Written by Tak Kyung Eun

Seo-hyun, who experienced her first love and unrequited love as a middle school student, decided from then on that she would never fall in love with anyone. However, Dong-joo, whom she met in her high school short research essay club, keeps coming closer to Seo-hyun. Seo-hyun is already under enough pressure from studying for college entrance exams and worrying about her career path at the age of 17, but the situation becomes even more complicated when her friend Ji-yeon falls in love with Dong-joo. Meanwhile, the club decided to write a short essay on the causes of crime, and Seo-hyun exchanges letters with a boy in a juvenile prison for a field survey. This is a coming-of-age novel that depicts the intimate stories of teenagers who are worried about the future and feel confused between love and friendship.

In the essay club, Seo-hyun chooses the topic, “Is it the genes or the environment that turns people into criminals?” and sends a letter to a boy named Hyun-soo in a juvenile prison to conduct a field survey. Seo-hyun was deeply moved by the image of Hyun-soo, who appeared in a documentary about a juvenile detention center, calmly admitting his guilt and worrying about his only family, his grandmother, who has dementia, and who dreams of becoming a chef. The exchange of letters was not smooth. Hyun-soo did not reply to Seo-hyun's first letter, but to Seo-hyun's second letter, he expressed a strong rejection, telling her not to write to him again. However, in the third letter, Hyun-soo gradually opened up to Seo-hyun and began to exchange letters with her, perhaps because he felt Seo-hyun's sincerity. Before they knew it, the two were casually discussing their daily lives and future in their letters, regardless of the topic of the essay.

The first person to warmly approach Hyun-soo, who went to a juvenile detention center after committing an unintentional murder by arson, was Seo-hyun, besides his grandmother. We don't know how Hyun-soo and Seo-hyun's relationship will develop in the future, but we can see that love is an emotion that comes at an unexpected moment, anytime, anywhere. Hyun-soo only appears in letters, but he has a strong presence as almost every chapter ends with a letter from him. Although he has committed a serious crime and is imprisoned in a juvenile detention center, Hyun-soo becomes an ordinary teenage boy who likes someone and wants to become a chef like other boys thanks to Seo-hyun's letters. Another attraction of this work is that it depicts Hyun-soo's remarkable transformation through the unique device of letters.