★2023 Chosun Ilbo Author of the Year
★2024 Booksellers' Choice Award Winner
★Official Adaptation Coming Soon!

Dubbed as the "Future Star of Korean Literature" by her readers, Young writer Lee Kkoch-nim brings us another page-turner that sets the heart a flutter.
"This is my most cherished story out of all I’ve penned."
Having already swept 200,000 readers off their feet with "I Will Cross Time For You," and another 100,000 with "Killing Your Friend," Lee Kkoch-nim is renowned for her straightforward approach to exploring teen dilemmas—things one wish they’d known but are hard to put down to words.
Consistently climbing the bestseller lists, she's a trusted voice in young adult fiction. Now she returns with a heartfelt tale of young love.
In this narrative, which the author holds dear, two seventeen-year-olds find each other by chance during one scorching summer. Both are struggling with their families and seem deeply wounded. Slowly, they let their guards down and embark on a journey toward a shared future.

The book has been acclaimed as "the novel that makes you fall in love with summer," "a story you can't put down once started," and "a read that moves you to both tears and smiles." These accolades have further solidified Lee Kkot-nim's reputation as "an author readers can always trust." Between the lines flows the writer's heartfelt dedication—to all youth bearing unbearable wounds yet marching forward courageously: Though life may be rugged, may joy ultimately outweigh sorrow.

"The true miracle is this:
The moment I poured my entire soul into it,
the world began to transform."

Their story began on an endlessly sweltering summer day, with an irresistible pull between them. That inexplicable presence—the one who kept surfacing in their thoughts, the one who stirred inexplicable worry. For Ha Ji-oh, it was Yoo Chan; for Yoo Chan, it was Ha Ji-oh. "That person" took root in the deepest corners of their hearts.

When they recognized each other's pain, when the urge to protect first flickered to life, the two boys found themselves confronting pasts they'd long avoided. Through the quiet, watchful eyes of their neighbors—some obvious, some hidden—they came to understand: every choice carries loss, yet choosing is inevitable. Even when decisions wound us, we can still choose something beyond bitterness or scorn. And when we do, our world truly begins to shift.

Clutching the fragile hope that "maybe I can make peace with myself," Ji-oh and Yoo Chan forged what they'd thought would be a season of scorching anguish into their most radiant, unforgettable summer yet.


One sweltering day, the spark between them ignites spontaneously. Haji-oh can't stop thinking about Yu-chan, and the feeling is mutual. As they uncover each other's emotional scars, they begin to feel a newfound desire to protect one another. In doing so, they face their own hidden stories for the first time. Through the voices of community members who have quietly observed their pain, they come to understand an essential truth: making a choice often comes with its own set of losses. Still, choices must be made. And even if these choices result in suffering, one can always choose a perspective other than hatred or scorn. That's when real change begins to happen. Clinging to a sliver of hope that they might come to terms with their lives, Haji-oh and Yu-chan transform what they expected to be a painful summer into the most radiant and rewarding summer of their lives yet.
Yu-chan hears people's secret thoughts, a gift he never wanted.
Haji-oh believes he should never have been born.
"For the first time, I feel like I can be truly honest with someone," –they both think about the other.
Yu-chan and Haji-oh’s intertwining stories unfold in a fictional town, oscillating between their two viewpoints. Yu-chan loses his parents in a mysterious fire and gains the unsettling ability to hear what people are really thinking. He plugs in his earphones and drowns himself in studies to escape the mental noise. But when he meets Haji-oh, a new kid in town, a strange calm descends upon him. At first, it's just curiosity and a glimmer of hope: Could Haji-oh be his escape from the incessant inner voices of others? As time passes, Yu-chan realizes there's more to it. The diverse emotions he starts to feel around Haji-oh are both new and disconcerting.
Transferred from Seoul, Haji-oh has lived solely with her mom her whole life. Her love for her mom led her to take up judo. Now, her mom's illness pushes her to search for a father she never knew.
Thrust into a new, unwelcoming environment, Haji-oh finds it all unbearable—the aloof locals, her absent father, and even Yu-chan, the odd boy she meets at the train station. Yet amidst this murkiness, Haji-oh can't shake off her intrigue for Yu-chan, as if this mysterious boy is silently crying out for help.
"In this quaint village, the judo club is always at the center of the big stuff."
The Ultimate Refuge for the Loneliest: Prosperity Town
In Prosperity Town, which might appear a bit rough around the edges, judo isn't just a sport—it's a collective dream and a badge of honor. The children who engage in judo here do so for various compelling reasons— sometimes mysterious, sometimes desperate. Yu-joo, always in high spirits, gets by with petty tricks; Sae-byeol, a promising judo athlete at Prosperity Town High School and sole caretaker of his younger siblings, is intricately linked to Yu-chan's tragedy. As we learn about each of these judo club members, the atmosphere changes, the novel increasingly zooming onto a secret the townspeople have been hiding for five years- a mysterious fire.
Through the perspectives of Haji-oh and Yu-chan, we learn about the lives of the town's adults, like Ji-oh's police officer dad, the somewhat dubious judo coach, and Yu-chan's grandmother who lost her own child to the fire. The children confront their pain and find significant cues for healing. Haji-oh, who's always lived in the city and valued only her relationship with her mother, and Yu-chan,
who's shut himself off emotionally after the tragedy, slowly start to open up to each other and the world. Their transformation brings warmth to everyone who witnesses it.
In contrast to appearances, the community is filled with compassionate people, children running their own races, brilliant streams every returning summer, eternally green ginkgo trees, and the ceaseless chirping of cicadas... The summer in Prosperity Town, as depicted by the author, might stir nostalgia for the community and spaces that have unknowingly nurtured us.
From a Searing to a Refreshing Summer, A Season Reimagined by the Rush of First Love The intense emotions and heart-fluttering moments of first love among these seventeen-year-olds are magnified under the harsh sun, climaxing as the season evolves. This narrative illuminates how a single, significant encounter can not only redefine a season but an entire lifetime. Once you've experienced the seventeenth summer of Haji-oh and Yu-chan, you'll find yourself wanting to discuss the extraordinary allure and magic of this special season.

Lee Kkoch-nim
The author received the grand prize at the 8th Munhakdongne Young Adult Literary Award for "I Will Cross Time For You." The author's body of work includes young adult novels such as "Luck Is On It’s Way For You," "Of Course, It's You," "Killing Your Friend," "The Boy Who Stole a Name," "The Well of B612" (co-authored), and "Feminism for Girls" (co-authored). They have also written children's books like "The House Where Villains Live" and "The Ghost Problem Solver.