Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

Yeongju takes Sundays off so that she can have at least one day in the week all to herself. Her aspiration is to get the bookshop stable enough that she can afford to close it two days a week, but the shop is not yet established enough. 

She starts her Sunday at nine in the morning, washing her face and enjoying coffee. After breakfast, she watches several episodes of a favorite variety show called Youth Over Flowers. The show reminds her of her youth and helps her to reset her emotional battery. She finds peace in the day’s silence and uses it to pay attention to her inner voice. Sometimes, she feels inspired to write essays, though she never shares them with anyone.

As evening sets in, Yeongju reads stories from a collection entitled Too Bright Outside for Love. One story titled “Waiting for Dog” follows a family that loses a dog and finds their unresolved past traumas unraveling. Yeongju enjoys the story, seeing it as a parable of people who are trying to find comfort in hard times. For dinner, she prepares soy sauce egg rice, her favorite meal. Afterward, she reads again, this time a story entitled “Michaela” from another collection entitled Shoko’s Smile.