The narrator and her mother go shopping for outfits for the upcoming Seollal (New Year) celebration. The narrator searches for information about Kerrand on the internet and discovers he is the creator of a comic series about “a globe-trotting archaeologist” (45). They then visit a museum, where the narrator is annoyed that a ticket seller speaks to her in English, presuming she does not speak Korean. She replies that only tourists go to the border. Kerrand is surprised she has never been there before, suggesting she might have gone at some point “Out of a feeling of solidarity” (40).
The narrator accompanies Kerrand to the border with North Korea. Later, at Jun-oh's apartment, the narrator looks at a picture of herself and observes her “bones sticking out” (32). He touches a scar on the narrator's leg she got from falling on a fish hook as a child and she becomes annoyed. He wonders if the modeling agency will require him to get plastic surgery, then tells the narrator she might consider having surgery too if she ever wants to work in Seoul. Jun-oh visits the narrator and tells her he will be leaving soon for Seoul, where he is going to modeling school. Later, she stands in the doorway of his room and watches as he draws a picture of a woman, then blacks out the drawing with a blob of ink. Kerrand tells the narrator that he is a comic book artist. They have a conversation, and the narrator tells Kerrand she attended university in Seoul, where she studied French and Korean literature. The next day, the narrator sees Kerrand on the beach. The narrator replies that she and her boyfriend, Jun-oh, will get engaged soon. The following night, the narrator sleeps at her mother's house, and her mother chastises her for not yet being married. That night, Kerrand does not come to the guest house for dinner, which the narrator always prepares. The narrator notes that people in Sokcho gossip about her because her father was a Frenchman who seduced her mother and abandoned her. After checking Kerrand in, the narrator goes to the fish market where her mother works. It is winter, so the beach resort city is largely empty. The narrator checks in a guest, an older Frenchman named Yan Kerrand from Normandy, and tells him about local attractions. Winter in Sokcho is narrated by an unnamed 24-year-old woman who lives and works at a guest house in the resort city of Sokcho on South Korea's border with North Korea.
The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Dusapin, Elisa Shua.
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