Heejun, Hana
Seventeen, Spring: Amin and Yujeong
Heejun, two
Seventeen, Summer: Amin and Seonghyeon
Heejun, three
Seventeen, Autumn: Amin and Jiwon
Heejun, net
One Winter: Amin and Heejun

Author's Note

“Hey guys, what’s the story of your life?”
Seol Jae-in, an author who crosses numerous genres, materials, and age groups,
Focusing on children outside the "average" line

The 125th volume of the Consonant and Vowel Youth Literature series, “Seventeen Seasons,” has been published.
This 'spicy coming-of-age novel' is a new full-length youth novel by Seol Jae-in, a 'trusted author' who has created a diverse world of novels ranging from youth novels to science fiction and pure literature.

"The Four Seasons of Seventeen" is a novel that is a full-length version of the short story "Memory Card" from the first volume of the "Seasonal Anthology" series within the Jaum and Moeum Youth Literature series, "March 2nd, the Day of Beginning," and is also the beginning of the "Seasonal Anthology Series Full-length Project."
The novel's composition is also unique, reflecting the characteristics of the anthology series, which emphasized 'seasons', directly into the plot.
Following the story of the spring day when the main characters, Seong A-min and Shin Yu-jeong, meet in "Memory Card," episodes with three other children they meet throughout summer, fall, and winter are organically connected, creating a weighty story different from the short story.
And it leads readers to a profound ending that leaves them unable to give up hope until the very end.

Seong-Amin, a seventeen-year-old who graduated from high school through the GED exam, is a minor college student who has just entered the business administration department of the best university in the country.
Although he has the enviable qualifications, he is actually being blatantly bullied in his department because he is young and has a poor appearance.
To make matters worse, a fire breaks out at home, leaving him homeless and his only family member, his mother, hospitalized.


Amin, who is in a situation where he has to jump into a construction site right away, sees a suspicious tutoring job posting on the school bulletin board and contacts him right away.
So, he meets Song Yu-jeong, a freshman in high school, who is a twenty-year-old adult and the son of an incredibly wealthy family.

Yoo-jeong's parents, who are renowned scientists and professors, ask Amin to live with Yoo-jeong in the hotel penthouse and keep an eye on him.
Amin thought this was surveillance rather than tutoring, but he accepted the offer because he didn't want to stay alone in the coffin-like goshiwon.
But as we spend time together, Yujeong keeps saying strange things.
Those two are not actually his parents, and he had a chip implanted in his head for experimentation.
Because of that chip, he can read other people's thoughts.
At that time, Amin just thought that Yujeong was a very sick person.

One day, at the request of Yujeong, the two go to see the cherry blossoms.
However, due to the unexpected heavy rain, instead of enjoying the flowers, they get drenched in rain, and to make matters worse, they run into classmates that Amin finds annoying.
Amin tried to run away with Yujeong, but Yujeong, who needed a friend, left Amin behind and went to drink with them.
The next day, Yu-jeong is found dead on the street.
Amin, tormented by regret, steals the small memory card found at the scene of the accident, the 'chip' that Yu-jeong kept talking about, and holds it in his hand every day, making a promise to himself.
I won't give my heart to my private tutor anymore.

“You go in first.
I think these people want me more.
At least better than you, sir.
“Much more so than the teacher who never believed in me, the teacher who kept dismissing my hurt as the tantrums of a spoiled brat… … .”
“The tantrum of a full child”.
Amin had never said anything like that to Yujeong.

_In the text

That summer, Amin was forced to teach a professor's nephew at his request.
The child's name was 'Joo Seong-hyeon', and although he was in the 5th grade of elementary school, he was a 'gifted child' who had already completed his studies up to the 3rd year of high school.
Seonghyeon, who has been turned into a fool, envy Amin's poverty and confesses that he actually wants to escape from his parents.
Amin, who is indignant at Seonghyeon's words that poverty is a privilege, directly urges Seonghyeon to choose poverty and run away from home.
But after hearing that, Seonghyeon really leaves home and starts living in Amin's goshiwon.
Amin, who was unable to tutor Seonghyeon, hurts his back while working part-time at a logistics center.
One day, when the pain became uncontrollable, Amin asked Sagong, a hikikomori man who was the only one in the goshiwon whose number he knew, to buy him a pain relief patch.

But this brings about an unexpected incident.
Seonghyeon, who learned the truth of the incident, disappeared in an instant.
Amin, who has seen Yoo-jeong's death and Seong-hyeon's disappearance overlap, wanders the streets in confusion, trying to find Seong-hyeon.


