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Although this kdrama has been accused of using too many tropes, there’s one that I’m glad it eschewed — the “Love at First Sight” cliché.

I’ve written about this topic in my review of the recently concluded Devilish Joy and I’ll reprise it here.

To me, love at first sight is more a PSYCHOLOGICAL phenomenon than an emotional one, in the sense that falling in love at first sight involves MEMORY BIAS.

When two people meet each other for the first time, they can feel a spark, a frisson of excitement. This kind of sudden attraction is NOT rare.

Contrary to romanticists, it can actually happen any time — and every time — you encounter a handsome stranger who exchanges glances with you. You’re thrilled that you’ve been singled out.

For example, when you happen to notice the guy across you from the grocery aisle staring at you while holding a can of Campbell Mushroom soup (lol, this happened to me). Or when you get on a crowded bus and a guy suddenly offers you his seat and smiles at you. Or when you enter your Engineering 101 class and you’re the only girl there, but your seatmate studiously avoids looking your way. For one reason or another, you become aware of one particular person in a crowd and vice versa.

That’s not love. lol.

However, what makes you think that you’ve fallen in love at first sight is you REARRANGING your memories of that earliest encounter into a positive light AFTER the event. Weeks, months or perhaps even years after that first encounter, you’ll recall that event and review it as “love at first sight” IF and ONLY IF you’re in a stable relationship with the guy.

If nothing happened at all after the first encounter, you won’t be looking at that singular moment as “love at first sight” at all. It’ll be a non-event. If something tragic happened after that first encounter, you’ll curse that encounter as the beginning of the end or your “road to ruin.”

Do you see what I mean?

In hindsight, you’re looking back at the first contact, and unconsciously painting it a rosy picture and giving it a halo effect BECAUSE something romantic has happened after that. That’s “love at first sight.” It’s a memory bias.

But shhh…don’t tell your boyfriend or your husband that. 

In the kdrama Devilish Joy showcased the conventional notion of “love at first sight.” Two characters meet and boom! they fall instantly in love. In this kdrama, however, the writer avoided that. In fact, when the two paths of WH and YJ crossed, she didn’t even notice him passing by. lol.

BTW, in case you missed it, the writer gave us a foreshadowing from the beginning. The title of YJ’s movie for which she won best actress award is, “My Best Love is Yet to Come.” Clever, ain’t it?

The three people here in the audience watching her — I predict that they are the people she’ll be grateful to. For the heartaches, for the companionship, for the guidance. They led her on her way to WH.

To continue…

He glanced at her. He must have noticed either her beauty or her interaction with her ex. And walking out of that airport, he would have noticed all the posters. He had one poster with his name on it, but he couldn’t have missed all those posters carried by Yoon Yoo Jung’s fans and the ruckus that they were making.

Even if he wasn’t able to connect YJ to her screaming mob, he recognized his patient’s boyfriend as the guy cavorting with another girl earlier. His mother gave his name away as the actor Hwang JaeMin.

Then later when the young student patient cited her “unnie Yoon Yoo Jeung” as her role model, he should have remembered the name on the posters if he’d been paying any attention. 

He didn’t expect that he would cross her path again for the second time that day only a few hours after he encountered her at the airport.

When he was told that she was a patient in his clinic, he was probably surprised at the coincidence. He was doubly surprised to discover that she was a good person.

WH: Don’t calculate Patient Seo Eun Byul’s treatment cost. I’ll take care of it.
Nurse: Her payments have already been taken care of. Actress Yoon YooJung —
WH: Yoon YooJung?
Nurse: Do you not know who actress YYJ is? You don’t know the national fairy, the queen of romcom?
WH: She must be such a great person if it’s weird that I don’t know her.

🙂 The translation here is odd. He just meant that if the nurse was shocked that YJ’s name was unfamiliar to him, then YYJ must be a VIP or a very important person indeed

Nurse: She even got an award at an international film festival this year (showing him a news announcement, “YYJ wins the best lead actress award”)

Here, he finally had a visual confirmation of YJ’s identity.

