Lee Jae-ik; Hwangsobooks: 343 pp., 11,800 won
A novelist and radio producer of SBS released a Korean-style entertaining mystery novel involving boys who grew up in Apgujeong-dong, southern Seoul, in the 1990s and the Korean entertainment world.
The plot opens with the suicide of top actress Seo Yeon-hui and the gathering of her friends from high school who mourn the loss. A male magazine editor Hyun U-ju, one of Seo’s old friends who also had a romantic interest in her becomes suspicious about the circumstances of her sudden death and decides to ferret out the mysteries surrounding her.
Hyun was a member of a school band named “Apgujeong Boys” led by Park Dae-ung, who later married Seo and runs a famed entertainment agency. Hyun reflects on the memories of high school life and tries to find out what really happened between Seo and Park.
The author himself graduated from Gujeong High School, now Apgujeong High School, and depicts the urban culture of well-off people living in Gangnam, southern Seoul nearly two decades ago based on his experiences.
The events in the novel echo some of the recent actual suicides of top actresses or the scandals involving idol group members. However, the author said that he is a “novelist,” not a journalist seeking the truth and it is pure fiction, not related to actual events.
— Kwon Mee-yoo