Amin hoped.
If Seonghyeon is crying somewhere in the same position as me, I hope he gets help.
I hope you are in a safe place.
I hope he's already made all of this into an episode that he can later recall as a funny memory.
Because that's something that only he can do, something that is impossible with his own abilities.
I just wanted to be safe.
Unlike Yujeong.

_In the text

The snowball of Amin's misfortune, which began to roll in the spring of the seventeenth year, only grew bigger and bigger as the seasons passed, showing no sign of slowing down.

One autumn, when loneliness and desolation were growing, Amin became a private tutor for Min Ji-won, the son of a woman living in a goshiwon, who was living in an underprivileged environment.
Jiwon is smart, but rather than continue his studies, he wants to get a job quickly so he can abandon his abusive father and live with his mother.
Amin, who feels a sense of kinship with Jiwon, who is in a similar situation to him, quickly becomes close to her by revealing his true feelings that he has never revealed to anyone else.
However, when the students found out about this, they criticized Amin, saying that the class was falling in status because he was only receiving small amounts of money for tutoring.
And before that wound can even heal, the absurd bad relationship between Amin and Ji-won's mother is revealed to Amin.

“For adults, it’s the child’s future, dreams, goals and happiness.
Those things are taken for granted.
But I've never seen a child with something like that.
It must be somewhere.
But most of them weren't like that.
It's the same with adults.
We all just live to eat and survive.
It's not just gosiwon.
Teacher Min Jong-chan is the same in the end.
Don't project illusions.
Please acknowledge that illusions are illusions.
Please stop being greedy and find a way to live.
“How to live with Jiwon.”

_In the text

As time passed, one winter, Amin finally transferred from the business administration department to the teacher training department and became a teacher.
I am currently working as a temporary teacher at Jeil Free High School, the most prestigious high school in Korea.
Amin tells the story of Yoo-jeong, Seong-hyeon, and Ji-won to Ham Hee-jun, a student who has been following him since his first day of school and wants to get his attention.
As if it happened just yesterday, vividly.

After Jiwon and Heejun left the teachers' office, Amin packed his bags.
I left the teachers' office and walked along the edge of the playground.
And then I headed towards the back door where there were few people.
Simply because the bus stop was over there.
And then, at one inexplicably ordinary moment, Amin felt a sharp pain around his neck.

_In the text

Readers may be consumed by negative emotions such as pain, anger, and sadness as they watch Amin's tumultuous daily life.
Amin, who rolls and rolls without even a moment to breathe, might feel sad.
Because his struggles are described so meticulously and densely, you might feel as if you are going through hardships yourself, and so you might hesitate to turn the pages.
But even if Amin stumbles over a rock or a cliff suddenly appears before his eyes, he continues to walk steadily toward the warmth that may be right for him.
And with each step, the three children Amin encounters throughout the four seasons accompany him.
Holding my hand when I was shaking, lending my shoulder when I was tired, and sometimes wiping away my tears that suddenly flowed.
Like Amin's spring, summer, and fall, our lives often seem filled with only what is lacking and imperfect.
But even so, if you try to live sincerely, when you look back on the past, you can realize that there were definitely moments when you loved someone, learned from others, and grew with them.
Like the winter of a certain year when Amin would one day recall, 'It was really warm back then.'
If it feels like I'm wandering outside the "normal" world right now, if it feels like I'm walking alone on a path with no end in sight, I want you to stop for a moment and look over your shoulder.
At the end of that gaze, Amin, Jiwon, Seonghyeon, and Heejun will always remain.
He reached out affectionately to those like himself in the past.
So now, let's shake off that heavy burden and get up, and together with your children and 『Seventeen Seasons』, let's move forward little by little toward a better future.

I hope these characters can reach out to the depression that's lurking inside you, the readers.
I hope that instead of reaching out to you carelessly, I will timidly loiter beside you and spend the cold nights with you.
So, I hope that someday, when you look back on this time, you will remember that Amin was there by my side.
That's probably why I write dark novels.

_From the author's words: “Go in first.
I think these people want me more.
At least better than you, sir.
“Much more so than the teacher who never believed in me, the teacher who kept dismissing my hurt as the tantrums of a spoiled brat… … .”
“The tantrum of a full child”.
Amin had never said anything like that to Yujeong.

_In the text

That summer, Amin was forced to teach a professor's nephew at his request.
The child's name was 'Joo Seong-hyeon', and although he was in the 5th grade of elementary school, he was a 'gifted child' who had already completed his studies up to the 3rd year of high school.
Seonghyeon, who has been turned into a fool, envy Amin's poverty and confesses that he actually wants to escape from his parents.
Amin, who is indignant at Seonghyeon's words that poverty is a privilege, directly urges Seonghyeon to choose poverty and run away from home.
But after hearing that, Seonghyeon really leaves home and starts living in Amin's goshiwon.
Amin, who was unable to tutor Seonghyeon, hurts his back while working part-time at a logistics center.
One day, when the pain became uncontrollable, Amin asked Sagong, a hikikomori man who was the only one in the goshiwon whose number he knew, to buy him a pain relief patch.

