Ko Haejoon has no home. His mother, who was his only family, passed away due to a traffic accident, and now he has no home to go back to. Baek Eunyung also has no home. He erased his home from his memories and his heart because he was brutally abused by his parents since early childhood. Haejoon wants a home with a family but lost his home, while Eunyung is looking for another one because he can’t go back to his family home. The fateful day the two first met, they fought so ferociously that Haejoon almost lost his life. While Haejoon no longer has a family, he has been loved by his mother and has a place he can call home. But Eunyung has a family with a physical home, but he would have been better off without them. A person who dreams of seeing his family one more time, and another who fears that his family might pop up in his dreams both attend Hansol High School and live in the old school dormitory together. No Home. Just like the title of this webtoon series by Wanan, they have no home, but in completely different ways. 

 “Every time, I'm trying my best to understand... But seeing how I just look like a weirdo to you... I don’t think talking will get us anywhere.” It’s now Chuseok in the second year of High School, and the two have been fighting and making up repeatedly. Haejoon finally admits to Eunyung that it is impossible for them to understand one another. “Wouldn’t it be totally awesome if I could keep earning this much?” This is what Eunyung thought when he used to steal to make a living. He was a compulsive liar, and didn’t hesitate to assort to violence and theft. Haejoon who prepares for the future by keeping up with his studies and getting good grades despite not having anyone to take care of him has no way of understanding Eunyung. But Haejoon also knew the feeling of not being able to connect with someone. “... You’ve never been to a restaurant, have you? This is what Park Juwan said when Haejoon cut a whole lemon in half and put it in Juwan’s water when he asked for some lemon in his water. Juwan who has the full support from his parents couldn’t imagine that a classmate of his has never eaten out at a nice restaurant before. Not long after Juwan met Haejoon and Eunyung, he tells Haejoon, “I’ve never seen guys like that in person before” after learning that Eunyung was a runaway. In that moment, the background disappears, and Juwan and Haejoon are portrayed far away from one another. Haejoon has difficulty understanding Eunyung, but he is also struggling financially and is unable to relate to the teenagers who are not under the protection of adults. But to Juwan, Eunyung is a type of person he has heard of but never met in person.

In the title image of episode 186 of No Home “Ancestral Rites and the Uncle (1)” Haejoon, Eunyung, and Juwan are pictured walking together, but only as silhouettes. They are filled with different images. Juwan is filled with a rocket, video game player, hamburger, schoolbook, and other icons that describe who he is. Haejoon is filled with water droplets that are reminiscent of sweat. As a kid who is trying to get good grades to go to a decent college while living off welfare, he is unable to have anything else in his life. Eunyung is filled with an unidentifiable red pattern. He hasn’t found anything he likes like Juwan has, nor does he have a dream like Haejoon does. Three students go to the same school and are walking together. But who they are inside are so completely and utterly different that it is virtually impossible for them to understand one another. 

But in the title image of “Ancestral Rites and the Uncle (1)” a couple water droplets like those in Haejoon can be seen in Eunyung, too. He began to make breakfast for Haejoon after he gave up living in the new dorm for him. He even tries to pay back for repairing Haejoon’s cellphone after he broke it from trying to help Eunyung. A boy who only looked out for himself learned to give things in return and say sorry when he is in the wrong. Haejoon can’t understand Eunyung. But he brought about change in him. No Home from Eunyung’s perspective is about people who can’t really understand him befriending him and changing him. The past of Ko Haejoon and Park Juwan, as well as new characters Kim Mari, Kang Hara, and Kong Minju are revealed in the first episode that they appear in. But Eunyung’s past is slowly revealed after a year and five months after the series started, from the episode entitled “Kang Hara and Baek Eunyung (1)” There was one teacher who was kind to him. The teacher looked back on their teenage years when they struggled and empathized with Eunyung. But when Eunyung couldn’t live up to their expectations, they turn away from him saying, “How is it that you don’t improve?” The teacher looked at Eunyung, and judged him through their past-tinted glasses, showed him kindness then took it away. By not revealing Eunyung’s past for a long time, the readers might not empathize with him hastily, like the teacher did. Instead, they will view him as he is in the present - a runaway, a liar, a thief, and a violent person. Juwan’s opinion of Eunyung as someone who is “that type” is an opinion that a student who never experienced what Eunyung has can have. But Juwan relays the deep thoughts of Eunyung and Haejoon to one another, as he tries to mediate their argument. He was also the one who kept encouraging Kang Hara not to give up on her dreams. Hara wanted to become a judo player. It is difficult to understand someone else. But once you spend some time with them, then they aren’t just “that type” anymore. Once you befriend them, you can grow closer to them and influence them.

