Welcome to Room #305 by WANAN tells the story of regular college freshman, Kim Jung Hyun, who ends up boarding with a friend of a friend, Kim Homo... who is also gay. Disliking this immensely, Jung Hyun tries to manage but after a day (and finding out how much Hom knows about him) runs away, only to have Hom find him again - telling him he's only trying to look after Jung Hyun as a favour from their mutual friend, Sung Joong Hyung.
Jung Hyun decides to stay for only a month but continues to have problems with Hom's personality and sexuality, which ends up to be the least of his worries as trouble seems to find him.
This work isn't a Yaoi Genre comic, it was always intended to clear up LGBT stereotypes and help heterosexuals try to understand LGBT people. (Apparently some viewers were confused).
It can be read here
in English and here in its original Korean.
A Korean radio drama was made and can be found here.
Welcome to Room #305 provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Mool Byung's father beat the crap out of him when he came out as a transman; apparently his brother was regularly beaten. The two brothers live together, far from their parents.
- Accidental Misnaming: Yoon Sung. He's either got a really bad memory or (most likely) he just doesn't care. He calls the woman in chapter sixteen (Yang Jooha) by the wrong name, subverting a generally sweet scene. He also can't get Jung Hyun's name right, referring to him as Joong Hyun and then Hyun Joong. Later he and Rose see that girl he once elbowed in the face (paraphrased):
- Yoon Sung: This is Jooha's locker.
Rose: Look, it's Yooha!
Yoon Sung: Hey Jooha!
- Reaches its zenith when he thinks that his class rep's name is actually "class rep" (while simultaneously noting that that's a really odd name).
- All Gays are Promiscuous: One of the stereotypes that gets knocked down in the tenth chapter.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Jung Hyun's younger sister.
- Armoured Closet Gay: Yoona.
- Bad Liar: Jung Hyun, as he's a very honest person, cannot tell a lie and easily slips up.
- The Beard:
- Mina is one to Hom, so Sung Joong would believe he was straight.
- Yoona had beards in high school but her brother disapproved.
- The Blank / The Faceless: Hom's boyfriend, for now.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Jung Hyun.
- Yooha, mainly when Yoon Sung's around: He accidentally elbowed her in the face, he never remembers her name, and when she was wearing an animal costume (she works at an amusement park) he kicked her in the crotch because he thought she was a random creepy eavesdropper.
- Camp Gay: Hom is mildly flamboyant. Double subverted, when Jung Hyun believes he is only acting gay as a joke and, of course, it turns out he was only pretending to be straight as a joke. On the other hand, Hom's friends say that they often forget he is gay and Jung Hyun slowly comes around to thinking on a similar level. He is also pretending to be Camp Straight towards Sung Joong.
- Interestingly, when he goes on dates, Hom wears less flamboyant outfits compared to what he wears in the rest of his day-to-day life. Once Junghyun starts noticing it, it becomes a very quick tell for when Hom is going on a date.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The speech bubbles are outlined with different colors to indicate who is speaking. For example, Junghyun's speech bubbles are outlined green, while Hom's are blue.
- Coming-Out Story: Hom comes out at the very start, but keeps switching about whether or not it's all a big joke. It isn't, but Sung Joong believes it is.
- Crossdresser:
- Jung Hyun asks Hom's female friends outright if they're men or women.
- Then there's Yoon Sung, who was rumored to be one and who Rose saw in a dress. Subverted when it's revealed that he has a twin sister.
- Cute Little Fangs: Yoon Sung sports a pair. As does his sister, Yoona.
- Death Glare: Yoon Sung loves these. His face is permanently glaring.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
- When Yoon Sung accidentally punched a woman, people got very upset and he got kicked out of the pub. When his sister, Yoona, punched and bruised him to the point he didn't want to go out of the house, nobody batted an eyelid.
- Weird case with Nami, who is talking with his "transsexuals anonymous" group after getting severely beaten by their dad. On the one hand, the injuries are hard to look at; on the other Nami has very cartoonish tears and finds it almost amusing that their dad wanted a girl but beat them like a boy.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: People thought Yoon Sung was a cross-dresser; they actually saw his half-identical twin sister.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Rose sees Jung Hyun and Yoona hanging out together casually a lot, and even sees Yoona grab Jung Hyun's ass in public (it was to "get back" at Jung Hyun for accidentally grabbing her breast once during a card game, though really it was more to bug Yoon Sung who got pissed about it.) Then when Rose asks of Yoona and Jung Hyun are dating, Yoona laughs while saying no and says she is just playing around with Jung Hyun. Rose immediately assumes this means Yoona is leading Jung Hyun on to humiliate him, not realizing that they really are just friends and Yoona is a lesbian. In anger she proceeds to abandon Yoona inside a classroom with a broken door.
