Adaptation by Migang Sung, 18th wave. Typed by Yelim Oh, 18th Wave

           Unfortunately, today I realized that the midterm was going to start next week. Then, I remembered that I would be kicked out of school if I failed one more subject. I became sort of concerned, but nevertheless I stayed at my room and continued my reading of modern warfare. It was very intriguing.          

           While I was concentrating on the book, suddenly my cell phone started to ring. I felt that it was too noisy and annoying but was also pleased of it. I was getting increasingly tedious of being alone in my room. I accidentally didn’t receive the first call, listening to the music. I waited, and as I expected, my phone ringed again. I took a deep breath and answered it.

           The high pitching voice of Miss Cho tortured my ears. She was my advisor, and seemed to be extremely concerned of me, especially of my grades. She asked me if I was preparing for the midterms, and stressed the situation I was in. I told her that I was trying, and that I was grateful for her help. I felt sorry of my lies To be honest, I was not trying, and actually did not care whether I could attend this school or not. I would always laugh when people outside praised our school. The phoniness of our school was unbearable for me. Everyone was so concerned of how other people would evaluate them, and constantly behaved phony. Even the school was made up of lies, and the most hilarious was the EOP policy. I mean, who only speaks English in KMLA?

           The part about appreciating Miss Cho’s attention for me was not a lie, however. She did seem to truly wish my well-being. The problem was that her attention was sort of annoying. Because of that, I hastily ended her call.

           After the phone call, I resumed my reading. At about 5:00 PM, my roommate John came down to our room to ask me if I would eat dinner. I was kind of surprised because John was the popular one, and usually never had to find someone to eat with. Still, I refused because I was not hungry. He said ok, and curiously asked me if I had time to read a book that was not related to my subjects. I said that I probably do not have the time. Hearing my words, John sort of sneered at me. I could see it from his looks. However, John said that he wished me good luck and that he was sure that I would do well in the midterms. It was very funny. Suppressing my laughter, I said thank you.

           John stayed for about 10 minutes and went to eat dinner with Justin who came to my room to give back my computer. It was very interesting to observe their conversation that was full of formal and meaningless words. It was also very interesting how they were constantly trying to lure me into their conversation. Maybe they felt bad for me for being alone and being in the danger of getting expelled from school.         

           Time passed by, and suddenly I felt the change of the sky. I looked out of the windown and saw the most beautiful sunset of my life. The reddish light of the falling sun was covering everything in an immensely romantic way. The spirit of every single subject on earth seemed to be woken up by the touch of the sun being delightful about it. Feeling so happy, I took my outer clothing and ran out of the dormitory. The magnificent glow filled my heart with happiness. I stayed still for a long time, I think. At least I did not move until the sun stopped glowing and the night filled in with such coziness. I realized that I was smiling. There was nothing phony about the sun and the darkness! I stayed outside until the houseparent shouted at me and forced me to come inside the dormitory. I am sure I wouldn’t easily forget this wonderful day. 

Adaptation by Yongkyun Lee, 17th Waver

Adaptation of <Catcher in the Rye> - Yongkyun Lee

This is not an adaptation of a specific part of the book nor an essay totally written in Holden’s voice. Yet, it is more of an essay about my experience written in a candid, unrefined perspective like Holden’s.

                  When someone asked me to introduce myself, I was the type of guy who listed my age, the place I lived in, subjects I liked (or I pretended to like), my hobbies, and all those phony things you can think about. Well, I can do that now and tell you about those meaningless details that I bet half of my friends can also use to introduce themselves. But I am not in the mood to waste your extremely precious time that you need to complete your extremely imminent work and to, of course, look at extremely funny pictures on extremely important Facebook.

                  So instead I am going to tell you a more interesting and honest stuff, a story that is sort of embarrassing to share with others. But it is not that fancy to begin any type of story with serious talk, so I want to share what happened on last Thursday. On that very day, I have to say, the dinner menu was terrible. Our school food is usually very delicious, even better than what my mom gives me at home. But on some days, like last Thursday, the school serves us food that is just not palatable in any possible way. So, to eat get some better food and to breathe some fresh air, I suggested a visit to Sosa rest stop to three of my friends. By the way, we are forbidden to leave our school boundary on weekdays. But I guess everyone would agree to the fact that eating dinner is more important than getting some phony penalty points.

                  Anyways, my loyal friends agreed to go and we left the dormitory very casually. But, boy, it turned out to be a hell of a trip. I forgot that many teachers go home around this time, and it is easy for us to get spotted. Damn it. I was also wearing a red shirt that is so visible from miles away. So, we tried to find a route that is difficult for others to see us. We ran up and down the hill behind the gym and the golf practice facility. Then came the real problem – a vast flatland with only Pasteur factory on one side with teachers’ cars coming every twenty seconds. We first passed through the middle of the factory. This guy with white lab clothes on shouted some blah-blah-blahs, but oh who cares. Then, came the 100m course. There was basically nothing except us and the cars. We ran like a bunch of crazies. But we made it. We relished our victory with delicious dinner.