However, Eunyung changes, but in a way, never does. When Haejoon was falsely accused of being a bully, Eunyung helped him on his own terms: with violence and lies. Eunyung learned to help others, but in ways he is familiar with. Here, Eunyung’s past becomes important. Eunyung helping Haejoon is a change that occurred now through other people. But how he chooses to help is difficult to change because of how his inner self has formed from the past up to the present. Haejoon, who has experienced his mother’s love and trust, knows how to trust other people. He is happy for Eunyung when he finally earns money by getting a part-time job even after he lied to him multiple times and has sticky fingers. But Eunyung lied to Haejoon, even in that moment. “So what if I’m a liar? Do you think we would have gotten along so well if I wasn’t?” Eunyung has trouble believing that a person can trust him. He has had to quickly sense what his parents were feeling, and act accordingly to avoid violence from his parents, more specifically his father. One wrong move, and he would be reprimanded. All the while he struggled to please his parents, his childhood was filled with memories that he never wants to relive because they make him feel stupid and useless. And he began to think that he wasn’t worth anybody’s trust. “Not everyone with parents like mine become people like me. I was always like this. I was a bit different. I even scare myself.” The reason why Eunyung doesn’t want to join the drama club even if he was incredibly talented isn’t only because it led to his parents’ violence. He used his acting skills to please his father. He was forced to do what he loved the most in the most demeaning situations. Eunyung learned self-hate instead of love from his parents.

This is why school is important. To Eunyung, the world was divided into two worlds - home and one outside the home - before he started to live in the school dormitory. “It was so difficult out there that I had to go back home, but home was so difficult that I had to go back out there. Once a child who isn’t protected by his parents leaves home, a world that won’t protect him awaits. The shelter for runaways is full. Even if he gets a job, there is no telling how much of his earnings he would actually get. He could very well die from getting swept up in someone else’s fight. But if he goes back home, his parents’ violence makes him hate himself. Haejoon and Eunyung both being illustrated as tall people who has a knack for fighting might be hyper-realistic. When the social system fails to protect its teenagers, physical power becomes a valuable asset for survival. Staying in school no matter what is the only way to break free from this mechanism, which pushes Korea’s teens to run away and throws them in a pit of physical, mental distress. Hansol High School is a typical Korean high school that prioritizes grades and pushes its students into competition - so much so that the students are assigned to the new and old dorms according to their grades. Here, some teachers are largely ignorant of bullying or any difficulties that the students may experience. But despite all of these issues, the school protects Eunyung from both his home and the outside world. Both Eunyung’s parents and juvenile delinquents aren’t allowed in without the school’s permission. There is a sort of symbolism in the way the old dormitory at Hansol High School serves as a home to both Haejoon and Eunyung while it is a school dorm to the rest of the students. To students who have nowhere else to go, the dorm is their home. It is also a social place, where they coexist with students who live different lives to theirs. Eunyung left his home and the world, which have been equivalent to his teenage apocalypse, and was finally able to free himself from a life that was all about survival after starting his life in school. He cooks for himself, cleans his home, and meets friends. He gets a job that is protected by law and earns a living. When he buys groceries that he wants from the money he made, he thinks, “I never knew I could live this way.” Eunyung has started to live this way, somewhere safe where he can want things as a member of society.

In No Home episodes with Haejoon in the title start with “Ko Haejoon” and end with “Ko Haejoon’s Home.” Haejoon, who lost his home when he lost his parents, gets accepted to a good university and wraps up his preparations for going out into the world. He no longer has his mother, but it is his way of finding a home for himself. At the end of the series, he meets his mother in his dreams and pours his heart out. Episodes that are titled after Eunyung begin with “Baek Eunyung” and end with “Baek Eunyung 2”: Baek Eunyung’s second story, or perhaps a second Baek Eunyung. Even after Haejoon decides what college to go to, Eunyung, who is in a lower grade, stays in the old dorm. He hasn’t found his home where he can live without his parents, both mentally and physically. But he is “Baek Eunyung 2” who is different from his past self. After spending almost two years in the old dorm with Haejoon, Eunyung talks to him knowing that he can’t hear him. “I want you to go to a better place.” 

