This is Jenu 301 | Let's start the parent interview | Who the hell were you introduced to? | The number on your ID card | Do all adults have to be adults? | You seem to live the way you think you should? | For me, for me | Did you hear the rumor? | I'll wait, my friend | Parents' Children | Can I ask you one last question? Author's Note

Interviewing teenagers and their parents!
A futuristic novel that boldly takes a step out of reality

"Paint" is a novel that begins with the subversive imagination that adolescents, as their perceptions broaden and their subjectivity develops, can directly choose the family they will live with.
It stands out for its realistic dialogue, exciting plot, and quick readability.

The protagonist, Jenu, is a mature and thoughtful seventeen-year-old boy who grew up in the NC Center established by the state.
Like all children at the center, they have the right to interview and select prospective parents who come to adopt them.
The novel's intriguing title, "Paint," is children's slang for a parent's interview.
Jenu has been painting for four years, since she was thirteen.


However, I have repeatedly been disappointed by prospective parents who do not truly want children but are only interested in receiving various welfare benefits from the government through adoption.
Jenu is in a situation where he must leave the center alone if he cannot choose his parents by the time he turns twenty.
There are only about two years left.
Will Jenu ever be able to meet her parents?

"It feels real!" "It's refreshing!" "It's like my story."
A feast of heart-wrenching lines, rave reviews from the youth jury.

Aki, the bright and lovable girl who shares a room with Jenu, and Noah, who looks rough but carries the scars of having been adopted by his parents and then returned to the center, are also charming and lifelike supporting characters.
Like Jenu, those who prepare for the paint prepare for the future by drawing the image of their desired parents.
Before you know it, readers are drawn into the novel, interviewing the parents themselves and feeling the vivid realism of who to choose.
You can also feel a thrill of satisfaction by giving a merciless 15 out of 100 to a rude and impolite prospective parent, just like Jenu.
The sharp conversations that take place during the interview process ring vividly in my ears, as if they were actual conversations between family or friends.

“Did our parents have love?” _Page 35
“Society likes things with clear country of origin.” _Page 59
“Most children are most hurt by their families.” _Page 105
“If I hadn’t grown up under my parents, wouldn’t I be living a completely different life with a completely different personality?” _Page 105

For those of us living in Korean society, a family-centered society where strong bonds between parents and children are still valued, the questions posed by Jenu and the various characters raise serious concerns.
Does having a lot of money make a good parent? Does having a great character make a good parent? Are parents truly necessary? The novel "Paint" soothes the repressed emotions of teenagers who struggle to escape their parents' shadows, while simultaneously offering a sense of liberation through its engaging plot and leading them to find balance within themselves.
This is probably why the youth judging panel, comprised of 134 elementary, middle, and high school students, showered the winning work with encouraging comments such as, “It’s refreshing!”, “It feels real!”, “I like the main character who speaks his mind”, and “It’s like my story.”

Meanwhile, the story unfolds in an exciting way as the hidden stories of NC Center Director Park, who plays a significant role in helping children interview their parents as an assistant, and Guardian Choi, a female guardian who works with him, are gradually revealed.
The story takes a new turn when a young artist couple visits Jenu, who has practically given up on interviewing her parents.
“To be honest, I’ve never really thought about liking children!” These people seem completely unprepared to be parents.
What exactly are their stories? And why is Jenu so drawn to them?

Parents are not something that happens automatically, they are something that is 'become'.
Again, we ask the meaning of family.

“Just like in the novel, there is a child inside me who has not grown up.
Playing with that child is writing to me.
I write without any desire to gain anything, but simply because I am happy to be able to enjoy the process.
Isn't it the same with becoming a parent?
Enjoying time with your child comes first, rather than the desire to make your child into the child you want.
“Parents are not something you become, they are something you become.” _From the author’s words

Author Lee Hee-young won the grand prize for new writers at the 1st Kim Seung-ok Literary Award and the grand prize at the 1st Brit G Romance Thriller Contest, gaining recognition for her literary talent and storytelling ability and emerging as a promising new writer.
In the author's note for "Paint," the author honestly confesses the difficulties of raising children as a parent and the enlightenment that comes from experience.
A beautiful process in which parents and children become dyed in different colors, as teenagers color their futures through parent interviews.
That is the true meaning of 'paint', says the author.
This work will warmly touch the hearts of everyone, from those who are in their teens within the diverse family communities that make up this society to those who have become independent after that time.