I’ve seen some people say he’s dull and boring, and i wonder if we actually saw the same show or not because it’s clear to me that he’s the one person who cares the most about all the people he loves. When his dad feels under-appreciated, he goes out of his way to reciprocate his silliness and make him happy. He studies hard for his mother, not to mention, plans a wedding for her when he finds out his parents never had a wedding. Even though everyone else refer to his brother as a no-good dumb grown man, inferior to junghwan in every way, he never thinks of his brother like that and instead, always wants to make him happy- to the point that all the dreams he had for what he wants to be when he grows up are what his brother wishes he could be but cannot because of his illness. He’s the one who immediately hit the bullies when they said “are you bragging that you don’t have a dad?” to sunwoo, when he’d silently followed all their orders before. He’s the only one who puts up with dong-ryong’s constant chatter and adventures without ever stopping him. I don’t even need to get into all the things he does for doeksun. My boy junghwan, the “i waited for an hour every morning to go to school with you. at night i couldn't sleep at all worrying about you until you got home. i thought of nothing but you. just you. when i ran into you on the bus, when we went to the concert together, when you gifted me a shirt for my birthday... i was so happy that i thought i was going crazy. i wanted to see you more than a dozen times a day. i was happy just to see you.” junghwan. But most of all, he truly loved and cared about Taek, sacrificing and burying his own feelings for Taek’s, going out of his way to avoid doeksun because he could never hurt taek like that. Junghwan is a character who loved deeply and with his entire heart. He’s quiet, considerate and sure, grumbling. But the grumbling definitely comes from his mother. He’s grown up seeing his mother express her love for his father through annoyed yelling, grumbling, and scolding. That’s the only way he knows how to show that he cares and loves.
IN CONCLUSION, nobody better come for my boy and say he didn’t deserve Doeksun or whatever and that he was boring. He deserved the entire world and was the best of all the characters in the show. Thank you for coming to my tedtalk.
