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Interview by literature critic Jeon So-yeong

Gyeong-jin’s job in this story is a blog marketer. Her job entails turning advertisements of certain products into natural-sounding reviews and posting them on her assigned blog. Her agency orders her to make a blog with a fake identity and write reviews pretending to be that person. The secret that lies within Gyeong-jin’s job sends a warning to modern society.

That afternoon, I wrote a short but sincere posting about Lady Chatterley, something an ordinary new blogger would write, and introduced her to the world of online blogs. 

We were soon assigned to work on reviews. Most of the reviews were on restaurants. When a restaurant sent us pictures of the store interior, its menu and dishes, we mixed and matched them to write a review as if we had actually visited there. We learned how to casually emphasize certain phrases that advertisers wanted to add. 

I had my doubts, but such misgivings soon disappeared. 

나는 블로그를 시작하는 일반인들이 올릴법한

짤막하지만 정성을 담은 자기 소개글을 작성하며

채털리 부인을 블로그계에 데뷔시켰다.

우리는 곧이어 리뷰 업무에도 투입되었다.

음식점의 비중이 높았다.

가게에서 매장 사진과 메뉴판, 맛깔스럽게 찍은 음식 사진을 보내 주면

그걸 조합하고 매치해서 직접 가 본 것처럼 후기를 작성했다.

광고주가 삽입해 달라고 요청한 특정 문구를 자연스럽게 강조하는 요령도 생겼다.

이래도 되는 건가, 그러나 곧 그 감각도 사라졌다.

One day, Lady Chatterley was suddenly sorted as a bad blogger. Gyeong-jin no longer operated Lady Chatterley’s blog since then, but she didn’t delete the account and visited the blog from time to time. When she visited the blog after a while, she found a new message.

The message said that she was Lady Chatterley’s neighbor blogger and a victim of the poisonous disinfectant spray from company B. 

‘I started using that disinfectant spray Pposongi after reading your review. You wrote that you used it every day. I was wondering if you were okay. I hope you are, but if anything is wrong, please call me at this number.’ 

What is she saying? When I clicked on the link provided at the end of the message, I was connected to a newspaper article. The first thing I saw was an image of a young boy in a wheelchair, holding a rocket-shaped oxygen tank. 

A cold shudder started from my stomach and spread through my body, finally chilling both my hands. 

‘채털리 부인님이 올린 후기를 보고 구매해서 쓰기 시작했거든요.

 날마다 사용한다고 했는데 괜찮으신지...

 아무 일 없으시길 바라지만 혹시라도 무슨 일이 있었다면 이쪽으로 연락주세요’

이게 무슨 소리지?

메시지 끝에 적힌 링크를 클릭하자,새 창이 뜨면서 신문 기사로 연결되었다.

큼직한 사진이 먼저 눈에 들어왔다.

로켓 모양의 산소통을 껴안고휠체어에 앉아 있는 어린 남자아이의 사진이었다.

싸한 전율이 배속에서부터 퍼져 나가면서 양손이 싸늘하게 식었다.

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Kim Se-hee (Born in 1987, Mokpo, Jeollanam-do Prov.)

: Debuted by winning the Literature of the World New Writer’s Award in 2015 

Awarded the 9th Annual Young Writers Award in 2018, etc.