“They say we’re at an age where we’re busy growing old.”

Between the days that shaped us and the days we will shape

The forty-nine-year-olds Nanju, Migyeong, and Jeongeun set off on a trip to Gangneung, twenty-five years after their previous visit when they had just turned twenty-four. As they reunite after years apart, an initial awkwardness hangs in the air, but it quickly dissipates as they embrace each other, cheek to cheek, exchanging warm greetings. Now, at forty-nine, they’ve grown accustomed to the signs of aging as they stand on the precipice of their fifties. Yet, they too once had a dazzling youth. Generation X, the new generation, the pre-Suneung exam generation—these were the terms by which they were once known. They also experienced youth in its vibrant, energetic, and indefinable form, beautiful in its own right, even though “just being in one’s twenties itself makes life inherently challenging.” Now, after 25 years, the three friends find themselves confronting the realities of approaching their fifties—urinary incontinence, high blood pressure, hair loss, and depression.

While We Are Relieved is a story about the “generation X” or the “pre-Suneung exam generation” who have passed through their youthful twenties and are about to enter their fifties, facing bladder control issues, high blood pressure, thinning hair and melancholy. Although it may seem like a distant past now, those born in 1975 experienced their twenties participating in student movements, going on dates while receiving extra editions announcing Kim Il-sung’s death, bearing the full brunt of the IMF crisis, and witnessing friends lose their families in the Sampoong Department Store collapse. And it is them who are now embarking on a trip to Gangneung as they approach their fifties.

Though they were unaware, Gangneung held memories for them all. This journey would overlay their reminiscences of pain, joy, and moments they longed to forget. Against a lifetime of memories, the three-day trip would be short, but even so, a memory as such could serve as fuel that lasts for years to come. A fleeting instant, a burst of laughter—such transient moments can sustain people through a lifetime.

Jeongeun describes people in their fifties as “those who talk loudly anywhere, rush butt-first to sit whenever a seat becomes available, and unzip their pants before entering the bathroom,” and says that she has “become just like them.” However, being in one’s fifties is not about that. It’s an age where one becomes accustomed to aging and accepts growing older, an age where one passes through maturity and reaches the stage of ripeness. During Our Respite traces the footsteps of the characters, weaving together a tapestry of their reflections that resonate with both the me of the past and the us of the present.