I'm still alive

District 3 near Route 57 on November 21, 20xx

The place where our news team met him was a residential area called Zone 3 among people. It was the closest civilian access to the blockade area, and the only place to check the boundary with the naked eye. Although security was very unstable due to the influx of illegal refugees, we were able to get inside safely with the help of soldiers. And the place where the interview was conducted was a building belonging to the provincial government where he actually lived.

The first thing we felt as soon as we arrived here was that the man in charge of the center of this defensive area looked very busy. Of course, our news team was anticipating this situation, so we sat for four hours in the reception room waiting for him. He has never been exposed to the media in the past four years. Our team, which had the opportunity to conduct the first interview in the world, waited for him, trying to hide their nervousness. And time passed and around 3 p.m., when the sun was floating in the sky, we were finally able to capture Choi Yong-pal (real name) coming in with the door open.

The first impression of a man who came in with the door was a man who was so dignified and sturdy that it was doubtful whether he was the dragon that appeared in the diary. The dragon-arm in the appendix photo must have been a short, naughty naughty boy, the man in front of us was no less than a veteran soldier with a large scar left by his cheek. But when he asked for a handshake, we could certainly be sure that Choi Yong-pal was right through a funny laugh.

Choi Yong-pal was the first to confirm the employee ID card hanging around our neck, with a happy smile. And he asked after Kim, who is still working at the scene, by mentioning his name. Of course, after reading the book dozens of times, I was well aware of the relationship between Kim (Kim Chang-sik) and Eden, so I showed the team leader's recent photos and handed him the enclosed handwritten letter. Upon receipt of the letter, he sat still for a while with something dimly smiling.

And when he quietly folded up the letter paper he had read and put it down on his desk, our news team was finally able to conduct the interview. The following is the content of the interview that lasted about two hours.

*

"Thank you very much for your interview. Actually, I didn't expect much when I sent you the mail, but was there a reason why you suddenly changed your mind?"

Our production team took the prepared camera and put their faces in the angle. Bright sunlight enters through the windows and the warm scenery is the background. And he looked down at the floor with a shameful smile as if he wasn't familiar with the situation, and soon relishes his appetite and takes a sip of the coffee he has set aside. After a short but long period of 30 seconds, he answers in a calm voice.

"I'm asking Chang-sik to do it, but I'll do that far. How come he's so handsome? Oops, look at my mind. They're reporters. They're sitting in front of us asking questions. Do I have to introduce myself before I start?"

"No, no. All the subscribers around the world who have read books are so famous that they can't wait. People will probably understand if you don't introduce yourself."

"I'm glad to hear that.”

His expression darkened a little when he heard the word Subscriber. Our production team, which conducted a lot of research in the dictionary, knew why he was reluctant to expose himself to the media due to the rumors, so we decided to continue the interview without showing any signs. The incoming redness of the camera shone quietly, and I posed straight and threw the topic at him.

"It's been four years since it happened, hasn't it?"

"Has it already been that long?" Time really flies."

At my question, Choi Yong-pal stared into the air and smiled calmly. And he and our crew slowly began to reflect on the past and capture each and every story they wanted to tell on the camera that was quietly spinning.

Exactly four and eleven months have passed since the escape. The story of the day, which would mark its fifth anniversary a week later, could only come to light exactly a year later, with the people of Eden hiding themselves. The pictures on the front page of the newspaper and the short videos on the Internet without notice. The bomb from the company's media, which they thought would have been completely destroyed, heated up the cold domestic public opinion, and the government hurriedly tried to hide the fact, but the once-burning fire did not go away easily.

And as some journalists, who had been hiding away from the slowly spreading testimony of survivors and the government's eyes, set fire to the international community, data called the Eden List began to spread slowly. The government was already wielding a thin ice-like public power because of its confrontation with North Korea. Public opinion in Korea, which had been enduring, exploded with the end of Kwak Dong-yoon's video released on the last day.

People stampeded out into the street. They didn't ask each other why they took to the streets and why we should do this. Just like the people of Eden, who walked ahead to survive, they just got out of the main road where anyone could see and raised their heads toward the sky.

Children, adults, men and women, all united for the right thing. an international game depressed by their appearance On that cold winter day, when Korea recorded the largest number of unemployed and suicides, people faced the cold and cold truth for the first time, experiencing a phenomenon that could never happen.

Countless citizens gathered in front of the square. And more soldiers and policemen blocked their way. But even during the chilly confrontation, the protests were horrifyingly quiet, and very few people were loud and noisy. Even the blocking soldiers and police closed their eyes and the world's most peaceful protest began. And as soon as the truth came out to the world, everyone sat quietly on the street and quietly lifted up the candle in his heart.

