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Sungju Lee went back to Young-bums house and Young-bum told him what they were going to do that day. They were going to go to the train station because Young-bum's grandmother was going to his aunts just like his mother. Young-bum was really sad because his grandmother gave him pictures of his family and he knew that she wasn't coming back just like his mother. Young-bum was sad because all he had was his grandmotherleft and he didn't want to let her go but he had to.

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When Sungju Lee and his family first moved to the new place they bought a house. Young-bum and Sungju Lee's gang had a meeting and they discuses certain things. IN the middle of the meeting Sungju Lee ran back to his old house to see is his mother was there. There was a little beam of light coming from the house and he ran even faster, when he got there and opened up the doors everything was different and new people were in the house, they told him that the owners sold the house and sold all of the belongings in the house too. Sungju Lee was devastated and was thinking about all his mothers belongings and started to sob.

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Young-bum convinced Sungju Lee to go to the train station to steal fro the poeple coming off the train and on their way, they talked about forming a gang with some other people. It was just a thought until they spent the entire day waiting at the train station for the train to come. A police officer finally announced that the train was not coming that day, there was no electricity. All the boys who were going to steal left for the markets and so did Young-bum and Sungju Lee, when they took a shortcut to the market they ran into two friends from school and had the same idea, Young-bum said out loud "Here's our gang" (117).

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Sungju Lee and Young-bum have been a team for quite some time and they go to the market everyday to steal food, and won which is the money there. Sungju Lee had an idea and told it to Young-bum, they tried it one day at the market and it got the three or four times the amount they usually would be stealing. They now had enough won to buy food, and Young-bum's grandmother's medicine, she started to get better, sit, stand, and walk. His grandmother would even get up before he did and cook breakfast for Sungju Lee and Young-bum. While they were eating she would tell them stories.

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That morning when Young-bum and Sungju Lee were talking about the rules, they went to the market after discussing different ideas. Young-bum went first he acted like he never knew Sungju Lee and went up to a women focused on getting to a certain place and stole some bread from her, walking fast Young-bum didn't even make eye contact with Sungju Lee as he walked by. Now Sungju Lee decided to get some olives from an elder man who had no teeth and was focused on his radio, Sungju lee walked right up picked up a can while he was walking and put it in his pocket. he kept going at his steady pace, when he came across the lady with the bread from when he was begging for food and he went up to the stand and stole 3 bread rolls, he stuffed them in his pocket and went to sit on the cardboard box that he used to sit on. When he sat down he felt a hand on his back and then he looked up, a guy told him to put them back and Sungju Lee said no, the women came running over and slapped Sungju across the face. Sungju Lee knew Tai kwon do and he then proceeded to do Tai kwon do and the man and the women, walking fast he went back to Young-bums house.

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Since Young-bum and Sungju Lee formed a group they had to make rules, one rules they made was that they have to share everything they steal, you can't steal something just to keep for yourself. Another rule was if they only had food for one person Young-bums grandmother came first, and the last rule is if Sungju Lee dies, Young-bum will leave him out on the streets and never deal with him again. Sungju Lee agreed to all of these, he knew it was the only way for all three of them to survive because he say a gang of boys about his age do the same thing. The boys were not skinny, and malnourished, they were normal, they made a life-style like that and they succeeded and Sungju Lee wanted to succeed to survive.

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Young-bum brought Sungju Lee to the market where he would now live because he had no mother or father. Young-bum said to steal for food and what you need to survive, Sungju Lee tried to beg for some bread but the women just stood there staring at him so he downcast-ed his face and left. That entire day Sungju Lee sat there begging for food from people who walked by and he got nothing. Later that day the women who he was begging for bread came by and gave is some bread. Sungju Lee said thank you and she said to leave, never come back there because he is scaring off the customers. Then after another encounter with people telling him to leave he got up and made his way down to Young-bums house, Young-bum kicked him out three times before he could say what he wanted to say. Sungju Lee started to say that the only way to make it from what he's seen is to steal in gangs, or groups, so Sungju lee and Young-bum made a group of them two.

