Prologue: Jiyu's Keyboard

Part 1

Joo Won: The timing is fucking terrible
Younghoon: A bat hiding in a cave
Amin: Unbearable extremes
Seongjin: A lowly human being

Part 2

Drummer Go Young-hoon
Guitarist Kang Ju-won
Bassist Hwang Seong-jin
Vocalist Ji-Amin

Epilogue

Author's Note
Recommendation

The 4th Nexus Light Feature Writer Award Grand Prize Winner

“Now that you’ve tried it, don’t regret it.
By trying, my freedom was made complete.”
Warm whispers and firm promises to encourage oneself

Joo Won_ The timing is so bad

Joo-won's parents divorced when Joo-won was in the first year of middle school.
Unlike ordinary parents who fight over custody, neither of Joo-won's parents wanted to take care of their only child.
Joo-won swore at his mother for the first time when she bluntly told him that custody of Joo-won had finally been transferred to her.
And then he decided to run away from home.
During his middle school years spent at his maternal grandmother's house, the acoustic guitar his grandmother bought him was his only refuge.
Joo-won, who fell in love with the guitar like that, started playing in a band after entering high school.
Just when I felt like I was living a peaceful life, with my independent life, part-time job, and boyfriend, my mother, with whom I had cut ties, started contacting me repeatedly.
The timing is just so fucking bad.

While my mom and dad were going through divorce negotiations, I was so dead that I wondered if I was really Kang Joo-won.
Because neither of them wanted to take care of me, their only daughter.
-From the text

Younghoon_ Bats hiding in the cave

Younghoon joined the band following his friend.
The drum sticks he held for the first time seemed to whisper to Younghoon that they had been waiting for him for a long time.
The moment I hit the drums, all my worries about my complicated family life, which seemed like they would explode, disappeared.
Younghoon, who had been keeping an eye on Joowon since he joined the band and was just waiting for the right moment to confess, became a dog chasing a chicken when Joowon started dating his third-year senior, Hyeon-gyeom.
Moreover, when the public video of the Chungkyung High School festival is uploaded online, Younghoon's family history, which he wanted to keep hidden, is in danger of being revealed...
Will Younghoon, the bat hiding in the cave, be able to escape?

I waved my hand as if I was going to break it, ignoring the technique the teacher had taught me.
Even though my ears were blocked, I didn't stop.
This was legal, not violent.
-From the text

Amin_ Unbearable extremes

Amin's dream is to be a singer-songwriter.
Although she participated in an audition program, achieved good results, and signed a contract with an agency, her debut became a distant dream due to unexpected dance practice and her weight that did not seem to go down.
When signing the contract, he said he wanted to become a solo singer, but his agency persuaded him that it would be better to first build recognition as a group and then go solo.
After a year and a half like that, Amin gradually loses confidence.


I'm getting close to my goal weight.
Instead, I'm tired because I often wake up with a start.
I try to stay focused, but I quickly lose focus in class.
However, during meal times, I couldn't even empty half of my plate and had to throw it away.
I'd rather just carve the flesh with a carving knife.
-From the text

Seongjin_ A lowly human being

Seong-gil, the youngest brother, twelve years younger than Seong-jin, was born with severe autism.
My parents spent hundreds of dollars a month on treatment, but it was useless.
When Seong-gil was six years old, his father passed away from acute liver cancer, and he had to stop treatment as his insurance money ran out.
In this situation, Seongjin had no choice but to give up his dream of becoming a musician.
The realistic path I chose was to become a music teacher.
Although he passed the civil service exam by barely passing the exam, Seongjin's life is hopeless.
He is in debt of nearly a billion won due to a failed coin investment, and the band that he found most rewarding as a teacher is on the verge of disbandment.
And even Jiyu's suicide, who had opened her heart and approached him...
Where will Seongjin's life go?

Everything is hopeless.
I don't know why people envy me.
I wonder what I'll achieve by working like this.
Still, I must always remain a great teacher, a good young man, and a filial son.
_From the text

"hello.
We are the best in the world!”
A moment of joy as we breathe together, a dazzlingly refreshing growth story!

Author Sang-ki Park, who has been actively working across the fields of fairy tales and youth novels, won the grand prize at the 4th Nexus Light Novel Writer Award.
"We Are the World's Strongest" is a coming-of-age novel that tells the story of a band music teacher and band members, each with their own worries, in their own voices.
It was highly praised as a young adult novel with a rare artistic catharsis, in which all characters fully enjoy and endure the process of love, alienation, loneliness, and discovery, and approach their own polyphonic music, and was recommended by all the judges.


The author says in his author's note that he wanted to write a novel with a strong scent.
I also wanted to write about people who are struggling to survive today, soaked in rain and smelling of water.
As you read this novel, you will find yourself rooting for them as they demonstrate not only the courage to believe in themselves and persevere, but also the courage to acknowledge their own weaknesses, cowardice, and failures.


Author's Note

A cool shower is falling outside the window.

Shoosh, I looked outside, drawn by the sound of the rain, and saw many people.
A child waiting for the rain to stop at the entrance of a building, a woman running with a bag on her head, a man slowly riding a bicycle despite the pouring rain, and even students cheering happily and kicking a ball on the playground.
I feel like there are many different ways to deal with rain.

I wanted to write a novel with a strong scent.
It is also a story of people struggling to survive today, soaked in rain and smelling of water.
As the idea took time to take shape, five people came to me.
Joo Won, Young Hoon, Amin, Sung Jin, Ji Yu.
They all got rained on in different ways.
I didn't want to focus on just one person.
So I decided to make everyone the main character.
-From the author's note