The week-long demonstration of the small peninsula slowly drew worldwide attention. Third world countries were divided because of the ever-increasing number of people, and many international refugees were flocking to blind spots around the world. And at the end of the century, when even the military powers were plagued, people began to wonder what the people gathered in that square were really out there for.

And the last hurling of firewood on the embers was a book published in the United States, which was becoming stabilized. Too shabby a cover, too common a name, but that shabby book swept the North American publishing industry, which was beginning to collapse amid the economic downturn, in just four weeks. And a month after the book was published in North America, the story he wrote came down slowly like the first snow in front of people out on the streets looking for truth.

Author, Kang Soo Ryun. When you open the first chapter of the shabby book, you can see a picture of him smiling brightly with Eden's people. The story from a man starting to get out of the goshiwon to getting innocent people and children out. The book, which exactly matches Eden's survival list, and the video that Kim Chang-sik filmed fits beautifully, contained a quiet yet deadly aftermath.

It is a vivid testimony that contains the desperation to save and the tragedy of the day. Countless people and domestic and foreign journalists who were holding their breath were shocked, and citizens rose up in countless cities across the country. The flames, which the incumbent administration thought would be extinguished over time, began to melt the cold frost that had fallen on the peninsula, burning the still-remaining conscience and ethics.

The report is said to be a day away from the criticism that comes from inside and outside. The chaos of millions of candles and water cannons to stop them continued. But as he said while calmly writing his diary, warm spring came to people after the cold winter.

With the world watching at the end of the century, people have been dragging down the government, signaling a new start, not the last.

And our conversation, which had been a long and long gossip, was over by the time he kept his mouth shut quietly. Sitting quietly on the chair, Choi Yong-pal looked at the sun shining from outside and recited quietly. His face contained a long ordeal and a deep longing for someone.

"Still... ..I remember."

Our reporters had no choice but to remain silent for a while. And I put down the recorder quietly for him looking out of the window with a dim look on his face. He's probably missing someone and brooding over the lingering imagery in his mouth.

After five minutes of silence, I asked him a question that I wanted to ask so much.

"Many readers are curious about the story after that. Can we hear what happened after we get out of the containment area?”

The truth that almost went down was revealed and the regime that had been tainted by corruption and dictatorship changed. The international community, which began to stabilize slowly, and the iron fences that completely blocked them, quickly restored South Korea's politics and economy, and people began to return to their daily lives. And at the same time, it drew people's attention to the Eden List, the beginning and the end of everything. Numerous interviews and documentaries, both at home and abroad, have been produced, and numerous testimonies and experiences have spread throughout the world.

But there has been no interview with the rescue team, which was the mainstay of the Eden List and led the surviving survivors. And our news team will be able to hear vivid testimony through Choi Yong-pal, who led the B team and people in four years and 11 months. His face was caught on the screen and the youngest holding the camera quietly swallows dryness. Then he opens his mouth and begins to slowly unravel the story of the day.

"My brother's radio was cut off and he moved without a moment to grieve. I threw everything away and went through the rain as my grandfather told me last. And the determination I made while walking was vain, but there was not a single soldier who stopped us from passing that narrow little path. I was happy, people quietly shed tears because they were lucky. But once we got out of the containment area, the residents knew why we could be alive."

He quietly closed his eyes and licked his dry lips. And just on the day of the intense rain, he breathed out with a sad face as if he were still there.

"My sister-in-law slapped me on the cheek for the first time. Well, you know what? That I got slapped, but the sister who hit me looked sicker? At that moment, my sister hit me and cried, and I cried, and people just cried and we were in the rain. It's still fresh. When my sister asked me where the people who always stood in front of me went and where the guy who had to be here went, I couldn't really say anything.”

He grabbed a glass of water on the desk with his thirsty or trembling hand.

"And exactly a day later, eight members of Team A, including Detective Kang and Park Dae-bak, escaped out of the containment area. Most of them were terrible injuries that were shot and shrapnel, but Kim Chul saved most of them. And I asked Mr. Park Dae-bak who came to his senses after receiving treatment. Where did he go? Why didn't he come out with me?….”

He slowly clouded his words, and I recited in a small voice, holding the tape recorder with trembling hands.

"You two..."

"Yes. The last thing Park saw was that he was running somewhere else to lure them to the end. My heart stopped once, but it was still beating.”

He breathed heavily, touching his forehead and face with trembling hands. But I couldn't stop his testimony that didn't look good. Because everyone listening to this story wanted to hear their last appearance so badly. He spoke slowly.

"And the last grandpa you saw, Detective Kang, said he had already jumped into the grass for a long time into the grass. I think he went to pick up his brother who turned off his radio. You've always been stuck like a gum, and it's only natural."

He looked at us and asked.

"Do you want me to tell me more.

I nodded, forgetting that the youngest was holding the camera.