#yshqs:arrival

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: CHU, JIHYUNG. / / FROM: SOUTH KOREA. / / AGE: 30.

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tw / death

oldest of three; summer/winter vacations in yuseong bay (dad's hometown), but raised in inland jeju city. parents are/were professional chefs in fine-dining and hospitality. he follows their path but with eyes set on dining service.

dad passes away weeks after jihyung completes his military conscription, age 20. with one less parent to help with the bills and three kids still to graduate, he gruels away at preparing for the suneung in hopes of landing a scholarship at his target school and his parents' alma mater.

he makes it, fortunately. leaves again for seoul december that same year, but not without pacifying his little sister's tantrum for his moving away.

despite becoming a single parent, mom is a big guns top chef at lotte hotel jeju, so they're not direly strugglingㅡmakes just enough to get by with all things in moderation and, on jihyung's end, a part-time job and a spruce of frugality.

he graduates college eager to work and lands himself a job at lumenㅡa michelin-starred contemporary restaurant in seoul. works his way to server and team leader in the breadth of two years.

along the way, connects with a loyal patron who happens to be a fellow jeju native and hotel recruitment director. as these things go, jihyung is offered work at their jw marriott property in jeju. it's: a) a ticket back home, b) a bigger paycheck, and c) more opportunities on the horizon, so he bites.

once he's back, finds out mother has new flame. he's protective at first, but she can take care of herself.

goes from server to supervisor to manager-in-training during his tenure, surrounded by a management team both terrifyingly strict and remarkably generous. he grows, not just in knowledge of dining service, but front-of-house operations as a whole.

sadly, slew of new nepo hires in top management changes the place overnight. he's not the first to leave, and he's not going to be the last.

upon news of his unemployment, dad's distant cousin aunt miran shares that there's a new resort opening up in yuseong bay. jihyung never would've seen it coming. he applies, qualifies for assistant operations manager, and joins the pre-opening team december of '23. moves into his dad's childhood home, vacated since grandma's passing.

not much has changed here. not for now, at least. but he'd grown up in downtown jeju city; he's familiar with the motions. it's with a little fear and guilt and melancholy that he wonders how long it'll last.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: MOON, CHAEYOUNG. / / FROM: SOUTH KOREA. / / AGE: 28.

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"Dear mother,

If I’m honest I don’t know why I keep doing this. Writing and never sending these letters I write… I often wonder if I ever sent one, would you read it? Would you reply to me and offer me back the love I once had as your daughter? or if you simply see it was me who sent them and put them in the trash? …Somehow that seems like the likely outcome that makes me hide them instead of sending them. 

Jisung's first birthday is around the corner and he is doing well. He is bubbly and his giggles just seem to light up the entire room. I am sure that if you ever got the chance to meet him you would love him, he is just that charming. I will be holding his Doljanchi with a few people and I know that no matter what he picks, I will be happy for him. I have found great people in this place and been happier than ever. Though I’m sure you don’t care anymore…

I’m foolish, right? Even if I still hurt from your coldness, even if I still resent you and father for everything that happened and  would not want to return,  I still hope you will want to make things right, to meet with your grandson at least one time… don’t think too kindly of me, i’m not thinking of you but of my son. He has done nothing wrong to have his family missing like that, but if it’s for his happiness then I will do anything I can. Maybe the smartest thing will be to keep quiet until he brings it up, until he decides if he wants to meet you and father or not, he is the only reason I would do it for.

with love,

your daughter, 

Chaeyoung.”

The paper was suddenly ripped out of the notebook it had been written in, a couple of tears dampening the paper before morphing it into a ball and being thrown away to the trash. The sound of the baby calling for his mother brought a genuine smile in her face, long gone was the sadness that had clouded her while writing another letter that would never be sent. “I’m going jisungie.” She chuckled as she moved to pick him up with a gentle hold. “Are we hungry?” She asked while moving out of the room. Heartbreak left behind as she stepped into the light of the kitchen with her baby in her arms.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: BAEK, DAEUN. / / FROM: USA. / / AGE: 22.

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It’s barely 4 months into the new year, but the planner looks well-used and well-loved. Reminiscent of Katherine Heigl’s Filofax in 27 Dresses, there are sticky notes and tabs all over the pages, receipts and mail shoved haphazardly into the pages and even some cash tucked into a pocket. The front cover has a faded ink stain that she’s treated with everything from 70% isopropyl alcohol to baking soda, but the ink of a Pilot G2 is just as stubborn as Baek Daeun.

A look into the 7 pages that consist of a week’s activities, the neatly written commitments at the start of every page attest that Daeun’s the type to make an effort to sit down at the beginning of a week to figure out what her next 7 days could look like. Spaces left between each line seem to anticipate being filled in, which they usually are, in the mismatched ink of whatever pen’s closest to Daeun at that moment. She highlights important commitments in pink, and because the pastel doesn’t seem enough, underlines and circles it in red ink. 

Sunday 

check return flights – buy immediately if cheap! 

deadline for visual podcast: recheck materials with editor and research team

Monday 

10am call with scentbird– rediscuss contract terms

merch drop 12pm: schedule story

6pm livestream

Tuesday

brunch with liv + pick up prescription

recording 2 eps

Wednesday

audio-only up 12pm: schedule story

3pm call with researchers 

Thursday

10am lax to cju: buy 20kg extra checked baggage

Friday

visual podcast ep up 12pm est: schedule story

2pm kst touchdown: arrange transport home

Saturday

mom’s birthday dinner– check with dahyun re: catering. do my best to not be a disappointment <3

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: SHIN, EUNBI. / / FROM: SOUTH KOREA. / / AGE: 19.

