while growing up, yeri had always loved comics. it didn't matter what the genre was - space, fantasy, sci-fi, romance - whatever, she would read it. her favorite genre though without a doubt had to be superheros. since she was 5 years old every single costume during halloween was connected somehow to a superhero. spider-man? age 7. the amazing hulk? age 10. wonder woman? age 13. she fell in love with the way the comic panels exploded in color and action. yeri spent hours at the store just flipping through the pages to see justice being served. when she broke up with her first boyfriend at 15, it wasn't ice cream who healed her, it was peter parker who had healed her. her favorite superheros over the years had been constantly changing, however when she turned just shy of being 18, yeri fell in love with someone new.

she fell in love with bae juhyun.

she didn't expect to see a korean comic in the corner of the shop on friday but she did. she noticed how bright the colors on the front page was and how it was packed neatly into a plastic covering. what was intriguing that the superhero on the cover seemed to be a women but in ordinary clothes. yeri was surprised because firstly the author bae juhyun was a female author which was rare, but also how the superhero wasn't in costume. yeri was extremely curious as to what could the comic entailed so she snagged it and went on to picking up her other comics that she regularly got. 

the walk home was boring as usual, but her mind was buzzing loud at the thought of having a korean comic with her. she knew that korea wasn't really that big on feminism nor were they similar to western values. yet she wondered if this comic would be different from the ones she had heard of from her parents. yeri was korean herself yet, she didn't feel like it at times. she felt like in america she was an outsider, not fitting along everyone, just someone who was there.

entering her house, she plopped her backpack on the couch, waved at her younger sisters who were eating and dashed up to her room. she laid out all of her comics and picked up the korean one. she stared at the girl on the cover for the longest time until finally deciding to flip between the pages. as she immersed herself into the comic, she could feel her worries of today and yesterday floating away. suprisngly, yeri found herself being able to relate to this superhero a lot. she didn't fit in like yeri did, she didn't know what she was doing and most importantly, she was the first superhero that yeri found comforting to her. sometimes yeri would fall in love with a singer or an actor but this time, yeri had fallen in love with bae juhyun the author. she fell because for the first time in a long time, she felt truly comforted by something that someone had written. she loved the way juhyun had drawn her characters, the colors she used, the way she made them talk to each other. she loved how because of her she felt happy. she wondered if it was possible for her to write a letter of some sorts thanking her for writing this. yeri never really understood why representation mattered until it was staring at her right in the face.

bae juhyun was her superhero for doing so.