Almond

Yunjae is confused about a path forward but cannot imagine his mother’s advice on the situation; he can only remember her advice for him to live “normally.” He texts an AI app on his phone for advice and comes up with nothing.

Yunjae chooses to reopen the bookstore and speak as little as possible. A woman comes in and asks after his grandmother but scolds him when he tells her she is dead. She tries to leave without paying in shock when he insists the news is true, and Yunjae is confused about the proper way to interact with her. He remembers a story, “Proctor B and the Love Letters,” that he and his mother had disagreed over. As he thinks, a man—Dr. Shim—comes up and leaves a note on the counter asking him to come to the second floor.

Yunjae describes the Shim Jaeyoung bakery above the bookstore, which despite keeping strange hours and only selling a few products is always overflowing with guests. Dr. Shim owns the bakery and the building, and after Yunjae comes up to the second floor to visit him, he explains that he was friends with Yunjae’s mother and wants to help take care of him. He offers to pay him a monthly wage to cover his living expenses so the money from the insurance can go toward college. Yunjae asks if Dr. Shim was his mother’s boyfriend, which seems to amuse him.

Yunjae accepts Dr. Shim’s offer. Time passes, seemingly without change to anyone’s situation, until Yunjae becomes a high schooler.

Yunjae goes to his new high school apathetically, only watching the entrance ceremony from afar. His homeroom teacher attempts to initiate a conversation about his grief in private, but when he responds that he is fine, she tells the entire class that he has recently lost his family and encourages everyone to clap as encouragement for him to cheer up. Yunjae thinks that he should have asked her to leave him alone.

The news about Yunjae’s tragedy spreads throughout the school, leading to several minor confrontations. A boy comes up and demands to know what it was like to see his grandma die, and Yunjae flatly tells him, “I felt nothing” (80).

Yunjae’s response causes rumors to spread throughout the school about his emotional and mental state and even his capacity for harm, turning him into a scapegoat. Parents begin to accuse him of disrupting the school. Dr. Shim tries to convince Yunjae he should refuse to put up with the harsh treatment and continue to exercise his brain and emotions, but Yunjae shuts him down, insisting he doesn’t care and wants to continue going to school.

Outside the hospital, Yunjae sees a gaunt, hollow man watching him and has a hunch he will become important. The man, Professor Yun, eventually comes to the bookstore, accidentally attempts to buy a book special for Yunjae’s mother, and finally asks Yunjae for a favor, explaining that he heard about him through Dr. Shim. Professor Yun asks Yunjae to impersonate his son for his dying wife. Their son disappeared when he was a young child, and although they recently found him, he doesn’t measure up to his wife’s idea of their lost child. Yunjae agrees but says at the chapter’s end that he would not have agreed if he had met Gon, their real son, earlier.

Yunjae goes to the hospital, where Mrs. Yun cries and apologizes and embraces him, fully believing he is her actual son. Yunjae recites a script intended to set her mind at ease. She holds him in a tight embrace until she falls asleep.

Yunjae explains the tragedy of the Yun family. Their son, who would become Gon, disappeared when he was a toddler after his mother, an important journalist, took a phone call in the park. The Yuns were unable to find him, and their marriage, careers, and health took a turn for the worse. Professor Yun located Gon 13 years later, but he was not what anyone expected.

Mrs. Yun dies, and Yunjae goes to her funeral. He notices that the picture of her is from before Gon’s disappearance. As Yunjae turns to leave, the doors open, and “the boy,” or Gon, appears in the doorway.

Yunjae describes Gon’s appearance in the doorway as “like a wild beast killing his own cub first and baring his teeth at people who had no intention to harm” (97). He realizes that he knows Gon, as he is a new student in his class. Gon introduced himself exclusively by spitting on the floor. One student’s cousin knew him and spilled the details of his “gangster” background. Gon acts angry but is relieved the next day, saying he is glad everyone now knows who he is.

Gon acts relatively calm at the funeral. After the meal, however, he confronts Yunjae and tells him to prepare himself.

Gon and two classmates—not his friends, but bullies accompanying him—begin to torment Yunjae. Yunjae’s lack of reaction eventually infuriates Gon, who announces he will have it out with Yunjae at the incinerator the next day.

Yunjae walks by the incinerator, ignoring Gon at first, but then Gon kicks him over and begins to kick him until he bleeds. Yunjae finally tells Gon he cannot give him what he is looking for and tells him the other kids are laughing at him. Gon curses all the other kids out.

Yunjae explains that Gon went through many foster homes and experienced neglect. Although he was born Yun Leesu, he chooses the name Gon for simplicity.

