Chapter 0: Encounter with the Anomalous

***

It had been an utterly ordinary day.

No special incidents. The day I received my doctorate. The day my advisor, who died in a traffic accident on his way home from work, suddenly passed away.

The day a strange little girl stared back at me from the mirror in the funeral home’s restroom. A day so strange it felt perfectly ordinary.

Chosang — a funeral. And chosang — the anomalous.

That was my encounter with the anomalous, as I remember it.

—

Translator’s Notes
[1] Korean 초상 (chosang) is written the same way for two unrelated words: 初喪, the mourning period after a death, and 超常, the anomalous. The author glosses both in the original. English has no equivalent pair, so the shared sound is romanized here to keep the wordplay visible.