Twinkling Watermelon

Did You Know?

• It charted in the top five in 64 countries.
• According to Good Data Corporation, the series concluded by setting a record for rising buzzworthiness share for seven consecutive weeks and secured first place in TV+OTT drama buzzworthiness in its final week.

Plot

Ha Eun-gyeol is the youngest child in a family where his parents and older brother are deaf and cannot speak. He loves music and is naturally good at it, honing his skills with an elderly guitar shop owner who lives alone. Eun-gyeol plays secretly at street busking events and eventually joins a band. When his father Yi-chan catches him performing onstage and expresses disappointment about his musical ambitions, Eun-gyeol angrily says he is not the family interpreter and cannot live just to meet expectations. He decides to give up music and tries to sell his guitar at a strange shop, which sends him back in time to 1995. There he meets Yi-chan as a high school student and is shocked to find he can hear and speak normally. Eun-gyeol becomes friends with him, joins his band, and sets out to stop the accident that caused Yi-chan to lose his hearing. Yi-chan is chasing music to win over Choi Se-kyung, a well-known cellist, and also meets Yoon Chung-ah, who is very quiet. Choi Se-kyung suddenly becomes more lively and outgoing. Eun-gyeol discovers that his mother Chung-ah is badly treated by her stepmother and is not allowed to learn sign language; he talks her father into letting him teach her. Later he realizes that Se-kyung is actually Eun-yoo, Se-kyung's daughter, who also traveled through time. Feelings grow between Eun-gyeol and Se-kyung, and between Chung-ah and Yi-chan. Eun-gyeol stops several dangerous events that could harm Yi-chan and helps Chung-ah's father connect with her, exposing the stepmother's cruelty. Even so, Yi-chan is badly hurt in a car crash while saving Eun-gyeol and loses his hearing. Eun-gyeol encourages him not to quit. Soon after, Eun-gyeol returns to his own time, initially upset that he could not prevent his father's injury. But he finds the school band is still together, Chung-ah's father supported them financially, and Yi-chan continues to make music despite his disability. He also meets Eun-yoo again.

Cast

Ryeoun portrays Ha Eun-gyeol, with Jung Hyeon-jun playing the young version. Eun-gyeol is the only hearing person in a deaf family, a model student by day and a guitarist in a band at night. After arguing with his father, who learned of his musical interest, Eun-gyeol time-slips to 1995 and meets his parents when they were younger, striving to learn about their youths and brighten their lives. Choi Hyun-wook plays Ha Yi-chan, with Choi Won-young as the adult Yi-chan. Yi-chan is a hot-blooded boy who lives with his grandmother, who owned an accommodation house named Snail House. In the present, Yi-chan is Eun-gyeol and Eun-ho's father, unable to speak or hear, and proud of Eun-gyeol's achievements as a model student he hopes will become a doctor. Seol In-ah plays Choi Se-kyung and On Eun-yoo, with Lee So-yeon as adult Choi Se-kyung. Se-kyung is the cello goddess of Seowon Arts High School, considered everyone's muse with her innocent beauty and elegant aura. She is the daughter of the owner of Viva Music, a store from Eun-gyeol's childhood. In the present, she has inherited the store, redeveloped into a luxurious home, and keeps her father's handmade guitar, which she gives to Eun-gyeol. On Eun-yoo is Se-kyung's daughter who looks exactly like her mother in youth. Forced to become a cellist, she lives in a disharmonious family until her parents divorce when she is 18. Upset with her mother's controlling behavior and drinking, and after finding her father remarried, she time-slips to 1995 to find her mother's first love and cease her existence. Shin Eun-soo plays Yoon Chung-ah, with Seo Young-hee as the adult. As a child, Chung-ah was cold and isolated, born deaf, dreaming of a sparkling life like Frida Kahlo. She is aloof except toward Choi Se-kyung. In the present, she is the loving mother of Eun-gyeol and Eun-ho and owns a chicken restaurant. Ahn Do-gyu plays Oh Ma-joo, with Kim Hyeong-beom as the adult.