Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

Mincheol’s mother shares a table with Jungsuh and understands why Mincheol gets so entranced by her knitting. At Jungsuh’s prompting, Mincheol’s mother discusses her work as the leader of one of Yeongju’s book clubs, informally called the Book Club of Mums because most of their members are mothers. Mincheol’s mother tries her best to organize her thoughts in notes before convening a meeting.

The first time Mincheol’s mother was asked to lead a book club, she became anxious. Thanks to Yeongju’s encouragement, Mincheol’s mother began the first meeting with introductions, sharing that her name is Jeon Heejoo. Although the other group members were shy at first, they eventually became comfortable enough to talk over one another. The success of this meeting encouraged Heejoo to do her best as a book club leader.

Heejoo prepares to discuss A Standing Woman by Park Wan-suh. While writing her notes, Heejoo asks Jungsuh if Mincheol has ever opened up about his personal issues with her. She worries that she is neglecting Mincheol by focusing on many other things, including the book club. Before Jungsuh answers, Heejoo observes a man coming into the bookshop to talk to Yeongju. Heejoo suspects that he is an author.

Yeongju is interviewed for a newspaper article about the experience of running an independent bookshop. The article provides good publicity, improving bookshop sales over the next month. Eventually, Yeongju is commissioned to write essays about bookshops and the state of reading. She accepts the ones where she feels she has something to say.

Yeongju worries that she is dealing with so many activities at the bookshop that she might make a huge mistake with one of them. Unexpectedly, Sangsu offers to work part-time at the bookshop, helping Yeongju out during the busiest hours. Sangsu mostly reads on the job, but he is attentive to customers when they approach him. He deploys an unconventional sales pitch that leverages his gruff personality and expertise to convince customers to buy more books.

Some people reach out to Yeongju to ask for tips for starting their own bookshops. Yeongju organizes a book talk with several bookshop owners, so that there is a convenient venue for them to discuss common issues. As expected, the biggest concern revolves around livelihood. They concede that this is an inherent issue to any business endeavor, however, and the decision should come down to what kind of work they want to do. They bring up case studies of bookshops that have leveraged events to succeed.

Since Yeongju is busy, Minjun takes over chatting with Mincheol whenever he visits. Minjun explains that Yeongju needs to focus on the business because she wants to see how much she can grow it. Minjun lets Mincheol try his hand-drip coffee, and though Mincheol is reluctant to try something bitter, he is surprised to detect the sweetness and the smooth texture of the cup. Mincheol thinks it is a sign that Minjun is getting better at his job, but Minjun asserts that he was merely trying to find the right coffee for Mincheol.

Minjun takes Mondays off, which is part of Yeongju’s work-life balance policy. Yeongju even explains this to every first-time customer who comes for coffee while Minjun is away.

So Yeongju is surprised when Minjun shows up on a Monday, asking if he can experiment with coffee for a few hours. Over the next few Mondays, Minjun continues to visit the bookshop, which concerns Yeongju, as well as the regulars who are aware of her policy. Eventually, Yeongju decides to promote Minjun’s presence on Mondays, posting about it on the bookshop’s Instagram account. This drives the increase of their café regulars.

Jungsuh advises Yeongju to take it easy on herself when she observes how hard Yeongju is working. Yeongju admits that she cannot keep working at a high intensity level for much longer, but she also knows that interest in the bookshop will die down eventually. Jungsuh is relieved that Yeongju knows what she’s doing. The only thing Yeongju regrets is that she doesn’t have time to read anymore.

In the evenings, Yeongju usually writes her newspaper column alongside Seungwoo. When she wrote her first column, Yeongju was anxious to meet the standards of the newspaper. After multiple attempts to read her draft over, she shared her worries with Seungwoo, who offered to take a look. He carefully went through Yeongju’s draft and generally remarked that he could understand her thesis and the feelings of anxiety that she wanted to convey. He spent an hour making annotations, which Yeongju was nervous about at first but later took as a sign that he cared about her work. Once he was finished, he gave her suggestions to improve her authorial voice, including using active voice instead of passive voice. Yeongju tried to argue for her intention in using the passive voice, but Seungwoo assured her that the intention was visible in all the other parts of the essay. When she expressed her gratitude to him, he offered to edit her writing again so that she could further develop her voice and overcome her anxiety.

