The episode begins in the “present” day on a light note, as everyone laughs at Hak-chan and Yu-jeong’s wedding ring, which has a giant swastika emblazoned on it. However, the good times don’t continue as it only goes downhill from here.
The six friends are finally at the crossroads of their life, as they each prepare for their future ahead. We see Shi-won packing her belongings to attend university in Seoul, Yun-jae and Jun-hui who are planning to live together while attending Seoul University, Hak-chan preparing to leave for Hawaii and there’s Sung-jae, who scored considerably lower than the rest of his friends.
The animosity between Shi-won and Yun-jae ultimately comes to a head as the six celebrate Shi-won’s birthday as well as their last time together at a karaoke bar. Everything comes out in the open as Yun-jae confesses his feelings for her in its entirety. In a long-winded speech he explains all of his feelings and his previous plan after the national exam to confess to her. Telling her how he feels and how he yielded to his brother, he asks her what he should do. She replies in an evasive mnner by asking him if they could still just remain friends. Heartbroken, he tells her that they can’t be just friends anymore, that he has no intention of seeing her again.
Yu-jeong and Hak-chan’s relationship also comes to a head, as Yu-jeong reveals that the worst part wasn’t the fact that he was leaving for Hawaii, but rather she was the last one to know even though she was his girlfriend. He had been putting it off for so long that everyone else knew.
The night is not over as Shi-won arrives home to see Tae-woong waiting for her, giving her a ring for her birthday. Given the events prior to then, she is understandably not that ecstatic, telling him that she needs to have a talk with him. Ultimately the audience does not get to know what she said.
In the final moments of the episode a few years later from then (roughly five years), we see that Shi-won has become a writer for a Korean television show. Though much isn’t said, it must be that Yun-jae and Shi-won have not met each other in that period of time as the episode ends with her being shocked to see Yun-jae next to her in a café.
There are some interesting questions and themes to explore in this episode and I am excited to read what you guys will write!
- Are in-person confessions (in contrast to online messenger or the like) commonplace within Korean society? Does the guy normally confess?
- How is distance defined within Korean society? For example, would Shi-won’s parents have felt less sad if she had decided to move to a neighbouring region instead of Seoul? With advances in technology and transportation, would it have been an issue today?
- Studying abroad comes with high financial costs, especially during the financial crisis. How should we as the audience understand Hak-chan’s economic and social standing? Does it make sense that he went to school with people who weren’t in the same position?
-Sean An
Hi Sean thanks for your post. As for your second question about how distance is defined within the Korean society, I think that despite the advances in technology and transportation, the distance has not changed. Although, it accessibility to going back to your hometown has become easier, people still tend to not go back unless it is a holiday as it still remains to be a six hour drive or 3 hour ride through the KTX. As for would Si-won’s parents feeling less sad if she went to a neighbouring region instead of Seoul, I doubt that she would have made it to Busan National University (부산대학교) and Kyungpook National University (경북대학교) which are the dominant universities near her location and still prestigious within the Gyeongsang-do Province.
As for your third question, studying abroad does come with high financial costs. It was mentioned briefly that Hak-chan’s father is a general in the military, hence his economic standing is likely to be high. Although, medicine, education, law and business tend to be the more ‘prestigious’ jobs after South Korea developed, it was not the case in the 20th century. As an emerging market, military officials were the more prestigious jobs as they were the ones with more political power. Furthermore, the pay is over 100K CAD, as well as receive extreme benefits including driver, automobile, spending money, house and etc. More can be found here http://smartincome.tistory.com/1099, the article, however, is unfortunately in Korean. However, it summarizes how well off military officials are even today.
Lastly, although Hak-chan’s economic and social standing may be higher than his peers at the school he attended, it was expected that a civil employee’s child go to a public education system. Furthermore, every school has students from all spectrums so I do not think it doesn’t make sense to attend the school he went to.
Hey Sean, thanks for the post!
In my opinion, I tend to agree with you that there was so much to explore in this episode. Addressing your second question, I feel like the idea of ‘distance’ could be subjective due to the technological changes in the past few decades. While many people still agree that having a face-to-face physical interaction is important, the power of the internet has enabled various iterations in the form of voice-calling and video-calling. Through that reasoning, in a time when internet wasn’t as versatile as it today, I do feel that Shi-won’s parents would have felt less sad if they knew their daughter wasn’t as far away from them as Seoul.
I also feel that Edward brings in an important point that sheds light to the students’ perspectives. Being away from home may be hard, especially if the university is in another city. Coupled with the fact that land transportation is cheaper than air, the time consumed becomes long albeit worth it in the end. As a result, we come to a recent phenomena known as “Kangaroo Jo” which describes people that don’t want to get jobs and stay as students for as long as they can; depending on their parents for residence. Furthermore, a recent study shows an uprising of a new breed of “Kangaroo Jo” whereby highly educated people who have jobs and earn money are still staying with their parents, effectively preventing themselves from being financially independent from their families. A survey in 2014 showed that 60% of university graduates in their 20s were classified as “Kangaroos” with 38.7% of them having full time jobs. Interestingly enough, a correlation could be drawn about this statistic and the another that shows a 91% increase in people in their 30s and 40s who are still living with their parents.
