New Moon

by Lee Ik-sang · 2026-03-20

Seong-ho woke up. The light bulb was weakly lit, and bright light was shining through the window. It was clearly daytime. His wife, who had been sleeping next to him, was not visible, and instead, their four-year-old son Mun-hwan had taken his wife's place and was lying there. The filament of the bulb was yellowed, and the light seemed too weak to have illuminated the night.

Nevertheless, Seong-ho stared at the light for a long time and felt dazzled. He closed his eyes again and fell into thought. The tasks he had to do today came to mind. Debtors, manuscript paper, photographs, typesetting, trams, dust, printing presses, poetry, novels, essays, activity photos, and so on. He turned over, occupying the spot where his wife had been lying, and stretched his body. His arm lightly brushed against Mun-hwan's head, which was lying beside him. At that moment, the dim light bulb went out. The room seemed to turn blue. It felt as if the room, which had been tinted red, was now overlaid with blue. A white ray of light seeped through the window.

A new energy rose in Seong-ho's eyes as well. He rubbed his eyes with his hands and yawned loudly. At the sound, Mun-hwan opened his eyes wide and sat up. Rubbing his eyes with his fists, he groggily got up, looked around for a while, and then called for his mother, bursting into tears with a cry of 'Eung-ah!'

Seong-ho muttered, 'So, you've had enough sleep. Now you're starting to cry again....' He jumped up, covered his face with the blanket, and tried to soothe his young son.

'Don't cry! Good kids don't cry!' Seong-ho's attempt to soothe was not very gentle. It had a scolding tone.

Mun-hwan seemed not to hear Seong-ho's words and continued to cry, only calling for his mother. Seong-ho became angry. 'Why are you crying at four years old? You always make a fuss every morning....' At the sound of his voice and Mun-hwan's cries, his wife, who had been cooking in the kitchen, wiped her hands and came into the room.

'Oh! My baby! Why are you crying? Good kids don't cry!' His wife picked up Mun-hwan and comforted him.

Mun-hwan, with his feet dangling above the floor, cried out in a voice mixed with tears, 'Mom! Snacks!' His wife, while changing Mun-hwan's clothes, said, 'If you don't cry, I'll give you snacks! Good kids don't cry when they wake up. And you should greet your mother and father, okay...?'

However, Mun-hwan continued to whine. His wife took a handful of biscuits from a tin can on the desk and handed them to Mun-hwan. At that moment, Mun-hwan's eyes sparkled like stars, and his mouth bloomed like a flower. His wife comforted Mun-hwan and went back outside. Mun-hwan grabbed his mother's skirt and followed her. Seong-ho felt it was inappropriate to give snacks to his son, who had just rubbed his eyes and woken up.

However, young Mun-hwan had developed a habit of needing to have snacks in his hands as soon as he woke up. Recently, he believed that he would receive snacks upon waking and took it for granted that his mother would give them to him. Seong-ho thought he should correct this habit, but he had never voiced it. Fortunately, the lack of any issues after giving snacks prevented Seong-ho from intervening.

Today, Seong-ho felt a sense of calm in the room after his wife and child left, while also harboring ominous thoughts in his mind. He lay back down. From the next room, he could hear his wife setting the table with the child. Seong-ho listened to that sound and thought.

'How will breakfast be made?' The act of making breakfast felt strangely fascinating. And suddenly, the thought, 'Oh, today is the new moon!' crossed his mind. It felt like his chest was tightening.

He had not received his salary for two months from the newspaper he worked for. Even when his salary was paid on time, it was difficult to sustain the three of them with that money. After deducting rent, rice costs, side dish costs, newspaper fees, electricity bills, and water bills, he was short by about twenty won each month.

The shortfall was barely supplemented by begging friends in the countryside or through manuscript fees from other newspapers. With two months of salary overdue, his life had reached an unbearable predicament. Eating was tantamount to being scolded.

'They say the rich live off dreams, but we seem to be living off scolding!' Seong-ho often made such ridiculous remarks whenever he felt ashamed in front of his wife. Not being able to pay rent was not a major concern for them. Transactions with the rice shop, side dish shop, and tofu seller had all been cut off. Such trivial debts had piled up over two months and were now pressing down on him.

Sometimes, he would say, 'I'll pay you tomorrow,' without any plan. Seong-ho thought that such responses were hiding in his conscience and coming out. So, today, he decided to delay his fainting spell to the new moon.

He believed that no matter how late his salary was, it would be sufficient if it came in twenty-seven or twenty-eight days. When he postponed it to the new moon, several people asked, 'Will it really work?' but he assured them it would definitely work. However, the salary that was supposed to come three days ago had still not arrived by the new moon. Seong-ho repeatedly pondered how to get through today safely. Until he held a bundle of banknotes in his hand, every method felt vague.

If he were alone, he could have gone to the newspaper office and avoided a bit of embarrassment, but it was too shameless to make his wife face such embarrassment alone. Seong-ho was at a loss, pondering what to do.