“Lovely Runner” Has Revived Our Passion In Love and Life

Life is a cycle of ups and downs. Even if time is slow inside the rock-bottom, circumstances will always change for the better. tvN’s “Lovely Runner” gives sturdy materials that can help us create our own staircase when we are at our lowest points. As they say, “Sharing is caring,” right? So, let’s look at them one by one.

Devastated by the fact that she’s crippled, Im Sol (Kim HyeYoon) is secretly planning to take her life. But after hearing Ryu SunJae’s (Byeon WooSeok) comforting words, Sol decided to live. Fifteen years later, Sol is positively living her life while supporting her savior. Unbeknownst to Sol, her idol is emotionally suffering for a long time that on the midnight of 2023, Sun Jae committed suicide. 

ALWAYS STRIVE TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT

Rushing out to save her idol, Sol fell to the ground which knocks her unconscious. When she woke up, it was already midnight and Sun Jae already passed away. Through SunJae’s wrist watch, Sol was able to go back to the past to change her and Sun Jae’s fate. As she navigates her way to the past, Sol started to remember her time with her idol and she was displeased that she forgets about him when he was like a guardian angel to her in highschool. She said, “Only when I faced my past again, did I realize how many moments of connection I have missed and lived through.” Her epiphany encapsulates John Lennon’s famous quote, “Life happens when you’re busy making other plans.” SunJae experience Lennon’s quote too, when he had countless opportunities to tell his affection to Sol, but decided to ignore those chances to look for a great timing. 

Sol’s ála won the lottery reaction to walking again is a good reminder of the wisdom, “the only constant is change.” So don’t take for granted the things we still have while we are pursuing the things that we don’t have. Sol and SunJae can definitely learn how to be grounded in the present from Park BokSoon (Jung YoungJu,) Im Geum (Song JiHo,) and Lee HyunJoo (Seo HyeWon.) 

Deep inside, it must have been painful for BokSoon to cut her daughter’s nail given that Sol lost the ability to walk. Despite the heartbreaking state of Sol, BokSoon chose to appreciate the beautiful weather outside. In later episodes, BokSoon’s resiliency perfectly masked her illness that her children failed to notice their mom’s ailment. More evidence of BokSoon’s ability to ground herself in the present showed in the scene where her hand got burned when their house was on fire and yet her expression displays a perfect balance of frustration and acceptance. Needless to say, being grounded in the present does not mean seizing only the positive experience but sometimes taking first the negatives ones will expedite your ability to appreciate the rainbow after the rain. Also without pain, one’s emotional strength will not improve.

During his bachelor days, Sol’s brother, ImGeum literally lives in the present as he refused to join the rat race. Though his YOLO (You only live once) lifestyle cost him plenty of money and pride, he became wiser in life. That’s why Sol seems to have found a rare gem when she heard her brother say,  “When you gain something, you lose something. Happiness always comes with a cost.” Geum’s wife, Lee HyunJoo, prefers the present too when her answers to Sol’s philosophical question, “If you could go back in time, would you not marry my brother?” was “Yes. Let’s say that my fate changed. How could I be certain that my new life would be any better?…We never know what kind of life we will have until we live it. If I never got married, I would have never been able to see my beautiful children.”

EMBRACE YOUR BOUNDARIES SO PEOPLE CAN ACCEPT THEM TOO

The night before his swimming competition, Sun Jae looked as if he wanted to succumb to Kim HyungGu (Lee ChulWoo) and Sol’s warning about his left shoulder but when he remembered his father’s praise, his look turned bewitched and determined to make his father proud. What an empathy-driven scene for most of us who feel uncomfortable disappointing the people around us that we forget they’ll be more disappointed when irreversible setbacks will happen to us, especially when they learned that they fuel those setbacks. As Sun Jae’s father, Ryu GeunDeok (Kim Won Hae) said, “Why do you make me a bad father?” 

For Sol, watching SunJae goes beyond his boundaries just to serve people around him feels like she has “gone mute and her hands are tied.” That’s why she cried hard when Sun Jae had to give up his swimming career. Simple as it may be, but the scene where Sol scolded SunJae for singing just to provide a phone for her captures the general lesson here and that is: Sometimes we’re leading people to ignore our boundaries because we’re the first ones to reject our limitations. Aside from GeunDeok, SunJae’s friend, Baek InHyuk (Lee Seung Hyub) has been led to SunJae’s limitless aura that he resented SunJae for wanting to retire from singing. 

