For those who don't know, I am a HUGE fan of the drama Reply 1997 and I thought that I would post some quotes from the drama.
I found the drama to be extremely relatable, which is one of the reasons why I adore this drama, so I hope you can relate to these quotes.
"An age where you feel like you could love anyone, where you put everything on the line for the smallest of things. Eighteen. Adults say that it’s an age where we laugh if a leaf tumbles by. But back then, we were more serious than any adult, more intense, and had our strength tested. 1997. That was how our eighteen was beginning". -Shi Won
“A person’s heart has countless levels. Its depth cannot be known. Its limit can’t be known. You could fight to the death, and then exchange affection as if nothing ever happened. A red-blooded male could turn into an imbecile in front of the opposite sex. Yes, the truth is uncomfortable. But if we don’t embrace that discomfort, then we must live the rest of our lives believing what’s fake to be real. Even uncomfortable truths must be embraced. What you see is not everything.” – Shi Won
"Bumping into someone on the street, reaching for the same book at the library, or running under someone’s umbrella… I thought that falling in love would be special. I couldn’t imagine… that I’d fall because of something like this. Spring of 1996. My first love began that suddenly.” – Yoon Jae
“This life that might leap anywhere — there’s no use avoiding or ignoring it. There’s just facing it and getting beaten to a bloody pulp. But at times life can surprise us with gifts that make our hearts flutter. And if we endure sadness, we are rewarded with happiness.” – Yoon Jae
“You have to be content with a dream that’s close. If you chase after one that’s far away, your heart will hurt and your insides will burn. A futile passion only leaves heartache. That’s why life’s stupidest thing is a one-sided love. But the reason that stupid one-sided love is worth trying is… that passion can sometimes make miracles happen… sometimes go the long way around to help you fulfill a dream… and even if it doesn’t allow you to realize that dream, it allows you to linger near it and find happiness.” – Tae Woong
“They say that people are born with a red string that they can’t see, tied to their pinky fingers, and the end is tied to the one you’re fated to be with. But the thread is twisted this way and that, making it hard to find the other end.” – Yoon Jae
“People’s countless threads, all tangled together. But when I start to unravel it, I end up face to face with my fate, without even knowing it. If the red thread of fate really exists, then who is the one tied to my red thread?” – Yoon Jae
“The reason I like you? Because it's you. Just you. That's the only reason. I wish I knew. Then I could figure out how to stop liking you. If I can't avoid it, I only want one thing. To stay as a friend who doesn't change. For heartache. For love.” Joonhee
“Liking someone isn’t a choice. It comes from your heart.” – Joon Hee
“Why are you sorry? It’s not like you can choose who you like.” – Joon Hee
“Each expecting different things, each looking at different places, each dreaming different dreams… everything that happens between one man and one woman, is just continuous love and war. You sulk, you pacify, you fight, you make up, you hurt, you embrace. A relationship like a manic-depressive patient who can’t make up his mind. But the hardest thing about the relationship between a man and a woman is the timing — if the love doesn’t begin at the same time, it’s unlikely to ever begin at all.” – Yoon Jae
“The reason my teen years are like a rushing wind is because I don’t yet know the answers: what it is I really want, who really loves me, who is it that I love. The time of life when I tumble here and there, searching for the answers. And then in the end, the moment when I figure out the answers to everything like a miracle… we had already become adults, and been doing big and small things. And like that, that winter was full of goodbyes.” – Shi Won
“My body remembered my ’90s. The moment I saw the person I had once been crazy about, I immediately returned to that ’90s fangirl, and my ’90s, which I thought were over, began all over again…” – Shi Won
"There is nothing more urgent than now. Because later might never come. Life isn’t long enough to speak of the next opportunity, rather than the now that’s before our eyes.” – Yoon Jae
“If you give up on now because of laziness or a lack of courage, there is no hope of another opportunity. If you love now, the best timing is now. You have to go before it’s too late, and you have to confess now. Because you never know what’ll happen later. The next opportunity might never come.” – Yoon Jae
"When a man, reveals to the a woman he loves one sidedly like a pathetic fool, if he confess everything, it means he doesn’t want to see her ever again." –Yoon Jae
“The reason my teen years are like a rushing wind is because I don’t yet know the answers: what it is I really want, who really loves me, who is it that I love. The time of life when I tumble here and there, searching for the answers. And then in the end, the moment when I figure out the answers to everything like a miracle… we had already become adults, and been doing big and small things. And like that, that winter was full of goodbyes.”- Shi Won
First love. The reason why first love is so beautiful isn’t because first love itself is beautiful. During that time, we had our youth - which wasn’t vicious, me - who was overly innocent, and you - who was uncontrollably passionate. And… because we already knew that we would never be able to go back to our youthful, innocent, and passionate times.
First love is thoughtless. If you don’t calculate and just throw your innocence and passion at it, it’ll end up failing. But that’s why it’s dramatic. The thoughtless stories, mixed with the emotions and warmth that can never be retrieved again. That why first love is my life’s most dramatic story.
Therefore, failure is even okay. Instead of a happy ending, a sad ending remains in the memory longer. So it’s okay to leave even just one sad ending of a failed first love in one small portion of my life.
First love is a season. When it passes, it’s gone. Now it’s time to greet the new season and give it a chance for a new romance. Even though we’ll never experience the warmth and innocence from a first love, we have to wait for the romance of an adult, after being matured from the pain of first love.
The person who waits can only dream of love.
And the person, who waits, will miraculously recognize the love that comes one more time.
When romance ends, life takes over. Innocence gets dirtied, passion dies out, and youth starts getting old. So the innocent period of first love wears out and becomes a past event. That’s why it seems like first love never comes true. No one talks about the success of a first love.
So it’s okay to be successful as well. Even though there might not be a dramatic story in my life, there’s a bigger familiarity than an old comfortable sweater, and when the familiarity gets old, there’s a heart-fluttering feeling that we can look back at.
From my childhood friend with the runny nose, to my first love, to my girlfriend, and now as husband and wife. We passed through the same time period, shared the same memories, and now are getting old together. This familiar heart-fluttering moment…I like it.
“That nostalgic time that was passionate and innocent. Can you hear it? If you hear it, reply, my 90s.”
-Yoon Jae
