Two Women Living Together: A Quietly Revolutionary Korean Bestseller
In the heart of South Korea's bustling urban landscape, a quietly revolutionary story has captured the nation's attention. Two Women Living Together, the 2019 bestselling book by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo, offers a compelling account of platonic partnership that challenges traditional notions of family and companionship.
From Twitter Connection to Shared Home
When Sunwoo and Hana first connected on Twitter, they were both in their forties and firmly committed to single life. Both women hailed from Busan, studied in Seoul, and entered the city's famously demanding professional world—Sunwoo as a fashion journalist and Hana as a copywriter. They discovered shared tastes in music and literature, and importantly, both had consciously rejected marriage.
This decision makes particular sense within South Korea's persistently patriarchal culture, where women in dual-income households spend nearly three hours more per day on domestic chores than their male counterparts. Like many South Koreans, they initially embraced solo living, finding independence exhilarating. However, as middle age approached, loneliness began to creep in, and their compact studio apartments started to feel increasingly confining.
The Journey to Cohabitation
The book chronicles their transformative decision to purchase a sunlit house together and establish a life not as romantic partners, but as close friends. Through forty-nine warm, conversational essays, the authors invite readers into their shared world with four feline companions, reflecting on everything from culinary preferences to retirement dreams.
Like any domestic partnership, their arrangement features both quiet joys and significant irritations. Hana embraces minimalism while Sunwoo, described as resembling "a crow that collects shiny things," owns so many clothes that her wardrobe eventually breaks. They debate laundry procedures, New Year traditions, and whether the house requires rigorous tidying before major trips (Hana insists it absolutely must).
Much of their dynamic feels amusingly familiar. After one disagreement, Sunwoo retreats to her room, browsing property applications and fantasizing about departure. Only when she realizes she cannot face the upheaval of moving does she emerge to reconcile. As Sunwoo poignantly observes, they "may be stuck in an endless cycle of disappointment and forgiveness, but we never stop pinning our hopes on each other."
A Radical Proposition Beneath the Warmth
Beneath the book's affectionate surface lies a radical proposition: that their partnership deserves recognition as legitimate family. When Sunwoo requires hospitalization for surgery, Hana becomes her "primary guardian," yet remains ineligible for the free flu vaccine offered to employees' families at Sunwoo's workplace. Their relationship remains invisible on official documentation.
"If only there were an option that connotes greater responsibility and trust than 'friend,'" they lament, suggesting alternatives like "life companion." In South Korea, where same-sex marriage lacks legal recognition, those cohabiting as friends or unmarried partners cannot access equal tax benefits, welfare support, medical emergency authority, or even the right to serve as "chief mourner" at funerals.
In 2025, progressive legislators introduced a bill to secure rights for cohabiting partners and friends, arguing that expanding the definition of "family" could help address plummeting birthrates, widespread loneliness, and care deficits. The conservative government blocked this initiative. However, small advances have emerged, including a recent census change allowing respondents to identify as "cohabiting partners"—a victory for LGBTQ+ groups that still leaves people like Sunwoo and Hana without full recognition.
Global Context and Growing Interest
Interest in platonic partnerships is increasing worldwide as people navigate soaring housing costs and the gradual unravelling of traditional family-centered care systems. In France, cohabiting friends and couples can already enter a Pacte Civil de Solidarité, which provides legal protections. Germany's previous government proposed Verantwortungsgemeinschaft ("responsibility companionship"), allowing up to six unrelated individuals to pledge mutual care, though the new coalition appears unlikely to pursue this policy.
Without legal recognition, narratives like Sunwoo and Hana's become particularly significant. They illuminate the growing number of individuals turning to friends as primary sources of stability, companionship, and care, while demonstrating the diverse ways of constituting family in contemporary society.
Critical Reflections
The book is not without its limitations. Some essays feel somewhat insubstantial, and even dedicated cat enthusiasts might find the extensive pet-focused passages testing. As a portrait of friendship, the work is generous and witty; as an examination of a burgeoning social phenomenon, some readers may desire additional context.
Questions remain about whether South Korea has historical traditions of unmarried, divorced, or widowed women living together for mutual support, similar to practices documented in Britain and Europe over centuries. How do neighbors perceive such arrangements? Do observers automatically assume a same-sex relationship? Are single men making comparable choices, or does this form of cohabitation remain even more taboo for them?
Two Women Living Together by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo, translated by Gene Png, is published by Doubleday. This quietly powerful work makes visible alternative family structures while prompting important conversations about legal recognition and social acceptance in an evolving world.
