#kwon jiyoung

[mondstalgia]

I rushed into GD's live just to get a sneak peak of his new single that's gonna be released TOMORROW???? HYPE

[boasource]

240526 BoA attended Ma Dongseok and Ye Junghwa’s wedding, via Hong Seokcheon’s IG post

[married-2-the-music]

Bol4: Growing Up Through Song

[barbylion]

art that only makes sense/has meaning if you know the random ass lore about my ocs

so, basically - this is Kwon Jiyu looking up at a subway ad of Shin Jiyoung. they look alike, startlingly so. they're not related, they just look a lot alike and so Jiyu, who is an heiress, is constantly told she looks like actress/retired idol Shin Jiyoung. she's also compared to her a lot, as a result - especially by her mother who already has crazy high expectations for Jiyu.

that's really bittersweet since Jiyu really looked up to Jiyoung when she was at the height of her career - they're very close in age so it was super easy to idolize the idol who not only looked like you but was in the same life stage. it's also easy to over-compare accomplishments and feel inadequate. very messy stuff for Jiyu, i never give this girl a break tbh.

and, while all that's happening, Jiyoung is living a pretty blissful life - completely unaware that Jiyoung even exists haha

and all of this came about simply because i used the same face claim for rp characters created over a year apart and then got attached to both

[strwbrrycarat]

nabi relationship with members: oldest line

choi seung cheol/s.coups + yang ji young/ nabi

Jiyoung has always been close with Seungcheol, he was first person she met when she joined pledis as a trainee and stuck by him for first few weeks of training. Without him, Jiyoung wouldnt have joined the final line up, he often stood up whenever someone commented on her being apart of the group. It's a running joke Jiyoung can get away with anything and Seungcheol will still defend her

yoon jeong han/jeonghan + yang ji young/ nabi

Jeonghan lives to annoy Jiyoung, he loves pushing her bottoms until she gets annoyed or she starts complaining, they always fake arguing and doesn’t help how they always joking around. But Jeonghan really loves Jiyoung, is the one who looks after he when they go out and following around her, she always goes to him when she needs help or just to talk

hong jisoo/joshua + yang ji young/ nabi

Joshua was first person Jiyoung met when she joined Seventeen’s pre-debut team, back then Jiyoung wasn’t that fluent in korean and as they both from LA, she often stayed near Joshua who explained and they often helped each other when adjusting to living in Korea. Now Jiyoung always says Joshua is her favourite person, they always out together and love exploring stuff together with Dokyeom

wen junhui/jun + yang ji young/ nabi

Jiyoung truly loves Jun, since they met Jun always took care of her and is always following her around to make sure she isn't hurting herself. She began learning chinese to speak fans so Jiyoung is always helping her with her pronunciation. She always loves hanging out with him, is always found in his room just talking about her day

kwon soon young/hoshi + yang ji young/ nabi

Jiyoung and Soonyoung as a match made in a heaven or hell depending on the day or wherever they are. They match each other energies and is often followed by managers because they can’t be left alone without someone getting hurt. Soonyoung big reason Jiyoung became more confident in her dancing skills, always helping her when she needs help

jeon won woo/wonwoo + yang ji young/ nabi

Jiyoung and Wonwoo used to have an awkward but cute friendship since trainee. Jiyoung was always known since joining as being a loud and expressive while Wonwoo is more reserved they still have fond relationship. Wonwoo is someone she goes to when she wants to talk about anything and vice versa. Often they hang out in her room playing video games.

lee ji hoon/woozi + yang ji young/ nabi

Jiyoung and Jihoon has a cute friendship as Jiyoung confidnce in her producing skills comes from Woozi who helped her learn so much about music and without him she wouldn't wrote her own mixtape. But originally they weren't close as they were very akward wth each other but grew closer as they worked together

[onomatopagu-et-cie]

The Killing Vote (ep. 7 notes)

The Killing Vote (ep. 1-5 notes) The Killing Vote (ep. 6 & overall notes) The Killing Vote: more on Joohyun, Kwon Seokju & Kim Muchan

I don’t know if you saw, but they announced episode 8 will be out next week on October 5th……….. After THIS preview no less, you’ve got to be kidding me aaaaaaaa (PД`q。 ) ·。 ' ゜

This got again really long, sorry again!!!!

Have a nice week!

(SPOILERS UP TO EPISODE 7!!!!)

Let Jihoon, Joomin, Joohyun, KMC & KSJ get their happy found family ending (இ﹏இ`｡) Put them in a slice of life, far far away from this noir genre plsssssss

I appreciated the fact that no explicit violence (except when BWT was beaten up by Min Jiyoung's family & KMC) was shown on screen ie. for Narae nor her dog ; the violence implied from all the scenes were more than enough already (eg. the video on KSJ ; the audio recording Narae’s voice)... ! And by the way, Park Sungwoong's acting in this episode!!!!!! I also loved how KMC’s character was shown trying to maintain a composure/restraint (his voice damn) in front of KSJ’s grief.

And the Jihoon & Joohyun scenes were GREAT!! Joohyun sounds like that sister you can naturally rely on!

(She needs to live, you hear me?!)

(Don’t read the new OST’s lyrics you are warned haha, it was beautifully played for Jihoon’s scene and the lyrics could also very well apply to KMC & KSJ in KMC’s pov!)

♦ September 15, 2015 (Lrae091515)

Narae disappeared on September 15, 2015… Just like how the video test is titled!

OH and something I missed!!! In the first post I mentioned the video test title, I wondered if it could refer to both Narae and Dies Irae (since Mozart’s Requiem was played in ep4):

As for the ‘Lrae’… It could be a wild WILD guess but ‘Lrae’ could be ‘irae’ as in Dies Irae/day of wrath (capital i looks like a lowercase L), which is a sequence in Requiem mass!

But the capital L could also stand for the korean letter ᄂ/니은 (nieun), which is the first letter for Narae/나래. Added to the ‘rae’, it gives ‘Narae091515’.

♦ The items in LMS’s room & his ring

Some of the items that were in the display case in LMS’s hidden room were revealed in this episode (from left to right):

KSJ’s suitcase

KSJ’s book he signed for LMS

KSJ’s mug, which is seen carried in the present by:

Jihoon (we only see him retrieve it from the deliveryman)

LMS (a whole collection)

This Gaetal in ep4 with this particular red mug when they rage as the public opinion is shaken because KMC was believed to be dead.

The picture with Narae seems to have been taken the day of the conference shown at the beginning of the episode. LMS probably stole the picture because it was a significant day to him ie. when he met KSJ in person.

Also, about the ring, LMS had it even in the flashbacks (picture to the right). Could it be some device to send him a reminder to take his medicine?

♦ More on shame

Something I wanted to add to what I said in a previous post (‘On the frames facing down (ep. 1 & 6), shame and guilt’): when KSJ visited his house in the present thanks to Joohyun, he only dusted off Narae’s picture to face her stuffed bunny.

Ep7 showed the other frame was a picture of KSJ and her, so it could show how he still strongly feels he failed her as her father:

♦ Narae, Joomin and Jihoon

FINALLY a bittersweet but hopeful? (I don’t care if it’s wishful thinking, let me hope okay ;;) parallel that’s clearly the opposite of ep4 & 6’s framing, the new OST (Aalia, Blue) was a perfect addition, it was soothing:

♦ The third person meeting with Narae and KSJ

(1) « She »

At the beginning of the episode, Narae met KSJ and said a ‘she’ couldn’t join them for dinner according to the subtitle translation when I watched.

(I’m unfortunately not able to watch on Prime, so I’m not sure if it’s fansubs or the Prime translation ; I wanted to use my free trial to watch the drama and other series, but it’s region-locked in my country and I don’t have a VPN ;;)

The gendered pronoun is an addition of the translation as the original exchange omitted any indication on the subject.

Most of the time [in Korean] the subject is implied, and you would rather address someone by their title or name (with an honorific if need be) depending on your relationship eg. Joohyun calls KMC 팀장님/team leader and KSJ 교수님/professor, Joomin calls her sister 언니/big sister. Note: but it can also be used by a female speaker for an older woman she’s close to eg. a friend, a girlfriend (like 형 = younger man -> older man ; ��빠 = younger woman -> older man or 누나 = younger man -> older woman).

This is how Narae and KSJ’s conversation went:

« — 왜 혼자 왔어? / Why did you come alone? — 또 먼저 갔지. 오늘도 할일이 엄청 또 많대. / [They] left early again. [They] said [they] had a lot of things to do today too. — 셋이 같이 저녁을 먹을랬는데. (…) / I’d hoped the three of us could have dinner together. »

Nothing in this exchange hints at the identity of the person that accompanied Narae. KSJ only mentions the three of them (셋이), nothing else.

(Of course, translating this exchange could be really tricky because it’s about a context that only Narae and KSJ are privy of and we’re unfamiliar to, how to introduce a character we potentially know nothing of?)

But the conversation shows:

— That person usually accompanied Narae to see her father (and probably picked her up from school first & walked the dog together) ; that explains why the subject is omitted in the conversation because it’s implied from their daily life.

— They sounded like an adult habitually swamped with what looks like a usually time-consuming work (which excludes Jihoon)

— They seemed close enough to both Narae & KSJ (who jokingly says it’ll be a father-daughter date if they don’t come), dinner with them sounded customary.

— We know it couldn’t be about KSJ’s ‘late wife’ as Min Jiyoung comments ‘It must be hard for him to raise a girl by himself’ as they’re driving home from the conference.

— It has been highlighted twice already how hard, to society/KSJ’s surroundings, raising a girl by himself must be: first with Min Jiyoung’s housekeeper in ep5 (‘They felt sorry for me for raising my daughter alone, so they would share food with me sometimes.’), then Min Jiyoung herself in ep7. Whoever that was, this person also might've helped KSJ to raise Narae unbeknownst to everyone else.

So it was supposed to be someone close to the two of them.

(2) Kim Muchan?

In the same episode, when KMC said Choi Jinsu knew what kind of relationship he had with KSJ, CJS later described it as a ‘close relationship’ (가까은 사이), the same adjective KSJ uses to describe KMC in the present (see in a previous post the notes on 가깝다).

KMC is also the one shown in the very next scenes working hard to bust drug scenes (to the point of eating those painkillers like it’s popcorn). It’s also highly likely the other cases we saw on the news were also recklessly solved by him. (Also the ‘Lives Here.’ on the mirror is a fitting detail to his workaholic side!)

He's still the same in the present and brings work at home. Even though he gets around the law to arrest culprits, the reputation he has now can also attest to the fact he’s still relentlessly absorbed by his work.

This was indeed how Jodan described KMC to Joohyun:

« (…) aka. Wipeout. Pressuring criminals to admit more crimes. Making a case bigger to take more credit. He somehow makes cases into special ones. That’s how he made his way up to Seoul from the south. The master of promotions. (…) Based on his arrest rate, he should be at the top, but those up there must hate him. »

And KMC was close enough to KSJ and Narae to firmly believe Narae would never run away from home, like family would say ; KSJ was the only person he trusted and looked up to.

Not to mention KSJ was completely tensed as Choi Jinsu interrogated him but relaxed once KMC took over, letting out a sigh of relief and dropping his guard to cry.

EDIT: KMC also knew calling KSJ 'hyung' instead of 'Professor' would eventually make him react, as he was lifeless and caught in his thoughts so far.

(3) How long did KMC know KSJ?

KSJ began teaching at KNPU in 2008, which means KMC and him must’ve known each other for at least 7+ years (it’d be 15+ years in the present): ‘Have you forgotten? I said I’d be your number one fan. I said that at your first lecture at KNPU.’

Also KSJ is 44 years old btw, I missed that detail in ep4 when KMC checked his files!

♦ Relationships conveyed through pictures

It’s interesting how the drama keeps highlighting the importance of KSJ and KMC’s relationship, but there’s (yet) no picture to materialize this truth in people’s eyes, while the other significant relationships are framed in the drama:

-> Joohyun’s family portrait and a picture of Joohyun and Joomin in the present.

-> KMC picture with someone who might be his mother.

-> Many pictures of KSJ and Narae filled the house’s walls and the furniture and there was a picture of Narae and Jihoon with the handmade bunny toys hanging on their backpack.

And even though nobody might’ve heard of KSJ adopting Jihoon soon at the time (except KMC), he was present in Narae’s drawings by her and KSJ’s side. And he also drew the three of them together.

-> Min Jiyoung’s family portrait was ostentatiously exhibited in the past & is still used to build her image for her campaign. But there’s also a small portrait with only her and LMS at her apartment in the present.

KSJ and KMC’s relationship evades common portrayal. (Not to mention family portraits are often shown in dramas to foreshadow underlying dynamics between its members!)

The only picture we were shown of them was on the day KSJ was sent to prison:

♦ KSJ’s health and military service

On KSJ’s resume (first picture), you can see he was exempted of military duty.

Indeed, what’s written on the left column under his military status is 미필 (incompletion, if he had been discharged after completing his military duty, it would be written 군필), and the rank and service term columns are empty.

I can’t quite make out everything that’s under the last column for the reason of incompletion, but I read 기형 (deformity), 친환 (one’s parent illness) and 변재 (accident) … ?

However what we learned when KMC checked his medical files in ep4 (third picture) was that he’s got asthma (천식) and primary spontaneous pneumothorax (일차성 자연기흉) ie. occurring without an apparent cause when there’s originally no known lung disease while there’s a preexisting lung disease when it’s secondary.

« Until now the cause of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) has not been identified, however; several risk factors have been identified such as; smoking, male sex, and a family history of pneumothorax ».

So he was probably exempted due to his long-time health issue (asthma, lung collapse), and maybe KSJ’s family had a history of pneumothorax.

♦ Who is Gaetal?

Is LMS really Gaetal? Are Fan no. 1 & Gaetal different people?

As I said in a previous post, the drama plays with the bias that everything must’ve been done by the same individual/a same group with the same intentions, so it’s possible:

Gaetal in the video test

Gaetal in the prerecorded votes, at least the first one (because the tone, gesture and expressions seemed different compared to the two next votes)

Gaetal broadcasted live (for Cpt. Oh’s vote)

Fan no. 1 who wrote the letters to KSJ

Fan no. 1 JJW said he was working with who described KSJ as the one they admired the most but also said they destroyed the person he loved the most, so he must hate them

Are different people in some cases, meaning:

— The ‘Fan no. 1’ Jung Jinwook worked with might not be LMS, since they never met each other

— It could be Jihoon, or at the very least, he’s an accomplice (there’s this exchange with Joohyun about the shift from an accessory to an accomplice, it could be foreshadowing). He’s well-versed in hacking, he most likely ‘admired’ KSJ and feels guilty over Narae’s death (and probably over BWT’s murder by KSJ), as KSJ said to KMC:

« — [Narae and Jihoon] were supposed to meet that day. — Yes, he thinks all of this happened because he was late. He’s still in shock. »

(He could’ve been the one to have faced Narae’s picture down!)

We don’t know his whereabouts for these 8 years but he must’ve been in contact with KSJ at least once since what happened and given KSJ’s reaction when KMC asked him if he contacted him.

Also Jihoon was definitely searching for KSJ before Joohyun interrupted him when he was at the Police Agency at the end of the episode.

He looked like he definitely knew the content of the ‘video test’ too (or recognized the room), he seemed dumbfounded to learn Joomin found it in ep3:

Determined to help, a part of him could’ve held KMC guilty of the chain of events 8 years ago. KSJ entrusted his handmade bunny toy to KMC and said:

« He said he made them himself, so there are only two of them. Whoever has Narae’s is the murderer, so he told me to use this to catch him. He left this with me. I’m counting on you. »

And KSJ must have some part in whatever is happening now with the Killing Vote: after all, we never got the reason KSJ went out of prison in ep4 (‘If they find out what I did instead of performing labor, they might believe the suspicions are true.’).

-> This scene in ep3 (the first set of pictures on the left): of course this shows his relief because he still cares for KMC but it seemed like he somehow already knew for a fact KMC was out of danger, even before the janitor said he was barely hanging on and not off the hook at all.

— This was even before the video of KMC was revealed to the public in the next episode ;

— The present Gaetal might have informed him in advance a police officer got involved in the bombing against their will, without revealing it was KMC. This would explain why KSJ seemed genuinely surprised when the janitor said it was KMC (the last two pictures of the set) ;

— Someone else could have informed him even if it seems difficult from the prison (but we know he got lots of privileges there and we still don’t know what he did for the warden ; the visit register could have been fabricated and someone indeed met him) ;

— It’s worth pointing out KSJ was convinced KMC was Gaetal up until ep6, which adds another layer to this scene.

-> His reaction in ep5 was also curious (the second set of pictures on the right), he only got perplexed for the video test, as though he was well-acquainted with the rest of whatever was going on except for that one detail (which adds to the theory that Gaetal in the video test ≠ Gaetal in the Killing Vote/Fan no. 1).

Curiously, as I said just above, while KSJ seemed unaware of the video test's existence, Jihoon looked familiar with its content on the contrary.

KSJ never outright denied he was Gaetal eg. his interview with Joohyun in ep2:

«  — ‘Devils who were deemed innocent.’ The phrase that the killer used… You were the first one to say it, weren’t you? I think the killer has something to do with you. — The two people who used the same phrase must be connected. That’s such a naive approach. »

Ep6 only showed KSJ hoped KMC was Gaetal.

And you wouldn’t say KMC’s ‘I’m a cop.’ is a real answer too. Hate to admit it, but KMC stayed silent when KSJ wanted to confirm he was sincere: his feelings might be genuine, but denying he’s Gaetal could very well be a lie.

As for KMC’s front ie. keeping silent when asked about his relationship with KSJ, I guess it comes from his determination to solve all this by his own hands this time: he knows they would take him off the case otherwise. (And for some reason, I can’t help but also suspect Joohyun aaaaa we still don’t know anything about her past!!)

KMC or KSJ, one of the two might be related somehow ; if so, I guess they’d be trying to plan something without the other knowing in order not to involve them and also because the other would disapprove (eg. KSJ to put an end to KMC’s guilt ; KMC to offer some peace to KSJ after all the tragedy and his past mistakes).