The saying, “everybody waits until it’s too late” resonates to GeunDeok and In Hyuk’s reaction when they learned about Sun Jae’s breakdown. In hindsight, they seem to be ignoring their limitations too that they failed to realize the real reason behind SunJae’s decision to quit swimming and retire from his singing career. Another plausible explanation of their callous reaction is the natural tendency of humans to think of negative reasons than positive or neutral explanations, especially when the reasons are unclear. People’s relationship to change also contributes to their unfavorable response to loved ones’ sudden expression of boundaries.

TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

“No man is an island.” So when we’re at our lowest, help is a must and not a choice. Also, it’s necessary to find people who can help us see beyond the surface of our problems like Choi HyunGu (Kim HyunKyu) and Kim TaeSung (Song GeonHee) who break the “Sol is not inlove with you” bubble that In Hyuk created for Sun Jae. Turns out HyunGu and TaeSung are right. Sol is in love with Sun Jae. Finally, Sun Jae is free from doubt that once held him from making sturdy weapons against the challenges that he and Sol have in their relationship. HyunGu and TaeSung’s similar view on Sol’s feelings prove that two heads are better than one. Yet we cannot blame SunJae for only relying on InHyuk’s opinion since it’s uncomfortable to share one’s setback to anyone. Still, one should be wary of bringing their personal feelings when giving advice to loved ones, so various perspectives can be consider.

Sun Jae and TaeSung’s fight inside Im’s DVD store is a smart way to show that two heads are only better when they have the same goal. If not, they are just part of the problem. Sol’s grandmother, Jung Mal Ja (Seong ByeongSook) is right when she scream, “Please stop it. Oh, my this is so scary. At this rate, it will be the end of us. This is going to kill all of us.” This line must have helped TaeSung to cease fighting with Sun Jae and hint the latter about Sol’s true feelings. 

HAVE FUN BUT STILL BE WARY OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS

Thanks to TaeSung’s hint, Sun Jae finally learned Sol’s affection. As the couple shared a bitter sweet kiss in front of their house, they failed to think of the possibility that someone they knew might see them, specifically Sol’s mother. Looking at the big picture, BokSoon’s view toward SunJae can change for the good anytime, but the luggage that SunJae left in the airport might not be found ever again. Not to mention, the money spent from the business class ticket.

“Don’t decide when you’re too happy or sad because you’re likely to make a wrong decision” is exactly what happened to SunJae when he excitedly packed up his things to go on a date with Sol. But because of the rush, he accidentally brought in sensitive stuff inside his bag. SunJae truly doesn’t want to waste any second with Sol, making his attention fluctuate to the other important issues such as his reputation to Sol’s family. This must be the reason that he chose not to wake Sol when the latter fell asleep while they were watching a movie in the middle of the night at Im’s DVD store. As expected, they were caught by Sol’s family and SunJae’s reputation dramatically dropped down.

Although TaeSung’s lecture to Sun Jae regarding “focusing too much on love life that he forgot his friend” is partly due to jealousy, TaeSung’s opinion has a point. A healthy balance of attention to other parts of our life can prevent problems along the way. But sometimes challenges still comes even if we have successfully attended to all our necessities. This is what we can take from TaeSung’s experience in his car named Sunny. Even though TaeSung thought he carefully tend to Sunny before he got off from her, Sunny still drove herself towards the sea. One thing for sure, pressure makes people susceptible to mistakes. Yet sometimes even without pressure we still let some inconvenience happens to us, if those nuisances are the keys to attain what we want. As Sun Jae said, “There are choices you make even though you know the consequences because you like it.”

With its polar opposite lesson on mindfulness, boundaries, teamwork, and attention, “Lovely Runner” highlights the importance of balance in all aspects of life which makes every scene exhilarating like riding a seesaw on a playground. Next to the heart-fluttering scenes, elements of human embarrassment are also rampant which ignites authentic laugh from its audience. From its romanticized setting to heart-stopping performance of the leads, “Lovely Runner” is a defibilitator that revives people’s passion in love and life.