Poetry was NOT the only thing that MinHo wanted to forget about BoYoung. He also wanted to forget an ugly and disgusting side that HE thought he’d seen in her in college.

My theory is that he dumped her because he discovered that her sincerity and her kindness were only skin-deep.

The major difference between me and many YeLiners is credulity. They fall hook, line and sinker at the APPEARANCE of things. They didn’t question whether MinHo had a reason for dumping BoYoung in that asshat fashion; they instantly assumed that he was a jerk.

What they didn’t notice however was that MinHo’s actions and words were inconsistent.

First was his good friend’s testimonial.

A jerk by definition is an unlikable fellow. Having friends, especially a longtime, loyal friend like Namwon, was a pretty good sign that MinHo wasn’t a jerk. He didn’t have anti-social tendencies that pushed people away. — Unlike Dr. Ye. When I do it, it’s adultery, When you do it, it’s romance.

Remember the words NamWon used to introduce him to BoYoung? He said, “He’s not trustworthy but he’s a good guy.”

NamWon’s good opinion could be counted on because he was a good person himself, and he wasn’t sycophantic. He wasn’t MH’s friend because MH was rich and he wanted to get something out of their relationship. On the contrary, he refused to accept his charity.

When NamWon said that MH was untrustworthy, he meant that MH was irresponsible with work assignment. But to him, MH was a tried-and-true friend. He was a “good guy,” not a jerk.

We have at least one proof of this: that night BoYoung ruined the NamWon’s birthday celebration. MinHo didn’t assail her for spoiling everybody’s fun. A jerk wouldn’t think twice about castigating her in public. He had justifiable cause. His plans for his best friend’s birthday was spoiled. But he didn’t say anything to censure her.

In stark contrast, MinHo’s rejection was delivered with maximum impact to hurt BoYoung. He meant to humiliate her WITH NO POSSIBILITY OF RECONCILIATION afterwards. But why? He had tolerated her poem-a-day, her clumsiness, her awkward favoritism, and her shallow tears until then so what was his compelling reason to break off their friendship? What precipitated his wish to terminate their connection with such finality?

In many ways, his abrupt volte-face paralleled Dr. Kim’s demand for divorce from her husband. 👉 In Episode 8, “The Point if No Return,” the ex-husband was still wondering, three years after the fact, why she wanted divorce. The husband said, “We never fought or ran into problems, so I thought we were both happy. So when you asked for divorce, I was taken aback.” BoYoung could have said the same thing to MinHo, “We never fought or ran into problems, so I thought we were both happy. So when you told me that you hated poetry and that we were incompatible, I was shocked.” 🤔

Likewise, MinHo’s mean words paralleled Dr. Kim’s stoic words. She told her ex-husband, “I already told you I didn’t want to live like that any longer. My feelings have changed. That’s all.” A perceptive person would know right away that Dr. Kim was giving a rehearsed answer. Those words were her exact words delivered three years ago. In the same way, MinHo’s excuse that he hated her poetry because they gave him “goosebumps” just rang hollow. He hated her poems, he said. But given that he was largely ignored by his family, wouldn’t he have been glad to receive such daily attention from somebody? 🤔 Then when he realized that BoYoung was sending Dr. Ye’s poems too it jolted him? He panicked. 😆 Up in the rooftops, said he didn’t mind getting letters though.

Not only that. When he learned that BoYoung hit him on the head because she mistakenly thought he exposed her poetry-writing worship, he didn’t bother to explain the misunderstanding. He could have turned BoYoung into an even bigger laughing stock back then. A veritable jerk wouldn’t hesitate to capitalize on the opportunity and clear his reputation.

But he simply dropped the matter even at the expense of being the brunt of ridicule by their friends. He was branded a “user” or a “player” after that encounter with BoYoung. Dr. Ye himself wouldn’t have tolerated being gossiped about. But MinHo bore with it. Again you have to wonder why.

From Episode 2.