- Everyone Can See It: Rose and Jung Hyun.
- Flash Forward: The Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) Special jumps about five months ahead.
- Flying Under the Gaydar: Hom's approach to this trope is to switch from Camp Gay to Camp Straight.
- Gay Aesop: Jung Hyun's hypocritical and homophobic behavior hits him pretty hard in chapter 12 when he wonders why Hom is acting strange around him after he pretends to be gay.
- Gayngst:
- Yoona went through a lot of this due to Yoon Sung's rejection of them and they decided to stop being gay/curbing any interest in the same gender. Of course, pretending to do all of this made them feel empty and unable to cope, particularly forcing themself to date people they had no interest in - and constantly worried they would be rejected again. They come to the conclusion that it's better to simply never date again because as scared as Yoona is of dating men, going over to the "lesbian side" is equally as frightening to her.
- Nami, a friend of Yang Jooha's, disappeared when they were in high school and only recently reappeared as a transman. It seems that after Jooha found Nami he wanted to come out at his own pace but circumstances caused their other two friends to find out and now everyone is confused and hurt (though two out of the three seem to be accepting).
- Girl Next Door: Rose, the girl Jung Hyun has a crush on.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot/Guy on Guy Is Hot:
- Discussed when Rose is introduced to Yaoi Genre manhwa by Kyung Ah, who talks about how great the genre is. When Jung Hyun discusses how he caught his sister reading Yaoi Genre manhwa, Yoon Sung comments how it's the same as men enjoying lesbian porn (which Yoon Sung watches) - Jung Hyun comments that both are equally as disgusting as each other.
- Multiple times straight male characters avert this trope, saying that they think lesbians are as gross as gay men. The opposite happens with Rose, who thinks real gay couples are repulsive but likes yaoi.
- Half-Identical Twins: Yoona and Yoon Sung, to the point that some people mistake Yoona as Yoon Sung in drag. Their hair colors are different, as are their genders, so they're clearly fraternal but the family resemblance is extremely strong. They even have Cute Little Fangs on opposite sides of their mouths.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Played for Laughs in chapter forty-three, when Yoona mistakes Jung Hyun as Yoon Sung's boyfriend. He flies off into space.
- Jung Hyun again when he finds his younger sister's Yaoi Genre collection.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: Mool Byhung's abusive father beat him up and kicked him out upon coming out as a trangender man.
- Identical Twin Mistake: A fraternal twin example. Rumors spread about the campus that Yoongsung is a crossdresser. It turns out people were seeing his Half Identical Twin sister Yoona.
- Internal Reveal: Sung Joong learning that Hom really is gay.
- In-Universe Nickname: Homo is called Hom by everybody.
- It's All My Fault: Yang Jooha blames herself for what happened to Nami, her school friend.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yoon Sung is rude, has stated "I don't laugh and I don't have friends", quick to anger, can- or will not remember anyone's name, and has no problem with stealing money from a lost wallet (after Rose yelled at him he reduced it to a "10% finders fee"). He's also deeply ashamed for mistreating his sister when he accidentally learned she was a lesbian and as a result of trying to understand her he's also the only straight person in the cast who learned more about alternative sexualities (these college students don't know what "transgender" means), and has enough sense to prevent Jooha from accidentally outing her long-lost female-to-male transgender friend in a crowded hallway.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Jung Hyun hates keeping Hom's sexuality a secret from Sung Joong.
- Lethal Chef: Hom puts honey in everything.
- Like an Old Married Couple: Yoon Sung and Rose fall into this type of relationship. They often gossip or bicker about things. They started spending so much time together that people started to assume they were dating, even though they weren't.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Jung Hyun and Hom's "astral projecting": real or just a very coincidental pair of dreams?
- Meaningful Name: In the bonus chapter 68.5, Hom explains why his mother called him Homo.
- Mentor in Queerness: Hom tries to be one to Yoona, but it backfires because she'd prefer to be in the closet.
