Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

A man in a business suit stops by the Hyunam-dong Bookshop just before it opens. The shop owner, Yeongju, invites him inside. The man admits that he doesn’t usually come by so early. He is envious that Yeongju gets to start work at noon. Declining her invitation, he promises to come again.

Yeongju finds comfort in her bookshop. There, she can feel like herself, unlike her earlier workplace, where she motivated herself through sheer force of will. She starts her day by asking herself how to make the shop feel trustworthy and inviting to potential customers. She imagines herself as a first-time visitor and tries to distance herself from her personal preference for the shop’s fiction inventory. Yeongju fell in love with fiction in elementary school, sometimes throwing tantrums when her father insisted against lining up her walls with storybooks.

After letting out the hot air, Yeongju switches on the air conditioner and puts on her favorite album, Hopes and Fears by Keane, to start the work day.

Yeongju goes through her online orders and to-do list. The list is an important part of her routine since it gives her a sense of purpose for each day.

Before she started the bookshop, Yeongju felt unmoored from herself.