Yeongju and Seungwoo spend more time together, leaving the bookshop together after closing. Seungwoo references an earlier conversation they had, in which he had asked Yeongju what she was looking forward to most in life. Back then, she had said “customers,” but now, Seungwoo wants to know if she is waiting for anything else because he is waiting for something, too: someone’s heart. Yeongju is unsure what Seungwoo is trying to say, but she connects it to his earlier expression of wishing for her happiness.

Yeongju introduces Seungwoo to Mincheol, letting the two chat about their respective interests. Recently, Heejoo challenged Mincheol to write something new every two weeks. Her latest essay prompt asks whether it is better to pursue one’s interests or one’s strengths. Mincheol has been thinking of this topic in the context of his favorite teacher at school, who encouraged the class to pursue what they enjoyed doing against the expectations of society. Mincheol and his classmates were stunned by the boldness of the idea, leaving Mincheol to wonder what kind of activity could hold his interest to the point of excitement. Mincheol believes that his flaw is that he is too ordinary to find much pleasure in anything.

Seungwoo understands Mincheol’s dilemma, relating it to his own inability to let go of a job that he liked. Despite his interest in the field, Seungwoo was not happy at work. He tells Mincheol that what he is feeling is anxiety over the urgency to find an interest. He advises Mincheol to slow down and guarantees that he will one day find something he truly enjoys. Seungwoo poses the caveat that interest doesn’t always guarantee happiness because it can also depend on whether a person fits into the environment that they are in. In any case, it is too simplistic to think that a person will simply become happy if they just do what they like.

Seungwoo remembers how he started getting exhausted at his job when he observed an inequitable distribution of work. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he requested to switch departments and move away from programming. Mincheol understands that the environment is a major factor in facilitating job satisfaction. Seungwoo reminds him that exclusively blaming the environment is also simplistic and that an individual should try things first to know how they feel.

It was only when Seungwoo started working in a job he didn’t like that he started to make time for his Korean language studies. This caused him to realize that life is so much more than work, even if work is important. Mincheol concludes that Seungwoo’s advice is to keep trying new things until he finds something that he really enjoys, starting with his essay. Mincheol doubts that he will enjoy writing, but then he remembers Seungwoo’s advice. Seungwoo further advises him that it is moot to force a point out in writing. Mincheol should write what he feels because it will help him to slow down and find his way to an answer. It is important to write about subjects with honesty, so that he can think about them more carefully.

Minjun starts learning how to roast coffee so that he can better understand how it influences flavor. He appreciates the fact that everyone at Goat Beans is serious about their work, which encourages him to learn. He is receptive to their feedback and resolves to continue following the path that he is on, anchored by his love of coffee. He knows that he doesn’t have to be the best barista in the world, but he has to put effort into every cup of coffee he makes so that it can be better than the last one. This teaches him to stop looking too far ahead into the future and focus on the present challenge of each coffee cup.

Jungsuh interprets Minjun’s perspective as the foundation for living in the moment and the basis for a mature attitude toward life. Minjun finds comfort in Jungsuh’s assessment. In general, he considers the people at the bookshop the true anchors of his life, trusting in their appreciation of his coffee. He starts expanding the bookshop’s café offerings, adding hand-drip coffee and new monthly flavors.

Seungwoo, Mincheol, Jungsuh, Sangsu, and Yeongju are at the bookshop carrying out their usual activities when a man walks in. He and Yeongju exchange a look of tense recognition upon seeing each other, which makes the others wonder who he is. They talk privately for a moment. Yeongju then informs Minjun that she will be stepping out for some time. She reassures Seungwoo that she is fine.

Yeongju is gone for two hours, which causes anxiety among the regulars. She is surprised to see that everyone is still there when she returns. She thanks everyone and sends them home. Seungwoo and Minjun stay behind. Minjun checks on Yeongju, reporting what happened in her absence. He reminds her of how much her presence is needed to keep the bookshop running. Yeongju opens up to Minjun, reminiscing about the bookshop’s origins. She previously regretted calling it Hyunam-dong Bookshop, but she loves it now because it feels like a permanent fixture of the neighborhood. Yeongju opened the bookshop to give her something to focus on that she enjoyed. Her goals only changed when she hired Minjun because she wanted to make the business sustainable enough to support her employee. She admits that being so busy has caused her to think back to the life she tried to run away from.

Seungwoo approaches Yeongju to hand her his edits on her essay. Although he is curious about the man who came by, he doesn’t ask about him until Yeongju invites him to ask. She then reveals that the man was her ex-husband’s friend and that he wanted to check on Yeongju on her ex-husband’s behalf.