Sensibilities of an Everyday Person: On the Small Miracles That Brought Me Here

Author Kim Eana · Publisher Iyagijangsu · Published 2026-06-24 · ISBN 9791194184638

About the Book

Author Kim Eana observes such people for a long time.
They are not special heroes. They are people who wake up at a set time every day and go to work, people who take care of their families, people who are parents, children, and colleagues to others. They are people who do what needs to be done even while crying, and live through the day even when wounded.

Author Kim Eana speaks to them.
She says, "Perhaps that's what being an adult is like." "Someone who fulfills their responsibilities even when grappling with emotions too difficult to manage." Someone who doesn't wait to be perfectly alright to move forward, but takes a step forward in their not-so-alright state to get their daily life and existence back on track and embrace it.
Author Kim Eana's new book, "The Sensibility of an Everydayist," is a record for all of us.
“Every moment of every season, when looking back at a past season after moving on to another, it feels poignant. Everything that has passed eventually becomes poignant, but how poignant will today, which once felt only burdensome, be when we look back at it someday? I hope we don't forget that we are in that very moment right now.
Sometimes I think about this. One day, far in the future, when I'm old, if I were given the chance to return to just one day in the past. What if the day I recall, wishing to go back to a specific moment, is actually this moment I'm living in right now, and that's why I'm here? After that thought, today suddenly feels so radiant and
everything trivial around me feels like a blessing.
Whenever today is exhausting and these days are difficult, I think that perhaps this very moment is a time that my future self desperately yearns for and is experiencing once more.
I am so tired and exhausted, but for some reason, for some harmony and outcome that I cannot even guess at now,
my future self yearns desperately for this moment.”
_From "My Future Self Desperately Yearns for This Moment"

Someone who looks deeply at the lingering traces of emotions
An eternal fan club of the small and ordinary
Unfolding the fleeting and eternal moments of daily life and existence into a song
About the sensibility of lyricist Kim Eana

In this book, author Kim Eana doesn't offer solutions. Instead, she sits beside the reader as someone who also grapples with the same concerns. She candidly shares experiences of enduring terribly difficult nights, moments when she was halted by great loss, and times she lingered long before a gaping hole in her heart, saying,
'I felt that way too.' 'But I was able to get up and walk again because of very small and trivial things.'
Many self-help books talk about how to change your life. However, author Kim Eana looks in the opposite direction. The most difficult thing is not to change your life, but to return to your daily routine. She says that the most difficult thing is not a grand transformation, but leading a broken heart back to ordinary daily life.
That's why surprisingly trivial things appear in this book, carrying great resonance.
A walk. A hobby. Fandom. Favorite music. Repeated routines. Familiar shops. Old memories. An aging cat.
While these things might seem insignificant to some, Kim Eana says that the power that keeps us from giving up on life lies within such trivial things.
And she asks readers: What is it that makes you live again?

“This book is for those who need stories that offer intermittent salvation in their daily lives,
rather than stories of great leaps or turning points in life.
I hope this book, even if it can't fill a big hole in someone's heart,
can mend the small, unpleasantly gaping cracks.”

About living, that ordinary beauty
Kim Eana's heart that portrays trivial things poignantly

From the usefulness of hobbies and fandom that make life sparkle, to the small yet miraculous moments in everyday life that made her subtly smile, to the tiny, secretive escapades she's recently been indulging in, she who cherishes daily life and routine as if her life depended on it—author Kim Eana unfolds in this book the lights of everyday life she's collected as a member of the fan club of the small and ordinary.
Readers can also glimpse the days and past landscapes of 'Kim Eana the office worker' who, before becoming a full-time lyricist, worked as an ordinary office worker and experienced anxiety and self-reproach in her social life. Perhaps it's because those very times, when she used to blame herself, allowed her to sense and cherish the beauty of daily life and ordinary people. She shines a spotlight not only on lives lived in the realm of genius and talent, or lives lived boldly and without hesitation, but also on 'life's model students' who quietly build up time by fulfilling their roles day by day.

No visible results means something is being continued and the status quo is being maintained. But how much effort and time does that also require?
Maintaining my present.
Sustaining it with all my might.
Not having collapsed yet.
Days that aren't particularly prominent, don't fall off track, and proceed smoothly are proof that we are living diligently. Maintaining the status quo, which produces similar results to before, is also proof that we are fiercely working and enduring right now.

