As our heroine contemplates her feelings, our former child actor encounters a setback threatening to overturn his whole life.
Timing has never been kind to our leads. Just as one gets closer, the other is forced to drift away.
My Youth Episodes 5 and 6 Highlights
“You will use the “needing time to think” as an excuse to ghost me.”
On the way back to Seoul, the mood is typically awkward. Je-yeon is embarrassed, telling Hae to give her time to think and not contact her for a while. But he is more expressive of his feelings, suggesting they date. After all, they can’t return to how things were before. Je-yeon takes off without giving Hae an answer. But seeing how she tosses and turns in her sleep, can’t take her mind off Hae, and asks Tae-rin for romantic advice, it is only a matter of time before she gives in to her feelings, or so we think.
As a child, Hae was diagnosed with a chronic illness. Even now, he gets regular checkups to ensure nothing is wrong with him. This time, though, after getting his blood drawn, Hae receives a call that he needs to get more tests done, as there was something irregular in his blood.
Anxious, he reaches out to Je-yeon, and they watch a movie together. It is here that we learn Hae and Je-yeon met as children, though he has no memory of it at all. Instead of speech lessons, Je-yeon’s mother enrolled her in an acting academy, as it would be more fun. Meeting Hae, Je-yeon developed a little crush on him and bought him flowers (which explains her fast-burn interest in him during high school). But he just tossed them away, making her sad.
In the present, Hae apologizes for hurting Je-yeon’s feelings in the past. During that time, he was in and out of the hospital, so he wasn’t in the right headspace to accept her feelings. Asserting that he joined the documentary to see her more often, Hae asks Je-yeon out. Yet, she turns him down, arguing they should pretend nothing happened and go back to the way things were. Playing cool, Hae accepts the rejection gracefully and then whines at home.
“As I get older, I find that trusting people takes less energy than doubting them.”
In what is turning into a happenstance in the drama, Je-yeon reluctantly approaches Hae one more time because of work. Her company is working on the third part of a movie. But the license for the original story rights has expired, and they need to sign a new contract with the writer, none other than Hae.
Luckily for Je-yeon, Hae agrees to her request. The initial plan was to send his agent, but on the day of the meeting, Hae showed up for himself. Unfortunately, it happens just as a nasty guy is having fun gossiping about Hae’s past, unaware Hae is there overhearing everything. When Je-yeon stands up to the guy, he grabs her by the collar. So, Hae jumps to her rescue, takes the guy on, and corrects the fake gossip.
Instead of thanking her for taking his side, Hae tells Je-yeon to ignore it if someone badmouths him again, getting her offended. The truth is Hae feels bad that Je-yeon had to go through this because of him. But his words hurt her feelings. Is she supposed to stand by and do nothing when people gossip about him? She knew how hard he worked. So, she hates watching him get humiliated.
When Pil-do arrives, the mood turns sour, and Hae takes off without signing the contract to spite her. Je-yeon follows after him to see him off and reschedule. Yet she falls over after bumping into a cart. So Hae goes back to check on her and waits until she is done. Hae realizes his mistake, and Je-yeon assures him that there must be people out there who are glad about his comeback. Not everyone will be like that guy. He just has to keep living like that, correcting fake gossip and saving her if she gets into trouble while defending him.
“Can you talk a bit longer?”
Meanwhile, Tae-rin faces some work-related problems. Her contract is about to expire, yet Pil-do doesn’t seem interested in renewing her contract. Instead, Tae-rin accepts another offer from a director, who set up her own agency after resigning from the company, though she seems quite reluctant about it.
As luck and K-Drama coincidences have it, every time Tae-rin is in a bad mood, Seok-ju happens to be around. He tries to comfort her or at least give her some space to cry. But she vents at him for confusing her with his actions. We also get some flashbacks from their high school days, where Tae-rin fell for Seok-ju after hearing his voice on the school’s broadcast. But back then, he had a mean personality, unlike the cool guy he is now.
“Am I way too late?”
Je-yeon isn’t doing well either, getting punished for causing a scene earlier. Pil-do calls it a vacation, yet Je-yeon knows she is suspended. It is Je-yeon’s first vacation in a while, so she doesn’t know what to do with all this free time. She just keeps daydreaming about Hae and making excuses to see him until she can’t deny it any longer.
Dropping by the flower shop, Je-yeon waits for Hae until he shows up, confessing she likes him. Ironically, this happens just as Hae learns about the checkup results. His old illness is back. It is such a rare and tricky condition. He might drop dead tomorrow or live fine for another ten years.
My Youth Episodes 5 and 6 Musings
Wrapping up the documentary, Tae-rin and Hae were told to write letters to their younger selves to be mailed one year from now. Which felt a bit ominous. But now it feels as if Hae was writing his will. We understand that the drama needs a source of tension. But did it have to go this far? Is terminal illness the new trend for romcoms instead of serial killers?
Honestly, the drama has enough going for it with the entangled relationships of its main quartet. Each pair has distinct dynamics, and we get different vibes depending on who is sharing the screen with whom. Why not develop these relationships further instead of throwing in a terminal illness? Still, there is no crying over spilt milk or romance stories turned wrong. So, let’s at least hope the drama doesn’t get too dark and there is an inkling of a happy ending at the end of the road.
Photos and Videos: JTBC Drama
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