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[Drama sequels] Come and Hug Me a little more

By @ultramafic

Let me introduce you to Hyun-moo. That’s him up there in an adorable hat. Does Hyun-moo look like a killer to you?

Not to me, either.

For a while Hyun-moo tried to convince us he was a bad person. He wanted to be just like his serial killer father. I know, I know, it was a weird phase but he couldn’t even use a real killer hammer to beat people up. And he only stabbed his brother on accident and then worried about him (the jerk). He stalked people but just to keep them safe from the real bad guys.

Yeah, you’re not fooling anyone, you adorable puff cake.

Come Here and Hug Me had one of the best endings I’ve seen in a drama. It was poignant, moving, and captured the theme of the show perfectly. It wrapped everything up so well… for the OTP. Hyun-moo was not part of the OTP. (Thank god because we already had enough weird brother-love to deal with. Right, Moo-won?)

Hyun-moo evoked for me the entire drama equivalent of second lead syndrome. Like how you keep rooting for the second lead to get the girl, I kept wishing Hyun-moo was the main lead of this drama. I’m sorry Na-moo, I love you and Jang Ki-yong is a great actor, but did you throw yourself between your serial killer father and adoptive mother and then scold her, “Don’t cry, we aren’t even that close”?

​​Didn’t think so.

Our leads got their fill of hugs, but what about poor Hyun-moo? What are we to do with a drama that finishes up so nicely for the main characters, but leaves our mallow-middle side character wanting? In this case we don’t need a sequel. What we need is a spin-off.

Enter: Come and Hug Hyun-moo (working title)

You may have guessed by all the talk of hammers and stabbings that Hyun-moo still has a prison sentence to serve. That’s fine, we get it, there are consequences to actions even if those actions are half-hearted and even if you feel really bad about them. But eventually, after all the visits from Omma and his dongsaengs where he pretends to be annoyed but can’t stop smiling, he’ll get out. What happens then?

It must be hard for an ex-con to find a new life after leaving prison. He’s paid his debt, but does society give him a fair chance? Can you really start over again once you’ve turned from a life of crime? Will he be able to find love and happiness while fighting against the odds? This show practically writes itself.

I want to see Hyun-moo find his Nak-won. I want to see him teasing and fussing over Mom and So-jin. I want to see him become best friends with Moo-won and then they become a crime-fighting duo (okay okay, that’s probably asking too much). Most of all I want him to find some purpose in life besides trying and failing to live up to his father’s expectations. I want to see him come to love and forgive himself and catch hold of some dream. (With lots of comedy hijinks along the way, cause we’ve cried enough, yo.) I don’t want his last moments to be with his head down, feeling sorry for all the terrible things he’s done.

A girl can only dream for a such a blessing from the drama gods. Hyun-moo-yah, your soft squishy heart captured all of ours. Like Na-moo and Mom and So-jin, when you get out, we’ll be waiting for you. You’ll always have a place to return to.

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Beautifully written piece @ultramafic! ^^; I haven't seen the original, but if I ever pick it up later, Hyun Moo will undoubtedly be my fave character since I'll be going in with this introduction. Or alternatively I could just live watch this sequel when it comes out.

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Both GF! Na Moo ain't no slacker either, even if he got all the hugs!

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I wasn't sure what to feel for his character but as i got to know exactly what sort of character he was written to be he immediately had my heart. Give me anyone with a broken soul who just needs some love and you have my heart. the actor also did a great job at evoking sympathy out of me.

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Yes, I'm always the most impressed by actors who can play dark or conflicted characters and make us love as much as hate them! Though my hate quickly turned into just full love in this case.

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@ultramafic I love this.❤️❤️
I wish the drama gods hear our plea.
I loved his character he just wanted to prove his worth and he had all our sympathy with his.
I loved his fantasy imagination and that I surely wish to include in the sequel.
I'm okay with his Prison playbook with Hyun-Moo life too. :D
He can come out and assist Moo Won and they can fight along.

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I can't believe I hated him (a little) in Prison Life. He was such a bratty little brother. :D

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He was bratty but I so loved how much he loved Je Hyeok more than his brother. He was such a fanboy.❤️

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I need to watch that, I hear only good things. Now that I know Hyun Moo is in it (even if he's another punk kid) I'll have to see it.

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@ultramafic I hope you watch it soon.❤️ Each episode are 1 and 1/2 hour long but it's worth investing your time. You won't want the drama to end.

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yes, YES YES... please watch!!
*finger hearts*

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What a lovely piece @ultramafic!!! Your writing is as touching as your man of the hour! Hyun Moo is the only character in a drama who I hated and then loved in a span of 1 episode! I too shall be waiting! He does have a place to return! Now who do we pay to make your spin off??

