Our Unwritten Seoul, the new Netflix show starring Jin-Young and Park Bo-Young is a melodrama about twins that are identical in appearance but opposites in behavior. The first episode plays out like a typical K-drama with a flashback to the childhood of our protagonists, Mi-Ji and Mi-Rae. In the present day, the two sisters are split up, one in Seoul and the other in their hometown, still living with her mom. But an unexpected turn of events is going to change that really soon. The story is told to us from Mi-Ji’s point of view, and she seems to be the rebellious daughter who gets called the useless one, whereas Mi-Rae is the ideal daughter. But what’s really going on with both sisters? Let’s find out in episode 1 of Our Unwritten Seoul.
Spoiler Alert
Why Did The Names Get Switched?
When Mi-Rae and Mi-Ji’s mum got pregnant, it was a huge blessing for the family, so their father decided names for the twins well in advance: Mi-Ji for the girl who comes first, an unknown, but Mi-Rae, meaning future, for the girl who comes second. However, due to complications during the birthing process, the sisters’ names were switched, leaving the second daughter as the unknown Mi-Ji. This is significant, because every time something doesn’t work out for Mi-Ji, she blames it on her name. When Mi-Ji and Mi-Rae are young, nobody can tell the difference between them, except for their father and their grandmother. But Mi-Rae and Mi-Ji’s stay-at-home dad passes early on, when they’re young, leaving their mother and grandmother to look after the two girls.
Mi-Rae happens to be the one with good grades, making her the ideal daughter, but Mi-Ji ends up being known as just “the twin.” However, the girls quickly realized that if they aren’t able to do anything right, they could just switch, and nobody would know better. However, when they’re found out, their grandma decides to cut Mi-Ji’s long hair off so that everybody can tell the two sisters apart. When they’re in middle school, Mi-Rae becomes the top student in school, while Mi-Ji simply cheers her on, because she’s not good at anything. But one day, when she’s running to be the first person to eat lunch, she’s discovered as a potential athlete. Mi-Ji suddenly becomes the pride of the school, winning medal after medal, but this victory is short-lived, because when it comes time for national selection, she ends up twisting her ankle mid-race and falling flat on her face. Of course, she blames her name because, again, she goes back to being an unknown.
Who Is Lee Ho-Su?
In high school, Mi-Ji and Mi-Rae get new neighbors, and the kid is in their grade too. But Ho-Su isn’t like other kids; he’s partially deaf and doesn’t interact with anybody, especially not Mi-Ji, who essentially harasses him because he doesn’t listen to what she has to say. But what she doesn’t know is that she’s being insensitive because Ho-Su nearly died in an accident when he was young, leaving him severely burned on the left side of his body. It’s Mi-Rae who tells Mi-Ji about this because she was told by the teacher to help the new boy out. There’s an incident in school when Ho-Su grabs onto Mi-Ji’s hand because he gets hit by a ball on his ear, and it makes it ring terribly. In that moment Mi-Ji comforts the boy by holding his hand and telling him to breathe, but he gets scared and runs away.
In the present day, Ho-Su, who lives in Seoul, is visiting his mom’s place for his dad’s death anniversary. Something he doesn’t seem very happy to be doing. Mi-Ji is sent to hand over some food, but she runs away the second she hears that Ho-Su is visiting. However, he shows up at the gate, and the first thing he asks her is how Mi-Rae is doing, annoying her. But later, when she accidentally hits him on the left ear in irritation because he asks about Mi-Rae again, she learns that her sister is having some trouble in Seoul and Ho-Su believes she’s the only one who can help her, because Mi-Rae doesn’t show her weakness in front of anyone else.
What Happens in Seoul?
In the present day, Mi-Ji gets upset every time somebody mentions Mi-Rae because she always gets compared to her older, smarter sister. But after hearing what Ho-Su tells her about Mi-Rae, she worries a little bit and decides to visit her with the food their mom made for her. In Seoul, Mi-Rae acts like everything is perfect when she picks Mi-Ji up at work and takes her to a cafe nearby. But she talks about jumping out of her window as if it’s something normal to contemplate. Mi-Ji doesn’t make much of it, but when she returns from a visit to the washroom, Mi-Rae is missing, and she’s left everything behind. Mi-Ji panics after realizing that Mi-Rae might be suicidal. Mi-Ji rushes to Mi-Rae’s house and finds her hanging off her window. Mi-Ji rushes to catch hold of her, but she slips off the stool, and they both fall from the 3rd floor. Fortunately, Mi-Rae threw her blankets out first, and the shrubbery is enough to save them from severe injuries. In that moment, Mi-Ji breaks down, telling her sister that she can’t live without her. They both start to cry and hug each other tight. Later, Mi-Rae tells Mi-Ji that she’s being bullied at work for standing up for her senior, who was nice to her. This left her the next target, and the senior quit the job, making her lonely and sad.
At the end of Our Unwritten Seoul episode 1, Mi-Ji gets off the bus that she’s supposed to take home because her instincts make her realize that Mi-Rae is still not okay. She finds her sister walking by the bridge and stops her before she does something drastic again. Mi-Ji realizes that she shouldn’t be telling her sister to endure the problem or just take a vacation; Mi-Rae needs to quit. But there’s no way she can do that because she’s taken out a loan, so Mi-Ji decides she will go to work instead of Mi-Rae, and Mi-Rae will live as Mi-Ji. This is how the story of the twin sisters begins.
