If ever this Episode 12 is made into one of those bodice-ripper romances, I’ve a perfect book title and cover for it.
I thought it was funny how SH’s doodles became sort of a sign of his love for TH.
He first drew the doodle of TaeHee in Episode 4 when it finally dawned on him that the girl on the bus and the scholarship girl are one and the same.
His proofs: same name on envelope and scholarship award.
He then texted his doodle to SJ and SJoo for identification, telling them that he was ready to proceed with their revenge plot.
Later in Episode 8, TaeHee saw his doodles on the glass wall. Her caricature convinced her that she had begun to like her. She teased him, “I saw your drawing of me. You just got caught liking me, didn’t you?” And when he blabbered an excuse to downplay the significance of his drawing, she brushed it off, saying, “That’s okay, you can answer me slowly.”
She then went on to confess her feelings for him. She thought that SH’s cute caricature of her was enough proof of his liking her.
Now, in Episode 12, while they were having an intimate dinner for two, she asked him to draw her again. He declined saying he wasn’t that good. But she realized he was lying about his artistic talent when she unearthed his old sketches of Sooji. Suddenly, his cute doodles of her looked elementary, almost primitive, when compared to the paper-and-pencil studies he made of Sooji.
As an artist herself, she recognized the level of SH’s artistry in his drawings of Sooji.
He had drawn a lovely portrait of his mother, but underneath it were three drawings of Sooji, which showed the same meticulous attention to details as his sketch of his mother.
I think, at that instant, Taehee understood (or felt that she understood) that he never really loved her to the level and depth that he loved Sooji. She couldn’t compare to Sooji – if drawings were meant to be yardstick of love.
Lovingly sketched vs hastily drawn
When TaeHee recalled what she had asked Sooji at the pool the other day, she marveled at her own impertinence.
Back then, she dared to question Sooji, “How much did you like him?” She dismissed Sooji’s reply, “So much that our parents should never find out,” as nothing more than SooJi’s romantic delusions.
But there in the ShiHyun’s sketches were her concrete proof that SJ-SH’s love was mutual.
And that, in a nutshell, was her reason for giving up on SH. She knew she couldn’t compete with SH’s supposed “First Love.” And since she couldn’t be SH’s love, she didn’t want to repeat the tragedy of her father’s unrequited love. She had been the unhappy result of her mom’s rebound love, and she didn’t want to suffer through her father’s ordeal with SH.
Here’s TH’s (almost) monologue for your reading pleasure. 
TH: I want to stop.
SH: What do you mean?
TH: It’s too hard.
When we went to your villa, I hoped…I could become a friend like SooJi and SeJoo. That can never happen. We met too late.
But that’s not the hard part. I don’t want to be the kind of friend SooJi and SeJoo are to you. I wanted to be your girlfriend.
You asked if I’d regret it. I do regret it.
Going to the villa and staying behind when I wanted to leave. Being happy to see you and telling you I liked you. I regret everything.
You’re not pretending to be mean. You just don’t love me. I was mistaken.
SH: No.
TH: I wanted to take photos of you. Why didn’t you? Why wouldn’t you hold my hand first? Why did you make me wonder if our first kiss was a dream? Why d you rush over when SooJi calls, and forget plans we made? Why do you make me ask such questions?
You’re being very vague right now too.
SH: What did SooJi say to you?
TH: I don’t like guys that seem strange. And I don’t have crushes. I’m talking about you and me. What SooJi said doesn’t matter. Go.
SH: Let’s talk in my room.
TH: Right! This is your building. Please leave.
Overall, I give Joy a solid B for her performance here. I liked that her character knew a thing or two about self-preservation and decided to walk away first from this impossible situation. She couldn’t help but be attracted to ShiHyun but she was determined not to fall victim to the same sad story that befell her father. To me, Joy displayed the right combination of vulnerability and resolution to make her character believable and sympathetic, without overacting.
I have been waiting for your comment over the recent episodes. My internet history is full of your blog url’s haha. I cant keep track how many times i refresh your blog so i wouldnt miss anything.
Like what i have said before that i need your analytical bitching over this drama. Mostly because English isnt my first language and second, the editing and the writing of this drama is different (or maybe because im plain dumb lol).
About Taehee, i was a bit irked how she measures the depth of love with drawing, taking photos and all but after reading your blog, i have finally been enlightened ! Now I understand why TH going waterworks over SH. It’s because she becomes something that she despises the most. It feels horrible that we become something that we hate in TH’s case that is being in one sided love.
About SJ and SH’s mom accident, i think it is gonna make things uglier than ever. I hope the drama wont crash and burn and I hope you won’t lose hope on this drama. in other words, please keep bitching! lol
Ahhhh! I hope you aren’t the one clicking 50x times on this blog. 🙂 I was thinking to myself, “Bless her heart! I MUST write something quick.”
