“Put this story next to your cup of coffee.”

Author Park Min-ye's essay, "Today I'm Going to Drink Coffee," is an exploratory essay that takes you on a walk, sits, and faces yourself with coffee, set in Yeongdo.
This story, which began through the 2024 Yeongdo Cultural City Citizens' Club Support Project, unfolds through a café in Yeongdo.
At the intersection of coffee, people, space, and time, the author talks about 'memory,' 'value,' and 'connection.'
In the midst of all this, I simply convey the leisure and relaxation that a cup of coffee provides with the word 'comma'.
Why not join the author on his honest and sincere journey, following this story written about himself in a landscape that is both unfamiliar and familiar?

You can also listen to the essay in the voice of reader Jeong Haram through the QR code inserted in the book.
We hope you will read with your eyes and listen with your ears, and join the author's journey more deeply.

"Today I'm Going to Drink Coffee" is the first book in the new exploration essay project "The Place of Gaze" presented by the cultural publishing company Thedahada.
"The Place of Gaze" is a series of exploratory essays that focuses on the records of people who discovered themselves through space. It contains the hope that the reader's gaze will also linger on the same spot where the author's gaze lingered, and that this book will be conveyed to the reader as if sitting in the same seat and sharing a conversation.

Busan, seen through the eyes of a foreigner, was like a crowded bus in the morning, a place where every space and time was packed to the brim.
The colorful buildings that reached all the way to the top of the mountain were completely different from the green mountains I always drew in my sketchbook when I was young.
It's not just the mountains that are different.
Bridges connecting the sea and river, countless tunnels that seem to lead to another world, subway construction sections that seem to never end, maze-like overpasses that are difficult to tell where they lead, and cars entangled in the heat of the moment.
- 15p

Busan is a city so densely packed with man-made structures that seem to reach the sky, making it impossible to find any space to relax in the city center. However, as you climb up past these suffocating structures, the open, unobstructed sea of ​​Busan suddenly opens up and gives you a breath of fresh air.
- 20p

What would everyday life be like from the humble perspective of a small child? Buildings, tightly packed together and reaching to the sky, would be dangling, disorganized, and chaotic, with sagging black power lines, occupying their place as if they were part of the sky.
Also, weren't the only things that were visible were the round wheels of cars passing quickly in front of him?
If you think about it, for a child, the feeling of space—the boundless ocean stretching beyond the open coastal path, the sound of waves crashing against the ocean, and the cool breeze—might have been a moment of expansion that he had never felt before in his entire life.
- 37p

As I turned towards the direction he had guided me, I saw a sculpture in the shape of a 'key', which corresponds to a ship's steering wheel, across the street from the 'Tongyeong Junk Shop'.
As I approached a little closer and examined the shape, I saw that the 'key' and the huge 'anchor' were connected as one entity, supporting each other.
When we think of the shape of a 'ship', the basic body that comes to mind disappears, and only the 'rudder' that controls the direction and the 'anchor' that safely moor the ship are organically connected to each other.
Confused by the ambiguous shape, I quickly find the plaque describing the work and read it.
- 51p

I looked down at the guidebook for 'KkangKkang Art Village' that I was holding in my hand.
‘Kkangkang-i’ and ‘Art Village’.
The planner's intention to preserve the memories of Daepyeong-dong was evident.
The lives of the residents of Daepyeong-dong and the hearts of the participating artists who wanted to preserve them beautifully seemed to shine brightly in the words written in the guidebook.
- 56p

The president's memories and the stories of Daepyeong-dong's glorious past within those memories.
The longing expressed by those who remain is captured in my camera.
Perhaps the reason people are so enthusiastic about this space is because the time of longing left in this space is a new emotion only to them, something that the generations that pursue hipness and quickly consume space do not have.
- 80p

“You don’t have to worry about me.”
This is what my friend, who visited here with me, said as he took a sip of the coffee he ordered and our eyes met.
Her consideration.
It was a language of consideration for 'you and us' who live by listening to the voices of others other than ourselves.
Such consideration, combined with the 'magical' space provided by 'Shinki Forest', became a time to find the leisure, silence, and pause to listen to the voice I had lost within myself.
I hope you can do the same here.
- 151p

The rain began to pound fiercely on the roof of the anonymous diary.
Even though I wasn't getting rained on, or even though I wasn't seeing the rain, I could feel the rain falling from the sky.
The sound of the rain hitting the roof right above my head and the vibrations that resonated inside the anonymous diary born from it were making their presence known to me.
The sound and vibration of my head being tapped made me feel different from usual.
Those special sensations gradually made the tightness in my chest and the stabbing headache disappear.
The anonymous diary was a moment of recovery for me.
- 220p