What would you do if you dropped in at a noraebang run by your father and uncle in LA’s Koreatown and ran into a K-pop idol group member all by himself? This is the premise of Axie Oh’s young-adult novel XOXO. For Jenny, the protagonist and a budding cellist, the image she retains of handsome Jaewoo piques her curiosity as she approaches her departure for half a year in Korea at the Seoul Arts Academy, a trip she will take with her mother, who must look after her own mother in Seoul.
It turns out that Jaewoo is not only a lead vocalist for the supergroup XOXO, but also a student, along with other XOXO members, at the Seoul Arts Academy. Once there, Jenny learns that he is a model K-pop trainee, never breaking a rule, always showing up on time, and that he became a trainee for the sake of his family, who will ultimately need his financial support. “He’s a good kid,” says Sun, leader of XOXO. “Responsible, kindhearted … incredibly talented. … He means so much to a lot of people. … He has a bright future. … It would be a shame if he lost it all now. … It only takes one mistake.” And, sure enough, that one mistake is a photograph of him and Jenny on a date. The media are quick to pronounce judgment: “XOXO’s Bae Jaewoo Dating Scandal.” Jenny and Jaewoo then meet at Severance Hospital, where Jenny’s grandmother has been admitted to the emergency room. They go to the rooftop for privacy, and there, Jenny breaks up with him. But guess what? Returning home to LA, Jenny learns she’s been admitted to the Manhattan School of Music. In the meantime, XOXO has scheduled a tour of the U.S. that includes a concert at Madison Square Garden. Is a reunion possible?
Predictable though this plotline might be, XOXO triumphs in its emphasis on companionship and togetherness. In this sense, the novel is an outlier in an age when a solitary lifestyle is becoming the norm in the Seoul metropolitan area, especially among young women. Jenny is fortunate to have a strong family network in LA and is welcomed by the XOXO members at the Seoul Arts Academy; indeed, the story of Jenny and Jaewoo is inseparable from the story of the XOXO members and the other SAA students. Notable as well is the rapprochement between Jenny and Sori, previously a secret boyfriend of Jaewoo. Initially thrown into a frosty relationship as a result of Jenny’s being assigned an SAA dormitory room with Sori, the two of them develop a strong, mutually supportive bond. In the end, XOXO reassures us that in coming of age, one need not forsake community in the process of becoming independent.
Bruce Fulton occupies the Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation at the University of British Columbia, where he serves as a Professor in the Department of Asian Studies. He is the co-translator, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of numerous works of modern Korean fiction, most recently Togani by Gong Ji-young and Chinatown, four stories by Oh Jung-hee (Penguin Modern Classic); co-recipient, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of the first U.S. National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship for a Korean literary work and the first residency at the Banff International Literature Translation Centre awarded for a translation from any Asian language; and editor of The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories.