Recalling the anxiety of my twenties during my office life, I feel like I was trapped in a tunnel without even realizing it was anxiety. I was stuck in the dark, unable to even recognize it as a tunnel, thinking, 'I need to get out.' Looking back now, it was clearly a tunnel, and I would have automatically exited it over time, but I didn't know. I just kept repeating, 'Oh, I'm in darkness now.'
_From "Days with No Visible Achievements"

The book also includes illustrations by artist Jung Bitna, who has long drawn small bus stops in her neighborhood. These are not flamboyant landscapes or grand events. They are everyday scenes of alleys and bus stops that people pass by daily, imbued with the changing seasons. This naturally aligns with Kim Eana's prose, which looks deeply at trivial things. As readers turn the pages, they will experience a brightening of heart, as if they have slowly strolled through a sparsely populated neighborhood and returned.

If "Ordinary Words" offered language to understand emotions, Kim Eana's new work offers a small courage to live again. One step rather than a grand change. Ordinary life rather than dazzling success. Triviality rather than uniqueness.
Author Kim Eana quietly suggests that these small and ordinary things might ultimately be the power that saves us.

Table of Contents

Part 1: There's an ordinary life I want to return to, just one step ahead

Just One Moment of Courage · 12
Thoughts Can Never Redeem Thoughts · 16
When My Universe Is Fading Away · 20
Sparkling Different Stars · 22
My Corals · 28
Unfinished Life · 32
Someone Who Knows Me From Those Days · 35
The Veteran's Attitude · 37
When My Current Position Feels Heavy · 40
Respect · 46
Faces That Don't Match · 48
What Needs To Be Done First · 49
Outburst · 50
My Own Seriousness · 51
It's Okay Not To Shine Sometimes · 58
To My Bosses · 59
My Rumors Are Circulating at Work · 64
On Days of Excessive Gossip · 66
Betrayal · 68
I Rarely Make Promises · 70
Not Fond of Traveling · 72
To Those Anxious Without Plans · 75
My Death · 82
My Future Self Desperately Yearns for This Moment · 84

Part 2: Crying While Working at Night

Crying While Working at Night · 90
Days With No Visible Achievements · 92
Island · 96
Two Nights · 100
To My Cat · 104
Goodbye, My Bongsam · 108
Life's Ridge · 114
In Situations That Drive Me to the Edge · 116
Talent That Overcomes Everything · 117
Practicing to Escape Perfectionism · 119
Fluctuations in Emotion · 124
Emotional Labeling · 130
Universe of Words · 132
Self-Production Capability of Happiness · 137
Everyday Heroes · 142
Hole · 146
About Melancholy and Anxiety · 148
Insomnia · 151

Part 3: Specifically Taking Care of Myself

A Grumpy Day · 154
Late-Stage Slave Syndrome · 157
You'll Die If You Do That · 162
Three-Day Resolution · 166
Magic Words · 168
People Who Grow While Settling · 170
Familiar Taste Is Scary, But · 172
Fiddling With Hobbies · 175
The Usefulness of Fandom · 177
Praise: Others' Opinions · 184
Between Overestimation and Underestimation · 186
We Are Actually Walking on One Leg · 190
Anxiety Is Not a Bad Guy · 192
KakaoTalk Birthday Notifications · 196
Solitude, Time Stopped Briefly · 198
Awkward Front Yard · 202
Endangered Hypocrisy · 204
Pale Blue Dot · 206
Stepping Off the Revolving Stage · 209

Part 4: Warm Escape

Memories, The Best Arrangement · 216
Music, A Small Note · 221
There's Music That Remembers Me Better Than I Do · 228
Utopia · 230
Reconciliation · 232
The End of First Love · 234
If You Give Without Reservation, The Tree Rots · 239
Is There a Way to Meet Good People · 241
A Pleasant BGM for My Crushing Heart · 246
Trend-Opposing Frog · 249
“Just Go With It” Is Difficult · 251
Feelings Have No Power · 254
A Life of Tenderly Caring for Oneself · 256
If It's a Little Weird, It's Cute · 258
The Birth of Taste · 260
Taste, Pain, Happiness · 263
Fantasia Records · 265
Another Story from Fantasia Records · 269
Warm Escape · 271
That Makes Me Sad · 276
You, the Introvert with the "Always On" Syndrome · 278
First Loneliness · 280
Let's Talk More Tomorrow · 284
Our Ending Is · 290