Nurse: She overheard that someone had to go home to get their wallet because they forgot it in the chaos and said that she would help.
WH: That’s something to be grateful for. You said her name is Yoon YooJung, right? Give her the special mask. Definitely.

YYJ was unlike the Wannabe Wife who insisted on being seen when there was a burn patient needed his medical attention. We know this trope: Selfish 2nd lead vs Angelic 1st lead and I know some of us wished that the writer didn’t use this. However, to someone like WH, the innate character mattered because he was in search of a good person.

The point here is: before they actually met, he already knew of her as a good and generous person. He wasn’t looking for “love at first sight.”

Meanwhile, in the case of YJ, she didn’t know it but she too was searching for a good person, too. She overheard WH’s conversation with his colleague regarding treatment of a patient and she admired his trustworthiness.

When they met outside the convenience store, he definitely had an advantage. He knew who she was although he feigned ignorance. He knew that 1) she was a famous actress and 2) she was her patient at his hospital. He was pulling her leg.

Yah! He had a flashback of the article his nurse had shown him.

YJ: I’ll apologize sincerely once again. If you want compensation, I’ll do it for you no matter what.
WH: Well, forget the compensation. But what kind of mix up could you make that you get in someone else’s car and lock the doors?
YJ: Like I said earlier, the car model and even the color is the same as the car I took to get here. So I made a mistake. I’m sorry. (she bows in apology and he simply sighs) You must have been really surprised. Meeting someone you only see on-screen.
WJ: (here he goes. he’s teasing her.) Someone you see on-screen?
YJ: (she’s startled that he doesn’t recognize her) You don’t know me? (he shakes his head)
YJ: (spotting a poster of herself) Over there! (she walks to the poster, primps herself and strikes a pose) See?
WH: (again, he messes around) A singer? Ah! You’re a singer!
YJ: A singer? No, not a singer.

Then, the boyfriend arrived and WH again got visual confirmation that this boyfriend was the one he’d seen at the airport parking garage. He knew then that that guy was cheating on YJ.

He continued to pretend the fool. When she offered to give him about 50 autographs as a compensation for troubling him with his car, he declined saying, “What would I do with autographs from someone I don’t know?”

hahaha. And her face fell.

I love that he snubbed her and that her vanity was pricked. He didn’t want her signature!! He then casually dismissed her, “You seem to be quite a famous person. You should go before people recognize you.” She looked confused because she didn’t expect that. “Am I really allowed to go?” He nodded so she bowed again, apologized and thanked him before leaving.

Back in his car, though, he expressed his regrets. He admitted that he’d wanted to meet her because “she seemed like a good person.” But somehow their first meeting fell short of the good first impression he wanted to make. What with his nosebleed and all!

See that? Their first real encounter was anything but “love at first sight.” They were caught up in an unfortunate encounter which left him cringing at their misunderstanding and her baffled by his reaction.

She didn’t know that they were already linked by fate (and the paparazzo’s camera of course) in a strange way.

But the third time’s a charm, as they say, and their third encounter proved to be the turning point.

When she woke up after her drunken confession, she couldn’t believe that she encountered the same guy again.

He was teasing her when he came out with her cellphone:

WH: Are you looking for this?
JY: (bowing) We meet again. (she reaches for her phone but he puts it out of her grasp)
WH: Do you remember me?
JY: Right? I guess I do. How strange. You’re the one from that time outside the convenience store, right?

 

Do you know why he was smirking here? I think he thought this was some sort of cosmic justice because LAST TIME they met he looked like a clown with a tissue up his bloody nose. This time, however, she was the one who looked like a clown. pwahahaha.

Scary clown face. 

WH: You weren’t in the middle of running away, were you?
JY: No, I’m not someone who doesn’t have manners. (lol. YEH is so cute here. Of course, she was lying but she was denying it so convincingly.)

