Lee Myung-sun was 27 when he withdrew into his room. “I just stared at job applications,” he said. “Convenience stores, cafes, PC rooms, restaurants — I couldn’t bring myself to apply anywhere. I was scared. I kept thinking, ‘People will think I’m pathetic working part-time at this age.’” Until a few years earlier, isolation had seemed a remote problem. His first job was at one of the busiest hotel buffets in Seoul, where he worked more than 80 hours a week starting at 4:30 a.m. Initially dissatisfied with his skills in the kitchen, Lee pushed himself —until his chronically weak right wrist was injured while training in Australia. Despite surgery, his wrist never fully recovered. Rehabilitation felt meaningless, and so began a period of reclusion that stretched to three years. He tried to return to work several times, but each attempt ended after a few months and each failure deepened his anxiety. When he quit his job at a Vietnamese food company, anxiety and paranoia began to overwhelm him to the point that the thought of ending his life crept into his mind. What even