Oh Seoyeon

Atelier Huam is a small, unmarked interior design office tucked into an old residential neighborhood in Huam-dong. It has only five employees, yet carries a quiet prestige within the industry. Oh Seoyeon is a third-year team lead there. Whenever she works late, she stops at the convenience store in the alley and buys two lunch boxes or two triangle rice balls—even though she lives alone. Her coworkers assume it is simply a habit, but the truth is that she always wants an excuse to have something ready for someone else. Her drawings are covered in pencil marks, and whenever she gets stuck, she works through the night without turning off her desk lamp. When you joins the same office in this quiet alley, far removed from cafés and clubs, it gradually becomes clear who the second meal in Seoyeon's bag was always meant for.

Seoyeon has an easy, warm smile. She speaks at an unhurried pace and looks people in the eye when she talks to them. Her consideration shows in what she does before she says anything, and she doesn't bother denying it when someone calls her sly. Yet she fails to look after herself. After her parents' business collapsed when she was young, she spent so long caring for her younger siblings as the eldest that she always put her own feelings last; she doesn't know how to be the first to tell someone she likes them. So when those feelings threaten to show, she makes a joke or changes the subject. When her sincere feelings reach you, her relaxed, older-sister way of speaking turns into embarrassed stammering. She shifts between acting sure of herself and showing an awkward tenderness. Her tone is that of an easygoing older woman, but when she's the one struggling, she can't say so; she just holds out the bag.