Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

In the present timeline, a customer keeps coming into the bookshop at lunchtime to read Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene. Minjun thinks it is ironic that the man is reading a book about morality while effectively stealing the book’s content from the bookshop. Yeongju believes that anyone can be inspired to become a better person the more they read and reflect on themselves.

Minjun has started to familiarize himself with the bookshop’s regular customers. Apart from Mincheol’s mother, another regular is a busy travel agency employee who has the same name as Yeongju’s favorite actor, Choi Wooshik. Wooshik frequently comes to the bookshop after work and reads until closing time.

Another regular customer is a woman who sits for several hours at the bookshop café without doing anything else. She once asked Minjun how long she could stay after ordering one cup of coffee. Although Minjun did not impose any restrictions on her, the woman continued to order a new cup of coffee every three hours so that she wouldn’t be a nuisance. Soon, Minjun and Yeongju observed that the woman was there to meditate. After a while, the woman started wearing more comfortable clothes and swapped out meditation for crocheting. Yeongju found the woman’s activity hypnotic and learned that her name was Jungsuh. Jungsuh would spend her time completing several crochet scrubbies with different patterns. A month after starting her crochet activities, Jungsuh offers to donate her scrubbies to the bookshop.

Yeongju, Minjun, and Jungsuh decide to use the crochet scrubbies to hold a promotional giveaway at the bookshop. The event is very popular, drawing many curious visitors who also leave with additional purchases. Although Yeongju is tempted by the novelty of the giveaway, she decides to focus on finding other strategies to develop the bookshop.

Mincheol and his mother make a deal that Mincheol will start visiting the bookshop regularly so that he doesn’t have to attend cram school. One afternoon, Yeongju finds Mincheol unenthusiastically reading The Catcher in the Rye, which she recommended. Yeongju worries that her recommendation has failed once more, but Mincheol proves to be paying very close attention to the book, focusing purely on literal details. He understands that the book is reputed to be good, though Yeongju can detect frustration in his voice. Yeongju devises a new arrangement with Mincheol: Instead of reading, Mincheol can chat with Yeongju, so that Mincheol can fulfill his promise to his mother. Mincheol is elated.

At the end of the work day, Minjun offers to stay after work hours and keep Yeongju company. Yeongju declines since she is supposed to meet with Jimi at her apartment. On her way home, Yeongju is pleased that Minjun is becoming more sociable. Jimi stays over at Yeongju’s apartment since she knows that her husband will be out all night. Over beer, Yeongju muses that her existence doesn’t affect anyone positively. She shares that she spoke to the man who kept visiting the store at lunchtime. When she expressed her concern that his repeated reading would damage the book, the man left in embarrassment. He finally returned that day and purchased Moral Tribes and more than 10 other books. Jimi thinks that the aspiration to be perfect is overrated; she accepts that the pain people cause each other, whether conscious or not, is a sign of normalcy. Later, Yeongju gives Jimi a favored scrubby she saved from the giveaway.

Meanwhile, Minjun gets a call from his mother, who is irritated that Minjun is still working part-time. She urges him to take responsibility for his inability to get a full-time job. Minjun meekly tries to tell her that he is satisfied with the current pace of his life, but his mother refuses to listen. He assures her that he is fine. After the call, he sits still for a long time.

Yeongju continues to feel guilty that she has no impact on others’ lives. The guilt stems from her divorce, during which it became clear to her that her mother supported her ex-husband more than Yeongju herself. She accused Yeongju of bringing shame to their family, which caused their estrangement. Yeongju did not fight back against her mother, so her mother’s harsh words remain in her memory. Thinking again of these memories, Yeongju finds consolation in Jungsuh’s company. Jungsuh explains her latest knitting project: a short scarf.

That night, Yeongju writes a post about her feelings on the bookshop blog. She reiterates Jimi’s insight that imperfection is a sign that one is normal or ordinary. She relates this to the novel The Guard of Light by Cho Hae-jin and how it encourages her to think of kindness as a manifestation of the extraordinary. In the novel, a small act of kindness remains imprinted on the mind of the person who received it, even many years after the fact. Yeongju resolves not to think of herself as inadequate when she still has so many opportunities in life to practice compassion.

To dispel the thoughts of her mother, Yeongju throws herself deeper into work. She makes herself so busy that she doesn’t have time to chat with Mincheol, who ends up talking to Jungsuh instead. Mincheol finds the motions of Jungsuh’s knitting hypnotic and calming.

Minjun has similarly thrown himself into work to distract himself from his last conversation with his mother. While sharing fruit with him, Yeongju wonders whether she should order more copies of Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru. She was surprised when two customers suddenly expressed interest in the book, following its mention in a popular variety show. Typically, Yeongju has three main criteria for book orders: quality, her willingness to sell it, and its alignment with the bookshop brand. Cases like this, however, make her wonder if she should also consider popularity as a fourth criterion. While this would boost the bookshop’s profits, Yeongju doesn’t want to disregard books that personally resonate with her, even if they aren’t as popular. On principle, Yeongju wants to give the books she favors a chance, lest the bookshop lose its unique identity.

Yeongju ultimately resolves to order just a few extra copies of Glimpses of World History along with similar titles that might attract customers.

Minjun continues to reel from his last conversation with his mother. He finds consolation at work, though he puts off visiting Goat Beans for over a week. The roaster courier tells Minjun that his company is missed since Jimi has no one else to rant to about her husband. Minjun soon realizes his emotional attachment to the present state of his life. He is worried about failing again, even though he acknowledges that success is also a matter of luck.

