WE’RE NOT DIVINE,

biog

born mar 19, 1997 in muju-gun, a touristy mountain town. only child to a newly-wed couple. they married because of the baby, but they really, truly thought that they could learn to love each other. they tried their hardest. for a few years, it was enough. they did everything that they could, everything that they should have. they treated seongmin well, they took him on family trips, they took plenty of pictures, they made him feel loved. and then the reality of it all started to creep up on them—they didn’t really love each other, and boredom was leading to wandering eyes. cheating was leading to fights, fights drew out over days, and family time came to a screeching halt. it was affecting the kid.

there were a million and one ways that they could have handled this, and they picked the worst one. they drove over to seomri-myeon, where seongmin’s dad’s parents lived, and they dropped seongmin off for the summer. just until we get things sorted. it won’t be long. seongmin was 12, and he loved and trusted his parents. he believed it wouldn’t be long.

the eternal chip on his shoulder is that his parents never did come back for him. they visited sometimes (but never together), and every time they did, they brought more of his stuff. you might need this, you never know. it didn’t take him too long to catch on.

even still, he spent a few years in a state of denial; because of this, he didn’t treat seomri like his new home. he was a loud, problematic kid. he wanted attention all the time, and he got it in really annoying ways. he didn’t really care what people thought of him because he kept telling himself that he’d be “going home” soon.

and then he reached the glorious age of 16 :) his attitude took a sharp turn from just being an annoying, lonely kid to being angry at the world. presumably because this is when he fully realized/accepted that his parents were never coming back for him, and that they’d even stopped calling, but who really knows? maybe it was just the teenage hormones.

spent the bulk of his teenage years talking shit, pushing the people who cared about him to their absolute limits, and preaching about how he was owed better things than seomri. he carried this attitude through high school and then trade school (where he began his training in blacksmithing), an apprenticeship at sobaek smiths, and then he fucked off to a bigger, better city to continue training elsewhere. good riddance. was gone from 2022 to 2024.

just fyi, if you’re wondering how he got into blacksmithing—it’s just kind of how life panned out for him. he’s never had any big goals or passions in life, and his grandparents encouraged him to pursue something that would always kind of be needed, so he did. 🤷‍♂️ he doesn’t hate it, it kind of just is what it is.

but i digress. in late 2024, his grandmother got sick. she didn’t ask him to come back, but his grandfather did; and even if he hadn’t, seongmin probably would’ve come back anyway. they had taken the role of his parents when his actual parents had quit, and he figured he owed them this.

so he came back to seomri, and he came back a changed man. aging, the exhausting nature of his work, and a newfound sense of responsibility had softened him. some people may have been apprehensive of him being back at first, but he quickly showed his new attitude. he’s not angry or difficult anymore; he’s dutiful, polite and generous. he works hard and he takes care of the people around him. all of the people around him. he goes out of his way to help people however he can—he’ll help old ladies load their groceries, he’ll pay for someone’s coffee if they can’t find their card, and he’ll stop if he sees a car broken down on the side of the road even if he thinks he probably can’t help. he’s embarrassed of the attitude he had when he was younger and he is always, always trying to make up for it. very much the type of guy to think his worth is determined by how much he can help/offer other people.

but back to 2024. he came back to take care of his grandparents. he didn’t plan on it being long-term, so he didn’t get a job; he had enough in savings to get him by for a few months. but then those few months passed and his grandmother was doing alright, but he realized he’d become afraid of leaving again. afraid that something bad would happen, afraid that he’d get comfortable elsewhere just to be called back again, afraid that his grandparents, now even older than they were before, wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves or the fuckass dog they’d adopted when seongmin was gone (see more below). so he stayed. he got a job at sobaek smiths where he’s a journeyman now 💪 and became a trained farrier as well so he can take care of the local horses when they need shoeing. and it’s a boring, hard life. but he wakes up every day and he does the same shit and it’s mostly fine.

more on his fuckass dog. she’s an ugly thing. the first day he came back to seomri, he saw her on his grandparents’ porch and hoped to GOD that it was just a scraggly stray. alas, she was theirs. their precious dog gongju. (how precious can she really be if her fur is dirty and matted and her nails are overdue for a trim?)

anyway, since the dog was theirs and he loves them, he started to take care of it. he got her groomed + continues to keep up with her appointments to this day, he feeds her the best food he can easily attain, and he tries/tried to train her. she’s dumb as rocks so he doesn’t really try very hard anymore. also refuses to call her gongju, because there is nothing princess-like about her. he calls her kkabi.

so a typical day in his life looks like this: he wakes up with the sunrise (his sunrise is artificial—def has a sunrise alarm clock since living in the woods doesn’t allow for much natural light), he cooks breakfast for himself and his grandparents and kkabi (yes, really, but trust that her breakfast is NOT the same as theirs), and then he fucks off to work where he sweats all day, and then he comes home and he really just wants to shower and eat but the damn dog is on the porch waiting for him so he’s gotta wipe her paws and brush her coat so he can let her inside (yes, really), and then he walks in and his grandmother is waiting at the door basically to ask him what he wants for dinner and for a second he thinks about ending it all. but he talks to her kindly and she cooks while he showers and then the family eats dinner together. they’ll play a few games or watch a show maybe and then the grandparents will go to sleep and seongmin might go to the bar or something where he really wants to interact with people but he’ll end up staring at a wall and nursing the same drink for an hour. rinse, repeat.

