's energy.
With his wild nature nurtured in this way, Du-Hyeon will face a world that is not easy.
_From the author's note