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eunbi hasn't always hated the stars.

twinkling lights imbedded into the inky black sky, watching the world as it sleeps, eunbis childhood memories are rife with meteor showers and hopeful wishes. proclamations of love, promises of a future forever immortalized by the warmth of devotion, all whispers spoken just above her small stature by parents who wanted nothing more for than their daughter to experience the same sort of tenderness they'd built for themselves.

a happy home, a secluded world, built and nurtured along the yuseong coast, and eunbi knows nothing but love.

eunbi loves love until she doesn't.

illusions shatter, ripping apart at the seams before her very eyes as her happy home crumbles to dust.

no one would have expected her mother, sweet and demure, to pack herself up and leave with nothing but a note in her wake. eunbi feels her world turn on its heels, the house cold as her distressed father tries to hold things together— there wasn't ever a need to care for public appearances before, not when they were a family already known and liked, but it's not long before their business becomes their neighbors business.

pitying glances with every sighting as time rolls on, condolences for a figure who no longer wanted to be there, prayers of peace spoken aloud for their healing.

eunbi can't help but hate love, at least for a while.

youth grows into adolescence, which in turn, grows into young adulthood. time mends all wounds, her father eventually remarries, and love no longer feels like an abhorrent threat. she's weary, cautious, walls high and mighty the moment the stars begin to fall and another attempt is made at worming into her personal space, but she's done well to build her mask.

eunbi thinks she likes the idea of love, but she has more important things to worry about.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: SEO, NOAH. / / FROM: USA. / / AGE: 21.

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born and raised in seattle, washington, noah is one of two children. if you were to ask noah about his early life, his childhood, he would describe it as eerily average. noah, born quickly after his sister, making them irish twins, felt undoubtably close to her and though the two fought, as siblings usually do, they were generally well to get along.

his mother started her education in nursing and went on to become a nurse practitioner and work in a family clinic; his father working mostly highly laborious jobs in construction, becoming a site overseer in a lot of large scale projects in the city. with both working very demanding jobs, they didn't spend much time raising their children, nor did they put much effort into their already crumbling marriage.

in middle school, noah becomes known as sort of a "basketball prodigy" and once in high school, it becomes his defining feature when the games become all that more high stake. he is the team's ace and is well known both in his own high school and others in the area. it earns him a glowing reputation, which is something he hates, because well, being shy and also popular, don't really mix well together. and while he has friends he enjoys being around, he also has a reputation for being quiet and somewhat brooding.

the discontent began to set into the house when nina and noah entered high school. fights were common, he and his sister would sit on the carpeted stairs and listen to the explosive arguments that would rattle the house. both of them knew eventually, their parents would get a divorce, sometimes welcomed it even. that is, until they didn't quite choose the same parent to live with upon the separation.

noah had always felt closest to his mother and the option between staying at his school in a city where he had lived most of his life, rather than going to a new country, speaking a new language, and experiencing major culture shock, felt like the safest choice. nina, however, chose to move to south korea with her father, who would be moving to live closer to his parents.

the choice to separate from is sister was almost worse than the hurt of the divorce between his parents; the fact that they would no longer be a whole family, now broken and continents away from each other, would leave noah feeling betrayed in a way. for the one who had always looked out for him, would be thousands of miles away. the sadness he felt and the shame in his codependence would cause him to close himself off from everyone and leave him lingering in his last high school days as a wallflower, even more reserved, anxious, and quiet.

since sports had always been his favorite outlet, besides playing guitar, he decided to entertain a scholarship to UW. with basketball dominating his life, he found it hard to really find much direction in life, because while he doesn't really want to play professionally, he also doesn't really know what he wants out of university either. he would find himself on the track to graduate with a degree in biochemistry, having a just mild interest in science courses.

not really knowing what to do with his life, noah decides to follow his sister to seoul with a exchange program for the summer. with both living near his sister again and enjoying the change of setting and life away from sports, he in passing, tells his coach and a few teammates that he wants to stay in korea and continue his education there. they do not support this idea, while it would mean losing their star player. through enough guilt, noah reluctantly agrees to come back.

tw self-harm / this would change with a "freak injury" during one of his morning runs by the han river. noah would be told by doctors in seoul that he would not be allowed to play basketball until he had significant physical therapy, or in all likelihood, ever again. this would also mean, losing his sports scholarship.

such a drastic change to noah's life, left him with even less of an answer of where to go or what to do. his parents didn't have much money, let alone to pay for his schooling, nor did he even want to go back home and confront his former teammates and coach. so in an act of desperation, he fled to yuseong bay, to live with his father and grandparents on their family farm.

currently, noah feels like a fish out of water, but ultimately he feels as though yuseong is actually helping him learn to live with that uncomfortableness. he finds comfort in blending in with simplicity, not having to make largely life changing decisions, and ultimately, just feeling calm by the quietness of the town.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: HWANG, DYLAN. / / FROM: USA. / / AGE: 27.

