Catcher in the Rye: Adaptation by Jiseon Min

Chapter 18

AT the end of the chapter 17, Holden upsets Sally and breaks up with her. In chapter 18, Holden calls up Mr. Antolini, a smart and arrogant guy from Pencey, and they are going to meet at the bar. In the meantime, Holden goes to the movies to kill time. He is very critical about the religious, phony movie, and he was irritated by a woman crying during the whole movie, sitting next to him. After the movie, he walks to the bar, thinking about the war and D.B. I changed the setting into Seoul and the narrator is a high school student. I tried to follow the original story line, and make the details modernized and Korean.

After I left my ex-girl friend, Eunsoo, I was running through my phone book in my phone. Running from the top to the bottom and start all over again. I was looking for a person to give a buzz. I suddenly had tons of time to kill, because Eunsoo flung away home. We’re supposed to hang around a little, and eat dinner together, but she suddenly went so mad. The only thing I did was to suggest quitting the school and get employed and travel together. I mean, she didn’t like her school too much, and I didn’t either. She was always telling me that she hated schools, but she went mad when I asked her to quit the school. She is kind of mad all the time. She really is.

But the thing is I had no one to give a buzz. I hardly ever use cell phone. It was stupid to give a buzz, that you’ve never even think of after you graduated from middle school. So what I did was, I just held the scroll bar to the end and just stopped. The screen stopped at Sihyun. He was my classmate in my goddam middle school. Our school was one of the top private schools in Seoul. The principal said it all the time in every morning 애조 speech. He said we should show honor and pride to be the family of the goddam elite school. It’s funny. People usually hates schools as hell, but suddenly call their school “family” whenever they want to look awesome. The word, “family” makes me puke. It is total nonsense that five hundred stinky nerds are my siblings. And is the ruddish, and half-bald principal my father or something? Anyway, Sihyun was the loved child in that monstrously huge family. He was awarded in front of all the students almost every Monday. He walked on the stage so naturally because he went up there so many times. Teachers didn’t explicitly give him a glance, but I could tell that all the teachers thought he was super talented. The principal shook his hand, full of smile and, even petted his back once in a while. It killed me. The principal wasn’t so nice to guys like me. In one lunch time, he flung the broom against the floor and made me clean up in front of his office. Some bastards were throwing trashes in front of the office, during the cleaning time. I was damn unlucky to pass there right at that time, holding the trash cans. When the principal flung the door open, all the bastards ran away like a wind, and I was standing there stupidly. At last, I took the all rap upon myself, got penalty points, and did community service for two weeks. But funny thing is that the “model students” never get into that kind of trouble. They really do. At that lunch time, Sihyun was studying goddam math at the library, as always. He was also the class president, and that’s why I have his phone number. The last time I saw him was at the graduate ceremony; he was getting his last award and scholarship at the front. He got in Daewon. People envied him greatly, but I wasn’t. Daewon must be the school full of kids like Sihyun, a decent students, who are always busy doing their own work. Anyway, I gave him a buzz, and he answered. He was goddam glad to hear me after so long. He said he missed the middle school life. But he wasn’t able to hang around with me today because he was studying in an academy. He couldn’t get out of there until 9 o’clock. So I said I will meet him in front of the academy at 9 o’clock. He was missing the middle school, for God’s sake. The school must have been a real family for him.

It was six thirty. I got some time to kill on my own before I meet Sihyun. I didn’t eat dinner, but I wasn’t too hungry. So what I did, I went to the cinema. I went to see a romance movie. I’m not fond of sugary, romantic movies, but Eunsoo talked about that movie today. I soon realized that it was the worst choice I’ve ever made. The movie was about a couple, and the woman who loses her memory after a car accident. I can’t understand why so many people get amnesia in goddam romance movies. Amnesia is a tool for finding true love. Maybe it is because people replant good memory and forget to mention faults. It sounds like a fraud, but the real world is not so sweet. But, I swear, I will never get along with Eunsoo again, even if I get amnesic. She might be able to deceive me like a nice girl, but she will reveal her madness someday. Anyway, the movie was happy ending. The girl recovers her memory by the goddam power of love, and marries her boyfriend. There was a girl sitting next to me. She cried all over, especially when the actress recovers the memory. Funny thing is that her boyfriend was sleeping as hell right after the advertisements and toward the end. I felt a little sorry for the lady, because the romantic love in the movie was unlikely to ever happen to the couple. If she gets amnesia, her boyfriend won’t care too much, because he knows that she will recover the memory in any time.

After the movie, I headed to the subway station. There, I will go to Dogok and find the academy, that Sihyun is staying. It was a little early, but I could drop at one station ahead and walk to Dogok station. On the way to subway station, I could see high school students, hurrying from one academy to another. They didn’t even take off their school uniform. It looked horrible. If there is a “family” that doesn’t allow their kids to take off the uniform, I will sue the parents, for God’s sake. When I got on the subway, it was already nine four. Sihyun will be waiting for me or just get back home. Probably with his school uniform on. I suddenly felt a little sorry for Sihyun.