The Humans Training Their Replacements
Lulu Nearlythere
Monday, 13 July 2026
Friday, 10 July 2026
HIP OPENER
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These Joseon folks really knew how to perform a hip opener from hell. Forget modern yoga gurus.
Happy Friday, my darlings! Just a few more hours of torture to go...
Besos xx,
Lu
Thursday, 9 July 2026
HEAVENLY BIRTHDAY
Hi, Ruthy.
Today would have been your 50th birthday. I can't believe it. Somehow, it's far more shocking that you'd be turning fifty than the fact that I'm on my way to sixty. I was so shocked when I realised it that I had to check the maths twice. After all, your body clock — and your story — stopped at nineteen.
Fifty. Goddammit.
You were just a kid when I met you. I was a kid too, although those three years difference made me feel like your mum. What a pile of bollocks... The truth is, you were a million times more mature than I was at your tender age of thirteen.
I can't help wondering what it would have been like if you hadn't decided to ride that bike into town that day. Would you still be here? Would you have children of your own? Would you have forgiven me? Maybe having you around would have changed my own path. Maybe I would have chosen to come back then.
Something tells me that fuck-up was the first really wrong turn I ever took. And that's the thing about wrong turns: once you make a big one, the next comes more easily, and then the next easier still, until living a "normal" life somehow becomes the harder choice.
I have so much to tell you, but you don't visit my dreams anymore. Maybe the internet has reached wherever you are? There are stories about ghosts sending emails and making phone calls. 😉 I know... bollocks too. But don't pretend you don't miss them.
God... I have so much to tell you, rubita.
Besides, it was you, after all, who proved there really is something beyond, just as you promised you would if you left first. You were true to your word until the very end.
Anyway, happy birthday, wherever you are.
I'll see you soon enough, I am sure.
P.S. Do you remember that song? We used to sing it at the top of our lungs back when its words meant absolutely nothing to our little girls' hearts. And now that we could finally sing it understanding its meaning.. you're no longer here.
Anyway.
I love you. I miss you. I miss singing, dancing and causing havoc with you.
Happy birthday, rubita.
Wednesday, 8 July 2026
LOS REBELDES
"Hi, this is XXX from Los Rebeldes, a rock & roll band. I'm calling because we stayed at your hotel..."
And just like that began the phone call during which I had to exercise more self-control than in any other call of my working life.
I had to remain perfectly professional, pretending either that I had no idea who Los Rebeldes were, or that, if I did, they didn't make my pulse race.
The truth?
My heart was pounding.
I wanted so badly to thank him for giving me such a wonderful youth with his glorious 1950s rock & roll. I was one of those girls: can-can petticoats, eyeliner stretching halfway to my ears, and their records blasting from my bedroom until the early hours of the morning.
In fact, dear reader, let me tell you a little secret.
I've only ever stolen one thing in my entire life.
A cassette.
Can you guess whose?
Yep... you got it.
I never imagined I'd one day hear his speaking voice over the phone. By now, the can-can skirts are long gone... along with half the eyeliner.
The only regret I have now is not confessing my little crime to him.
Then again... perhaps that wouldn't have been the brightest idea. For more than one reason.
Much love, Rebeldes.
Please keep playing.
Luxx