— Plus, the Gaetal of the first vote sounded suspiciously like KSJ (his silhouette and gait too) eg. t h a t tremulous voice when he gets angry (the actor plays a lot with that in his roles overall).

— The first vote was prepared from a redevelopment area and BGC was murdered there (pictures on the right).

In ep7, in addition to the video accusing KSJ of being dubious and the witness statement, Narae being found in a redevelopment area was what made the police suspect KSJ of murdering her, since he was known for standing up against said building’s demolition:

« You’d been to the place where the body was found, right? Don’t even think about lying. We know you protested against demolishing that building. »

(Even before Joohyun showed him the Gaetal video test, KMC must’ve had his suspicions from BGC’s murder scene and the broadcast after the body was found eg. recognizing KSJ’s tone, 'the devils deemed innocent' or the ‘rational justice’!)

Narae might’ve been found in the lower part of the building BGC’s vote was prepared in: even though the first story doors were repainted in red and handrails were added to the bridge, the overall architecture and the sort of electricity meter/letter box on the ground floor look the same.

And even without it being the same building, it holds enough resemblance for it to seem like a disturbing recall of the events 8 years ago, combined with Gaetal’s keywords.

— LMS could’ve killed BGC’s wife as Gaetal's copycat at first but that still wouldn’t explain his involvement to the Killing Vote, saying he would give it to his mother as a present.

(But his conversation with KMC when he interviewed him in the present really gave me the impression he knew something about KMC we were not shown, and that could foreshadow what'll happen in the next episode!)

— About LMS’s true perception of justice: we never got to hear his opinion, Narae came running to her father and KSJ interrupted the conversation. So far, the drama didn’t show if his ideals align with Gaetal’s for example, but some elements in the flashbacks clearly show it could be the case.

In fact, his notes about ‘proper justice’ could align with Gaetal’s concept of vigilantism to make up for a failing official retributive justice.

And his ‘If you pass judgment without looking at things clearly, it’s not being fair. It’s being indifferent.’ clearly parallels KSJ’s opinion in the present (ep6):

« Lady Justice wears a blindfold because she’s afraid of bias in decisions. That always bothered me. If you don’t look at cases and the people involved clearly, how can one pass fair judgment? Can judgments without experience be right? Only after losing my daughter did I realize I was qualified to judge others. »

KSJ’s past self would’ve been moderate and warned him however: ‘Relying solely on your experiences can also lead to bias. Experiences are gained through situations and conflicts. They can’t be absolute truths.’

But this detail is something KMC doesn’t know, he instead focuses on LMS’s elitism because he didn’t have those kinds of exchanges with him.

♦ ‘No. 1 Fan’ & LMS

So…………………… You mean to tell me « No. 1 Fan » was originally a memory both KSJ and KMC held dear? That LMS chose this very nickname as a penname for the 5 whole years he sent letters to KSJ? That LMS described KSJ to JJW as the man he admired the most, just like KMC said in that exchange.......... ?

There’s literally no way in hell LMS didn’t listen KMC and KSJ’s conversation ; « no. 1 Fan » could be common in any other cases but not in this one: LMS made everyone around KSJ gone from the picture, it wouldn’t surprise me KMC was/is meant to be the next (LMS even describes him as a ‘cockroach’ hard to kill in ep5).

As to how he got to learn all that, bugging one of the two’s communications/belongings/Narae’s room (eg. that ‘My Daddy My Hero’ seems to be the only thing taken from the house, or the device Jodan found in the ceiling, as it’s totally covered with dust) or even hiding in KSJ’s house that day and listening to their exchange wouldn’t be that surprising given what he did and how he seems to enjoy playing recklessly.

What Jodan found looks like the kind of device that transmits frequencies to another device (eg. cell phone, a recorder prepared to this end).

In this episode, we saw LMS watched everything among the crowd each time (when Narae’s body was found, when KSJ was sent to prison), there could very well be times he watched unnoticed from KMC or KSJ.

I guess he learned about the ‘rational justice’ the same way: he could’ve heard the ‘devils deemed innocent’ from his mother or some other way (eg. if he hacked the court’s archives, he could’ve found the trial transcripts), but ‘rational justice’ was something only KSJ and KMC knew about (at least, at this point of the drama).

Given his obsession for KSJ, LMS could benefit from deliberately using a precious memory that KSJ could only attribute to KMC and posing as KMC: that would finally make him assume a special position in KSJ’s eyes (and it worked: that’s probably why KSJ firmly believed Gaetal and/or the one who wrote him letters was KMC).

And he probably deludes himself into believing it was originally his by right, not Narae’s, not KMC’s nor anyone else’s (I don’t think he knew Jihoon even if he observed the house): he considers himself KSJ’s only entitled Fan no. 1.

At the same time, becoming Gaetal, a figure that would finally bring the justice to KSJ which KMC failed to do, gives him the opportunity to finally ‘judge’/destroy KMC as he wished. Eg. making him the next Killing Vote target by showing people he was deceiving them (his ‘Wipeout’ reputation) ; or distorting facts about his involvement in Narae’s case (just like the video Min Jiyoung/LMS made on KSJ to divert the attention off her son).

And this seems to be the case in the preview:

The screen on the left side of the shot displays an edit of KMC (which looks like those Gaetal did for the previous targets ; the picture seems to come from when the journalists gathered at the prison when they learned he was alive), and if I’m not mistaken you can read on the banner « 속였습니다 » (‘I/He deceived/lied to [the people maybe?]’), which might be a reference to what he said in ep4 where he also used 속였습니다.

♦ « This house had good natural lighting »

Losing Narae left KSJ lifeless. In this episode’s flashback, his profile, livid, is blinded by white light, like a ghost.

Even though he stood in Narae’s room, he was perhaps longing for the house that was already not there anymore and that initially had ‘good natural lighting’, as Joohyun said in ep4. It symbolized all the happiness he shared with Narae.

And KMC could only witness, helpless, KSJ’s grief.

In retrospect, on the second set of pictures to the right, the sight of KSJ’s silhouette in a similar setting and lighting (when KSJ was transferred to the Police Agency, ep5) might’ve reminded KMC of this memory.

The drama highlighted this theme in other previous scenes too. They have in common a silhouette shot in an overall dark setting facing a strong backlighting.

[And you can notice the shots get gradually brighter as the drama progresses and KSJ gets out of prison!]

Joohyun's scene on the top right was so beautifully shot... !

-> When KSJ is transferred to the Police Agency ;

-> When Joohyun interviews KSJ and makes him listen to Mozart’s Requiem in ep4. And also KMC’s reaction we could better understand in retrospect as he listened (the pictures on the bottom right) ;

-> When KSJ enjoyed the light from the prison in ep4 ;

-> When he looked outside from his cell’s window while meditating in the first episode ;

-> When KMC wanted to visit KSJ but he refused to meet him in ep2 (and we can once again better interpret his expressions in retrospect to ep7).

Note: in ep3, KMC’s reaction to the tagged wall (‘the 13th was wrong’) and the news articles about the case from 8 years ago could also now be interpreted as pained in retrospect ; his surprise upon discovering this also shows it’s at least not him who messed the room that way. If he cared for Narae as this episode showed, he probably wouldn’t have damaged her room. It's also maybe relevant to note again that the video test didn't have the tagged wall!

♦ Min Jiyoung’s classism

Whatever Min Jiyoung found on KMC was something she did not approve according to her standards: she went from ‘that detective’ when she first met him to ‘bastard like you/the likes of you’ at the end of the trial.

I get BIG classist undertones when she speaks to him, and it's not the sole occurrence:

-> When she fired her previous aide because he advised her in a way she deemed unsatisfactory, she commented: ‘촌스러운 새끼’ which was translated to ‘What a loser.’ The adjective she used is 촌스럽다 (unpolished, countrified, dowdy ie. « one’s attitude or taste being unsophisticated and looking like that of a country person »).

The Naver Dictionary also gives the expression ‘촌스러운 사람’ and translates it as ‘a lout, rustic, clodhopper, boor’.

새끼 means offspring (cub or child/kid), but it’s often used as an insult to mean someone’s a jerk/bastard/etc. which is the case here (eg. 개새끼, SOB/bastard).

-> The housekeeper: KSJ described her as ‘도우미’ (assistant, helper) and was getting along well with her and her husband (‘They felt sorry for me for raising my daughter alone, so they would share food with me sometimes. (…) Though we didn’t know each other very well, we were quite close.’).

And Min Jiyoung, who lives with her and her family, calls her…… an expense (‘비용’) if I’m hearing well (at the very least, it doesn’t sound like any of the words commonly used for housekeepers eg. 가정부, 도우미, 파출부, 하녀…), and it could explain why KMC made her repeat.

-> She used 너 같은 새끼 to insult KMC (‘bastards like you/the likes of you’), right after calling LMS his son (아들), which could imply the latter qualifies more as a person than him. She even deems him a taint/테인트 threatening to spoil their status/reputation.

-> She said to LMS in ep5: ‘[KMC] must be trying to make ends meet. You better stay away from those vermins.’

And be it a coincidence or not, Jihoon’s grandmother was also judgmental towards Joohyun and her sister (ep4, first set of pictures).

Her reaction to KSJ’s idea (she was taken aback and raised her eyebrow then looked embarrassed as she tried to answer) could also be explained by some distance she wants to put between her and disreputable people (ep6, second set of pictures).

Gaetal targeted the rich so far (‘The law that is more harsh on victims than on criminals… It feeds like a parasite off of money and power, so the ones who deserve to die are still alive.’), like some sort of Robin Hood as KMC commented.

♦ « Hyung »

(breaking my silence once again…) KMC and KSJ were lovers/KMC was in love and they were in their domestic life bubble (and ngl that ‘… [and the one] I look up to.’ delivery with that hesitant interruption felt like a left out confession)

The scene in Narae’s room was paralleled in the present at the end of the episode:

You can notice with this comparison that most (if not all) of KSJ & KMC’s scenes in the present are submerged by blue tones in the prison cell and at the Police Agency, just like in the lyrics of the new OST with the wordplay on the color blue and feeling blue! eg. 눈을 감아보면 I see blue — 그런 너의 모습에 feel so blue (When I close my eyes I see blue — At the sight of you feel so blue) 네게 가려진 난 I see blue — 몰랐던 너의 모습에 feel so blue (I’m covered/obscured by you I see blue — This side of you I didn’t know feel so blue)

♦ Gaetal, masks and dogs

Gaetal could be translated as ‘dog mask’ (개, dog + 탈, mask).

GAETAL AND MASKS

Gaetal’s excentric and playful, Robin Hood-esque character and their theatrics could be a reference to the traditional Korean masks.

« [Korean masks] were used in war, on both soldiers and their horses ; ceremonially, for burial rites in jade and bronze and for shamanistic ceremonies to drive away evil spirits/illness/bad luck out of an individual or a village (often horrifying or grotesque to invoke fear and humor), to remember the faces of great historical figures, and in the arts, particularly in ritual dances, courtly, and theatrical plays. The present uses are as miniature masks for souvenirs, or on phones hung as good-luck talismans. There are two ways to categorize masks: religious masks and artistic masks. »

Indeed, KSJ had a glass display of Korean masks in his house (it’s a limited Seoul 1988 Olympic Games Korean Masks Collection):

Masks are in fact known to be used in talchum/talnori (mask dance/play), an art developed after a cultural shift in society: masks were initially used in religious activities, but entertainment and festivities factored in through time.

« An ensemble of musicians accompanies masked performers who humorously explore social issues through dramatic combinations of cheerful, energetic and rhythmical songs, dances, movements and dialogue. »

They mostly originated from the pre-modern society of the Joseon dynasty. The country was governed by a rigid social hierarchy (eg. the aristocracy and the buddhist monastic hierarchy) and a strict patriarchal system. They sharply criticized contemporary society with satire and witty humour, depicting the falsehoods and hypocrisies of the upper classes (eg. decadent noblemen, apostate/depraved monks, patriarchal husbands) but also mocked stereotypical versions of annoying personalities within the lower classes (eg. the drunkard, the gossip, the flirt of the complaining grandmother). It offered people both catharsis and important life lessons, and masks are a key means to do that.

On the nobleman mask (Master Kim Dongpyo, maker of Hahoetal): « yangban noblemen prioritize dignity and saving face above all else. The gentle curves of a Hahoe yangban mask embody this character. » In other local traditions, noblemens’ masks may express greedy and pretentious personalities.

Talchum offered an opportunity to commoners to unleash their pent-up emotions, their suppressed anger and for the governing class to hear the people’s complaints, ultimately promoting greater unity within society. Their will for resistance is voiced.

Gaetal's apparent intentions correspond to all this to a great extent.

« Once a person dons a mask – men and women, young and old, nobility and commoners – all are freed from social conventions and restrictions. The appearance of the Korea mask itself is also liberated by convention. Nevertheless, everyone manages to find a part of the mask with which they can identify. In this way the mask is truly the face of the heart's hidden desires. (…) Korean masks are grotesque and vividly colored. Masks are painted in vivid primary colors, representing both the individual personality and social class of the character as well as his or her age and gender eg. black & dark for an elderly character ; red & bright for a young character ; white for a young female character. In terms of personality, a red, darkly-colored mask represents recklessness and aggressiveness; a yellow or lightly-colored mask characterizes foolishness and incompetence ; and a black or darkly-colored mask exemplifies an anxious, socially marginalized character. To symbolize a character's duplicity, masks are sometimes painted half red and half white. »

[For posterity, in the drama, Gaetal’s mask is fully white ; we also don’t know Gaetal’s gender, Joohyun evokes this possibility, it could very well be herself, Min Jiyoung or her assistant, even Jihoon’s grandmother ; Min Jiyoung’s attention to her clothes also reflects the good/evil duality with her outfit at BWT’s final trial.]

Professor Heo Yongho, Korea National University of Arts: « Korean mask-dance dramas deal with such universal themes as freedom and equality. However, they present these common subjects in a distinctively dynamic and exciting way. »

All these emotions, ambitions and desires can therefore be put on display without fear or shame. The characters mock and satirize the duplicity and foolishness of the ruling class and pray for a new world and a better future, like Gaetal does in the Killing Vote.

This page even theorizes 탈 derived from the Chinese character for ‘to rid/free oneself from something’.

« Korea adopted Chinese characters prior to the invention of their own, unique alphabet under King Sejong (1397-1450), and still use Chinese characters extensively. Thereby, the original meaning of the talnori or talchum, is a play or dance that helps shed ones stress and grief. Originally talnori was performed at night, often in a clearing around a fire and the exaggerated colors and expressions on some of the masks reflect a time when such vibrant colors and expressions were necessary to make them visible in the poor light. » [This bit could be relevant later on in this point when I’ll talk about the moon and the fire symbolism!]

The interaction with the audience is important, it completes the performance. As the UNESCO page describes: « talchum performances do not require a formal stage: any empty space can become a venue. The audience plays an essential role, contributing to the production with their cheers and jeers as the drama unfolds. »

Talchum players improvise their lines and actions in response to the spectators, quickly forming a bond together.

In a distorted fashion, the Killing Vote seems to strongly rely on the country’s participation to vote for the ‘judgement’ of the culprit, introduced as corrupt and deeply irredeemable people (even though we know the reality is more ambiguous: two broadcasts were pre-recorded and pretty compelling cases were deliberately chose to obtain an unanimous vote, not to mention Gaetal’s true intention eg. if they’re LMS).

The country even becomes an entertained audience in addition to their participation: each vote brings its fair share of debates, cries of support, admiration, disgust, anticipation or emulation. The Killing Vote becomes an outlet to everyone's fears, anger, frustration.

Gaetal's judgment of 'devils that were deemed innocent' by a failing legitimate system which would even condone their deed inflames passions: revealing the culprit's corrupt side in a sarcastic, unfiltered fashion the conventional society would (or could) never dare to do makes people look up to Gaetal.

It also makes people relate to Gaetal because the votes serve as an example that they wish was applied to their own tragedies eg. Joohyun, KSJ, Joomin & Jihoon. Exemplifying the 'judgment' of their cases could be seen as a prophylactic step to 'exorcise' the deep-rooted evil and appease the tormented souls of their victims.

And Gaetal engages with the people with a witty and sarcastic speech, and sounds deeply concerned with people’s opinion (again, it could be false pretenses) eg. when they cautioned sensitive souls to close the video as its content might be too violent ; when they got angry as they read forums after KMC was thought dead ; when they broadcasted the video revealing KMC was alive.

The Killing Vote also seems to touch on people’s duplicity, hidden desires and ambitions in society eg. especially KSJ, KMC, Min Jiyoung, LMS and people’s ambivalence in the face of good and evil (everybody has in them the risk of becoming a ‘Gaetal’ or one of their targets if faced with certain opportunities and circumstances) as I talked about it in a previous post (’The Killing Vote and a vigilantism built on a twisted basis’).

The hahoetal (Hahoe [Village] masks) are one of the most known Korean masks, designated as national treasures.

They were used during a kind of mask dance called 하회별신굿탈놀이, dance drama of Hahoe Village: it’s a shamanic dance drama passed down from the mid-12th century & performed to appease the local deity, pray for the village’s peace and wellbeing as well as a good harvest. It is said to be one of the oldest mask dances known in Korea.

It's a play in satire and humor directed at the ruling class from the religious perspective of praying fortune. The masks represent 12 stock characters needed to perform the roles in the ritual dance dramas included in the ceremony (eg. the monk, the scholar, the bride, the aristocrat …).

Their origin is not clearly known, but a legend about their original design exists.

« In the middle of the Goryeo Dynasty, there lived a craftsman, Heo. For years his village suffered from misfortunes but no one knew why. One day, he dreamt about a mountain god, receiving an oracle message that the misfortunes would disappear if the villagers danced with masks made by Heo. The god said he was not to have any contact with anyone until he finished. Heo then had a straw rope wound around his workshop to allow him to work undisturbed and immediately set to work. One hundred days had passed. A young woman named Kim was in love with Heo and was growing weary of waiting. She broke her vow to leave him undisturbed for one hundred days and peeked into her lover’s workshop to see what he was doing. He was carving the last mask, the scholar's foolish servant, Imae. The moment she glanced inside, Heo collapsed spitting blood and died. The mask was left unfinished, without a chin. Out of guilt for causing his death, the young woman committed suicide. Afterward, the residents of Hahoe village decided to serve the dead woman as a tutelary god and held annual rituals to assuage her soul. »

An annual winter memorial rite is held at dawn of the first full moon of each new year to console their unrealized love, appease their tormented souls and honor them. They would also pray for the well-being of the village and for its protection against evil spirits.

