Kim Ji-won and Son Hyun-joo depict the birth of the Liberation Club

Characters in JTBC’s My Liberation Notes form the Liberation Club to escape persistent pressure to join workplace clubs, as shown in a released video featuring Kim Ji-won and Son Hyun-joo. In an environment where club participation feels like an obligation, the group becomes a way to pursue freedom on their own terms.

The video follows their differing responses to company-encouraged activities and the conversations that lead them to establish their own gathering. Their frustrations reveal the strain that organized socializing can place on employees who would prefer to decide how to spend their time.

Nothing they want to learn

In discussing the existing clubs, the characters mention that members are mostly in their 40s and question whether the activities are primarily about learning, socializing or dating. Some explain that they stay away even when financial support is available because there is nothing they want to learn.

Nonparticipation brings its own pressures, including being summoned to the Happiness Support Center or receiving warnings. One character recounts breaking down in tears after being called to the center for not joining a club. The experience illustrates how efforts to manage employees’ social participation can become another source of stress and encroach on personal freedom.

A club built around individual freedom

To avoid the repeated demands to participate, the characters decide to create the Liberation Club. Its straightforward name reflects a purpose that differs from the company-led groups: members seek liberation in whatever way suits them, without structured lessons or prescribed rules.

The group’s activities are described in terms of individual protection rather than gathering to perform a shared task. That approach suggests a desire to secure personal space within the organization.

Everyday concerns become central to their conversations, including vacation plans, what to wear while away and which swimsuit color to choose. These discussions give the gathering a focus on personal enjoyment rather than organizational objectives.

Finding room within workplace culture

The video also places the desire to head straight home after work alongside the pressure to participate in company activities. Remarks such as “I don’t want to go home” and “I can’t go because home is far away” convey the characters’ everyday weariness and their uneasy relationship with workplace culture.

The Liberation Club emerges as a small defensive measure that allows individuals to maintain their own pace and way of life within a large company, while also creating a new form of solidarity. Through the characters’ relationships, the video explores how the freedom they seek might take shape beyond the organization’s rules.

Source: DRAMA Voyage (YouTube)