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“Her name is Jik-nyeo (“weaver girl”). She was brought in with her friend named Gyun-woo to our neighborhood animal shelter. They were both discovered in really bad shape, especially Jik-nyeo. Her leg was broken and she had a tear on the side of her snout that made her look like the Joker. From what I heard, her previous owner did that on purpose. I’m now in the process of working on a brand project that helps abandoned dogs like this.”

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“I’m just starting out with this brand, but my goal is to get 200kg of animal feed!”

“(왼쪽) 저는 메이크업을 하고, 얘는 모델이다보니까 서로 바빠서 날을 잡지 않는 이상 밖에서는 잘 못봐서 보통 이렇게 패션쇼에서 만나요. 사실 알게 된 지는 오래 됐어도 친해진 건 한달도 안됐거든요. 그런데 이상하리만큼 오래된 친구 같아요. 가끔 제가 옆에서 막 힘들어서 혼잣말로 ‘힘들다’, ‘슬프다’ 라는 식으로 말을 해요. 그럼 얘가 옆에서 우리말로 유창하게 뭐라고 하는지 아세요?

“(오른쪽) 더 슬픈게 뭔지 알아? 내 인생. 인생이 슬프다!”

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“(Right) I’ve just really liked her ever since we met. I’m 20 and I attend university here, but my friends in my grade are all one year older than me. So I had no friends my age. But then I met her at a fashion show, and she became my first friend who’s the same age as me!”

“(Left) I do makeup, and she’s a model, so we’re both busy, and it’s hard to find time to see each other unless we set a day to meet up. So we usually meet up at these kinds of fashion shows. Actually, we’ve known each other for a while, but it’s only been about a month since we got close. But for some reason, I feel like we’ve been friends for a long time. Sometimes when I’m next to her and I’m having a hard time, I say to myself, ‘It’s so hard’ and ‘I’m sad.’ And you know what she says back to me in fluent Korean?”

“(Right) You know what’s sadder? My life. Life is sad!”

“기분이… 더러워요. 행사 중간에 태극기로 엄청 맞았어요.”

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“How does it feel to play the role of a Japanese police officer in the reenactment of the March First Independence Movement of 1919?”

“I feel...dirty. During the event, I was beaten repeatedly with Korean flags.”

“친구의 친구로 지금의 남편을 만났는데, 저를 잘 이해해줘요. 벌써 43년이 됐네요.”

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“I met my husband as my friend’s friend. He really gets me. It’s already been 43 years.”

 

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"Now I'm 90 years old, but when I was young, I was a speed skater. That was during the Japanese colonial era. Do you think there was such a thing as an ice rink back then? Of course not. So during the summer, I solely focused on building up my stamina. Every day, I'd put a cushion on the ground and do squats a thousand times. I kept doing that until October when I’d go up to Kanggye, North Pyeongan Province*, where the water freezes first before anywhere else in the country. Only then could I ice skate. We’d pour water into rice paddies and turn them into ice skating rinks. As the winter deepened, little by little I would move south and continue training. Since the surroundings were so poor, I couldn't even think about detailed techniques. When I went out to international competitions, I was no match for the foreign athletes who trained on perfectly smooth ice. Nevertheless, sports are all about passion. I really worked myself to death. People would only see my performance in competitions, but the kind of effort I put in can’t be described. Since I put in that much effort, no matter if the competition was big or small, I remember all of the times that I was first to the finish line. I was so happy. But then, when I was 24 years old, the Korean War erupted. I had to put everything aside and go fight in the war. I barely managed to pull myself together after it ended, and by then I was already over 30 years old. As it was, I had to retire. But I don't have any regrets. It's just that there was no chance. There was nothing that I could do.”

*North Pyeongan Province is located in modern day North Korea.