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the transcription of a voicemail from dylan hwang to his mother, lim yunha, dated january 20th, 2024, 1:13am (3min, 56seconds).

hey, mom. i’m sorry to call you so late. i knew that you wouldn’t pick up, but i wanted to call you anyway before i forgot again. i’ve been unpacking most of the day… or something like that. (muffled laughter). i ended up taking a nap from about noon to three. i know i shouldn’t have, but i couldn’t help it. i was so tired from walking up and down… up and down… up and down. i live on the third floor of this place and there’s not an elevator, so… well, it doesn’t matter. i just got tired, that’s all. i had a couple run-ins with some other tenants throughout the day and everyone seemed friendly. i told you before that the apartment seemed stuffy, but i opened the windows today and it seemed bigger and brighter somehow. i think this place will be good for me, and i’m glad to be closer to you and eva, too. but somehow i feel like i'm intruding... (a sigh) i don’t know, ma. i’m so tired. all i’m saying is i hope you can come see my new place soon. give it a couple of weeks because you know it’ll take me just that long to finish unpacking. but i want you to come by. and hey, mom… i also wanted to say i’m sorry for that fight. i… (another sigh) i just hate that i keep hurting you. it’s hard for me to say this, but i was looking through some of my pictures and i’m feeling really bad, mom. i love you. you know i do. i’m sorry this shit has to be so complicated. i was talking to richie about it and he told me i was being a jackass. i don’t mean to cuss, but that’s what he said and i know he’s right. he always is. the fucking bastard… i can hear you already. “don’t talk about your family like that, daesung.” mom, he doesn’t care. he’ll say the same about me. you have to understand, it’s just our dynamic. it doesn’t mean we love each other any less. just like how i might not see you enough, but i love you just the same. i’m trying to be better. it’s my resolution for 2024: be less of a jackass. see your mom more. stop saying and start doing. get on richie’s last nerve. live in the moment, take it for what it is… rinse, repeat… (a prolonged pause) whatever. um, i’m kind of drunk. sorry to say, it’s just the truth. you know, i'm trying to quit. that's why i came back here. i want to take it slow and get sober. i want you to have a healthy son. i want you to have a son you can be proud of. god, wow, i’ve talked for so long my mouth is dry. these are just some things i wanted to say. once again, i love you. i promise. that’s all.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: HAN, MILA. / / FROM: SOUTH KOREA. / / AGE: 24.

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four months— a lifetime wrapped securely in her back pocket, salted air permeating every facet of her being, and still, mila feels like a stranger in her own skin.

it's a foreign feeling, no longer being able to truly claim she knew herself. change will do that to someone, she supposed. a change in scenery, a different crowd, a life so similar to the one she'd grown into back in seoul whilst simultaneously being unlike anything she'd ever experienced before.

uncertainty. fear. hesitance.

all repressed emotions she'd felt flood her mind the moment seoul had become too much— just when had seoul become too much? how could the only place she knew ever become too much when there was so much? mila was a fighter, strong willed and confident above all else, but even someone as ambitious as her had their limits.

seoul meant security, safety in a retail sales position she had yet to really move up in despite starting during her university years. seoul meant bidding her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity the showcase itself, allowing her to finally use the marketing degree she'd slaved over books to acquire. seoul meant never advancing, never realizing her full potential despite her continuous efforts.

too much. too little. all wrong. never right.

what does mila want?

change.

yuseong is different, tamer, softer, all things mila isn't used to, but at least there's room to be. room to grow.

and, hopefully, there's room for mila.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: OLSEN, SVEERE. / / FROM: NEATHERLANDS. / / AGE: 26.

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TW BRIEF MENTIONS OF ABUSE

in 2005, there are three central facts that make up sverre olsen’s universe:

1. his favorite color is red.

well, mom says that he likes red anyway, so it makes sense for him to like red—too young to argue on it, too old to fully align himself with it, he wears his firetruck red 75% off parka with something that could almost be pride if he weren’t so embarrassed.

he’s not embarrassed because it’s red.

he’s embarrassed because the sleeves are too long, the shoulders are too boxy, and if he dares to zip it up, it swallows him completely. seven years old and he already doesn’t like how he looks; he’s got mom’s influence to thank for that, but when he tries to tell her he doesn’t like it, she tells him he will. she also says something about how clearance items can’t be returned anyway, and he’ll get used to it after wearing it a few times. he’ll have to, because he’ll be wearing it next year, too. says she bought it big so he’d have space to grow, but he’d keep growing whether he had the space or not, so he knows that what she means is ‘it’s cheaper this way’.

sometimes he hates his mom for being cheap, but he loves her, too, so he wears the jacket.

2. manners are more valuable than morals.

so when he’s begging for scraps, he should never forget to say please.

dad always gives him the same talk before sending him in to pizza paladino at 9:50pm more nights than he cares to count: smile (but if that doesn’t work, cry), say please, say thank you, say my mom is sick, say my dad is working late, say yes, my mom is home and so is my older brother (never tell them you don’t have a brother), ask if they have anything left and if they say that they don’t, ask if they’re sure. 

the speech always ends with “i’ll be waiting behind the building” and it takes sverre longer than he should to realize why they can never go in together, just like he can never figure out why they won’t just eat the food out of their pantry.

still, he does what dad tells him to and it usually works. no one wants to see a kid go hungry, so the teenagers and almost-adults send him out with a stale pizza on some nights, bags of breadsticks soggy with grease on others.

