This is the story of a pink plastic lighter.
Remember this scene in episode 10 when Jeongwon was agonizing over a certain decision? By first glance, it seems that he was crushing a cigarette. However, a careful review would suggest that what he was really doing is holding tightly in his palm a pink plastic lighter.
This pink plastic lighter was returned to him by Ikjun, who in episode 9 asked to borrow it, together with 10,000 won and four cigarettes (cue Parasite jingle). Notice that Jeongwon took out cigarettes and the lighter from separate pockets: cigarettes from the inner pocket, the lighter from the outer pocket. For a smoker, it is rather unnatural that he put the lighter not in the same pocket as the cigarettes. Why would he do that? Perhaps he needed the lighter even when he was not smoking. But for what?
A clue to answering the last question is Jeongwon’s line that gave rise to that now famous Parasite-parody. In fact, Jeongwon said that line twice to Ikjun and, both times, he put the emphasis on “one lighter” — not 10,000 won but a plastic lighter that worth much less in pure monetary terms.
Jeongwon put the pink plastic lighter separately from the cigarettes, in the outer pocket of his jacket—a place he can easily reach. He also went extra length to make sure Ikjun remember to return the lighter. Perhaps the lighter is not just any lighter. Perhaps it carries special meaning to him, something he holds onto from time to time, as a keepsake, a reminder of some sort. Now the question becomes what is the significance of this lighter? The scene in episode 10 is not the first time we see Jeongwon in the smoking area of the hospital. We also saw him there in episode 1, together with his older brother.
To be precise, we didn’t really see Jeongwon, we heard him. We heard him light a cigarette with a lighter—the sound it made can only come from a metal lighter with flip lid, not a plastic one. (Go listen, the details of this show are mind-blowing.) It is likely that, the night his father was hospitalized, Jeongwon was not carrying that pink plastic lighter with him...yet.
The thing about lighers is that they don’t just light cigarettes; they light other things too. Such as candles, such as birthday candles, such as the birthday candles for a little girl whom Jeongwon had been treating ever since she was born — Kim Minyeong, after spending all of her three short years with her doctor Ahn Jeongwon, left this world on March 29th, 2019.
Min-yeong’s death had a tremendous impact on Jeongwon. It is not difficult to imagine that he would keep the pink lighter with him — as a reminder of all the birthdays they celebrated together and, perhaps more importantly, all the birthdays that Min-yeong never had the chance to celebrate.
The struggle of Jeongwon has always been the conflict between his two identities: he is God’s child Andrea; he is also one of the only 48 pediatric surgeons in the entire country. The agony that we witnessed him experiencing in episode 10 wasn’t due to any romance, but the choice between his longtime dream of priesthood and the urgent calling of his profession. That pink plastic lighter is a promise he made with himself: to save the next Min-yeong, to make sure that that child will have many many more birthdays to celebrate, healthy and happy.
That is why he chose to stay, as Dr. Ahn Jeongwon.
