In the warm evening kitchen, I wash the lunch box that held the meal I shared with a friend at the library. The worn dishes, small fan, and fading sunlight show an ordinary family being careful with everything during the difficult summer of 1998.
Timeslip Diary
The Fan Turned, the Radio Hummed, and Summer Held Its Breath
8 17, 1998 β A day in κΉμλ¦Ό's life
The world of 1998Timeslip day 1Me at 15
At about 6:55 a.m., I woke in the small room beside Ginkgo Alley to the click of an oscillating fan and a vegetable seller calling from below. Heat already clung to the vinyl floor, and for a moment I could not understand why the calendar beside my desk belonged to August 1998.
π Today's diary3
7:10 a.m. β The Small Room by Ginkgo Alley π
At 7:10 a.m. in my small room overlooking Ginkgo Alley, I sat up on the thin floor mattress while the fan pushed warm air and the smell of boiled barley tea toward me. Mother had already folded yesterdayβs newspaper beside the low table, and its pages were crowded with talk of layoffs, prices, and the hard IMF season. Breakfast was rice stretched with barley, cold cucumber soup, and half an egg divided carefully between us. The radio mentioned the governmentβs fiftieth-year commemorations and the call to rebuild the countryβs confidence after the Liberation Day holiday. I packed two pencils, an eraser worn round, and my vacation workbook into my cloth schoolbag, deciding not to ask for bus fare.
π Instead of the original source, this card links to a search for records from that era.
12:35 p.m. β Haneul Neighborhood Library π
At 12:35 p.m. in the second-floor reading room of Haneul Neighborhood Library, I met Sun-hee under a rattling ceiling fan and claimed two wooden chairs polished smooth by years of elbows. We copied math problems in silence until the librarianβs radio carried another report about unemployment and households cutting expenses. For lunch we shared the rice balls and pickled radish I had brought in a dented aluminum box, while the snack-shop noodles across the street cost 410 won a packet and suddenly felt expensive. Sun-hee whispered that her father was bringing home fewer work envelopes, so we agreed to finish our assignments here instead of going to an arcade. Before leaving, I borrowed a youth novel and slipped the stamped paper card carefully into its pocket.
π Instead of the original source, this card links to a search for records from that era.
6:42 p.m. β The Kitchen in Samil Villa π
At 6:42 p.m. in the narrow kitchen of Samil Villa, I rinsed my aluminum lunch box while cicadas screamed beyond the wire-screened window. Mother returned from the market with green onions, tofu, and one bundle of noodles, saying she had compared prices at three stalls before buying anything. The television news again spoke of restructuring and families tightening their belts, but then showed ordinary people trying to keep shops and workplaces going. I emptied the coins left in my pencil case into an old tin and told Mother they were for school supplies, not snacks. After dinner I sat by the open window, covered two more workbook pages, and felt that saving even a little could be its own quiet kind of courage.
π Instead of the original source, this card links to a search for records from that era.
π° What was happening that day4
The IMF crisis reshapes everyday family life β
I encountered the crisis through newspaper headlines, radio reports, and Motherβs careful market shopping. At fifteen, the enormous words about unemployment and restructuring felt most real in a divided egg, reused school supplies, and the decision to walk instead of taking a bus.
munhwa.com
Tap a card to go to the original record covering that event.
A fiftieth-year message follows Liberation Day β
The radio summarized the Liberation Day address describing the past fifty years and calling on citizens to join in building the country anew. I understood only part of the politics, but the appeal to begin again stayed with me throughout the day.
freezinenews.com
Tap a card to go to the original record covering that event.
Price-conscious consumption becomes routine β
At lunch and in the market, I noticed how closely everyone watched prices and avoided unnecessary purchases. Reports from the period describe the disappearance of consumer excess and widespread efforts to lower prices during the IMF era.
youtube.com
Tap a card to go to the original record covering that event.
A packet of noodles costs about 410 won in 1998 β
The price outside the library made me keep my coins in my pocket and share the lunch packed from home. That small choice made the yearβs rising cost of ordinary necessities feel immediate.
hani.co.kr
Tap a card to go to the original record covering that event.
This diary is a work of fiction based on historical records and period research. Events with available records link to the original sources, while eras without surviving records are reimagined through research-based imagination.