BY: So that rumor spread because of you? Then why didn’t Shin MinHo say anything? He should have explained.
NW: Even back then, he said he wasn’t going to be close to you so he didn’t mind being enemies with you.
BY: What?
NW: I’m sure you were humiliated because of that rumor but MinHo was also known as a dine-and-dash after that so he no longer has any affection for you.
BY: Gosh, seriously.
NW: Come to think of it, you’re consistently thoughtless. How can you blame MinHo without any evidence even now?
BY: Did you want me to beat you without any evidence right now?

😆 Without Namwon’s confession, BoYoung wouldn’t have known of MinHo’s reticence. 👉But I also think NamWon’s words were also addressed to the audience. “How can YOU blame MinHo without any evidence even now?” He was breaking the fourth wall (to borrow from theatre parlance) and chiding not only BoYoung but the viewers for readily believing the worse of MinHo.👈

For me, the tight friendship between MinHo and NamWon attested to MinHo’s good character. Sure, MinHo could also have gotten angry with NamWon. Twice he was on the receiving end of a whack on the head intended for NamWon. But having a faithful friend like Namwon sticking up for him meant that MinHo wasn’tthat big of a jerk that he appeared to be. (Take note: Dr. Ye lost contact with his only defender and trusted mentor at his previous hospital.)

Second is his selective amnesia.

I mentioned this when I explained the meaning of the title “A Poem a Day” and “You Who Forgot Poetry.” I said that MinHo literally received a poem a day back when he and BoYoung were in college, and he was the one who tried to forget BoYoung and her poetry.

But one other thing he “forgot” was BoYoung’s kindness in helping him out at school. I thought his behavior was extremely inconsistent with reality where acts of kindness are rarely forgotten despite the passage of time.

From Episode 3.

NW: Aigoo. It looks like Dr. Park will get some good scolding today.
MH: He asked for it. Anyway, why does Cry Baby BoYoung keep falling for these things? It seemed like she does everything Dr. Park asks for.
NW: You know how kind she is. She has a hard time turning people down. But don’t you know that best?
MH: How would I know that?
NW: Why wouldn’t you know that? (flashback)
NW: How could you not know? Do you really have no idea that BoYoung can’t reject people’s requests?
MH: Hey, why are you bringing up the past?

However, when I reviewed the flashback, I noticed that BoYoung was actually the one who offered to help him with his studies.

The first time –

The second time –

Yes, he took her up on her offer. Yes, she did his assignment for him. Yes, he passed them off as his own work. But in his mind, he was different from Dr. Park because he didn’t force BoYoung to do it.

The fact remained however that he WAS the recipient of Boyoung’s kindness so why did he deny it? Odd, isn’t it?

Which brings me to his third inconsistency.

In Episode 4, when BoYoung rushed off to help the grandmother who had gotten her in trouble with the doctor, he said something very PECULIAR about BoYoung. He expected BoYoung’s kindness, or OFFER of assistance to the grandmother, to be fake.

He asked her if she was going to help out the grandmother,

she said yes, because her knee was injured.

MinHo looked at her running off and he said, “She’s pretending to be kind again.”

To me, his interpretation of BoYoung’s motives for helping the grandmother was very cynical.But when we connect it to his flashback of his college days, it explained perfectly how he viewed BoYoung’s kindness and offer of help with his studies when he and NanWon were talking BoYoung’s kindness to Dr. Park.

👉He didn’t think she was sincere at all. He thought her assistance wasn’t motivated by something OTHER THAN kindness.

Did he suspect that she was only helping him because he was rich? Possibly. Dr. Park, when he found out that MinHo was a chaebol, immediately accused BoYoung of being a gold diggers. 😂 And once BoYoung mentioned to MinHo that she wished she had the money to be happy.

