YouTube channel ‘Baekga Unni’

Baekga of Koyote visited his childhood home, which is slated for redevelopment, and broke into tears as he remembered his late mother.

On the 12th, the YouTube channel ‘Baekga Unni’ released a video titled My Itaewon, Poor but Happiest.

That day, he went to the Itaewon area of Seoul where he spent his childhood. Confronted with the sight of most buildings standing empty before redevelopment, he said it felt even stranger because everything still remained while redevelopment was coming, adding that if it had all vanished he might simply have accepted it.

He then revisited memories as he looked around the arcade, restaurants, and school he used to frequent. In particular, his alma mater had been demolished and was under remodeling work, so its former appearance could no longer be seen. He said the disappearance of the school felt uncanny and that he could not hide his regret, as he had built many memories there.

YouTube channel ‘Baekga Unni’

After that, he headed to the house where he had lived as a child. Gazing at the steep hill and stairs, he thought of his mother. He recalled attending all six years of elementary school without tardiness, early leave, or absence, explaining that his mother had vowed to ensure perfect attendance and had said she would carry him to school even if his leg were broken. He noted that there are stairs now, but back then everything was a slope, and that was how he kept perfect attendance for six years. He added that coming here brings his mother strongly to mind.

The old house at the end of a narrow alley stood empty and shabby ahead of redevelopment. He confessed that this was the first proper visit since leaving the house, that he had been too afraid of the alley to come, and that he carries trauma from it.

Crouching in the room beneath the low ceiling, he was unable to speak for a while. He began to say that he had dreamed here about becoming an adult someday, then broke down in sobs.

YouTube channel ‘Baekga Unni’

He reflected that his parents would have been in their twenties at the time and had moved into a place like this to raise him and his younger sibling, and that his mother carried him to school. He said he misses his mother very much and that, if she were alive now, he would have shown her this video and reminisced with her.

He went on to say that he does not know how they managed to raise them so well in a place like this, that he misses his mother greatly and is deeply grateful to his father, and that thanks to their hard work here the family was able to move to a better home.

Before leaving, he took another look around the house and snapped photos. Even as he took the pictures, he muttered in disbelief at how they had lived in such a place.

Meanwhile, in May last year, Baekga lost his mother. His mother, Cha Hee-jung, had appeared during her lifetime on programs including MBC ‘Sebakwi’, ‘Human Documentary Saram i Jota’, and SBS ‘Miun Uri Saekki’, becoming known to viewers.