In case you missed it, the first “issue” of Monthly Magazine Home is out – and it has quite a unique appeal!
Not only did it feature beautiful houses, but it also highlighted beautiful stories on its opening week. Jung So Min and Kim Ji Seok show us the importance of having a place called ‘home’. Along with that, the reality that it is not an easy goal.
Monthly Magazine Home threads on the story of a man who likes buying houses and a woman who prefers renting a house. The story takes on the topic “owning or renting”, which is a nagging concern for people living in Korea and anywhere in the world.
Opening Week Rating: 
aith_clouds_of_gold_and_blue watches Monthly Magazine Home on iQiyi.
Monthly Magazine Home Opening Week story
“Because I had home, I could find refuge from a hard day.”
The story begins with Na Young-won kicked out of her rented house. She lost her job so she could not pay the rent. Now she has to leave her place. Then, she meets Ja-seung a real estate property owner. She thought he was a considerate man but he isn’t which leads to their chaotic first meeting.
She finally got a very small place to stay and now all she needs is a job. Her senior, Eui-Ju offers her a job as a Magazine Editor. Her 10 years of working experience helps her get the job. However, she found out that Ja-sung is the CEO of the Company.
Despite this, she worked hard but he’s not impressed with her performance as a newbie editor since she doesn’t have enough knowledge about real estate. He even nicknamed her Na Zero-won. Thus, she felt frustrated on her first day.
During their company’s get-together, Young-won got drunk and exceeded Ja-Sung’s ‘30,000 KRW’ rule. He drives her to her place but an accident happens when she got home. Luckily, he follows her and saves her from the trespasser. Scared and nowhere to go, he offers her to rent a safer and better apartment. Young won then realized that he was not an inconsiderate man like her first impression of him.
“If you want to save money, learn how much you spend and stop wasting it.”
Since Young Won is now a tenant of Ja-Seung she must learn how to properly budget her money. So she could buy herself a house. She watches videos of how to save money from Ja-sung’s YouTube channel. She takes that advice seriously and even suggests Shin Gyeom, an award-winning Photographer that now works for their company to also save his money while he was still young.
“A house is a place where you can grab a beam in a dark corner and cry.”
She achieves her goal of saving. But all goes down when she has to pay for the red ginseng to Editor Sang-soon. He wants to win a housing subscription. So he does a lot of things to get it but fails it every time. Editor Eui-ju tells him to not forced Young-won to pay for the ginseng since she is struggling in her daily life.
Another problem happens when an expensive chair got burned. They have featured the expensive chair. She saves her junior assistant from falling and getting injured that’s why the chair got burned. Ja-sung was furious about the news and deducted five million to Young-won. She felt devastated because she saves all her money for a new house, but it all goes to waste because of an accident.
Ja-Sung learns the truth from Shin-gyeom. He realized that she doesn’t want the assistant to get fired from her job. So she owns up to the mistake and faces the consequence. He understands it and analyzes the whole thing. In the end, he told her not to compensate for the chair since it was an accident during working hours and the company should pay for the damages.
Monthly Magazine Home Opening week Musing
This drama is suitable for everyone who wanted to own a house. A house is something necessary for everyone. It is also an investment to make. This drama teaches us to save and choose from owning a house or renting a house. It analyzes fully both perspectives.
People can relate to this topic since some of us prefer owning a house while some are comfortable enough to rent. Another thing to point out is every pretty house they feature. It helps viewers to know more about the interior and exterior of houses. Information that can be incorporated into our abode.
The whole point of the story is very clear and relatable but some things in this drama are cliche. Like the characters of Ja-sung and Young-won. The male lead is cold and strict while the female lead was pictured as a resilient problem-magnet.
Still, no matter how cliche their characters are, they still brought smiles to the table. Like how their backstory is similar and how fast their characters develop.
Interestingly, the stories of supporting characters are also unique and new. Like Editor Sang Soon’s life and how he struggles to own a house for his future family and Shin-gyeom who is content to live simply even though he comes from a rich family.
We can’t wait for the next episode since there are some hints for possible conflicts. So far the opening week successfully welcomed us to an engaging story.
Watch Monthly Magazine Home on iQiyi every Wednesday and Thursday
Photos: JTBC
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