Part 1: The Dove on the Distant Oak Tree
Part 2 Malicious Viruses
Part 3 Bad Times

Author's Note

Eternal mentor to youth
Young adult novelist Lee Ok-su's first new work in five years

Another profound resonance following "Kissing My Life," "What's Wrong with Us, Seventeen," and "There's No Such Thing as a Day."

The intertwined fates of three friends, the sorrow born from their yearning for an absurd utopia.

K, a human being who lives for someone's purpose
Golden spoon, dirt spoon, they are all just shadows created by the obsession of adults.

A story that gives me a reason to get my name back

The new work, "I am K," by Lee Ok-su, a leading youth novelist in Korea, has been published by Biryongso after five years.
This new work contains the story of three misguided youths who, unable to develop their own thoughts during their teenage years, became Ks under the violence and pressure of adults.


Author Lee Ok-su, who won the Four Seasons Literary Award in 2004 for “Blue Ladder,” has been loved for her youth novels, including “There Is No Day Like a Dog,” “Kissing My Life,” “Why Are We Seventeen,” “My Love Sabuk,” “Goodbye from Kilimanjaro,” and “Paranja.”
He guides readers by vividly depicting the lives of teenagers in urban slums, mining towns, and the shadowy industrial areas.
In addition, this author has been building up the muscles of youth literature by realistically and realistically depicting the lives of teenagers, dealing with social issues such as youth sexuality and college entrance exams.

The author has personally visited schools across the country nearly 200 times a year, meeting young people and embracing their concerns and growing pains with his heart.
It is no exaggeration to say that he is the number one lecturer in schools, and he has gained a reputation as a star lecturer for teenagers.
He was the first in Korea to receive a doctorate for his research on “Narrative Process of Youth Novels” based on Korean youth novels.

■ “You are a special person who will make history.”
The shadows that failed to become light, created by the greed and goals of adults

"I am K" depicts the process of the friendship between three friends, Jae-hoo, Seo-jun, and Ra-hee, who have been friends since middle school, changing.
The detailed scenes of the three friends, who are unable to shine due to the interference of adults and who end up with irreversible consequences, crying out with heavy hearts, unfold with a sense of speed, as if watching a drama.

The story takes place from the present to the near future, and among the three friends, Seojun and Jaehoo in particular develop a strong friendship, but their different family backgrounds become a strange obstacle to their friendship.
Jae-hoo is a true 'child of a wealthy family', born to a powerful and influential father.
On the other hand, Seo-jun, who grows up in an ordinary family, grows up under the devotion and support of his mother, who is determined to help him achieve wealth and fame by upgrading his social status.


Han Seo-jun, listen to your mom, it's all for you.
I need to start managing my network from now on.
If you become friends with that kid, it will help you in the future.
_ From the text

Kim Jae-hoo, you are a special person.
That kid you call your friend is just a snail floating along in the history we've created.
Ungamsaengsim, you and that child are different from the moment you were born._ From the text

Jae-hoo's father wants to pass down his power to Jae-hoo for generations to come, and Seo-jun's mother wants Seo-jun to join the same group as Jae-hoo, the so-called 'league of their own'.
The distorted love of these parents for their children only pushes them further into the swamp.
If we constantly project the desires of the parental generation onto the children, what will be the result? And truly, is there no one who can help them find balance?

■ In the end, what is needed is the will and the power to think that ‘I can be myself’.

We live in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where fairness and equality are emphasized and creativity and spontaneity are valued. However, adults are stereotyping even this by putting forth their own framework.
They don't allow children the time or space to find and build their own independent lives.
The same goes for Seojun and Jaehoo's parents.
Jae-hoo's father erects strict barricades to ensure that Jae-hoo remains within the power he holds.
At some point, Jae-hoo internalizes his father's desires and becomes K, who loses his name and lives only to desire his father's goals.
Seojun also becomes absorbed in K rather than pursuing his own purpose in life, and gradually transforms into K.


You guys wouldn't know.
That from the day I went by the initials K, I was completely hidden.

I shouldn't have revealed myself to anyone.
From then on, I built a snail house, pushed my emotions inside, and closed the door.
For K, a human being who lives by his father's purpose, emotions were a luxury._ From the text

Since we were young, we have spent a lot of time memorizing and reciting like parrots in order to become top students.
Who gave us time to think?
Smartphones, like time thieves, have stolen all the time we have to think or feel something.
_ From the text

The author paradoxically argues that in order to avoid becoming a human being K who lives for someone else's purpose, we must 'think' about our own 'non-thinking' aspects.


■ What does the utopia we all desire look like?

One day, Jae-hoo and Seo-jun, who conducted an illegal experiment in the school science lab, are brought before the school disciplinary committee.
Jae-hoo escapes the crisis thanks to his father, a powerful figure in politics, and Seo-jun is expelled from school and goes abroad to study.
As time passes and the two friends become adults, they eventually reunite, but the deep wounds that have formed in each other's hearts completely destroy their long-standing friendship.

Seo-jun constantly dreams of revenge because of the wounds of betrayal, and Jae-hoo uses Seo-jun to fulfill his own ambitions.
As these two finally begin their secret and terrifying plot, they begin to indiscriminately attack the elderly and the weak, much like Thanos, the cosmic villain from a Marvel movie.

In Sparta, only the strong children survived._ From the text

World-renowned historian Gombrich said, “The most interesting thing about history is that all these seemingly improbable things happened.”
In these times when the Earth's resources are dwindling, the environment is polluted, competition is fierce, and the desire for a good life is growing, Jae-hoo, as a politician, dreams of things he should not pursue.


What should we do if, one day, something truly unimaginable, terrifying, suddenly confronts us? Is there no way, no device, to stop this secret and merciless conspiracy? When humans, unable to properly discern right from wrong, turn into monsters, what truly can be done to control them? What kind of utopia do we need? A world where only a few prosper, can the sadistic sacrifices demanded of others ever be fully justified? This novel, which began with the search for one's proper name, adds to the flavor of a futuristic novel and poses yet another question.