Yunkyong Kim

Medium: Blender

Spring 2022

 

Although I am Korean, this was officially the first time for me to live in Korea on my own as an adult. This rooftop house was above a six-floor building, and it was recently remodeled in a hurry since I had to move in. When I first moved in, the bathroom door handle was missing. The mirror was missing. I could smell the fresh cement and dust within the house. It seemed like the glue on the wallpaper was still wet. The house itself was not that big. It was more like a long rectangle with a bathroom on one end. But there was also a large area right outside the door, which was perfect to hang wet laundry to dry in the sun. So I cleaned the entire house and got random furniture to fill the space: a foldable bed frame with wheels, a wood vanity set, two lightweight plastic tables, and so on. After about a month, I finally got the house to look all right, as in good enough for a human being to survive. However, I underestimated the winter in Korea. It was sometime around December when it started to get really really cold with snow falling almost every other day. The main problem was that this house wasn’t built for anyone to live in at the beginning. Therefore, there was no heating system, air conditioner, or even a heater. It was freezing cold, even inside the house. The worst part of the day would be when I get off work and get home tired and hungry late in the evening. The moment I unlocked the door and took a step inside the house, the house felt like an ice cube/ice fridge. I would then crawl into my bed under the blankets and turn on a portable heater to melt my hands. After like an hour, the house would start to warm up a bit. But I knew this wasn't right. I requested the construction worker to have it installed, but it took forever to get them to have it done. Winter has left, and spring was coming. So I also left the house…