3. some people never should’ve had kids.

he hears pizza paladino’s manager (a man with frown lines deeper than dad’s) say that one night, right as he’s pushing the glass doors open at 9:50pm. he’s too young to be completely aware of himself, let alone of the stigma constantly attached to poor people, so he doesn’t really know that it’s about him until the girl with the glasses dismisses her manager.

she smiles at sverre in a way that’s almost apologetic. almost. instead, it’s tired, but he doesn’t understand that either, so he smiles back.

“my mom—” he starts, well-rehearsed. but then she interrupts him to ask if his mom is still sick, if she’s doing any better at all, and that’s not part of the script, so he stumbles.

“well. i don’t… know. i’m not sure. she’s just… sick.”

he stands there, stiff and awkward. he looks at the manager, sees him looking out the glass doors at something further back. he doesn’t think about what it is until his hands are full of greasy paper bags and he’s on his way. dad isn’t out back this time. no—today he’s standing right outside, smoking one of his lucky strikes.

the last thing that he hears before the door shuts behind him is this: “what a fucking loser.” he’s never sure whether it was about himself or his father.

/

age brings on awareness, and awareness alters the things that sverre knows to be true. by 2012, his universe looks like this:

1. his favorite color is beige.

sure, it’s beige, but it’s only beige because that’s the color of his grandma—of the porridge that she makes him in the morning after he’s spent a night at her house (“at a friend’s,” he tells his parents, and grandma always keeps his secret), of her favorite sweater, of the duvet on her guest bed.

the thing about grandma is that she’s honest. she wants to know why sverre comes over so often, and sverre tells her like it is: he used to sorta have friends, but they always wanted to go out and do things, and he never had the money to participate so they stopped inviting him. “it’s fine, anyway,” he tells her (with bloodshot eyes, with chapped lips), he just doesn’t want mom and dad to know. if they knew, they’d feel guilty, and they shouldn’t feel guilty.

grandma says that they should.

she says that the statements ‘i’m doing my best for my child’ and ‘it’s still not enough’ can coexist, and when she says it, he believes it.

he doesn’t want to hate his parents, but sometimes he does. other times, he dreams of making things better for them.

2. manners are more valuable than morals.

so when the man of the house raises his fist to his son, he’d better apologize.

it’s just that times are hard for everybody and sverre likes to talk too much. he takes up too much space, he asks for too much, he eats too much, he costs too much—worse still, he’s in the age of attitude and when dad says ‘i’m trying’, sverre asks if he’s sure.

everything changes in a half-minute: it starts with dad at the stove and sverre standing in the doorframe, watching him. it ends with his nose bleeding and dad’s hands balled into fists at his sides.

later that day, dad cries and no one’s there to calm him other than sverre, so he tries his best with what he has which isn’t much when it comes down to it. had he been coddled more as a kid, maybe he’d go for a hug, but as it stands, the most that he can come up with is a hand on dad’s back.

he says he’s sorry, he says that hurting sverre is the last thing he’d ever want to do and that he doesn’t know what got into him. he’s just been stressed lately. tired, too. everything’s just so much.

sverre repeats it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay and unknowingly sets the tone for the rest of his adolescence.

3. some people never should’ve had kids.

that’s what the school counselor tells him the one time that he stops by her office, both prefaced and followed by apologies.

he can’t say that he blames her—what else is there to say after a kid who’s only just introduced himself to you tells you that he’s tired (not physically, but mentally) and not sure how to fix it? that his dad hit him a couple days ago, but it was just a one-off thing and he knows he deserved it anyway? that he’s lonely? that school’s such a fucking drag, and no matter how hard he tries his grades don’t get any better, so he’s not sure what he’s going to do from here?

right. most adults would look him in the eyes and apologize first, then blame the parents. but sverre’s always loved his parents, mostly.

so he tells her that it’s not their fault either. asks her what the point of talking is if she doesn’t know what to say.

on his way out, he grumbles something about missing his lunch period for this load of bullshit.

/

the universe, circa 2016:

1. his favorite color is black.

well, not really, but doesn’t every angsty teenager go through this phase? black eyeliner, black nails, black lungs if those warnings that his mom gives him every time she catches him smoking one of dad’s lucky strikes are true—eighteen is gruesome and his fashion is the worst part.

he dyes his hair black with a cheap box-dye kit. he says it’s because he figured it would look cool, but it goes without saying that he does it for the attention that a stained bathtub is sure to bring.

he expects dad to be the angry one, but mom’s the one who speaks up. she doesn’t mention the bathtub, just his hair. she hasn’t touched him in god knows how long, but she touches him now, cold fingers pushing through his fried curls.

“why would you do this, sverre? you’re such a handsome blond.”

dad says that the black looks good.

both reactions make him feel unusually loved.

2. morals are more valuable than manners.

in other words, mom and dad were wrong all along.

it doesn’t matter how many times he says please, thank you, yes ma'am or no sir, there’s not a single university in europe worth mentioning that’ll take him in without money or extracurriculars. fuck the gpa; it’s nothing without decor.

“i told you you should’ve played soccer,” dad says, and something about it makes sverre want to hit him—but that wouldn’t be moral or polite.