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Sungju Lee asked if Young- bum was actually taking him to the hospital and he said is wasn't worth it you either have to buy the medicines you want or steal them and then take them to the doctor. Young-bum then continues to tell Sungju Lee the real reason why they left Pyongyang. The reason is because they got kicked out, the government of Pyongyang kicked them out and they had no other options than to go where he his now. Young-bum also said that when they first came everybody knew why they came and was talking behind there backs about the topic.

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Sungju Lee has been staying at home and only eating salt and drinking water fort the past week, his mother said she would be back and she wasn't. Young-bum was taking care of Sungju Lee and he took him to the hospital to get better. Sungju Lee is alone, he has no father no mother and he is really sick from what his mother said to eat. He is sad and just wants his family back, he wants to go back to Pyongyang.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zq__qjvaik
(This video is Sungju Lee explaining his story)

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When it was time for eomeoi to come back home Sungju Lee bolted up just like when he woke up to leave with her and he tried to open his eyes but they were glued shut, his eyes were swollen. He went to his mothers chest and looked to find the broken piece of mirror and he pried his eyes open to see what he looked like and his entire face was swollen. Once he saw that he was going to faint so he got up and said he couldn't stay there he had to get out and he went to Young-bums house. Young-bum didn't know who he was and they Sungju Lee explained who he was and then said that he had only eaten salt for a week and he had to much water in him.

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https://www.newsweek.com/north-korean-defector-his-fight-survival-after-losing-both-parents-503937

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After Sungju Lee woke up fully, he went to find his mother, she was praying the Sungju Lee's father her husband would come back soon. They went out to pick berries by the river and when they were done they sat on a rock. After a while of just sitting there eomeoi said that she was leaving to her sisters for food and would come back in a week. Sungju Lee begged and begged her to let him go until she finally whispered yes while tears where rolling down her face. Sungju Lee didn't close his eyes that night to make she she wouldn't leave him but he fell asleep. When he woke up, he instantly looked to see if his mother was in her bed, she wasn't, that whole day he ran around town looking for her and wishing he never fell asleep. In the text it says, "... she said that she was going to visit her sister, Nampo, in Wonsan... I shook my head. 'No,' I said. 'You're not leaving me... My eyes popped open, and I sat bolt upright... I patted the bedding beside me where my mother's mat was still laid out. It was warm, as if she had just gotten up. But she wasn't in the other room praying in front of her bowl" (78, 79). This made Sungju Lee very sad and all he wanted was his mother and father.

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Link to outside source for Dreaming post

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Link to outside source for Dreaming post

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https://piquebeyond.com/2016/09/every-falling-star/

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Sungju Lee's was dreaming that his father came back from his first trip to China. Sungju Lee was so happy and he got rice cakes with mashed red beans for his birthday. Sungju Lee's father came back wearing new pants, sweater, and a new coat. His father gave his mother a new dress and he had many other goodies. In the text it says, " When Abeoji waled through the door, a wave of fresh, pine-scented air came, too, swirling around the room the way Sangchul's voice did at the train station. His face was rosy, wind-touched, and his eyes sparkled as if he were a young man again. He lugged a large blue duffel bag. Like a child unwrapping a birthday present, eomeoni began pulling items out of the bag ..." (73). When Sungju Lee woke up and noticed that his father wasn't there he patted down his bed to see if it wasn't a dream.

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https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/north-korean-defector-went-from-pickpocket-to-canadian-parliamentary-intern

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Sungju Lee's father said that he was leaving to go to China, when people try and go to China almost all of the poeple are caught and executed. Sungju Lee doesn't want his father to go and he has flashbacks of the executions he was forced to watch. In the text it says, " In March 1998, a week before my eleventh birthday, at night as we kept warm by the wood fire before my bedtime, my father announced that he was going to China" (71). Sungju Lee knows what happens to people when they try and go to China for food but he doesn't want his father to go and he begs him not to go, this would be a very hard time for Sungju Lee.