- Mistaken for Gay:
- Jung Hyun presumes all of Hom's friends are gay... he's a slow learner.
- Jung Hyun himself is mistaken for gay by nearly everybody around his campus since they believe he's friends with Yoonsung (who's outspoken about homosexuality in general and openly gay though he was just pretending to be) and his friendship with Hom. In chapter forty-three, Yoon Sung (in a fit of anger) says he's dating Jung Hyun to his sister (who demands he ends the relationship).
- In chapter sixty, Rose shouts that Jung Hyun isn't gay in front of a lot of people who were discussing the rumours that he was. She then finds Jung Hyun in a compromising position and confusing conversation and comes to the conclusion that they are a gay couple. Subverted when it turns out that only Rose and Kyung Ah thought Jung Hyun was gay - as everybody realised he had a crush on Rose from the start.
- Mistaken Identity: Rose initially believes that Yoona is Yoon Sung in drag because they're twins. While she later gets corrected, Yang Jooha doesn't and attempted to rescue "him" from being spotted only for Yoon Sung to walk into the scene.
- Must Make Amends:
- Jung Hyun likes to do this after he makes mistakes (which happens a lot). His whole relationship with Sun Joong is based on the fact that Jung Hyun caused his leg to become useless.
- Yoon Sung, after finding out his sister is a lesbian and ruining their relationship because of it.
- Naked Apron: Hom does this once.
- Naked People Are Funny: Jung Hyun sees a nude Hom while "astral projecting"/lucid dreaming. The next morning Hom is strangely quiet...
- Neat Freak: Jung Hyun becomes one after he begins to live with Hom, who continuously makes a mess. He gets more and more obsessive as the series progresses.
- Odd Couple: Hom, who never wipes his mouth while eating and wears very outlandish clothing, next to Jung Hyun, who is very clean and dresses ordinarily.
- Older Than They Look: Due to the art style, the characters are in college but look like high school students; Yooha's high school flashbacks make her and her friends look like elementary school students.
- Old Friend, New Gender: Happens to Jooha when she meets an old high school friend.
- Pet Homosexual:
- Kyung Ah's goal is to get Yoon Sung and/or Jung Hyun to become her gay best friend(s) and is only friends with them because they're gay, which Rose points out is incredibly shallow.
- After being told by some other girls, Jung Hyun believes that Rose views him this way and the only reason they talked was because she believed he was gay.
- Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation: Out-universe: Most chapters have a group photo of the characters (Yoon Sung, Yoona, Hom, Rose, Jung Hyun, Jooha/Yooha and possibly Hom's boyfriend) from behind and they "turn around" when their characters are revealed.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Jung Hyun starts of very close-minded on all things LGBT. He slowly learns to deal and cope with all of it.
- Queer People Are Funny: Jung Hyun and his friends make jokes about Hom and LGBT people in general.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Yoon Sung delivers a heavy one in chapter fourteen.
- Ship Sinking (for now): Jung Hyun liked Rose until he discovered she likes yaoi; since he associates yaoi with his sister and he dislikes both it knocked Rose off the pedestal she was on for the time being.
- Straight Gay: Yoon Sung. Subverted, he isn't actually gay. Also Yoona.
- Sunglasses at Night: Hom never takes off his sunglasses.
- Symbol Swearing: Common
- The Lad-ette: Yoona.
- Trans Tribulations: Yang Jooha's school friend, Nami, is trans. He underwent all sorts of related issues: he became depressed after his family moved him to an all-girls school, came out to his parents, got beaten, and moved away with his brother, where he's doing fine now.
- Vitriolic Best Buds:
- Sun Joong and Hom in type 1. It doesn't last after Hom comes out to him.
- Jung Hyun and Hom after Jung Hyun moves back in again become type 1 as well33.
- Yoonsung and Rose seem to be heading this way.
- Would Hit a Girl: Yoonsung has no issue with scuffling with Rose or hitting his sister.
- Yaoi Fangirl:
- Kyung Ah (who also draws BL artwork) and Jung Hyun's little sister (much to his dismay when he finds her yaoi collection).
Kyung Ah: [after explaining why yaoi is popular] Actually all those are petty reasons. It's in a girl's nature to SHIP MALE X MALE COUPLES!- Rose, while disgusted by BL at first glance, takes a liking to it quickly - but she says (in chapter sixty) that while she's okay with gay people in fiction, in real life she still finds them weird.