Read more about these statistics and the phenomena here:
(KR) http://www.ichannela.com/news/main/news_main.do
(KR) http://news.mk.co.kr/newsRead.php?year=2013&no=1086661
(ENG) http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/living-with-parents-forever/
Since the beginning of the first episode, the show sets up Hak-chan’s character to be cool and (somewhat) well-off. He’s originally from Seoul, but moved to Pusan as a result of his father relocating in the military. According to the Korea Ministry of Government Legislation, those in the military nowadays can earn between 163000W to 216000W, depending on their rank.
Why Hak-chan chose to be at the same school as his current friends isn’t discussed in the show. I would assume that perhaps his family wanted to pay less for secondary school to enroll in a better/more expensive university? Or perhaps the school he attends is already the best in the district, or even Pusan? The audience only knows his father moved because of his occupation, however his job definitely has socioeconomic benefits.
A trip to Hawaii itself costs a lot of money as well, ignoring post-secondary tuition, cost of living, etc. Hak-chan’s family definitely is a part of the middle-class to be able to afford these things. (Here’s a site that puts into perspective the cost of living in Honolulu, Hawaii: https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/honolulu) I can only imagine the tuition cost for a university in Hawaii if it already costs ~$1000 CAD a course for international students at UBC. It’s also interesting that of all places, Hak-chan chose Hawaii. There is a great presence of Korean diaspora in Hawaii, one of the most famous is Syngman Rhee — the first president of South Korea. The first group of Korean immigrants in Hawaii worked as sugar planters in the early 20th century.
http://www.law.go.kr/%EB%B2%95%EB%A0%B9/%EA%B3%B5%EB%AC%B4%EC%9B%90%EB%B3%B4%EC%88%98%EA%B7%9C%EC%A0%95
https://www2.hawaii.edu/~speccoll/p_paauhau.pdf
Your question about Hak-Chan’s economic standing reminded me of Tae-woong who was able to afford a one week cruise trip for Si-Won’s parents. To put things in context, I think we can look at the global economic crisis in 2007-2008 which made the value of Korean won go down. According to a report by the Education of Ministry, the spending on overseas education “fell by 5.8% in the same period from the year before to $2.3 billion, the largest decline since the 1997 IMF” (Fackler 2009). From this, we can assume that the IMF crisis may have been around this number or much more. Either way, it goes to show that many families would have had difficulty sending their kids abroad. In fact, Hak-Chan’s parents may have had to sacrifice a lot to send Hak-Chan abroad but still, his family must have been at least middle class to afford it. This also speaks to Tae-woong and his economic standing as he was able to afford the cruise for 2 people as well as afford a car change for himself during the crisis (his business must be doing really really well!)
Fackler, Martin. “Global Financial Crisis Upends the Plans of Many South Koreans to Study Abroad.” The New York Times. January 09, 2009. Accessed November 02, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/world/asia/10students.html.
I absolutely adore Dong-il’s humor. Every time he enters Si-won’s room to have a sincere conversation, his mind and body are focused on the dimensions of Si-won’s desk. I guess this pertains to any family who has a child moving out; the bliss of finally getting rid of your child yet the sadness of sending him/her away forever. Arnett (2000) proposes the theory of emerging adulthood which categorizes the stage which Si-won is going to go encounter. As Arnett (2000, 469) explains, emerging adulthood is a period of development in which youths, usually from age 18-25, have “left the dependency of childhood and adolescence and have not yet entered the enduring responsibilities that are normative in adulthood.” In Si-won’s case, she is moving out of her home to live alone in Seoul at least for the duration of her undergrad program. Even after graduating, she will most likely be settling in Seoul. This is a common phenomenon in Korea where youths from smaller cities move to Seoul alone to go to university or to find a job. (There are housing issues that arouse with a large population of individuals trying to locate in the heart of Seoul which I will discuss further in a later post.)
Arnett, Jeffrey J., “Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties.” The American Psychologist 55 no. 5: 469-480. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.5.469.
Edward 규훈, great answers. I agree. And good job finding some actual hard facts on the income of generals.
Zifeng, I do think we need to remember that for many Korean parents having children stay with them until they got married was always the expectation, even the most desirable outcome.
Kelly, your answer is for MANDATORY military service, not for generals. (And that sum of money is very low, in case you didn’t realize, with the top amount at around 200 Canadian dollars/month). Students in Korea must enroll in a lottery to be placed in a school within the district they live in, or apply for admission to a private school or specialized school (such as a foreign language school). If Hakchan’s dad moved suddenly during the semester (as I seem to remember, but I could be wrong), then he’d not have a chance at a private school. Further, private schools are MOSTLY considered to be no better than public schools. Mostly, not always. Further, as a public official it probably wouldn’t have looked good to send his son to a private high school, whereas with university every parent would understand that his son went to the best school he was able to gain admission to. US public schools cost much more per credit hour for international students than UBC.
연실, I have no idea why you’re looking at 2007-8 statistics to understand 1997-98. It’s simple– the exchange rate v. the dollar ALMOST halfed in this time period. Trust me, my salary suddenly didn’t go far on my US student loans! If the cruise was foreign, it would have cost TWICE as much as earlier. However, it could have been discounted by desperate travel agencies, too. Regardless Tae-ung did this because he got rich on his start-up. He had the money.
도희, great job. Nice ac. article integrated very well with your comment, too.