This also seems relevant:

The word 탈 also includes a second meaning of misfortune, illness and difficulty. Eg. when someone becomes sick or runs into trouble, you can use the verb 탈나다 (an accident happens/have a hitch/run into trouble/fall ill/get out of order or go wrong) or the word 탈 which is a homonym of the mask.

« The word for masks represents something that people hope is only a passing event. Interestingly, people were reluctant to hold onto the word 탈 in its meaning of a mask. In the past, they believed that if they kept a mask nearby, they would be in trouble due to the bad luck attached to the mask. Therefore, they stored the masks in a village shrine or burned them immediately after the ritual for which they were created. People regarded masks as religious objects, something that should be feared, worshipped and enshrined. »

But masks were also considered by ancient Koreans as a sacred symbol of the gods (or a particular god): as such, it was especially valued and worshipped, and always kept a certain distance away from living quarters.

In the drama, the mere existence of Gaetal calls for trouble and the police force endeavors to catch them. Gaetal nicknames themselves 'the citizens' watchdog' who will protect them from evil, and is compared to many heroic figures (eg. Robin Hood, Batman, …) but also to God. For example, Jihoon says to Joomin:

« That devil was set free by our incompetent legal system. If he wouldn’t be punished by the law or by God, I thought he should at least be punished by the people. »

The sight of their figure 'should' be feared by the culprits but only Uhm Eungyeong was really scared ; BGC and Cpt. Oh challenged and dared them to actually murder them. But in the end, the latter begged JJW for his life and promised him money, the thing he cared the most for.

This also ties well with the overall Christian symbolism exhibited in LMS’s room or Saint Michael (see the next point!).

GAETAL AND DOGS

As for the dog part, since one of the main plot points is a commentary on justice and the good & evil in people, it might be a reference to the haetae/haechi (해태/해치), a Korean mythological creature often associated for example to the Chinese guardian lions (also called shishi, lion or fu dogs) or the Japanese shishi/komainu.

Symbol of justice and law, the haetae is a hybrid beast: a mix of a lion, dog and dragon covered in scales or fur, wearing a bell and baring its canines, sometimes winged, sometimes with a reptile tail. It possesses the ability to divine and distinguish the true character in people, right from wrong, truth from lies in people.

The horn on its forehead was used to ram into the guilty in an argument.

It is said to feed off fire ; under Joseon, its statues were placed at the entrance of official places like palaces to protect the capital Hanyang (now Seoul, eg. at the National Assembly and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office) from natural disasters and fires.

« Haetae statues lie on high pedestals at each side of Gwanghwamun, the main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace (…) [they] represent the Joseon rulers’ political and philosophical ideals of protecting the nation’s dignity by applying the laws strictly and justly and providing peace and stability to all the people without allowing bias or personal feelings to influence decisions. »

This article explains how the Chinese characters for law (법, 法) derived from the ideogram for haechi.

What I gathered from this page is that law was initially written as 灋. Looking at its structure:

— The radical to the left, 氵, is associated to water (水): which means that the law must be as fair as water — The character 去 is placed under the character ‘chi’ 廌, which depicts the haechi. Making a creature said to judge right from wrong a part of the law character brings out its meaning even more.

The character was later simplified by removing the 廌, thus written 法.

[And as I said in a previous post, the hanja 橅, which means law, can be used for the Mu of Muchan!]

The haechi was also closely associated to the Chinese judicial system eg. on decorations and paintings, embroidered on the robes, crowns with a horn. The judicial officers were also named after the haechi.

It has become Seoul’s symbol since 2008.

The haetae is also mainly assimilated to the Chinese xiezhi, a mythical single-horned creature (a sheep, goat or ox) commanded during imperial criminal proceedings to ram into the guilty in the same manner.

Since Gaetal chases after evil, it could also be a reference to a breed of dogs native to the Korean Peninsula, the Sapsali/Sapsalgae.

Their name literally translates to ‘one that roots out evil spirits’ or ‘drives out devils’. Due to their appearance, they’re often associated to the haetae and sometimes called ‘Lion Dogs’.

Lion dances are indeed performed because it was thought lions contained the power to expel evil spirits and bring good luck.

Sapsali are also nicknamed ‘Ghost Hunters’ or’ Sunshine Dogs’.

Some aspects of the drama also involve dogs:

-> Gaetal used a mail address titled ‘watchdog’ that the journalist wanted to use as a catchphrase for her broadcast ;

-> KMC called KSJ their ‘hunting dog’, urging Joohyun to ‘get him off the leash’ ;

-> Narae’s dog LMS killed and all the past dogs of his family ;

-> The scene at the beginning of ep7 shows BWT beaten by Min Jiyoung’s family as his parents watch powerless. The next shot shows the Dalmatian puppy sitting quietly by his neat doghouse as the violent scene continues to unfold before it off-screen. The absence of pictures of BWT’s family in the house unlike the Dalmatian puppy could be interpreted as a further highlight of the family being poorly treated by Min Jiyoung’s family, even worse than a dog. It also aligns with the classist behavior of Min Jiyoung & co.

-> Indeed, 개 is often used as a prefix to an insult (or to emphasize words in slang, but it’s not used in the drama so far eg. 개싫어, ‘[I] freaking/really hate [it]’).

For posterity also, the word ‘mask’ (탈) is also the homonym/paronym of 달 (moon/month) and 딸 (daughter, perhaps a reference to Narae, since the video test seems to be titled after the day she was missing?).

For the 달 (moon/month), the most relevant connection to the Killing Vote is that they’re held every 15th (new moon) and 30th (full moon) of each month. It also ties up with how the talnori/talchum were originally performed at night.

If there’s also some symbolism with the moon, combined to the fire and dogs, the mythical dogs Bulgae (불개, lit. fire dog) might come to mind:

« According to a myth, one of heaven's realms, the kingdom of darkness, was called Gamangnara, the Dark World. Its king was concerned and weary with the perpetual darkness and desired the light of the sun and moon for his kingdom. He sent one of the gigantic fiery hounds, the Bulgae to chase the sun to bring it to his realm. However, when it tried to bite the sun, the sun was too hot, which made the dog unable to hold on to it, resulting in him giving up, and running back to the king, angry at the failure. He sent another more ruthless dog to steal the moon. When the Bulgae tried to carry it in its mouth, the moon was so cold, that the mouth of the dog was icy and frozen, and caused the Bulgae to drop it. The Bulgae tried many times to grab the moon in its mouth, but eventually gave up and ran back to the king in disappointment. The king never gave up this mission though. He continued to send fire dogs that were fiercer than the others, but none were able to collect the sun and moon. According to the Korean eclipse belief, during a solar eclipse or lunar eclipse, the dark sections are the parts where the dogs are biting. When the eclipses are over, the dogs have given up and run away back to its kingdom. »

Noting it down if it’ll hold meaning in the next episodes, we’ve got two scenes shot in the moonlight:

In the first episode when KSJ looks out from his cell’s window and moonlight enters the room ;

Right after KSJ got his health checked by Jihoon’s grandmother in ep6 and Joohyun gets in LMS’s car!

♦ Saint Michael and Kim Muchan

Following the previous point, in the nightclub KMC was investigating, a big statue right behind where he sat sometimes showed up.

It looks like a reproduction of the St. Michael bronze statue by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt on top of the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome (the set of pictures in the middle).

There are other examples of similar iconography (the two pictures on the right):

— St. Michael defeats Satan by Guido Remi — Fontaine Saint-Michel in Paris (Bvd. Saint-Michel) by Gabriel Davioud, the sculpture, Archangel Michael and the devil, was designed by Francisque-Joseph Duret

I’ll quote this interesting page from EHNE, an online encyclopedia project developed in 2012 by the Sorbonne University.

« Saint Michael was a unique saint. As an archangel, he acted as the preferred messenger between Heaven and Earth. His struggle against the forces of Evil allowed him to serve as both a guardian and a warrior angel. » He’s also depicted as a champion/guardian of justice and a healer of the sick.

'Who is like God?' mmmmh

[What I didn’t know is that he was also considered the patron saint of the police, justice, military and many other trades and places, which is why he’s represented on the Saint Michael pendant!]

« As a victorious angel, defender, overcomer of evil and leader of heavenly armies, Michael the Archangel is often depicted in medieval art as an armored soldier [eg. pteruges, Byzantine armor or a fully feathered body or a mix of both] carrying such arms as a cross-inscribed shield, cross-staff, or the sword or spear he typically employs to fight the dragon during the Apocalypse. Outside of the apocalyptic combat scene, Michael also may be shown trampling and piercing the dragon as part of his overall iconography.  (…) He's also featured in other important episodes, such as the biblical narrative of the Fall of Angels and the Last Judgment [Day of Wrath/Dies Irae, where the just will be welcomed to eternal bliss, separated from the wicked, cast into ‘eternal fire’.]. In Last Judgment scenes, Michael the Archangel is often shown holding the scales of justice laden with good and bad souls. »

This thesis (p. 287 ss.) on Saint Michael’s italian iconography by Clémentine Denèle was also interesting:

[It could align with KMC’s restraint in front of KSJ most of the time, his mainly unreliable narration and expressions you could only interpret in retrospect. The same could be said of KSJ, but it’s less apparent to me: it was strong in the beginning of the drama but by now, KSJ feels less ‘cryptic’ than KMC who’s been hazy the whole time.]

Most of the time, Saint Michael's representations depict him with a neutral expression, totally disconnected to the threat and tension of his whole body engaged in his battle against evil that belie no hesitation: no emotions pass through (eg. compassion, anger, fear, remorse, hesitation, pride, judgment/disgust against the evil’s deeds or the violence he executes), only a solemn severity can be seen. Even for other angel figures of the Christian iconography, feelings were initially expressed through their gestures and hands. This changed at the end of the Middle Ages: angels were depicted with emotions and expressions eg. smiling to suggest their angelic gentleness, especially when represented suffering next to the Christ being crucified. But Saint Michael stays depicted with an impassive/calm expression, at most with a discreet rictus. Clémentine Denèle comments it could be explained by his ethereal nature and superior quality as an angel unlike humans & the overall idealistic representation of angels. She quotes the art historian Jean Wirth: he says the immobility and the impassibility are characteristic of the superior beings, because they convey an abstraction and reflect the stable order of invisible things. To materialize their constant presence by God and humans’ side, angels make themselves visible to the humans by assuming a human form as well. Vivid expressions were exclusive to the damned and the demons. It aligns with the attitude he exhibits in the Epistle of Jude 1:9: « But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” » Passing a partial judgement on the evil is not his mission, Clémentine Denèle says he only assumes his role as God’s armed wing and as such, his faithful obedience and trust in God command quietude under any circumstances: as the executor of divine justice, he knows for a fact his mission is devoted to the good and it must be fulfilled. She reports there were only rare occurrences depicting him with anger and aggressiveness or fear (he’s most of the time confident in the battle’s aftermath), and he’s also rarely present to mourn the Christ as he is crucified: it is not his place.

On a related note, Narae’s name (나래) is the synonym of wing, spelled 날개. 나래 was officially admitted as an alternate orthography for the word in 2011. But from what I gathered, it’s only used in a literary/poetic context, while the common spelling stays 날개.

♦ More on names & hanja

After all these episodes, some hanja that could be used for KMC, KSJ and Joohyun’s names now seem relevant to note:

— For Kim Muchan

-> Mu in Muchan Law (橅 & 膴, 법) as I mentioned in the first post: it aligns with his ambiguous position on justice on the past (‘a rational justice’ that doesn’t follow the official law if it’s unfair) and in the present (manipulating evidence and proceedings to arrest culprits but still handling them within the law, rejecting Gaetal’s ways)

Deceive/lie (誣, 속이다) & fog/mist/haze (霧, 안개): his unreliable narration, the way he deceived people to catch Gaetal in ep4 & the edit that appears in the preview ; KMC now seems even more ambiguous than KSJ.

Full of rumors (楙, 무성하다): his ‘Wipeout’ reputation

Rough/violent/tough (蕪, 거칠다): his overall reckless and violent behavior as he works

Work hard/try hard and strive/work/endeavor ie. devote oneself and contribute to doing sth (務, 힘쓰다): self-explanatory given what we saw in this episode, combined with the shots of his house and the first episode that explains his reputation!

Stroke/touch/caress with hands and figuratively soothe ie. calm down sb with warm words and acts (憮, 어루만지다 and 애무하다 which can have a romantic tone = caress, stroke affectionately ie. for sb to gently stroke the one they love): his overall restraint to reach out to KSJ and guilt over being too late to save Narae. The new OST’s lyrics also refer to those kinds of feelings (whoever the narrator is), especially ‘Let me hold your hand, 더 가까이 너를’ (‘Let me hold your hand, Closer to you’), ‘익숙치않은 이런 내 모습 미안해’ (‘I’m sorry for this unfamiliar me [I showed you]’) and ‘Oh, please tell me why — 더는 네게 — 늦지 않게’ (‘Oh, please tell me why — I won’t be late for you anymore’).

EDIT: also, some shots indeed focus on KSJ's hands as he buries himself in them to cry in front of KMC!

House (廡, 집): KSJ’s house he seems to know pretty well and possibly holds precious memories to him, and his own house he doesn’t seem to tend to, probably out of guilt (see a previous post, ‘On the frames facing down (ep. 1 & 6), shame and guilt’)

Warrior (ie. person who learns martial arts and practices it as a job) & soldier/military/army (武, 무사 & 병사 respectively): his potential association to St. Michael who led heavenly armies + for posterity, if they reveal later in the drama he also knows martial arts and it somehow involves him with the Killing Vote (the first episode & ep3 at least showed he was quite agile)

Shaman (巫, 무당 ; though the word is mainly associated to female shamans, male shamans can also be called mudang): a shaman « employs magic to effect cures, to tell fortunes, to soothe spirits of the dead, and to repulse evil »

Dance (舞, 춤추다): like… the talchum… masks… in addition to the shaman... you know… haha

— For Kwon Seokju

-> Kwon [You can also apply relevant meanings to Narae, since it’s her last name]

Prison (圈, 감방): both physical and figurative ever since Narae died and he murdered BWT

Abstain/refrain from ie. be careful about one’s speech or behavior (惓, 삼가다): his overall behavior in the present

Tired/exhausted/weary (倦, 고달프다): what he wen through these whole 8 years

Take care of/look after/oversee, heartfelt/caring (惓, 정성스럽다) & warm/friendly: self-explanatory about his character in general when we see his past self with Narae, Jihoon & KMC, and other people in general (BWT’s parents, LMS, his students) before Narae’s case

Loyal/devoted (惓, 충성스럽다): devoted wholeheartedly to his family

Look back/reflect on the past (睠, 돌아보다): also self-explanatory

-> Seok in Seokju

Untie (釋, 풀다 ie. return what has been tied, bound, or twisted back to its original state)/relieve anger or sorrow/get rid of one’s agony by handling it : he’s still waiting for the accomplice to Narae’s murder to be arrested to find some closure after all those years, he perhaps also wants to put an end to it all for KMC to stop feeling guilty over the case.

Night (夕, 밤), tide (汐, 조수 ie. seawater flowing in and out from the shore because of the gravitational pull of the sun and moon) & tideland (潟, 개펄 ie. wide expanse of mud revealed when the tide goes down): [if the moon and sun imagery holds some meaning in the drama] ; also, most of KSJ’s scenes in the beginning were shot in the dark compared to the bright scenes with Narae and Jihoon

... The Mont Saint-Michel is known to be a tidal island and for its fog haha

-> Ju in Seokju [You can apply the relevant meanings to Joohyun too]

House (宙, 집): the house that had good natural lighting (Narae, Jihoon and perhaps KMC) he cherished is now gone, it is derelicted after all these years

Bear/endure/put up with ie. endure sth for a long time, resist (拄, 버티다): self-explanatory too

Sunlight/sunbeam/sunshine (晭, 햇빛): the shots of him mourning or basking in the light

Timely rain but also heavy rain/downpour (澍, 단비 and 폭우) & wick and burn out ie. burn and eliminate sth (炷, 심지 & 불사르다) as I mentioned in the first post!

The fire imagery is also present with Joohyun’s character and her scar.

It’s associated to the tragedy she had to live, and we could project the same theme to KMC & KSJ who went through the same, all linked by this ‘terrible rage’ still waiting to be put out.

The hanja 火 (which is what 炷, the hanja for wick/burn out is composed of) is associated to anger (화, anger, fury) and fire (불).

Given the previous posts, you can also link it to the haetae (symbol of justice which feeds off fire, is said to prevent fires) or the eternal fire at the Last Judgment.

— For Joohyun

-> Hyun in Joohyun

Snoop/nose around (俔, 염탐하다): self-explanatory hahaha

Bright ie. a place being light as a result of getting a lot of sun/light or brilliant (adj.)/break or dawn but also fig. cheerful/bright (炫, 밝다), sunlight/sunbeam/sunshine (昡, 햇빛 and 晛, 햇살) and kind-hearted/benevolent (賢, 어질다): self-explanatory for this lovely character!!

Wise/sagacious/sensible (賢, 현명하다): she has a soothing and mature side to her eg. as she talked to KMC & Jihoon

Clever/bright/intelligent (儇, 영리하다): self-explanatory too!!

Connect/link/join (縣, 연결하다, can also be used for people): she seems to connect with people around her with ease, and she looks like she’s trying to reconnect KMC to KSJ

♦ « The person Kwon Seokju cherished the most »

I don’t know where this will lead, but KMC JJW’s quote in ep6 as he relayed it to KSJ: initially, it was about ‘the person KSJ loved the most’ (가장 사랑하는 사람 ; 사랑하다 = love/care ie. cherish, value, and care for sb with all one’s heart).

