Displacement.

What to do when you’re guilty of crushing on your best friend’s husband? 🤩🤨

You can daydream about the next best scenario. Your daughter who’s your mini-Me can walk down the aisle with your best friend’s son who looks just like her husband. 👰🤵

KkyutNyo displaced her unacceptable and “traitorous” feelings onto a more acceptable substitute.

Transference.

In Episode 9, WonDeuk asked her whether she lied about his promise under the cherry blossom tree. He needed to know because back then, her words had made an indelible impression on him. But now he couldn’t trust her anymore.

HS: No. We had never met before. I saw you for the first time that day.
WD: Then when you said I feel for you at first sight and followed you around and that I asked to get married under cherry blossom trees were you lying then?
HS: Yeah
WD: If that’s so, who did you share those memories with? Is that the real WonDeuk?
HS: No, I just… made it up.
WD: Which parts did you make up? Tell me in details.
HS: I’m sorry. I was wrong. I’ll apologize.

Back in Episode 4, the addition of WonDeuk in her life reminded HongShim of somebody who used to be important in her childhood days. WonDeuk was the man she married, but from the beginning, somebody else had promised to make her his wife when they grew up: her first love, the young boy, Lee Yul.

So in Episode 4, HongShim unconsciously transferred her emotions from her “first love” to WonDeuk and bestowed upon WonDeuk NOT ONLY traits which originally belonged to her “first love” (that is, being a “man of his words”) BUT ALSO her sincere wish for him to uphold the memory of her “first love.”

Anyway, as I already explained Hongshim’s lie in detail in another post, I’ll copy and paste it here for easy reading — before I discuss dependability.

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HS: Your head may not remember but you subconsciously do. (She pointed at the cherry blossom tree.) Those flowers. (He turned to look at them.) These are my favorite flowers. That’s why you planted them here. (She was trying to counter HIS arguments that he wasn’t WonDeuk by telling him that only WonDeuk would have known about her flowers.)

HS: You pinky-promised me like this (She matched actions with words) that you’d make sure I lived a life of luxury. (She was making this up and piling it on to make her story convincing.) And that you’d do anything for me if I just married you.
WD: I did? Why would I make such a promise to you.

She looked confusedly at him then she dropped their pinky-promise. She looked sad. This was when TRANSFERENCE happened. She was remembering that precious encounter when she was a child, and projecting her memories onto WonDeuk.

HS: (She was staring at him but NOT really seeing him) Because you loved me. (He stared back at her.)

She looked away and gazed up at the cherry blossom tree as she continued talking.

HS: On a night when the cherry blossom petals were falling, you said to me (and she looked back at him) that you liked me. And you asked me to marry you. That’s why I waited for you despite having to endure 100 lashes from the paddle.

At this instance, she was talking to that boy she met at the forest. She was imagining the conversation she would have had with that boy, had he been actually standing in front of her, instead of this useless, lazy fool.

HS: But… (she looked down then back at him) if you act like this now, what am I supposed to do? (She bit her lips.) You have to keep your promise because you’re a man. Because the man I loved was a man of his word.

They stared at each other. There was no way that WonDeuk/Lee Yul could have ignored the sincerity in her words. On her part, HongShim was sincerely expressing herself. She was speaking with that lazy, good-for-nothing WonDeuk BUT her voice and manner of delivery lacked that usual impatience and insolence.

It was as if she was talking to that young boy in her memories and urging him to behave better and to act like man that she has long loved. This is reminiscent of that scene when she called him “fool” but tenderly patted his head because he finished reading the book. He had the ability to make her overlook his silliness.

So, for me, this confusing monologue of HongShim was her airing her repressed grievances against Lee Yul for not coming back to her as he had promised. Her “lie” to WonDeuk contained her most honest thoughts about Lee Yul. She had to hold onto her belief that THAT young boy would have kept his promise and returned to her side, had he known where she was. Otherwise, waiting for him and enduring hardship were all for naught.

Now, she wanted WonDeuk to uphold her memory of THAT young boy.

*****************

Dependability.

Now, after their time together, WonDeuk was transformed into a “man of his words.” To her, he’d become a dependable man.

She trusted him when he told her in the previous episode, “I’ll stay by your side forever, so don’t worry. I won’t go anywhere without you. Because I’m your husband.”

However, when he said that he’d be back,

she secretly feared that he would abandon her for good once he found out his real identity.

Hearing from GoDol that he stayed behind in Hanyang seemed to confirm her fears. She was steeling herself for a heartache.

But he proved himself to be a dependable man after all. He was a man of his words.

She didn’t know it then but the promise made during the petal showers many years had already been kept.