Twenty Five Twenty One: Episodes 13-14

by mistyisles

Brace yourselves and grab some tissues – the tears are about to hit full-force. But, in true Twenty Five Twenty One fashion, it’s not quite for the reason you might expect, and it comes in a poignant mix of joy and sorrow.

EPISODES 13-14 WEECAP

As we’ve come to expect, this week runs the gamut from cute, funny friend hijinks to heartrending growing pains, starting off just after Hee-do kisses Yi-jin at the stroke of midnight. Yi-jin… doesn’t really respond. Instead, he changes the subject and awkwardly offers to walk her home.

Heartbroken, Hee-do keeps quiet until they reach her house. But she can’t bear to leave it at that – after all, he was the one who said he loved her first. In a roundabout way, Yi-jin explains that the way he loves her is more of a wanting-to-take-care-of-her thing instead of a romantic thing.

However, Yi-jin seems to be trying to convince himself of this as much as he is trying to convince her. Even ignoring their age gap, he’s continually reminded that having too close of a friendship – let alone anything else – with an athlete he’s assigned to report on is a bad idea to say the least.

So, he pushes her away as much as he can. But he can’t help watching from a distance and grinning proudly when she handles a fencing loss (and her opponent’s taunting) with true sportsmanship, or getting all jealous when she calls another fencer “oppa.”

One night while drunk, he calls Hee-do and cries that he’s wavering even though he knows he shouldn’t. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), he’s actually called Ji-woong, who greatly enjoys teasing him about it the next day.

Meanwhile, Hee-do tries to move on with her life. She and Yoo-rim compete in their final tournament as highschoolers, finishing with a moving team victory despite individual losses. But no matter how Hee-do and Yi-jin try to avoid each other, they’re too accustomed to spending time together to resist each other’s gravitational pull.

And eventually, after ignoring her sad puppy eyes and earnest pleas one too many times, Yi-jin can’t take it anymore. Throwing caution and better judgment to the wind, he comes rushing back outside and kisses her, ready to love her fully and openly, come what may.

But right on the heels of this oh-so-satisfying payoff, Yi-jin’s fear comes true. Just as Coach Yang and Hee-do’s mom warned, he has to deliver a news report that directly hurts someone he cares about. Except, the person he turns public opinion against isn’t Hee-do. It’s Yoo-rim.

Yoo-rim’s father hits another vehicle with his truck, severely injuring the other driver. With no money for a settlement, there’s a good chance he could be sent to prison. The salary Yoo-rim’s set to receive from the Korean national fencing team won’t be enough, either, so she accepts an offer to join Russia’s national team instead, which covers her living costs on top of a better salary.

But that means renouncing her Korean nationality in exchange for Russian citizenship. And that makes her a traitor in the eyes of the public. Especially since it’s obvious she did it for the money.

Yi-jin, the first reporter to learn of her decision, is the first to break the news on air, setting off a storm of outrage against Yoo-rim. It kills him to do it, but he can’t justify showing partiality by not doing it, either. Yoo-rim seems resigned, but Hee-do is appalled.

There’s a powerful scene toward the end of the episode that I think beautifully illustrates Yi-jin and Hee-do’s differing responses: Yi-jin passes by graffiti condemning Yoo-rim as a traitor and, having held his emotions in check all this time, crumbles to the ground, sobbing. Hee-do, on the other hand, shows up with cleaning supplies.

In fact, while Episode 13 was all about Yi-jin and Hee-do’s relationship, Episode 14 focused more on Hee-do and Yoo-rim’s friendship. And I didn’t quite expect it, but I think this episode tipped the balance and made me even more invested in their friendship than I am in the romance.

Hee-do is one of the first people Yoo-rim goes to when she makes her decision, and Hee-do never once doubts her. Rather, she worries for Yoo-rim, knowing exactly what it feels like to have the media shine unfavorably upon her.

She also saves Yoo-rim from a flock of reporters who ambush her at practice. After marching past the reporters like a pro, Hee-do helps Yoo-rim devise a plan to divert attention so they can slip away. Then, when a restaurant owner refuses to serve Yoo-rim, Yoo-rim surprises Hee-do by firmly but calmly standing up for herself – something she says Hee-do taught her.

All this leads up to the inevitable painful goodbyes as Yoo-rim prepares to leave for Russia. And to make things worse, we’re given an ominous glimpse at a future match between Hee-do and Yoo-rim – cold, distant, and tense, with both girls tearing up and avoiding eye contact.

Another arc that plays out this week is Yoo-rim and Ji-woong’s relationship. Not wanting to burden Ji-woong with her problems, Yoo-rim tells him not to wait for her. Ji-woong, however, has no intention of giving her up, and is prepared to work any number of part-time jobs to save up enough to visit her in Russia.

It takes him a while to work up the courage to tell her, but he eventually seizes his very last chance. In a big, dramatic hero moment, he conquers his fear of driving and gets to the airport just in time to grab her in a hug, tell her everything, and give her a goodbye-for-now kiss.

Both the Yi-jin/Hee-do and Yoo-rim/Ji-woong confrontations brought out a point that a lot of drama couples take multiple episodes to realize: pushing someone away “for their own good” is selfish. It robs them of the chance to have an equal say in the decision, and it doesn’t protect them from being hurt – it only hurts them sooner, while removing part of their support system. As Hee-do told Ji-woong, sometimes “selfishly” being honest about your feelings for someone is the most considerate thing you can do.

And finally, we get one small clue about present-day Yi-jin’s whereabouts. The good news: as of 2009, Yi-jin is alive and well. (Knocking on ALL the wood!) Frustrated that Hee-do’s diaries end after Yi-jin kisses her, Min-chae googles their names. No scandals come up, but she does find a 2009 interview between anchor (!) Yi-jin and champion fencer Hee-do, in which they tearily but subtly wish each other well, clearly not having spoken in some time… and Yi-jin congratulates her on her recent marriage.

At this point, I’m expecting a La La Land sort of resolution, where the two find happiness separately while forever treasuring the time they spent together. There was something Yoo-rim said when Hee-do remarked that nothing lasts forever, which I expect will be our big takeaway: what matters is remembering and cherishing that it did happen, and it was beautiful while you had it.

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Twenty Five Twenty One: Episodes 13-14