Twenty-Five Twenty-One: Isn’t mutually parting a happy ending too?
We often come across stories of love around us that ends with the couple confessing their feelings, getting into a relationship, and then living happily ever after. But is it the happy ending just because we reached the last page, line, or frame of our story?
What do you think? Those characters, do they live a happy life until death, or do they just stop existing on the last page, frame, or line of the story? The answer could be anything here. Either those characters found their happy ending in each other or maybe they found another person to complete their happy ending. Just because we have been seeing the journey of two characters since the beginning of the story doesn’t mean that they have to end together as well. They can have a good ending together instead and that can be happy too.
A lot of people on the internet and in my K-drama watching friends group has been talking about the climax of the recently ended Netflix original “Twenty-Five Twenty-One”. The show gained popularity because of the concept & 90’s style of life and how it has a realistic side to it. The show is a flashback story in the late 90s between a National level fencer Na Hee-Do and an IMF victim now pursuing to be a news reporter Baek Yi-Jin. The story tells us how the two evolve their relationship from strangers to friends to lovers to distant well-wishers. So, it was the ending of the show that made people go ‘heart broken’ or shall I say in their words ‘traumatized’! If you haven’t seen the show yet and find spoilers bothering then I’d suggest you not read the blog further.
So, the ending consists of the two main leads Hee-Do and Yi-Jin moving on to different courses in their life. Yes, the last two episodes consist of the love life of the two. The start and the end of it. Which in my opinion is realistic and nice. Just because we have been seeing their bonding for the past 14 episodes doesn't mean they have to end together in the end. The two could still be there for each other in good memories, can’t they?
The fellow audience has been commenting how Hee-Do could have tried her best instead of walking away from it but tell me, is she really at fault? In my opinion, Hee-Do communicated as much as she could but her strength could not just reach Yi-Jin on the other end of the phone who refused to communicate with her properly. We can see him replying with ‘hmm’, ‘okay’, and so on which we all know is enough to kill the mood of a situation (and a conversation as well). And not just here, earlier when a certain situation happened in his family Ye-Jin just left without a word then thinking it is the right thing for Hee-Do but was it really helpful? It just made her sad then. Well, it was already portrayed what kind of character Ye-Jin holds. A person who’d run away than share his sad situation with his dear ones to save them from the sadness too.
Not saying Yi-Jin is entirely at fault here, the time is. Time is what has changed situations for Yi-Jin since the beginning. IMF made his family go bankrupt, and 9/11 changed the meaning of his profession and separated him from his first love. Time was the one at fault and most of the time took away his possible chances.
“From now on, when you hang out with me, you can be happy and keep it a secret.”
— Na Hee-Do, Twenty-Five Twenty-One
There are many relationships out there breaking apart like Hee-Do and Yi-Jin, mutually parting away. Communication is the key to any kind of relationship in the world. Hee-Do tried her best, but Yi-Jin had to communicate too, sadness and misery are also a part of a relationship that people have to understand too. In Hee-Do’s case, anything good or bad happening to her would come up on TV but with Yi-Jin, Hee-Do had nothing but his words to rely on. Both tried their best but after a point, Yi-Jin forgot to communicate thinking that it would do Hee-Do good but life isn’t a fairy tale. Even fairy tales aren’t beautiful and happy all the time! This is why they fell apart. This heartbreak exists in the real world and happens to people. Sometimes it’s better to let go of a relationship that holds you back as in the end, it won’t do any good to any of the two.
‘Twenty-Five Twenty-One’ shows us the bitter-sweet ends of a relationship that takes place in the world. The side of the story which people often forget about. Love stories aren’t just about affection, care, and lovers' quarrel. A love story ends when the two members in it part ways and not when the line, frame, or slide says “and they lived happily ever after”. And how not every relationship has to end for some worse reason like betraying, cheating, and so on, they could be ended mutually too just as they started back then. Which is why I like the ending of it. The way they showed a whole cycle of a relationship, a proper (whole) love story to us.
But the end doesn’t always mean sadness, we can take lessons from it too so that we don’t replicate the mistakes we made in our first one. Every relationship teaches us something new only if we are conscious & curious enough to learn from them.
“난 무지개는 필요없어”
— Baek Yi-JIn, Twenty-Five Twenty-One
P.S: This isn’t the first one to have an ending like this “Record of Youth” and “La La Land” too had a similar style of the portrayal of their love stories.
Personal Note: For me, this show holds a lot of my memories and a time period. Being released on my birthday month holds the memories of that month’s activities of mine. All the work that I was able to complete, my work which is still under preparation from then. It holds the start of my twenties as I turned 21 this year with Hee-Do. Holds my memories of those bus & train travels to Jaisalmer, Pushkar & Kolkata. This is what this show is like to me. A flashback to this time of mine. Whenever I will be watching this show again or a bit piece of it, I will live this flashback of mine with this story again cause unknowingly my time got attached to it.
