The Light in Your Eyes: Episode 2

by mary

One night, Hye-ja is drinking her self-doubt away after a female sunbae offers her a job as an erotic-scene dubber. (It came with the practical advice that them anchor-rejects have to earn a living somehow.) Joon-ha joins Hye-ja’s pity party and the two end up playing the “who’s more miserable?” game. Joon-ha wins when he says his mom abandoned him, his dad is better of dead, and he wants to turn back time so he can live in an orphanage instead of making his poor grandma suffer while raising him.

A drunk Hye-ja sobs at his story and takes out the magic watch she was going to restart her dream with, offering to turn back time for him instead. But before she can use the watch, Hye-ja stumbles and headbutts the table, giving herself a forehead gash and a free ride home on Joon-ha’s back.

She wakes up not remembering anything in the morning. Since Mom’s ladle whacks are proving unhelpful, Hye-ja escapes to Dad who tells her in between pouts that her “new boyfriend” took her home, which makes Hye-ja squeal in delight (and Dad pout harder, heh).

She runs into Joon-ha a couple more times around the neighborhood. Through him, she learns to accept her old, niggling thoughts that it’s okay to look for something else to do in life. Meanwhile, she teaches the always-gloomy Joon-ha that it’s okay to love your imperfect self. “I don’t dislike myself. I can’t say I love myself dearly, but I think I’m all right… you should love yourself more. It will help you become more generous with yourself.”

Yeong-soo, in a rare spark of awareness, gathers there’s more to Hye-ja’s recent drunken binges. He gets his little sister to confess that she’s giving up on her dream. He pats her in comfort for maybe 2 seconds before immediately announcing it to the whole house. LOL

Mom aka Hye-ja’s biggest supporter is angry and disappointed. She used to joke that she can’t wait to close the salon and tour the world when Hye-ja becomes rich, but what really bothers Mom is Hye-ja giving up without a plan. Though that nuance is lost in between the ladle whacks.

Dad barely manages to hold the door for Hye-ja, and with Mom waiting to pounce just outside her room, Dad and daughter end up hiding together. Hye-ja apologizes to him for being a failure. He jokes that she was meant to be Miss Korea anyway, if only she drank more milk as a kid. And besides, she doesn’t have to be a news anchor to buy him the promised taxi. Aww…