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Link to outside source for Hard times post

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Link to outside source for Hard times post

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https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37914493

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Sunju Lee and his family have only lived in the new area for a couple of months and they already have ran out of won which is the currency that they have. Most people who lived in that area had won but ran out and work doesn't give you very much of it. That meant that you had to hunt for your food and the main animal that was there was squirrels and normally people's parents go and hunt but never come back. Sungju Lee and his parents had fallen into this stage and he's trying to convince his parents to let him go hunting with them. In the text it says " ' On the days we don't work, your mother and I are going to the forests to pick and hunt for food, like small animals and herbs, fungus and wild vegetables' " (60). This is really big for Sungju Lee because he has always had it easy for himself his parents made it easy but now it has changed and he needs to step up.

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Sungju Lee finally learns the reality on why he moved, why people keep disappearing, why people don't have anything to eat, why people are being executed. All his questions are answered by Chulho. Sungju Lee understands and he wonders if he is only book-smart, and he wants Chulho to be his new teacher for reality. In the text it says, " I din't say anything. I didn't know what to say. I was book-smart. If what Chulho said was half true, I knew nothing ... Chulho continued, as if somehow he knew to just keep talking, to give me more information, that he was my new teacher" (57). This is a major change for Sungju Lee he has never known why all those things happened the just wondered, now he knows that answers and is curious to know more about reality.

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Sungju Lee has been at school for quite some time and he is the  student president, one day when he took attendance there was only two hundred of the three hundred students. The teacher wondered why but brushed it off, Sungju Lee then asked a classmate named Young-bum why everybody was gone he said something random that wasn't true. Then the teacher yelled out that they were going to an execution in a bullhorn. Sungju  Lee was shocked that they publicly executed people for their crimes because they never executed people in Pyongyang. In the text it says, " 'Today, students, we are going to an execution,' the so-nyon-dan manger announced into a bullhorn with no emotion, almost casually, as if an execution were something the students went to regularly. I jumped, both at the sudden noise of the bullhorn and at what was said" (45). This would be big event for Sungju Lee because he has never seen an execution before and doesn't want to, he is being forced to go because it is a class event.

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Sungju Lee has spent one night in America, it was a cold night. In the morning he woke up freezing, after he ate his breakfast he had to go to school. Going to school in a new country is going to be a major change for Sungju Lee he has to make new friends, go to a school that does not teach the traditions that his old school taught like to admire the Eternal Leader. In the text it says, "I pulled myself up and changed into a pair of slacks, with tights underneath to keep the chill out. I then headed with my father to my new school" (32)

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Sungju Lee and his family had to move to America. His parents described it as going on a long holiday. He had to leave his dog named Bo-Cho and he cried about it after chasing down the person who took him. This would be a big change in Sungju Lee's life.  In the text it says " 'We're going on a holiday to the north ... near the sea" (20). In the text it also says, " ... where I saw one of my father's colleagues leading Bo-Cho away on a leash. I willed my feet to move faster than they've ever moved in my life" (21).

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Sungju Lee lives in North Korea they have eternal leaders and on July 8, 1994 or year 82 in the Juche calendar their eternal leader died. This big event made everybody weep and cry for long periods of time, some people weren't the same from what they used to be. In the text it says " 'Adeul, we haven't been invaded,' she whispered in my ear. 'something else has happened. The eternal leader has died.' " (12).

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Sungju Lee was dedicated to becoming a North Korean soldier, his dad wants him to, he takes Tai kwon do lessons, he reenacts war scenes, and he has dreams about becoming a soldier. In the text it says "Then my unit would march, with me leading it, as in my dream, past my father, whom I would salute, as if he were our great eternal father standing on a platform in center of Kim Il-sung Square" (9).

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Lee, Sungju, and Susan McClelland. Every Falling Star. 2016.