3. some people never should’ve had kids.

this time, it’s a conclusion that sverre comes to all on his own. not out of contempt for his parents, but guilt. it’s just the way things go: when a kid’s brought up in a family that can hardly afford them, aren’t they bound to imagine a world without themselves in it?

he sees his dad without reasons to drink on the weekends, his mom without reasons to work so many hours that she hardly sees her family:

in this world, dad would be a professional soccer player (maybe retired by now, but with enough money to live comfortably) and mom would be a doctor, still working hard but with more to show for it. a stronger sense of accomplishment.

sverre olsen comes into the picture and the perfect world fades—he cries too loud, he grows too fast, he wants too much. there’s no time for either parent to go to school and hobbies are cast by the wayside.

if he were his father, he wouldn’t like himself much, either.

/

2021:

1. his favorite color is blue.

and this time he means it.

blue for all the girls who told him how handsome he would be if only he had blue eyes (and how many hours he spent staring into the sun, promising them his eyes could look blue if the lighting was right), blue for the lake where so many of his summer days were spent tossing crackers to ducks and sticking his feet into the pond despite signs saying not to get too close, blue for his father’s beat-up car that he always promised to pass down to sverre (and then totaled before he ever could), blue for the logo of jeju national university—

a school he spent a semester abroad at halfway through his undergrad studies, and one that starts to look a little bit like paradise as he’s applying for the gks grad scholarship with the help of his academic advisor. he looks better on paper than in practice, so he thinks his odds are good.

2. morals and manners are equally important.

because leaving his parents feels like the morally correct thing to do.

he’s not home much anymore, anyway. only on the weekends, but they can tell that his dedication is dwindling and they’re not paying his tuition just for him to tap out so close to the end, so sometimes they talk and sometimes he listens.

dad says that they ought to kick him out, encourage him to learn to live independently. mom says that he’s still so young and he’s still in school for now. dad says that won’t last forever.

he can’t blame them, anyway—he’s never fully applied himself anywhere, ambition dying with those long-lost pizza paladino pleas and he’s genetically predestined to fall through on each and every one of his promises, but that’s just the thing. it runs in the family. he knows that they look down on him, and sometimes he wonders if they know that he looks down on them, too: a cracked mirror, i hate what we are.

it’s a sunday when he tells them that he’s going to south korea.

3. some people never should’ve had kids.

because as much as they hate to admit it, mister and misses olsen’s lives are exponentially better without a child eating all of their food and taking all of their money.

sverre knows this because he sees their posts on facebook. they’ve been dining at restaurants more often, going on dates. dad seems happier and mom swears that his anger’s gone dormant, so sverre must’ve been the source after all. (she doesn’t say that part, but he knows).

and korea’s really not what he’d remembered it as being, but he doesn’t have the heart to admit that he wants to go home because what the hell would that make him look like? nothing good, he’s sure. 

he stays, and he does what he knows best: makes the most of what he has and hates his parents only a little bit for not giving him more.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: VUONG, NHU HA. / / FROM: UNITED STATES. / / AGE: 28.

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THE MOST IMPORTANT RECOLLECTIONS written by: [redacted]

VUONG NHU HA as…                   maggie

DAD as…                                  himself, left behind

MOM as…                                a passing voice

YOON “ERIC” SEUNGMIN as….   summer ‘19

05. she prefers impermanence. it’s comforting to know that everything will pass and a new season is around the corner. maybe it’s why moving to yuseong on a pseudo-break doesn’t feel as daunting. it’s hard to tell if you’re running away when you always seem chasing.

mom calls on a sunday to check-in. maggie keeps the conversation short and promises to call again when she’s better settled. when the last box is unpacked, she plants her hands on the kitchen countertop and looks out the window.

summer beckons, and she anchors her gaze to the last light of dusk.

04. in their last few weeks together, eric tells her about home. she stands there in his arms and lets him sway her to the mix of shoegaze songs that pull from the radio. something about heading back for a bit and tending to those firmly planted roots. maggie buries her senses against the musk of his worn shirt and the steady pulse of his patient heart below. outside, the leaves are changing color.

03. it’s the second time she meets him when she gets a name. not that it matters. in a few years it’ll blur with everything else.

“i just always want change.” smoke webs between each word as she looks at him. they’re stripped down to their underwear and her hair is slick from the pool water. there’s a ring on her skull where the sun beats down and she hangs her head to the side to no avail. “i don’t think my mom gets it sometimes." 

there isn’t a prelude to this or an epilogue. it's a mere statement of fact and an acknowledgement. eric hums to her words, pulls the cigarette from her fingers and turns his face to the sun.

02. her teenage life is one summer to the next. every memorable moment is accompanied by sweltering heat and endless days bleeding into endless weeks. she likes looking for excuses to chase after it. with some money in her pocket and a vacation in mind, she makes her home scattered.

dad drives out during a summer night in those two good hours when the sky is pitch black and the streets look absent of life. she hasn’t spoken to him in a couple days and the last thing she had to say was nasty. dad doesn’t have work today, she knows that much for sure, so when the unease settles in, her natural instinct is to shift toward the phone.

it starts ringing before she gets to it.

01. at nine, the world is her oyster. every summer afternoon is a date with the warm sun in her dad’s backyard and the tennis rackets they’ve stored in the shed. at nine, she slips on the stairs of their porch and falls several feet to the ground. the bones in her ankle don’t stand a chance. above, the sun rolls on and leaves her behind. maggie lays there, waiting, her cheek kissing concrete. she hates this kind of living.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: YEOM, SEULKI. / / FROM: UNITED KINGDOM. / / AGE: 25.

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[trigger warning for brief mention of drugs, allusions to depression]

If you get hungry enough, they say, you start eating your own heart. 