No, there’s nothing wrong with your brain or comprehension. hahaha. The editing is really sloppy. And I don’t know if I should ignore the flaws or file them for “review” later. Take for instance, the pool scene in Episode 12. Two things:
1. TH entered the pool for the first time with WET HAIR. ??
Okkkkaaay. I’m going to be lenient with the director and excuse this slip-up. It was possible that TH took a shower first. However, I take showers for PUBLIC pools. In private pools, or like our jacuzzi, for instance, why on earth would I take a shower before going in? lol.
And is TH really that filthy that her tiny mass of body would dirty that pool? Does she have leprosy or something?
See? If only the director just shot this scene well, then viewers wouldn’t be distracted by these small incongruities.
2. How was it that TH didn’t see SH in the pool? It wasn’t that dark in that room, and SH couldn’t have been submerged all that time. Siggghhhh… He isn’t Aquaman. He couldn’t have held his breath that long underwater without movement or ripples.
Also, didn’t you wonder how SH/TH got back to the house that morning when TH fled the villa? Weren’t they going the wrong way? The villa was behind them, yet when SH told TH to hop on his back, they started walking forward, AWAY from the villa.
Also, observe how inconsistent TH’s limp was. The limp comes and goes as it pleases. lol. But this isn’t Joy’s fault as much as it is the director’s. He should notice details like this and demand a retake.
But no worries. For now, I’m ignoring the editing mistakes. I’m going to pretend that this is a newbie director and screenwriter and hold my tongue as long as possible.
I’m writing something about the fisherman allegory next.
And you’re absolutely right, trsm. It’s a horrible feeling to know that you’re turning into that very thing you swore you would avoid.
That’s the whole point TH told SH that
a. she didn’t like strange men (like her mom was weird to her dad when she would even forget her dad’s existence.) and
b. she didn’t have crushes (recall that she described her dad as having a “crush” on her mom).
She didn’t want to repeat her parents’ story, or to be specific, her dad’s story.
She had wanted to live a clean life, untainted, unmarked, unspoiled, untouched by her mom because she saw upclose the damage her mom’s fickleness and insincerity in love caused her dad. But look what she landed herself with! ShiHyun.
And Taehee’s a proud one, too. She became angry with her dad because he had no pride and was sending coffee beans to her mother ANONYMOUSLY like a secret lover, even after all she’d done to him.
Then Taehee realized that she was repeating the same thing with SH….
Yup, it IS a pretty horrifying discovery.
I agree, I think Joy was decent.
The writing / directing inconsistencies puzzle me, sometimes it looks like they didn’t use the right chronological order (and not only in the technical sense, but also from the psychological / relationship point of view). But whenever I’m contemplating dropping the show, something good happens.
My favourite episode so far was 9-10, the game of who is hiding what…
I agree! The story itself is linear: There’s a beginning action which causes the middle action and ends up producing the final action.
A good film editor or director would know how to mix up the sequence of events to heighten tension or to expose and explain certain details. They could have used a foreshadowing or a flashback to highlight important events.
But here, there appears to be little forethought to details like that. As I mentioned earlier in another comment box, take SJ’s hands for example. The director could have stressed from the beginning that her hands are precious, that’s why the boys pamper her in ridiculous ways or why SH was massaging her hands a couple of times.
I originally thought those moments were intimate – or loverlike. But after the boys explained to TH at the villa that SJ needed to take good care of her hands, those massaging moments became less romantic in my estimation and more “service-oriented.” 😂 I saw the hand massage as nothing more than what my therapist would do to my broken wrist. 🤣
SH was massaging her hand simply like a friend. He wasn’t doing it out of passion or as a sexual prelude.
Episodes 9 and 10 are fun. 👍 Especially when SH was trying to avoid giving himself away to SJ. Remember that conversation in the car with KiYoung? SJ was listening and it was the first time she heard of SH helping TH move. I was grinning to myself because he was oh! so busted!
What a pity when I read it here I thought it would be powerful scene but actress just mumbled her lines.
😀
Blame the director if the actress mumbled her lines. It’s the director’s responsibility to coach her on how to deliver the lines to best communicate what the DIRECTOR (and scriptwriter) wanted to communicate.
Remember: it’s the Director who shouts “Cut!” Not the actors.
Think of a chef. It’s his fault when the soup tastes too salty. Not the salt. The salt’s always been salty.
But the chef is supposed to tinker with the amount of salt used in the recipe. A pinch? A teaspoon? One cup?
