Jinx: Following the Teddy Bear – part 2 🧸🦆

Please support the authors by reading Manhwas on the official websites. This is where you can read the Manhwa: Jinx  But be aware that the Manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here is the link of the table of contents about Jinx. Here is the link where you can find the table of contents of analyzed Manhwas. Here are the links, if you are interested in the first work from Mingwa, BJ Alex,  and the 2 previous essays about Jinx The Director and Me (Part 2) and Following the Teddy Bear (part 1)

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I have to admit that chapter 72 contains so much insight that the essay “Following the Teddy Bear” didn’t contain all my observations, yet after writing almost 9000 words, I decided to close it. It was definitely getting too long. The problem is that today Mingwa is releasing a new episode and I wanted to share all my thoughts before we get new information.

Questioning the Teddy Bear’s past

In the first part, I questioned whether the champion had truly been raised only in poverty — or if there were traces of another world in his past, a hidden legacy that went beyond mere survival. At the time, I focused on the presence of the wrapped books in his childhood environment (chapter 72) — subtle symbols of education, possibility, and restraint, hinting at something more structured, perhaps even noble, behind his harsh upbringing.

But there is another reason to doubt the simplicity of his origin story, and it appears quietly in chapter 27: (chapter 27) Where and how did he learn swimming? Moreover, observe that he connected it to relaxation and fun. “This feels good”. This contrasts so much to the interaction between Hwang Byungchul and the little boy with the teddy bear. (Chapter 72) The man doesn’t know that the athlete can swim, he only knows the boxer, as he was only able to see him on TV. (chapter 71) Interesting is that Jinxphiles followed Kim Dan’s school career (chapter 47) (chapter 47), yet the latter can not swim! (Chapter 47)

Treading Water: The Symbolism of Near-Drowning

This means that doc Dan never received swimming lessons at school. Here I would like to thank my friend @Rin_de_eegana 😘🙏 for her great help. She brought my attention to the fact that in Japan swimming became a core part of school education after the Shiun Maru disaster in 1955, where many schoolchildren drowned. The government responded by installing pools and integrating swimming into physical education to prevent such tragedies. South Korea, on the other hand, only made survival swimming mandatory after the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

The South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsized off the southwestern coast of the peninsula on the morning of April 16, 2014. Sewol’s departure from the port of Incheon the night before had been delayed by nearly two-and-a-half hours, due to a thick, persistent fog. Sewol commenced its journey shortly after the low visibility warning was lifted; it was the only commercial vessel to set sail from the port that evening.  Of the 443 passengers and 33 crew members on board, 304 lost their lives in the sinking. 250 of the victims were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, on their second-year field trip to Jeju Island. 

As evidence of gross negligence, dereliction of duty, and breach of regulations piled up, citizens took to the streets out of grief and rage. The South Korean government and subsidiary bodies’ failure to respond as a “control tower” in a moment of acute crisis had already made the authorities a target of public censure; their ensuing attempts to suppress criticism, including arrests of peaceful protesters, tipped the scales. 

The Sewol disaster ended up laying a crucial foundation for the first-ever impeachment of a democratically elected president in South Korea. When then-President Park Geun-hye’s flagrant scandal involving her confidante came to light in late 2016, leading to the largest mobilizations South Korea had seen since the Democratic Uprising in 1987, the Sewol families and allied citizens had already been holding weekly protests for months, demanding truth and accountability for the disaster from the administration.  Quoted from https://thediplomat.com/2024/04/how-the-sewol-sinking-changed-south-korea/

By 2019, children from grades 3 to 6 were supposed to receive survival swim training, and by 2020, this extended to grades 1 through 6. But as often happens with policy, the reality didn’t match the intention — many schools lacked pools, instructors, or resources. In poorer regions, survival swimming remained an ideal on paper rather than a guaranteed experience.

