He Could Say It All
Yeongbeom said it: “I’ll cut ties with my family. I’ll give everything up.”
But those words were never carried out. He could have left, yet he didn’t. His love burned hot, but his feet never moved a single step. He was different from Gwansik. Gwansik jumped off a boat headed for the mainland to return to the woman he loved. It was reckless—yet it was also a complete decision. Yeongbeom remained rational to the end, and because of that rationality, he ultimately did nothing. He knew how to speak about love, but he didn’t know how to live by it.
A Man Raised by Structure
Yeongbeom wasn’t a bad person. He was a devoted son and a young man others trusted. But that was precisely the problem. He was raised within structure. Family, honor, appearances, responsibility—these words made him respectable, yet stripped him of human freedom. He was recognized only when he stayed within what was deemed “right,” and the moment he stepped outside it, he felt a terror as if he ceased to exist. In that sense, he was more pitiful than Geummyeong. He didn’t love Geummyeong; he wanted to preserve the version of himself who loved her.
He Didn’t Run—He Endured
Many might call him a coward. But Yeongbeom didn’t run away; he tried to remain a “good person” to the very end. A good person doesn’t hurt others—he kills his own desires instead. He endured. Telling himself, “This must be the right thing,” he persuaded himself into losing the person he loved most. In the end, he remained in the world, and the world turned him into no one in particular.
Why He Couldn’t Jump
Yeongbeom didn’t fail to jump because he was afraid. He couldn’t jump because he knew the world too well. He had learned that to survive within it, one must choose safety over freedom. His era, the order he was taught, and the way he understood love were all systems centered on survival. He couldn’t leap into the sea like Gwansik—because he had never once allowed himself to go mad for his own life.
The Failure of Love, the Limits of Being Human
Gwansik chose love and lost the world. Yeongbeom chose the world and lost love. Both lost in their own ways, but society is sustained by people like the latter. That is the order of society—and the tragedy of being human. Yeongbeom didn’t fail. He merely survived.
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