as far as his personality goes, he’s kind of boring. was really loud and noticeable when he was younger, now he’s pretty quiet; will engage in a conversation if someone else initiates it, really likes chatty people who can just talk at him and not mind that he doesn’t have a lot to say in response. if you ask him what he likes to do? “oh, not much.” if you ask him what he wants to eat? “oh, i don’t know.” if you ask him how he feels about seomri? “oh, it’s fine.” very neutral on the surface, but also very polite. at his core he is NOT a very good person, but he has a strong grasp on what’s right and wrong and he tries very hard to act right. i think he’s realized that people like him (lower class family, hard labor worker, deadbeat parents) are kind of viewed in… a certain way… and he very much wants to not be that, even if he… is that. his world kind of revolves around other people nowadays—he lets other people talk, he lets other people make the decisions, he does what other people ask/expect him to do. it doesn’t exactly feel unfulfilling because he stays busy enough that he’s not really thinking 🤔 about what he wants. he doesn’t even know what he wants. he’s given up on getting what he wants.

that said, he’s also not super emotionally intelligent and he also doesn’t know himself very well. like he says he doesn’t like to do much but then you see him in the woods on a trail in full hiking gear with his dog and she’s got little boots on too and it’s like……… okay, You Don’t Like Hiking? because he’s obviously put so much money into it. and he's always at the grocery store buying the most expensive fertilizer they have for his garden full of flowers/greenery that he knows too much about but he doesn't think of that as a hobby/interest of his because he got into it so that his grandma could stop being the one to take care of the yard. like he DOES do things, it’s just like pulling teeth to get him to actually remember/share what he does with his time.

fears things he can't control (time/aging/sickness), intensely believes in (and fears) the supernatural, is liked by most animals he meets, watches a lot of movies to live vicariously through the characters, is kind of clumsy and overall bad at most things that aren't manual labor, really likes crazy ass people who are difficult/high energy/nonconforming/wacky in any way really because at least they've got more going on than he does.

kind of lacks a backbone. like i said, his world revolves around other people. he doesn’t want to upset other people, and he’s always trying to make up for his past wrongs (which really weren’t so bad that he needs to be making up for them forever like…) so he won’t rock the boat/stand up for “what he believes in” if he even believes in anything. he supports the local musicians but will probably never be at the show and will damn sure not express this around oldheads. offers hefty discounts on custom orders for whatever metal accessories/instruments stands/etc musicians may need (even jam theory tbh he doesn't care) but this is a word of mouth thing and if you tell his boss or any of his oldhead friends he’ll stop doing it.

also makes various decorative yard stakes/weather vanes/hair pins/etc that you can come take a look at in the small retail area at sobaek smiths :) likes to make pretty things with ugly metal because it makes him feel better about how hard and tiring his job actually is. i imagine a lot of old aunties have his stuff in their yards and i think most old people in the area like him for being a good man who works hard and takes care of his family. and this is partially why he won’t rock the boat because like…….. he put a lot of effort into being seen in a positive light!!!! even if it’s only baby boomers who like him and everyone around his age thinks he’s boring as shit.

plot ideas

friends i guess....... he's kind of fickle because he's pretty much always been convinced that seomri isn't his home. doesn't like to get too attached to people because of this, even though he's 29 now and certainly doesn't seem to be going anywhere. he's a decent friend, though, and if you get close enough to him his personality (yes, he has one) actually starts to come through. he's a huge shit talker.

best.... friend...? someone around his age. would like it if they grew up together basically (keeping in mind he moved to seomri when he was 12) and they've stuck with him through all of his terrible phases. supported him when he left, supported him when he came back. spends most of his free time with them.

a million people who don't really like him because he was a dick to them years ago and just started acting different without ever actually apologizing. people who remember him acting like seomri wasn't good enough for him.

someone whose mom or whatever really likes the yard stakes/plant hangers/etc he makes. they come to the shop a little too often and chat with him politely, he thinks they're coming for him, he makes a comment about it, it's embarrassing for everyone.

any fellow billiards fans??? who's he hustling at the wheat barrel on the rare occasion he's three drinks in...

han seongmin is not a good person.

he’s volunteering only to say that he did; to look his grandmother in the eyes and tell her, honestly, that he’s contributing to the betterment of society, or something like that. it all circles back to feeling a little bit better about himself, for himself. if others benefit from it, it’s only a pleasant consequence.

the good mood he’d shown up in has already mostly worn off. the true nature of this—the obligatory undertone, the unpaid work—has reached the forefront of his mind. he’s all but scowling as he searches for the last can of blue paint. he keeps trying to relax his expression and regain the sense of pleasant amicability he’d felt this morning, but the beads of sweat on his forehead and the lingering displeasure of having been called on his shit by hyein work against him. he’s ready to be done with this.

