coolbeansbuddyofmine

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

so seong-ah was a shaman child forced to perform rituals since she was a little girl for her parents' "happiness" and gyeon-u was a cursed child forced to perform rituals since he was a little boy for his family's "safety" and they were both abandoned by their parents. they're only 18 and none of them ever had a normal life when all they want is to help and protect people around them. let the kids live!!!

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

HEAD OVER HEELS (2025) text posts (1/2)

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

HEAD OVER HEELS (2025) text posts (1/2)

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

let us pray that our love (ao3) has a swift surgery (maintenance) and that she recovers well (we can bookmark things again)

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

1D OMEGAVERSE NONCON was what took out AO3

so, we all suffered through ao3’s recent downtime:

so i got curious, because i was bookmarking things when the site went down and wouldn’t it be funny if i was the one who broke it lmao (😔no it wasn’t me but i helped)

https://archiveofourown.org/bookmarks/2147483647 is this

absolutely iconic 10/10 no notes good job team 😂

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

You started it.

HEAD OVER HEELS 견우와 선녀 (2025)

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

You want to know why I follow you around? Kids should be protected by adults, but you protect yourself. That's why I want to be nice to you. Can I do that? Is it pity? It's friendship.

HEAD OVER HEELS 견우와 선녀 (2025)

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

You want to know why I follow you around? Kids should be protected by adults, but you protect yourself. That's why I want to be nice to you. Can I do that? Is it pity? It's friendship.

HEAD OVER HEELS 견우와 선녀 (2025)

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

This was so hilarious...

But also that really derails all their plans because hello TEEN PARENTS

Because yeah - no college for her, and no athletics for him.

Just makes me want to call my own parents now...

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

Geum-myeong is so annoying and I so get her. She’s me, I’m her (when I was a bit younger). I even talked the same way to my parents and regretted it every time.

Ep. 8 had me bawling probably just as much as ep. 6. It’s the dad traveling from far away and waiting for hours just to see his daughter, it’s him waving goodbye from the bus and seeing her as a little kid, it’s the mom and dad willing to sacrifice everything to make their daughter’s dreams come true. It’s how Geum-myeong understands all of this and bursts into tears whenever she thinks of them.

It’s how both Aesun and Gwansik keep asking Geum-myeong whether she really really wants to study abroad because she lied before saying she didn’t care. How Aesun keeps pressuring her to answer because it’s not something she can dismiss, her daughter must have everything she wants.

It’s how Geum-myeong’s dream is actually Aesun’s dream because they’re the same and the whole metaphor about swallowing the dreams and soaring high.

Also how Aesun fulfilled her mother’s dreams (seeing her daughter go to college and succeed, getting a pearl necklace) and Geum-myeong achieved Aesun’s dreams (going to college, studying abroad, flying on a plane).

I keep thinking about my own parents and what they’ve done for me and it makes me cry even more.

I like how, when you finish the fourth episode in the volume, it feels like all the weight and meaning of them come crashing down anew.

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

gwangshik swimming across the ocean to get to aesun lives in my head rent free but the build up to that scene is why it's so powerful. how it's pointed out that everything he's done since he was 10 has been for her, to give her a life she wanted and how he's literally leaving the island only because he thinks it's what she wants and he doesn't want to stand in her way but we see that losing her makes living seem futile to him. how we are led to think aesun cares about a career and education and that's why she's considering marrying that sleazy man but we learn it actually doesn't matter but love matters to her, a love she thinks she can't have since she doesn't want to stand in gwangshik's way, how he was her home but she was losing it because she couldn't be with him. we learn that she was never settling for him, she truly loved him and would have given up everything else to be with him just like he would do the same.

it's the way this show raises the question of what we choose in a partner and for the both of them, love mattered the most.

had I been a bystander watching their tearful reunion I would have been in tears because I woukd have felt the longing, the angst, the love. it's just so beautiful.

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

Ae-sunie and her kind fool. I cant remember the last time the first 4 episodes of a drama had me bawling like a kid. They're definitely getting a very special place in my heart after this drama ends.

They're so... sweet. Poverty can make you a monster but they've remained so innocent and warm-hearted, I'm gonna cry again fuck.

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

OMG this epic sequence, of her heavily pregnant, running full tilt at the owner cursing him out on the crowded quay and the way it intercuts to all the times she ran to protect GS from childhood on from anyone who tried to mistreat him and I dunno, I just love them so.

Heh

This is amazing. And she concludes this by kicking him ahahaha

I adore them. Also, this drama reminds me more than anything of a Jorge Amado novel or similar in vibe and I cannot imagine a higher praise.

Oooof, his finger still doesn't bend...

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

'Darn Abalone' by Oh Aesun from Class 3-8

[translated by me]

Day after day, abalone, abalone. Even as typhoons rage, it's abalone, abalone. More cherished than her own daughter, still abalone, abalone.

When she dives below, shouldn't she surface soon? Why then does silence stretch, leaving no news? Is it because the abalone hides, refusing to come forth, or because her breath falter, holding her under the sea?

Her dear child’s heart burns with worry as that darn abalone scorches Mother from within.

A hundred hwan earned by selling abalone. I would pay them to buy a single day’s rest for my mother.

My mother, with her aching back, my mother, coughing and weary. If only, for a hundred hwan each day I could let my mother take a rest.

"Then grow up fast. Grow up fast, and give me a hundred hwan every day."

ㅡ

OH AE SUN, When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) EP01

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

This had me tearing up and made me think of my mom who worked hard tirelessly when we were severely struggling financially in my childhood when my dad had lost his job, had failed in all his business ventures and then had decided to not work at all. So watching this scene made me realize how rare it is for women, especially women living in poverty, to be freeloaders. I've seen husbands leech off of their wives' hard work but never women freeloading their way through life. Every poor woman is a provider of her family, while same may not be the case for every poor man.

[coolbeansbuddyofmine]

I am all caught up and I really love this drama. Multi-generational family epics never seem to be super popular on here, but I gobble them up every single time, especially when they're this well made.

I love the generations of mothers and daughters in this story. Each mother-daughter pair has a complex relationship, love and respect and resentment all tangled up. The way they hurt each other but also give each other a reason to strive feels so real. Each mother wants her daughter to live a better life than her own, and every daughter wants to realize that dream while also struggling with the pressure. I appreciate the time the drama spends on these relationships, and how the memory of Ae-sun's mother in particular propels so much of her choices that reverberate through her own daughter's life.

I love the romance, especially because it's not all shiny and happy. This is a love story between two impoverished kids doing their best to survive and build the life they want for themselves with very little means to actually do so. Their loyalty to each other and their bond forged in the hardships of their early years gives them a strong foundation to weather life's various storms. It's not a story about a passionate affair or destined soulmates; it's two regular people who chose each other to be teammates for whatever life throws at them. I find that kind of love just as moving as the swoony variety, if not more. The steadfast nature of their commitment, and the way they choose to protect each other every time, is touching.

I love the sense of community in this story, as well, and especially the group of haenyeos that look after Ae-sun after her mother's death. They don't have much power as impoverished women themselves, but they try to do what they can to protect and help her and honor her mother's wishes. And the drama doesn't shy away from the ugly parts of this kind of small and small-minded community, either, and all the shame and social stigma heaped on a woman of Ae-sun's (lack of) status. In her youth, Gwan-sik is truly the only thing standing between her and ruin, and people are cruel to her for no reason other than they can be. Even so, most of them are not painted as evil, but rather as flawed humans who are also struggling and misplacing their rage and anxiety. It's an empathetic portrayal of a lot of complex class and social dynamics, and it's really well done.