[Best Friends Forever] We don’t talk anymore

by Guest Beanie

Dream High

By @yjgclone

Dramaland can tell stories about the most beautiful friendships whether they are men, women, or a bunch of students trying to reach out in the world together. When I read about this month’s theme, I knew a lot of people would express their feelings about the most solid friendships, the ones who never left their BFFs when things got really really rough and stood by their side.

For me, lost relationships that were rekindled give me a different kind of heartwarming feeling—the stories about friends we lost along the way, and the second chance we might give someone who wants to be with us again.

Dream High

Dream High had many different kinds of friendships. From the underwear-sharing bromance of Jin-gook and Sam-dong, the underrated friendship of Hye-mi and Pil-sook, to the whole group of six students doing a flash mob with the whole school. But for me, the like-hate-love relationship of Hye-mi, the popular girl, and Baek-hee, the hardworking one, shined the most.

Their relationship development is one of the focal points of the show. In fact, it started the drama’s tension when Hye-mi totally left Baek-hee hanging during their audition for the art school. I’ve always thought that Hye-mi 1.0 was not totally emotionless. Though she was really personality-wise hard to deal with, she still actually had very limited ways to show that she cared for her friend. When Baek-hee was being called Hye-mi’s slippers, Hye-mi threw a sample of her attitude to the bullies. Her approach was not really endearing, but she somehow returned the favor of appreciation that Baek-hee gave to her.

Dream High

However, due to insecurities and prejudice, their relationship went flat as they created their greatest nemesis in each other during their ill-fated audition, where Hye-mi was insulted by her friend’s success. Their friendship became like a kettle boiling up. The heat between them was fiery and conflict and rivalry between them was constant.

But just like any real relationship, sometimes it just takes time to realize the bigger picture that both of them were wrong along the way. By being a more mature person in the later episodes, they learned to see each other again without hatred. The ultimate reconciliation came during Baek-hee’s darkest time. Hye-mi sang and dedicated their audition piece to her. The song that drifted them apart was also the same one that gave them the will to carry on.

Dream High

A roller coaster ride for friendships is hard to find in dramaland and this one is so satisfying. I’ve seen dramas that tried to use this trope (You From Another Star, Oh My Venus, I’m Not a Robot) but Hye-mi and Baek-hee are my favorite. They pulled each other down but also encouraged each other. I also like the fact that their conflict did not originate from a guy, but rather the pressure that forced them to show the nastiest side of their personalities.

Their school war was also not caused by some misunderstanding that could have been fixed (though Baek-hee wasn’t informed of Hye-mi’s financial situation). It is their nature and realizations that led them to that. I think that their initial friendship was a ticking bomb waiting to explode. The audition just pushed them to their limits and revealed their worst judgments. And without this fight between them, neither of them would have realized the things that would make them better.

49 Days

How could you fix a really broken friendship? Well, 49 Days says it really can’t be fixed anymore, especially when ticking time is against you. This healing drama narrates the story of Shin Ji-hyun’s soul trying to find three tears of pure love in order to wake up from her comatose state. With this chance given to her, she discovered that her fiancé and her best friend were actually plotting something against her and her family. When Ji-hyun finally wakes up, she insisted on seeing her ex-friend In-jung. While pretending not to know of her betrayal, she told her a dream she had which references a scene from the first episode.

Ji-hyun: “On my engagement day, my shoe broke. I kept seeing you taking your shoes off for me. You took your shoes off unconsciously and ran barefoot. In that moment, you’d taken them off for me.”
In-jung: “What are you saying?”
Ji-hyun: “They say shoes are a woman’s pride, but in that moment, you threw your pride aside for me. Forgetting the engagement ceremony, you thought of me first. Because I was your friend.”

49 Days

That pinched my heart a few thousand times. Despite all of the betrayal, Ji-hyun still saw the good in her friend. It also tugged at the heart to know that In-jung was the last pure love tear that Ji-hyun needed to wake up. Their friendship, stained by deceit, might be unsalvageable, but their mutual feeling of connection would still linger. I think one would still celebrate the other’s victory and feel empathy for the other’s hardship.

I guess there are really many kinds of friendships. There are really some friends who are bound to walk a different path from the one you are taking. These friends should not be blamed, as they also need to realize some things without us. However, that does not make them any lesser, as they are the people we created our stories with.

49 Days

 
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