Family by Choice: Episodes 1-2

by starrygazer

Our found family cuteness has arrived! Grab your cuppa and a blanket to enjoy the warmth of the opening episodes of Family by Choice. But after being introduced to our makeshift family, it’s clear how fragile and lost these kids are — and how the two dads are holding things together. It seems some external pressure is coming their way, too, and we’re left wondering if this family will be able to maintain their bond.

 
EPISODES 1-2

To start, we are taken back to 2003. We meet loving dad YOON JUNG-JAE (Choi Won-young) – whom I will be calling Dad Yoon — and his daughter YOON JOO-WON (Jung Chae-yeon). They have a sweet and sincere relationship, and Joo-won’s sunny disposition definitely reflects her father and his attitude towards life. Outside of their apartment, new neighbors are moving in upstairs, and it’s (partly) another branch of our makeshift family in the present: KIM DAE-WOOK (Choi Moo-sung), whom I’ll be calling Dad Kim, his son KIM SAN-HA (Hwang In-yub), and San-ha’s mum.

Dad Yoon introduces himself and makes small talk to his new neighbors. After Dad Yoon makes an innocent remark about how the new neighbors are a family of three, he is subjected to San-ha’s mum being rude and storming off. It turns out that the new neighbors were a family of four until a year prior — their daughter was left alone in San-ha’s care and she died. Sorry, but who leaves an eight-year-old in charge of a younger child with no adults present? (Just saying.) That night Dad Kim and San-ha’s mum have a very loud argument – he dared to remind her that she wanted to move where no one knew them, so she should be reasonable with people/neighbors. There are no surprises when the police show up to the disturbance. It is a little bit of a surprise, though, that Dad Kim is a policeman, and he subsequently manages to get the officers to leave. Poor San-ha hears everything. He is so withdrawn and upset he refuses any kindness from the Yoon family – to start.

It breaks my heart to see San-ha go home to see Dad Kim tidying up (the things his mum broke in her rage). Dad Kim explains to him that his mum isn’t angry, she’s just sad, so they shouldn’t get angry with her. San-ha goes home after school every day and cleans up his mum’s soju bottles and snacks, and feeds himself ramyeon while Dad Kim is at work. There’s no care for San-ha at all from his mum; he’s acting more like a parent than she is.

At one point San-ha overhears Dad Kim and his mum arguing (again) because she blames San-ha for his sister’s death. San-ha’s mum can’t bear that San-ha can eat and smile when mum can’t – wow she is a nasty piece of work. We don’t know what happened exactly, but from my perspective, and what we know so far, the adult is to blame here not the child. So take your guilt elsewhere, sister — which funnily enough she does when she begs Dad Kim to let her go. She leaves with a suitcase and a nasty parting remark for San-ha. (Urghh – good riddance!)

Our third musketeer is KANG HAE-JOON (Bae Hyun-sung) who is brought into town by his mum. She’s been set up on a blind date with Dad Yoon by a local neighborhood ahjumma. Joo-won is not impressed because she doesn’t want a replacement mum (Dad Yoon is a widower), and she does not take kindly to Hae-joon because of this. The two kids are sent outside to play and come across San-ha walking with two bullies behind him. The bullies are talking about San-ha’s sister’s death and how it’s all his fault, and this gets Joo-won’s back up. All the kids end up in a scuffle (even Hae-joon with no prior knowledge of what’s happening – bless him) and the aftermath of this is handled beautifully by Dad Yoon.

Bully’s mother demands an apology for the three kids fighting with her son, but Joo-won loses her temper again and reiterates what the son was saying about San-ha. San-ha tries to leave and Dad Yoon stops him, standing behind him. He demands an apology for Bully’s careless words. When Bully apologizes, the look of sheer adoration for Dad Yoon on Hae-joon’s face doesn’t go unnoticed by his mum. Dad Yoon is pretty cool; I’ve warmed to him already.

On the bus home it is apparent how much Hae-joon’s mum loves him; she seems genuinely thrilled he enjoyed his time on this blind date. The atmosphere suddenly shifts, however, when Hae-joon’s mum receives a phone call. Next thing we know, Neighborhood Ahjumma is telling Dad Yoon she thinks something is off because Hae-joon’s mum has changed her number and cut contact with everyone she knows. Neighborhood Ahjumma points out that this is an extreme action for a blind date that didn’t go very well. Furthermore, Dad Yoon receives a phone call from Hae-joon’s mum asking for money which she will pay back when she sells her hair salon. Weird!

Hae-joon has been left at his aunt’s house while his mum has gone to Seoul to “make money,” assuring him she will come back for him when she can. Now, Hae-joon’s aunt has absolutely no interest in looking after him. So when Dad Yoon goes to check on Hae-joon and to bring him some food, he finds him in a dirty room, eating ramyeon, and left completely alone. Dad Yoon being the good human he is, asks Hae-joon if he wants to come and stay with him. Hae-joon’s little face lights up, and I suspect aunt doesn’t really care, so Hae-joon goes to stay with Dad Yoon. So this is the final piece of our makeshift family: Hae-joon, the positive ball of energy who uses a smile to hide his sadness, joins them. When they arrive at Dad Yoon’s place, Hae-joon tells Dad Yoon that he wishes he was his real dad. Dad Yoon looks touched and tells him he can call him dad while he’s there – this is just adorable.