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Our meanie hero Hyun-moo! I luff him.<3 I never thought he would become my favorite character (I hated him at the beginning for beating up Na-moo, my then favorite character), but when he started to protect mom & So-jin he immediately became my favorite. Yesss for a spin-off!

Great piece @ultramafic! ^^
This post reminds me that I haven’t read Mary’s weecap yet. Lol.

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Read them! They're so good and give lots of love to Hyun Moooo

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This read like a love letter to Hyun-moo! I did not watch the drama but enjoyed reading the recaps (with @mary teaching Yoon Hee-jae to be more diva, how could I not!), and the idea of Hyun-moo + Moo-won duo catching up monsters because they have intel on how monsters work makes all the sense in the world.

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I blame @ultramafic for making me want the Moo-won/Hyun-moo team. It sounds like Tae-wook and Jail Oppa from Misty T___T where Hyun-moo will use his ninja skills learned from a hard prison life to help Moo-won uhm... "creatively" investigate stuff that would otherwise get blocked by red tape.

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He is also my fav character in the drama beside Mo Woon. And the acting they are carried are just awsome for me. I wish this drama revolves around Hyun Moo character. Haaha

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Awww... I wish I saw this before my harsh closing comments. You reminded me of the great parts of the show. :)

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Mary I agreed with you for the most part! If Na Moo had been a little more conflicted like Hyun Moo I think the show would have been better for it. But then again, I'm biased.

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Yes, yes, yes! *(gently) slams fists on the table in agreement*

We had lots of tree-hugging this time ‘round. Now we need our cow-hugging. 😊🐄

*runs off* *hollers* I love your writing, @ultramafic!

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❌🐄

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😘

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@ultramafic I love your piece. Hyunmoo was one of the best characters once we figured him out. His family did come around to loving him and I'm sure they'll support him when he gets out of prison, I mean how could they not love him. He definitely deserves a spinoff full of hugs and kisses.

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I loved Kim Kyung-Nam in Prison Playbook. I hope to see more of him soon.

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Agreed. In PP he was on the outside looking in. Now I think the immediate issue is the location Hyun-moo's incarceration. No way can he be in the same prison as Psycho Dad.
So Moo-won will have to make a few calls:
1. To make sure the two of them are in separate prisons; and
2. Ideally get HM into a prison wing watched over by Prison Officer Lee Joon-ho (JKH) and Lt. Paeng (JWI).
O/T Interesting piece on the use of Jangheung Prison as a set for dramas:
https://koreandramaland.com/listings/jangheung-prison-set-%EC%9E%A5%ED%9D%A5%EA%B5%90%EB%8F%84%EC%86%8C-%EC%84%B8%ED%8A%B8%EC%9E%A5/
(Apologies for the long link.)

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Good call on having Moo-won making a few calls because they should not be in the same prison.

Wow, a real life prison set. I kind of want a tour.

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thanks for sharing the link! sadly there aren't many Come And Hug Me locations on the site, but feel free to contribute if you happen to know of any :)

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@ultramafic,

I love it! And I can see it all now. COME AND HUG HYUN-MOO could take a cue from GREASY WOK OF MELO LOVE and have Hyun-moo start working with Mom in her pork soup restaurant after his release from prison. Or he could apprentice with the rest of the gangsters at Giant Hotel and learn to make killer black bean noodles and sweet and sour pork... But I really sense that he should be learning all of Mom's down-home recipes and cooking up a storm with her. That would solve his employability issues as an ex-con. It would also be an honest living based on creating rather than destroying.

Or with Jae-yi's and Manager Pyo's assistance, Hyun-moo could become a stunt man or extra in TV dramas. But the hours are murder, so I'd rather he work with Stepmom at their shop and keep regular hours. And meet a plain jane customer who doesn't know his history and just loves him for the honorable, hard-working person he has become. ;-)

After Reporter Han made such a big deal about publicizing the redemptive aspects of the relationship between the son of the killer and the daughter of the killer's victims, I think she's got a couple more articles to write, on:

1) the relationship between the stepmother and little stepsister whose love for both boys ultimately saved their souls. (Alas, by the end of the show, hairdresser So-jin had completely disappeared.);

2) the untold story of Chief Go and Stepmom and how they were brought together by Na-moo's selfless bravery;

3) the unexpected rapport and personal healing that develops between the son of the killer and the son of his victims, who found themselves on opposite sides of the law, but encouraged each other to rise above their tragic pasts.

I would love to see Stepmom and Hyun-moo open a new restaurant in a bright, sunlit location that draws diners from near and far after Koo Dae-young discovers them and cleans his plate in his Let's Eat blog photos. Both of them have spent many years in the literal shadow of Psycho Killer Dad. I want them to make up for lost time and experience joy, contentment, and mundane satisfaction -- because for them, life with Killer Dad was anything but mundane.

