Prologue 7
15 Where the sun sets
Epilogue 173

Author's Note 191
Commentary on the Work | Jeon So-young (Literary Critic) 193
When all the songs of those who love are finally awakened

Love wins, Dori and Gina

“I was thinking about smiling like Gina, and before I knew it, I kissed her.
It was cold and warm.
It was rough and smooth.
“Cold, hunger, misfortune, and disaster all vanished in surprise at our kiss.”

A meeting like the only gift brought by disaster.
Dori and Jinna define their love very carefully.
The love that blossomed in the ruins where daily life was completely erased may be an opportunity to “build a new story of our own.”
The hope they believe in is not a perfectly safe bunker to avoid the virus, but the present where they can live without being overcome by misfortune.
The goal of this love is not to be held back by past hurts or consumed by future anxieties.
This pledge of love is a firm promise to look straight into each other's faces right now.


Ryu and Dan, who postponed love due to their poor daily lives

“That wasn’t possible in Korea.
I put off seeing someone precious.
Because there is tomorrow.
You can do it next time.
Because I believed there was a long future ahead.
That can't happen anymore.
(……) The life of procrastination is over.
“I have to say I love you.”

Before the disaster, Ryu and Dan's daily life revolved solely around inertia.
We forget conversation, hugs, compliments and gratitude as we work to earn the money we need to live.
After the disaster, they were forced to leave Korea, deprived of the opportunity to mourn the loss of their beloved daughter, Hae-rim.
As his daily life falls apart and the cycle of boredom breaks, Ryu finally looks back on the love he had been putting off.
One day, when the car, which had been running without direction or purpose, stops, Ryu tells Dan a story he had never told her in their entire married life.


In Korea before the disaster, there were no dreams,

“If I had to choose only one thing in life, I would always choose Kwon Ji-na.
Thinking that I was on my way to Gina gave me strength in any case.
“I have a dream, and that dream is not yet complete.”

For Gunji, daily life in Korea was also survival.
At home, there was a father who beat his mother and Geonji, and at school, there were classmates who beat Geonji.
It was Gina who put Ganji, who had decided to die rather than leave the village where the virus was rampant, on the top car.
Geonji, who was led by Gina's hand and set out on a journey of refuge, dreams of a warm sea all year round.
There, you can catch fish, pick fruit from trees, and live with your loved ones.
After the disaster, will Gunji, who has held a precious dream in his heart for the first time, be able to reach the warm sea?

Recommendation

Looking back, the stories Choi Jin-young has kept for so long contain the will to discover your face caught in the fading light, the desperation to not lose sight of your sorrow, and the sensitive attempt to portray our hesitant encounters with the patterns of similar hearts.
In order to fully capture that will, desperation, and sensitive attempt, his novels must have frequently raised the question, "What is human?" and aimed at an era in which the rhetoric of "humanity" had become meaningless.
With carefully crafted sentences and expressions, the possibility of emotional communication within and outside the novel was tapped into.
It could be said that this is a unique way of love in Choi Jin-young's novels, born from his belief in people and novels.

Commentary by Jeon So-young (literary critic)

Author's Note

Even on that day when humanity perishes and everything we have created turns to ashes, people, you, we will still love.
The words of love left by so many people will wander like ghosts and the wind across the quiet earth.
Love remains.
Like a universe that will remain here even if it disappears and disappears.