VOL.96/2026.07

One-Liner Quotes

 

Light, Even in Darkness

 

 

2026.07

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Anxiety of “Securing a Safe Home of One’s Own”

 

I have a long-standing habit. Upon finally reaching the very last sentence of a novel, I flip the pages backward with a rustle to return to the first sentence once again, a method I call the Möbius strip reading technique. When the end and the beginning of a novel are stitched together inside the mind, the story grows even more intense, leaving no exit. Everything, absolutely everything, becomes amplified.

 

 

The first sentence of “Leap of Faith,” a short story included in Yeom Seung-sook’s short story collection The Future Where Everything Has Already Happened, reads as follows:

 

“Cheol and Yeong were a married couple, and their child was five years old.”

 

While this seems to convey utterly plain information, one comes to realize throughout the reading that this sentence is by no means that simple. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheol and Yeong go around looking for a house. Although it is a pandemic era when simply stepping into an indoor space or venturing anywhere outside feels burdensome, they must still visit other people’s homes while uttering the phrase, “We are sorry to trouble you during these times.” Due to the landlord’s sudden notification, they have been thrust into a situation where they must engage in a real estate transaction, yet their budget is insufficient and time is tight. Caught between the regret of “if only we had bought last year” and the misery of “during these times,” securing a home of their own becomes an urgent task.

 

Yeong works a part-time job running open runs for luxury goods, while Cheol feeds and cares for the child. Had it not been for the pandemic, Cheol would have also continued his side job as a designated driver. The desperation that they must not lose their health as well keeps increasing the number of nutritional supplements they take, yet the couple is ultimately diagnosed with leaky gut syndrome. Does this imply that the nutrients they so faithfully ingested have all leaked out? If so, where to? The circumstances surrounding Cheol and Yeong grow progressively harsh, eventually bringing us right face-to-face with this particular sentence:

 

“Only then did they realize what the déjà vu had been when they first entered this building and when they had looked up at it from the outside, and they had to strive to soften their hearts, which were suddenly on the verge of turning harsh and fierce in front of the child.”

 

Upon returning to the introduction of the novel after encountering this final sentence, the first sentence resonates with a different level of sensitivity than before. It reads almost like a quest.

 

“Cheol and Yeong were a married couple, and their child was five years old.”

 

When we face the water tank that bursts as if hit by a bombardment at the climax, we too feel like crying our eyes out, but Cheol and Yeong cannot even weep. There is no time to hesitate. There is no time to break down either. They must summon their strength, even if it means doing so while clapping for self-hypnosis. The struggle for survival of Cheol and Yeong in the novel is a present-progressive fear that remains entirely valid even after the pandemic has ended. For people who live embracing their own variations of hardship, the story of Cheol and Yeong can never truly belong to someone else.

 

This short story collection begins with the phrase “the future cannot be seen” and folds closed with “it was a novelty, something never once experienced in a lifetime.” Between these sentences, which are parts of two different stories, we encounter the genuine anxieties of people living in the present, the weight of daily life that cannot be summarized by mere numbers. As we read on, it feels even more sorrowful that reality is not specifically targeting them to inflict pain. Because the world is filled with entirely indifferent and innocent faces, it is lonely to have to swallow the desire to protest to anyone, anywhere.

 

Nevertheless, the reason we return to read this book again and again is because of the strange beauty we happen to pick up at unexpected points. It is the “plump and soft” thing that sustains us even in a “tough and harsh” life, to borrow the expressions from the novel. Because that very thing allows us to live on again, and enables us to endure. Knowing this, it is impossible to stop reading the stories of Yeom Seung-sook.

 

 

 

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Written by Yun Ko-eun (Novelist)

The author has published nine novels. She is the first East Asian writer to receive the CWA Dagger Award. Her notable works include 〈The Disaster Tourist〉, which explores disaster tourism, and 〈Art on Fire〉, which revolves around an artist sponsored by a wealthy dog. Currently, she hosts the daily radio program [EBS Book Cafe].