Webcomic / Jibi Eopseo

I wish that I could say that there's no better place than home, but home's a place that I have never known ^note  From left to right: Haejoon Goh, Eunyung Baek, and Juwan Park.

There's no place like home, and rightfully so. It's the place you go to relax and unwind, the sanctuary where your true self can breathe, the space you share with your family and loved ones…or sometimes with a couple of ghosts and the asshole who robbed and stabbed you.

…Wait, what?

Jibi Eopseo, also known as No Home/Homeless, is a Dramedy web-hosted manhwa with supernatural elements by Wanan currently ongoing since 2018. It follows the antics of the pair of roommates/frienemies comprised of Haejoon Goh, a stoic loner transfer student with a heart of gold, and Eunyung Baek, a popular first-year with a devilish attitude that contrasts his angelic face (and eventually the friends they make). The two are first acquainted on horrendous terms after an incident that leaves Haejoon robbed of his life savings with a stab wound in his side, and Eunyung with the tent he called home in shambles. To make matters worse, this incident leaves Haejoon in the hospital just long enough to miss the highly-anticipated dormitory application deadline. Greaaat.

Naturally, the two hate each other, seemingly having only one thing in common: a desire to get away from their family homes. This shared desire unites them enough to begrudgingly cohabitate in the only 'dorm' left available for them—an abandoned and run-down house that's infamous for allegedly being haunted. Faced with intruders and obstacles that range from friend to foe and worldly to ghastly, the two must learn to put aside their differences for the sake of protecting what home means to them.

Jibi Eopseo updates weekly on Mondays and can be read on Naver in its original Korean. An animated promotional PV by STUDIO LICO can be seen here, as well as a short voice-acted reading of some scenes here.

Seeing as how toxic living situations and various forms of parental abuse are a prominent ongoing theme, this story may be distressing for some readers.

Wanan's previous story, Welcome to Room #305, similarly features a pair of polar opposite roommates.

---

Jibi Eopseo provides examples of:

