Short story: I was barely in college when I began seeing a man who worked for the United States Congress. He was a lot older than me but our relationship was… hmmm,let’s just say that it was based on mutual flattery.

I was flattered that I was invited as his date to political and social functions and he was flattered to be seen with the only daughter of a prominent Washington family. Shortly afterwards, I found myself in Paris, studying at La Sorbonne on weekdays and crisscrossing Europe on the weekends with my girlfriends.

So what happened?

Words of advice from my beloved father made me see sense. He told me that life is more beautiful spent alongside a man you can LIVE WITH, than a man you must LIVE UP TO.

Fast forward forty years later: The world might have lost me as a wife (aka Queen Bitch) of a very influential statesman (aka Mr. Corrupt, lol) but I can attest to my father’s wisdom. Life is certainly beautiful with the right partner.  🙂

That’s how I view this relationship with Dr. Ye and BoYoung. BoYoung has put Dr. Ye on a pedestal and will look UP to him as her superior. To me, he isn’t the man BoYoung can grow old with.

There are hints throughout the show but I’ll limit myself to three.

One, Pardon.

When Dr. Ye says something unexpected to her, BoYoung’s ready response is “Pardon?” Instead of saying “What? What did you say?” or “Huh? What do you mean?” she asks him, “Pardon?”

– which is funny.  Everybody notices when MinHo says, “Just kidding!” or when Dr. Ye says, “May I give you an advice?” But nobody wants to comment badly on BoYoung’s incessant pardoning when she’s around Dr. Ye. When you do it, it’s adultery. When I do it, it’s romance.

To me, her pardoning is a major flag and only the stubbornest of shippers would make light of this problem. It’s already halfway through the kdrama and she still needs to guess and second-guess his intention. Aren’t they on the same wavelengths yet? Why not come out directly and ask him what the heck he meant?

But more troubling for me is her inferiority.  She regards herself too lowly

and she esteems him TOO HIGHLY  that she’s constantly surprised whenever he pays her attention or compliments.

That’s what her “pardon” signifies to me:  her disbelief that somebody as good, wise, and famous! as Dr. Ye would deign to notice and be kind to her.

But I’m wary of their stilted conversations. Their conversations make me wonder what kind of conversation they’ll have when she hesitates to speak her mind. They can’t communicate in poetry forever. lol. (I’ll have to write about this too soon….)

And bluntly speaking, I dislike it when she changes her speech cadence and modulates her voice to a softer, shyer, more tentative, and girlish tone. Ugh.

In contrast, she thinks nothing of asking demanding MinHo to explain things…even the most awkward ones.

Can you imagine her confronting Dr. Ye with that kind of question? No, right? Why not?

lol. She displays her true self with MinHo without filter.

Two, showing her good side.

It was fine at the beginning that BoYoung wanted to make a good impression on Dr. Ye professionally. It was understandable.

In Episode 4, we heard her explanation. She had apologized to Dr. Ye for creating a drunken scene. She vowed, “I won’t make mistakes from now on, and only show you my good side.” Unfortunately, MinHo heard her and teased her for it. (An aside: I don’t believe for a second MinHo’s excuse that he accidentally overheard their conversation because of BoYoung’s loud voice. I think he deliberately followed her and eavesdropped on their conversation to find out what was going on. That sneak.)

When MinHo purposely messed her plans, she scolded him and told him why it was important for her. It was in gratitude and appreciation for recognizing her hard work at the hospital when she had been snubbed by the hospital. Remember: the hospital had delayed decision on her full-time employment, and rescinded the “Employee of the Year” award.

MH: Why are you about to cry again? Don’t cry, Cry Baby BoYoung.

(Note: People don’t seem to notice that when it’s just the two of them, MinHo tells her “Don’t cry” in a worried voice. Then, he patiently waits for her to stop. He’s not unfeeling as others paint him to be.)

BY: I told you to stop fooling around. Do you think it’s funny that I’m trying to look good?
MH: Yeah, well…why are you trying so hard for Doctor Ye?
BY: I’ve worked at this hospital as a contractor for almost two years. I worked hard thinking I could get a full time job if I did. But no one acknowledged my efforts. But Dr. Ye was the first one to acknowledge my efforts and give me a great opportunity. That’s why I was regretful and miserable after I made a mistake in front of him. I don’t expect you to help me. Just don’t get in my way.

Once he understood how important this was all for her, MinHo apologized and reassured her that it’d be okay. “You tried so hard to make a good impression on Dr. Ye but you messed it up because of me. So I wanted to apologize….Hey, don’t worry I’m sure he knows you did nothing wrong.”

But right now, we’re already halfway through the show and BoYoung continues to seek to show Dr. Ye her good side. Not only professionally, but in her personal life as well.

For instance, in Episode 7, she explained in a roundabout way that she had no interest in meeting the Dubai patient. (See that? If that was MinHo, she’d just say, heck no. I’m not interested.)

Thanking Dr. Ye for the loan of money, she offered to treat him out to dinner, saying, “I also like kimchi stew and soybean stew. I have the taste buds of a true Korean. So I can never live in a foreign country. And that’s why I’ve no interest in dating foreign men. (nervous laugh) And above all, I simply fulfill my duties as a physical therapist and have no interest in having personal relations with a patient. (nervous laugh)”

In the elevator scene in Episode 8, she lost her cool when Dr. Kim teased her about MinHo. Dr. Ye had been within earshot. She wanted to show him her good side, and she said so during their lunch together.

