Eighteen Again: Episode 3

by LollyPip

This episode delves a bit deeper into the past, and gives glimpses of how our hero’s life got to be such a mess. It’s not as bad as it could be, just the regular struggles and disappointments that everyone goes through, but he’s still determined to use his unusual circumstances to change what he can for the better. He particularly focuses on his kids, who have been drifting away from him, determined to get to know them again.

 
EPISODE 3: “A story about rain and you”

In 2000, Da-jung had been walking down the street, listening to music, when she’s almost stepped in front of a car. Dae-young had grabbed her at the last second, dramatically swooping her into his arms. They’d both been affected by the contact, as Dae-young narrates: All men have their first love. At a time that I didn’t know what love was, I had feelings that I didn’t understand, and I did things that I didn’t understand.

Later, they’d been surprised to find themselves in the same class at school. Da-jung was a transfer student, and many of the boys in school had been attracted to her beauty. They’d crowded around the media room whenever she did the school announcements, but it was Dae-young she’d waved to, even though all he could do was blush.

But one rainy day, Dae-young had seen Da-jung surrounded by boys trying to get her to share their umbrella. He’d worked up his courage and called her over to him, and they’d huddled under his school jacket as they’d walked together.

Back in the present, Da-jung finds an old photo of Dae-young and starts to suspect that something about this Woo-young kid isn’t as it seems. She storms to Duk-jin’s house and confronts Dae-young angrily, “You’re… you’re Hong Dae-young… Hong Dae-young’s son, aren’t you!” HAHA, I knew she hadn’t figured it out that fast.

Duk-jin and Dae-young stick to the story that “Woo-young” is Duk-jin’s son, and that his mother looks like Dae-young. Da-jung calls Dae-young, so he scurries outside to answer. Da-jung asks if he’s really Duk-jin’s son. Dae-young says that Woo-young’s mother looks like him, which sounds gross even to him, but hearing it from (she thinks) two independent sources eventually convinces Da-jung that Dae-young is innocent.

He continues on to school, vowing that starting today, he’s going to focus on becoming friends with their twins, Shi-ah and Shi-woo. He spots Shi-ah getting out of a taxi with her friends and gets upset at her tendency to run late, but when he gets to class, he hears Shi-ah chastising her friends for taking money from their fathers and feels proud.

That is, until she tells them her method of pretending to have prophetic dreams and selling them to her father — HA, I had a feeling she was lying! Dae-young delivers a stern lecture to the girls about conning their fathers and using the money to pay for taxis, but when they can finally get a word in edgewise, Eun-jae explains that her father drives a taxi and gives them rides to school. HAHAHA oops.

Shi-ah grumbles under her breath, so Dae-young tells her to talk nicer or people won’t like her. Instead, she just gripes that she can’t stand him, and her friend Young-sun explains that Shi-ah hates anyone who reminds her of her dad. Ouch.

Luckily, Eun-jae likes the new guy and defends him to Shi-ah, saying that he was right that she takes her taxi-driving dad for granted. Young-sun and Bo-bae agree that he had a point about being nicer to their dads, and they decide to work on that in the future, to Shi-ah’s annoyance.

After school, Dae-young and Shi-ah are cleaning the classroom when it starts to rain. Shi-ah sighs that she didn’t bring her umbrella, and Dae-young runs out to buy two umbrellas. He returns as she’s leaving the building and holds one of the umbrellas over Shi-ah’s head, ignoring the fact that he’s getting soaking wet. Shi-ah tries to decline, but Dae-young hisses at her like a total dad and makes her take it.

Next Dae-young goes to Shi-woo’s classroom and leaves the second umbrella on his desk. As he leaves, he grins to himself that he’s the best dad ever. But he notices that all the other dads have come to pick their kids up in their cars, and it makes him feel inadequate again. Awww.

It’s still raining when Da-jung’s friend Ae-rin leaves a coffee shop, on the phone with a client. Dae-young abruptly ducks under her umbrella and startles her, then asks her to walk him to the bus stop with a sheepish grin. When she easily agrees, he remembers another time when he’d run into her and asked to share her umbrella, but she’d shrieked and pushed him away.

