번역되지 않는 말 · Hard to translate
정 jeong
literally “feeling, affection (情)”
the warmth that grows just because you keep showing up
정 is the warmth that builds up between people simply because they keep turning up in each other's lives: the neighbour, the shop owner, even someone you don't much like. It isn't love and it isn't friendship; it is the reason you peel tangerines for someone at a hospital at night. It grows by itself (정이 들다, "jeong sets in"), which is also why it is hard to say no to someone you share it with.
The closest English
“affection”
Affection is a feeling. 정 is also a tie, built from shared time, that keeps you looking out for each other.
“attachment”
Sounds clingy, or like a psychology term. 정 is ordinary, and usually runs both ways.
“warmth”
Warmth is the temperature. 정 is the shared history behind it.
In a sentence
책임감은 해야 해서 하는 일이고, 정은 하고 싶어서 하는 일입니다. 그날 밤 병원 의자에서 귤을 깐 건 의무가 아니었습니다.
Responsibility is what you do because you must; jeong is what you do because you want to. Peeling tangerines on a hospital chair that night was not a duty.
Sori says it
Sori
매일 보면 정이 들어요. 그래서 이사 가는 날이 제일 힘들어요.
See someone day after day and jeong sets in. That's why moving day is the hardest.
Who in your life do you have 정 with, without ever having planned it?
정 is one of the seven word wallpapers for launch-list members.