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When I wrote the first draft I had this whole section on Hyun Moo and Chil Sung from Melo teaming up to open a soup kitchen for ex cons hard on their luck. It was glorious. I should have kept it in!

I wish more dramas did crossovers!

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Ah, Beanie minds running in the same channel. ;-)

If you can recall some of the details from your first draft and post them here as an addendum, I'm sure you'll have a bunch of happy readers. Hint, hint. ;-)

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This was great @ultramafic! I won't say no to a sequel, but only if they take into account what you said. Hyun-moo definitely did steal the show in the last hour (actually way more)!

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@ultramafic I love you <3
Is this where I should say ~Hyun-moooooooooo~??
He had me at “Don’t cry, we aren’t even that close” <3 <3 <3
Why did no one tell me this character existed?? I was side blinded by @jenmole 's love for Chang Ki-yong!
Thanks for sharing your awesome thoughts; I can see this becoming a hit! #ComeandHugHyun-moo2k19

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Any time is the time to say Hyun MOOOOOOO

Chang Ki-yong's Na Moo is a treasure but Hyun Moo is like the gold you had to dig twenty feet into the dirt for so he sparkles all the more.

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I love how you love Hyun-moo so much T____T

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Goes on the list...

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Awwwwwwww~~~
Undoubtedly that Hyun-Moo need his own happy ending, I support the sequel!

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Bravo! Bravo! This is exactly how I felt. The ending didn't even include Hyun-moo. I needed more scenes with him. He was hands-down my FAVORITE character in the show. I would totally watch a show all about him. Kim Kyung-nam was phenomenal in this role; so beautiful and talented. I know that they wanted to portray Do-jin as the protector but to me Hyun-moo was the real protector. He was even trying to protect his brother back when they were kids by throwing away the hammer that Dad gave Na-moo. And that dream/fantasy sequence about what life could have been like without Dad was beautiful. They should have fast-forwarded to the end of his prison term and showed us future Hyun-moo with his family or at the very least shown the family visiting him in prison. That would have been awesome and would have made the show complete for me.

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Yes! That's exactly why I wrote this--they didn't even give us a little glimpse of what his redemption earned him. It was so unsatisfying!

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Congrats @ultramafic for getting published! As I read this, I felt like we were in our chat rooms and this sounds just like you! What a great read and I'd totally watch a second season of Hyun Moo with cameos from JKY of course!

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it does read like a casual ranting spree in the absolute BEST of ways, doesn't it? amazing style.

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I love her "casual ranting sprees". :)

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"perky"

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It also reminded me of being in the chat room while staring at both your Hyunmoo and Namoo avatars.

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LOL...that's right. After we were done, I was stumped for a few seconds..(ok a minute) when you thanked us.

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LOL. Same! The Jens and their Moos.

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🐄🐄🐄💖💖💖

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Love this piece.
May I suggest a main role for him on "Bad Guys III : Era of psichos".
His experience would be priceless, and we could see Park Hae Jin again and my heart will explode from the intense acting and beauty all around!.

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so many crossover options! Let's put him in every prison sequel ever. Now.

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All of THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^ X1000000000

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Yaaaaaaaaaayy

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@ultramafic YAYYYYY i would totaaaaalllllly watch this. They should make the sequel into a slice of life drama, and him still having traumatic experiences... of course he meets a girl who'll help heal him. hyun moo is such a precious bean! Itll also give a chance to the production team to release those unreleased BGMs! Thank you for writing chingu!

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JM get your hammers ready!!! No not for that, he's reformed! He's going to work on Habitat for Humanity houses because he's a good person now.

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But watch out for the (Texas) chainsaws. ;-)

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I love this piece.. totally needed the spotlight on him. Just yesterday i wrote my review on Come and Hug me and my major plus and i quote.. "Kim Kyung Nam delivered arguably the most difficult role and personally i thought he was a scene stealer. He was just so good and his well written character almost made me yearn for him to be a maincast, more scenes, just more.."
https://mydramalist.com/profile/sharreb/reviews?sort=recent

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This is so sweet. I think his ending was realistic for all of the things he did, but I think this is also a show where I wouldn't have minded one of those time-skip endings just to see him come out of jail and have everyone waiting for him with tofu to stuff in his face.

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@ultramafic i totally loved it. This character in the drama and such characters in real life need the attention they deserve. Many a times in life these are the real characters who are caught in the crossfire of good and bad...and they fight their good with many scars...going the wrong way, manipulated by the ones most trusted, not valued and used and thrown aside...disowned by the world and thier internal conflict.....the ones who are absolute good or bad have no conflicts at all....Thank you for giving this intro and giving the required credit this character deserved.

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