• Abuse Discretion Shot: Used various times throughout the story, usually cutting before displaying the receiver with a notable bruise/injury following the incident.
• Abusive Parents: Being a series that deals with the many reasons why a child would want to escape home, a good amount of the main cast has abusive parents, including:
  • Eunyung Baek, who deals with physical abuse, gaslighting, and neglect from both his mother and father.
  • Marie Kim, specifically her physically abusive and dismissive father.
  • Hara Kang, whose mother is controlling and belittling of her true desires.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: This trope is the source of strain in Juwan's relationship with his mother, who time and time again shows little regard for his privacy or the fact that he isn't a child that needs to be doted on anymore.
• Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: His first appearance wasn't entirely this way, but his formal introduction had Haejoon genuinely believing for a second that Eunyung was a timid sweetheart who only got into it with him previously because he was possessed—it wasn't until he accidentally drops Haejoon's stolen wallet that Eunyung once again unveils his true self.
• Battle Discretion Shot: When Eunyung faces off against Dongju's bullies, the actually battle is replaced with a view of a shellshocked Dongju and an impressive repertoire of violent sound effects and colorful language. This combined with the shadowed out stylistic choice serves as build-up to the reveal that Eunyung isn't actually a good fighter.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Haejoon. "Do no harm but take no shit" personified.
• Big Brother Bully: Ever since his father gave him explicit permission to do so, Marie's older brother takes any opportunity to get violent with her in the name of 'keeping her in line'.
  • Revealed to be generational, as Marie's dad treated his sister the same way in their youth.
• Bitch Slap: Eunyung dishes a much-deserved one out to Dongju's bullies.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Soohyun Ohm, Minju's mother. After enduring a hard life courtesy of her aggressive father and over-reliant mother, she swore that she would never let her children have to go through what she did.
• Bully Hunter: Haejoon takes on this role oftentimes due to his strong sense of justice. Notably backfires on him during the Marie Kim arc.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Eunyung does this to his father in Eunyung Baek’s Home, but it’s just about as effective as you’d think it’d be for a physically abusive alcoholic.
• Clear Their Name: Eunyung sets out to do this for Haejoon after the whole school is convinced that he's a violent bully.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Take a shot every time "fucking bitch" or some variant is dropped…if you have a death wish.
• Cool Aunt: Marie's aunt is the most positive adult role model in her life.
• Daddy Didn't Show: The reason why Eunyung is so bitter about his theater days. His father ignoring the handwritten invitation to the show Eunyung starred in was one thing, but his mother showing up only to look him dead in the eyes before leaving wordlessly was a whole new level of hurt.
• Delinquent: Eunyung fits the archetype to a T. Despite being the youngest of the main cast, he is known for running away from home, getting into fights, displaying blatant disregard for the law, and having blonde hair.
• Dysfunction Junction: Everyone in the main cast (and even half the supporting cast) is saddled with their own personal struggles, internal or external.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Hara is popular within the school, specifically with the female demographic. Her fangirls even get possessive at any gesture of Eunyung’s that can even slightly be misinterpreted, including him examining her calloused hands and offering to go with her to the hospital after a fall they both took.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Fair-haired Eunyung is fawned over by fellow students for his looks.
  Juwan: People were going wild trying to get a look at him during orientation. The teachers even had to give out a warning because second and third years were going to see him. The first year building got too crowded.
  Haejoon: …Isn't it just because of his hairstyle?
• Fangirl: Eunyung has gathered quite a few of these.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: Hara's passion for judo is frequently belittled and discouraged by her mother, despite her being the one to push Hara towards it in the first place.
• Gold Digger: Eunyung makes a (probably) unserious quip about wanting to use his looks to seduce a rich girl and become a stay-at-home husband.
• Greek Chorus: Eunyung's friend group in the earlier chapters fearfully provide useful exposition.
  Friend 1: Oh shit..!! Haejoon insulted his tent, which Eunyung hates more than anything…!
  Friend 2: Somebody make Haejoon shut up..!
  Friend 3: Wait, why are we commentating this??
• The Heart: Juwan acts as this to Haejoon and Eunyung (or attempts to, anyway).
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Haejoon during the Marie Kim arc, after being framed as a violent bully in the school newspaper due to an overblown misunderstanding on Marie's part. Well, the violent part was true, but he was in fact saving a kid from getting bullied.
• Hidden Eyes: Characters often appear this way throughout the story to indicate when they are not to be messed with.
• Housewife: Juwan's mom. Deconstructed, since it's because of this lifestyle that's equally stressful as it is lonely that she's the way she is.
• Instant Web Hit: The video of Eunyung performing in his school's play of Cinderella as a child quickly goes viral, at least within the school.
• In Vino Veritas: When Haejoon snaps at Eunyung for his self-endangering drunken behavior, instead of arguing back like he usually would, he simply comments on how nice Haejoon is and how he must’ve been easy to raise with an admiring look in his eyes.
• I See Dead People: A unique ability Haejoon has. Naturally, it causes him a fair amount of stress.
