lumnayan

She was reminiscing. And in remembering the past you get sad but then you get over it, don't you? Life goes on. Even happiness is temporary. You will forget this too as you get engrossed in other dramas. :))

Because the central plot of the show does not focus on the present. It is also the same reason why they decided not to show Minchae's father because the drama is so much more than that. The drama is about a very specific era in Heedo's life that we all know is bound to end. Indeed, everything is fleeting and temporary that is the whole point of the show. We should treat these moments during the present as precious because they will all pass in the future. At the end of the day, nothing lasts forever. It is the ugly truth.

I agree that the writer kind of gave up on Yijin's storyline in the latter half of the drama. I have to say that it is common for writer KDE to write boring men. In Yijin's case, his storyline apart from his importance to the girls was lost midway; hence, this choice of reason for the breakup.

ever since yijin got his job as a reporter, there were already hints on how he leans toward his job (mainly for the sake of reviving and getting his family back together) and that just escalated in the last episode when he chose work in new york. sometimes couples break up because of "superficial" things but that is reality. 2521 is about love and youth but it is also about its impermanence.

but she is? the heedo you see in the present is different from the 21 year old heedo. with time, she changed and matured just as we all do. are you implying that she would only have a happier and fulfilling life if she stayed with the man who made the conscious choice to stay abroad for work? heedo herself pointed out that a life without regrets is impossible. even so, that does not mean she is unhappy in the present.

is it really not a happy ending unless the female lead ends up with the male lead and has kids??

The execution was great though? Anyway, I'll take this as you having a bad judgment of the drama as you are still mad that your ship did not end up together. More luck to you! <3

Flat??? The characters and their development were all fleshed out, and there was not a single static character. Yijin was even given a bigger framing story so that he would have a life beyond his importance to the friend group and Heedo. Even Heedo and Yurim's fellow fencer, Yeji, was given a storyline. I don't even know if we watched the same drama it makes me laugh.

I love how they built all relationships in this drama — both romantic and platonic. I also appreciate how the writer attempted to illustrate that nothing lasts forever, but we should savior the good moments as they happen. I am sure that just like Heedo and Yijin in the future, everyone in the comments here would just treat their experience with this drama (especially the ending) as a memory of the past and would just laugh about how everyone was mad or crying about the "ridiculous" open ending just like how the present Heedo sees the memories with her friends and Yijin as small but meaningful vignettes in the grand scheme of her life.

i meaaaan from the start minchae did not know who tf yijin was so what is all the fuss here

trust me you will get over it

they broke up in the first fifteen minutes

everyone here needs to take a deep breath, step outside, and touch some grass

i just find this funny 😂 https://twitter.com/dohwansbraces/status/1510104730604916746

Can someone who is more fluent in Korean translate this? https://twitter.com/kmuknow/status/1508352463845605377?t=HHNpeSmViqpz-Ro9uXu_BA&s=19 From what I have understood, op expressed how youth dramas like 2521 are so good at giving the illusion that things might last forever when you are at the peak of your youth. We as an audience give in to this illusion, but the sad reality hits when we find out that nothing lasts forver and that youth is only a fleeting era. So let's prepare ourselves for the ending.

I get that. As was mentioned in the previous replies, this is also a matter of framing. The degree of reaction between the two characters was different as Jaekyung has deeper unresolved issues to deal with (as was seen later when she used work as a coping mechanism to forget about her husband's passing). This led her to restrain her feelings of regret regarding the conflicts with Heedo and Coach Chanmi. Although she feels sorry deep inside, her pride as a news anchor hinders her to put this regret into action and resolve it, which played a big role in how the audience sees her. But enough of this armchair psychology. 😂

I agree with your point on the framing and the arch of the characters (Jaekyung has experienced this problem before and warned Yijin, now Yijin is faced with the same problem and the outcome turned out to be the same).

But I also think that it is intentional for the writer to reflect the differences in reaction regarding these parallel circumstances. Writer Kwon Do-eun wrote Search: WWW, which has women being unapologetic for their actions or decisions as one of its themes. She attempted to project that here in 2521 and make the audiences reflect upon the difference of their reactions towards Shin Jaekyung and Baek Yijin. I think this is so because of the framing, which you have mentioned, and how Jaekyung's true feelings on delivering the news were revealed much later (when she was talking to Minchae and when she returned the gold medal to Heedo) rather than benefitting from the buildup of her relationships with the affected characters (which Yijin now benefited from). And when you look at it at the wider perspective, women are cursed at for making crucial decisions for their careers at the expense of their personal lives while men are pitied, and sometimes praised, for it. So yes, it is a gender issue as much as it is a matter of framing.

Nonetheless, I think it is brilliant that 2521 is written in a way that makes us ponder and discuss upon these things. It would not have been the same if the plot and characters were static or one-dimensional. Maybe this is why I have been tuning it even though it is not my type of genre.

I find it ironic how people cursed and said so many nasty things about Shin Jaekyung (Heedo's mom) for doing the same thing as Baek Yijin with their profession as a journalist. Now that it was the male lead who was put in the same circumstance and made the conscious decision of reporting Yurim's news it was all "woe to him poor him he had no choice he hurt his friend and his lover we should go easy on him :((("

Female characters always get the end of the stick in the whole k-drama fandom and I will die on this hill defending them. That's all. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

That may be the case. Maybe something would happen when they reach 2125 that would be the turning point for their relationship. We have a week left to find out!

That may be the case. Maybe something would happen when they reach 2125 that would be the turning point for their relationship. We have a week left to find out!