Goodbye, Hello



  GOODBYE, HELLO

  A Reply 1988 Fanfiction

 

  Copyright © 2016 Dimsumofallthings

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-10: 1530276357

  ISBN-13: 978-1530276356 

  For my fellow Jung Hwan and Deok Sun shippers…

  Because some things should have been inevitable.

  And because they, and we, deserved better.

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the television drama, "Reply 1988", which is trademarked by Writer Lee Woo Jung and PD Shin Won Ho. Kim Jung Hwan, Sung Deok Sun, and other original "Reply 1988" characters are created and owned by the writer and PD, and I do not claim any ownership over them or their world (though I wish I did own them… it would not have necessitated this story.) The story I tell here about Jung Hwan and Deok Sun is my own invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of Writer Lee's story canon (though we can certainly make it our own canon.)

  This story is solely for non-profit fan activity and in no way intends to infringe on copyrights held by TvN, CJEN and the original "Reply 1988" series.

  All other characters are original creations, based only from my imagination. I do not claim to know people who have the same names as some of these characters, nor do I vouch for the personalities they portray in this story or their areas of expertise. Any and all similarities are purely coincidental.

  I still have six dogs, three cats, a hefty mortgage and need to buy a new car. Please, please, please don’t sue me.

  FOREWORD

  The thing about epic loves is that they are not to be forgotten that easily, and as avid readers and drama viewers we can recognize one when we see it. So if you are reading this you watched Reply 1988, your hopes soared high and you were almost a hundred percent sure you got the husband right until suddenly your candidate was kicked to the curb and you still haven’t found a way to cope with the pain. Or just like me you eventually moved on but sometimes you have your player on shuffle and at the first notes of Oh Hyuk’s Girl a stir of emotion rises inside of you and you remember your OTP exchanging glances full of emotion over ramyun or during a cold night while sitting close on his bed. The sizzling chemistry was on our screens for months, the constant bickering made us smile, the embarrassing accident of being pressed against each other turned us into puddles of goo. We nodded in sympathy in front of the struggle to make a very dense girl understand he was head over heels until this unrequited-requited-denied first love left us in need of a couple of Aspirins and a ticket to Seoul to hunt the scriptwriter down.

  He loved her and she loved him, but he loved the other guy too (just not in a queer way). But no matter what the drama writer’s intention was, narratively gaeddok was still the only couple that made sense. That is until Kim Jung Hwan and Sung Deok Sun were physically separated and relegated to opposite sides of Korea in order for an entirely different story to be written. Which is exactly the task dimsumofallthings took up herself to do for things to be right once again. “Goodbye, Hello” has everyone take a step back to that life changing moment we were led to believe the gang had ignored: Jung Hwan had brought a huge ring, put it on the table in front of Deok Sun then made a joke out of the greatest love confession we have ever witnessed. (I have to get off my chest that for a drama that was supposedly about family and friends who have lived together for decades I disliked how no one was allowed to notice Jung Hwan’s feelings nor see through his lies.)

  So what do you do when your crush confesses to you and instantly takes it back? And what if the one you like definitely loves someone else –but not really?

  It is true that sometimes fate and timing can help or interfere at the most crucial moments. Yet to a certain degree I cannot help but agree with what is said in the drama and stated once more in this story: they both are the result of our choices, and the thing we call fate is ultimately our choice too. One of Deok Sun’s greatest strengths since her teenage years is that she never backs out. Instead she fights head on for what or who she wants, be it getting Sun Woo to tell her he likes her or make Jung Hwan be aware of the reason behind her constant need to be close to him. When she decides to face her own feelings and see beyond her love interest’s façade –because “jokes are not usually made when there’s a ring on the table” (Deok Sun, Part 2)- she is moving towards her new fate. She is not the kind of heroine who would sit around and wait for prince charming to profess his undying love for her and kiss her. She is a woman who gets up, acts and talks things out. A perfect companion for someone like Jung Hwan who would quietly do just about anything to protect the ones he loves, to the point of giving up what is precious to him as long as those around can be happy.

  “Goodbye, Hello” starts as a reflection following the confession, showing at first how differently the two main characters deal with its aftermath until it finally reaches the moment I prefer: Deok Sun taking charge during her confrontation with Jung Hwan. “I choose you,” she says in Part 3. Words of infinite relevance for a girl who reciprocated the feelings of whoever would pick her instead. Yes, this is the story of a boy and a girl. But if you are familiar with the author you’ll also know that her women are always the heart of her stories. Her heroines are passionate, free and opinionated. Unafraid of standing out and fighting for what they think is right, they are independent and self-reliant. Far from being perfect, or even pretending to be so, sometimes they fall but they always find the strength to pull themselves up. Their voices can always be heard loud and clear without coming out as uneducated bullies. In many aspects they are very much like dimsumofallthings, and one of the many qualities I love about her is how for years she has been willing to use her time, talent and creativity not just to make her and our wishful endings come true but to spread part of her philosophy on our sex. As a writer whose audience is mainly composed of females, some of them being very young, she has been acting like everyone’s older sister and encouraged us with her words, reminding us that we should be and do what makes us happy. That we matter and our voices should be heard anywhere and anytime. That working hard will make us reach our goals. That in both love and life we have to be brave. That it is ok to cry our hearts out but we shouldn’t give up, ever. That being different won’t preclude us from being loved.

