Gone Bonkers On It's Okay Not To Be Okay

Watching an ongoing drama is a pain because only 2 episodes are aired every week ... and I have to wait and wait for the story to unfold. The waiting would go on for the next 7 weeks, because normally a k-drama is made up of 16 episodes which would be aired within that time frame. When the story is gripping, waiting becomes torturous. On the other hand the, watching an ongoing drama gives you that time to think about the story deeply, to reflect on the plot and the characters, to come up with various theories to explain the plot and perhaps even predict what is going to happen next!  

Currently, there is a k-drama that is really good. Titled It's Okay To Not Be Okay (IOTNBO), it tells of a story of a caregiver and a storybook writer. The caregiver is portrayed by actor Kim Soo Hyun, whose casting itself has caused a lot of buzz. It's his first leading role on tv in 5 years, not to say, his first major work after returning from military service. Hence, lots of his fans anticipate this drama.This is my first KSH drama and he's converted me into a fan ever since the first ep. For one, I just cannot get over how good he looks on screen. Aside from his unbelievably good looks, he acts very well, I must say. Meanwhile, the storybook writer is portrayed by actress Seo Yea Ji. She’s familiar to me since I've watched her in Hwarang and Lawless Lawyer. She does seem to be a great actress. I do like her a lot. Here in IOTNBO, her character is dressed up in outrageous outfits and she looks gorgeous! 

Aside from that, I liked the use of fairy tales in the story - like Rapunzel, Bluebeard, Red Shoes, Beauty and the Beast and other originals like Zombie Kid and Spring Dog. The themes and motifs of these stories are tied to the development of the plot and the characters, so that is really interesting. 

Anyway, it's been 7 episodes and I'm totally obsessed with story and so I've been posting daily on my social media platform. There's too much to say in a single blog post and I don't even know where to start.

So our protagonist, Moon Gang Tae (GT) worked as a caregiver at a psychiatric ward. And he had an elder brother Moon Sang Tae (ST) who was autistic. GT had been caring for his ST since young, after their mother passed away. He had always resented it but was too afraid to admit it. GT and ST never settled down at one place for more than a year. ST was haunted by the butterflies which he saw kill their mother. When butterflies appeared, it was time for the brothers to move away to another town. 

Ko Moon Young (MY) was a children's book who was diagnosed with ASPD. Her mother had disappeared when she was a child and she was estranged for her father. One day, GT and MY met at the hospital he worked at. At the time, she hurt him with a knife. He recognised her as the girl who saved his life when they were kids. But, she thought he was pretty and wanted him to be her safety pin, i.e. someone who could keep her under control. 

By this time, he and his brother had moved back to Seongjin City, their hometown. He worked at OK Hospital. And in her red shoes, she went after him. Seongjin was also her hometown, in fact. Her father, who suffered from dementia was a long-term resident at OK Hospital.

GT found MY uncomfortable because she pinpointed his deepest desire - to be free from his brother so he could live his own life. MY, on the other hand, seemed obsessed with GT. She was going to get him to move into her family home. 

So she went after his brother. ST was good at drawing and was a fan of MY. So they signed a contract whereby he would be the exclusive illustrator of her new book. He would move into her house and work from there. GT was mad about his arrangement, but because he could not abandon his brother, he was forced to move into the house as well. 

As they stayed in close proximity, he discovered that she had sleep paralysis and often had terrifying nightmares of her mother. And he was in the process of helping her overcome it. Meanwhile, GT himself was also healing from his deep resentment towards his late mother and his brother. He had always thought his mother loved his brother more. But in fact, she was forced to care for his brother more because he was special. It did not mean that his mother loved him less. 

This drama took me on a roller coaster of emotions every episode. I've barely scrapped the surface in this brief synopsis of the story ..... but I shouldn't say so much here. I'd recommend everyone to watch the show on their own so as to enjoy the story fully. :)) 

Shopping For A Skirt

In the wee hours of Friday morning,  my clothing rack collapsed. I really had a lot of clothes hung on the rack, so it probably could not take all the weight. Despite that, I'd still used the rack for 6 years and finally, it gave way and all my clothes were strewn on the floor. So there I was picking up my clothes from the floor at 3.30 a.m. in the morning. 

On Friday afternoon, I went to the newly-opened Emart at Tabuan Jaya ... and it happened that they were clothing racks on sale. RM16.90 per piece and I bought 2 of them. I thought I'd distribute the clothes between the 2 racks ... spread out the weight so that the rack could stand properly. This simple clothing racks weren't normally all that sturdy after all.

On Saturday, I organised my clothes .... there were so many nice clothes that I had outgrown but hadn't gotten rid of. I kept all the nicely tailored ones and the ones that I liked even though I could no longer wear them. Heh. So while going through those clothing that I normally wore, it struck me that I would buy more skirts now that school had started and I needed to wear them daily. 

By the way, I only wore black or navy blue skirts .... they could be pencil or A-line or midi or maxi or knitted or pleated .... whatever they were but I would buy them all in black or navy blue. So I thought of a particular skirt that I had tried on at Parkson .... it was back in March before the MCO. The skirt was black and was slightly flared and had pretty ruffles at the bottom. I liked it when I saw it and even tried it on. Though it fitted me and looked alright on me, I did not buy the skirt at the time ... probably because there was no discount. I made a mental note of the size, in case I wanted to purchase it later in the future. 

Last night, I had thought about this skirt .. and I planned to to Parkson today to see whether the skirt was still available to buy. I distinctly remembered where the skirt was located last time, so I headed straight there. I walked up and down the section but didn't see it.They must have been sold out, I thought. I even reprimanded myself for not buying it when I had the chance to do so. Because it was certainly not very often that I came across something I liked. 

I wandered to the other clothing sections but failed to find any skirt that I liked. Before I left, I went back to check for the final time .... and this time, I somehow managed to find it. The skirt had been moved to a different rack! But at least it was still there! I quickly looked for my size. Yippee they had it though it was the last piece. I WAS buying it no matter what.

I checked with the salesperson and found out that the skirt was on 30% discount. Yay. She said I could buy another regular-priced item at 50% discount. So I left the skirt with her at the counter while I tried to look for a second piece of clothing to buy ... I browsed around but didn't find anything suitable. So I was going to pay for my skirt and leave. So this salesperson was sorting things out with a middle-aged lady ... so I sort of interrupted them to get my skirt since I was quite impatient. 

Then this lady saw my skirt on the counter ... and suddenly she turned to me proposed that I pay her for my skirt. Huh? She quickly explained the situation to me.

Yesterday, she had bought the same skirt in a smaller size.  Because of Covid-19 prevention, the fitting rooms were closed at the moment. So she had bought the skirt without trying it on. When she reached home, she discovered that she couldn't wear the skirt because it was too small. And she did not want to exchange it for a larger size because the skirt did not suit her. She claimed that she looked weird in it. So she was trying to exchange the skirt for a different clothing item only that the salespeople did not know how to go about helping her to do that. 

So the easier thing would be to exchange the skirt for a larger size and sell the skirt to me since I had wanted to buy it anyway. Problem solved. It would be a win-win situation. She would get her money back and I would get my skirt. I immediately agreed and she was really thankful. She kept saying, "Thank You, Lord. Thank You for this miraculous arrangement."

When I thought about it, it was indeed quite miraculous. I mean, for us to be there at the very same time and doing the very same transaction for the very same piece of clothing ... I mean, that didn't happen very often, right? So there must have been some Godly intervention?

I went away feeling happy that I could be of help to her. And at the same time, I did thank God for answering her prayer.