Some wild thoughts on Baek Saheon’s name and future role in the story (spoilers ahead):
Go Youngeon says his black goat mask is the symbol of a devil.
Kim Soleum calls him an “ideal” Daydream employee because his traits align with their ideology (he’s selfish, does everything for personal gain, climbs over others, etc.).
His surname, Baek (백), matches the first syllable of Baekilmong, 백일몽 (“Daydream Inc.”). The hanja for 백 usually reads as “white” (白).
We all know Daydream Inc. is a pharmaceutical company. Since antiquity, the snake has symbolized pharmacy—coiled around a cup or bowl—and you still see it on storefronts, prescription bags, and professional insignia. There are also “feathered serpents,” which is interesting because, in the Jisan Village arc, Saheon had a feather pinned to his shirt.
Soleum’s test-subject name is 130666, and some fans noticed that if you sum the digits, 1+3+0+6+6+6 = 22 → 2+2 = 4. In Korea and other Asian countries, 4 is considered worse luck than 13 and is associated with death. Soleum’s birthday is also Sept 13th, and 13 → 1+3 = 4!
This is where it gets interesting: in Korean, 4 is 사 (sa), the same syllable in 백사헌 (Baek Saheon). "Sa” is also homophonous with “death.”
Around ch. 220, Soleum stumbles into a bunker of the Church of the Luminous Unknown. Braun oddly comments how there are no goats, sacrifices, or pentagrams (the usual “devil” symbols). Searching for a way out, they discover the bunker is right underneath Jisan Village—right where Saheon's from! The well there also turns out to be a sort of portal between places. Coincidence? I think not!
Saheon is a classic “white/black lotus” or “haraguro” (하라구로) character: nice and polite on the outside, but scheming (sometimes wicked, even) on the inside. Recently, they released official gsgw merch that included the employee orientation notebook with the line that said: “Act as Baekilmong-in, with strict ethics and a sense of social responsibility.” Ironic, isn’t it? Daydream couldn’t be further from ethics and responsibility. But it strangely fits Saheon’s vibe: white and “ethical” on the outside, shady on the inside, being able to easily turn on you at any time.
Saheon also pops up in almost every arc—Manor of the Blind, Mountain Lodge, Tamra, Mermaid’s Tomb (even the current one)!
And a final interesting detail: I saw tweets saying Soleum’s silver ring has a snake pattern. I don’t personally remember this, but in Dark Exploration Records, Soleum’s current ring belonged to an unidentified employee who had been in Segwang High, Tamra, and Segwang City. Could it be Baek Saheon (or his some kind of alternate self)?
I definitely saw more interesting details, but I’ll stop here before this spirals into something huge and I go down the rabbit hole with it, lol. Hope this was fun and gave you some things to think about ☺️
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