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“They say you can’t forget the person you broke up with for the time you were in love. That’s the least amount of time you need to recover. How long do you think it will take me to forget ballet?” 

“Ten years?”

Choi Sang-hee’s “Good Night, Raccoon” is about a man who went into a coma at age 15 after getting into a car accident and wakes up ten years later. He accidentally runs into a girl searching for a raccoon in the middle of the night. 

The girl had just quit ballet, which she had trained for ten years since she was five, after her father lost his job. The two, who had lost ten years of their lives, become friends as they walk along the river every night. 

“Mister, do you know the secret to a good grand jete?”

“Relentless training?”

“No, you have to master the preliminary moves, like gathering your strength for the leap.” 

The girl spoke as she stepped around lightly for a few times.

“You leap up using that strength. All at once with no hesitation. Look at this!” 

The girl was looking down at me from the air and smiling, with her body spread wide like a pair of wings.

I heard a loud cheer and saw fireworks that lit up the night sky. 

The scent of grass emanated from all around me and the frogs began to croak all together.

I clapped softly. I wanted to congratulate the perfectly beautiful ten years of her life. Even the raccoon stood upright among the bushes to look at them. 

“아저씨, 그랑주떼 잘 하는 비결이 뭔지 알아요?”

“피나는 연습?”

 풋.

“뭔데?”

“그랑주떼 전 동작을 잘 하는 거에요. 도약을 위해 힘을 모았다가... 

그 힘으로 뛰어오르는 거에요. 망설이지 말고 단숨에. 자 봐요!”

공중에서 온 몸을 날개처럼 활짝 펼친 여자애가 나를 내려다보며 미소 지었다. 

순간 와아아, 하는 함성이 들려오고 펑펑 폭죽이 터져 대낮처럼 밝아졌다. 

사방에서 싱싱한 풀 냄새가 풍겨 오고 일제히 개구리 울음소리가 터져 나왔다. 

나는 조용히 박수를 쳤다. 완벽하게 아름다운 십 년의 시간을 축하해 주고 싶었다. 

풀숲 사이 너구리도 우뚝 서서 바라보고 있었다.

Interview by children’s literature critic Kim Yu-jin

The boy who woke up after ten years in a coma and a girl who seems to fly when doing ballet, they both do not appear as people who are grounded in reality. But the girl must feel like herself when she’s doing ballet. The boy knows when the girl sparkles. Everybody has moments that he or she regrets. The author wanted to show how to accept such times as they are and how to deal with the sense of loss.

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Choi Sang-hee (Born in Jeollabuk-do Province, 1972~ )

Debuted with essay “Secret Trip to Jejudo”

Won the 5th Blue Fiction Award with “Just Curling” in 2011