KMC quoted it as ‘the person KSJ cherished the most’ (가장 소중한 사람 ; 소중하다 = valuable/precious/cherished/dear): while the two adjectives almost mean the same thing, ‘cherished’ feels more personal than the general ‘loved’ (사랑하다 is also used a lot) and conveys the invaluable dearness better in this situation to me.

[boysplanetrecaps]

Build Up, Ep 5 Recap: Hoobae versus Sunbae

Welcome back to the one of the top twenty best Build Up recaps out there! In the previous one, we saw the wild outcome of Team Blue Sweater versus Team Beige Jackets. Now, we’ll be seeing the weird grudge match between Inhyuk and Joohee. Let’s do it!

Dahee announces the next two teams. One member is Choi Haram, who was the judges’ unanimous choice for Top Tier in the performance of Breath first round; he’s a pianist as well as a singer. Haram is working with Hwang Inhyuk, who was a member of team Tomboy and also contributed a lot of excellent sweaters to the show’s mood board. 

Haram, left, and Inhyuk, who has styled his hair to look a lot like Haram. At least he’s sort of wearing a sweater. 

Another member of team Tomboy was Park Joohee, who was my personal favorite on that team. Joohee is, as you might recall, a trainee and is Inhyuk’s biggest fan. And, as it turns out, Joohee is challenging Inhyuk this round, along with his partner Kwon Euibin, the “robotic” one who sang Something Like That in the first round.

Ooh, spicy! 

We flash back to see Haram and Inhyuk stepping up to the Rival Choosing Platform Area, only to be approached by these two.

Everyone reacts strongly to see the fan take on his idol. We get a little montage of the two of them working together, with Inyhuk being a good hyung and Joohee being an adoring hoobae.

Joohee voice overs, “Brothers betray and stab each other!” But that’s generally considered a bad thing…. Like historically… am I wrong?

Inhyuk interviews that he was “boiling” to see his little brother approaching him like this. It’s actually a bit tough to tell how serious he is or isn’t about it. It seems like maybe he really is annoyed about it. 

Back in the performance theater, judge Solar asks Joohee why he picked his hero Inhyuk to be his rival.  Joohee replies, “Although I like him very much, I thought it would be boring if I chose to join him in the second round as well. So if I can’t have him, I’d rather destroy him.”

I get it that he’s being, I don’t know, playful or funny or something, but I don’t like it. 

I don’t think Inyhuk and Haram like it much either.

Everyone’s like, wow, what a scary kid! Haram is like, “It’s time for Joohee to go to school, so I’ll send him to school.” Ooooh!

Side note: Kwon Euibin looks like a completely different person than he did in the first round.

Gotta say, I prefer his new look. 

So, how did Haram and Inhyuk prepare?

In a gray board room with a big conference table, of course! 

I don’t know, fam, are these sweaters? I feel like the answer is no. 

Anyway, they’re trying to figure out what song to sing, and soon decide on To My Youth by Bolbbalgan4 (also called Bol4). 

So, let’s talk about the song and the original artist thereof! Bolbbalgan4 was originally a duo, but it was mostly the one girl singing all the time, and eventually the other girl left and now it’s just the one girl, Ahn Jiyoung. My favorite song of theirs is probably Workaholic, but Jiyoung has a really distinctive voice that makes almost any song of theirs/hers worth listening to. 

You might remember To My Youth from when Hyolyn and Minyoung sang it on Queendom 2. Or you might remember it from Produce X 101, when it was performed by 5 trainees, including Wooseok.*

*Wooseok is from Up10tion just like Hwanhee and Sunyoul and Dongyeol. Wooseok did great on Produce X 101, even making the final lineup, and then his agency thought, I know, let’s just promote Wooseok and not bring his fame back home to Up10tion. Because fuck you that’s why, I guess. So many rabbit holes… Ok, back to the point… 

The lyrics of To My Youth address the feeling of looking back on an unhappy childhood and being grateful that things are better now, and feeling empathy and sympathy for the child you once were. I think…? You can check out the lyrics for yourself. Here’s a lyric video, if you like those. 

Also, there’s a real theme going on, between Play, My Sea, and To My Youth, huh?  

Choi Haram, who seems to have had a pretty high pressure childhood/young adult period, says that he listened to To My Youth over and over again. He says he was homeschooled and spent most of his time alone. Jeez, that’s rough. We see him at a pre-production meeting saying that he started playing piano “very late” at the age of 16 -- wow, ok -- and people told him that he wouldn’t make it because he started too late.  

For him, the song To My Youth was very comforting and helpful. Wow, I feel like most of the guys on this show just need a LOT of hugs. 

Haram says that the song begins on the piano, and Inhyuk is like, oh, I get it, you can play the piano! This is perfect!!!

“You can play the piano!!!”

Haram offers to do the arrangement for them, to make the stage really their own. 

We get a mini montage of Haram preparing the arrangement, checking in with Inhyuk, all that, and them practicing together. And then it’s time for the performance!

Fighting!

Full version without reactions 

Haram, left, and Inhyuk, right.

My thoughts:

Oh wow, this was really great. 

It always helps when I like the song itself, so I’m trying to be fair and not unduly prefer it, but ottoke? I feel how I feel. 

I really like Haram’s voice. His upper mix is pretty amazing because he can sing those high notes in a full voice, even very softly. That’s not easy to do.  His full belts are stunning, even if he uses like 10% more vibrato than maybe I’d prefer. Also, his piano arrangement sounded lovely. On the negative side, I think he could work a bit on his breath control, and I think it’s always better when people sing with their eyes open. 

Inhyuk has a very specific vocal color that’s a bit reminiscent of Lim Junhyeok’s. He’s got a slight sharpness to his tone that I think could go either way for someone. I think in the past I haven’t always cottoned on to what he does, but this time, I don’t know, I liked it. Maybe I’m just softening in general. Four airplane flights a week, hours driving, weird hotel rooms -- sometimes just a comforting song feels good and I’m in the mood to like it. I never promised to give perfectly objective opinions here. 

Their harmonies sound fantastic toward the end -- I wish there was a little more harmony throughout, but the song was sort of designed to be stripped down. 

At the end, when they sing 얼마나 over and over (eorlmana, something like that, I’m terrible at transliterating Korean), it means, “how painful, how painful it must have been”, and it shows on their faces, this sort of complicated combination of sympathy and self-pity. 

Someone hug this guy right away. 

Oh, and if you’re wondering -- this went on the playlist.  

In the MNET edit, we find out that Wendy and Seungkwan both really like this song. Then Seungkwan wonders out loud whether he might be a harsher grader when it’s a song he really likes, because then he has high expectations. It’s a tough line to walk, for sure. That’s why I think the guys should choose songs that are slightly familiar, or at least catchy enough to be likable on a first listen, while avoiding classics that the judges have heard 1000 times. 

During the performance, we get a lot of happy and thoughtful nods from the judges. Seungkwan and Wendy might be tearing up a little, and the guys backstage seem impressed. We get an instant replay of one of Haram’s amazing belts.

Right at the end, Seungkwan mutters, “I’m about to cry.” When the guys are done, all the judges burst into applause and talked to each other about how touching it was. The guys backstage agree -- this was great. Even their rivals are like, well, that was amazing. 

Joohee (right) is regretting his life’s decisions for sure right now.

The judges punch in their votes, and we find out that the high score is 100, and the low is 85. 

Seungkwan gave it a 100, which makes sense. He explains that he was really immersed in the song, that it made the tip of his nose tingle, and made him think, “Seungkwan, don’t make a fuss.” In other words, he was holding back tears. 

Eunkwang says, “While watching this performance, I thought that Build Up is a great show!” Once MNET has duly given him $50 for saying that, he goes on to say that he really likes Inhyuk’s vocal color, which is “very full and comfortable to listen to.” He says that  Haram’s high notes are “refreshing and stable” and would be useful on a team. 

Solar is the one who gave the 85. We saw her during the performance sort of adjusting her earpiece, so I wonder if that’s related. We don’t get to hear her feedback at all, though. 

And with that, we rather quickly transition to Joohee and Euibin’s preparation for their performance.

WHAT IS IT WITH KOREAN HEATING? They’re fully indoors and just casually wearing full on winter coats. How can I see their sweaters if they’re all bundled up like this? 

Joohee says that “this is a couple’s fight, because we” -- meaning he and Inhyuk -- “used to be in love.” Weird, but ok. We find out that Joohee approached Inhyuk to make a duet together, but when he asked Inhyuk if he liked rock music, Inhyuk said no, and Joohee assumed that meant that Inhyuk didn’t want to work with him. You can actually see a slight flash of surprise on Inhyuk’s face as Joohee walks away, but Joohee doesn’t see it. He just  begins asking everyone if they want to do rock music. Euibin says he likes band music, which is close enough, and they form a partnership. 

Then there’s a weird little conversation, where they agree on all kinds of random musical tastes, and Joohee says he really likes Euibin and picked the right partner, and it has that feel of when you’re talking to a new person from your preferred gender while your ex is nearby and you’re like, laughing way too hard at their jokes. Big time that vibe.

Euibin thinks they can add rock and hard elements to the song The Moon, and that it would be nice. Joohee is like, sure, whatever, as long as you think Inhyuk will be proud of me, wait, did I say that out loud?

I looked up the lyrics to The Moon but could only find them in Korean. Since I had to translate them anyway, here they are (and this is all via Google translate):

Today when I open my eyes I believe it was yesterday, a day with you It's not over, lie to me

Even when I look back, it’s so clear I'm doing well, how are you? you were humming I remember the singing voice

It's awkward being alone here It's okay because your warmth remains tell me you're doing well too You may not hear it, but

On a night when the moon rises On the day I pictured you I'm lost alone and lost, yeah, yeah In my dark heart, There's no room to breathe I guess I have to let it go now

(Then you repeat the last three parts one more time through, ending on the phrase “I guess I have to let it go now.”)

The lyrics are quite sad, and the song sounds like a ballad to me, so I’m confused as to what happened here. Joohee turned down working with Inhyuk because he wanted to do a rock song, and then ended up doing a ballad. What’s that about? If they’d wanted to do a rock song that showcases vocals and has “moon” in the title, why not Moonshot by N.Flying? 

Anyway, the performance begins!

Full version without reactions

My thoughts:

Well, hmm. I mean, mostly very nice, with an obvious issue: Joohee starts crying at the end, to the point that he can’t sing. But let’s talk about it other than that for a bit. 

I like Joohee’s voice a lot, but for me the star of the show is Euibin. The way that Joohee begins and ends the song makes him feel like the “center”, in a way, but I really, really liked Euibin’s performance here. His voice is just that exact kind of timbre that sets off a funny feeling in the back of my neck, like D.O.’s voice, and I really like it. 

I was wondering, “wait, was he this good last time?” and had to check over my notes. He was ranked 9th overall, ahead of Jay Chang, in the first vocal check in. In my notes for the vocal check in, I said that Euibin was singing a ballad, “but his voice was unexpectedly sweet and pretty compared to his serious countenance.  He strained a little on some of the higher notes and the whole thing felt a little uneven, occasionally kind of shouty. It’s nice to listen to despite all that. I’m not quite sure what to make of him so far, so I’ll reserve judgment for now.” 

In the Pre-4 mission, he sang in Something Like That, and I got the sense that he was really nervous and it made him pitchy and nasal at the beginning and the end, but in the middle he showed “technique and lovely vocal color that must have earned him a spot on the show.” I thought he had a great belt too.

I guess somehow he was less nervous this time, and finally did what he can do.  I’m glad I had a chance to hear him really sing. I hope this isn’t the last time.  He could improve his breath control a tiny bit, and ok, he got a tiny bit nasal on some of the highest notes, but that’s just quibbling. I really enjoyed it. 

As for Joohee, of course I also like his voice. He’s great. I think that in this performance, he’s a little pitchy throughout, and I think he needs to work on his breath control quite a bit. There were some notes that felt like they should have lasted 1 more second, but he ran out of air. More than that, though, he needs to work on his agility. Those leaps up to high notes are kind of strained and uncomfortable. He seems to get almost stuck between registers sometimes and it makes some notes sound almost froggy.  

I really, really liked their harmony. Their voices blended really well together.

So, yeah, Joohee was unable to sing the last line or two because he burst into tears. I’m not sure what I think of this. I write something, then delete it, then write it and delete it. I guess I can’t make up my mind whether that was sweet and human or sort of unacceptable, or maybe both. I do know that the pressure of a show like this that has to be incredibly stressful and scary, especially for a younger person like him. Also, I believe that Inhyuk means a lot to him and I think his emotional state was affected by the situation he was in -- even if it was a situation largely of his making.

I dreaded watching the MNET edit, but you gotta do what you gotta do. 

The first few notes garner happy reactions from the judges and the guys backstage. Everything seems to be going pretty well until…

There’s something so sort of absurd and hilarious, in a dark way, about how Joohee stands there crying while Euibin stands completely still with his arms to the side, and then goes over to sort of robotically comfort Joohee.

The judges aren’t sure what to do. Solar picks up the mic and says “Don’t cry,” and a few other judges agree. Eunkwang attributes it to the stress of being the youngest.

The judges key in their votes. Backstage, the other contestants are divided. Some of them think it is unprofessional or wrong to cry like that. Jay says that he liked it -- it means Joohee was immersed in the lyrics.

The high and low scores are revealed...

Seungwan, Solar, and Wendy all gave 90s, Jaehwan gave an 80, and the others gave somewhere in between. As a reminder, the first team’s highest was 100 and lowest was 85, so even though people are acting like we can’t know who won, it seems pretty obvious to me who won. 

Eunkwang asks Joohee why he cried. He says, “I’m not sure, but when I was singing… I suddenly became overwhelmed and couldn’t stop crying.”

Jaehwan says, “You have those days,” and VCG guy says, “You have those moments.” Eunkwang attributes it to Joohee’s “focus” on the song.

Jaehwan says, “It was still a bummer because…. “ He trails off and tries again: “You might think I’m cold hearted, but… it was a bummer you didn’t finish the song. I like how you’re sincere about the music and take the lyrics seriously, but you have an audience in front of you and as a professional singer, you should have controlled your emotions. But you’re young and don’t have much experience, and I’m sure you learned a lot from this.”

Seungkwan says it’s a good experience to cry… when you’re practicing. “You can only cry while singing when you’re 100% into it,” Seungkwan says -- and of course it’s nice to see someone get full into it. But, he points out, crying on stage is basically not acceptable anywhere else, with the implication that it’s not really acceptable here.

Backstage, Park Jeup says, “I’ve cried before! I’ve wailed!” Our unproblematic fave, Park Jeup, everyone. 

It even made sad Donghun smile a little.

We didn’t hear a darn word about how great Euibin’s performance was. This is the Park Joohee show, I guess. Well, I noticed it, Euibin. 

You did well, Kwon Euibin. 수고했어, 권의빈. 

It’s time for the other team to come out and for production to reveal the full scores.

Haram and Inhyuk take it, 648 to 607. 

Doing the math, if we take out the high and low scores for each team and average the rest of the scores, Haram and Inhyuk’s average score would be 92.6, and Joohee and Euibin’s would be 87.4. So it was pretty clearly a win for Haram and Inhyuk, no matter how you look at the numbers. 

Park Joohee says…

“At first, I joked a lot and provoked them. But I was worried I might have hurt their feelings.” And he starts crying again! 

Everyone laughs a little, which, in my experience of traveling around in Asia, is a fairly common response to tears in many places. It’s not meant to be unkind. In the US if you start crying and someone laughed at you, wow, that would be kind of mean, but in I think most parts of Asia it’s not. I think the impulse is more to help the person stop crying by keeping it light, or something like that. 

After a few moments, VCG, trying to help lighten the mood, says in mock seriousness, “So why did you say you’ll destroy them?” Eunkwang says, “All he can destroy is ramyeon!” That gets Joohee to smile.  

And that’s the end of this segment. 

There are some shenanigans coming up, so in my next post, I’m going to talk about the four performances we skimmed over. After that, I'll do some wrap up on this round, including some math and some BRAPPY awards. 

See you then!

[sakurajjam]

Pode sugerir fcs coreanas entre 1995-1999? Quero fazer uma muse coreana, mas não conheço tantas fcs assim.

Claro que posso sugerir, pompurin! A lista ficou gigante, então vou deixar depois do cut, temos 150 mocinhas que são conhecidas e "desconhecidas", mas são todas lindas e merecem uma chance! Muitas contam com uma gama de fotos, enquanto outras não, mas espero que encontre uma que agrade.

