Twinkling Watermelon (2023) K Drama Episode 2

Episode 2 of Twinkling Watermelon starts with 3 members of the rookie rock band – SPINE9 waiting for Eun-gyeol to show up for his street performance. Ji-o forces  Jong-hyeong and Soo-tak to stay for longer and watch the masked boy perform on his electric guitar.

Eun-gyeol shows up and tells the people waiting for him that it is his last performance. Jong-hyeong begins to leave but waits back to watch Eun-gyeol have a go at his electric guitar.

The crowd cheers for Eun-gyeol and soon after the performance, the three band members approach. They ask Eun-gyeol to perform with them but the latter immediately refuses. Jong-hyeong gives them a CD of SPINE9’s latest music and asks him to reconsider their offer.

The boys tell Eun-gyeol that they are going to perform soon and want him to join their band. Eun-gyeol goes back to his school locker and decides to store the CD and focus on his exam. Instead of doing so, Eun-gyeol hops on his bike and puts on headphones to listen to the songs from the rock band. He worries that he will never be fully able to quit music.

Eun-gyeol shows up to practice with the SPINE9 members that Friday. Eun-gyeol sets out his conditions before joining the band and tells them that music is not his top priority and that he would prioritise his exams, family and future when need be. Despite the conditions, the band agrees to let Eun-gyeol join them and the four boys start practising for their show. 

Come the day of their show, SPINE9 manages to impress a lot of fans who show up at the Spark Club. At the same time, MJ Entertainment’s talent – Yoon Dong-jin – gives an interview about his career in the music industry and narrates how he started his singing with his high school boy band.

Dong-jin also reveals that he was initially a member band where he met Oh Ma-joo 30 years ago. He clarifies that their group had to disband after causing a huge trouble.

Ma-joo listens to the interview from outside the room when his assistant shows him the video of Eun-gyeol performing with SPINE9. On the other hand, SPINE9 members celebrate the success of their concert and ask Eun-gyeol to ensure he is always wearing his mask in order to keep his identity a secret and to help generate more buzz around their group.

Just then, the owner of Spark Club tells them that they’re shortlisted by MJ Entertainment and are asked to perform for Dong-jin’s upcoming concert. The boys celebrate and the three tell Eun-gyeol all about Ma-joo being the manager and godfather of Dong-jin, the nation’s #1 singer. They celebrate how the opportunity could help them make a debut as artists in the music industry, when Eun-gyeol gets a text from his father. 

A worried Eun-gyeol rushes to the hospital after learning that his father has got into an accident but calms down when he learns that no one was hurt. Upon reaching there he finds out that his father was filing a complaint against the driver of a vehiclel an underaged boy that almost ran into him.

The mother of the driver claims Eun-gyeol’s father is lying because she was the person behind the wheel. Eun-gyeol notices that the woman was their landlady from six years ago and the driver was actually Byung-ho.

After a lot of back and forth, the police agree to look into the matter and ask both parties to go home. Eun-gyeol interprets his father’s sign language and tells the landlady that she is enabling her son all over again and covering up for his mistakes. 

At home, Eun-gyeol and his father argue about what happened at the police station. He scolds his father for raising a complaint while Eun-gyeol’s father signs that people with disabilities are often overlooked because they often suffer in silence. The next day, Eun-gyeol shows up at the Sparks Club and tells the trio that he will no longer perform with them. 

Soo-tak calls Eun-gyeol names and punches him for betraying their band when they needed him the most. Eun-gyeol reveals that he had already suffered a lot in the past when he was preoccupied with music and he no longer wanted to repeat the same mistake. Jong-hyeong tells Eun-gyeol that they will wait for him one last time if he wishes to join the band again.

Eun-gyeol goes back to school and learns that his mother was called in because his grades were slacking. His mother grows concerned because she recalls never being in a position where she had to be answerable to his teachers. She also tells him that she had dropped by in the past and noticed he was missing class. Eun-gyeol’s mother promises to keep this a secret from his father because he’s so proud of Eun-gyeol. 

Yi-chan

Yi-chan brags about his interaction with Se-kyung at the ice cream shop and tells his friend Ma-joo that he is going to ask her out. Ma-joo gives Yi-chan a reality check and tells him that there is no way she would accept his proposal because she is the most sought-after girl in their school. Ma-joo tells Yi-chan that Se-kyung is a cello player who often keeps to herself and comes from an extremely wealthy family.

Ma-joo tells his friend that Se-kyung is already betrothed to a handsome, wealthy boy who is soon going to be a doctor, and currently a member of a boy band. He asks his friend to give up on the dream of dating Se-kyung but Yi-chan has other plans.

Yi-chan shows up at the elite get-together and is mesmerized by watching Se-kyung perform her cello. Se-kyung’s friend San-a finds Yi-chan and tries to stop him from entering the party. Se-kyung tells her friend that Yi-chan is her guest and takes him away.

