In recent times, I have been on a personal mission to reduce my list of Unwatched KDramas before I lose my Korean enthusiast membership entirely. I stumbled upon Twinkling Watermelon on this list, and the first thing I asked myself was why this Kdrama was still unwatched. I mean it stars Ryeoun, Choi Hyun Wook, and Seol In Ah. And as a rule, any drama with any one of these three is always worth watching. This cast might as well be a heavenly sign to press play.

By 'any drama', I meant hits like Business Proposal, Weak Hero Class, and My Dearest Nemesis, among others. It's safe to say these dramas increased my EQ and will do the same for you too. If you haven't seen them, no time is better than now, really.

And when I tell you it was worth the watch... I laughed till I cried and then cried till I laughed, and I loved every bit of it. Twinkling Watermelon is the right mix of heart, nostalgia, and some very well-placed 'damn, that's me' moments. It is that extremely relatable drama that reminds you to focus on what's important while giving you reasons to laugh every 10 minutes.

But what really got me was that Eun Gyeol's story hit close to home. And maybe this is why this drama made me cry so much. As a first child, I felt every bit of his silent struggle. His obligations towards his family, the quiet burnout, his weariness, loneliness, and that weird combo of pride and exhaustion that comes from trying to save everybody. When he eventually broke down and crashed out on his father, I teared up because, like a lot of young people feeling stuck from the weight of expectations placed on them by family, or even society, Eun Gyeol had spent his life trying to balance his dreams against those expectations. And this was him collapsing from the heaviness of it.

Perhaps the best part of this for me was the plot twist with Eun Gyeol's participation in his father's youth. This was how the drama broke me. 

For some context, a few days before watching this drama, my sibling found an old letter from my mum to my dad, and we laughed so hard, cringing at how sweet and mushy the letter was. My mother, the same woman who threatened me within an inch of my life to stay away from boys in high school, was out here writing full-blown love letters like a Wattpad character.

I realized that over time, we come to see our parents as just that - parents. But the letter showed me that my mother had a girlhood. The parents I knew growing up were always working, often tired, and very strong. They always seemed bigger than me, and somehow always seemed to know everything about everything. Seeing Eun Gyeol's shock at meeting Yi Chan as a goofy, carefree boy brought back memories of my mother's pictures from university.

My serious, church-going mother, who always complains about the length of my dresses, once had long, shoulder-length hair that was always permed. She wore micro mini skirts and crop tops and had the kind of body I would literally have to starve and live at the gym to have today. She painted her nails red and always had on red lipstick. Before he became a suit-wearing, briefcase-carrying Lawyer, my father was just a boy who always had on t-shirts and jeans, and partied with his friends all the time. 

Before they became “Mom” and “Dad,” they were just two young people trying to figure it out.

And that realization? Humbling.

This drama reminded me that my parents weren't born as a couple with rent money and a manual for life. They had dreams, hopes, and entire lives that they probably sacrificed to raise me. 

If you are reading this and thinking, "It's just a drama, not a therapy session," I get it. Maybe if I hadn't seen those pictures or the old letter between my parents, I would think the same. But this drama connected the dots from me to my parents, and the version of them that existed before I came into the picture. Even as I write this, I am grateful for my parents again. I may never get the assurance that the trade-off of dreams for parenthood was worth it, but I sure hope it was. I hope they look at me and think, "Yeah, not bad."

What I'm sure of, however, is that like Eun Gyeol, I've gained the courage to choose myself more. I'm learning to chase my dreams, even while holding space for the people I love, because I know now that my family would want me to live. 

Our families want us to live, not just exist and survive under the weight of obligations and expectations.

And if you haven't seen this drama, please go ahead and watch Twinkling Watermelon. Watch it and then maybe call your parents afterward. Or at least, check out their old pictures. You may find that they were kind of cool.