Home Thread for 뜻밖의 계절 🌅 Week 6

Welcome to the thread for 뜻밖의 계절 | L25 :sunrise:

It’s time for another book club! All discussions will take place within this home thread that will be updated each week with the current week number. So, make sure you use spoiler tags and indicate which part of the book you are going to refer to ahead of the tag to show respect to your follow-readers an any possible late-comers.

Summary

고2 반윤환은 새벽과 저녁 아르바이트로 학교에서는 잠만 자는 생활을 한다. 누구와도 말하지 않고 공부에도 관심이 없다. 어느 날 반에서 왕따로 통하는 지나루가 윤환이 일하는 편의점으로 찾아와 친구가 되자는 제안을 한다. 윤환은 1초의 고민도 없이 거절하고, 나루는 예상했다는 듯한 표정으로 편의점을 나선다. 며칠 뒤 복도에서 지나루와 한 여자 아이가 다투는 소리가 들리고, 곧 나루를 향해 “좀 꺼져라. 기생충이야?”라는 거친 말이 들려온다. 그 후 나루는 수업에도 들어오지 않고 정말로 사라져버리는데…….

English Summary

“Do You Know My Name?” Candid language and a fresh perspective like you’ve never seen before. A remarkable first novel by a 25-year-old author A Korean novel that bypasses the conventional paragraphs and offers new possibilities has arrived. This is a remarkable debut novel by a young writer born in 1994 who has never majored in literature or taken a writing class. The author, who currently works in the airport security industry, began writing fiction on his own when he was in his twenties, and his first novel, The Unexpected Season, is a story about characters who have been hurt in relationships. He portrays the loneliness of human beings, which is compared to an island, and the ‘relationship’ between people who cannot help but reach out to each other with a fresh perspective unique to young writers. This is a young novel with a new sensibility that conveys unexpected comfort without offering hasty hope.

Reading Schedule

This book has 280 pages or (234 RIDI pages when scaled on a tablet), so I did my best to break the weekly readings into somewhat regular sections varying between ~15-30 pages per week based on chapter length.

The starting pages below are based on the RIDI page numbers.

Week Chapter title Starting on page
1 선택 사항 5
이름 23
2 공정한 대우 35
3 53
4 한 걸음 77
5 반성문 95
6 소문 115
생각 없는 사람들 131
7 사랑 145
퍼즐 159
8 후회 175
9 살아남는 방식 193
두 부류의 사람 205
10 각자의 사정 217
작가의 말 229 (end)

Will you be joining? :smile:

  • Yes!
  • No
  • Maybe…
0 voters
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I bought the book! Now I’ll see how far I can get…

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The physical book’s page numbers, for anyone interested (from the Yes24 preview):

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I just finished week one! So far not much to say, although the main character so far does remind me of 또다시 같은 꿈을 꾸었어 | L27, which is nice. I really hope we’ll get to see progress in his personality and how he approaches others, but I guess I’ll have to wait for next week to see what happens. Although it is Sunday technically, so I could (and probably will :sweat_smile:) read it tomorrow, still following the schedule. The class president character I am particularly interested to see more of, I want to see how that storyline develops.

Interesting new vocab for this week includes 제비뽑기 drawing lots, 반장 class president, 수행평가 performance evaluation and 보건실 school clinic, so mostly school related vocab, which makes sense.

And this sentence I found quite nice: 예언이었는지 예상이었는지 운이었는지 감이었는지 모르겠지만 우리는 완전히 패했다.

Level wise, vocab is at a nice level where I don’t need to do lookups every page but I’m picking up a thing or two, which is nice. No new grammar points so far though, but at least that means I’m not held back by the grammar to understand what’s happening.

