Stepping out of the bookstore, he finds himself in spring three years ago... ‘Someday Again, Kichijoji’ [New Book]

The voice of his late mother comes through a pay phone in Tokyo. Yeong-bin, 31, has just left a small bookstore in Kichijoji and finds himself back in the spring three years earlier, when his mother was still alive.Sejongmaru said on the 9th that Lee Sang-hoon’s full-length novel ‘Someday Again, Kichijoji’ has been available for preorder since the 6th at online bookstores including YES24, Kyobo Book Centre and Aladdin. The second installment in the genre fiction series ‘Spectrum,’ it tells the story of a man who looks back on his life after an unexpected reunion. It is due out on the 30th.
The story begins in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. After breaking up with his partner, Yeong-bin resigns after being betrayed by his boss. Then even his mother, from whom he had long been estranged, suddenly dies. While sorting through her belongings, Yeong-bin finds an old business card and a bookmark. The bookmark bears the words ‘Someday again.’ He checks the address on the business card and boards a one-way flight to Tokyo.
The address on the business card leads to ‘Just a Little Strange Bookstore’ in an alley in Kichijoji. After Yeong-bin buys an out-of-print book for 50,000 yen and steps outside, his phone loses service. The dates on the morning newspaper at the newsstand and on the calendar are from three years earlier.
While taking shelter from the rain, Yeong-bin meets Seung-mi, a 28-year-old Korean traveler. Seung-mi came to Tokyo after her engagement was broken off. The two explore Harmonica Yokocho in Kichijoji and the Tsutaya bookstore in Daikanyama, then walk along Nakameguro’s cherry-blossom-lined streets, gradually learning what each has lost. The same spring is the present for Seung-mi and the past for Yeong-bin.
The titles of Chapters 1 and 9 are ‘Seoul Gwanghwamun’ and ‘Someday Again, Kichijoji,’ respectively. In between, places such as Shibuya, Odaiba, Yanesen and Shiodome appear in chapter titles. As readers turn the pages, they follow the route Yeong-bin takes through Tokyo.
The novel also features a photo book documenting a laundromat facing redevelopment and a hot-spring bathhouse that disappeared during the war. Placing a shop that is soon to vanish alongside places preserved in photographs shows that the past Yeong-bin has returned to is also a time undergoing change. The scene in which he hears his mother’s voice on a pay phone after his mobile phone stops working makes the three-year gap tangible.
Yeong-bin reaches a moment when he must decide whether to stay in the past, where his mother and Seung-mi are, or return to his original time. The bookmark that served as a clue to his journey takes on a different meaning as he faces that choice. The title’s phrase ‘Someday again’ holds both the longing to reach lost time and the desire to continue the story from where it stopped.
Author Lee Sang-hoon worked as a journalist while publishing web novels and also wrote stories for webtoon adaptations. He received an award in the long-form category of the 3rd NAVER Game Literature Award. 228 pages, 16,800 won.
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