Did he suspect that she was only helping him because she pitied him? Possibly, too. 👉 In Episode 4, DefCon and JoYoon fought when they both found out that the other person was only PRETENDING to be nice out of pity. Each one thought the other person was a “Workplace Outcast, No Friends, Forever Single.” 😂

Now, if MinHo thought that BoYoung viewed him in the same light, “College Outcast, Only One Friend, Forever Single” he would, of course, feel insulted and angry too. In his mind, BoYoung was a social misfit, too, because she was crying at the most inconvenient moments. That would explain why he would distance himself from her, saying, “Woo BoYoung. I don’t like you. We’re completely different people.”🤣

See that? There must be dozens more reasons why MinHo rejected BoYoung. As NamWon said, we can’t be “consistently thoughtless” and accuse MinHo of jerkdom without getting his reason, his real reason. Like Dr. Kim had a real reason for wanting a divorce.

We have to wonder why there exist this gap between how he perceived BoYoung’s sincerity at the beginning of their relationship and at the end.

Between the time he did this

and the time he said this,

he discovered something about her that changed his GOOD opinion of her. His perception of her changed so drastically that he did NOT want to have any future contact with her. He didn’t want to remember her at all.

And that brings to the fourth point. He sincerely believed that BoYoung was faking her nice image. 

In MinHo’s eyes, BoYoung was faking it her kindness and that her true self only came out when she was drunk. He mentioned it in that same Episode 4 with the old grandmother with the bad knee.

They were up in the rooftop. MinHo pretended to be Dr. Ye to find out what she was embarrassed about.

Here’s their conversation.

MH: (pretending to be Dr. Ye) May I give you some advice?
BY: Wait, Dr. Ye. Why are you doing this? Isn’t this a little… (she realizes that it’s MH) Are you kidding me?
MH: Hey, how bad was your mistake that you bowed down like that? Dr. Ye’s not coming up. I wrote that note.
BY: What did you say? Hey, why are you doing this to me? You said you wanted to ignore each other. Why are you fooling around with me?
MH: Oh I thought about it and it would be a shame if I ignored someone with such hilarious body humor and amazing reactions. That’s why I decided to try getting close to you.
BY: Forget it.
MH: Forget that too. I’ve already decided to be friendly with you. But you better not like me again. If you send me poetry again, I’ll report you as a stalker.
BY: Hey, did you hate the poetry that much?
MH: Yeah I would have preferred any other kind of letter. Poetry gives me goosebumps! Also don’t get drunk and show your true self. That’s totally disgusting too.

If you watch that scene, he was too intense to be making this up. He was truly disgusted with her. And this was the second time, he used that word disgusting to describe her. The first time was on the way to Seoul.

An aside: considering that HE was the one who rejected her with cruel words, shouldn’t he think of himself as “disgusting” too? Pot calling the kettle black? lol. His behavior, however, tells me that, in his mind, his cruel rejection was totally justified. He tolerated the gossips about him being a “dine-and-dash” as long as he didn’t get to see her again in his life.   

However, as far as I know, there had only been three occasions where they drank together.

Episode 1, when they were celebrating her Employee of the Year. After they had that cone fight, she didn’t look disgusting at all. In fact, he thought that her situation was truly pitiful.

Episode 2, after the sagwa/apple incident. She wasn’t “disgusting” this time either. In fact, he pitied her because she was so down on herself.

And Episode 3, when he popped the balloon. There was no way she looked disgusting to her then. He admired her body gags and he studied the pic he took of her when she slipped on the railing and got stuck. lol. Of course, he didn’t see her make a fool of herself with Dr. Ye afterwards i.e., calling herself “pretty” and telling Dr. Ye about the YeLine. Now THAT would have been considered disgusting. 😂

This leaves me to wonder what the heck he was talking about BoYoung showing her true “DISGUSTING” self while she was drunk.

He could only have been referring to another incident – an incident we know nothing of.  Perhaps BoYoung was drunk and she said some thing that made him doubt her kindness and sincerity. That would certainly disgust him to discover that she was faking her liking for him.

That’s why this moment at the beach is significant to me. He was seeing her pretty side again. When he said, “Yes, really pretty,” I think he was coming around to his original perception of her as a “cool person.”

Have to work now. Will edit this later.

Edited to add my view on BoYoung’s “disgusting” real self. lol.