The Lunch That Always Fought Back For most of my working life, lunch was a battlefield. Not the food itself — the food was fine. Korean office lunches: rice, soup, a few side dishes, maybe some grilled meat if we went out. Normal food. Nothing exotic. But somewhere around my early fifties, every meal … Read more
The Day the Menu Disappeared I remember the exact moment. I was sitting at a restaurant with colleagues — one of those work dinners that happened three or four times a week back then — and the waiter handed me the menu. I looked down and the letters were blurred. Not completely invisible, but … Read more
The Tightness I Kept Calling “Stress” It started sometime in my early fifties. After a long day at the office and the inevitable dinner with clients — soju, grilled pork belly, more soju — I’d climb the subway stairs and feel it. A tightness across my chest, like someone had wrapped a belt around my … Read more
The Morning I Looked in the Mirror and Saw My Father A few months ago, I was shaving at the bathroom sink when I stopped mid-stroke. The face in the mirror looked tired. Not sleepy tired — deeply tired. The kind of tired that a full night of sleep doesn’t fix. My cheeks had thinned … Read more
For fifteen years, I received an envelope from the company health screening center every year. Every year, I opened the envelope, glanced at the summary page, and as long as there wasn’t a big red stamp on it, I shoved it in a drawer and forgot about it. Fifteen envelopes. Fifteen years of data. … Read more
3 AM. Bathroom. 4:15 AM. Bathroom. 5:30 AM. Bathroom again. I know the exact layout of my apartment in complete darkness. Fourteen steps from bed to bathroom door. Sharp left to avoid the dresser corner. Two steps past the washing machine. I could do it blindfolded. I basically do, every single night. At my … Read more
Last summer, I carried four grocery bags from my car to the kitchen. Two in each hand. Maybe 8 kilograms total. By the time I set them on the counter, my arms were shaking. Not sore. Shaking. Like I’d just finished a workout. Except I hadn’t worked out. I’d carried groceries for 30 meters. … Read more
Every morning, I walk down the stairs from my apartment. Fourteen steps. And every morning, my knees announce each one. Click. Pop. Crack. Click. Pop. Crack. My wife says she can hear me coming from the bedroom. She doesn’t need an alarm clock. … Read more
Nobody warned me how fast blood pressure after 50 can creep up—until mine hit 145/95. 145/95. Two numbers. That’s all it took to scare me more than any fastball I ever faced in professional baseball. I was 55 years old, sitting in a plastic chair at my annual health checkup (건강검진, geongang-geomjin), watching the nurse … Read more
3:17 AM. I know the exact time because I stared at it every single night for ten years. Not sometimes. Not occasionally. Every night. My eyes would snap open at 3:17, my heart already pounding, my brain already running through tomorrow’s board meeting or next quarter’s revenue forecast. I would lie there, staring at … Read more