If I had your face: A novel

Ara

  • A mute girl, works at a hair salon
  • Lives in a tiny apartment with Sujin, went to middle and high school together

Kyuri

  • Works at a room salon Ajax
  • Lives with Miho
  • Modeled her face after Candy, a celebrity
  • “I would live your life so much better than you, if I had your face.”

Wonna

  • Married woman, suffers a Claustrophobia
  • Lives in the same building with Ara and Miho.
  • Too late but still so young: “I married him because I was tired and it was already too late for me, even though I was still so young.”
  • “Unless you are born into a chaebol family or your parents were the fantastically lucky few who purchased land in Gangnam decades ago, you have to work and work and work for a salary that isn’t even enough to buy a house or pay for childcare, and you sit at a desk until your spine twists, and your boss is somehow incompetent and a workaholic at the same time and at the end of the day you have to drink to bear it all.”
  • “I wanted a baby, a wee creature who would be completely mine”
  • “The hate mothers-in-law harbor toward their daughters-in-law is built into the genes of all women in this country.”

Miho

  • An artist, lives with Kyuri.
  • Sujin wrote to her to come live with her.
  • Wonna’s perspective: “They look so quiet and cold no matter the weather and they nod at me and whisper hello under their breath…. They don’t know that I have been waiting for them to come home.”
  • Miho’s perspective: “Sometimes, I see the wife sitting on the steps when I come back late at night from the studio. She never raises her head as I walk past. It’s all very rude but I am used to her.”
  • Kyuri said: “You know, you’re just lucky that your kind of face is trendy these days. But you don’t have to be such a condescending snob about surgery.”
  • “the naturally beautiful artist-in-residence.”
  • Kyuri said: “That’s okay—this is really important! I want you to marry Im Ga-yoon’s son and introduce me to celebrities all the time.” And Miho thoughts: “She doesn’t see the horror on my face.”
  • Hanbin’s mother opened an art gallery near Gyeongbokgung Palace.

2024 © ak