Jeong-Suk serves as the primary protagonist of Kdrama Doctor Cha, navigating the difficult new phase of her life as she resumes her unfinished studied twenty years after quitting to become a housewife.
Cha Jeong-Suk has been a housewife for twenty years after marrying at a relatively young age. From the minutiae to the macro level tasks and responsibilities, she has contended with the difficult monotony of being a housewife and the lifestyle that it entails.
Due to some drastic developments that recently take place in her life, the protagonist of Doctor Cha is all ready to defy the silhouette she has come to be known by all her life. Here’s who Jeong-Suk is and what her life trajectory thus far has looked like:
Relentless housewife
Jeong-Suk has two kids she takes care of with all her might and heart. She has raised them for the entirety of the second innings of her life, right after she inadvertently got pregnant with her first.
She conceived of Jung-Min when she was still a medical resident and a bright, studious student. Later on, she’d give birth to her daughter, I-Rang.
From their birth to the present day, when Jung-Min is a first-year medical resident, and I-Rang is an aspiring doctor, their mother has been a relentless support system whose job has never really been recognized, much less appreciated.
From the daily breakfast that her kids won’t eat properly and would be scrutinized everytime by the husband, to the smallest of tasks that her mother-in-law won’t move to do by herself, Jeong-Suk is caught up with every single household chore and then some.
The problematic past
An intimate moment of steamy chemistry brought Jeong-Suk and In-Ho together, and the two conceived Jung-Min. In-Ho went on to do an admirable thing at that time, which was to marry Jeong-Suk and take the responsibility of their kid.
In the process, he has to call it quits with his then-girlfriend Seung-Hi. In-Ho kind of defies even his mother at that time and marries Jeong-Suk, who feels very grateful to him and his family to take her in.
Right after then, she begins a new chapter of her life that sees her quitting her studies and becoming a full-time housewife. The shotgun marriage gave rise to a life entirety devoted to her husband, mother-in-law, and then her kids too.
Overcoming subservience
Twenty years into her marriage, Jeong-Suk has suffered neglect and cold shoulders for far too long, along with having sacrificed her studies and dreams, as well as a fulfilling life.
When she gets hospitalized due to a liver failure, her husband fails to step up and donate a part of his liver to save his wife’s life, with his mother throwing a couple of dramatic fits to stop him from doing that.
Jeong-Suk learns truly, for the first time, just how apathetic they have become, and really have been to her for so long. She admits herself that she’s been living a subservient life because of gratitude, flattering her husband, her mother-in-law, and later her kids.
However, she wants to live like this no more, and as she embarks on to the next phase of her life, she has clear goals and objectives carved out for her to achieve, which she has now decided to continue to pursue.
Also Read: Doctor Cha season 1 episode 2 recap & review