[Current & Culture] Even When the Hot Summer Night Passes, May What Remains Not Be Shabby

Sergeant Cha Soogeun and Seoicho Teacher
Who Could Not Welcome the Summer of Life
Let Us Truly Change to a Safer Environment

The music of Jannabi, a band that sings about the youth of this era, is not burdensome even for the older generation to listen to. Looking at the ages of listeners who request Jannabi's songs on the program I direct, they range widely from people in their 20s to their 50s. This is because the leader Choi Jung-hoon, who is in charge of writing lyrics and composing, seamlessly incorporates the sentiments of the parent generation’s music, like Lee Moon-sae and Sanulrim, without any sense of rejection. This attitude closely resembles how today's young generation nonchalantly recreates 1990s fashion. The so-called hip-hop fashion, wearing baggy pants like sacks and short tops together, was everyday wear for our X generation in the 1990s, and nowadays kids dress exactly like that. Of course, the fashion codes are distinctly different, but to my eyes, they look quite similar.

The songs that made today’s Jannabi possible also have old-fashioned titles. "The hot summer night is gone, and what remains is shabby, but beyond the window, faint old memories will come to mind." Borrowing the title from Sanulrim’s song, it sounds natural as if it were originally one sentence. The original lyrics go like this: "The hot summer night is gone, and what remains is shabby, but I will leave it for someone who will come again."

This summer is also slowly fading away. Although the midday sun pretends to be indifferent, the wind blowing in the mornings and evenings tells us that the season of the sun is ending. This summer, some youth faded away without even fully welcoming the summer of their lives. Sergeant Cha Soo-geun, aged 20, who died in the line of duty while searching for a missing person during his service in the Marine Corps, and a 23-year-old elementary school teacher who ended his own life after expressing work-related stress.

Both deaths caused tremendous social repercussions. Following the case of the late Sergeant Cha Soo-geun, voices have risen demanding the eradication of the reckless mobilization of soldiers during disaster and emergency situations. Allegations of external pressure during the ongoing investigation have also sparked controversy. After the death of the teacher from Seoicho, teachers nationwide have continued to mourn with tears and anger. It has also been revealed that teachers’ working conditions are fraught with problems.

When you think about it quietly, these issues were already well known to us. How many safety negligence accidents have occurred in the military? There were also many signs, big and small, indicating the decline of teachers’ authority in schools. Each time, the military and education authorities pretended to take action, but the result is this. If at least the minimum safety rules had been followed during the search operation, if there had been institutional measures to watch over and help teachers expressing distress, these youth in their twenties and early twenties could have welcomed the brilliant summer of their lives. Because they did not avoid their duties and tried to carry them out no matter what, their passing makes me, as an adult who has often lived by taking shortcuts, feel even sadder and more apologetic.

Just as the seasons change without fail, our concerns also shift. New incidents always push past the old ones. The knife fights and rampages that occurred one after another in ordinary people’s everyday spaces, not in gangsters’ battlegrounds, were shock and terror itself. A man intoxicated by drugs who hit a person with a Rolls-Royce, leaving them in a brain-dead state, sparked public outrage, and the jamboree that started with chaos but was settled with K-pop was like a black comedy. Political news and economic reports pour out daily. Although the world’s pace will not slow down in autumn, I hope the sad summer of these two youths will be remembered a little longer.

First of all, the related investigations must be properly concluded. Not to soothe sorrow and regret by punishing someone, but to create a safer and more reasonable environment for soldiers and teachers to work in. Let’s make a real change this time. Please. Even when the sad summer night passes, may what remains not be shabby.

Lee Jae-ik, Novelist

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.