#and i especially enjoyed the fact that i could relate to mi joo over translation

[lenteur]

random thoughts about run on, episodes fifteen & sixteen

(please do note that this post contains spoilers so read at your own risk. this post will also be lengthy because i’m going to share my thoughts about both episodes.)

just a little announcement: i will cut this post into sections. so if i talk about a topic/character, i’ll share my thoughts about what happened in both episodes instead of talking about the same thing in different points. am i making any sense? i don’t think so 💔 sorry about that

we’re starting this post with dan ah being torn about how to end things with yeong hwa :( like she said in previous episodes, everything she ever liked was temporary “everything i like ends up as regret”. it all ended too soon for her liking. so, in order to not be so heartbroken, she wants to end things with him before things get complicated. what spurred this reaction was her father’s health problems. it’s like she was finally starting to open up to yeong hwa before she heard the news. and, just like that, she went back to being more distant. she ended things because it reminded her of her own health problems. she knows she’s weak and she’s at risk. that’s why she always told yeong hwa to “live a long life” and called him “kid”. she didn’t want to even start a relationship because she knew things would end. no matter how hard she tried to not develop any sort of feelings, she was faced with a more powerful force than she knew: yeong hwa’s love. his love is so sincere and he has such a pure heart that, in the end, she couldn’t take it and succumbed to her heart’s desires.

talking about yeong hwa, he’s the character with the most interesting development to me. he went from being a”kid” discovering about love and experience his first love to being more emotionnally mature by the time things ended with dan ah. like seon gyeom said (not his words because i forgot to take notes when he said it sigh) “without dan ah, you wouldn’t have become as mature as you are” meaning that dan ah has taught him that things don’t always go his way and how to handle frustration and work around miscommunication. it’s also telling that during their first encounter after they broke up, he was the emotionnally stable one “i’m still the same. nothing you do makes me hate you. i just keep liking you” he said this with so much love and care that dan ah couldn’t help but cry. she must have been shaken by the fact he still decides to love her, even though things ended between them. he was the one to hug and comfort her. this might have been a first for dan ah because she’s always put that strong front in front of everyone around her. people must think she’s not fragile, when in fact, she might be one of the most fragile characters in this show. she’s just guarding her heart because she doesn’t want to be broken. and yeong hwa understands that. he chose to keep liking her because she was his first love 💗 the only thing he asks of her is to keep him in her heart for as long as she likes, and when she no longer needs it to just throw away their memories. it’s his way of saying she can still keep this relationship alive on her own, even though they broke up. you can also see that dan ah will be kept in his heart forever because she’s always in his paintings, even the one that was hung in the museum. i know i said yeong hwa was mature (and he is) but it was heartbreaking to see him cry after the breakup when he got home. he let it all out and it must have been difficult for him to handle both the breakup and seeing his first love cry in front of him for the first time

the jewelry box metaphor was such a great idea. i don’t know who came up with it but i’m impressed. it links back to what yeong hwa told her (keep me in your heart for as long as you can) “saving a precious moment you might never get to experience again” what a beautiful way to put their relationship.

i’ve seen many posts/videos talking about how the writers of the show decided to give the couple (dan ah and yeong hwa) an open ending because they wanted the viewers to form their own opinions/theories about them and i think this was the best decision for this relationship. you can see there’s no animosity between them and i’m sure a lot of people rooted for them and imagine they’re back to being a couple. others would think that dan ah would protect her heart forever and stay out of this relationship for her own sake. it might be frustrating to not know how their story ends but, in this case, i’m 100% behind this choice. it was the only good choice for this relationship

to end on a lighter note about this couple, i found it hilarious how dan ah couldn’t remember anyone’s name lol and everyone’s reactions to her not knowing added another layer of funny to the barbecue scene haha

not getting too far away from dan ah and yeong hwa, i’m glad the last two episodes focused a little on ye jun. looking back, the longing gazes and avoiding eye contact were subtle hints about ye jun’s preferences. i found his character very complex yet easy to read at the same time. he kept on hiding himself for the longest time and then boom everything unfolded quickly at the end of the show, just like how he came out to his mom. it’s also ‘funny’ (not in the literal sense of the word but my brain sometimes forgets words so i resort to using another word that’s similar to what i wanted to say) that the child named after jesus ended up being gay and viewed down by his religious mother. ms dong (ye jun’s mother) demands he goes back to church with her and blames him being homosexual on her focusing too much of her attention on her job instead of her children. it’s something that a lot of gay children must have faced. his mother wants him to change because she’s not ready to admit the truth, she thinks she’s a bad mother because one of her children is gay. ye jun’s response to her reaction to him coming out was “you can deny it all you want but this is who i am” reminding her that no matter how hard she tries to “bring him back on the right path” nothing will work because that’s who he is.