Skipping forward a decade to 2013, we see how this family tapestry has knitted together. San-ha is still taking on a parenting role when it comes to Joo-won and Hae-joon. He supplies them with snacks, advice, and backs them up when they’re in trouble. Joo-won annoyingly still treats Hae-joon as an outsider, but they bicker like siblings and she leans on him when she needs to. It seems the two boys are always solving Joo-won’s problems for her, and at this point her personality is still reminiscent of the child we met in the beginning. Hae-joon is sweet and so eager to be accepted he plasters on a smile and a positive attitude most of the time, regardless of how he’s feeling. But he reminds me of an innocent puppy with his knack for people pleasing.

The boys are the same age and getting ready to take the college entrance exam, and Joo-won is a first-year at their school. It’s quite comical that Joo-won is dreading how many girls are going to be after her to deliver confession letters to her “brothers” and then get angry with her when they get no response haha. Hae-joon suggests she acts crazy to get the girls off her back which she does, but this backfires on her eventually. It works the first time: when a girl spits at her, Joo-won grabs her hand and drags her through the school acting crazy… only for Joo-won to trip and end up falling into a pond haha. Yep, that will get them to label you crazy.

This “crazy” image does backfire on Joo-won, though, when she ends up in a disagreement with Hae-joon’s ex-girlfriend. There was a misunderstanding where Joo-won thought this girl was San-ha’s girlfriend instead, and long story short, San-ha informs Joo-won of her mistake (and totally throws Hae-joon under the bus to stop Joo-won being mad at him haha.) Anyway, Miss Ex-girlfriend gets into an argument with Joo-won because she hates that Joo-won says the boys are her family. Miss Ex-girlfriend snarls they can’t be family, because they aren’t blood related. This strikes a cord for Joo-won because she keeps trying to get everyone in their “family” to legally change their names, or have a legal adoption, and they won’t do it. Joo-won fights her case to Miss Ex-girlfriend – quite eloquently might I add – leaving the girl seething.

Miss Ex-girlfriend runs after Joo-won and falls, grazing her knee, only to play the victim and say “crazy” Joo-won is bullying her because she doesn’t like her. Hae-joon steps in trying to diffuse the situation, but things start to turn nasty. In the nick of time, San-ha arrives and puts an end to this ridiculous accusation. Miss Ex-girlfriend dumped Hae-joon because she liked San-ha better, but San-ha couldn’t care less. *Claps for San-ha* When he threatens to expose Miss Ex-girlfriend for this, she soon changes her tune. To make it up to Joo-won for not telling her he had a girlfriend (which made Joo-won mad), Hae-joon buys her a cake and she finally lets it go. Drama seems to follow Joo-won wherever she goes. She’s still young, but this was nothing a simple conversation wouldn’t fix.

Our boys are being needled by their past throughout these episodes. San-ha refuses phone calls from his grandmother who calls to brag about how San-ha’s mum has a new life: a rich doctor husband, a new child, and a huge apartment. There’s also more needling for Hae-joon when we find out Hae-joon’s aunt seemingly visits Dad Yoon from time to time. Hae-joon sees his aunt leaving Dad Yoon’s restaurant and walks her to the bus stop, where he offers her cab fare because she’s heavily pregnant. His aunt refuses this as it’s Dad Yoon’s money, not Hae-joon’s, telling Hae-joon he has to pay back Dad Yoon every penny when he can. Hae-joon is reminded by his aunt “not to be a burden” and to “read the room.” Lovely.

Not only does Hae-joon have his aunt being mean to him, but now someone is tailing him. There is a strange man taking pictures of his basketball practice, and Hae-joon chases him out. This man drops his camera and runs off, but when Hae-joon looks, all of the photos are of him. Hae-joon passes the camera to campus security and is told later on that the strange man collected his camera and left his card — he’s a private investigator. This leads us to the final scene where Hae-joon is at a basketball practice when a man in a flashy sports car shows up. The man walks into the basketball court and announces he’s Hae-joon’s father. Boom. What a place to leave off! (Also, do you think he may be the reason Hae-joon’s mum is in hiding? My presumption, but just a thought.)

All in all, it was a strong start to our new show. We know how they have become a family by choice (heh), and they each have a story to share. The characters are warm and likable for the most part, which I need to be able to be fully invested in a show. It will be nice to find out a little bit more about our two Dads’ backstories. And I look forward to seeing our three teenagers mature and grow. I’m not one for teenage angst in dramas, but I’m sure it’s a plot device to set us up for the story to come. So I’m fully on board – for now.

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