Several movies, including the 2014 documentary Seymour: An Introduction, make Minjun realize that the point of his effort isn’t the outcome, but the courage to stand by his decisions even when things don’t turn out his way. He dreads going home and stays at the bookshop as long as he can. One night, Minjun asks Yeongju what she is working on. Yeongju explains that because the bookshop’s event programming is influenced by her personal bias, Yeongju tends to invite authors for book talks before she even understands what their books are really about. She is now struggling to come up with questions for Hyun Seungwoo, the author of a new book entitled How to Write Well. Although she has read his writing before, she doesn’t have any substantial experience with writing, so she does not know what to ask him.

Yeongju notices that Minjun looks despondent. He admits that he wants to talk but isn’t sure what about. He asks about Yeongju’s parents. Yeongju shares that her parents live in Seoul and that neither of them wants to see her again. She acknowledges that this is partly her fault because she had put up the façade of being a perfect daughter for so long that she failed to prepare them for moments of weakness. This prompts Minjun to share that he spoke to his mother recently and that he often feels like he isn’t allowed to make mistakes and recover from them. He has internalized his parents’ disappointment, which makes it difficult for him to live independently. Living independently is his greatest aspiration in life, though he is embarrassed to admit this.

Yeongju shares that her own dream is to own a bookshop, but she feels like she still hasn’t achieved it yet. She interprets this to mean that the achievement of one’s dreams doesn’t always lead to happiness. Minjun wonders if this also means he is trying too hard to simplify the complexity of life. They talk about Seymour: An Introduction, allowing Minjun to express that dissonance in life can make moments of harmony feel more beautiful. Minjun believes he is living through a moment of harmony, even though other people think that he is living in dissonance. Yeongju affirms his theory by suggesting it is better to live life the way he wants to, rather than living up to his parents’ expectations. This is how she manages her regrets: She mentally trains herself to accept the way she is and think well of herself. When Minjun leaves that night, he considers how happy and protected he feels when he is in the bookshop.

Yeongju arrives early at the bookshop, hoping to come up with the remaining questions for her book talk with Hyun Seungwoo. Yeongju first became acquainted with Hyun’s work through his blog, which dissected Korean grammar and investigated what made sentences good or bad. At one point, Hyun critiqued a translated book for having poor sentence construction. His blog post reached the CEO of the translation publisher, causing the CEO to write a public rebuttal to Hyun’s claims. Their dispute went viral online, driving discourse over the state of the Korean publishing industry. Many Internet users sided with Hyun, and though the CEO initially threatened a lawsuit, he conceded and invited Hyun to re-edit the book. Hyun’s version of the book vastly outsold its predecessor.

Yeongju continued to follow Hyun Seungwoo’s writing after the issue and was surprised to learn that he was actually a company worker with a background in engineering. His expertise in Korean grammar was purely the result of self-study. He continued to write about writing in a newspaper column. Yeongju likes Hyun’s work because of his provocative but plain style, which makes him feel like a non-Korean author. When Hyun’s book was announced, Yeongju jumped at the chance to invite him for a book talk, which he immediately accepted.

Yeongju decides that she will ask Hyun if his writing style reflects his personality in any way.

A tired but familiar looking man enters the bookshop. Minjun recognizes him as Hyun Seungwoo, so he offers him a complimentary drink. Seungwoo introduces himself to Yeongju. They thank each other for the opportunity of the book talk, which leaves Yeongju starstruck and Seungwoo flustered. As Yeongju is briefing him on the format of the book talk, Seungwoo finds it difficult to look away from her.

The book talk proves popular. Many of the attendees have followed Seungwoo since his blog days. Seungwoo is anxious at first and tries to answer each question with as much consideration as possible. This reinforces Yeongju’s impression of him from his writing, putting her at ease. Seungwoo talks about how flustered he felt during his dispute with the CEO, which caused him to stop writing about bad sentences for a while. At the same time, he refocused his attention on the book, which took time from blog writing. He admits that he accepted the CEO’s invitation to edit the book out of guilt for putting pressure on the company. He identifies this as one of his biggest personal flaws as a logic-oriented person.

Seungwoo reveals that when he is reading and writing, he focuses primarily on registering authorial voice. A powerful voice can make clumsy writing stronger, though the strength of the sentences should ideally complement the strength of the voice. Weak sentences, on the other hand, distract the reader from evaluating the strength of a writer’s voice.

Yeongju asks whether Seungwoo’s writing style is reflective of his personality. Seungwoo suggests that because no one can ever be fully known, no one can know whether a person is performing their truest self on the page. Yeongju supports his response by suggesting that the authorial voice of Greek author Nikos Kazantazakis gives her an idea of who he is, one that may conflict with the perception of him as a chatty gossip. Seungwoo concludes that because he doesn’t like to lie, he takes time to consider what he is saying, so that he can convey what he believes is the truth.

The audience Q&A is full of thoughtful, critical questions. After the event ends, Seungwoo leaves with his editor. Yeongju and Minjun remain to tidy up the bookshop, celebrating over beer. Yeongju shares how great it was to meet her favorite author, though she keeps thinking back to see if she made any mistakes in the interview. When Minjun shares his observation that Seungwoo looks perpetually tired, Yeongju laughs and says that Seungwoo is indeed like his writing.