K-Drama: Time-Slipping Back to the Future

Twinkling Watermelon | 반짝이는 워터멜론 (2023)

TVN | Twinkling Watermelon 

Ha Eun-gyeol’s (Ryeoun) is a “CODA” boy, which stands for “Child of Deaf Adult”. In fact, his brother in addition to his parents are deaf. He's the only one that can hear and speak. Because of this, Eun-gyeol has taken on a lot of responsibility since he was a child. After all, he is the only one that can communicate to people on behalf of his parents and older brother. To prevent being a burden to his family, he has learnt to hide a lot of his own struggles and personal interests, one of them being his love for music and playing guitar.

TVN | Twinkling Watermelon 

Meanwhile, we meet cheerful and trouble-maker Yi-Chan (Choi Hyeon-wook) and On Eun-yoo (Seol In-ah). Yi-chan is basically the exact opposite of Eun-gyeol whereas On Eun-yoo faces the same pressure that Eun-gyeol has, following her mom’s dreams and not her’s. Just like any boy that sees her, Yi-chan also forms a major crush on her.

TVN | Twinkling Watermelon 

But the fate may change for all three characters when Eun-gyeol falls into a time slip after arguing with his father. It’s suddenly 1995, the exact time when his father was 18 years-old. And to make it even more confusing for Eun-gyeol (and me 😅), he bumps into Ha Yi-chan, THE Ha Yi-chan, Eun-gyeol’s father, at 18-years old! Frustrated at first, Eun-gyeol’s perspective totally changes when he discovers that his father could once hear and speak. It soon becomes his mission to prevent Yi-chan from any accident that could make him lose his hearing. 

TVN | Twinkling Watermelon

Even more shock is about to come for Eun-gyeol when he discovers that his father, his said first love was not actually his mom. In fact, it was Choi Se-kyung, Eun-yoo’s mom who is the spitting image of Eun-yoo in the present day. Eun-gyeol does all he can to make sure that Yi-chan and her never end up together. It’s a turn of events from the present to the future as he tries to change the fate of his parent’s life while fulfilling both of his parent’s high school dreams, like his dad's wish to be in a band.

TVN | Twinkling Watermelon

I didn’t know what to expect with this k-drama but time slips and fate-changing was definitely not one of them. I’m not going to lie, I only started watching the k-drama because I love the main actors and actresses.  I feel like these characters were written for them. They’re all fairly new faces in the industry but they’ve for sure gained a reputation for their talents, even starring in super popular k-dramas before this. It was a dream to see them together and their chemistry was just top-notch! If you want to see how this k-drama plays out, you can watch it on Viki or see a glimpse with the trailer here.