Paperclip and a poster named “MinHoYoung silent reader” weighed in on BoYoung’s “disgusting” side which I brought up here:

 

 

Paperclip said this:

Going back to the time when Minho and Boyoung were in college. To the time between the wrist grab and the rejection. Is it possible that Minho heard a rumour about Boyoung? Something that made him think her “disgusting”. That’s a harsh word he used. Did he maybe hear she was.. a gold digger?? After which he rejects her saying they are too different and not compatible (because they come from different social structures?) Then in the present day he tells her you better not like me and is so relieved that she doesn’t like him. However this time he is far away from the rumours and he clearly comes to see her genuine goodness . But then she goes and falls for the star doctor in the department. Blinded by his jealousy, he falls back on old judgements he passed calling her “repeat offender” and “ex convict” like she had some pattern. But again he din’t have to look too hard to see that her affections came without strings. Falling for her all over again.
This may be could be what happened? What do you think Packmule3?

“MinHoYoung silent reader” (I’ll abbreviate to MSR) wrote this:

“I just got that idea, I don’t know if it has been shared elsewhere, could you give me your insights about it ?
What if while being drunk BoYoung talked about her half-brother with MinHo ? She didn’t like him and couldn’t accept him as a member of her family. It must have hurt MinHo, who was rejected by hiw own family.

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I’ll admit that MSR’s suggestion crossed my mind too when I watched Episode 6 “Family.” But since her brother wasn’t mentioned again in the story, I filed that theory away.

I told MSR that BoYoung’s attitude toward her younger brother was uncharacteristically unkind and it might bite her in the ass later. If BoYoung revealed THAT side of her to MH (while complaining about her monetary woes and how she was forced to work because of her younger brother and so on…), MH would think that she wasn’t all THAT great.

However, I’ve been leaning towards the “gold-digger” for the following reasons.

1. It was alluded to in that same episode when MinHo stared at BoYoung rushing off to help the grandma with the cart. He said to himself, “She’s pretending to be kind again. Cry Baby Bo Young has no problem looking good in front of me.”

His random comment occurred in Episode 4, entitled, “Standing Close.” Earlier in that episode, Dr. Park scolded him for forgetting to sterilize a tool.

DP: Don’t you want to get a good performance score? If you get a good score, you can become an intern here. With your qualifications, you’d be lucky to have a job here!
MH: (bowing low) I’ll do it right now.
DP: Wow, that punk. Should I just kick his ass right now?
DK: Gosh, do you want to do that? Do you want to scold a trainee who doesn’t know anything? Don’t let your feelings control you.
DP: When did I do that? Why is he acting like that anyway? How will he get a job like that?
NW: He’ll probably get a job at his father’s hospital. His father is the director of the 10-hospital chain, Cheer Up Hospital.
DK: Oh my goodness. Really?
DP: Then he’s practically the heir of a conglomerate. I’m so jealous. I’m so jealous of MinHo.
DK: Me too. I knew he looked too laid back. I can see why he doesn’t care what performance score he gets.
DP: Hold on. That Doctor Woo was very ambitious. How could she make moves on a hospital director’s son? Geez, she was just asking for it.
DK: I’ll kill you.

See? Even Dr. Park thought it was disgusting that BoYoung would make the moves on a rich kid like MinHo. 😂

It isn’t farfetched to suspect that MinHo thought that she had helped him because she wanted to get close to him as he was rich. And I’m guessing that his misperception occurred one time in college, when BoYoung was drunk. She could have shouted something like “Do you think I’m pretty? Do you think I’m cool? How do you like my poetry? Hurray! I’m on the Minho Line!” or something just as dumb. 😂🤔😂

He would consider that kind of behavior “disgusting” because he needed to be liked for himself. If there was no sincerity in BoYoung’s acts of kindness towards him, then that would explain why he adamantly told NamWon that he and Boyoung would never get along and that he didn’t care if they were enemies forever.

