Home, Sweet home

1. The road is long and arduous

There was something I had thought about without fail since elementary school.

What on earth am I good at? What should I do for a living in the future? How should I make money? What kind of house should I live in? I grew up thinking about things that would be funny for an elementary school student.
Han Yu-jeong had such thoughts.
I grew up innocently.


I didn't really think I was good at anything. I went to academies and studied at school, but I didn't excel at anything. I didn't have any particular talent.
Ordinary, ordinary. These were the only words that could adequately describe Yoo-jeong. Her home wasn't much different from any other. Sometimes she was scolded for not studying, and sometimes her phone was confiscated for being too busy.

That mediocrity crumbled in high school. It was a far cry from the middle school exams that could be easily memorized. There were too many things to worry about and take care of. There was too much meddling. For Yujeong, these inappropriate comments rang in her ears.
From the adults' perspective, this story would have been very helpful later on, but Han Yu-jeong, who extremely disliked other people's interference, ended up growing distant from even the teacher she had been close with.
Until my first year, we didn't have many opportunities to meet, so we enjoyed talking. However, after I moved up to second grade and became his homeroom teacher, I realized I wasn't a good fit for him.
The teacher seemed to constantly try to get closer to Yujeong, but those efforts proved to be poisonous to her. He tried to avoid them, so they never met. They didn't talk much. He felt at ease.

She barely managed to maintain mediocre grades through her junior year. She became an adult, tottering around in a precipice, seemingly ready to fall if pushed off a cliff. While it wasn't quite where her family wanted her to go, she barely made it to a university within Seoul's metropolitan area. That was enough for Yujeong. She preferred a B, a leisurely stroll, to an A+, earned through hard work. That was her personality.




My impressions of myself as an adult weren't much different from when I was nineteen. Turning twenty didn't bring me maturity or mental growth. I'd just gotten older, but nothing much seemed to have changed.
The only difference between adults and children is that they have reached an age where they must take responsibility.

I worked part-time. I wasn't used to dealing with people, so I struggled a lot. Even though I thought I was being friendly, people would always find fault with me and start arguments. What I learned from working part-time was to avoid making enemies as much as possible.
I vowed not to make enemies, but that didn't seem to have much effect. If I felt something was wronged, I had to speak up at least once to feel better. I wanted to live in peace and comfort, but it was the other person who kept picking fights.

"Oh, it sucks."

I had bad luck with my company interview and failed. I'd prepared well, but I was told I hadn't been hired.
I moved to different companies several times, but the results were all disappointing.

"What do you really do for a living?"

There wasn't anything I really wanted to do, so I didn't really have any dreams or future in mind.
The road is wide and long.
He didn't know if it was crooked, twisted, thorny, or a path of flowers. Within the pure white fog before his eyes, Yujeong continued walking. He might have circled around and ended up back where he was.
The road is long and arduous. I don't even know where the end is.

Pursuing an ordinary life.





He stared at the job posting for a while. He stared intently at a single sentence on the page, tilting his head in confusion. Had he found a job that suited his aptitude? Not really. What surprised Yujeong was that there was a posting that felt like a scam.


○○ House
Accommodation/management/conversational companionship

Number of recruits: 00 (number not yet determined)
Gender: Any gender
Age: Any age
Education: No educational background required
Preferences: Beginners welcome, preference given to those living nearby
Salary: 3,000,000 won



They'll give me a house, food, and money too? Have you ever seen such a sweet job? I thought I was being fooled, contacted them right away, and collapsed on the bed.
I'm not really being scammed, am I?