1995

Kim Jisoo, Blackpink

Kim Jiyeon (Kei), Lovelyz

Kim Mihyun (Mimi), Oh My Girl

Park Junghwa, EXID

Jung Dasol (Yiyeon), BVNDIT

Ki Huihyeon, DIA

Choi Heejae (Heeyu), MIXX

Lee Jooeun (Jueun), DIA

Han Haebin, Gugudan

Kim Jiyeon (Bona), Cosmic Girls

Ahn Jiyoung, Bolbbalgan4

Yoo Siah (Yooa), Oh My Girl

Im Nayeon, Twice

Kwon Eunbi, Solo e IZ*ONE

Lee Siyeon, Dreamcatcher

Oh Seunghee, CLC

Chu Sojung (Exy), Cosmic Girls

Kim Nayoung, Gugudan

Kim Minju (Seoyeon), Favorite

Kim Yechan, Pink Fantasy

Kim Sojung (Sowon), Gfriend

Im Nayoung, Pristin

1996

Park Haeyoon, Cherry Bullet

Lee Hyebin, MOMOLAND

Kim Jennie, Blackpink

Hyun Seunghee, Oh My Girl

Kim Chungha, solista (ex-I.O.I)

Nim Daewang, Pink Fantasy

Park Myungeun (Jin), Lovelyz

Oh Hayoung, Apink

Lee Dabin (Yeonwoo), ex-MOMOLAND

Choi Yujin, CLC e Kep1er

Jung Yerin, Gfriend

Jeon Somin, KARD

Kim Sejeong, Gugudan

Hwang Woolim, Playback

Park Sooyoung (Joy), Red Velvet

Park Soobin, Cosmic Girls

Jeon Jiwoo, KARD

Im Soeun (NC.A), UNI.T

Yoo Jeongyeon, Twice

Jang Seungyeon, CLC

Jang Sojin (Soyee), Gugudan

Lee Dawon, ARIAZ

Kim Seri (AleXa), solista

1997

Kim Yoohyeon, Dreamcatcher

Lee Saerom, Fromis_9

Jo Miyeon, (G)I-dle

Park Jisoo (Jihyo), Twice

Roseanne Park (Rosé), Blackpink

Lee Yoojeong (Haru), Ho1iday

Choi Yuju, Cherry Bullet

Lee Luda, Cosmic Girls

Lee Yoobin (Dami), Dreamcatcher

Nam Dawon, Cosmic Girls

Kim Songsun, TRI.BE

Kim Hyebin, AREAL

Choi Moonhee, Bonus Baby

Ji Suyeon, Weki Meki

Ma Eunji, Playback

Oh Hyesoo (Lina), RedSquare

Ha Sooyoung (Yves), LOONA

Jung Eunbi (Eunha), VIVIZ/GFriend

Choi Yoonsun (New Sun), Sonamoo

Kim Chaewon (Woo-ah), CRAXY

Baek Yerin, 15&

Song Yeonjoo, P.O.P

Park Jimin (Jamie), 15&

Baek Yebin, DIA

Oh Sejin (Lina), ANS

Kim Minkyung (Roa), Hinapia (e ex-Pristin)

Kim Eunji (EJ), ALICE

Jo Haseul, LOONA

Ahn Solbin, LABOUM

Bae Yubin, Oh My Girl

Song Hayoung, Fromis_9

Choi Yuna (Yuju), GFriend

Kang Kyungwon (Yuha), Hinapia

Kim Chaewon, APRIL

Yoo Jiyeon (U-Si), BADKIZ

Ryu Sujeong, Lovelyz

Seo Yuri (Seoyul), Berry Good

Jung Chaeyeon, DIA (ex-I.O.I)

Im Hayoung (Lu), NATURE

Sung Jiyeon (Jane), MOMOLAND

Jang Gyuri, ex-Fromis_9

Son Hyunmi (Mia), MIXX

1998

Park Jinhee (Jinny), Secret Number

Jeon Eunji (Danny), Ho1iday

Lee Hyunjoo, UNI.T

Lee Yeji (J), ANS

Jeon Hyunjoo (Royeon), ANS

Kim Hyunjung (Daye), Berry Good

Seo Soojin, ex-(G)I-dle

Park Jiwon, Fromis_9

Lee Suji, UNI.T

Park Jiwon (E:U), EVERGLOW

Son Juyeon (Eunseo), Cosmic Girls

Kim Dahyun, Twice

Hwang Eunbi (SinB), VIVIZ/GFriend

Jeong Yein, Lovelyz

Jeong Eunwoo, Hinapia/ex-Pristin

Lim Hyosun, H.U.B.

Maeng Chaesol, Cignature

Jung Haerim (Elly), Weki Meki

Kim Nayun, MOMOLAND

Jang Yeeun, CLC

Kim Yewon (Umji), VIVIZ/GFriend

Jeon Soyeon, (G)I-dle

Kim Hyungseo (Bibi), solista

Kang Yebin (Rena), Hinapia e ex-Pristin

Yoon Songhee, BVNDIT

Roh Jisun, Fromis_9

1999

Lee Jinsook (Yeoreum), Cosmic Girls

Yoo Jeongahn (Daisy), ex-MOMOLAND

Lee Gahyeon, Dreamcatcher

Kim Jungeun (Kim Lip), ex-LOONA e ARTMS

Lee Yoona (Keina), H.U.B

Kim Yewon (Yehana), Pristin

Kim Bora, Cherry Bullet

Kim Yerim (Yeri), Red Velvet

Park Minji, Secret Number

Kim Jiwon (Jeewon), Cignature

Uhm Jungwoo, BVNDIT

Kim Seokyung, GWSN

Im Dayoung, Cosmic Girls

Bae Sungyeon, Pristin

Kwon Chaewon (Eunchae), DIA

Lee Simyeong, BVNDIT

Choi Yewon (Arin), Oh My Girl

Kang Hyewon, IZ*ONE 

Kim Sohye, solista

Choi Yoobin (Chaebin), NATURE

Yu Yeonjung, Cosmic Girls

Kim Sihyeon, EVERGLOW

Lee Joowon (Joo E), MOMOLAND

Na Goeun, Purple Kiss

Choi Yeori, ARIAZ

Moon Sua, Billie

Lee Ahin, MOMOLAND

Choi Yena, IZ*ONE e solista

Son Eunchae, bugAboo

Kim Jiwoo (Chuu), ex-LOONA e solista

Lee Chaelin, FANATICS

Choi Euijeong (Boni), Dreamnote

Lee Yukyung, ALICE

Lee Soodam, Secret Number

Choi Yoojung, Weki Meki

Kang Mina, Gugudan

Kim Doyeon, Weki Meki

[poetlcs]

my 2022 reading wrapped 

non-fiction

black bull, ancestors and me by nkunzi zandile nkabinde / didn’t rate

canberra by paul daley / ☆☆☆☆

all about love: new visions by bell hooks / didn’t rate

how the pill changes everything: your brain on birth control by sarah e. hill / ☆☆☆.5

I’m glad my mom died by jeannette mccurdy / didn’t rate

policing desire: pornography, AIDS and the media by simon watney / didn’t rate

notes of a native son by james baldwin / didn’t rate

women race and class by angela davis 

come as you are by emily nagoski / ☆☆☆☆☆

slouching toward bethlehem by joan didion / didn’t rate

classics

the house on the strand by daphne du maurier / ☆☆☆

wide sargasso sea by jean rhys / didn’t rate

brideshead revisited by evelyn waugh / ☆☆☆☆

fantasy

iron heart by nina varela / ☆☆☆☆

elantris by brandon sanderson / ☆☆☆☆

spinning silver by naomi novak / dnf

babel, or the necessity of violence: an arcane history of the oxford translators' revolution by r.f kuang / ☆☆☆☆

a gathering of shadows by v.e schwab / ☆☆☆ (reread)

the city we became by n.k jemisin / ☆☆☆☆

come tumbling down by seanan mcguire / ☆☆☆

the wolf and the woodsman by ava reid / dnf

the atlas six by olivie blake / ☆☆☆☆

in deeper waters by f.t lukens / ☆☆

science fiction

middlegame by seanan mcguire / ☆☆☆.5

magical realism

lakelore by anna-marie mclemore / ☆☆☆

mystery/thriller/crime

in my dreams i hold a knife by ashley winstead / ☆☆☆

good rich people by eliza jane brazier / ☆☆☆

the anatomy of desire by l.r dorn / dnf

portrait of a thief by grace d. li / ☆☆

anxious people by fredrik backman / ☆☆

boy parts by eliza clark / ☆☆☆☆☆

contemporary fiction

i kissed shara wheeler by casey mcquiston / ☆☆☆☆

no hard feelings by genevieve novak / ☆☆☆☆

everyone in this room will someday be dead by emily austin / ☆☆☆☆

norwegian wood by haruki murakami / ☆☆☆.5

ophelia after all by racquel marie / ☆☆☆.5

historical fiction

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid / ☆☆☆☆☆ (reread)

the remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro / ☆☆☆☆

a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini /  ☆☆☆☆

carrie soto is back by taylor jenkins reid / ☆☆☆☆

pachinko by min jin lee / ☆☆☆☆.5

romance:

the spanish love deception by elena armas / ☆☆

saving the star by rachel bowdler / ☆☆ 

love and other words by christina lauren / ☆☆

crazy rich asians by kevin kwan / ☆☆☆

book lovers by emily henry / ☆☆☆☆

take a hint, dani brown by talia hibbert / ☆☆☆

beach read by emily henry / ☆☆☆

the viscount who loved me by julia quinn / dnf

open water by caleb azumah nelson / ☆☆☆☆

translated fiction:

beauty is a wound by eka kurniawan (indonesian) / didn’t rate

childhood by tove ditlevsen (danish) / didn’t rate

lemon by kwon yeo-sun (korean) / ☆☆☆

things we lost in the fire by mariana enríquez (argentinian) / didn’t rate

kim jiyoung born 1982 by cho nam-joo (korean) / ☆☆

short story collections

dubliners by james joyce / ☆☆ ½

a thousand years of good prayers by yiyun li / didn’t rate

her body and other parties by carmen maria machado / ☆☆☆

total books read: 58 total pages read: 12, 331 total hours listened: 181.58

[solplparty]

𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 | 사랑하는 나의 그대여 :: K-INDIE PICKS :: https://youtu.be/EWsx5LZkL48 00:00 전진희 (Jeon Jinhee) - 그대여 (Dear) 04:26 허회경 (Heo Hoy Kyung) - 당신은 늘 고개를 끄덕입니다 (Sins of Love) 08:02 알레프 (ALEPH) - 첫사랑은 기준이 되는 걸 너는 알까 (I can't get over you) 11:38 우효 (OOHYO) - 울고있을레게 (Reggae) 15:26 윤현상 (Yoon Hyun Sang) - 누운 기억 (Layed Memory) 17:36 민수 (Minsu) - 생일 노래 (The Birthday Song) 20:58 곽진언 (Kwak Jin Eon) - 자랑 (Boast) 25:12 차순종, 김다니엘 (John Cha, Daniel Kim) - With you 30:14 이영훈 (Lee Young Hoon) - 일종의 고백 (One Confess) 33:57 나원주 (Nawonjoo) - 나의 고백 (Re-recording) (My Confession) 38:22 이희상 (LEEHEESANG) - 먼 훗날 우리 (Xiao Xiao) 42:17 sogumm - 사랑해 (I Love You) (Feat. 실리카겔 (Silica Gel)) 46:19 The Poles (더 폴스) - space 50:03 About Paul - Sparkling Moments 54:04 정밀아 (Jeongmilla) - 무명無名 (Nameless) 01:00:47 권���찬 (Youngchan Kwon) - 마음의 조각들 (Broken Heart) 01:05:25 윤지영 (Yoon Jiyoung) - 우우우린 (wwwe) 01:09:08 이설아 (Lee Seol Ah) - 절망에서 희망으로 (from despair to hope) 01:12:54 강아솔 (kang Asol) - 충무에서 (Chungmu) 01:16:33 음성녹음 (音聲錄音) (RecordVoiceMessage) - 마지막 곡 (No More Love Song) #새벽 #새벽감성 #사랑노래 # #인디추천 #인디음악 #플레이리스트 - Photo : @im_hyeonzzu - More about MUN HWA IN ▶https://www.munhwain.kr ▶https://www.facebook.com/munhwainkr ▶https://www.instagram.com/munhwain_official/ ▶https://spoti.fi/3oph4ja (Spotify playlist) ▶http://blog.naver.com/munhwain_official ▶https://twitter.com/munhwainkr 문화인 - MUN HWA IN

[xxgdtopxx]

220615 voguekorea

[married-2-the-music]

Bol4: K-pop Discography Deep Dive

Bol4 is short for Bolbbalgan4, which means “blushing youth”, and is considered a classic act that toes the line of k-pop  and indie. They debuted at the beginning of 3rd gen in 2014 with just three members: Ahn Jiyoung (on vocals), Woo Jiyun (on bass), and Kwon Jiwon (on guitar) though the last two left the group in 2020 and 2015 respectively, meaning that Jiyoung now works as a soloist. Here…

[barbylion]

oc & ship tags

the ol faithfuls

oc: saana

oc: feliks

oc: jay

oc: isobel

mourning, ga

oc: charlotte

oc: mattie

our life mcs

oc: iris

oc: mahari

oc: jorja

oc: hero

oc: prisha

oc: finnigan

oc: angel

oc: mindy

sleepless in seoul

oc: lucky

oc: shinhee

oc: anri

oc: paul

oc: stella

oc: sunny

oc: lilt

oc: kevin

oc: victor

oc: kim miso

oc: taeyang

oc: queen

oc: jiyoung

oc: ha sora

oc: kwon jiyu

oc: camila

jeju blues

oc: inkyu

oc: jinjoo

oc: sinae

tradian

oc: angelina

oc: khayr leesha

oc: aalis gauthier

lady/aghassi

oc: shin arang

oc: haneol 

dawson

oc: lavinia

oc: e dawson

marlowe's magnificent menagerie

oc: yue qian

oc: adeline

inferno, inc.

oc: marchosias

oc: ira

new york fables

oc: goldie

oc: helel

hatchetfield

oc: zar

-

ship: pretty in punk (isobel x feliks)

ship: dayu (jiyu x daheon (friend's oc!))

ship: ongsun (sunny x shiwoo (an npc-coded oc))

ship: shinshon (jiyoung x minho (her lovely npc hupsand))

ship: quintop (queen x tabi (friend's oc!))

ship: kevbo (kevin x bora (npc manic pixie dream girl))

ship: two idiots (sinae x jaeyoung (npc ass husband-not-husband-husband))

qp: doug lillard (a queer platonic rs between finn, prisha, and their bassist jonesy)

ship: mournga (charlotte x mattie, trauma bonded 4lyfe)

qp: hyunmi (miso x hyunjin (friend's oc!). two gays inexplicably drawn to each other in a shitty practice room)

you guys i actually sat down and wrote all of my oc and ship tags down instead of trying to remember them in the moment >:)

[fanbynature]

K-pop Music Videos for Spooktober

↳ BIGBANG - MONSTER | 17/30

[kfash1on]

G-DRAGON

Source:Instagram

[onomatopagu-et-cie]

The Killing Vote (ep. 9 notes)

This time thankfully the notes could be gathered in one single note, and I’m glad I took the time to list many details in the three last posts because it’s connected a lot to what you could say after ep. 9!

After finishing editing Part 3 for ep. 8 notes, I added in a reblog more information on No. 1 Fan’s letter and the Great Maiden’s Blush rose, I’ll put the screenshots here for more readability because I didn’t know reblogs only showed up below the original post (and I’m too well aware of how hard it is to scroll down through that mass of text and pictures lmao)!

Have a nice week-end 👻!

(SPOILERS UP TO EPISODE 9!!!!)

Me with everything that’s happening in the drama lmao:

This also confirms that some details can be interpreted in a completely different way from at first glance, so I explored some theories in these notes hehe!

Like… To KMC’s « Do you have proof that I did it? », BGC’s character answers: « My eyes are the evidence! », it’s exactly what’s happening right now haha

Once again, what are they all cooking????

Here’s a summary of the notes' content:

The Great Maiden’s Blush (ep. 8) Min Jiyoung and Kim Muchan More on Kim Muchan and No. 3 Gaetal Jodan, Donpanic and Kwon Seokju No. 1 Gaetal, Joohyun and Park Chulmin Yoonji, Jodan and Park Chulmin Min Jiyoung’s assistant Kwon Seokju’s late wife and coincidences Cell phones and coincidences Choi Jinsu’s phone call The missing frame on the wall Yang Hyejin denying all sorts of private communication with Kwon Seokju More hints on Kim Muchan and Kwon Seokju’s relationship More religious symbolism, St. Michael & Lucifer Joseph the tattletale, etymology and the duplicity of both the narration and the good and evil in humanity

♦ The Great Maiden’s Blush (ep. 8)

➾ One of the first No. 1 Fan’s letters had a romantic tone to it ; it was the only one (at least displayed) that had this kind of mood to it, the others were focused on a lexicon of justice, moral and religious themes (I think I’ll do a separate post later on the letters because it ties up with what I wanted to say about criminology!).

This letter mentioned the birth flower of June 1st, the Great Maiden’s Blush (in French we call it 'Rose Cuisse de Nymphe', a variety of roses!):

The only moment where we see flowers is in KMC’s nightmare, as he drops the bouquet in shock at the scene in this episode:

The shot is too blurry to make the flowers out (the flowers in the center could look like roses though!) and I believe it’s an arrangement of various flowers anyway, but I thought it might be nice to note this little detail!

Could this specific flower be a reference of a memory?

♦ Min Jiyoung and Kim Muchan

There’s now an interesting parallel between the two characters:

-> Min Jiyoung addresses the camera during her debate with Choi Dohee in ep. 1:

« I want to ask the police that were on screen. Are you a puppet doing whatever you’re told? You can see the ethical standards of the society by the way you treat criminals. Don’t be a puppet. »

-> Joohyun refuses to become KMC’s puppet in whatever game he’s leading her in:

« Then how is that any different from Choi Dohee and that crazy show pretending to be for justice? You’ve been planting evidence to catch criminals and leaking information to screw over your own team. To me, that’s not what a good cop would ever do. (…) But still! I don’t want to be your pawn. »

♦ More on Kim Muchan and No. 3 Gaetal

See this previous post on KMC!

-> Just when Kim Muchan takes some days off and gets in his car, the very next scene is No. 3 coming back to the hideout!

Like… the ellipse in time and the characters’ actions are too convenient, we don’t even know where KMC was headed with his car haha

ALSO the very next scene is KMC and Joohyun checking KSJ’s house at night!!!!

— As Joohyun said, KSJ happened to escape just when KMC had the divine revelation that KSJ was the true Gaetal.

— KMC is leading an investigation on his own, just like Joohyun is too.

The true reason for his escapade at KSJ’s house by night is unknown, he widens his eyes then clenches his jaw as he says there was no big reason (first set of pictures below!).

I'm not sure how to say this, but this expression has the same feel as when someone cuts the other short in their accusation by collecting themself and providing a strong deny or a bespoke excuse/pretext.

And Joohyun’s question feels more like an accusation than a question (which also redirects the attention off her):

After a pause (as though in an attempt to rack his brain to find a quick way to deflect Joohyun’s accusation, in the second set of pictures), he then brings out a valid excuse by victimizing himself and making KSJ out to be ambivalent and manipulative, falling prey to his influence (Joohyun also calls him out on that when he exposes KSJ’s escape, saying he didn’t have to make him look like an evil criminal).

