this perfectly captures the messiness and aimlessness of your twenties, the rise and fall of your romantic relationships, the reckoning with your parents. the last one was my favourite part of the book: an examination of the main character and his mother's relationship as her health deteriorates. his struggle through a desire for an apology or even just an acknowledgement of the trauma she inflicted on him, as well as a desire to come out about his sexuality. the emotions are very palpable in this book, and you can tell the author draws on his own eperiences on living as a gay man in south korea. however, i do think the book is sold incorrectly; there is supposed to be a focus on young and jaehee's friendship, but it's only the throughfare of the first part, and then jaehee is hardly mentioned in the next parts. i found it very contradictory that they made it into a profound friendship only to disregard it for the rest of the book. i do think the book is very meaningful, and i found the author and translator's notes very touching, you can tell they both hold emotional importance to their work.