‘Without saying take care’ 잘지내라는 말도 없이

Text by Ha Young Kyoung. Photos by DAL Publisher

If you were to have a chance to live forever, would you be happy? Could you live with being thankful every day?

This novel is set in the era of one future where people can live with eternal youth if they want to do. the society in this novel finds out the medical technology to keep one’s youth from stem cell of wisdom teeth. In this era, one way to die is only to decide the death by themselves.

The protagonist of this story is a man who looks 50s’ appearance but passed way over the age of 80. He spends his days in a state of torpor. The life for him as a mathematics professor is nothing but a routine repeated as an unsolved mathematical formula. In addition, he is sick and tired of ageless his appearance.

One day he goes to the cafe named nowhere, where he meets a girl who is a high school student and a woman who is a owner of the cafe. After meeting them, he begins to feel happy in his daily life because he is touched by girl’s glorious youth and feels the beginnings of love with woman, owner of the cafe. his feeling of love is not a whirlwind desire but real love.

Long ago, cancer killed his mother. then he thought the death was horrible so if possible, he wanted to live forever without disease. As having a stem cell transplant, he got eternal life and this was his own decision.

But now he can’t decide his death and doesn’t know when he dies or why he has to die. he wants to die meaningfully. But he has not had any answer about what life means and he never has felt happy truly for his whole life. Meanwhile, he meets with two women and learns about meaning of life. And finally he realizes what love is and that eternal youth is ridiculous and not that beautiful thing to people but when only in an apposite moment, youth can be shining and natural. With this realization, he decides to die instead of meaningless eternalness.

Better medical developments have extended one’s life. In the extension of life, what do we live for? We have to keep in our mind that life is precious because every moment is always first thing and there is the last hours of life after all. You live only once. Hope you live a full life every day and accept the passing of time reverently.

 

Contributor, Ha Young Kyoung

As a freelance journalist, she  majored German language and literature in University. Based on unique sensitive, she writes about several sections of Korea public culture.

대학에서 독어독문학을 전공한 프리랜서 기자 하영경은 문학적인 감성으로 바라본 다양한 주제의 대중문화 이야기를 솔직담백하게 전해주고 있다.