Please Answer, 1988

It feels as if just a second ago it was 1988, and the eighteen-year-old Dog Hwan was still as sharp-tongued as ever, endlessly complaining about everything and seeming utterly heartless and unpleasant. The eighteen-year-old Choi Taek still had that lovely smile that curled the corners of his mouth as he drank milk, and when he sat alone playing Go, he looked as serene as a deity. Eighteen-year-old Sun Woo finished the meal his mother had made while sitting on the steps, habitually spitting out the little stones that got between his teeth. He was so sensible, helping his mother look after his little sister, Jinju. Eighteen-year-old Dong Ryong was good at dancing and all sorts of things unrelated to school, but hopeless when it came to studying. Twenty-one-year-old Sung Bora was still a violent girl. Sometimes I really wonder how that crazy woman got into Seoul National University.

And then there was eighteen-year-old Sung Deok-sun, who cared more about the romance of being eighteen than her textbooks, and more about her looks than her grades: cheerful and lively Sung Deok-sun.

A hand called fate cast these people into Ssangmun-dong, Dobong District, Seoul, in 1988.

That was where the story began.