'Record of Youth' Episode 2: Park Bo-gum as Hye-jun decides to enlist in the army, shocks his fan Jeong-ah
'Record of Youth' Episode 2 mainly centers on how Hye-jun faces failure and if he manages to still hold his beliefs as closely as before. In this episode, we see Hye-jun face a number of obstacles, and the biggest one turns out to be his family. In the name of wanting to do Hye-jun some good, his father wants to knock some sense into him and get him to understand and boys like him, from the economical background that he is from, are not fit for the industry that he has chosen.
Hye-jun's brother also takes this chance to tell him that he needs to face the reality, the fact that he has no connections or sponsors to make it in the industry has already put Hye-jun in a tough position but to come home and find his father repeatedly call him a burden to the family, or repeatedly indicate that he is a failure who doesn't compare in any way to his more successful brother takes a toll on him. So he lets his frustration lose and tells his father and brother that as a family they should either try and help him or if they are unable to then they should stay away from making any judgments about the life that he leads. After all, he hasn't sought the support of his father or his brother since he had passed out from high school.
Are we judging Hye-jun's family too harshly? It doesn't seem like it because it is clear that Hye-jun's father is a man who runs behind money and if Hye-jun had brought home fortune and wealth and work he would have been on cloud nine. In fact, he seems to make light of all the hard work that Hye-jun had put in when he said that for a top model, no one on the road seems to recognize him. Hye-jun's brother, on the other hand, doesn't trust Hye-jun or his talent. He believes that he is much better than his brother and at every possible moment, he manages to show off that economically, he is in a much better position than Hye-jun.
The things that Hye-jun's brother or his father tell him are not for his good, but theirs because the two of them are worried about Hye-jun ending up depending on his family for financial help in the future. Hye-jun understands the root cause of their worry better than anyone and the fact that he did not land the role that he had auditioned for pushes Hye-jun further into a corner. However, there is a silver lining in all of this. Turns out he did not get the role because his friend Hae-hyo had more followers on Instagram when compared to him. The selection had nothing to do with acting capability and he also learned that his favorite director was impressed with his skills.
All of this helps Hye-jun make an important decision and that is to give up on his dream for now and complete his compulsory time to be served in the army. What neither he or his friend are aware of is the fact that Hae-hyo's followers were bought and not real. Yet, because Hye-jun had been sincere throughout his journey of chasing his passion, he feels comfortable in making the decision right now. Despite getting a chance to get the support of a designer as a sponsor, Hye-jun refuses any such support because he realizes that the designer is making a move on him.
This is not something that Hye-jun wants to let continue. So he distances himself from the designer and when this famous guy gets bitter over the rejection and gets cruel with his words, all that Hye-jun tells, very respectfully at that is that he would rather quit wanting to be an actor if he can't make it on his own than to get support from a sponsor.
In the meantime, Hye-jun decides to help Jeong-ah who was treated unfairly by her senior at work. He brings Hae-hyo to Jeong-ah's shop and even tells her boss that the two of them are friends with Jeong-ah. He gets her to come work on their assignment too and this makes her extremely thankful. What doesn't is the fact that he comes to her to have his hair cut because he is now off to enlist in the army. With this shocking confession, the episode ends and we cannot wait for what the show will portray next.
'Record of Youth' originally airs on tvN on Mondays and Tuesdays in South Korea and can be streamed on Netflix in the US.