Seulki’s fascination with Margaret’s words grew with the every stretch of her body as she left her girlish summers behind. She could never understand why she felt so impossibly drawn to that quote or why it echoed in her mind whenever her mother denied her the love her heart so desperately longed for. No manifestation or deepest desire could ever dull the palpable pain of growing up unloved, and no prayer could stitch together the disembodiment of her body that pretended to be okay while simultaneously allowing the hunger to devour her whole.

When Seulki caught herself red-handed as a teenager, her fingers stained by the pomegranate seeds of her own heart; she finally understood what Margaret meant.

There are only five years left of her twenties and Seulki still feels as lost as the day she turned fourteen. She thinks something must be wrong with her. Surely, there is something inherently wrong in the way she was built, in the way she sutures fake love into the missing pieces of her crumpled heart. For every lover, every pill swallowed with the fervor of someone parched, makes her feel whole again. It brings to life the dream that tells her she had the perfect childhood growing up and wanted for nought. Maybe it's fortune making up for the loss of her childhood, but the weight of this lie felt much lighter than the weight of her reality.

Funnily enough, all she could hear was her mother’s scoldings whenever she so much navigated the throes of her life with independence; Mannerless brat! I raised you better! The memory of her voice is enough to get her to flinch, the rungs of her spine straightening as though the streets of Yuseong Bay had eyes that would somehow report her every misgiving. I want to be whole screams the earthen shine of her eyes as she looks up at the birds filtering through the sky. Like Pavlov’s dog, Seulki felt her body stiffen in response to the sudden clicking of a random passerby's camera going off, her head dipping slightly so to hide the disillusionment that dared to make itself known. 

“A penny for your thoughts, sweet girl?" Asked her grandmother as she peered at Seulki, eyes patient yet full of love. "I'm thinking about life, nana.” Seulki responded suddenly, her voice an angel with talons where a tongue should be. “I was thinking.. isn't life the most interesting when it’s wild?" That rustic gaze of hers lingered on her grandmother's wise countenance, ivory bones rattling with anticipation to hear what her grandmother would have to say. “My dear, life is only as interesting as you make it.” Seulki could only nod as her grandmother rubbed the tops of her hands, a sign of affection that felt so foreign. She could already hear her mother's screech at her disrespectful behavior, but for once, Seulki wants to be more than what her mother wants for her to be. "Maybe you're right, nana." Seulki admitted with a smile that cuts like moonlight, gaze renewed with a gentle flicker of hope. Maybe a few months with her grandmother will take her where she wants to be. Maybe Yuseong Bay will help her feel content with the bare notion of being alive. All she could do was hope fiercely, hope wildly, hope.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: THOMPSON, SUNNY. / / FROM: UNITED STATES. / / AGE: 25.

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tw / mentions of death, mental illness, alcoholism

sunny is born to middle class parents in san diego, california. her mother is a nurse and her father was in construction. they lived a pretty normal life as far as sunny was concerned, not always super comfortable but not on the streets either. she never felt very close with her mother and gravitated more toward her father, often time lamenting to him that if they ever got a divorce, she would live with him over her mother.

her father passed while she was still in elementary school. sunny and her mother struggled to live together after the fact. she could only blame her mother, memories of her father sleeping on the couch perpetually in her mind.

they lived a pretty different life once her father died, going on luxurious vacations, shopping, and fancy restaurants. sunny could never understand her mother's sudden desire for this kind of life, making friends in high places and pretending that she had come from a kind of generational wealth. they even moved into a more expensive apartment and her mother worked less, drank more and spent more.

sunny didn't realize until she was well into middle school that her mother was spending her father's life insurance money with little regard of it running out. the thought disgusted her and caused more high tensions between her and her mother to arise. sunny would run away, a few times always being brought back by police when her mother finally decided she wanted her back home.

she moves to korea with her mother and her new step father in the summer before 8th grade was supposed to start. she didn't mind korea, learned the language pretty well, though speaking would always be quite hard for her, as would people reacting to her curly hair and darker complexion. however by the time she would graduate high school, she had grown a major distaste for the life of luxury that her mother made for herself.

sunny, with the secret blessing of her step-father who reminded her so much of her own father, fled seoul and landed in yuseong, jeju, which had always reminded her of california. she began working as a florist and gardener for the original owner of daeyanghwa, before moving in with her once it was revealed that sunny didn't have a place to stay. she lived with her for years, gaining friendship and a real mother figure from her.

the old woman's health declined suddenly, leaving sunny to relive her trauma. once she died, it was revealed that she had left her house to sunny, as well as daeyanghwa florals. she had little choice but to stay in yuseong bay, not willing to give up either which were so graciously given to her.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: YOO, RAON. / / FROM: UNITED STATES. / / AGE: 24.