It’s the chef’s task to draw out the right flavors from the combination of salt, pepper, herbs, spices, meat, fish, and other viands. The finest ingredients can still turn out to be inedible food if the chef doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Likewise, it’s the director’s job to DIRECT. He should have corrected the actress if HE thought she was mumbling. To me, the fact that he allowed the scene to be filmed meant that HE approved it and that it met HIS standards (however low or high they were, to begin with, lol).
Me? Since I don’t speak Korean and cannot distinguish between good and bad diction, what I found jarring was her limp. It comes and goes.
But again I blame the director for this oversight. He should have caught that one, too, because HE was staring at the scene himself.
Really, there’s a 101 reasons to accuse the production team of incompetence but I’m controlling my temper. 😀
Director can make decent acting look better but this is below below average I don’t see nuance in her facial expression and line delivery. In this kind of situation anyone would show resentment to him to herself. Actor’s reaction also lacking he gave a puppy look just that? Oh well I don’t know rest of the drama but indeed director is not helping.
😀
It’s still the director’s fault, you know. He HIRED those actors for his kdrama. Didn’t he give them a screen test? Didn’t he know of their acting ability when he took them on? It’s not as if Joy and – whoops. what’s the actor’s name again? lol – were unknowns. They’ve reputation in the entertainment field.
For me, Joy’s facial expressions were okay given that it was a break-up scene. Her inflexion when she said, “I’m having a hard time” was just right. It was breezy like somebody who can’t breathe – because she IS having a hard time.
When she was explaining about spending time with SJ and SJoo, she couldn’t look at his eyes – that was spot on. Why? Because she was lying. She couldn’t look at his eyes because she could accidentally reveal how she HATED being with them, his friends.
Her face was stiff. But that was good, too.
When I’m restraining myself, for instance, I could sense my my cheeks going to be stiff. And that’s what she had to do, hold back her emotions UNTIL she has declared her piece. She has a “prepared statement” in her mind…her rational explanation which she had to deliver in full before she broke down.
When she said, “I wanted to be your girlfriend,” that was spot on, too. She fluttered her eyes before saying it because it was an extremely embarrassing confession to make BUT she knew she had to deliver it. She said it as a matter-of-fact because she didn’t want to be pitied. It was merely a declaration of her feelings, she didn’t expect a proposal from him. She was already resigned that the attraction between them was one-sided.
When she admitted that, “I regretted it” her speech pattern changed. And again that was good. She was saying, “I regretted it” in a light and breezy way so she wouldn’t be pitied. She was keeping up with appearance that this breakup was something SHE wanted.
When she said, “You weren’t being mean. You just didn’t like me,” the impression I got from her acting was that she lost, she was admitting that she lost but she’s relieved that now she didn’t have to wonder anymore whether he liked her or not. So there’s a tone of relief there.
Then, when she started her recriminating questions, “Why didn’t you hold my hand, why didn’t you take pictures…” she took a deep breath first, then let her resentment flow out.
I thought she expressed just the right pathos. I didn’t want her overacting and pleading with him. That would be toooo makjang, soap opera-ish.
To me, the way she delivered then hit the right notes. She was running through her accusations but at the same time, she didn’t want to sound desperate. (Ohlord, please save me from desperate women. That would be too cringe-y)
Without reading the words, I can hear from her tone of voice that she was asking, “Why? Why is it only me who feels this way, and not you, too?” If you listen to it actually, you can hear the plaintive strain in her words.
— and that’s why I don’t care about her diction. 😀 I could hear the music in the way her voice goes up-and-down. hahaha. But I guess, it’s because I’m used to listening to opera music. I don’t understand the words but I can guess what the soprano is saying when I listen to the melody.
When she said, “look now, you’re still being undecided,” she had that reproachful look which was the right thing to feel at that moment. She was saying, “See? What did I tell you?” but she didn’t want to sound bitter about it.
So there you go. My long explanation of why I think the ending scene was perfect just as it is. 😀
Haha I really love how your long explanation is. That’s something I’m not good at. For me there are actors who can show you what they feel or actors who can make you feel what they feel. Others just tries and it shows which makes everything seem like a joke. This scene is impactful on paper, it should make me sit back and admire how straightforward she was or it should make my heart feel as heavy as hers. I’m sorry to say I just snorted with laughter. That’s just me I can’t praise mediocrity.
oo.. what a detailed long comment. The previous one about the scene, I love it.
