It was a cold day– winter of 1945. I was competing in the high school national speech competition, representing Duksung women’s high school. My future husband, Wonyoung, then a student at Yanjung high school, was also one of the participants.
My husband described the scene as follows in his book Conversation For Tomorrow:
“I won the 3rd prize at the speech competition. Come to think of it, it ended up being a memorable day in my life. It’s the day I spotted a girl among the speakers from Duksung high school– a girl in a sailor top (uniform) who delivered her speech with such vigor. I had not even dreamt that she would one day become my wife.”
Looking back on it, this day also held particular meaning for my future. After the competition, the college student who delivered the opening message came up to me and introduced himself.
Please join the student union so we can work together.
His name was Chulseung Lee; he later became a leader of Democratic Party. It was because of this speech competition that I later joined the student union and became involved in politics.
Although my husband recalled seeing me give my speech, we didn’t officially meet until the reception following the competition. And, once aware of the other, it seemed we kept crossing paths.
The boy in his crew cut went onto Korea University the following year, and I was accepted into Seoul National University law school. We joined the national student coalition and participated in the student movement against communism together.
My husband was the chief editor of a student newspaper, and I became a reporter (although I wasn’t a great writer). Naturally, we ran into each other frequently and also were speakers at different rallies.
We started out as just peers of the student movement; but slowly, we became lovers.
He came to see me everyday; and at night, he’d write letters, poems and essays that he’d send to me by mail. He also wrote fictional stories, creating a character for me by the name of Sunjoo.
“Sunjoo is my love. Even if she doesn’t respond to my love, she is my love…”
He wrote this lyric and asked his music teacher friend, Mr. Yang, to put music to it.
Sometimes, he’d go to the magnolia tree in his school campus and use its petals to write me a love letter.
It sounds pretty corny now, but it made me happy knowing how important I was to him.
That magnolia tree still stands in front of the library at Korea University. The pink petals might still help the young lovers out there.
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