BY: Why are you buying me lunch today? (Good! She asked him.)
Ye: I don’t have anything particular to say. I just wanted to cheer you up because you looked upset.
BY: Pardon?
Ye: It seemed like you were very upset because Dr. Shin got drunk and talked about your college days.
BY: Yes. I was upset because he said something that I didn’t want to be revealed. And Dr. Kim saw us fighting about that today and misunderstood. Anyway, thank you for worrying about me, Dr. Ye.
Ye: I just felt like I was looking at myself.
BY: Pardon?
Ye: The truth is I also worked with someone I had dated in the past. I was very distressed because people talked about us after we broke up. So I think I have an idea of how you feel. (He thought she was upset that people were gossiping about Minho and her.)
BY: Oh I see. But I don’t really care what the hospital staff say about me. I just don’t want the person I like to hear it.
Ye: (interrupting) The person you like? Do you like someone, Dr. Woo?
BY: No! I mean…I could possibly like someone in the future. If that person knew that I liked MinHo before I liked him, he’d think I’m easy.
Ye: May I give you advice? Don’t worry about that. The person you like, I mean the person you could like in the future would look favorably upon even your innocent days of your past.
BY: (thinking to herself) The person I like is you, Dr. Ye. Does that mean you look favorably upon me?

lol. She wants to preserve her good image and she couldn’t be seen as a flirt or — goodness! a harlot. (Rolling eyes here.)

However, later the day, she cried her apologies to Dr. Kim for being sensitive. She said, “I’m sorry I was rude to you this morning. It wasn’t even that serious. I was being oversensitive.”

I’m glad she’s FINALLY realized that, in the greater scheme of things, trying to look good in Dr. Ye’s eyes is not a SERIOUS matter. Pleasing him shouldn’t be her objective in life, and her personal life is her private life.

In contrast, she doesn’t strive to look good for MinHo anymore. Once, she’d sobbed that she looked humiliating and pitiful in front of MinHo.

But to MinHo, she’s got no problems looking good…because he’s seen her looking bad, pathetic, and ridiculous.

Like when she wore that ridiculous orange cone.

Honestly, I laughed so hard when I saw her hobbling around like a pirate, charging at him like an enraged bull, and then pretending to be dead on a heap of garbage.

And I’m in stitches now as I post the pics.

She said, “What? What’s this? Damn it!” as if the cone magically appeared on her foot. lol

hahahaha. Like a crazy bull…but she just couldn’t win against MinHo.

Really, this is too funny. She had an early advantage because she walloped an unsuspecting MinHo on the head. But at the final count, I bet she was wishing that the ground would just swallow her up. I would… after looking like a dunce with that cone on my head.  

When you revisit this scene and think about it again, MinHo was really kind not to hit her back. He tolerated the abuse from her without knowing the cause of her anger. Then, to top it all, he didn’t protest that she had wrongly accused him when he found out why she had been enraged with him.

In essence, he became her punching-bag and she relieved herself of her anger and frustration that she wasn’t Employee of the Year. He’s such a jerk, right?

That’s why for me, MinHo didn’t need her to to try to be somebody’s paragon of kindness, greatness or goodness. In a half-cynical, half-romantic way, he said, “She’s pretending to be kind again. Cry Baby Bo Young has no problem looking good in front of me.”

He knows her dark side, but it doesn’t matter. 

Three, her good girl image is what makes Dr. Ye smile.

The show makes a big deal of these moments when Dr. Ye smiles in public.

From Episode 4.

From Episode 8.

lol. To me these scenes should have clued viewers in on how Dr. Ye views BoYoung. To him, she is a good girl with the emphasis on GIRL. He sees her as an innocent child

skipping behind him like a kid

and eating cotton candy like a kid.

Edited because I found gifs. Gifs are from forursmiles’ tumblr. Those are her notes in yellow, not mine.

 

Same mannerism, same innocence. lol. He looked like an ahjussi treating his favorite niece to cotton candy. 

And that cotton candy? It’s a chick, right?

BoYoung matches that cotton candy. In her yellow sweater, she looks as adorable as a FLUFFY yellow chick.(hahaha. I hope you didn’t think that her yellow sweater was just coincidental. I’m sure it was planned by the costume designer.)

Plus, don’t forget that during their luncheon, he described her current stage in life as her innocent days. He sounded like an old man when he said that one day, her man would “favorably upon even your innocent days of your past.” And he called her “cute” in this screenshot taken by MinHo instead of ridiculous. (Did he use the word, kyeota?!)

In contrast, MinHo sees BoYoung as a girlfriend.

Isn’t it obvious when he went to that club and found a BoYoung doppelganger? In that dark club with numerous girls to pick from, he found THAT one person who looked like BoYoung in the crowd.

And of course, it had to be Lee Yoo Bi playing Lee Yoo Bi, BoYoung’s dopplegange. Yes, it is meta.

lol. No sunbae and donsaeng relationship here. No Ahjussi and IU.  (pwahahaha)

Thus, when it comes to good girl image, Dr. Ye sees Boyoung as a girl (in small letters), while MinHo sees her as a GIRL (in big letters).

The foreshadowing of BoYoung’s opposite futures with the two men is very clear in the images presented in the show.

Sure, BoYoung can walk the romantic “flowery path” with Dr. Ye, trailing behind him.

But MinHo is the one she can walk with on beautiful days and calm nights.

Sharing deaths

and celebrating life.

 

🙂 Of course, Dr. Ye can prove himself in the next 8 episodes.