Perhaps my jerk-radar is off or I’m not in a militant-feminist mode or I’m giving the actor playing JoonYoung (JY) a pass because he’s cute, but I wasn’t ruffled by his demand from YoungJae (YJ) not to shampoo men’s hair at her hair salon.
I viewed his command in the same way that YJ did. It was preposterous, true. But it made JY look endearing to me because it demonstrated how callow and inexperienced he was when it came to girlfriend-boyfriend relationships. That’s why YJ jokingly told him to stop handcuffing female criminal and agreed to a “pinky-swear.” To me, that gesture was fitting for the moment. Only school-age kids believe in pinky-swears, and YJ and JY were promising something that was juvenile and unrealistic.
To me, the serious challenge to their relationship wouldn’t come from their differences in taste and habits, but from their disparate maturity. JY appeared socially awkward and babyish — for a 27-year-old man. By all accounts, he was a capable and mature team leader in the police force. But when it came to love, he was stuck in his late teens. He was an example of arrested development.
Compared to him, YJ was more mature. No doubt their dissimilar family life and upbringing would account for the differences in their maturity. JY lived in a protected environment with parents in the academe and a younger sister who behaved like his noona. Meanwhile, she lived with a burly and loving brother who worked as a day laborer and she began working early as a cosmetologist. She grew up fiercely and proudly independent, our YoungJae.
To me, it takes a lot of composure and restraint to listen to his drunken rant in Episode 3 and NOT cite the extenuating reasons for the breakup. He accused her of being a heartless, horrible woman but she maintained silence. She looked at him, not with resentment, but with indulgence and tolerance. She didn’t defend herself or excuse her actions.
JY: Then why did you do it? (shouting)
YJ: (sighing and not meeting his eyes) I was just… (She looks at him again with a smile) Just because. I had no choice.
This point is easily lost among viewers: she COULD HAVE easily shut him up by telling him that her brother was in the hospital in a terrible accident that night. But she let him GO ON thinking the worse of her. If it weren’t because JY became curious enough about her brother to seek him out, she would have been satisfied with him thinking of her as the villain of his life.
Why?
Because, just like seven years ago, she still didn’t want to burden him with the truth. She probably doubted he could handle the truth. To her, he was still the same young and naive boy.
So this whole episode 4 was for me the calm before the storm. They needed to have this idyllic couple time because the true test of character and maturity would be coming right up. I hope this new guy, the plastic surgeon, would seriously challenge YJ to grow up.
now I’m watching this too aaaand I’ve had lots of fun with these first 4 episodes despite the fact that a show in which the main lead throws up in each and every episode would not normally be my style :)))
To be fair.. that happened only in the first 3, not in the 4th episode
But the characters are nice and quite charming despite being flawed. I liked reading what you said that the title is not necessarily (only) about “third time’s the charm” but that they’re charming in more than one way. They are.
She’s great at smiling through troubles, straightforward and kind. And I loved how cheerful she was on their first date, even more when he entered that drinking contest.
Anyway, it was all fun until the end of this episode.
About JoonYoung’s demand to not wash other men’s hair I had the same reaction as you at first, when he said it. It was childish but endearing. And it was just words said, ridiculous to actually expect her to take them seriously but cute otherwise. He was telling her their moment when she did his hair was special to him.
And yes, her response was fitting for that scene.
But to actually feel cheated on when seeing her cutting and washing another man’s hair (even after closing time).. that was pretty bad.
also I think I heard Gil Ra Im’s ringtone from Secret Garden when they were caught by his parents and he sent her a text.
What’s that? I missed the connection. Tell me! 😂
It WAS 11pm. (I think I saw the clock somewhere.) I’d be suspicious too if my husband had a meeting that late. 😂 But considering that YJ’s workplace was well-lit and all glass, did JY really think she was having a “clandestine” encounter?? What a doofus! And he’s a detective in the special crimes unit, right? 🙂
But let’s wait and see. They have to break up anyway and I want to see the reason.