But this brings about an unexpected incident.
Seonghyeon, who learned the truth of the incident, disappeared in an instant.
Amin, who has seen Yoo-jeong's death and Seong-hyeon's disappearance overlap, wanders the streets in confusion, trying to find Seong-hyeon.


Amin hoped.
If Seonghyeon is crying somewhere in the same position as me, I hope he gets help.
I hope you are in a safe place.
I hope he's already made all of this into an episode that he can later recall as a funny memory.
Because that's something that only he can do, something that is impossible with his own abilities.
I just wanted to be safe.
Unlike Yujeong.

_In the text

The snowball of Amin's misfortune, which began to roll in the spring of the seventeenth year, only grew bigger and bigger as the seasons passed, showing no sign of slowing down.

One autumn, when loneliness and desolation were growing, Amin became a private tutor for Min Ji-won, the son of a woman living in a goshiwon, who was living in an underprivileged environment.
Jiwon is smart, but rather than continue his studies, he wants to get a job quickly so he can abandon his abusive father and live with his mother.
Amin, who feels a sense of kinship with Jiwon, who is in a similar situation to him, quickly becomes close to her by revealing his true feelings that he has never revealed to anyone else.
However, when the students found out about this, they criticized Amin, saying that the class was falling in status because he was only receiving small amounts of money for tutoring.
And before that wound can even heal, the absurd bad relationship between Amin and Ji-won's mother is revealed to Amin.

“For adults, it’s the child’s future, dreams, goals and happiness.
Those things are taken for granted.
But I've never seen a child with something like that.
It must be somewhere.
But most of them weren't like that.
It's the same with adults.
We all just live to eat and survive.
It's not just gosiwon.
Teacher Min Jong-chan is the same in the end.
Don't project illusions.
Please acknowledge that illusions are illusions.
Please stop being greedy and find a way to live.
“How to live with Jiwon.”

_In the text

As time passed, one winter, Amin finally transferred from the business administration department to the teacher training department and became a teacher.
I am currently working as a temporary teacher at Jeil Free High School, the most prestigious high school in Korea.
Amin tells the story of Yoo-jeong, Seong-hyeon, and Ji-won to Ham Hee-jun, a student who has been following him since his first day of school and wants to get his attention.
As if it happened just yesterday, vividly.

After Jiwon and Heejun left the teachers' office, Amin packed his bags.
I left the teachers' office and walked along the edge of the playground.
And then I headed towards the back door where there were few people.
Simply because the bus stop was over there.
And then, at one inexplicably ordinary moment, Amin felt a sharp pain around his neck.

_In the text

Readers may be consumed by negative emotions such as pain, anger, and sadness as they watch Amin's tumultuous daily life.
Amin, who rolls and rolls without even a moment to breathe, might feel sad.
Because his struggles are described so meticulously and densely, you might feel as if you are going through hardships yourself, and so you might hesitate to turn the pages.
But even if Amin stumbles over a rock or a cliff suddenly appears before his eyes, he continues to walk steadily toward the warmth that may be right for him.
And with each step, the three children Amin encounters throughout the four seasons accompany him.
Holding my hand when I was shaking, lending my shoulder when I was tired, and sometimes wiping away my tears that suddenly flowed.
Like Amin's spring, summer, and fall, our lives often seem filled with only what is lacking and imperfect.
But even so, if you try to live sincerely, when you look back on the past, you can realize that there were definitely moments when you loved someone, learned from others, and grew with them.
Like the winter of a certain year that Amin would one day recall saying, 'It was really warm back then.'
If it feels like I'm wandering outside the "normal" world right now, if it feels like I'm walking alone on a path with no end in sight, I want you to stop for a moment and look over your shoulder.
At the end of that gaze, Amin, Jiwon, Seonghyeon, and Heejun will always remain.
He reached out affectionately to those like himself in the past.
So now, let's shake off that heavy burden and get up, and together with your children and 『Seventeen Seasons』, let's move forward little by little toward a better future.

I hope these characters can reach out to the depression that's lurking inside you, the readers.
I hope that instead of reaching out to you carelessly, I will timidly loiter beside you and spend the cold nights with you.
So, I hope that someday, when you look back on this time, you will remember that Amin was there by my side.
That's probably why I write dark novels.

_From the author's note