Even when the two fought non-stop, Eunyung never disliked Haejoon, because he believed that he had nowhere to go just like himself. Everyone who were better off - or at least had parents who looked for their children always went back home, leaving Eunyung behind. He hoped that Haejoon was just like him, because he didn’t want to be lonely, and couldn’t dream of anything more. You might understand his logic even if you can’t empathize with him, once you learn of his past. But the second Eunyung grows and hopes that Haejoon ends up somewhere better. He no longer wants other people to be just like him. Just like Haejoon and the other classmates at Hansol High School, he accepts that he and other people are different. This begins from no longer denying his existence. “So, I don’t hate myself.” Eunyung’s past is not a tool for understanding how current-day Eunyung came to be. Kong Minju’s mother Eom Suhyun has a scar on her face. It is never revealed how she got her scar. But there are hints that her teenage years have been rough because of her family. To Eom Suhyun who has grown to be a kind adult, her past is like her scar. It left a mark somewhere. But she lives on. Suhyun’s life draws a parallel to Eunyung’s. Eunyung’s past was dominated by his parents. But he is building his present with his friends. 

From the episode entitled “Baek Eunyung” and all subsequent episodes in which Park Juwan, Kim Mari, Kang Hara, and Kong Minju make their first appearances, the title image of them block out everything that hints at their outer appearance, leaving only their silhouettes. As the plot progresses, more details are added to the picture to reveal who the silhouette belongs to, the situation they are in, and their spatial background. This is how No Home portrays the link between the individual and the world. Wanan precisely identifies and separates the character’s physical and mental circumstances. They draw quite a lot of details when the characters walk in the street or speak with other people. But when they are lost in thought the background is wiped out, and their mental state is dramatically expressed. When Eunyung breaks Haejoon’s phone and runs away after Haejoon helped him, she looks at an ad leaflet with that says “Have a bountiful Chuseok” with sad eyes. In this scene, every element of the background has faded away, even down to the character’s mouth. The physical and mental space is visually divided and contrasted, which makes the metal space larger and much more complicated than any physical space can ever be. A person is small in a physical place.  But the mental state that has to accept what the world has done to them is incomprehensibly large and deep. 

All issues that the students in No Home face stem from their families, especially their parents. Perhaps it’s inevitable. Eunyung defines home as “a place where no one can interfere no matter what happens” to him. Home is a closed space, and therefore, children who lack power are the weak by any definition. Eunyung who has grown larger and taller is no longer assaulted by his father, but Mari who is smaller and weaker is still hit by her older brother. Ma-ri says that the scar on her forehead that she got from being hit by her brother when she was young is hardly visible because “it’s in the past” to which Eunyung replies, “It’s totally visible.” The closed space is the whole world to a child, and violence from family leaves a physical, mental scar, affecting the child for the rest of their life. The reason why Mari wanted to live in the dorm, and why she wanted so much to be dedicated to her newspaper club as the leader all stems from her family issues. Some seemingly insignificant family matter causes immense problems for someone. But the world doesn’t see these problems, nor does it try to understand them, especially when it comes to a teenager. A teacher is prejudiced against Eunyung just because he has long hair. Haejoon is taken for the school bully when he in fact tried to help the one who was bullied, but while his classmates believe him, they think he is a thief. Haejoon and Eunyung are disadvantaged just because they have no home to go back to. They endure precariously on the boundary between rough school life, and even rougher outside world. Haejoon who has the mental support of his mother tries to survive in school by studying hard. Eunyung who has nobody to rely on uses his good looks to grow close to people, mistrust them, retaliates with all his might when attacked, and struggles not to get pushed out of school.