He runs off to his bus, shooting Ae-rin a jaunty, “Let’s eat together sometime!” which confuses her. The next day, she asks Da-jung what she thinks it means when a man says that, and Da-jung replies that it sounds like something old men say. Da-jung gets a text, and she screams in the middle of the mall that she got the job at JBC!

On the bus ride home, Da-jung remembers 2014, when she’d applied for the news anchor job at JBC. Even though she’d impressed the recruiters initially, she’d been cut the moment she mentioned having children. Dae-young had been waiting for her at the bus stop with an umbrella, and she’d fibbed that she didn’t get the job because she got nervous. Dae-young had said supportively that it wasn’t her fault, they just didn’t realize how awesome she is.

Meanwhile, Dae-young gets his severance pay so he takes Shi-woo out to eat after school. He invites Shi-woo to play basketball after, but Shi-woo grumbles that he doesn’t want to, so Dae-young asks why he has no confidence.

They run into Da-jung, who apologizes to Dae-young for her accusations the other day. She’s excited to tell her son that she finally got the job, and when they hug and bounce up and down in excitement, Dae-young leaps at them and joins the hug, hee.

Things are not well at JBC, though… DIRECTOR MOON (Ahn Nae-sang) has belatedly learned that their top recruit is a mother, which completely turns him against her. He grabs the file for the youngest recruit and tells HEO WOONG-KI (Jang Hyuk-jin), senior manager of the anchor department, to put her in first place instead.

Shi-ah and her friend Ji-ho are walking together, and Shi-ah admits that she feels bad about the fight with her mother. He advises her to apologize, and she teases that he’s matured from the little kid who used to follow her around. Back then, she’d been brave and daring, and Ji-ho had only joined her antics with a lot of urging.

Today Shi-ah wall-walks like they used to do as kids, and Ji-ho jokes that she’s embarrassing him. Her foot slips and she falls right into his arms. After a long, charged moment, Shi-ah pulls away and continues walking, and Ji-ho sighs heavily.

On Da-jung’s first day, she dresses in a smart suit, though she worries the skirt is too short. She finds an apology note and a gift from Shi-ah on her vanity, and when she asks where Shi-ah got the money, Shi-ah just wishes her a good first day. She asks about her skirt, but Shi-ah says it’s fine and Shi-woo nods.

She steps outside and awww, Dae-young is there, supposedly waiting for Shi-woo. He’s struck by how pretty she looks, but he shakes it off… and tells her her skirt is too short, hee. She goes inside to change, and Dae-young notices that she’s smiling for the first time in a long time.

To make Da-jung’s first day at her new job even better, she learns that the woman she befriended at the audition, IM JA-YOUNG (Go Eun-min), is also one of the four recruits. They get a big round of applause from their new coworkers, and Woong-ki reminds them that there’s a three-month probationary period, after which they’ll be full-time employees.

Director Moon barely hides his contempt for Da-jung when he comes to greet the new recruits. He shoots Woong-ki a glare, reminding him that he’s been ordered to make sure Da-jung quits during her probationary period.

In the break room later, Ja-young and Da-jung agree to be friends and speak comfortably. They invite the youngest recruit, KWON YU-MI (Kim Yoon-hye) to do the same, but Yu-mi says stiffly that it’s not appropriate at work… then trots off when a sunbae calls her over, chirping, “Unni!” I already hate her.

Woong-ki tells the new recruits that they’ll soon start getting cast by different departments, and to think carefully about which shows they choose, because the slightest on-air mistake could mean not getting hired permanently. Yu-mi is cast first due to her tampered first-place ranking, and Ja-young gets an offer soon after. The one male recruit, Ki-tae, is offered a show the next day, but nobody ever approaches Da-jung.

At school, Dae-young witnesses bully Ja-sung purposely body-check Shi-woo and make him drop his books. Shi-woo doesn’t want to do anything about it, hoping that it will stop if he ignores it, but Dae-young tells him that only makes the bullies worse. He finds Ja-sung and challenges him to a fight.

