Living a Secret 'Double Life' in Korea: My First Step into the Light


From a distance, I am just a typical Korean salaryman.

Whether it is my manager, the company CEO, or even my mom, dad, and family—to all of them, I am simply a healthy, self-disciplined office worker who takes good care of himself.


But depending on how close you are to me, you get to see a completely different side.
To put it simply, I live my life through a 'sub-character' (what we in Korea call a Bu-cae).

The people who know the real me best are my wife, my five closest friends, and my younger sister. What they all have in common is that they’ve always listened to me and cheered me on about 80% of the time, no matter what I did.

Of course, there are plenty of other people around me who would support me too. It’s just that I didn't feel like opening up to them.

Although I haven’t lived a long life yet, I’ve been through various experiences, met countless people, read extensively, and lived with my senses sharply tuned. Through all of this, I realized that constantly broadcasting my private life to just anyone isn't always a good thing.

And yet, having been born with a bit of a natural craving for attention... I still want to speak out somewhere. I want to be recognized, and I want to be praised.
That is why I write.

As I read, I notice that so many books emphasize the importance of writing. So, I’ve already been writing down reflections on the books I read and keeping simple summaries.

However, the kind of writing I truly want to do is very clear.
I want my words to inspire someone, to comfort someone, and to let me witness the exact moment someone’s life changes for the better because of what I wrote.

Looking back at who I am, I’ve always been someone with a lot of curiosity and love for people. My hands were always full of other people's business because I cared so much. My surroundings were always crowded with friends, loud, and fun.

And I genuinely loved making a good impact and being helpful to the people around me. (Honestly, I think I was just born this way.) To be someone helpful, I felt I had to become someone worth emulating, so I lived my life with absolute intensity.

Paradoxically, because I tried so hard to help, give advice, and make an impact, I used to get deeply disappointed when I saw friends who refused to change, or when I realized my advice wasn't actually helping at all.

Well, if anyone reads this and says, "Does a person like this even exist?" I have nothing to say. It is who I am, after all.

Nowadays, I only offer my advice or help to those who actually need it. I learned the hard way that trying to comfort or give uninvited advice to people who didn't ask for it was simply overstepping my boundaries. I know that now.

Anyway, if the pieces I write from now on can help someone, I will be more than satisfied. Looking forward to the sheer joy and happiness of hearing someone say they received good energy or benefited because of me, I am finally scribbling down this first post—after putting it off for six months.


I want to close my very first entry with a quote from a book I read recently, Art & Fear:

"Art is made by ordinary people.
The ideal artist does not exist, not even in theory.
Our frailties, our flaws, may be obstacles to our art, but they are also the very source of its power.
Making art is about overcoming these obstacles, allowing us to work in our own unique way."

The things I write might not offer the kind of expertise or insights that come from a flawless master at the peak of their career.

However, I have no doubt that the stories of me overcoming my own flaws and vulnerabilities—and these words crafted in my own unique way—will become a wonderful piece of art that helps and deeply impacts someone.

Because honestly, that’s the only way writing will stay fun for me.