Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

by Cho Nam-Joo

Entering high school meant a sudden expansion of her geographical and social world, which taught her that it was a wide world out there filled with perverts.

What do you want from us? The dumb girls are too dumb, the smart girls are too smart, and the average girls are too unexceptional?

Don’t I know loneliness, poor as I am? As I return from saying goodbye to you, snow-covered alleys flood with moonlight bold and blue.

Just as the mermaid princess lost her voice in exchange for legs, do middle-aged men lose their hiccups in exchange for backward ideas?

She couldn’t win: exercising all the rights and utilizing the benefits made her a freeloader, and fighting tooth and nail to avoid the accusation made things harder for colleagues in a similar situation.

“Help out? What is it with you and ‘helping out?’ You’re going to ‘help out’ with chores. ‘Help out’ with raising our baby. ‘Help out’ with finding me a new job. Isn’t this your house, too? Your home? Your child? And if I work, don’t you spend my pay, too? Why do you keep saying ‘help out’ like you’re volunteering to pitch in on someone else’s work?”

Women these days—what have you got to whine about?”