The “fight” turns out to be a two-on-two basketball face-off between Dae-young and Shi-woo, and Ja-sung and one of his lackeys, first team to get ten points is the winner. If Dae-young’s team wins, Ja-sung has to leave Shi-woo alone, and if Ja-sung wins, he gets to punch Dae-young ten times.

Ja-sung and his minion are confident that they’re going to win, since they’re on the school basketball team, and they manage to get the first four points without much difficulty. Dae-young kicks into high gear and easily sinks the ball, bringing the score to 4:2. He follows it with another basket, and now the crowd (and Shi-ah) are openly cheering for him.

He dribbles around Ja-sung, hands the ball off to Shi-woo from behind his back (that was wicked), and Shi-woo makes his shot. Dae-young makes the next basket, and he passes the ball to Shi-woo for the final basket.

As his classmates gather around Shi-woo to congratulate him, Dae-young looks on proudly, “That’s my son.” He stops Ja-sung when he tries to slink away and tells him, “You don’t have to be embarrassed about losing. But you should be embarrassed that you contradicted yourself as a man.”

Afterward, Shi-woo admits that he thought Dae-young intended to fight Ja-sung with his fists, but Dae-young says that violence isn’t the answer to everything. He tells Shi-woo that he should be playing basketball, but Shi-woo just downplays his ability again. Ja-sung’s minion comes over to taunt Shi-woo that he must have learned to play from his failed basketball player dad, and HA, Dae-young kicks him in the shin (Shi-woo: “I thought you said violence isn’t the answer…” pfft).

Dae-young invites Shi-woo to Duk-jin’s place to watch the baseball game on TV, and oh look, remember the cheater who got slapped at the bar? He’s the Wolves’ star pitcher, YE JI-HOON (Wie Ha-joon). The reporter who was supposed to interview Ji-hoon after the game bails, and when Woong-ki calls Director Moon, he’s told to find someone, anyone, to do the interview.

The problem is that it’s late, and the only person left in the building is Da-jung. Woong-ki isn’t keen on giving her a chance to be on camera, but he’s more worried about saving his own skin so he sends her to the stadium. When she arrives, she’s handed the game stats and told to come up with her own script.

While watching the game, Duk-jin accidentally pours Dae-young a beer, and Shi-woo gives Dae-young the stink-eye when he forgets himself and takes a drink. HAHA, Dae-young tries to backpedal that it’s not how it looks, but Shi-woo doesn’t look like he believes him.

While waiting for the interview to start, Ji-hoon sees his teammates filling a bucket with water to pour on him, and he tries to wave them off, but they ignore him. As soon as the interview begins, the teammate creeps over with the water, trips, misses Ji-hoon, and hits Da-jung full-force with the bucket of water, live on the air.

After the initial shock, Da-jung laughs and says it’s a hot day, so getting splashed was refreshing. She segues smoothly into her interview, impressing everyone, including Ji-hoon himself. At the office, Woong-ki looks like he’s actually earned a bit of respect for Da-jung (though he credits himself for saving the interview, ha).

Shi-woo is even inspired by his mother’s bravery to change his mind about playing basketball with Dae-young. Duk-jin silently congratulates his friend… they’re so cute.

Dae-young runs into Ji-hoon again in the parking lot, literally — she backs into him just like she did outside the bar the other night. He compliments her on keeping her cool under pressure, and immediately goes into flirt mode, though Da-jung doesn’t seem to catch the lines he’s tossing her way. He ogles her as she walks away, even as he talks on the phone to his date for the night. Nope, don’t like him, either.

On her way home, Da-jung gets a text from Shi-ah that she’s gone viral. The video of her “water slap” was uploaded online, and the viewer’s comments on Da-jung’s poise and professionalism are overwhelmingly positive.

Da-jung is surprised to see Dae-young at the bus stop, and he takes off his jacket to cover her still-wet shirt. He fusses like an ajusshi at her coworkers letting her go home like this, then starts to say something to Da-jung, but her phone rings so he sends her home.