• Like a Son to Me: Juwan's mother and Haejoon have this relationship—unsurprisingly so, seeing as how the former is a lonely stay-at-home mom and the latter is a momma's boy without the mom
• Loser Son of Loser Mom: Growing up, Haejoon was ostracized and bullied for being the son of a woman who was believed to be crazy due to her extreme superstitiousness. Eunyung later hits him where it hurts when he implies that Haejoon must be just as crazy as his mother was.
• Kimodameshi: The Test of Courage mini-arc.
• Kissing Under the Influence: A drunken Eunyung attempts to do this to both his unnamed friend and Juwan, leaving a hungover Eunyung horrified to learn that the latter attempt was successful.
• Maiden Aunt: Marie's aunt.
• Manipulative Bastard: Eunyung Baek. His acting skills and frightening ability to say exactly what will either set someone off or drop them to their knees make up for what he lacks in physical fighting skill.
• Mirror Character: The two most popular kids in school, Eunyung and Hara, are this to each other. They both pursued a craft that they were extremely talented in and passionate about, garnered fame because of it, and ended up wanting to give up after suffering crushing disapprovals courtesy of their parents. The key difference between them is that while Hara had Juwan to cheer her on and eventually motivate her to keep pursuing what she loves today, Eunyung had no one and grew up with nothing but bitterness towards the craft he once loved.
• Missing Mom: Haejoon's, following her untimely demise, and Marie's, following her parents' divorce.
• Mistaken for Gay: Juwan on multiple occasions. This is usually courtesy of his great admiration towards Haejoon, but Minju believed it even since they were children. His repeated eagerness to have his roommates sleep with him doesn’t really help things much, either.
  Juwan: He's only innocent when he's with me. If you look carefully…he's…really an assertive and cool person…
  Hara: Are you sure you're not in love with Haejoon?
• Momma's Boy: Despite his frustrations with her superstitious attitude, Haejoon loved his mom dearly. Further emphasized when he can't help but project that love onto Juwan's similarly sweet but hard-to-get-through-to mother.
• Old School Building: The dorm that the main trio stays in fits this description. Naturally, the Test of Courage arc takes place here.
• Parental Abandonment: Haejoon's mom recently passed away, and his father has never been seen or mentioned.
• Parting-Words Regret: The last words Haejoon said to his mother before her abrupt death were "I'm sick of living with you".
• Platonic Life-Partners: Hara and Juwan, who have been joined at the hip ever since Juwan successfully motivated Hara to not give up on Judo entirely. In fact, part of the reason Juwan decided to attend Hansol High and encourage Hara to join him was because of its Judo program. Needless to say, the two care for each other deeply and are often mistakenly believed to be dating by others.
• Plucky Girl: Hara Kang, who faces life with a blinding smile despite having every reason to do the opposite.
• Puppy Love: Deconstructed with the relationship between Juwan and Minju in 5th grade. Minju was desperate to go at a faster rate than Juwan was comfortable with, eventually ending with her dumping him. Naturally, this caused awkwardness for them today.
• Pushover Parents: Minju's mother Soohyun qualifies—the unfortunate side effect of her determination to give her daughter a loving and safe home life was Minju becoming a Spoiled Brat.
• Red Herring: When faced with Eunyung acting entirely innocent after the whole rob-and-stab debacle, Haejoon remembers what his mom once told him about people who get possessed and end up doing violent things entirely unlike them…but it didn't take long for him to realize that Eunyung was in fact 0% possessed and 100% a Manipulative Bastard.
• Red Is Violent: Characters are often displayed on a simplistic red background to indicate a state of rage or imminent ass-kicking. The particularly aggressive Eunyung is often associated with this color as well.
• The Runaway: Most of the main characters fit this trope for different reasons.
• Secret Diary: Juwan writes in one of these and is extremely touchy about his mom going through his room for this reason.
• Sibling Rivalry: Marie and her older brother, although it crosses from inevitable hostility to flat-out abuse on many occasions.
• Sick Episode: The arc Sick Day features a sickly Haejoon, while the arc Eunyung Baek's Home features a sickly Eunyung.
• Slasher Smile: Downplayed example when a little Hara displays this after finally being able to throw the superior who'd been teasing her in Judo.
• Sleep Cute: Haejoon and Juwan get a lot of this during their fleeting bed-sharing days.
• Tragically Misguided Favor: Marie sees her aunt ratting out her brother's abuse to her father as this—based off experience, it'll only result in more violence.
• Trauma Button: Haejoon just can't catch a break from this trope—you'd be surprised just how easily traffic accident related trauma can be triggered.
  • First happens after Eunyung gets pissed off at Haejoon nagging him to wear a helmet while riding on his friend’s motorbike, seemingly just to piss him off. Almost immediately after exclaiming that ‘no one would die from this’ and speeding off, the two get into a small accident right in front of Haejoon’s eyes. Cue a Heroic BSoD.
  • Happens again, starting subtly when Haejoon sees how heartbroken Juwan's mother is after he tells her off, but the sting really comes when she exasperatedly questions his sudden fixation on her getting home safely.
    Juwan's Mother: Did someone die in a car accident or something?!
    (Beat)
    Juwan's Mother: Oh…what have I…
  • Eunyung’s back at it again when his drunken attempt to call over a taxi almost gets him hit by a car right in front of Haejoon for the second time. This time, Haejoon aggressively scolds Eunyung for his repeated lack of care for his own life.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The peculiar sort of relationship that Haejoon and Eunyung share as time goes on.

---

Good night, good night, good night...