In fact, only 122 out of 6,300 elementary schools nationwide have swimming pools. Although there are swimming pools where students can receive survival swimming, such as the education office’s operating facilities, about 2.5 million elementary school students nationwide are far from learning to swim. For this reason, more and more schools are replacing them with VR (virtual reality) classes without going to swimming pools. Experts point out that survival swimming education needs to be improved qualitatively. In Japan, the rate of securing swimming pools in public elementary, middle, and high schools is 60%. In addition, first graders in elementary school teach how to put their faces in the water for the first time. Overall qualitative improvements such as survival swimming education for the first and second graders of elementary schools in Korea, which focuses on theoretical classes, are needed. Quoted from https://www.mk.co.kr/en/society/11369658?utm_source=chatgpt.com

In episode 72, we briefly see the date May 16th (chapter 72), though the year is deliberately blurred. At first glance, it’s a simple timestamp anchoring the timeline of a major fight. It took place one month before his birthday. But May 16th also falls exactly one month after April 16th, the day of the Sewol ferry disaster. This connection may not be overt, but it echoes thematically in the physical therapist’s life: Kim Dan, born too early to benefit from those reforms, never learned how to swim. I will explain more further below.

Unveiling Joo Jaekyung’s secret

Since Joo Jaekyung’s childhood is more connected to the gym and not to the school, it implies that back then, school didn’t play a huge role in his life. (Chapter 72) Nevertheless, with this panel, Mingwa indicates that the protagonist was visiting the Elementary school. The neighborhood he grew up in — as described by Hwang Byungchul — was “cutthroat.” (Chapter 72) In such a place, swimming lessons would have been a luxury. Thus I deduce that the champion likely never learned to swim at school. The public school system there likely didn’t have the funds or infrastructure to build pools or train children in water safety. And yet, he did learn — and he swims confidently (chapter 27). He has no problem to jump onto a boat or to go into the ocean in order to save Kim Dan from drowning. (Chapter 60) He even knows how to give first aid too. (Chapter 60) These aren’t casual skills. They’re not the product of school curriculum or street wisdom, especially not in a neighborhood described as “cutthroat.” These are taught skills — and not by someone who saw Jaekyung merely as a fighter. Swimming and first aid reflect something else entirely: a commitment to preparedness, not just for survival, but for helping others.

This implies that someone in Jaekyung’s past — perhaps a doctor, nurse, or medically trained adult — took the time to teach him, not to toughen him, but to give him tools to protect and support others. In contrast to the ideology of “fight your way up,” (chapter 72) this unnamed figure offered a radically different message: you have value not just in your fists, but in your capacity to protect life. And contrary to Hwang Byungchul, this person stands for “shadow and humbleness” and not “spotlight or wealth”!

The act of learning first aid is not about aggression — it is a selfless skill, rooted in presence of mind and compassion. And yet it also builds self-reliance: it teaches a person to stay calm under pressure, to act precisely when others freeze. (Chapter 27) That Jaekyung carries this knowledge — and uses it without hesitation — reveals a deeper emotional structure. (chapter 60) Someone in his past gave him a moment of true help: not transactional, not conditional, not tied to victory — but human.

This quietly counters the narrative set by Hwang Byungchul, who taught Jaekyung how to fight, but never how to care. The presence of this unknown mentor—someone who offered real, dignified support—suggests that not all of Jaekyung’s emotional development came from brutality. Part of it came from someone who believed he could be more than a fighter and a weapon. After this realization, it dawned on me that this could be Cheolmin hyung, the mysterious doctor. (Chapter 13) His vocabulary revolves around water: “pond”, “fish”! Besides, I have already connected to him Poseidon, the god of the ocean. Moreover, this man is strongly intertwined with fun, a notion that doesn’t belong in Hwang Byungchul’s world! And now, you understand why this man could touch Joo Jaekyung’s shoulder (chapter 13) and even make jokes in front of him. (Chapter 13) He knew about the existence of the Teddy Bear inside the champion. And is it a coincidence that both men have the same name “Chul=Cheol”, though the order diverges: Cheolmin versus Byungchul? And both are connected to the color “green”. (chapter 72)

By contrast, Kim Dan never learned to swim — and even imagined that he would drown in the swimming pool. (Chapter 27) This small but powerful moment reveals a deeper social reality. He did go to school, and he lived in a more stable home environment with his grandmother. But here is the thing. Kim Dan is already 29 years old which means that he was born in the 90’s. It places him at the very edge of a generation caught between silence and reform. When the Sewol ferry disaster occurred on April 16, 2014, Dan was already too old to be involved with the reform. He belongs to the group of young adults for whom no institutional safety net existed. The survival swimming curriculum that was introduced in the aftermath of the tragedy — starting around 2019 for elementary students — came far too late for him.

