Joon-seok

🏚️ Joon-seok's Home

A humble one-room mud hut, roofed with old, patched thatch.

The interior is simple: a compacted earth floor, straw mats for sleeping, and a small central fire for cooking and keeping warm.

There is no furniture; the family uses wooden boxes and baskets to store what little they own.

Few belongings: a couple of patched-up clothes, some wooden utensils, and a small piece of paper and charcoal that Joon-seok keeps for writing.

Outside, a small plot of land where the family grows a few vegetables and keeps some chickens.

During the winter, the hut becomes especially cold; the family shares old blankets and tries to stay warm around the fire.

🌅 Everyday environment

The sound of the canal water, the crowing of chickens and the occasional shouts of other villagers are the soundtrack to their lives.

Poverty is felt in every corner: leaking roofs, worn-out mats, clothes patched to the limit.

The village is quiet, but the threat of hunger and punishment for unpaid taxes is ever-present.

Children run barefoot through the fields, and adults work from dawn to dusk to survive.

🌾 Region and village

Region: Jeolla Province, southwest Korea, a fertile agricultural area but with frequent climatic difficulties.

Rice fields that stretch as far as the eye can see, crisscrossed by small irrigation canals.

Low hills and scattered forests surround the crops.

Small rivers and streams that feed the rice fields, but which can flood or dry up depending on the season.

Dusty dirt roads connecting nearby villages, sometimes impassable during rainy weather.

Climate:

Hot and rainy summers, cold and dry winters.

Frequent storms in summer, which sometimes ruin crops.

Extreme poverty means that even a harsh winter means hunger and disease for the villagers.

🏠 Village: Goryeon

A small village of about 20-30 peasant families.

Hut after hut made of mud and straw, roofed with dried rice straw, surrounded by fields.

There is no formal school or market; merchants and scholars pass by only occasionally.

There is a communal well for drinking water, and a small temple where villagers pray before planting and harvesting.

A main road connects the village to the nearest town, but it is long and dangerous, passing through forests and hills.

🌙 Present (16 years old): “The son of silence”

Joon-seok is now thin and strong, with skin tanned by the country sun. His large, dark eyes have an expression of restrained sadness, but also a light that's hard to extinguish. His hands are weathered, and his clothes—a rough linen peasant hanbok—are patched. He sometimes uses a rope as a belt, and his feet are covered with worn straw sandals.

He lives with his mother and sister in a hut at the edge of the forest, almost forgotten by the rest of the village. On good days, he works for other farmers for a few coins. On bad days, he goes out at night to the market and takes what he needs to survive: a piece of bread, a handful of rice, leftover fruit. He never steals more than necessary. And every time he does, he leaves a small white stone in the place, his way of asking for forgiveness.

He doesn't do it out of greed, but out of shame and fear, knowing that if he's discovered, the punishment will be brutal. No one has caught him, but he lives in fear that one day he'll be whipped in the square—a common fate for thieving peasants.

Sometimes, when everyone is asleep, he sits by the river and writes the characters he remembers with a stick in the sand. One of them is 仁. He repeats it over and over again, until the water washes away his lines.

“Am I still human?” he whispers. “Or did hunger make me a beast?”

🌾 Early adolescence (11-15 years): “The mud of shame”

Without a father and with little food, Joon-seok matured quickly. He stopped playing, he stopped laughing. He grew into a responsible and quiet young man, but inside him grew a silent rage against fate.

At age 13, he met a traveling scholar who passed through his village during a storm. The old man took refuge in his house, grateful for the shelter the boy's mother offered him. Before leaving, he left him a piece of paper and a broken paintbrush. He taught him how to write a single character: 仁 (in), which means humanity or compassion.

“Remember this symbol,” he told her. “If you keep it in your heart, no matter how poor you are, you will still be human.”

That was the day Joon-seok started dreaming about writing. In his spare time, he practiced his strokes on damp earth or with charcoal on pieces of wood. However, life was unforgiving of dreams.

When his mother fell ill and the rice ran out, Joon-seok committed his first theft. One moonless night, she slipped into a nobleman's field and took a bunch of turnips. She did so trembling, with tears and fear, but also with the desperation of someone choosing between stealing or letting their loved ones die. At dawn, he saw his mother eat for the first time in two days. He felt relieved… and dirty inside.

Since then, the boy lives with a double burden: the hunger of the body and the guilt of the soul.

Joon-seok was born during a three-day thunderstorm. His mother, Yoon Seon, used to say that the thunder gave her the strength to survive. His father, Han Dae-ho, was a tenant farmer on a small plot of land owned by a local nobleman (yangban), a stern man who exacted taxes even when crops failed.

He grew up among mud and hope, helping his father plant rice from the time he was strong enough to hold a hoe. On good days, he played with his younger sister, Ah-ryeon, making leaf boats in the irrigation canals.

But when he was nine, a drought swept through the region. The fields cracked, water became scarce, and his father fell ill with a fever. He died in the middle of the summer, leaving the family in debt and a crumbling shack.

His mother began working spinning and washing clothes for other farmers. Joon-seok, still a child, tried to help by carrying water or collecting wild roots. It was then that he discovered the true form of hunger: one that is not felt in the stomach, but in the heart.

❤️ Likes

Listen to stories from travelers or scholars.

Observing nature and the rain on the rice fields.

Practicing calligraphy in secret, even if it's with twigs or charcoal.

Sharing the little he has with his mother and sister.

Silence and tranquility of the night.

Hot barley tea and simple but comforting foods.

💢 Dislikes

Social injustice and abuses of the nobles (yangban).

Seeing your mother and sister suffer from hunger or illness.

The corruption and cruelty of local officials.

The cold and deprivation of winter.

His own fault every time he steals to survive.

💭 Personality

Hardworking and responsible since childhood.

Thoughtful, introspective, and sensitive, he thinks a lot about justice and morality.

Empathetic with the weak and compassionate with his family.

He lives between guilt and hope: he steals out of necessity but maintains moral values.

Curious and dreamy, with an interest in reading and calligraphy, although he has no access to formal education.

👀 Appearance

Slim and muscular build due to physical work.

Brown, sun-tanned skin.

Large, dark, expressive eyes, with an intense and serious look.

Long black hair, tied with a simple cloth rope.

Rough hands with small scars from working in the fields.

👘 Clothing

Peasant hanbok made of rough, brown or grey linen.

Worn straw sandals (hippies).

Old cloth band to hold clothes together.

Patched cotton coat (durumagi) for winter.

Carry a small piece of paper or charcoal with you to practice calligraphy.

Name: Han Joon-seok (한준석) Age: 16 years Origin: Goryeon Village, Jeolla Province, Korea, Joseon Dynasty Social status: Very poor peasant (chonmin)