Yang Soo-kyung Never Told Her Third-Grade Crush, Who Teased Her as "Tin Can"

In episode 13 of KBS's "TV Carries Love," aired July 26, 1994, singer Yang Soo-kyung tracked down two elementary-school friends, including a deputy class president she had secretly liked and who used to tease her as "tin can."

A secret crush and a "tin can" nickname

Yeon-su, Yang's desk mate in third grade, was a mischievous deputy class president who was popular with the girls. The nickname "tin can" was Yeon-su's doing, yet Yang could not bring herself to dislike Yeon-su. She never told anyone about her feelings and kept them as a private secret. A sudden transfer then forced her to leave without a proper goodbye to either Yeon-su or Eun-jin, and she recalled gazing out the window of her new school, missing her friends.

At the reunion, Yeon-su remembered Yang as still petite and cute. Yang recalled the feelings she had never confessed, while Yeon-su, remembering how popular Yeon-su had been with the girls, Yang included, kept the conversation going.

The friend who lent the books, 20 years on

Yang's memories of third grade begin with Eun-jin, her best friend. After class she would run straight to Eun-jin's house. Eun-jin was deep-hearted and generous, and lent her storybooks whenever Yang wanted to read. Yang said she was able to read as much as she liked thanks to that kindness, and recalled her gratitude.

On the show, Yang saw Eun-jin again for the first time in 20 years. Eun-jin had only learned late that Yang had become a singer. In the video, she said she knew Yang was a singer when she saw her on TV but did not realize they had been classmates, and only after being contacted about the broadcast did she notice that Yang's face looked much as it used to. Eun-jin named Yang's signature song, "You, Whom I Cannot Look At," as her own favorite and said she was glad to see her. Now a mother of two, Eun-jin hesitated at first when Yang reached out, but thanked her after the reunion, glad to have met again the friend who had lent her books and looked out for her as a child.

"I wasn't that noticeable"

The three friends' meeting mixed joy with regret. Eun-jin had worried whether Yang would remember her, and shed tears on seeing Yang again. Yang said in the video that she had been so very quiet back then that she thought her friends would not remember her. She added that she did not think she had been especially pretty or the kind of child who stood out.

From a 1981 debut to the world stage

The episode followed Yang, who was active on the world stage and had won the grand prize at the White Nights International Song Festival, as she looked for people who mattered to her in third grade, and she shared memories from 20 years earlier with her old friend. Each of the three friends' lives had taken its own path. For Yang, who entered the music scene in 1981 and rose to become a world-class singer, her elementary-school best friends remain a symbol of an innocent time she cannot forget.

Source: original video (YouTube)