This is why he never learned to swim. It wasn’t just due to poverty or a lack of parental support. It was the product of structural and societal abandonment which is also reflected in his unconscious suicidal attempt. (chapter 60) There was no witness, no coast guard, no institutional figure involved in his rescue. He was alone, only saved by one person. His generation was expected to take responsibility — to succeed, to repay debts, to endure hardship — but they were given no tools to survive when crisis struck. They were neither protected nor prepared.

Dan’s near-drowning in the story isn’t just a dramatic beat — it’s a reflection of this historical failure. He’s not weak or helpless. He’s simply someone no one thought to train, someone who slipped through the cracks of a society, because he was taught to only rely on his grandmother — a woman who, in the end, couldn’t truly protect him either. Why? It is because she just relies on one person as well. By not intervening against the bullies, she contributed to the protagonist’s isolation. Hence both were forced to rely on each other for years! The fact that he’s now a healthcare professional only deepens the irony. He is helping others breathe while no one taught him how to float.

The swimming scene reveals an unspoken truth about their pasts. The child Jaekyung, though bruised and abandoned, was prepared like a predator — taught to master his body and environment. (chapter 72) Dan, who grew up in silence and guilt, was taught only to endure and adapt — not to assert himself or survive in a crisis. What the text doesn’t show directly — how they each learned (or didn’t learn) to swim — is part of Jinx’s deeper architecture. To see it, we must use the third eye: the intuitive sense that reads meaning between the panels.

Swimming here becomes symbolic. It represents their upbringing, their visibility, and the kind of support they received. One was trained, perhaps even watched over. The other was forgotten, floating just below the threshold of recognition — until someone finally pulled him out. According to me, doc Dan’s true personality is the duck. (chapter 65) So teaching him how to swim will help him to reconnect with his true self and to find a meaning to his life.

And before closing this short second part, I would like to point out this observation: (chapter 14) This fight took place in April… the same month than the Sewol ferry tragedy. And the color of the poster is once again green. Is it a coincidence? I have my doubt here. And what did Randy Booker say to his opponent? He called him a baby (chapter 14) which led the protagonist to seek refuge in the bathroom, but here he couldn’t relax. (chapter 14) That’s how I realized that water is an element linked to childhood and as such motherhood! (chapter 72) Hence water was leaking from the ceiling at the boy’s feet: drip, drip… We need to ask ourselves why Joo Jaekyung learned how to swim in the end. (chapter 72) I have the impression that it is related to his mother… she could have died by drowning as well or the woman is connected to this sport. And the champion learned it as a legacy, a way to grieve, to cope with his loss. This would explain why he came to neglect swimming in the long run.

In the first part, I portrayed the mother in a relative negative light. Nevertheless, like mentioned before, we should never simplify life and persons. Humans are living beings, they are full of contradictions. The woman could have been selfish, but she could have been a good worker. I criticized Park Namwook for the way he treats the protagonist. Yet it is clear that he is a wonderful father and husband. The proof is that he has 3 children and they are all smiling. (chapter 45) And this brings me to my final thought: Kim Dan had to meet Hwang Byungchul for an important reason: to learn how to survive on his own, as he is still depressive. He is lectured how to become independent and how to find a real goal in his life. By confessing the terrible youth about the Emperor, the physical therapist gets to hear that he wasn’t the only one abandoned and in pain!! (chapter 72) (chapter 56) Moreover, he gets the opportunity to understand why “usefulness” became so important in the MMA fighter’s life. Through this confession, the other teddy bear gets to perceive that he has so many things in common with his fated partner. Both experienced abandonment, loss, poverty, bullying and only worked in their life too! They never got the opportunity to enjoy life to the fullest.

PS: And now, you know why I wanted to write the second part as quickly as possible, as 73 should be connected to episode 13 and 37!

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