SKY Castle|Korea University Anam — The K Behind the Ivy

Anam-ro 145 is the middle letter.

SKY is not a metaphor the writers invented. It is the newspaper shorthand for Seoul National, Korea, and Yonsei, the three schools the castle families treated as the only map worth hanging. Korea University's stone and ivy at Anam is the K.

The drama never needs to plant a flag on this lawn. The name does the work. When a child in SKY Castle is told to aim higher, this campus is one of the three rooms that sentence points at. Law, medicine, a name that still opens doors in Seoul. That is what the mothers were purchasing with coordinators and midnight workbooks.

The main campus sits above Anam Station on Line 6. In spring the trees along the walk make the place look kinder than the admissions numbers. Take the photograph at the historic buildings and leave the classrooms alone.

SKY Castle premiered on 23 November 2018. The ivy was older than the series. The panic about who gets under it was not.

Photo: Korea University Anam Campus, Wikimedia Commons.