Once he finds out the excuses, he tilts his head pointedly and averts his gaze to the side. He also pushes his tongue into his cheek (perhaps subconsciously and nervously!) to make his actions seem totally natural and expect approval from Joohyun.

Note: When KMC says 'I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything for trusting him too much.', his sentence ends in ~나, which is a marker of an interrogation. Like ~ㄴ/은가, it conveys a softer tone than the other ways to ask a question (eg. ~ㅂ/습니까, ~니, ~아/어, …), sth like: ‘I wondered if I missed anything because I trusted him too much…/Did I miss anything because I trusted him too much… ?

➾ Showing Joohyun he’s not sure he’s been manipulated AND that he’s not too obstinate at emphasizing the certainty of his reason to make sure Joohyun believes him (doing the opposite would make him sound even more suspicious!) speak volumes lmao

And in doing so, he silently returns Joohyun’s implied accusation right back at her.

Note how she doesn’t push the subject further and rather provides on her own the reason she came after KMC did it without him asking to perhaps sound natural like him.

— There was also this scene:

KSJ and No. 3 go back a long way and would never betray them… ? KMC and KSJ have known each other for at least 15+ years since KSJ’s first lecture at the KNPU in 2008 but their exchange hinted they were close before as KMC rooted for his career before said lecture happened.

And given Jihoon’s reaction, he must’ve also realized it was KMC!

But it could still be someone else KSJ knew well eg. the police officer who communicated with him and shot JJW!

Note: Btw what’s with that « We know each other very well, but you said [they're] a bit different. »???? If he's No. 3, could it be because KMC never joined them from the beginning but afterwards or something else that sets him apart from all the other Gaetal… ? Or he’s different because he’s a police officer… ?

— KSJ pleads Yang Hyejin and Jihoon, saying that they ‘should trust [them]’, which is, if Gaetal No. 3 is really KMC, an interesting parallel to what KMC and KSJ say about each other to Joohyun.

This makes it strongly look like before Joohyun factored in this trio, they were actually the ones establishing a rapport in the first place with each other, sending mixed signals to Joohyun about who to trust:

The triangulation of their relationship might not be KMC doubting KSJ and Joohyun defending alternatively one against the other,

But instead KMC and KSJ deliberately trying to make Joohyun doubt both of them so that she’d believe the two didn’t trust each other at all nor work/secretly communicate together (and that’s where the fact that she ignores completely the extent of their past relationship comes into play)

Looking at what each character said about the other, this interpretation might be possible:

-> KMC advising Joohyun many times on KSJ and warning her not to get too close (‘Don’t underestimate him. Don’t show him anything he could use to read you.’ ; ‘Calm down. And keep a neutral pose. Don’t stay too close or too far. If you seem too aggressive, KSJ will notice that and use it against you. No need to bow down to him.’)

-> KMC asks Joohyun to play along with KSJ, become his messenger and try to establish a good rapport, and the drama defines this concept to the audience (« a psychological term referring to a relationship of mutual trust between two people »)

-> KMC says KSJ completely fooled Joohyun even though he warned her not to let him toy with her (ep. 6)

-> KMC reacts so bitterly when it comes to KSJ in front of Joohyun that she’s led to think he hates him (ep. 6)

-> KSJ says Joohyun shouldn’t trust KMC/this ‘friend’ too much, « that’s all he has to say to her. » (ep. 3)

-> When Joohyun asks if KSJ still believes KMC is Gaetal, KSJ avoids answering and vaguely warns her (ep. 6): « At the end of every semester, I used to say this to my students: ‘Don’t trust everything that I teach you. If you do your own research, then you’ll find a different answer.’ », which seems to hint that KMC is not Gaetal (whether KSJ believes or not, what’s important is what Joohyun does with these cryptic words!).

A few scenes ago however, he was hinting that KMC felt the same ‘terrible rage’ that Joohyun could hear in Gaetal’s speech, which could also include him in the suspects! To KMC’s question ‘Anything that wasn’t recorded that’s bothering you?’ (which could mean the ‘terrible rage’ and ‘KMC knows’ parts deliberately left out by Joohyun), she answers no, keeping this detail to herself. Note: Did KSJ bait Joohyun to see if she would make KMC listen to the ‘terrible anger’/‘KMC knows’ part? Which would then confirm whether she’s doing an investigation on her own because she’s suspecting KMC? If so, KMC must’ve been KSJ’s accomplice to confirm Joohyun’s reaction, he looked like he was gauging her reaction after all!

-> KMC asking Joohyun if he has to be on his knees and beg for her to trust him (ep. 8, note that the janitor and KSJ magically arrived right after this line) and also in ep. 9 when he asks her to trust him and bear the consequences of his leak until they catch KSJ and end TKV.

-> KMC claims in front of Joohyun that his suspicious search of Narae’s room (at night, on his days off and without the special team) is because he might’ve missed clues because ‘he trusted KSJ too much’… ? (ep. 9)

➾ This doesn’t necessarily mean KSJ and KMC planned everything together: each other must’ve realized they were Gaetal (and possibly without the other knowing, their relationship seemed strong enough in the past for them to work together without Gaetal factoring in) and that LMS was playing with them.

— Moreover, besides Jihoon, the single one person not being investigated among KSJ’s family, relatives, friends and past colleagues is… KMC. Everyone died or went abroad except him, however he’s deliberately withholding the extent of their relationship during the whole investigation.

(Which makes me wonder why Choi Jinsu never brought it up too, especially if he works for Min Jiyoung … He knows they were close, yet he does nothing of that information! Or perhaps he’s waiting to collect decisive evidence to catch him?)

— And KSJ said No. 3's position could be more valuable than anything else now that the true Gaetal is in a critical situation… ?

And what does KMC do later in the episode?

He exposes KSJ’s escape and subsequently the police’s negligence to get back to work because the case is his responsibility! He has the authority to catch the fake Gaetal (and maybe KSJ himself, KMC looks torn on that question) AND to orient the investigation in whatever biased direction he needs to as long as he’s working.

KMC was the one who volunteered to interview Yang Hyejin in person when Joohyun suggested to investigate her link to Gaetal!!!!

He also didn’t push his luck when he strongly suspected KSJ was upstairs at Yang Hyejin's house (esp. once he noticed the umbrellas) nor did he shoot more bullets to stop KSJ’s escape even though he was obviously at point range.

Also the police officer who KSJ passed the paper to was the one who shot JJW, which would force the police to transfer him to the hospital (perhaps preparing for his escape?) and Gaetal keeps up with JJW’s situation through No. 3 (and what better position would enable you to that if it’s not a police officer?).

And KSJ’s reaction when Yang Hyejin asks if KMC is No. 3 might also be telling (the last set of pictures above).

Whether he’s certain of KMC being No. 3 or not (eg. because they’ve been communicating, or he discovered a decisive hint pointing to him), he must’ve at least an inkling it’s KMC.

Note: And remember he never answered nor denied his involvement with Gaetal whenever Joohyun or KMC asked him ; idem with KMC: when KSJ said he hoped he were Gaetal, he retorted he was a cop (we know that means nothing), adding he would’ve targeted LMS first if that was the case!

— The only character scanning the CCTVs/cameras to make sure he’s not caught in the footage is KMC (especially before acting), and it all happens in ep. 1:

① When he busted the streaming site with Joohyun ② When he communicated with Jovovich, BGC’s wife, making sure his cap conceals his face ③ When he beats BGC up ④ When he pushed the journalists’ cameras aside in annoyance

Note: he was wearing a black mask in ep. 1… just like that 3rd person knocking Joohyun out in ep. 3! There must have been a swap somewhere! (In ep. 3 you can see him leave the hospital with a white mask but he could still have a black one ready in his pocket to not attract attention!)

And No. 3 also does look at the CCTVs (see ⑤), but they don’t have to worry about them since they’re masked (and note they’re the only one with No. 1 we haven’t seen unmasked so far in the Gaetal, unlike Jihoon and his grandmother, as well as the taxi driver for example!).

Also, the Gaetal in the broadcast for BGC’s vote claimed they would be the country’s faithful watchdog who ‘monitors’ the devils deemed innocent (ep. 1). 감시하다 is the verb used: it means to put under surveillance/watch/monitor and it is also used to define what CCTVs do (감시).

➾ Gaetal acts like a human CCTV to catch their targets: nobody knows them but they’re still out there observing those who were unjustly deemed innocent when they're not expecting it.

Note: given this possible CCTV/watchdog association, the shot where the CCTV is placed JUST RIGHT where KMC’s head would be when he meets with Jovovich is pretty fitting (see the shot marked with ‘!!!’) lmao

— Speaking of keywords, this Gaetal in ep. 1 said their justice was rational: « 상식적인 정의 ».

However, the Gaetal who presents the special broadcast AND Kim Muchan ep. 5 phrase it like that « 지독하게 상식적인 정의 » (the same spite KSJ mentions himself when he talks about KMC’s ‘terrible anger’).

And it's interesting to note that Joohyun analyzed KMC’s speech patterns when he addressed the journalists AND Gaetal’s (see the screens in ep. 4 when KMC brings to her the letters ; she even entered on her own the keywords ‘Choi Dohee’, ‘Kim Muchan’ and ‘Gaetal's broadcast’ when she was alone!!!!) + never made KMC listen to KSJ saying KMC feels that rage (지독한 분노)!

And… even before KSJ used this specific adjective in ep. 6, it’s actually Joohyun who said it first about the real culprit: « 지독한 진범 »!

KSJ went out of his way to say ‘the two people who said the same words must be connected’ was a naive approach but is it really? If the focus is somewhere else than the whole ‘Devils deemed innocent was said by Gaetal and KSJ’ and it's a habit the culprit let out subconsciously, it could matter!

— The drama also introduces officially the possibility of car plates being swapped (see this previous post on No. 3 and KMC’s car, 'The Gaetal'!):

— (Going into delulu land 8D) but No. 3’s reaction right after Yang Hyejin says « I hope the professor can at least join us without any trouble. » ie. nodding off and looking to the side afterwards pensively looks like what KMC sometimes does when he thinks to himself!

I’ll edit this if I go through some moments in the drama again!

— The heavy breathing of No. 3 really sounds like the one in the video test by the way!

♦ Jodan, Donpanic and Kwon Seokju

— Given the random repetitions in Jodan's panic (and that people usually unconsciously go back to what's familiar to them), he might be ‘Donpanic’, who worked on Cpt. Oh’s case:

— And he might’ve been communicating with KSJ (the last two pictures): the books stacked on Jodan’s desk were the ones they gave KSJ in his cell at the Police Agency in ep. 5 ; in addition, Jodan was the one KSJ tasked to ask the janitor to bring him a ‘book’.

Also « [KSJ] has zero friends, like me. » is superposed to a shot of Jodan’s back showing only then the stack of books.

Later, when KSJ’s escape is exposed by Choi Dohee and the team watches the news, we also see Jodan texting in panic an unknown third person: neither KMC (he was on his way back from the orphanage) nor KSJ (ofc lol) was present in the room so he could’ve texted one of the two (I believe it’s KSJ he’d want to alert because the possibility of an APB sounds clearly like bad news for KSJ’s plans). It could also be Jihoon!

— Also, when Jodan and Joohyun disguise themselves as students to find No. 1 Gaetal, Jodan seemed pretty nervous to let Joohyun see his conversation with No. 1 and carry on her plan (① below):

♦ No. 1 Gaetal, Joohyun and Park Chulmin

— Joohyun and/or Jodan might be No. 1 Gaetal and/or the mysterious ‘expert’ that helped them:

On one hand, Jihoon says: « I doubt No. 1 did this alone. Hacking and stealing a program and deleting all the data left in the server that quickly? Only experts can do that. »

AND on the other, we get this comment by LMS, confirming it’s not himself at least:

But LMS's comment also suggests that everything (that Jihoon mentioned + the astroturfing by generated comments that seems to be happening under the video KMC’s vote) was No. 1’s sole doing, with no separate expert involved. Meaning No. 1 Gaetal = the expert, one and only person.

LMS also marvels at the speed and the system of this program.

This time, I’m more inclined to believe the culprit’s words himself (that there’s a single individual behind that: even though he only ordered it, he must know a whole lot more about the situation) than the one who got hacked, Jihoon! (And people always compliment Joohyun for her competence at building algorithms and databases… !)

— And when Joohyun brings Jodan along to meet ‘No. 1’ Gaetal, she makes her aim clear (② above): « No. 1 Gaetal must be the jerk who posted stuff to instigate people. The system administrator. »

Provided she’s a part of Gaetal and stole Jihoon’s program, while she specifically mentions No. 1 to Jodan, it’s possible she deliberately mixes the roles of No. 1 and the system administrator (Jihoon) to make it seem she’s looking for No. 1 while she’s actually trying to find the system administrator’s identity.

No. 1 is likely not Jihoon according to the combination of what Jihoon and LMS both said about the hacking ; but it could very well be her and she might be trying to sound less suspicious by aggregating all the tech-savvy tasks in Gaetal (eg. the administration of the system and the astroturfing) to attribute it to one single person.

— I suspected LMS of being the actual author of the request for Jihoon’s counseling when after ep. 8 because whoever does this would want to know where he actually lives this way (which would lead to Gaetal's hideout) and…………..

Turns out it’s actually Joohyun who requested it, and look at how she feigned ignorance in front of Joomin with her ‘Didn’t he receive counseling?/Why don’t you ask him yourself?’ as though she didn’t know about the request for counseling when it did come from her!

There's also the possibility that LMS is deliberately lying to make Jihoon suspect Joohyun and not him (but dude probably doesn’t know Jihoon was very close to KSJ and Narae, he’d still doubt him anyway lmao): after all he seemed to pay a close attention to his expression, as though he was gauging his reaction.

In any case, one of the two is lying and Jihoon’s reaction at this piece of information is interesting, he’s totally absorbed in his thoughts (① below):

But in the end, once Jihoon walked away, you see LMS thinking about what happened and tilting his head as though in incomprehension, so I really think the request really came from Joohyun (② above).

— There was also this troubling scene, as Joohyun watched Choi Dohee on her TV addressing the ‘real’ Gaetal:

« And here’s our message to all the Gaetal who are watching this. I hope you see our intentions to become watchdogs. And until our society achieves rational justice, I will stand by your side. »

Joohyun was about to turn the power off but her hand stilled as Choi Dohee spoke. At first, she looked annoyed because she knows the duplicity of Choi Dohee ; she huffed as soon as she mentions ‘rational justice’ (① above).

But at the very end of the scene (②) you see a hint of a smirk as she decides to finally turn off the TV.

Her smile then completely falls off, ending up looking dejected aaaaaaaaa

— Just like KMC (see Part 2 of ep. 8’s notes, 'The Gaetal'), Joohyun also looks used to the dark and was blinded by the brightness of KMC’s flashlight in ep. 9 (note that he also decided to direct the flashlight in her direction even though he already recognized her):

Note: If I’m hearing well, when KMC says « I was wondering if we had a mole », he only says « 내부에서 » ('[a mole] from the inside'), he doesn’t expressly specify a mole from the Police Agency… Which could also mean it was about a mole from inside Gaetal!

— On that subject, the drama made a point at showing us Jodan and Joohyun chewing ice in frustration (my girl looks TOTALLY DEJECTED LMAO) AND KMC savagely drinking his bottled water in one big gulp (like… dude finished the whole bottle in a record time AND HE CRUSHED THE BOTTLE WITH HIS HANDS lmao)!

It could be a sign of nervousness… Your throat can sometimes go dry and you become thirsty lol, just as Joohyun used the water glass as an excuse to reach LMS’s room (and Jodan’s hilarious theatrics to stall for some time haha)!

— And ever since I noticed the thing about KMC’s car, I’m beginning to think Joohyun (or Jodan, but Joohyun looks suspicious for sure) also muddies the tracks to her by swapping her USB drives or putting/removing the red cap on/from it to look like the one inserted to hack Gaetal’s program (② above).

I’m sure the detail will be brought up back again because Jihoon got his hands on the USB drives, he’ll perhaps recognize something (or perhaps it will be LMS since he’s coming home)!

— The scene with Park Chulmin, the janitor, was really interesting:

The thing is that what the last sentence targets is literally ‘이 안에 있는 모든 사람이’ (‘all the people who are present in here’: it could be the prison or………. the room lmao)… Which also includes the janitor himself, Sangjae and Joohyun lmao

Note that what Joohyun says next expressly points the prison, excluding herself and the team from the scope of the search (‘이 교도소에’ and not the ambiguous 이 안에): « We’re going to start the investigation assuming that everyone in this prison is KSJ’s potential communication link. »

This might be an interesting parallel to how KMC always manages to dodge the suspicions because he’s seemingly not matching any criteria of the list while the truth would place him on top of it and in priority: nobody bothers to put a name on the relationship he has with KSJ because a few know it in the first place (see more on the « Escaped convicts go to their families, friends, lovers, … or their prison friends. » later in the post!).

