In Korean, 업다 is the verb for carrying someone on your back. It is the word used for a mother and an infant. Decades later it becomes the word for a daughter and her parents, and nothing about the verb changes — only the direction.

This is the moment when the load stops being something you picked up and becomes the angle of your spine. She has been walking like this long enough that the shape is hers now. The red is the only part of her still willing to move.

찢긴 자리 — Where the Paper Tore · 01 / 05