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@HopeWaterfall I highlighted that sentence too!! :slight_smile:

This book is a bit above my level but I’m enjoying reading it so far. From what I understand, these are the main characters:

  1. The main character (반윤환)
  2. The girl who follows him around (지나루)
  3. The class president (idk their name?)
  4. The person introduced at the the end of Chapter 2 (이하은)

Am I missing anyone / mistaking any characters? I’m writing this out because I mistakenly thought characters #2 and #3 were the same person until late in Chapter 2… T_T

Another sentence that stood out to me: 내가 싫어하는 것들도 나와 마찬가지로 날 싫어하고 있다는 것을 알기 때문이다. :sob:

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Man what a downbeat start! We’re two chapters in and the MC’s main characteristic is his aggressive refusal to interact with anyone. He’s obviously depressed and chronically sleep-deprived but right now he’s not an easy guy to like. I assume he will change over the course of the story. So far it feels very heavy, but on the up side, I could follow most of the content pretty well.

I marked a bunch of stuff, but I’ll just ask about a couple of points.

First, does anyone know what 마저 is in sentences like, “체육 시간, 아직 끝나지 않은 수행평가를 마저 했다.” I looked it up as a post-positional particle, in this case it’s not attached to anything but maybe it has the same basic meaning? Or am I failing to conjugate some completely different word / grammar point?

Second, at the very end of chapter 2, the MC says that suddenly his back felt warm. But then he goes on to say, “추측이지만 사람의 등 같았다.” (It’s just a guess but it seemed like a person’s back.) I was expecting something like he was feeling someone’s gaze, but then I wasn’t sure if he could even see the other person? He said it seemed like a person’s back, suggesting that he couldn’t even see the other person… Is this kind of like one’s spine tingling because you sense something?

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마저 can also mean “to finish”: 11. -마저 – tutorklang

For the end of chapter 2, I took it literally. I think he was sitting, and then he felt someone’s back against his, and he knew who it was without even turning around. I could 100% be wrong about this though haha

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Oh, that possibility never even crossed my mind! Thanks :smile:

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Interesting chapter. I have many questions:

  1. What was 이하은’s relationship with the MC?
  2. Why is 지나루 being bullied at the end?
  3. What happened to MC’s mom?

Related to #3: He says he hates his dad because his dad is incompetent and doesn’t follow this principle in relation to his mom: 내 것이라면 뭐가 어떻게 됐든 지겨야 한다는 원칙이었다. Am I reading this incorrectly, or is describing his mom like a possession? I found it kind of off-putting :confused:

A grammar question:

세계의 끝과 끝이었다.[/spoiler] Not sure what the 끝과 is doing here…is it for emphasis? Or is this a saying? This pattern is also used in a sentence later in the chapter: [spoiler]둘을 보고 있으면 끝과 끝을 보는 느낌이었다.

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wah been busy but managed to fit the reading in for this and catch up. This kid is so reluctant to communicate with anyone but is very ~poetic in his own thoughts. I didnt expect his internal monologue to be like that.

Yeah i got the feeling 끝과 끝 was a specific phrase. Naver seems to suggest it meams something like “end to end” so i think its like either ends of the spectrum. they are at opposite sides of the world. and later when its used about 지나루 and 윤건 i got the meaning that they are polar opposites kinda thing?

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Week 3! Lots of things happening in this chapter, we’re getting to the action, the disappearance of 지나루. Looking back, that was indeed in the summary, I’d just forgotten about it completely :sweat_smile:. We did see more of the class president, so I’m happy about that as well.
Now the end of the chapter though :eyes:.
I want to see what happens next. Is it the past, reminiscing when 지나루 was there previously? Is it a vision? Has she appeared here, and thus is actually not missing? I’m a bit confused, but I hope, at least, that the next chapter will clear it all up.

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Yay we get the class president’s name! I’m a fan of 강별, and I’m happy that our MC is starting to interact with him a lot more too.

When 지나루’s mom asked the class if anyone has heard from her, and no one raised their hand…that made me so sad :disappointed:

@HopeWaterfall I was also confused by the flashback… Wasn’t it a flashback of the MC with 이하은? I had a hard time following their conversation… She says these two things:

She says everyone lives to be happy…the only exception being those in love, because of this: “내가 완전히 사라지고 그 사람만 남는 거야.” Is she saying that people in love disappear and only their SOs are left (as a metaphor?) Like they don’t care about themselves anymore?

