That was the old slogan of my local newspaper The Washington Post, and it was a play on words. It meant that if you didn’t subscribe to their newspapers, you wouldn’t understand the news.

Same here.

If you don’t follow this blog, then you won’t get the romance of Fluttering Alert and appreciate the finer art of building a relationship, scene-by-scene, episode-by-episode. 😂 And you’ll most likely end up hating this kdrama, too, and thinking that this is the worst show evah in the history of manki–  well, let’s not exaggerate — in the memory of a goldfish (Hint: it’s not three seconds).

Memo to Viewers: I like the wedding scene and I think it was heart-fluttering despite the absence of a kiss.

No, thank you, Mr. Bean! 🤪 In THIS instance, the absence of a kiss is encouraged and advisable. 

Here’s my explanation.

One, I was looking for emotional intimacy between a couple, and I got it.

Bluntly said, I don’t watch kdramas to see how two people kiss. I watch kdramas to see how two people fall in love and form a lasting emotional bond. 😍 That’s the ROMANCE of kdramas for me. Kisses at the end of the show will not make or break the show for me. It’s what happens throughout the 16 episodes that does.

With WooHyun’s and YooJung’s finale, I’m satisfied that they’ve reach a level of closeness that can overcome their deep-rooted insecurities. Remember their insecurities?

From the beach conversation. YooJung said she feared changes because his affection could end with the passing of time.

YJ: I’ll have to wane one day, too. I wonder if I can do it beautifully like the sunset.
WH: Why do you think you have to wane? You can just rise as the sun in the day and rise as the moon at night?
YJ: Just that I can’t be the twenty or thirty-something Yoon YooJung forever. Someday, (I’ll be) someone’s mom or someone’s grandma? I’ll be a bit scary and dreadful.
WH: Grandma Yoon YooJung would be more elegant and charming, I think.
YJ: Right?
WH: Yes.
YJ: Aigo. WooHyun, you’re such a charmer. Oh my! I think a grandma is a no. (suddenly turning serious) I want to ask you something and you will answer honestly, right?
WH: (nodding)
YJ: If I weren’t a star and had nothing, would you have still liked me?
WH: (pretending to be stumped for an answer) This is some troublesome question.
YJ: (pretending to be unconcerned but looking sad)
WH: (chuckling) If your heart and your gaze are the same, I’m sure I would have liked you.
YJ: (smiling and changing topic) My ramen is all swollen. (then repeating herself as she butt-hopped closer to lean on him) My ramen is all swollen.

As for WooHyun, his greatest insecurity was that she’d abandon him.

Remember when he treated YJ at his clinic overnight after her swing accident? He went back and he searched for her in his rooms. His movements were controlled but there was a sense of urgency and anxiety when he went looking for her from one room to another.

But when he was told that YJ left him a note in his office, he immediately went to search for it. He was happy to read her “Be happy. Don’t worry” notecard.

Same when he woke up from his surgery. The first thought in his mind was, “Did she leave?” and he grumbled that “she should have at least said something before she left.”

Therefore, this separation in the final episode served a point. Although I would have preferred it to have happened earlier, like midway through the episode, I understood why it had to take place.

It was PROOF they BOTH needed that 1) his feelings for her wouldn’t change despite time and distance and 2) she would return to him.

With this separation, they got over their insecurities. They survived a long-distance relationship. And the interesting part is that their love did NOT have to be sustained with physical contact or skinship or… gasp!!😱 kisses. 😂 Instead, their love thrived because of their sincere connection and daily communication.

To me, I value their display of emotional intimacy and maturity, much more than sensual exhibitions. As I said, I don’t watch kdramas for kisses. As much as I joke about it with @agdr03, I don’t analyze a scene for the stylistic way the actors’ lips and tongues move. 😂

Which brings me to my second point….

Two, I was looking for couple that wrote love letters, and I got it.

As I commented a long time (as far back as Episode 4 IIRC), I haven’t seen any other kdrama couple who engaged in letter-writing and texting as part of their romance.

YooJung started it in Episode 3 when she left him a note:

And she continued with her apology box and he would later follow suit with his “apology” chair. They learned to express themselves in writing.

We ladies here all loved that they were able to put into words what they felt for each other. Except for that period after the beach when they tried to figure out their future together and remained incommunicado, it only took a simple note to straighten out their world and brighten their day.

Besides, it’s an excuse often heard in the k-entertainment that actors break up their relationship due to “busy schedules.” So-and-so broke up because of their busy schedules: Suzy and Lee Min Ho, Suzy and Lee Dong-Wook, Lee Jongki and girlfriend, IU and old boyfriend with the nickname chorizo, Sulli and her old boyfriend, the Goblin actress and her ahjussi, etc.

But with our characters WooHyun and YooJung, we can easily imagine them staying connected despite their busy schedules because they would take time to jot down a quick note, text or call each other. If they could last a year working hard in separate countries, then they had a pretty good estimate of the level of commitment they had.

I commented too that their letters were their gift to each other. Whenever they wrote something, they were giving a piece of themselves for keeps: their thoughts, their affections, and their time.

This conversation between WH and StepHyung was quite telling.

