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Twenty-Five Twenty-One was such a ride for all of us. So much laughing, so many tears, and oh!, those theories every week! For almost 2 months, many of us spent our weekends watching the lives of 5 amazing young characters: Heedo, Yijin, Yurim, Jiwoong and Seungwan. We were so deeply immersed in their friendship, love life and work/school problems that we forgot about our own. Personally, it became one of my favourite dramas. And in this article I’d like to tell you why I think this series was so thrilling.
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from all episodes of this drama and is intended for people who also watched it, so... you read it on your own responsibility!
Our 20’s
Twenty-Five Twenty-One takes place at the end of the 90’s. For many of us these times are like a good, old memory. Cassettes, comic book rentals, beepers, flip phones – just imagining those items makes me smile and get lost in precious memories. And for those of us who didn’t live in such times, it surely was a nice adventure to a ‘different world’. It gives off a similar vibe to the Reply Series, and many of us loved these ones a lot! I swear I could watch it only for this nostalgic feeling.
Friendship
25-21 showed us an amazing friendship between Heedo and Yurim. And I think that’s the main focus of this drama. Just friendship. Beautiful connection, full of feelings – a relationship that needed lots of work for it to become something really meaningful. A true friendship doesn’t always start on a happy note. Sometimes it needs some painful moments, sometimes it starts with bad feelings at the beginning. Yurim hated Heedo at the very beginning. She was scared of her. But later they managed to create a very strong connection and became support for each other.
Sports Competition
This drama raised a very important topic, which was the competition between the members of the same team. Heedo and Yurim represented the same school, same country, same sport. It’s really common in real life for people to train together, spend time together and finally become friends only to compete with each other at the end. And there’s always a tragic ending for one side. Because someone has to lose for the other side to win.
25-21 didn’t hesitate to show us how painful it is. How much trouble it creates for the athletes. Personally, I cried my eyes out because of these two girls who just wanted to make their dreams come true, but they knew their friend had the same dream. It is a situation without a good solution. It is painful and tragic. But besides all of this, 25-21 managed to show us so many happy and beautiful moments between Heedo and Yurim. They showed us how strong a person can become.
And Love... ?
Heedo and Yijin’s relationship was nothing but a beautiful addition in this drama full of growing, learning and becoming an adult. Heedo’s personality was what Yijin needed at that time in his life. She helped him grow and become a happier person. On the other side, he helped her with the struggle of making a decision and supported her in achieving her dream.
But then this drama ended... and many of us became disappointed... just because they weren’t together till the end. But let me tell you something important. Many of us were in more than one relationship. Not every relationship leads to marriage. Not every relationship has to last for years. Sometimes you just break up after some time, but does breaking up make this relationship bad? No. Every relationship teaches us something. We make amazing memories with people. We grow with them. We support each other. And 25-21 was just about that. A past relationship that allowed Heedo and Yijin to grow up and become amazing adults.
Our Summer
I guess many of us still remember episodes 10-11 as the most meaningful ones. Those are the episodes where Heedo, Yijin, Yurim, Jiwoong and Seungwan went for a trip together. And they made amazing memories together. Memories that will last forever – unlike some relationships.
And here, let me quote a song of the same title as the drama, sung by the singer Jaurim.
‘I thought it would last forever, the you and me of the past’
Those 5 friends were probably thinking the same thing while sitting on a beach – that this moment would last forever, that their friendship won't end, and they will be happy, just like that.
But reality is not a movie. And 25-21 didn’t want to destroy us with reality. They wanted to show us that this, too, is beautiful. That those memories are something beautiful. That friendship doesn’t have to last forever to be something important in our life. So does love. It just happened at some point in our lives and it was an amazing experience we can learn from.
Photo credits: poster from tvN, rest are my screenshots.
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25-21 really is an amazing drama. It’s full of important topics in every episode. It was not only the romance genre. And we have to watch it with such a mindset for it to be really meaningful and enjoyable.
I hope you enjoyed my article.
Let me know in the comments what you liked the most in Twenty-Five Twenty-One!
Edited by: Tine (1st editor)