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   —  character  references.  explanations  for  the  inspirations  behind  raon.

from  céline.  mostly  a  reference  to  before  sunrise,  and  not  the  sequels.  i  also  mean  this  really  as  a  physical  reference,  in  that  a  lot  of  mannerisms  and  conversational  quirks  are  inspired  by  céline.  raon  is  the  type  of  person  you  could  spend  a  whole  day  in  conversation  with  in  a  city  you  don’t  know.  she  has  both  an  interest  in  other  people,  and  an  interest  in  the  world  that  makes  her  the  ideal  companion.  also:  “but  isn’t  everything  we  do  in  life  a  way  to  be  loved  a  little  more?”  also:  they’re  similar  in  terms  of  their  views  on  love.

from  filippa  kosta. kind.  raon’s  kindness  is  modeled  most  closely  to  filippa’s  from  if  we  were  villains.  there  is  a  sturdiness  in  raon’s  kindness  that  i  took  from  filippa’s  character.  it’s  that  sort  of  kindness  where  she  looks  away  if  you’re  crying  because  she  knows  you  don’t  like  to  cry  in  front  of  people.  very  understated,  and  very  genuine.  her  kindness  tends  to  demonstrate  how  observant  and  intuitive  she  is.

from rory gilmore.naive. rory and raon are most similar in their entirety. intelligent and hard-working in every sense of the word but so so naive and dreamy and wide-eyed. raon sees too much good in people, and she can give people too many chances. sometimes, it can be hard for raon to look past her own emotions when making judgments. even with her parents, as much wrong as they’ve done to her, she loves them and still wants them to be proud of her.

extras.

          —  fun facts.  to better understand raon.

she was born on june 24, making her a cancer.

is a phd candidate, studying in jeju national university for research (mostly).

bit of a hopeless romantic despite not knowing how to express it.

still grapples with her father's indoctrination of wanting for nothing so she tends to deny things, including people, because of it.

does a lot of volunteer work because she loves helping others!!

in that same vein, she feeds the local strays at exactly 8am every day. is friends with a silly little orange cat who follows her around but won't let her take home. she affectionately calls them "honey".

picking at minds and getting to know people is her favorite pastime.

drives an old green vespa she bought off of one of the locals.

still has neko atsume installed in her phone :)

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: LEE, HARIN. / / FROM: SOUTH KOREA. / / AGE: 26.

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[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: SAMPAIO, JULIO. / / FROM: BRAZIL. / / AGE: 21.

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Student Julio Sampaio EESC2202 Ecosystems 1 April 2024

Discussion Board: Week 1 Icebreaker

Hello! My name is Julio Sampaio and I am a biology major in my third year with Osaka University. This fall I will be twenty-two. I’m from São Paulo, one of Brasil’s largest cities as there is always something to do. However, I moved to Japan when I was fifteen with my mother and have been a permanent resident since. I visit my home country during vacation when the season allows me to. I also work full time waitering at Ippodo, a family-owned yakiniku restaurant of 83 years in downtown Osaka. I highly recommend our basashi and kuroge wagyu. If I’m not working or going to school, I enjoy spending time by myself to reset whether it’d be catching up on my Letterboxd watchlist or learning to cook on my own. Skillshare is a website that allows you to learn various skills like graphic design and illustration, so I enjoy utilizing my time for that as well. I also love discovering new musical artists (lately I’ve been really into Afro-Cuban jazz and alternative music), watching/playing football/capoeira/volleyball, indulging in stimulation video games, and honestly, sleeping the day away because I’ve become exhausted working and going to school full time.

I decided to enroll in this course to further understand the world around us, in addition to figuring out how to manage our natural resources and protect human health. Biosciences, not just the ecosystem, is something I’ve been passionate about since I was a child. My country is trying to sustain the Amazonian forest for its wildlife and those indigenous to the land. It’s no surprise that the forests are responsible for 10% of the world’s biodiversity. In addition, I am very grateful for having the opportunity to study bioscience/the ecosystem abroad with our select department traveling to Jeju, so this course being in a remote setting works best for me. In any case, thank you for having me and I look forward to working with you all throughout the semester!

—

Student Julio Sampaio EESC2202 Ecosystems 11 April 2024

Discussion Board: Week 2 — Biodiversity

From my findings, there isn’t a set percentage of loss biodiversity on the island of Jeju. Particularly speaking to Yuseong Bay, the numbers fluctuate a great deal, yet there is no set estimate regarding endangered flora/fauna/species as acquired from local researchers. I‘m inclined to believe this is because Jeju is not a forest, but a rapidly modernizing island as a result of South Korea’s export-led industrialist and capitalist country. Quickly developing islands with capitalist-backed corporations (Hanhwa Group) don’t contribute to the Earth’s biodiversity. Rather, said corporations can contribute to the decline of biodiverse prosperity. In our textbook, Yoshinaga states that rainforests consists of the Earth’s surface at 7% (Yoshinaga, 102-103) and “[they] contain more than half the species in the entire world biota” (Yoshinaga, 103). Much of this week’s readings and lectures, in my own observations, cannot be applied to Jeju’s “lack” or “waning” biodiversity due to the island’s inability to provide to the environment outside of its habitants (residents). Yuseong’s economy is dependent on their fishing industries/businesses and has been a source of agricultural and piscary income, or currency, to its residents, “…the bay is a self-sufficient ecosystem that profits ecologically, however, was not biodiverse enough for it to see deduction unlike the Amazon basin to South America.” (Kim, 105). Consequently, capitalist industrialism is rooted in defeating the natural world, but some will argue that in order for corporations and their establishments to be successful, firms such as Hanhwa will be largely responsible in protecting Yuseong’s ecosystem.

