As I said in another post, the problem with the GGG is that it has a good intention with a dire consequence.

GGG was intended to *force* OG to protect SM in that same unconditional and spontaneous way a lover would shield his love from all harm. But because the contraption is artificial and pressed upon him, true love cannot blossom naturally. Free will is necessary to love somebody; you must be free to love (or not) another person. If you’re forced or coerced to care for somebody, then it’s no longer love. Your consent to love is integral and binding.

Also as I’ve said in my first Hwayugi post on Episodes 1 and 2, there was a distinct possibility that OG took care of SM from the very start, although he fled from his promise to protect her. My theory was he was protecting her as she grew up — just out of plain sight, and silently. From SM’s viewpoint, however, he disappeared completely from their last encounter and shirked his responsibility to her without a backward glance.

Thus, in order to bind him to his original promise, and to protect herself from his verbal threat to eat her up to gain power to reach heavens, she used the Geumganggo to enslave him.

We see now that this tactic backfired big-time. Instead of him falling hopelessly in love with her, he mocks, resists and rejects all notion of love for her. His hurtful words when combined with his mixed actions, lead SM to believe that all is hopeless for her. Besides, in her mind, it was she, and she alone, who hoped desperately for 25 years for his reappearance and protection. When asked if he ever spared her a thought, he said no.

This is context with which I regard the cotton candy.

When SM hears OG say that some things remain constant, whether or not the GGG existed, (that is, sweet remains sweet, your preferences remain your preferences), she becomes hopeful again that OG had a change of heart for her and would honor his word to protect her. She then runs off to make a wish on the padlock.

Now we’ve all seen or heard about this padlock ritual at Namsan Tower. I did it myself with my husband when we to Seoul. He humored me. 😂

Lovers lock a padlock on the railing — or onto another padlock because there’s hardly a free space of railing exposed — make a wish that their love would last forever.

OG’s words that sweet is sweet, and likes are likes, regardless of the GGGG, have SM temporarily deluded and convinced that OG is sincere, and she prays her true love to last forever. Then, by the quirk of fate, while she was praying intently, a photographer shows up… and it’s the photographer whose first love was the young child SM.

That Namsan Tower encounter ends up in a “hopeful” tone for SM. Despite being hurt from his words, she feels that there’s still hope for him to change for her.

We can only imagine her disbelief  when she discovers in their next encounter that he in fact was going to have her killed by Mawang.

A side comment: Perhaps murder wasn’t his original intention. He said all along he wanted Mawang to suffer like him while in SM’s presence, and he wanted Mawang to regret plotting to trap him with the GGG. But he realized a second too late that his quest for revenge would also put SM in harm’s way. That’s the trouble with OG. He hasn’t figured out that his selfish, and self-indulgent ways are harmful to his beloved, and if he truly loves her, then her welfare is always topmost in his mind.

To continue:

SM realizes then that he’s lied to her in Namsan Tower so she goes back to the site to unlock the padlock. When the demon of sad love affairs approaches her and bargains to get rid of her love for OG in exchange for a snip of her long hair, she’s sorely tempted. Memories of her moments with OG flash by and the last image is of him enjoying (fake!) the cotton candy. Her memories must have been too precious to her because she changes her mind and calls out for OG.

Now, the interesting point here is that SHE decides that her one-sided love is worth her pain. The demon gives her an opt-out and an escape clause but she backs out at the last second, before (literally) the final cut.

As usual, when he reappears at her side, OG makes a fluttering one-liner, “Go to a hairdresser to get your hair cut. Although you’ll be pretty to me no matter how it’s cut….because I love you.” But she’s wised up to his ways and coldly swats away his confession with, “I don’t care how it looks to you. All you need to do is make sure that I, as Sam Jang, am never gotten rid of.”

lol. She’s signaling that he should focus on the deal that they made together on New Year’s Eve, so he can quit the BS. Despite accepting her one-sided love for him, she isn’t going to be conned by him any further. Good job, girl!

He gets her message and replies, “As you command, I’ll protect you.”

Later, back in her office, the whole metaphor of cotton candy continues, this time taking on the form of the ice cream.

She likes ice cream. But when her assistant brings ice cream to her, she no longer wants to eat it because now ice cream is associated with OG. Sure, sweet is still sweet, and she probably still likes to eat ice cream.

But since it’s now attached to OG, she has no desire to eat it anymore. The happiness she derives from ice cream didn’t last long, too, like the sweetness from cotton candy and his words.

HJ: I guess you don’t even want to see this ice cream.
HJ: Have some ice cream, CEO.
SM: He bought it for me?
HJ: NO one came. I got this for you. Ahhh. I see you waited for Secretary Son.
SM: I didn’t wait for him. Why would I?
HJ: Ah. you fought with your boyfriend so he doesn’t even buy you ice cream.
SM: He’s he’s not my boyfriend.
HJ: Right. It’s very disappointing when you’re used to him always buying it for you and then he suddenly doesn’t. I guess you don’t even want to see this ice cream.
SM: What is he to me that I would like ice cream? It has nothing to do with it.
HJ: Then have some.
SM: Never mind.
HJ: Oh…that idiot must be playing with the CEO’s heart…After buying her a mere strawberry ice cream. He hasn’t done crap for her.

We continually see how SM tries hard to stop her one-sided love. But we also see how she never fails to give OG a second chance.

Well, that unrequited love in a nutshell. On the one hand, she detests being the only one to “hope.” But on the other hand, she clings to that hope and she leaves the door open for him to come in and love her.

She’s counting on his sincerity. That’s why she asks him the most basic question in the end, “Sohn Oh-gong, what I want to know is, am I pretty right now?”

We return the cotton candy metaphor. Pretty is pretty. If he sincerely declares that she’s pretty, then even when the GGG is gone, she’ll remain — at the very least — pretty to him. She’ll be gone but in his memories of her, she’s the pretty one.  Sweet is sweet, like is like, and pretty is pretty.

It’s kinda sad when you think about it.