The Girl with Seven Names: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

January 1994, when Hyeonseo turns 14, is a tragic year that begins terribly. Hyeonseo’s teachers have long since noticed that she rarely wears the school uniform, but Mother’s donations generally keep them quiet. On the day of Hyeonseo’s birthday, however, she arrives at school with a brand new perm in her hair and a pink Chinese jacket with matching boots. The boots are too far for her teacher, who immediately asks why she is wearing them. 

The teacher asks Hyeonseo where her uniform is, and Hyeonseo tells the teacher that if her mother doesn’t have a problem with her clothing, then neither should the teacher. The teacher calls Hyeonseo a "rotten capitalist” and slaps her across the face. Hyeonseo runs all the way home in tears, wanting her father for the first time in years. Of course, Father isn’t home. His business trips to China have become more frequent, and when he is home, he seems tired and preoccupied. Mother says Father doesn’t sleep well anymore and is worried he is being watched. 

Hyeonseo knows that her obsession with perming her hair and wearing Chinese clothing is due in part to her growing disillusionment with the “organizational life” of North Korea. She is no longer a Pioneer and is now expected to join the Socialist Youth League, which involves military training and more intense ideological indoctrination. In the spring, the Social Youth League takes the compulsory pilgrimage to the sacred sites of Mount Paektu, where Kim Il-sung fought the Japanese in the 1930s and 40s, but Hyeonseo can barely pretend to be interested.

Hyeonseo’s relationship with Min-ho continues to suffer, and she suspects that he has been sneaking across the river into China. A few days after the pilgrimage to Mount Paektu, Hyeonseo arrives home to find her mother anxiously pacing the house. Father is due back from China by now, but he is unexpectedly late. By the third day, there is still no sign of him, and Mother becomes inconsolable. Days later, a work colleague of Father’s stops by the house and informs them that Father was arrested four days ago crossing the Friendship Bridge back into North Korea.