  Hopefully she can be of inspiration to many of you. I know she inspires me a lot. And if things worked out for Deok Sun, they can work out for any of us.

  10TH March 2016

  PREFACE

  After A Moment's Choice was completed, I had vowed that never again would I write a story based on my dissatisfaction about a drama's ending. Though I had loved writing AMC, the experience itself had been stressful. It was the first time I ever dabbled in fan fiction, and though I was satisfied at how the story had come to life, I was grateful when I was able to stop writing, if only for a little while. It was trauma from an ending which prompted me to begin writing, and when I finished, just as with anything that is cathartic, I was exhausted. As in bone tired. As in I would be happy to never write anything ever again tired.

  Somewhat surprisingly I picked up my laptop again not even six months after that project to begin again. This time, for somewhat an original story. I say somewhat because it's a story that was derived from an original character in AMC, which, as everyone was well aware had been a work of fan fiction. So, although the world belonged in a fanfic, the characters in A Leap of Faith, did not. In some ways it was as if I was once again starting from scratch, making the world I once resided in even more real and rich with unique characters and another love story.

  When news of a new Reply franchise began to circulate, I was hesitant at first to even weigh in. The memory of Chilbong's ending and the pain that c
ame with it was still fresh in my mind and to be perfectly honest, I was gun shy. I admit it: I was afraid of falling in love with yet another character whose ending will break my heart.

  I think that it wasn't until the 6th episode aired that I even started watching, comforted, in part by reassurances from other drama watchers that the focus of Reply 1988 was on family and not as much the husband hunt. I had stayed abreast of the castings, relieved that though I recognized some of the names, I was not a fan of any of the stars, somehow believing that this will shield me from any real pain. And so, just as with Reply 1994 I forged ahead, blissfully unaware of what was to come.

  The beginning had seemed promising. I found Deok Sun's character extremely appealing and very relatable. She was not only the middle child, but not a very smart one at that. She was pretty, in a girl next door type of way, an everyday girl. What she lacked in intellect she made up for in kindness and loyalty. She was open and forthright, my favorite kind of female character. She fit perfectly in the Reply franchise, where the story almost begins from childhood to their teenage years, brimming with youthful enthusiasm and excitement.

  From the beginning I rooted for her, even before I knew that she married one of her childhood friends.

  I liked the families, as well as the friendships. I thought that it was very plausible that these families would all live in the same neighbourhood and that their children would all grow up together. The writer/PD’s insistence that this drama would truly be about family seemed supported by the earlier episodes. I was very, very optimistic.

  I'm not sure when it was exactly that I fell in love with Kim Jung Hwan but it wasn't a voluntary type of love. It was more a kicking screaming type of affection. I noted his smirk at the end of one earlier episode, watching as Deok Sun marched in the Olympics, and thought, here's a candidate for the hunt. Though I'm still to this day unsure exactly when, but somewhere between his dancing to Sobangcha then hiding hard on in the alley and his not so subtle attempts at letting Deok Sun know how much he liked her, I fell totally, and deeply, in love.

  His is a character that never fails to make me melt. The silent, broody type of hero who has more going on than he lets on. The grumpy boy who loves completely, though not always willingly and always almost begrudgingly. The noble type of strong male character whose integrity is more than anyone would even imagine.

  Jung Hwan wasn't broken though he had his share of hardships. Growing up in a once poor family who came into riches almost overnight, the brother of one whose lives could be cut short at any time, gave him a depth of maturity and understanding that one rarely sees in someone so young.

  It affected everything he did, from the way he dealt with his family to the way he approached his friends. Just like Deok Sun his loyalty came in spades and as a viewer, you always got the feeling that Jung Hwan will always 1) put others before himself and 2) will always go above and beyond what is expected of him.

  When the love triangle finally revealed itself I can honestly say that I didn’t think it was much of a love triangle. Taek, though innocent and sweet, seemed more a liability than competition. He was childlike and innocent, someone who I could never picture challenging Deok Sun to become the best person she could possibly be.

  Anyone who knows me and has ever shared a conversation with me about love knows that this is my barometer in determining who should end up with whom. Not just in Korean drama, but in real life as well. Many people live their lives spending it in comfortable, mediocre relationships, always afraid of the unknown, choosing always to choose security and assurance as opposed to going with the road not taken.