Note: The janitor himself looks suspicious along with the warden. -> While he genuinely seems to resent criminals who profit off the system and live comfortably in prison, he also seems to portray himself like so deliberately, there for everyone to see. Eg. in front of CCTVs (when he beat up KSJ right in the middle of the jail’s camera), and also particularly in front of Joohyun (in ep. 5 when they escort KSJ and made a show at putting the electronic tag on him ; notice it’s curiously never with KMC for example who he voluntarily reached to to since ep. 2). It could be to divert everyone’s attention off him by showing the image of the enraged janitor who would rather die than to become a murderer’s accomplice to be able to work with KSJ. -> This bit in ep. 8 was interesting too: « I had to drive him around and take him home. Is he my boss or what? » -> PCM also gave KMC the letters, who made a show of arresting him (was it to make them seen? After all this moment was caught on camera and used in the video for KMC’s vote!). KMC made a point at underlining he was taking the letters as evidence after the arrest (was he trying to make the transaction undetected by providing a legitimate reason to take the letters?). There’s no saying whether the stack of letters didn’t include something else inside (eg. a message, or the first letter that’s supposedly the one in ep. 9, that would reveal to KMC LMS’s involvement), and KMC could have very well separated whatever this was from the stack and handed Joohyun the letters without her knowing anything. The content the janitor mentioned to KMC wasn’t anything like what we saw of it, and anybody would’ve been alarmed by it tbh lmao (the whole religious imagery, talking about punishing evildoers for KSJ, strong, borderline obsessive admiration for KSJ etc.????). But even so, he only quoted « ‘What Inmate 0512 did wasn’t murder.’, ‘It’s technically self-defense.’ Bullshit letters like that. Since this was such a big case and got a lot of attention, the warden made us inspect his mail for the first time. Because he didn’t want to be held responsible for any weird letter he could get. That’s how we found his No. 1 Fan. (…) Once you read them, you’ll know why I’m doing this. » The janitor was the one who first showed the letters to the warden before going to see KMC (he was quite insistent too if you rewatch the scene, like he had an ulterior motive in mind). So what he says to KMC: « The warden made us inspect his mail for the first time. » could be a lie or at least he’s hiding he was the one who coaxed the warden into doing the inspection. -> There’s also no saying the janitor didn’t communicate with KMC from the moment he got his police contact card and the moment he reached him to talk about the No. 1 Fan letters too! -> If the first letter was in the stack, perhaps KSJ communicated with KMC through the janitor to let him know LMS was actually involved in the Killing Vote, something like that? -> The drama makes a point at letting us know that the janitor was absent the whole time KSJ escaped ; we also learned there were two motorbikes in the car truck: could he have acted as a bait to let KSJ escape?

➾ I get the feeling Joohyun is No. 1 Gaetal: she infiltrated Gaetal and tried to dismantle it from the inside on LMS’s instructions and with No. 5’s help (the taxi driver) because she realized how dangerous TKV could be.

Either she realized it since the get-go or she sympathized at first with it/KSJ (she perhaps communicated with KSJ on her own and KSJ realized it) but got a wake-up call as soon as she saw KMC getting almost killed, Choi Dohee using it to fulfill her own ambitions and KMC faking his death for example.

Also the premise that she’s a part of Gaetal doesn’t necessarily mean she knows the hideout Jihoon used with the others, especially since we saw some vacant desks in ep. 8 & there's a possibility she assumed roles that didn't need her to be present.

Little did she know that LMS was the one behind all the orders she received, which would understandably make her seethe with anger. What she does from this point on might completely change from her initial goal.

♦ Yoonji, Jodan and Park Chulmin

— There’s this weird conversation between Sangjae and Yoonji, when they inspect KSJ’s house after last night’s events in ep. 3:

« — [Sangjae:] Why did Joohyun have to come in here alone? What’s all this mess? — [Yoonji:] Did she really fight on her own? Was she always this athletic? — Do you think she fought back because she knew how to? You know her temper. I’m sure she fought back with all her might. » Note: Joohyun (who went in KSJ’s house in ep. 3) and Jodan’s personal records are the only ones in the team we aren't shown! Joohyun is always depicted by her telltale ‘temper’, her coworkers thinking she’s not athletic, but what if she actually was?

Yoonji looked nervous/alarmed after that exchange:

-> Once the conversation ended, she noticed the paperknife on the frame and glanced at it for some time ;

-> The point of this scene at first glance was to foreshadow that KMC was still alive while deceiving the whole country, even his team: Yoonji must know KMC was athletic like her since they’ve been on the same team for years (see Part 3 of ep. 8’s notes!) and this scene was perhaps there only to show she was suspicious about KMC’s ‘death’ ; but this reaction could be for something else ;

-> We know the paperknife is now gone and the only one who noticed it was Yoonji (Sangjae passed it): she might’ve taken it without the forensics knowing (eg. to help KMC erase his tracks or take a message, idek at this point haha).

— The succession of events for Cpt. Oh’s vote was magically filled with coincidences:

-> KMC took Joohyun aside from the team to ask her to bring KSJ along because Gaetal will ‘definitely show up as they always punished the targets on their own’ (this will be relevant later ; also note that we now know that Gaetal is a group and that KMC might be No. 3).

-> KMC was the first character who led the team to concentrate on the person on the motorbike (motorbike????) by putting an APB on it, asking his colleagues to « keep an eye on deliverymen at every place related to the Killing Vote. »

-> Yoonji was then the other one who led the team to fully focus on any sign of a ‘deliveryman’ and a ‘parcel’ in Cpt. Oh’s case when she confirmed witnesses remembered ‘Delivery’ was written on the vest of Uhm Eungyeong’s kidnapper (but they were wearing a mask) and as they were going through all the possible Cpt. Ohs.

She was also the one who gave the hint of the ‘professional martial artist’, leading the team to believe the person on the motorbike was the same as the one who fled from KSJ’s house.

-> KMC wanted Jodan to ask the potential Cpt. Oh (JJW) to check if he’s received a package (like… even the moment Jodan said out loud ‘Oh Gyungpyo’, making KMC turn his head fully concentrated + KMC then whispering the ‘package’ instruction + Jodan then exchanging a knowing glance, putting the conversation on speaker right when JJW magically admits he’s got a package + Jodan and KMC exchanging glances, eyes wide open also feel weird now 8D).

-> After this phone call, this led KMC to lead all the police force in the fake Cpt. Oh’s direction and the real Cpt. Oh not being able to ask for help for some time. But KMC still made a point at listening both Cpt. Ohs’s stories on the phone (perhaps to stall for some time?)

-> Joohyun was about to leave with KSJ without the janitor, who caught up and insisted on going too because this whole situation was breaching the agreement they had with the warden (he pointedly looked at Joohyun once they got in the car).

Yoonji was the one who reacted the strongest to Cpt. Oh’s twisted account of his crime (and shifting the blame on the victim) when she was in the car ; I don’t know why, but I get the feeling she was a friend of Lieutenant Im (JJW’s fiancée), helping KMC and JJW. And Jodan held her fist to comfort her!

-> Magically right after Jihoon could be heard arriving next to Cpt. Oh, KMC turns off the phone/puts the phone on silent mode that put the real Cpt. Oh and Jihoon on speaker (he knows Jihoon's voice at least from the events of ep. 3 and we know he wanted to meet with him after to ‘ask him something’). KMC then decides to focus on the phone call with JJW.

Note: However Choi Jinsu, who was the one who called the real Cpt. Oh and made KMC listen to the call, doesn’t know Jihoon’s voice so he couldn’t be suspicious of anything (Jihoon’s voice could also have been faint because he was speaking from some distance)!

-> KSJ drops this banger to Joohyun right before entering the hospital: « Are you sure about this? If he’s the real Cpt. Oh, Gaetal will be there. It’s not too late to go over to Team Leader Kim. TO LET YOURSELF OFF THE HOOK. » (and their reactions!!!! They both look tense! Were they talking about something else, especially since Joohyun now looks totally suspicious in the past recent episodes?)

-> While Joohyun and KSJ were busy looking for people KSJ might’ve recognized (which distracts Joohyun's attention from whatever is happening at the same time), the janitor stayed behind as the patient in a neck brace (that he glanced at for a short time) made a scene because he didn’t want to have his ID checked, which attracted the attention to him as he was trying to leave.

-> KSJ magically notices the deliveryman he used to know, but the real parcel was actually placed elsewhere. Joohyun ran after the deliveryman, KSJ staying a little behind at first.

-> The janitor then magically noticed the bomb that wasn’t that strong to kill him from being this close (however it spread lot of smoke, impairing everyone’s vision). KSJ crossed paths with JJW as he was catching up with Joohyun and we don’t know how his electronic tag got removed: he was handcuffed, he couldn’t have done that alone.

Note: it’s the tag that the janitor insisted to put on KSJ himself and not Joohyun (did he put it loosely on KSJ’s ankle so that it would come off on its own?). But it’s also Joohyun who brought the model herself and connected it to her watch, she could have very well fiddled with it too! The tag fell from a certain height (at least from the waist, was it on his wrist… ?), definitely not from his ankle! The janitor/Joohyun/KMC/anybody else in contact with KSJ before could’ve changed its place from the moment he got moved to the Police Agency to this moment!

-> As a consequence, JJW was left alone with Cpt. Oh, Jihoon and KMC and the rest of the police force was dispatched anywhere else but there (the electronic tag’s alarm was another way to disperse the police force), arriving late.

— For posterity, Yoonji is the one who has to keep watch on JJW who is taken to the hospital!!!!

♦ Min Jiyoung’s assistant

The new Gaetal who stabbed the target of this episode might be Min Jiyoung’s assistant: the motions (grabbing the victim by the head to how she holds her knife and stabs) and the petite silhouette/build are the same!

♦ KSJ’s late wife and coincidences

In ep. 7, Min Jiyoung asks her assistant to ‘look into that detective [KMC]’ AND ‘find out any rumors about [KSJ’s] late wife’ to mention them in another video we were not seen.

Whether the assistant managed to find something is a complete mystery till now! We were only shown in scenes just before the video accusing KSJ of having an inappropriate behavior with his students and his daughter when he was interviewed by KMC: MJY’s order came after the first video.

Note that Min Jiyoung slapped KMC after BWT’s acquittal, saying: « I’m sure you know why I hit you. » (emphasis on the why, 왜), adding that her son « should never be tainted by the likes of you. » (emphasis on the taint). Is this linked somehow? What did she find on both KMC and KSJ (which doesn’t mean both findings were necessarily linked, but the two orders came about in the very same scene)? LMS finds that KMC is a ‘funny guy’ ; the video of Narae that Joohyun finds at the end of ep. 9 is literally titled with the English ‘FUN’ ; No. 1 Fan (LMS) hinted in one of his letters that Narae was a « tattletale » (고자질쟁이) ie. a person, esp. a child, who reveals secrets or informs on others (the context suggests that she once revealed LYS’s secrets since he ‘gave her a second chance’). ➾ We don’t know what the secret was (perhaps it’s linked to LYS and all the settled past SA cases that didn’t suspect him at all?) nor if LYS is actually lying. (More on ‘Joseph the tattletale’ at the end of the post!)

When KSJ’s surroundings is brought up once again in ep. 9, we’re shown this record (① below):

This is what you can read on the record:

-> Both KSJ's father and mother live abroad in the United States ;

-> Narae died in 2015 ;

-> KSJ got married to Jeong Yeonsu (born on May 4, 1980) on October, 2004 and she died on December, 2008.

As side notes and little coincidences:

KSJ began teaching at KNPU in March 2008. From 2002 to March 2007, he went abroad to get his Master’s degree and Doctorate in Philosophy of Law, Criminal Psychology and Criminology.

Narae was born on September 17, 2008 which is also the birthday date of KMC, born on September 17, 1986 (EDIT: yes, Narae was murdered 2 days before their birthday and they probably used to celebrate it together, now I'm devastated).

If KMC and KSJ knew each other for 15+ years, how would he have known KSJ between 2002 and 2007, since he was abroad? Either they first met in 2008 when he came back or they go back an even longer way!

The first name of KMC’s mother was Yeonjeong or Yeongjeong (we only hear KMC call her, we have yet to see her name written on personal records), which is a curious mix of Jeong Yeonsu’s name.

What’s intriguing is that while both Narae and Jeong Yeonsu passed away, only Narae has a residence registered under her name: Jeong Yeonsu is the only one who has none (see the box left blank highlighted above). Even KSJ’s parents, who are abroad, have their residence filled in. Will this be relevant later?

Usually residence/a mailing address is mandatory and must appear on official documents (like a register of births, marriages and deaths), right?

And coincidentally, we see Joomin asking her sister in the same episode:

« How do you find out where someone actually lives? (…) The police even came to our school, because his address was wrong. They said no one lives at the address registered in the school records. No one’d ever lived there. »

➾ This introduces the possibility that official documents don’t necessarily reflect the reality of a situation in the drama.

Another example was brought up ever since ep. 1 with BGC: he managed to get a fraudulent marriage with Jovovich in jail (through what seems to be human trafficking) to reduce his sentence. And it’s one of the elements of his sham with a letter of apology that enraged Gaetal.

There’s also that asterisk right next to the status of ‘wife’ that bugs me (see the last line of the record above)! I’ll come back to it if I find some answers!

I don’t know if the signage is the same in SK, but an asterisk often means you need to fill in the needed information on the line/column marked by this sign. But this wouldn’t make sense at all here since the rest of the family, the parents and the daughter were not marked by an asterisk even though they’re equally important. I can only see it as a way to mark that the box in question needed additional information that’s still not provided by the individual even though it’s mandatory for verification (eg. for a marriage or civil union, it’d be a certificate of marriage/contract of civil union ; for a child a birth or adoption certificate etc.). For example, perhaps the civil registrar needed a proof of Jeong Yeonsu’s residence or her death certificate to attest to her death. And as you can see when Min Jiyoung ran a background check on KSJ in the car, all KSJ’s cursus seemed to have been verified by her team from the looks of the red marks right across (see the last picture above), as though they ticked each piece of information once they were done checking it. But even with that, she still lacked information on his late wife after since she asked her assistant to look for rumors (did something make her perplexed? eg. from the official documents?), there might be something going on.

Note how it’s the only official document being shown in the drama with a governmental seal attesting to its authenticity AND that KSJ had at the time many connections in the legal and judicial world (and he was admired by the entire country), so counterfeit, though far-fetched, might be a possibility.

The official seal doesn’t look like the ones I tried to find for kr documents while I was looking that up, I wonder if this will be relevant later?

Also note that KSJ was the warden’s legal advisor (eg. for his divorce, but he seemed to meet him on a weekly basis for another reason) and it’s brought up again in ep. 9.

For what it’s worth, only opposite-sex couples married for at least 3 years are eligible to adoption in SK. Single parents don’t have the right to adopt.

♦ Cell phones and coincidences

Big conspiracy vibes but we finally got a closer look to the content of the glass panel in LMS’s hidden room and the phone and the phone exhibited looks like KMC or BWT’s… (I know, it’s a pretty common phone model lmao, I had something similar years ago but there must be a reason it’s displayed as a trophy like that in LMS’s room!)?

EDIT: a side note, but the picture of Narae and KSJ was indeed stolen by LMS ; it was in the frame right next to Narae's picture that KSJ faces to her stuffed bunny in ep. 6, and it is now empty!

The borders on KMC/BWT’s phone are grey/metallic.

In comparison, Narae’s was white and the news declared it was found by the police discarded in a park trash bin near ‘Dawol-dong’ and it was broken.

If I’m not mistaken, it’s the only phones that were shown in the flashback, I don’t believe we were even shown KSJ’s?

➾ Did LMS steal KMC/BWT’s phone? Did he find something of interest to him in the phone’s content or where he found the phone?

If the phone belonged to BWT, was it because it had the recording of Narae’s cries for help on it?

Note: we hear the journalist on the news mention the ‘Dawol’ neighborhood but it’s not written anywhere on the screen, so we don’t know the exact name of the neighborhood, only its pronunciation. It could be 다월 (Dawol) but also 당월 (Dangwol), which is where KMC happens to live (you can see it on his personal record in ep. 1, the last picture above).

And speaking of phones, Joohyun’s reaction to KMC’s phone falling on the ground (after she urged him to answer her questions on his connection with KSJ) also seemed out of place in ep. 3, the drama also emphasizes the focus on the phone and both characters’s reactions that seemed to have the same realization:

-> Is he actually using two phones (eg. one destined for specific calls like for Gaetal/KSJ or his deal with the Commissioner and his superior) and Joohyun noticed the phone that fell wasn’t the one he used usually?

Note: in ep. 9, a meeting between the Commissioner, KMC and his superior happened right before he took a few days of leave and behind closed doors: the drama doesn’t show us the matter discussed at all!

-> Did Joohyun notice the phone looked similar to the one a third person (eg. one of the Gaetals) was using in their meetings (provided she’s part of Gaetal)?

Like at this point you can’t even make sh*t up ; this moment felt out of place to the same extent that conversation on the ‘firecracker smell’ sounded weird (see Part 3 of ep. 8’s notes, 'Joomin and the 'firecracker smell''!). There are really too much coincidences piling up.

♦ Choi Jinsu’s phone call

He said « The professor’s picnic is over » to somebody else over the phone once we learned KSJ escaped. Min Jiyoung later texted LMS KSJ fled.

He used 소풍 which can mean trip, picnic but also… outing (ie. act of going outside to admire the scenery or to relax, play etc.).

When LMS laughed to himself as he found out KSJ got out of prison in ep. 5, he says: « What’s my Professor up to? Is he on an outing? », the last question was ‘우리 교수님 놀래 나왔어?’ ('Did my [dear] Professor come out to play?' 놀다 means play, have fun). Perhaps this became a code between them?

You can also see a focus on Choi Jinsu's expression looking at KMC leaving when he took some days off.

Note how KMC’s smile seemed sad/regretful and a bit forced when he discussed with CJS on the rooftop and swallowed (does he know CJS is betraying him?). His smile slowly faded away once CJS left:

« — Cover for me for a few days. — I can’t do it for long, so come back soon, okay? You know I’m retiring soon. »

And CJS looked at KMC reaching his car from a distance, the car once again being emphasized with a zoom in.

If KMC is No. 3, perhaps CJS caught on the faked car plate KMC uses? When KSJ fled, he followed on the CCTVs the police going after him, including KMC's car, so perhaps he noticed it once more then!

AND LMFAO I JUST NOTICED THE CAR PLATE CHANGED ONCE MORE (149호 7861, something entireeeeeeely different from his initial digit combination! See Part 2 of ep. 8’s notes for more details in 'The Gaetal'!)

Note that when KMC was chasing after KSJ at the beginning of the episode, the car plate was his usual one (the one beginning with 21).

Note: just like specific digit combinations (eg. for freight, coaches or specialized vehicles), the letters inscribed on the middle of a Korean car plate can sometimes indicate something about its owner, if it’s a private vehicle (eg. 가, 다 or 마 among many others, and remember No. 3 and KMC’s cars had these last two letters combination respectively), a military vehicle (eg. 육 for the army, 국 for the Ministry of National Defense) or a rental car (only three letters combination indicate this: 허, 하 and… 호, which is present on KMC’s new car plate!).

➾ KMC either rented a car (in the same grey color) or used another fake car plate to cover his tracks and lead to a wrong hint!

He’s not the only one who played with a vehicle swap, KSJ did too with the two motorbikes!

