Importance of Lantern

The lantern Young recalls releasing into the air on Wolmido Island with Gyu-ho is a symbol of Young's tendency to self-sabotage, which contributed to his breakup with Gyu-ho. The woman passing out the lanterns said that they were supposed to write a wish on them before releasing them, and Young wrote and then crossed out multiple wishes before finally writing Gyu-ho's name. "I'd started writing so many things on that lantern," he explains, "...None of them was what I really wished for, so I crossed all the words out. That was how the lantern ended up with a hole, I bet" (228-9). Because of the hole, the lantern fell to the ground, and because Young was unable to tell Gyu-ho how he really felt about him, their relationship ended.