  I thought for sure that this time around, the creators of the Reply franchise will deliver again on what they promised, something, in my honest personal opinion, they had not done since Reply 1997. That I will get out of this story what I had been sold. And boy, was I ever wrong.

  The trajectory of their story telling, the development of the plot, had all pointed to a character moment for Deok Sun, as well as a final lay it all out there, painful but necessary confession for Jung Hwan. Though the show had meandered for a few episodes, there had been no indication that this would be derailed. It was therefore to my chagrin and surprise that Deok Sun "chose" Taek over Jung Hwan.

  I say chose in parentheses because while the character supposedly did this, I believe that the final call had been the writer's. Sadly there had been no development on Deok Sun's character at all, to the very end. That pivotal moment for her character, when she becomes truly honest with herself, when she stops identifying her emotions with how anyone else felt about her, didn't happen. And that, I felt was the biggest injustice of them all.

  As a woman in my mid-thirties I can appreciate now that while everyone had come into my life for a reason and though I fell in love with different people for a host of reasons in my past, there were also reasons that, if I were to be honest with myself, would prevent me from ever having relationships with those same people.

  In the natural course of a lifetime, people, not only women, are allowed to change. They are supposed to change. None of us can stay stuck in one part of our lives forever. And yet that was the case Reply 1988's canon put forth, and one I didn't buy.

  Until Taek loved her, Deok Sun was unsure about who she was, unsure of what we wanted, but at one point seemed conflicted about this. She had shown a willingness to explore this, to figure out why, and yet this was ignored for the sake of the husband hunt. Taek was someone who, though brilliant, had almost minimal to no social skills, someone who had to be taken care of, and almost as if by magic, once he started dating, grew up in a nanosecond into a functional adult and miraculously transformed into Jung Hwan, ironically enough.

  This, perhaps, was the biggest grudge I had with this particular drama's ending. That more than the shaft that Jung Hwan was handed, it also ended up undermining Deok Sun and for a drama which focused so much on family and friendship, made Taek appear and be remembered as someone who was given Deok Sun's love, as opposed to someone who earned it, aka Jung Hwan, an opinion shared by many of their domestic and international viewers. Because while I and a fair number of viewers mourned and grieved for Chilbong precisely because we were never given a chance to know him, an even larger number of us were broken hearted because we knew Jung Hwan. We were there for every step in his journey, falling in love with Deok Sun through his eyes, experiencing his pain of having to choose between love and friendship.

  Goodbye, Hello was written initially as a way to give Jung Hwan a resolution he deserved, one snippet that at least showed that he hadn't been alone in the end, that he still had people, his people, who loved and cared for him, who was as invested in his well-being as the viewers were. Alas, I am a sucker for happy endings, and soon thereafter, I decided to give Deok Sun hers too, one that was fitting for a character I loved for most of the drama, and one I felt was grievously treated.

  As of the completion of this story, there are no talks of another Reply franchise. Its stars are already moving on to do other projects. If nothing else I am happy that Ryu Jeon Yeol, the actor who played Jung Hwan, is receiving a lot of support and love, and I am pleased to realize that he differs very little from Jung Hwan. It makes me hope that though Jung Hwan didn't get his happy ending on screen, that, at least, Ryu Jeon Yeol might in real life. Nice guys deserve to finish first and hard work and sacrifice needs to be rewarded.

  I would like to thank a few people for the support that they have given me throughout the writing of Goodbye, Hello.

  First is my very, very good friend Elena (my twin from another mother living in another continent), who always gave constructive and objective advice. To this day I have never met one I could speak to about anything and everything. It is a credit to how real some of our friendships are when I feel closer to you though we have never ever met. Thank you for agreeing to write the Foreword. I love and treasure you.

  I would like to give my sincere gratitude to the ladies I ch
at with on LINE throughout the duration Reply 1988. I really think that without your shared grief, I might have gone crazy all on my own. You are a group of intelligent, funny, articulate women and I hope that you never ever lose your sass (and snark.)

  To my lovely dongsaeng Misa, for always humoring this Unnie with my constant requests for technological help. I am still hopeless, and you are still a saint. My book cover and soundtrack cover would probably look horrendous had it not been for you.

  This story was written for those who, like me, believe that Jung Hwan and Deok Sun should have ended up together. I hope it brings some measure of comfort that in this world, though only written and will never make our screens, they did. And that, like in the very best fairy tales, they lived happily ever after, albeit with the occasional quibble now and again.

  Thank you for sharing this journey with me. I always wished that I would gain more friends; however, it well and truly sucks (because there is just no other way to put it) that it had to be yet another heartbreak that brings me closer to more like-minded people once more. I have come to accept, however, that sometimes, things work out the way they are supposed to… as long as Writer Lee is not the one writing the ending (Sorry… I just couldn’t help myself LOL.)