Lee BokSung
76y, Busan

"I can't quite remember when it was
I think I was about twenty-four

I got off at Busanjin Station from Daegu
And have lived here ever since

I've tried everything to make a living
Now I'm living in a hotel room

They say there's redevelopment coming here too
But no one will rent to old folks like us

I don't know where to go

I'm seventy-six now

You don't need to know my name"

April 24, 2021

Along the narrow alleys of Choryang, opposite Busan Station

Walking past the 'Monthly Rooms Available' signs swaying precariously in the wind
Examining the narrow, dark entrances of hotels

where sunlight barely reaches even on a warm spring day

I greeted Bok-sung, sitting on a cardboard box on the stairs.

Thinking she might really be killed
She left her two-year-old child behind
Spent the night at the station and took the first train
Twenty-four-year-old Bok-sung who got off at Busanjin Station

For six years, she dug through fish innards dumped by fishing boats all day
Then for ten years, she washed dishes at sashimi restaurants all day
With the money saved, she ran a food cart for 8 years

In her fifties
She tried to open a small fish cake shop
But the man she lived with left with all the money

Once again penniless and alone
She wandered around like mad

And then at some point
She ended up living in hotel rooms.

Following her request not to ask for her name
I engraved her story with the name 'Bok-sung'
After the hotel where she wants to stay but must leave again.

The lady is now 76 years old.
She said she doesn't know when she'll have to leave due to redevelopment
Insisting there's nothing to be proud of living in a hotel room
She refused to reveal her name until the end.

In 2023,

as the cold was setting in, I returned to
That alley, now piled high with garbage
Unable to even open the doors, in that place
Through the old sash windows of the hotel, between broken glass
As if whistling from somewhere
Only a thin sound of wind leaked out.

Lee Bok-sung
Who would now be over eighty

I hope she has found

Somewhere

A place where the wind doesn't enter

With a warm floor

To stay.