♦ The missing frame on the wall

I talked in Part 1 of ep. 8’s notes ('Three pictures missing in Kwon Seokju's house') about how three frames hung on the staircase wall were lacking their original pictures and drawing ever since ep. 3.

And now there’s even a frame that’s totally missing lmao (the picture on the left)!!!!

If it is relevant to the story, was there a message inside? Who took it (the one it was truly destined for or someone wanting to stop their plans?)?

♦ Yang Hyejin denying all sorts of private communication with Kwon Seokju

… And we know it’s false (see Part 3 of ep. 8’s notes, 'Kwon Seokju's conversation with Jihoon's grandmother'!), KSJ said he wanted to visit YHJ’s 'hospital' once he’s 'released' among many other things, and we see him indeed hiding at her house:

This episode also showed how he communicated with Jihoon during his medical check-ups through Yang Hyejin’s phone while it’s forbidden for inmates to carry a personal phone on them.

♦ More on Kim Muchan and Kwon Seokju's relationship

Through subtle details, we could learn more about KSJ and KMC’s bond:

Kim Muchan's guilt

When CJS said KSJ might resent him for what happened 8 years ago, you can see KMC swallowing at that and looking away.

He's maybe thinking this isn’t true because he knows the situation sounds more complicated.

But he's also probably still caught up in the personal hell he’s been living since the choices he made in Narae’s investigation, doubled by KSJ’s own choice leading him to prison (‘abandoning everything that he had’ as KMC said — and he probably includes both Jihoon and him in that everything). The guilt is still gnawing at him.

He also says he will catch both KSJ and LMS. Whether it’s a lie or not, nobody knows: there’s even doubt among the Gaetal, esp. Yang Hyejin when KSJ asked her and Jihoon to trust him, while Jihoon kept silent as though he was vaguely aware! It’s likely that the drama wants to cultivate the doubt on him joining sides with KSJ/arresting him until the very end!

The scene is reminiscent to what he asks to Joomin: « What if I have [experienced injustice in my life, saw someone live a good life after murdering my family]? If I’ve been through the same thing, do I have the right to arrest him? »

➾ He perhaps became KSJ’s accomplice along the way, not necessarily since the beginning, because he probably didn’t know he communicated with LMS! Both maybe suspected each other of being part of Gaetal also!

➾ Perhaps one of the two decided to join TKV because they knew the other was involved in it, so that they wouldn’t go down alone or in order to become the scapegoat?

Discreetly letting out his connection to Jihoon, Narae and Kwon Seokju

① « Her older brother »

When Joohyun says the boy present in all the drawings Narae did was her best friend, quoting KSJ’s words (’Narae’s best friend’), KMC pauses, briefly shifts his jaw back and forth and finally corrects her as he’s focused on the only picture we have of Jihoon and Narae: it was her older brother, not her friend and he’s one of the perhaps very few people privy to this detail of KSJ’s life despite there being no visible signs of this child about to be adopted at KSJ’s home except for that sole picture with Narae.

He quickly back pedals and pretexts he’s knowledgeable about that detail because the adoption was brought up during Narae’s case and nothing else.

There's a chance Joohyun would then wonder why KSJ lied about this detail and KMC was aware from the standpoint of the police officer in charge while KSJ should be the most knowledgeable about it.

② « I never knew he was ill »

KMC admits to the audience he never knew Jihoon was ill, suggesting in silence he’s well-aware of everything else because he most likely lived those events with KSJ’s house. He looks pained when he learns the truth behind his illness.

The fact that KMC didn’t know about Jihoon’s traumatic mutism might be because he perhaps only knew him when he was able to speak, happy by Narae and KSJ’s side + (crack theory time lmao) KSJ kept Jihoon’s tragedy hidden because it might’ve something to do with Min Jiyoung?

③ « Escaped convicts go to their families, friends, lovers, … or their prison friends. »

When Joohyun calls him and wonders where KSJ could have went, KMC claims it’s obvious: he then lists off all the possibilities.

After the mention of lovers (애인), you can hear from KMC a quick breath intake as he casts his eyes down to the ground while furrowing his eyebrows. It’s the only word that triggers a reaction.

Note that 애인 is specifically chosen by KMC ; it’s a gender-neutral word for lover, like 연인 (though the two differ from each other in a very subtle way), and you’d colloquially use for example 여자친구 and 남자친구 (girlfriend, boyfriend).

As it’s gender-neutral, it can also be used between sexual minorities (just like you’d say ‘partner’ for example).

(Take that as you will but me says it’s getting less and less subtle haha)

♦ More religious symbolism, St. Michael & Lucifer

See more about religious symbolism in ep. 6 notes (Hieronymus Bosch’s triptychs) and in ep. 7 notes (St. Michael & KMC, the ambidextrous angel)!

We finally get the last painting displayed in LSM’s hidden room when Joohyun sneaks in: The Fall of the Rebel Angels, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

It depicts Lucifer’s fall from heaven « because of his pride and rebellion against God’s divine plan, which was to appoint Jesus as the people’s savior. Lucifer coerced one-third of the angels to follow his lead in the rebellion and to assist in appointing him to be the new ‘God’. The sin of pride caused the fall of Lucifer and his companions and resulted in the ‘war in heaven’. Archangel Michael was given the duty to drive Lucifer and the fallen angels out of heaven. The conflict of good and evil as well as vice and virtue are constant recurring themes throughout Bruegel's work. »

The detail about Lucifer coaxing angels to join his cause is a pretty fitting detail, especially since he tainted the country’s hands with blood and perhaps one Gaetal from the inside who ignored everything of his twisted intentions eg. Joohyun!

Now I wonder who is Lucifer and who is Michael c:

♦ Joseph the tattletale, etymology and the duplicity of both the narration and the good and evil in humanity

As I mentioned it previously, LMS quoted Joseph’s story in the Bible and likened it to Narae’s character.

In the Genesis, Joseph is sold as a slave to Potiphar (an officer of the Pharaoh) by his jealous half-brothers who initially planned to kill him (their father, Jacob, favored Joseph among his sons, an ornamented coat/cloak/tunic Joseph wore symbolizing this preferential treatment) and painted goat’s blood on his coat to show it to their father Jacob, who believed he had died.

Note: said coat, whose telltale characteristics were its colorful appearance (or with silk/embroidery/pictures/designs depending on the versions) and long sleeves, was called the untranslated ketonet passim ; Coat of Many Colors from the vulgate and even rainbow colors. In Thomas Mann’s works, the cloak is seen as the bridal veil of Rachel, his mother (and Jacob’s cousin and second wife), who Jacob was in love with.

Later in his life, Joseph, who became trusted and honored in Potiphar’s household, was falsely accused by Iempsar, Potiphar’s wife, of trying to violate her, after her attempts at seduction had failed.

Speaking to Potiphar, the wife points to the red robe Joseph left behind when he ran from her clutches, wickedly using the presence of the garment as evidence to support her accusation.

➾ Joseph was eventually dually the ‘righteous one’ (ha-Tzadik by Rabbis) but also labeled a ‘tattletale’, seen in a bad light, because he told his father bad reports on his half-brothers and spoke of auspicious dreams hinting at him assuming family leadership and reigning over them. But this doesn’t say anything about the brothers’ cruel deeds against him.

There are various commentaries and interpretations on this story in the silence of the text, theorizing on both Joseph and his brothers’ behavior and the ambivalence of good and evil, and how Joseph might’ve been wrongly stigmatized as a tattletale, undeservedly persecuted.

Even though some agreed Joseph was blameless, they still saw him as a gifted but insensitive child, conceited and very caught up in himself and ‘blithely assuming everyone will be fascinated by the details of his dreams’ and rubbing the favoring prophecies in his brothers’ faces. « In the end, who was to blame? The brothers: for jealousy and hatred and violence. Joseph: for bringing bad reports, showing off the coat, flaunting the dream.  Jacob: for unfairly loving one son and ignoring the others. Or does the blame go further back? Jacob’s parents were unfair and his brother Esau wanted to kill him. Jacob’s father Isaac had tension with his brother.  In the very first family, the first son murdered his brother.  Like a family tradition, the curse of deception, resentment, violence moves down the generations. »

Thomas Mann’s tetralogy, Joseph and His Brothers, is one example (there’s also Dostoïevski’s Karamazov Brothers, even Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo is theorized to be inspired by the story of Joseph!).

It also seems that in Hebrew, « clothing/garments » (beged) might have a common root with « betrayal/deception » (bagad) and the foreshadowing wordplay could be seen in the way Joseph’s story unfolds.

Here’s the thing about tattletales and whistleblowers: you criticize them for dredging up a vital piece of information deemed as a (sometimes dark) secret, something that was hidden by people for a reason, thus violating their secrecy. There’s an unwritten, tacit code of conduct being breached.

➾ It’s the act of exposure that’s inherently seen as bad, like you would ‘shoot the messenger’.

Which ties up interestingly well with the drama’s spectrum of what people deems as good and evil and truth and lies and Joohyun’s character set as a whistleblower (내부고발자), but also if you think about it, Choi Dohee’s journalism, KMC (in ep. 9) and LMS in Narae’s case.

The duplicity of this role is even further highlighted by Joohyun who accuses Choi Dohee of disclosing her real name, making her the scapegoat of the investigation’s aftermath (희생양), written off as a betrayer in the police’s eyes (배신).

Note that KMC is also deemed as the scapegoat of the Police Agency (ep. 1, as Jodan said) even though his career seems pretty successful (now who’s the real scapegoat?).

BWT, while being DEFINITELY involved in Narae’s murder (and perhaps the other past SA that were settled by LYS’s father), was LYS’s scapegoat that made him escape the charges, perhaps following whatever his family’s deal was with Min Jiyoung.

Even in ep. 9, the taxi driver wants revenge for his lost family even though he ‘cosplayed’ as a victim and Min Jiyoung instrumentalizes Choi Dohee’s show to select TKV’s next target according to her standards and schemes, same as the astroturfing that takes advantage of the people's trust in ep. 8.

Which is why I believe that LYS’s letters laying out the plans for the future Killing Vote could also be meant to talk about something else entirely at the same time ; the alleged targets weren’t specified, with gender-neutral words, and the same motif comes back about punishing an individual shielding oneself behind the guise of virtue and atonement to conceal the evil inside (see this reblog).

The etymology of those key words also adds meaning to the drama:

① The hanja for whistleblower (내부고발자) is 內部告發者:

內: inside (안, 속)

部: group/aggregation/body (떼, 집단)

告: inform/tell/notify ie. let someone realize or know what they didn’t know or forgot, advertize/publicize or signal ie. indicate or show a certain fact or phenomenon (고하다, 알리다 and 아뢰다 which has the nuance of telling a superior something in one’s workplace)

發: for a flower to bloom/blossom (KMC’s bouquet and the Maiden Blush rose) and for a laughter or smile to bloom on one’s face (LMS much lmao) but also burn ie. for briquettes, coals, etc. to catch fire and burn and rise ie. for a cloud, smoke, etc. to rise and also spread (‘where there's smoke, there's fire’ lmao) ; for a smell, dust, etc. to spread or rise (see Part 2 of ep. 8’s notes on KMC and dust ; fitting with the expression ‘smoke and mirrors’ lmao) (피다, not to mention that 피 means blood) ; shoot/launch (like… a gun or a rock lmao) and speak sharply ie. say something in a harsh and sharp manner to hurt someone else’s feelings (쏘다) ; the motion of standing up/rising/sitting up but also soar up/swell and prosper/revive ie. for something that was weak or did not exist to flourish or become strong (일어나다)

Note: the weak/disadvantaged/underdog (약자) is also written with the same hanja ; one of Min Jiyoung’s present campaign pledges is to help the disadvantaged and Gaetal defends the country against devils deemed innocent who feed off money and power and crush the weak ; not to mention the Robin Hood/Batman/Hong Gildong/Wilhelm Tell imagery.

者: a person, thing or animal (놈, 사람, 것)

➾ You reveal from the inside one’s wrongful deeds by feeding into that fire to the point that its smoke rises up above and alert the people outside.

You can hear Joohyun cry for ‘Fire!’ to distract the journalists’ attention to run with KMC in ep. 4. Jodan also says Joohyun will ‘catch hell’ if she tries to look deeper into the video test. It also ties up nicely with the fire imagery in the drama associated to eternal fire and damnation, the wrath originating from tragedies, evil and the resoluteness/doggedness/strength of will in one’s actions (or as Jodan said the ‘persistent, crazy and competent lunatics’) eg. No. 1 Fan, Joohyun, KMC, KSJ and LMS.

Even the thing about the smell (냄새, you can use it colloquially to mean something feels fishy/suspicious also because it also defines the mood/atmosphere felt about an object or phenomenon) in the drama becomes relevant lmao:

-> Jodan’s morning bad breath and Joohyun telling him to keep his mouth shut in ep. 1 ; she later associates bad breath to her annoying (and potentially corrupted) superior at the Cyber Bureau in front of KMC in ep. 4: « Don’t bother arguing with the higher-ups. It won’t do you any good. Now, I’m reminded of someone. And that bad breath. »

-> When Joohyun alerts her superior on the Gaetal video test (‘It seems fishy, right?’, ‘You’re right, I can smell it. You being nosy again. It reeks. I’m hearing the sound of a bird chirping somewhere.' which is a wordplay on 새, bird and 냄새 because 새 and 새 sound almost identical)’

-> BGC’s « Our regulars who reek of money are waiting. We can’t wait. »

-> The smell of the bar waiter’s « insides churning in pain » as KMC burnt his money (ep. 2)

-> The firecracker/gunpowder smell of the third person fleeing KSJ’s house (ep. 3 & 4)

② Betrayal (배신) is written 背信 in hanja:

背: the back of someone or something (등 or 뒤, which also has the additional meaning of sb/sth being behind the scenes ie. a part not exposed or revealed and grudge/resentment ie. hard feelings that remain pent up)

信: trust/believe (cue the whole thing about establishing rapport, mutual trust or suspicions) ie. thinking of something or someone as being right or true, believing someone is honest and sincere and won’t deliberately do anything to harm you, or believing in a god or a religion/stories (eg. ghosts, fairies, miracles)/way of life/idea, or relying on sth or someone one expects meeting their expectations or because they’re confident in them (믿다), entrust (신임하다)

③ Scapegoat (희생양) is written 犧牲羊 in hanja:

犧: sacrifice ie. act of giving away or relinquinshing one’s life/property/reputation/interest etc. for another person or purpose, or the state of being deprived of such things (like what KMC said about KSJ) OR the state of losing one’s life in a sad and pitiful manner due to an accident/natural disaster etc. (희생) and… animal/beast and fig. beast/brute, just like the meaning of LMS’s name (짐승)

牲: sacrifice and the animals used in ancestral rites in its broad sense or in jesa, a Korean ancestral rite (ie. the act of expressing appreciation to a god or the spirit of the deceased by offering them food, or such ritual), and also the popular name of the livestock/cows

羊: sheep/lamb (양) ; auspicious (상서롭다)

④ Tattletale (고자질쟁이) is written 告者질쟁이 with the same hanja used in whistleblower, 告: inform (see above!) and 者: person/thing/animal.

That (deeply unhinged & twisted lol) line by Min Jiyoung also encapsulates how good and evil, justice might just be a farce to everyone while pleasure/entertainment is the true standard:

« When humans commit crimes together, they never forget that feeling of exhilaration. To the public, justice is merely a fantasy. »

I found this interesting bit in an interview of Lee Minjin, the author of Pachinko (please give it a read, it’s a great book btw!). She said the third-person omniscient narration was a detail she conscientiously paid attention to both aesthetically and ethically-wise, which aligns with the unreliable narration and duplicity in this drama:

« That mode’s flexibility lets her build a functioning, self-contained world, one that’s governed by an overarching moral physics.  But if omniscient narration allows Lee to play god, the question is what kind of god to be. For inspiration, she looks to the biblical story of Joseph, a tale that’s helped to shape the way she thinks about good and evil. She explained how the story instilled her with a radical belief that supercharges her fiction: If suffering and injustice can be recast as opportunities for empathy and forgiveness, even life’s worst events can feel like divine fate. » She adds: « After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers are terrified that he’ll hold a grudge against them because their father can no longer keep Joseph from harming them. The brothers concoct a story saying, essentially, “Oh, by the way—before dad died he told us to tell you that you have to forgive us for selling you into slavery. Sorry about all that.” But rather than taking revenge on his brothers, Joseph believes there has been a higher purpose to his suffering. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good,” he tells them, “to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” The gist of it is: What man intended for evil, God intended for good. It’s just an incredible thing to say, considering everything he went through. I’m amazed by the insistence that all of the suffering, the inequity, and injustice he endured happened for a reason. That kind of optimism or sense of divine purpose is very hard to muster as a modern person. Like Joseph, we all have inequities inflicted upon us, and when we experience inequity and injustice and evil, our sense of powerlessness and despair can be overwhelming. When will we see justice?, we want to know. When will we see fairness? When will things be okay? I understand the impulse to believe God doesn’t care. But I find that I very strongly want to believe that there’s a reason for the evil that we see and experience. Though there is so much evil, I want to believe in ultimate moral justice. I believe that, as in the story of Joseph, goodness has the potential to rise out of the darkness that befalls us. (…) I want to write realist novels in a Victorian sense, and the writers I admire in that style tend to do omniscient narration. The omniscient narrator is a bizarre technique, when you think about it, and no one uses it much anymore. But for the novels I want to write, it’s the only approach that makes sense to me. Writing this way, you’re not embracing the subjectivity of a specific character. Instead—like the novelists of the 19th and early 20th centuries—you play God, effectively, manifesting a kind of complete design within the chaos of life. When you write this way, you’ve got to ask yourself about the fictional universe you create. Will you be a morally just god or an immoral god? My art has to reflect the moral justice that I believe in. Not that I’m interested in preaching, or writing a treatise about how people should start the revolution. But I am interested, as in Joseph’s story, in showing the ways goodness can rise out of suffering. And I’m interested in creating radical empathy through art. That’s the little task that I set for myself. I don’t know if it’s for everyone, but it’s for me. »