Twenty-Five Twenty-One Episode 1: Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Tae-ri's show has Replay series vibe to it

Twenty-Five Twenty-one, the latest tvN show starring Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Tae-ri, has a vibe that audiences have previously seen in the Replay series. However, it is not a first-person narration of the past. The show begins with the lead character Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri) in the present. She is the mother of a young girl who wants to become a ballet dancer.

However, Hee-do's daughter doesn't seem too keen on competing, especially when she notices that there are other ballet dancers who are much better than her. Due to this, she gives up, and Hee-do has no other way than to discipline her daughter for not going after her dreams.

As a result, Hee-do's daughter Min-chae leaves her mother's home to stay with her grandmother for a while in Twenty-Five Twenty-One. It is here that she comes across a diary that allows the audience to take a deep dive into Hee-do's past.

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Hee-do and Ye-jin cross paths in Twenty-Five Twenty-One

The moment Min-chae begins to read the diary in Twenty-Five Twenty-one, we travel back in time, at least by a couple of decades. At this time, Hee-do is a fencing athlete who is in a slump, and her team doesn't have any star players. So when the IMF hit the country and financial support for schools decreased, the first team to be cut from her school is the fencing club.

Meanwhile, Olympic athlete Ko Yu-rim belongs to one of the only schools that still has enough funding to keep its fencing club going. Yu-rim is Hee-do's idol and she has always been in awe of the Olympic gold medalist. All Hee-do needs to do now is to get a transfer to this school, but she needs her mother's help for the same.

Hee-do doesn't get along well with her mother, and asking her for any favors will put Hee-do in a fix. Despite this, she attempts to convince her mother to let her transfer out, but fails. Baek Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk) overhears the ensuring argument while delivering the newspaper, and that's when Hee-do expresses her frustrations at him.

Their relationship begins on a sour note in Twenty-Five Twenty-one but Yi-jin seems to understand her passion for fencing and in his heart he hopes that Hee-do gets to pursue her passion.

Who is Ye-jin in Twenty-Five Twenty-One?

So who is the new boy in the neighborhood in Twenty-Five, Twenty-one? Yi-jin finds a place to live by himself in Hee-do’s neighborhood while doing a number of part-time jobs. It is clear that he is trying his best to make a living. What is intriguing, however, is the fact that he takes a break from college to earn money.

Yi-jin also works at the manga library that Hee-do often visits, and their relationship progresses slowly. At the end of the episode, Hee-do decides to do whatever it takes to transfer to Yoo-rim’s school. Yi-jin supports her, but their relationship is a bit too young for his support to influence Hee-do’s life.