it was also nice to see ye jun interact with both dan ah and yeong hwa in the last episode. the first person he came out to (among dan ah and yeong hwa) was dan ah. and we got dan ah apologizing for the first time. after realizing ye jun liked men, she wanted to apolgize to him because she used the excuse of being gay to avoid getting married while ye jun (the actual gay) was living in fear. she realized what she did was wrong and she apologized to the right person. and then we see ye jun come out and admit his feelings to yeong hwa. ye jun admits yeong hwa was his first love but yeong hwa cries because in order to be first love feelings have to be reciprocated. i think he cried because he was handling the post-breakup and ye jun added his feelings on top of that. it was a lot for yeong hwa. 

allow me to fangirl a little because this is my post and i can do whatever i want for this. i finally found my one and true otp: mayhyun (may x jeong ji hyun) 💖💖💖 this was such a wholesome moment when they unveiled their relationship to their friends/colleagues. i mean when i found out about this, i was immediately their #1 supporter. i mean how can you not? they’re both so cute and made for each other. it was nice to see mr. jeong outside of his work persona. jeong ji hyun falling in love with may during the fight scene with the slowmo shot on may’s face. and then him following her around asking if she’s taken. i hope they’re both in love with each other forever and ever (alexa play love4eva)

after that wholesome and sweet moment, let’s tackle the ki family situation. we left off with eun bi involved in an affair scandal with ki jeong do’s rival assemblyman noh (idk how i remember all their names). this has caused eun bi so much stress that she had the yips. i was suspecting ki jeong do to be behind all of that. and i was right! he used his daughter as a tool to look like a great man just so he could win the elections. so much for eun bi trusting her father to resolve the whole scandal... when he was the one behind it all along. to say eun bi was disappointed would be an understatement. she was going through all of this scandal and ryan running away from her on her own and the traitor was her own father. when seon gyeom told his sister he would defend her, he wasn’t joking. he did the one thing he never did before: tell his mother about the incident. it might seem like a childish thing to do but he made the right decision. with everything that was shown in previous episodes, you’d think yook ji woo (the mother) would choose her career over her children like she has done many times in the past. but the one time she chooses to prioritize her children is also the day of her biggest opportunity career-wise. it’s nice to see her finally wake up and choose to defend her children. “think of everything i achieved at the expense of neglecting them (eun bi and seon gyeom)” she can have another great opportunity in her career as long as she keeps working but her daughter needs her the most right now. so, she made her decision: her children are more important. when she stormed into ki jeong do’s office to slap him, i screamed YES because i think we’ve all been waiting for it to happen. “how dare you use our kids to show off your fake fatherly love?” “i wonder why my divorce wasn’t my decision to make?” and then she kept attacking him where it hurts: her family’s background. she thought ki jeong do at least married her out of love but it ends up he married her because of her family’s fortune and reputation. in the end, we see yook ji woo eun bi and seon gyeom thrive and ki jeong do losing everything: his career and family that he’s used so many times. 

to end this post, i need to talk about the main couple. i’ve already developed the ins and outs of their relationship but i’d like to note a few more things before ending this post. i like that in the last episodes, every time we see them, they’re always together. they’re going through their routine as a couple: cooking/eating with each other for the first time, then running with each other, going to work/doing their things on their own, and then reuniting at the end of the day. i like that they’re getting more comfortable with each other. they’re finally “clicking together” like mi joo said compared to how they communicated in the first episodes. “we’ll probably never totally understand each other. but we could align our worlds next to each other, couldn’t we?” while it is true they’re still very different, i think it’s beautiful how they have met each other halfway. they’re a beautiful pair and it was refreshing to see them enjoy their time together and be affectionate with one another.

i’ve seen this quote in run on gif posts but i just want to share it here because it’s a beautiful one “delicate and sensitive people should live happy lives. those who are polite shouldn’t be looked down on”

it was probably an obvious choice but mi joo’s movie’s ending credits being run on’s ending credits was such a great idea. and the pictures were all cute :( i felt a pang in my heart when watching it because i realized the drama actually ended