With that comment of his, one would think that HE was the one who was dumped and got hurt, instead of Boyoung herself. 😆

It’s clear that MinHo downplayed his family wealth. He was friends with NamWon who did NOT want charity or handouts from him. He hadn’t bragged about his family’s hospitals to his colleagues. And except for the apple incident, he wasn’t uppity; he didn’t think that the jobs assigned to him were too menial for an “heir apparent of a hospital conglomerate.” When Dr. Park scolded him, he didn’t bristle in indignation and he didn’t flaunt his family connections to demean Dr. Park. MinHo tolerated Dr. Park, and didn’t look down on him.

An aside: His reaction to annoyances must be compared with Dr. Ye’s response to his colleagues’ fawning over him. True, Dr. Park WAS being obsequious and asking Dr. Ye’s salary WAS rude, but I didn’t expect him to fight rudeness with rudeness himself. I wasn’t impressed with his pettiness.

Besides, he too was rude – and unprofessional – when he asked MinHo about his grade and announced it to all and sundry. In that incident, MinHo proved to be a better man. He steely told Dr. Ye that he couldn’t divulge such confidential information. Of course, MinHo was right. When he does it, it’s adultery. When I do it, it’s romance.

2. BoYoung had complained to MinHo about her lack of money. In Episode 6, on their way to Anseong, they had this conversation:

BY: How could a rich boy like you understand my life of living paycheck to paycheck.
MH: Yeah, I don’t want to know.
BY: I wouldn’t either. I wish I had everything in the world so I could live with a happy attitude. (If I did, I wouldn’t have had to ask money from Dr. Ye.)

This could be misinterpreted as BoYoung being greedy. MinHo didn’t hear her inner monologue, saying that she didn’t want to ask money from Dr. Ye, and MinHo didn’t know that she did so only for her mother.

3. Lastly, there was also this BIG hint in the poem in Episode 2, “Every Moment Is Like a Flower Bud”. The poem talked about regrets for not cherishing a lost person and not treasuring a lost moment. We naturally assumed that the poem referred to MinHo who was regretting his rejection of BoYoung who could have the gold mine in his life.

However, I’m going to turn this poem upside down and take it out of context. See what happens when I do this:    

Every Moment is Like a Flower Bud
by Jung Hyun Jong

At times, I regret it.

What happened back then might have a gold mine

That person back then,
And that object back then

Could have been a gold mine.

See that? lol. The words “gold mine” were used in the poetry.

If we hadn’t been convinced from the start of BoYoung’s good character, this montage could be reinterpreted,and be seen as BoYoung pondering over their college days – that the lost opportunity was a “gold mine” and that the person back then aka MinHo was a “gold mine.” Basically, BoYoung is a gold digger. 😈

To continue with the poem –

I should’ve gotten closer to you
And talked to you more

I should have listened to you more
And loved you more

Do you see it now? IN A DIFFERENT CONTEXT, the poem could be seen as a poem about a gold digger, BoYoung, who regretted not exploiting the opportunities she once had within reach. She should have listened to MinHo more, should have talked to him more, should have paid him MORE attention, should have faked her kindness more.

I wonder if I sent you off
As if I was hard of hearing

As if I was absent-minded
I should have loved those moments more.

Every moment is like a flower bud.
A flower bud that blooms when I’m eager

Do you see now how this poem could be perverted to be seen in a different light, from a gold digger’s perspective? 🙂

And from a gold digger’s perspective, when Boyoung mused, “Every moment is like a flower bud, a flower bud that blooms when I’m eager,” it could be interpreted as her regret that she didn’t take advantage of her relationship with a rich boy by trying to look better and more “eager” in his eyes.

So that’s how I think MinHo mistakenly perceived BoYoung’s kindness and sincerity in college. Something happened that changed his good perception of her and prompted him to dump her. Cruelly.

Neat, huh?