The school suspends Gon for a week and his father beats him for the first time, dividing them further. Professor Yun takes Gon and Yunjae to a pizzeria for a formal apology. Yunjae asks him to leave so Gon can speak for himself, promising to call if there is any trouble.

Gon refuses to apologize, and the boys speak shortly to each other. Eventually, Yunjae begins to copy everything Gon says and does, which infuriates him. He asks if Yunjae would still mimic him if he committed various crimes, and then sweeps everything off the table and causes a ruckus in the pizzeria. His father appears and begins to beat Gon in the street. That night, Yunjae cannot get Gon’s expression as his father beat him out of his head. Professor Yun calls and promises to pay medical bills and keep Gon away from him permanently.

The chapter begins with a quote from writer P. J. Nolan, who had been falsely accused of murder: “There is no such person who can’t be saved. There are only people who give up on trying to save others” (121). Yunjae explains that Nolan was a terrible person, even if he did not commit murder, and wonders if Gon, himself, or his grandmother’s murderer is like Nolan. He decides he must understand Gon to understand the world.

Dr. Shim listens to the story of Gon and tells Yunjae that he should have gotten out of the situation before it happened. Yunjae insists he wants to be friends with Gon, even though it could be dangerous; Dr. Shim doesn’t discourage him.

Yunjae explains Dr. Shim’s history. He was a heart surgeon, but during the night on a vacation with his wife, she had a heart attack, and he couldn’t save her. Unable to return to his work, he opened a bakery to remember her and eventually befriended Yunjae’s mother, who was closer to him than she was to most people.

Gon comes into the bookstore and buys a porn magazine, and the two boys discuss Yunjae’s alexithymia. Gon accuses Yunjae of being a coward for not confronting his grandmother’s killer and not being consumed with rage, but Yunjae retorts that everyone moves on eventually. Yunjae tells Gon he should learn words that aren’t swearwords so he can talk to people more easily, and Gon leaves; Yunjae notes that the air outside has a “scent of summer.”

The pizzeria incident goes unreported and eventually, Gon and Yunjae fade into the background of the school, ignoring one another and almost everyone else.

Gon starts coming to the bookstore every evening. One day, he returns the first magazine he purchased, insisting he can’t keep it in his room. Yunjae shows him a collection of pornography from the Josun dynasty, which shocks him. Yunjae says that his mother bought the porn.

Yunjae reveals the truth about the porn: It was his grandmother’s idea, as she believed it would sell better than typical books. It did not, however, as most people access porn online or in private. Gon is the first person to buy an adult magazine during the day.

Gon continues to return the magazines. He returns one with Brooke Shields, and the two boys look up pictures of her together. Upon seeing a picture of her in the present day, aged, Gon is upset and vents at both Brooke and Yunjae in turn. He returns a few days later and talks about time and the ways people change; he no longer wants to look at the porn. Yunjae gives him The Art of Loving, which makes him smile strangely, but he returns it a few days later.

Time passes to early May. The bookstore’s sales are slow. One day, Yunjae drops some books and cuts his fingertip; Gon sees and panics, getting frustrated at Yunjae’s lack of response to the injury and helping him stop the bleeding. Yunjae comments that he was born emotionless, and Gon gets more frustrated at that.

Gon brings a butterfly to the store and tells Yunjae it is for empathy training. He hurts the butterfly by pulling on its wings, but Yunjae doesn’t feel any pain for it, even though he asks Gon to stop. The butterfly eventually loses both wings, and Gon grows gradually more upset at his own actions. He stabs the butterfly with a needle. Eventually, Gon grows so upset at the butterfly’s torture that he leaves in a huff.

Gon doesn’t visit for several days, and Yunjae goes to Dr. Shim for advice. Dr. Shim notes that his interest in others and emotions is improving and encourages him to keep practicing with his emotions. Yunjae explains the butterfly incident, and Dr. Shim explains that he should seek Gon out first to balance out their friendship and make Gon feel wanted.

Yunjae goes to Gon’s home, and they share a meal. Gon talks about his dad, explaining that they have not talked in a while because Professor Yun is intent on changing him into the sort of kid he could be proud of instead of accepting him as a “delinquent” and a mistake. Yunjae also explains Gon’s behavior around the word mom, connected to his struggles with abandonment.

Gon explains that he kept coming back to Yunjae because Yunjae did not judge him and because he wanted to ask what his mom was like. Yunjae explains the experience and that Gon’s mom held him tight, and Gon breaks down and sobs without sound.

The boys spend time together all summer and learn about each other’s lives. Yunjae notes that he has never felt abandoned by anyone before like Gon has.

Yunjae realizes that he is forgetting his mother’s voice and that everything is beginning to fade away from him.