                  Thinking about this whole incident, it is hard to believe that I was the leader of all this. You won’t believe my “grey” past in my first one and a half year at KMLA. I mean it, literally. Can you imagine a boy who usually wears a grey training pants and grey shirt? Anyone would think how shitty outfit that is. Unfashionable, uninterested, and nerdy. It is embarrassing that I was that boy. The biggest problem is that my sense of fashion was a small part of the hell lot of problems I had. I possessed the characteristics that matched the stereotype of wearing all-grey clothes. I always kept things to myself and I did not know how to enjoy my life. At school, I only did things that teachers told me to do. I think I spent most of the other times to get better grades. While my friends were studying together and building friendship, I always studied alone for the sake of efficiency. What is more is that in my first year, when my friends asked me to go to Sosa rest stop in the weekends, I refused most of the time saying I had a lot of work to do. Yes, I was a hell of a phony guy who was stuck in a very bad and habitual one that made me merely functionally

                  But you know what broke this frame and helped to break out of the egg as that Demian guy did in Hesses’s book? A mirror. I must say it is ironic that mirror was a thing that I had thought of as phony for like seventeen years, but it basically changed my life. On that day, I was in a camp, where my links with other kids were based on my title of “KMLA student.” I was quite lonely throughout the camp. Anyways on the last day, in the toilet, I looked at myself. As usual, I was wearing grey training pants and grey shirts. But oh boy. How disgraceful my fashion was! I was shocked by the embarrassment of myself, and I felt an urge to dig a hole in the ground and hide in there.

                  For Chrissake, I was crying out of loneliness with the freaking grey outfit on. No wonder why I could not manage to make a girlfriend for my whole life. Though I did not fall in love with anybody even after the revelation, I still became a better person, I think. At least, now I hang out more with my friends, know how to relish my life, wear good clothes, and go to Sosa rest stop freely.

Adaptation by Ju Yeon Lee, 19th Waver

This is adopted from the first part of the book, when Ackley and Holden talks with each other. The thing to focus about is how they think negatively about the world and how they do not care about each other. This is all fictional.

After the having a talk with my advisor teacher, I stepped into my room. For chrissake. He should seriously stop caring about my grades.

                  “I sick of all this. I’m gonna quit,” I said.

                  “Hey, do you have scissors? I need to make another rolling paper, gosh.,” Haewon complained.

                  “It would be in the first shelf of the big drawer. Anyways, do you know what Mr. Sung did to me today?”

                  “Well, I don’t know.” She started to write a senior’s name in pop-art. Jaeeun. The one she always gossips about whenever she comes into the room. She’s a phony. It seems that Jaeeun sunbae likes her a lot. I can’t imagine what she would be like when she knows that my roommate is such a gossiper.

                  “He started to scold me for getting bad grades on the midterm. For chirsssake. Grade is not end of the life.”

                  “Do you think drawing her face in the corner would look good? Oh.. it will probably not. Should I print a picture of her face? What were you saying? Why would do that?”

                  I was so obvious that she was not paying attention to my words. She started to go up to my bed with all the colorpencils and pens.

                  “Why is your bed so messy? I got no place to put down my paper.”

                  “Well, it’s not your bed. Are you going to hear my story or not?”

                  “I will, I will. Just after I finish drawing her face. Okay. Why is Mr. Sung so serious about your grades?”

                  “I don’t know. He told me that with this grade, I would not be able to go to good college and not going to good college will screw my life up.”

                  “Well, it is true that you will go to some unknown college if you get low grades. He is actually caring about you.”

                  “Do you ever agree to what other people tell you? Now get out of my bed,” I crawled up my bed, pushing her out of it. I pulled the blanket over my face. This is the perfect posture to just think. Sudden anger started to boil inside of me. I could not stand a single second in the room. I got up, got out of my bed, put on the school winter coat, and headed out of the dormitory.

Air was chill so I had to put on the hood also. Fallen leaves were everywhere, but I tried not to step on it because they were just so perfect in their places. It was Wednesday, but I decided to go to Sosa. I did not meet anyone walking there. People would know that I’m gone 3 hours later, at Honjung. Or, they would never notice.

I bought the ticket to Seoul. I had just enough money in my pocket for this. I would get to Seoul in 2 hours, but then I wouldn’t be able to do anything without a single penny. I turned around, put the ticket back in my pocket, and headed back to the dorm, emptying my mind and try once more to understand this phony world.