Islands are not resistant to the decline of biodiversity. A study was conducted that rising sea levels (ie: coastal cities and island countries such as Japan, Indonesia, etc are expected to take a hit concerning rising sea levels) took apart land and a significant amount of bird species were endangered, “…about 10,000 years ago, [the rising sea levels] cut off small land masses that had previously been connected to South America, New Guinea, and the main islands of Indonesia.“ (Yoshinaga, 104). Thus, given the option to agree or disagree with this week’s discussion post question, I have chosen not to agree. I do not think Jeju island will suffer the same repercussions with lacking biodiversity on the same scale of South American forests and basins, but it doesn’t make Yuseong Bay/Jeju not susceptible to industrialized harm against the environment. Of course, residents will see somewhat harmful changes in their ecosphere, but not to the point of devastation—at least not until the next several centuries (estimated).

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: HUYNH, CHLOE. / / FROM: AUSTRALIA. / / AGE: 20.

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chloe was born in australia in 2003 to teen mother and unknown father. she was given up for adoption immediately upon birth and handed to her adoptive parents. her parents, both vietnamese immigrants, (and both in their mid thirties at this point) are a semi-wealthy couple who after much difficulty having a child of their own, decided to adopt. her father is an architect and her mother a historian, concentrating on vietnamese history and culture.

chloe was well loved and enjoyed much of her childhood growing up. she will say that it was picture perfect up until her sister was born, though that is a lie, mostly because she doesn't remember much before the age of three. her parents would be "blessed" with a "miracle child" two years after adopting chloe and nine months later, her sister emma was born.

chloe immediately felt a strong jealousy, which fostered from the idea of a so-called "miracle child" and would grow up to constantly compare herself to her sister, and obsess on the ways her parents compared them to each other, even if it wasn't intended in a malicious way. emma, who loves her big sister, attached a lot of her personality to things chloe also enjoyed, in ways of mirroring her, which chloe hated.

in the years before the opening of the hanhwa resort, chloe's family would relocate to yuseong bay in south korea. her father would be crucial in development for the resort and it's unique architecture, paving the way to shape the modern yuseong bay beaches. chloe was more or less excited to move to korea, though a little disappointed they weren't moving to seoul. upon leaving australia and entering yuseong high school, chloe would feel underwhelmed in the tiny town and dream of bigger things, that especially of becoming an idol and moving to seoul.

much to her disappointment, she would fail most of the auditions to get into any major label. emma however, not actively searching for any role in the korean entertainment industry, would be scouted her freshman year of high school while an agent was relaxing on vacation in jeju, just happening on the beaches of yuseong bay. chloe's parents encouraged their daughter to audition and she was able to pass after a few rounds of callbacks and eventually moved to seoul only a few weeks later.

chloe lives her day by day mostly wandering yuseong, either in or outside of the resort where she and her family are given lifetime passes. she laments about wanting to leave town but not really doing much to actually make that happen. she lives with her parents and mostly ignores her sister, who is now preparing to debut under a successful company. she makes her money mostly by sponsored content, both on tiktok and instagram.

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: KIM, AERA. / / FROM: SOUTH KOREA. / / AGE: 24.

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born and raised at yuseong from loving parents and a loving older sister, born and raised on yuseong all her life; was a mommy's girl through and through, especially when her personality was much closer to her mother's than her father's and used all the excuses to spend time with her as much and as often as she could and her mother always indulged her within the limits of what was possible.

and that's why she ended up drifting apart a little from her father, even more so when he had much more of a shy/serious personality.

was never super close to her sister but they still get along well enough, especially when her sister has a similar personality of their father's and therefore was rather awkward with such a love giving and demanding small aera.

she also grew up as a dreamer of sorts, not necessarily ambitious, but she grew surrounded by fairy tales to this day, even more when she was younger, she has always saw the world in rose colored lenses to go along with her naturally bubbly personality.

was never really the type to cause trouble while growing up, mostly because she wanted to be praised especially by her parents; she even decided to go to medical school in some big university like snu, not only because of the simple reason that she wanted to help people but also because she knew that it'd bring joy and pride to her parents, even working hard in her studies to get a scholarship.

big sister moves out at the first opportunity that she gets, seeking an university degree at seoul where she lives to the day. fourteen years old aera promises that she'll follow her sister soon.

TW DEATH however when her senior year in high school comes around and she's starting to look for scholarship programs, her mother gets sick with pneumonia that ends up getting worse because of her other weak immune system which hits her pretty hard considering how close they were to each other; aera doesn't follow her sister, instead she decides to give up on her degree and decides to stay in yuseong for a little longer, at least to help her dad with the funeral and she doesn't have the heart to leave him alone (or to be left alone) after a tragedy like that.

TW DEATH / CAR ACCIDENT a little longer then turns into forever when her father also ended up passing away less than six months after her mother in a car accident when he was coming back from a short trip to jeju city, right when they were starting to grow closer to each other.

the way that she found to cope with it was to cling to any aspect of familiarity that she can— she starts wearing a necklace with a pendant of a single pearl that her mother always used since it was a gift from her husband; instead of moving out to get a degree, she gets her nurse license in the technical in yuseong bay; she still lives in her parents' house with the excuse that she's only relative in the town anyway and adopts a couple of habits, especially in her morning routine, that belonged to her mother.

even after that, she's still a sweet girl that has a lot of dreams— dreams about the adventures that are waiting for her outside of the town that was the only thing that she knew her whole life, dreams about a love that will come and sweep her off of her feet and to share said adventures with them, she dreams of all the flower paths that will lead her to unimaginable happiness, however she doesn't really have the heart nor the desire to actually do anything to achieve said dreams, more than happy to stay in her comfort zone with the things that she knows and is familiar with.