After so many years of helplessness and despair, I would finally be able to do something for my family. Those sparkling lights gave me a surge of hope. I would do whatever it took to get my family out of North Korea. It was difficult for me to think of what they must be enduring, but I let myself imagine the moment when we would all be together in Japan. But my dreams were to be shattered once again. And now? Now I have just one thing left. My only true possession. I’m sorry to say that it’s bitterness. Bitterness at the cruelty of life.