She also agreed with the MC’s sentence later on: “죽기 위해 살아간 적.” Is she saying she used to live to die? :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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So i started reading 우린 그림자가 생기지 않는다 last week and it opens with a schoolboy who is antisocial, doesnt make friends and sleeps through class. (sound familiar?)…Then he kills someone. But my brain kept like blending the two characters together for a few days :joy:

Anyways I reread Ch 4 so my brain is back to the regularly scheduled YA bookclub without any murder.

re the end of ch4: so he sees 지나루 sitting outside the convenience store then bam we go into a flashback with 이하은 and they have that super ambigious conversation about ~the meaning of life.

I found this bit at the start of that exchange hard:


“응, 생각해봐. 세상에 있는 모든 걸 준대. 그런데 사랑은 할 수 없대. 그럼 어떡할 거야?”

“봐. 세상의 모든 걸 준대도 고민하게 만들잖아. 그리고 고민한다 해도 결국에는 받지 않는다고 말하겠지. 사랑하는 사람이 없다면, 세상에 있는 걸 다 가져도 그저 죽기 위해 살아가는 것일 뿐이니까.”
so ‘even if someone says they’ll give you everthing in the world, but you couldn’t find love, then what would you do?’ I think tripped me up because i wasn’t expecting such a philosophical question and the 준대 absolutely through me off.
But eventually it clicked and then she says the bit about even if you had everything, if you don’t have someone to love then it’s all meaningless (죽기 위해 살아가는 것일 뿐이다).
phew these kids need to lighten up :sweat_smile:

chapter 5 my heart hurt a little for them. 지나루 getting excited for the cinema date then waiting all day (because ofc it wasn’t going to go smoothly), and 반윤환 having that little relazation about when he waited for 이하은. this boy might be slowly learning how to people you guys.

Another dialogue bit i found unexpectedly hard in chapter 5.
when 지나루 invites him to the cinema and explains:

“혼자 가면 사람들이 말 걸고 그러거든.”
나는 충분히 그러고도 남을 것이라고 생각했다. 지나루는 객관적으로 예뻤기 때문이다.

말(을) 걸다 is apparently to start up a conversation w sbdy. so she’s saying ‘coz when i go alone, people try to talk to me’

then in the next sentence 남을 것 (lit things that will remain) is being super idiomatic here as something like ‘would be enough’ and i Struggled with it. :sob: Eventually i got sthing like “I thought that would be likely to happen.” (Even if that happened, there would be sufficiently enough [likelyhood]) “Because Chi Naru is objectively pretty.”

i don’t have a lot to say about the plot but i am enjoying this book pick. there’s not much unknown vocab for me so getting extensive reading exposure but also there’s little grammar things that trip me up that i’m getting to really focus on.

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@bizoo thanks for pointing out those phrases! I think my brain just glazed over those, but looking back I had no idea what they meant :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Other sentences I marked:

  • “아버지는 늘 가족 이외의 사람이 첫 번째였다.” >> I’m having a hard time with this sentence, what does this mean? His dad was the first one to ignore/exclude the family?
  • “기다린다는 것이 무엇인지 뼛속 깊이 느껴본 적 있었다.” The phrase 뼛속 깊이 here was nice

I liked this chapter a lot, the MC has grown so much. And 지나루 is a sweetie pie. I’m still wondering why 은비 is so unhappy with her though!

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I’m late to the party since I’ve been super busy all month, but I’ve finally finished chapters 1 and 2. I’m intrigued by the main character’s attitude towards the world around him and curious to see if/how it will change because of his classmate. His life is clearly fairly difficult since he has to work so much, but I’m also looking forward to getting more details on his family circumstances.

