A musician who underlines books five days a week and plays drums on his days off.

Thanks Books, a neighborhood bookstore that welcomes people reading books quietly with its yellow lights in a bustling alley in front of Hongik University.
Son Jeong-seung is a bookseller who has been selecting, displaying, and introducing books there for seven years.
I became a bookseller because I loved books, and I was happy to be an adult who could spend a whole week underlining books. But I also often worried that the world of books, the only thing I loved, might abandon me, that I might get sick of it and want to leave first.
It was desperately necessary to distance himself from the things he cherished most and the world he lived in.
So, I wandered around a world that had no connection to books, and then I ended up sitting down in front of the drums.
"Anyway, Drums" is the story of a musician who turns to drums to maintain a suitable distance from the world he loves and cherishes the most, and before he knows it, he finds himself in the center of music. He underlines books five days a week and plays drums on his days off.

On Thursdays, I purposely put a small bag in it so that the stick sticks out.
That's cool.
---From "Morning Drum"

The world of music has expanded greatly once again.
This time it's a huge explosion.
Where I thought there was an end, there was a beginning.
I used to think that liking music meant just listening to it over and over again, but now I'm wondering, 'Can I play this song?'
I turned my ears, which had been focused on the lyrics for a long time, towards the sound of the drums.
If the drums are particularly catchy in a song, I want to listen to them as they are, and if they are laid out gently, I want to listen to them as they are, and the time I spend listening to music has increased significantly.
---From "Life Musician"

When I play the drums, the sound that passes through my body is not just the drums.
There is also a song coming from the speaker placed next to it.
When I play a song and play along to it, I feel like I'm surrounded by the song rather than becoming one with it.
At times like that, imaginary band members appear right before my eyes.
Then my heart starts pounding again.
Because the drums play a pivotal role in leading the instruments in a band, they must lead the beat by at least a piece of paper ahead of the other instruments.
The teacher told me to play it at the front of the beat, as if biting the front of a round note.
Then the other instruments will match their playing speed to the sound of the drums.
---From "Continuous Tremors"

When I first started learning the drums, I thought I'd hit the drums hard while thinking of people I dislike, but I don't have time for that.
I'm busy thinking about how to play the song that's playing right now, stretching my arms here and there and stamping my feet.
The cymbals snap out of the lingering regrets and sorrows, and the bass pedal wakes me up by pounding me, telling me to come to my senses and get into the song.
As the sounds I make disperse, my worries also disperse.
---From "One Song"

After class, as I was putting away my sticks, I noticed that there was a deeper mark on the shoulder area.
These sticks will one day reach the end of their lifespan, but they will always be the first link between the drums and me.
It's a metaphor, but it's true.
Because drums are instruments that are played without direct contact with the body through sticks.
I'm always surprised by that appropriate distance.
I am in the drum without touching the drum through the stick.
I like this contradiction of not touching yet being perfectly connected.
---From "The Wish to Wear Out"

If you search for 'grandma drummer' on YouTube, you'll find videos of grandmothers playing drums from all over the world, of all races and ages, and those videos have taught me a lot.
Even at that age, you can handle a brush so delicately.
You can open the hi-hat so precisely.
I think I can play for another 50 years or so.
Before I met these women, even I doubted myself, wondering if I was stronger than men when playing the drums because I was a woman.
In fact, the construction of the drum itself is suitable for people who are generally classified as male, as they have long limbs, thick hands, and good strength and a good physique.
But all drummers in the world have different physical characteristics, and not all men are big.
They each play the drums in their own unique way.

---From "Female Drummers"

I secretly hoped that I had talents I didn't know I had, and that I would learn much faster than others, but outwardly, I hoped to appear as a humble student with a good sense of self-objectivity about my abilities.
Because I was very embarrassed to find out that my mind was so far ahead of my ability.
There are many good things about learning something as an adult, and it also helps you save face.
Whenever I was given the opportunity to choose a song to learn in class, I would always add, “That’s the song I want to learn, but is it still too difficult for me?”
In fact, it was a song that I wanted to do no matter how difficult or easy it was, but it was like that.
Then the teacher said this.
“When choosing a song, don’t worry about whether it will be easy or difficult. Just think, ‘Will I enjoy doing this?’”

---From "Where the Lights Are On"