was a romantic, decontaminated area full of those who had passions to ‘do’ something, no matter others said that the area was changing, becoming too hedonic. The first billiard hall, a bistro visiting after the morning soccer club, and the pub that used to be a regular spot for my vacation during military service all transformed into trendy cafes or clothing shops. Retrospective landscapes of my past have disappeared, only disparateness and unknowns were left behind in Hongdae.

I used to walk the long way around to get back home instead of shortcut since it was such a noisy and messy street. When the small, chilled streets were intervened by more visitors and wanderers, my landlord raised the rent fee, and I blamed them for my misplacement instead of the landlord. Perhaps it was a bit irritating to lose the homey area, witnessing that the place is changing into somewhere I had to ‘visit’, paying transportation fees.

好 Ho Whore might not be about the massive discourse of transition of the culture of the certain place, gentrification, or contemplation of time and history - it might be a personal complaint, anger or languish towards the unchangeable situation.

Halloween day in Hongdae is the ultimate example of my personal sentiment and the current scenery of Hongdae. That boisterous culture is still awkward, that new strangers are still unfamiliar for me.

As the newcomers’ romance brought the locals’ sleepless nights in those days,, perhaps I might have to accept their new romanticism. Hongdae will remain as someone’s playground nevertheless those called as ‘First generation of Hongdae’, the intimate landscapes, or the sound of guitar-playing are gone.

But if this transformation is ugly, then we need to consider about it carefully. There is a proverb in Korea; ‘It is a monk who has to leave if he doesn’t like his temple’. I can’t say this is not wrong - but telling the monk to leave and just observe the transformation might be just too cruel. The changing temple and the leaving monk are severed as the lattice of the safari car and I wander around Hongdae, just as the safari car on that day , recalling the time when we were sharing the same landscape.