The call is from Il-kwon, their old classmate who’s still carrying a torch for Da-jung. She turns the corner and sees him there, and he tells her that he saw the interview. He congratulates her, and when she asks what he wanted to tell her, he grins, “I just did.”

The next day, someone posts online that they went to school with Da-jung, and that she got pregnant out of wedlock while still in high school. Suddenly, all those commenters who were praising her before are insulting her online, calling her names and telling her to stay home where she belongs, and even accusing JBC of betraying its viewers.

Word gets out at Serim High School that Shi-woo and Shi-ah’s mother is the reporter at the center of the scandal. Dae-young overhears Ja-sung quipping that Shi-ah will probably end up like her mother, and he decides that it’s time for fighting with his fists. He stalks over to Ja-sung, but someone else throws a punch first — Ji-ho.

Dae-young watches in shock as Ji-ho and Ja-sung fight it out. At first Ji-ho seems to be winning, but Ja-sung flips things on him and knocks him to the ground. He kicks Ji-ho repeatedly, then breaks a broom and prepares to beat Ji-ho with the broken handle. He raises his arm, but Dae-young grabs his wrist and squeezes until Ja-sung’s grip loosens.

Epilogue

A few years after the twins were born, Da-jung calls Dae-young from her customer service job to wake up and take the kids to kindergarten. He dresses them in costumes for the school play, The Tortoise and the Hare, complete with bunny whiskers. When he picks them up after school, they’re both grinning ear to ear… with goatees drawn on their faces in permanent marker. HAHA.

It’s raining, and we see lots of people huddling together under umbrellas as they traverse the sidewalks. Da-jung says in voiceover: On rainy days, people can measure how big their love is. Even when they share umbrellas, everyone holds them at different angles. It’s clearly visible how big their love is. So love and rain come hand in hand.

Dae-young walks his children home, holding the umbrella low over their heads to keep them dry, not even caring that he’s getting soaking wet.

 
COMMENTS

Oh, my heart. If that isn’t a perfect picture of a father sacrificing for his children, I don’t know what is. I love how Dae-young is using his unusual situation to get closer to his children, especially since they really seem to need him right now. They’re both dealing with their own issues, which aren’t all that unusual for teenagers, but when you’re young, everything feels like the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. On top of everything else, their parents are getting divorced, which adds a whole new unwanted layer of drama to their lives. Dae-young was never an uncaring father, in fact he obviously loves them very much, but life was just pulling them all in different directions and they’d become disconnected. Now he has a chance, not only to be present in their lives, but actually help them with their problems, even if they don’t know who he really is.

I loved the use of umbrellas in this episode to symbolize Dae-young’s protection of those he loves, and how it evolved as he got older. When he was young, he had no umbrella, but Da-jung had been contented to snuggle with him under his jacket, which was a good metaphor for their life after having the twins. Da-jung was happy to accept the shelter even though it wasn’t secure, because at least she and Dae-young were in it together. Later, when the kids were a bit older, Dae-young had an umbrella that he used to shield his children from the rain, even though it left him cold and wet — his own comfort was a sacrifice he was happy to make.

Now his situation leaves him without an umbrella yet again, but he’s still doing whatever he can to protect his family. In fact, what we’ve seen of Dae-young in the past shows him to be an above-average husband and father, consistently supportive of Da-jung and present for his children. From the moment he gave up a basketball career for Da-jung and their babies, Dae-young has never wavered in his commitment to his family. But all we’ve seen of the recent past is him fighting with Da-jung in short flashbacks, so I’m very curious to know what exactly went wrong that caused Da-jung to want a divorce.

But this was mostly Da-jung’s episode, and I felt so bad her! She finally gets the job of her dreams, gets the chance to be on the air, goes viral for pulling off a very difficult situation… then everyone turns on her when they find out she has kids. I HATE that Da-jung’s beauty, talent, and enthusiasm for journalism have gone untapped for so long just because she chose to dedicate herself to her family, and now that she’s getting a chance to prove that she can still achieve her dream, everyone was behind her until they learned this one fact about her. It should be admirable that she’s accomplished so much and had a family, not shameful just because she has almost-grown children!

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