In private, Se-kyung turns Yi-chan down and asks him to stop following her around like a stalker. He tries to get Se-kyung to reason with him but she clarifies that she had no time to waste on dating and adds that the two of them could never date as they come from two different worlds.

Yi-chan tries to persuade her but she teases him by calling him out for having the fly of his jeans open. Yi-chan is embarrassed and immediately leaves the party. 

The morning after, Yi-chan wakes up in his room at the boarding house and is embarrassed by what happened the day before. His roommate – Bal San tells him that girls dig musicians and ask him to join a band. Elsewhere, Se-kyung talks to San-a and tells her how she hates bands because they cause noise pollution.

At school, a girl named Chung-a ends up dropping dirty water on Se-kyung when the bullies make her trip on purpose. Se-kyung tries to talk to Chung-a politely but the girl leaves without saying a word. In the women’s room, Chung-a offers Se-kyung one of her Kurt Cobain T-shirts since she had ruined her uniform. Se-kyung begins to thank the girl but is met with silence.

Se-kyung goes outside in the T-shirt and runs into Yi-chan who is wearing the exact same Tshirt as her. Without hearing her out first, Yi-chan invites Se-kyung to attend his band concert. 

Eun-gyeol

The constant pressure of being the ideal child gets to Eun-gyeol and he shows up outside the old Viva Music Instrument shop which has now been turned into a house. Outside, the owner, Choi Se-kyung, calls Eun-gyeol inside after learning who he is.

Se-kyung reveals her daughter is a cello player just like her and gives Eun-gyeol the guitar her father, Grandpa Viva, had left out for him before his death. Eun-gyeol breaks down in tears upon seeing the guitar and recalls his past memories with the old man.

Before going back home, Eun-gyeol wonders what Grandpa Viva would like him to do with his musical talent and he shows up to practise with SPINE9 the following day. 

Eun-gyeol’s parents ask him to join them when they go searching through the landlady’s dashcam footage to prove that Byung-ho was driving the car. Since Eun-gyeol has to practice for his band, Eun-ho lies to their parents and covers for his little brother. When Eun-gyeol reaches the club, he notices that Jong-hyeong is unwell and runs to the pharmacy to get him some meds. 

The landlady who was in the area spots Eun-gyeol and follows after her. She finds him holding Jong-hyeong’s cigarette. She immediately gets a call from the police station and tells them that Eun-gyeol’s father had checked their dashcam and found that Byung-ho was driving the car. The cops call Byung-ho in to lodge a formal complaint against him.

Outside the police station, the landlady mocks Eun-gyeol’s father for worrying about her son when his own son goes to clubs, drinks, smokes and does drugs. After learning what the landlady had said, Eun-gyeol’s father grows furious and drives back home angry. On the other hand, Ma-joo shows up at the club to watch SPINE9 perform. With Jong-hyeong still sick, he asks Eun-gyeol to sing in his stead.

The concert goes quite well with Eun-gyeol as the lead singer and guitarist but his father shows up there. He is mad at Eun-gyeol and scolds him for lying and deceiving his parents. Eun-gyeol tells his father that he wants to be a musician and not an angel or a fire alarm that would save their family. Eun-gyeol is upset and starts walking back home. He regrets his words and tries to break his guitar when he is shocked.

He notices that there are two moons in the sky and finds another version of The Vida Music Shop. He goes inside the shop with his guitar and meets Master. He decides to sell off his guitar in exchange for a lot of money. Master asks Eun-gyeol to come back to the shop in case he changes his mind and warns him against ever forgetting the transaction slip.

Eun-gyeol leaves with the money, the transaction slip and the complimentary electric guitar Master hands over. After stepping outside the shop, Eun-gyeol is shockingly taken 29 years into the past in the year 1995. He runs into highschoolers Yi-chan and Ma-joo who call him Dong-jin and introduce themselves as members of the band “First Love Memory Manipulators”

Eun-gyeol is shocked when he discovers that Yi-chan is none other than his father as the episode comes to an end. 

The Episode Review

Whew! The plot thickens and we are only in episode 2. The story so far looks very crisp and enjoyable which makes it clear why so many people are enjoying this one. Eun-gyeol was feeling the pressure of being the poster child for his family and the one child that was the saving grace of his disabled parents. It was natural for him to have broken down like that.

On the other hand, we can finally make our own theories on the basis of what we know. The year 1995 sees Eun-gyeol’s parents as high schoolers and I want to assume since Yi-chan is his father, Chung-a is his mother. We have never seen her speak so it is possible that she is the one Yi-chan will eventually end up with. This episode makes me excited for next week as more episodes roll out and the mystery unfolds.