StepHyung: But you didn’t even rest a bit for a whole y ear while you were busy working. Take a break.
WH: My mind was more at peace because my body was busy.

It meant two things. One, he was satisfied that he got work done and accomplished what he’d set out to do. Two, when he kept busy, he didn’t have to miss YooJung too much.

StepHyung: About YooJung, isn’t she coming back this time either?
WH: She said that if she came, she wouldn’t want to go back.

Before, he would probably grow anxious, or even resentful, that she was reneging on their promise to marry after a year.

StepHyung: But aren’t you going to wrap up things since you got interrupted?
WH: Well, I’m sure we will someday.

Again, this was consistent with WH’s character as he did the same thing with his mother. Now, he was allowing YJ to do as she pleased and didn’t impose a timetable on her because he doted on her.

StepHyung: Your feelings haven’t changed, right?
WH: Well, we text or call at least once a day. Have we changed?
StepHyung: Well, how would I know your feelings?

Just on cue WH’s phone buzzed and he answered right away. It was a text from YJ.

YJ: WooHyun-ssi. Can you go see my mom? It’s getting cold, so I’m worried.

His face was beaming. Look at this cutie-patootie.

WH: (tells SH proudly) It’s YooJung.
StepHyung: They haven’t, they haven’t changed. Thank goodness. What did she say? Did she say she loves you? So lucky.

One look at WooHyun’s face and it would be clear to anyone with eyesight that his feelings hadn’t changed at all for YooJung.

And that was the reason I found this scene heart-fluttering. If a guy can look this ecstatic when he’s receiving a text from the girl ORDERING him to go on an errand and visit his mother-in-law (a NON-human mother-in-law, mind you), then he’s positively crazy about the girl.

And last, I was looking for an ending that matched WooHyun and YooJung’s style, and I got it.

Here was the ending scene again.

WH: Wow. It’s cold.

Lights turned on and he was shocked to see her there in the same bridal gown she wore last time.

WH: You didn’t say you were coming.
YJ: I promised. If our feelings were the same, we would get married on the same day in one year.

And he looked happy and amused at her cheekiness…just like when she gave him the couple rings at the beach. He said he’d never seen that done before. lol.

YJ: (still the bossy-boots) What are you doing? Come here.

Of course, this is a clean kdrama called “Fluttering Alert” and not “Flirtatious Nymph’s Come-Hither” so there was no way YooJung would beckon him over to her side like this…. lol.

YooJung signaled him with a head nod to come stand beside her and he followed her obediently. He even did a little skip. Like a kid.

See his smile? Of course, he’d be gobsmacked and creeped out if the Flirtatious Nymph instead of classically beautiful Yoon Eun Hee/YooJung appeared before him. pwahahaha.

After the bowed to their fathers and took their places, they recited their simple vow, “We swear to become a couple that always respects and trusts in one another through love.”

And they grinned when StepHyung boomed out, “The two who walked separate paths until now will be walking together.”

This surprise and impromptu wedding is consistent with their personality.

WooHyun was comfortable with YooJung taking the lead and moving the relationship forward, and she was comfortable taking the initiative to move the relationship forward. Remember their first date?  The truth or consequence game?

And the ring?

And her proposal?

She always took the lead and he was willing to go along with her. Hmmm… It also reminds me of an article I posted here about the actor’s dating style. He said, “When I’m in a relationship, I’m a nice guy….I try to match to my girlfriend.”

YooJung was definitely more comfortable expressing her emotions. As her BFF observed in Episode 6, she’d always been open with her feelings but her disastrous love affair had made her feel “cowardly” about love.

But in Episode 15, she told her BFF about her promise to her mom, “Seong Hoon, there’s something I promised my mom when she passed away. That I’d get married before I got Mom’s age so I’d become someone’s wife and mom, and I’d live happily including Mom’s lot.” She told him she was keeping that promise.

This was exactly WooHyun’s advice to her too in Episode 14 after their discovery of their fire connection.

In the car ride home, she was also remembering her mom’s last words. Her mom said that she was sorry she’d miss all the important moments when YJ would become an adult, a woman and a mother. She was her age back then.

YJ: I’m wandering around and not able to handle my own life right now. But my mom was (already) a mother of two and a wife. She really had a hard life.
WH: Now, you have to be happy enough for your mother, too. Think of me as someone that your mother sent to you.

To me, that is PARTLY the reason she was distressed when their marriage was interrupted. She didn’t know if it was a sign, a cosmic sign or a heavenly sign, that she was meant to be happy. (Survivor’s guilt again!) She had to work this out herself and her time away in the US did that.

So when YooJung planned her surprise wedding — from deceiving him about her return to ordering all the wedding preparations, to bossying him, “What are you doing (over there)? Come here.” — I took it to mean that she was ready to claim her happiness once and for all.

He was truly the one her mom sent him and she didn’t have to worry about him, or herself, changing ever.

*****************

So there you go, my reasons for liking this ending. To me, the finale made perfect sense, and since it did, I like it the way it is.

I got it 🙂 and I wouldn’t have it changed in any other way.

…Except perhaps a scene with babies. 👶 🍼 👶 🍼 Babies would have been nice. (hahaha. Bitches are never satisfied, right?)