he finds the paint can he’d been searching for, peels the lid back, and… “oh, goddamit,” he mutters under his breath. he sighs, checks the lid again where it’s clearly labeled blue, and looks at the paint that’s clearly red.

he looks over his shoulder, searching for whoever’s closest. it’s jian.

seongmin likes the sound of crickets chirping.

he's standing on his front porch with jaemi, stomach full from the dinner they'd just had with their grandmothers. it's too dark to see anything much past his yard.

he likes the sound of crickets chirping because, as a young, fearful child, his grandparents had eased his fear of the dark by telling him that if anything bad were out there, the bugs would know. the bugs would fall silent. he still holds on to that belief, however subconsciously. the symphony of bugs puts him at ease.

he takes a long drag of his cigarette, holds, and exhales towards his shoulder, politely trying to keep the smoke away from jaemi. he's sure it reaches her anyway.

the entryway bell rings clearly as seongmin shoulders his way into the pharmacy, a coffee in each hand. he arrives just early enough to hope, senselessly, that suhwan hasn't had time to grab a drink on his way in.

"morning," is his dull greeting, doing little work to hide his own grogginess. the day has only just begun and he's not yet energized enough to look forward to what it might bring. it doesn't help that he's starting the day picking up one of his grandmother's medications, something he's never quite gotten used to.

he approaches the counter with a polite smile, though the attempt dies quickly. he sets one coffee on the counter and nudges it towards suhwan. "picking up for lee younghee, 9/03/49. coffee's for you."

he's been thinking about his grandmother's lorazepam all morning. this month, her doctor's prescribed her a lower dose; not because her need for the medication has changed, but because last month, she'd felt dizzy and weak more often than not. maybe tied to the medication. maybe something else. he's been turning it over in his head all morning, and he's staring a hole in the wall now. he blinks, then looks at suhwan, trying more deliberately this time to smile.

the two cups of lemonade had already beaded with condensation almost as soon as he'd poured them. a weird sensation, considering it's not that hot of a day. the sun hasn't even reached its highest point yet. maybe it's because of his hands, hot and clammy with the nerves of fully facing kim hyein.

he takes the trip slow, relishing in the sweetness of now. just deep enough in the day for people to still appear to be in good moods; seongmin, yet to talk to hyein beyond a quiet 'i'm getting a drink, do you want one?'. how a part of him had hoped she would say no.

he shouldn't avoid her. he doesn't want to avoid her. somehow, he feels like he owes it to her. as slow as he makes the trip, there's only so long such a short distance can stretch. he reaches the side of town hall where the smell of paint and primer is the strongest, and she's there.

"here," he offers, hand extended, half-grimacing against the sun. after she's taken it from him, he wipes the moisture left over on his hand onto his jeans.

honestly, seongmin's had enough of this damn dog.

it's always something. a fake limp, a roll through the mud, senseless barking... maybe he should scold her less, because now? while he's standing here bent over, hands on his knees with her leash clutched in one and gasping for breath? all of those other instances seem pretty minor.

he's reached the part of his search in which he's starting to consider calling in backup. there's only so far she could go, and most people in town know her by her ugly mug. they ought to know she's his and that if she's unattended, it's not intentional. sighing, he stands straight and wipes the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"god, this is such bullshit," he grumbles, slowly resuming walking. much less energized than before; he's accepted that at this point, he should start asking people if they've seen her and, if they haven't, to look out for her. he's almost to the square. he turns a corner, and he sees the damn dog.

"kkabi!" he calls sharply. she turns to look at him, but she is not particularly obedient, or loyal. she doesn't come. she stays where she is, and she looks away from him within seconds, either unaware or completely unbothered by all of the hell that she's put him through this morning. she's sitting at the feet of ahn gayoung, her tail wagging lazily. the sight sickens him.

he approaches in quick strides, and, though kkabi doesn't appear to be trying to go anywhere, he snaps the leash to her collar immediately, lest the chase break out again. only then does he address gayoung. "hi, i'm... i'm sorry, i've been chasing her all morning."

he looks at kkabi and sighs again, out of relief this time.

the clinic smells cold and sterile. it's something that seongmin's long grown used to, with all of the appointments he's accompanied his grandparents to in the past few years. he feels almost like a parent; embarrassed of their needy dependent, tired, still trying anyway.

a few minutes after walking in, he approaches the receptionist as nonchalantly as he possibly can, hoping his grandmother won't question his intentions. he leans in, glancing back to make sure she isn't watching him, and then he quietly asks, "is there any way i can talk to the doctor before he sees younghee? i just want to... explain her situation to him."

the receptionist is understanding, and she sneaks him through the door furthest from his grandmother's seat. she allows him into an exam room and tells him it shouldn't be too long of a wait. he waits. five minutes. ten. longer, now—foot tapping against the tile, nerves starting to creep in, wondering what the hold up is.

the door opens.

seongmin stands immediately, extending his hand for a shake, the other coming up to support his wrist.