Other than that I think it’s pretty nice that the show let us think the boys taking care of SJ’s hand is intimate while explaining later it’s a lot more “service-oriented” as you say. It’s fine to confuse us like that. But the other examples, I agree, are just bad editing. I was puzzled too at first with TH moving next door and the fact that TH couldn’t see SH in the pool felt forced
Heeeyyy, remember the joke about our group writing books to explain things? I didn’t even notice how long that post was because I was typing it on my iPhone and do you know how small the Reply box is? It only allows me to see three lines at a time. 😂 Sorry. 🤣
Any forum that we were on would move pages on a single day because we had so many good, bad, silly, artistic, insightful, pervy, and silly posts to contribute.
Our antis on soomp- wanted us to just shut up 🤐 and to enjoy the show without analysis. They complained that posts and insights were ruining their stupid spazzing. 😒
When the mods allowed the inmates to run the asylum, I knew it was time for us to move out of that environment.
That’s why this blog is here. You’re free to think whatever, however you want of a scene. It is a fair comment to say that you weren’t moved by that scene as you had hoped to be. 👍 I don’t mind. But I am going to post my POV afterwards.
I rewatched the scene and I did observe that, although Joy’s facial and verbal expressions were fine with me, her lack of lower body movement was incompatible with the agitation she was feeling.
Usually when people are emotional or distraught, there’s an unconscious hand movement that they do: tuck in a strand of hair, clench and unclench their fist, wring their hands, clutch on something, touch their eyes, wave hand in the air, open palms up for begging…
Or they’d fidget: teeter-totter, rock on their toes so they can self-soothe themselves, or back away.
But Joy stood still.
To me, a real actress would have been trained to emote not only with voice and face, but also with whole body.
Again, that was directorial oversight. He should have caught that his actress was just standing still, and not showing agitation with her full body, then DIRECTED her how to do it.
Full disclosure: my whole acting career boils down to pretending like to be a strip of bacon 🥓 on hot griddle. 😒😂 That was back in high school and I was trying out for a Shakespearean play. So, if we were talking about LESS THAN mediocre acting, that would have been me. 😀🤦♀️
I’m being honest tho even when people disagree with you they can’t help but read your wall of texts because it’s intriguing.
I’m the same I just don’t like when someone post everything with dramatic tone and without me noticing I have very long ignored users list now. That forum is like a mine field to me.
Like I said if we are talking about real acting know hows aren’t enough and how come an actor rely on director for every single detail. If many people gave a pass to this performance I don’t see her (Joy? How is that a korean name btw) improving much in the future.
She’s better now than in “Liar and his Lover.” She’s still capitalizing on her innocent, deer-in-the-headlight look. That’s her shtick, her appeal.
But she won’t have that “look” for long, so roles like this will become rare for her. So I’m enjoying it while it lasts. That innocent look canNOT be duplicated. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Look at OhYeonSeo in Hwayugi. She tried hard but nope… she can blink or dilate her eyes all she wants but she can’t have that innocent face again. Or IU. IU can’t project that guileless look in her eyes. Her innocence is long gone. lol.
But this Joy still has it. And that’s the seductive part about her. I can see why she was chosen for this role. Even her awkwardness in acting can be taken as her innocence. In this sense, there’s no need for her to “act,” she can just behave naturally.
I see that’s perfectly makes sense. In my opinion actors should own any character given to them regardless of their image or experience. Personal charm and presence is important too but fundamentally there is should be skills or potential at least. If they can be just bland version of themselves what’s the point. I haven’t seen any of her work not even rest of this show but if this is her best I don’t need to.
Jumping to another topic since we discussed about same thing there. Hwayugi ship officially sank lol who’s suprised?
I think my left big toe was surprised. 😈
I could have told her shippers that she wasn’t LSG’s type and spared them the heartache. 🤦♀️
I also liked this plot twist, that Tae Hee would actually be the one to “dump” Shi Hyun first. Have to admit I didn’t see it coming, and especially so soon into the drama. I really liked that we see again here a smart and self aware Tae Hee, realizing that she’s turning into her father and having the courage to break things off herself.
As for Joy’s performance, I would have preferred a more experienced actress in the role of Tae Hee as I feel the role requires a lot of nuance because the writing for her character is not as strong. That being said, I think she is serviceable in the role. She is obviously the newbie among the 4 main leads, but she does OK. I give her full credit for giving us a real kiss scene in episode 8. She didn’t freeze up and she participated in the kiss-no dead fish lips or deer in the headlights stres. She was relaxed and natural there, which is difficult for many more experienced actresses to pull off, so kudos.
I like that word, “serviceable.” Yes, her kiss was good but I didn’t want to analyze it because… it felt icky…like I was ogling at my nieces kiss.
The nice thing about Joy is she has that cheerful face that makes you want to smile.
It looks like a Walmart sticker of smiley face.
For me the scene where Joy says it is hard for her was her best scene in the entire series. Script wise too this scene was good. She brought all the receipts with her complaints.