How I Lost Everything at 40 | Living Alone in a Tiny Room in Korea 🇰🇷

Fraudulent Jeonse Contract

The narrator hoped to move from a goshiwon into a one-bedroom home and chose a jeonse lease, which requires a large deposit instead of monthly rent. A real-estate agent showed them paperwork claiming to represent an owner who lived abroad. Later, the owner contacted the narrator and said they had agreed to a monthly rental arrangement. The agent had apparently taken the narrator’s jeonse deposit while telling the owner that rent was being paid.

The agent disappeared, and police warned that recovering the money would be unlikely even if he were caught. The narrator says they later saw him in public but felt unable to confront him. The fraud left the narrator bankrupt and cost their parents their savings.

The narrator reflects on how common and difficult to resolve fraud can be in Korea, recalling scams that affected people around them. They mention fake second-hand sales, voice phishing, and jeonse-related schemes, and describe their own case as a double contract. Although they had witnessed other people’s losses, they had not thought it could happen to them.

Chuseok Alone in Seoul

The rest of the video follows the narrator spending Chuseok alone in Seoul. They make songpyeon, traditional holiday rice cakes, and explain that the crescent shape symbolizes room to grow.

With much of the city quiet and many businesses closed as people travel to visit family, the narrator enjoys the calm. They get coffee, visit Myeongdong and a market, and buy food for a holiday meal. They acknowledge feeling lonely at times but find comfort in eating, watching a Korean drama, and reading viewers’ comments.

The narrator says the supportive comments help them feel less alone and expresses gratitude for the encouragement. They also make clear that they do not want viewers to feel obliged to buy them anything.

Presenter

Korebap (the narrator)