On a side note, it looks like the person who showed up at the very end of chapter two is another person - maybe the person from middle school who he had do the assignment with in the flashback scene?

I’m finding this quite easy and approachable so far, as well as intriguing, so I’m pleased since that was what I hoped for when I nominated it.

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I think it’s just that he prioritised other people over his family. I also didn’t understand that sentence well when i first read it. 가족 이외의 사람 is people outside the family i think.

yes I agree! i love good descriptions like that, and especially as a learner i feel like i really notice the wording of things.

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I’m enjoying this book a lot! Every chapter raises new questions for me.

The MC getting framed for stealing 강별’s necklace made my blood boil!!! I’m still confused as to who did it though — wondering if it was deliberately made ambiguous? 윤환 seems to think it was 강별’s friends that did it (out of a sense of justice?), but why would 강별’s friends frame the MC? Because he didn’t help find 지나루? And 지나루 thinks it’s also because of her? :thinking:

Also I just think it’s funny how 이하은 has the ability to pop up out of nowhere. Does she still live in the neighborhood but go to a different school?

Some sentences I marked:

  • 알아도 그만 몰라도 그만인 것들을 체육 시간에 배우고 교실로 돌아왔다.” Literally the first sentence of the chapter. “알아도 그만 몰라도 그만인 것들” → I took that to mean he learned things he doesn’t care about? Like it doesn’t matter if he knows them or not?
  • “내 옆에 있어달라고 떼를 썼다가는 여영 나를 떠나버릴 수도 있었다.” → Does “~가는” here mean something along the lines of “했으면”? Having trouble figuring out this grammar point.
  • “분명 알 수 없는 뭔가가 내 안에서 계속 파동을 만들었다.” → I enjoyed the metaphor here! The author has a poetic way of describing feelings.

spoilers for weeks 5 & 6

Week 5

Starting on the first sentence with grammar trap yey (@acire i see it got you too :sweat_smile:)

알아도 그만 몰라도 그만인 것들을 체육 시간에 배우고 교실로 돌아왔다.

The 그만 really threw me off here. (always with the little easy words being used idiomatically to turn a phrase into confusion central.) After looking it up it’s just being used like ‘it’s enough/it’s fine’. So 알아도 그만 몰라도 그만 is sthing like ‘if i know it’s fine/if i don’t know it’s fine’ in other words it’s not important to know. So “after learning pointless things in gym class…”

Vocab: 오지랖 부리다 - to interfere in other people’s business

Week 6

나는 똑같이 아르바이트를 하면서 지나루와 꽤 많은 시간을 보냈다. 그 아이가 먹고 싶어 하는 것을 먹으러 갔고, 가보고 싶다는 곳을 갔다. 가보고 싶어 한 곳은 특별한 데가 아니었다. 노래방, 오락실 같은 주위 애들이 흔하게 가는 곳이었다.

Oh god this part was sweet, I want 나루 to get nice things in life :pleading_face:

I like how we’re introduced to 윤환 being cold and unfriendly and spending his days shutting everything out and sleeping through class, but now we’re seeing past him falling absolutely head over heels with 하은.

speaking of 하은, she be giving me :ghost: vibes fr :neutral_face:

어떻게 해야 지나루가 덜 상처를 받을지 고민이 됐다.

He just wants to look after her :pleading_face:

“내가 도망칠까 봐 불안해하지는 마. 그런 일은 없을 거야.”

:sob:

I enjoyed the puzzle metaphor it was cute and easier to understand than a lot of the other philosophical type convos these kids have had so far.

Vocab: 쌈닭 - literally a fighting cock. used to either positively describe someone who stick up for themselves/others or negatively to describe someone aggressive who starts fights for no reason.

final thought: that cliffhanger :frowning_with_open_mouth:. I swear if something has happened to my 지나루 :sob:

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yes similar to 했으면 but with a bit of a nuance apparently, it’s this grammar here V+다가는 - Precaution - Kimchi Reader

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