After Haejoon’s mother passes away, his uncle who he has never seen in his life, and his father who left him when he was little seeks him out. Haejoon who gives people chances tries his best to accept them. But Eunyung assumes that they might have ulterior motives. In the end, each of their choices were right one time, but wrong another. Regardless of an individual’s values, there is no telling what will happen to them. All we know is that their choices have been shaped by their way of life, which is formed by their family, school, and society. But just like Haejoon and Eunyung, teenagers tend to be influenced by their friends’ way of life and can change their views of the world. Personal issues - like way of life, school grades, down to a small scar on the forehead - that stem from family affects the community, which in turn affects the individual’s life. No Home portrays the influence family, school and society has on an individual through the personal histories of six teenagers. It then reaches into the deepest thoughts of the characters who have been greatly affected by it all, to explore ways to solve these fundamental issues. This is why it was so important to show how Eunyung became “Baek Eunyung” who changed to “Baek Eunyung 2.” No Home is a ubiquitous story of Korean teenagers being constantly hurt by what goes on in school and at home told through the story of a boy who is trying to survive on the border between home and school, which the society wiped away. Baek Eunyung exists. Not everyone can understand him, though, but he exists. No Home engraved his existence in everyone’s eyes.

No Home reaches the religious sphere by tenaciously analyzing Korean society today. Unlike the other five main characters, Haejoon has no title image that represents him in the episode that he first appears in. It may just be that the direction of his title image hasn’t been decided at the being of the series. His title image comes later. But considering Haejoon’s role in the series, this might be a happy coincidence. In a story that deals with the relationship between a person’s inner self and the outside world, Haejoon sees ghosts who are a part of neither worlds. He lived in fear throughout his childhood because of this and was bullied by the other neighborhood children. The ghosts could symbolize the various issues that the main characters face in No Home. No matter how hard Haejoon tries to run away from them, they never let go of him, and at times even lead him astray. Haejoon learns to accept the ghosts after he finds a way to deal with his longing for his mother, and his regrets. But if the readers were to believe that Haejoon sees ghosts just as it is portrayed in the series, then he becomes a special person who is stuck in limbo between individual and the world, and mental and physical state. 

Haejoon is badly injured three times over the entire series. A glass shard pierces his stomach in the chaos of fighting with Eunyung, he is hit in the head with a glass bottle after getting sucked into Eunyung’s issues and gets hit in the head yet again when he tries to stop Eunyung from attacking his abusive father. Haejoon could have died on all three occasions. He is knocked unconscious in the last. Only after Haejoon almost dies three times because of Eunyung, does Eunyung finally learn to overcome his inner pain and head towards the future. It can be said that it was all brought on by Haejoon’s way of life, because he trusts people. But if Haejoon must be seen as a special person, then he is a saint who delivered Eunyung. Haejoon forgives and trusts Eunyung even if he lies repeatedly. Eunyung’s change is like a shepherd saving a lost lamb. Eunyung finally found his way after Haejoon sacrificed himself three times. Haejoon is a teen who has nowhere to go just like Eunyung. He doesn’t know difficult it is “out there” and doesn’t have enough to share what he has with others. He also stole things from the neighborhood store when he was little, just like Eunyung, and took on the role of the “crazy kid” until middle school to protect himself. In short, he has the makings of a saint. He was born where we were born and experienced the same things that we experienced, yet he became a more noble soul. While Eunyung was led down a better path with the help of another person, Haejoon healed himself by leading others towards better things. There is no reason not to call Haejoon a saint - he lost his mother, sees ghosts, and tries to make a future for himself even if people lie to him. Now he is poised to go to a good university. He will most likely save many more people wherever he ends up. In one sense, No Home is about Eunyung learning to build relationships with the students at Hansol High School, starting with Haejoon, and accepting who he is along the way. But in another, more religious sense, it is about a miracle that the teenage saint Haejoon performed to save Eunyung.

After Eunyung ran away from home, he met other teens who were in the same situation as him. Most of them were not included in the social system like schools, and as a consequence, their existence has been wiped away. Out of all the runaways, only Eunyung went to Hansol High School, let people know of his existence, met friends like Haejoon, found classmates who wanted him in the school drama club, and met a teacher, who all helped him bring about change in himself. If just one of these people were not there for Eunyung, or if Haejoon happened to die because of what happened with Eunyung, Eunyung’s life would have been significantly different. In an ideal world, the welfare system, and values of the society as a whole would have protected Eunyung, both physically and mentally. But, in reality, we must fill what we lack in social systems with kind people we meet serendipitously along the way. One boy running away from home is the result of familial and social issues combined. The whole world must act in order to save this boy. If this isn’t a miracle, then what is? Eunyung tells Haejoon who is about to leave the old dorm, “Have a good day.” All the people and social systems came together to wish the two boys a good day. This might be the opening line to the prayer for all teenagers living in Korea today. Have a good day, everyone. Lying in bed, looking forward to tomorrow.