She felt out of place.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: In the opening chapter of the novel, Areum endeavors to describe his parents' life before he was born. In this passage, he details what his mother was feeling when she discovered that she was pregnant. The moment merges Mari's teenage perspective with Areum's teenage perspective. Though he was not alive at the time, he uses his unique experience as a teenager living with progeria in order to access his mother's experience as a teenage mother. The moment both reveals Areum's distinct emotional capacities while foreshadowing later scenes in the novel.

I'm no miracle.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: In Chapter 2, the narrative shifts out of the past and into scenes from Areum's life in the narrative present. Though he knows that it is a miracle that he has lived to see his sixteenth birthday, he is also reluctant to call himself a miracle. Instead, Areum insists that ordinary lives are...