WH: Ah, is that so. (and he’s PRETENDING too that he believed her.) I guess those manners went on vacation yesterday since they were nowhere to be seen.
JY: Yesterday? (he nodded) I don’t remember anything about yesterday.
WH: You don’t remember anything about yesterday?

lol. To me, it’s sounds scarier when somebody just parrots your words in that deathly calm voice. Just shout at me and get this over and done with!

JY: No.
WH: And you have no idea how you ended up like this either?

Stop it with the interrogation and that fake smile, WooHyun! You’re scary. 

JY: Yes. I had no idea. Haha.
WH: In that case, I left some evidence. Well, once you check these and remember, erase them yourself. There are photos, and there are videos. Which ones do you want to start with?
JY: (shocked) What photos? What videos? (covering her chest)
WH: (he scoffed) The kind of photos and videos that show what kind of chaos you created bursting into my home, I guess?
JY: So this, I don’t know if this makes sense. But just like lat time when the cars were the same. It’s the same house! And even the passcode is the same. I just punched it in. (her voice faltering) And it just opened so I came in.
WH: The person who used to live here moved out yesterday and I moved in yesterday.
JY: Hwang JaeMin moved out? That scumbag.

It was only after the finished breakfast did the conversation turn to looking for good people.

JY: I can’t stand being indebted. I’ll return the favor, for sure. (remember what I said about reciprocity?)
WH: There is no need. (they sipped coffee) What if I brag about having a celebrity friend? What if I contact you to ask for compensation? Aren’t you worried about those things?
JY: Even though I’m not good at knowing whether a man is good, I’m pretty good at knowing when a person is good. (they smiled at each other)
WH: From now on, you should check if a man is good by checking first to see if he’s a good person. After he passes, then go on a date with him.

Funnily enough, she heeded this sound advice when she entered the Contract Dating with him. She knew he was a good person before she started going out with him.

JY: That would do the trick! Thanks for letting me know. Now that you know who I am, why didn’t you contact my agency so that they could take me back?
WH: I did call the agency, but no one picked up. There were so many reporters outside that I couldn’t carry out someone who was drunk.
JY: I see. (he wasn’t rash and he was discreet)
WH: Aren’t you scared of me, Yoon YooJung?
JY: The way you talk is cold, but your eyes look kind and warm, too. I’m an actress. By looking at someone’s eyes, I can read at least half of their mind, and what they want to say. Aren’t I amazing? I also put my heart and the things I want to say in my eyes.
WH: You should have properly read Hwang JaeMin’s heart in his gaze.
JY: That would have been better. I was so blinded by love that I couldn’t read it well. So I wrote and read it the way I wanted, and that’s how I ended up here.

To me, the importance of this conversation is WH learned that JY was similar to his mother. She got hurt because she fell easily in love and couldn’t blame anybody else but herself for not being “smarter.”  However, WH also knew that she wasn’t a bad person at heart. Just a vulnerable one.

Later on, he admitted that he had been treating her gently the whole time.

WH: I’m Cha WooHyun.
JY: (shocked) Director Cha WooHyun, dermatologist at Beautiful Dermatology?
WH: Yes. (he nodded. He didn’t know that she knew of him, too. His nurse was going to introduce her to him earlier)
JY: You gave me the special mask for paying for the emergency care patient. The opinionated and handsome doctor who said not to do the laser treatment for the skin cancer patient. Wooow. (offering her hand) Nice to meet you, Director Cha WooHyun. (she was fawning over him, lol)

WH: (he gripped her hand tightly) I took it easy on you yesterday because you’re a patient of mine. I’m very weak when it comes to my patients, you see, Miss Yoon YooJung. (then he twisted her hand)

And they laughed together.

And that’s why I found this kromcom refreshing, despite the boiler plate villains, illegitimate children, and 1st world problems. It didn’t try to sell me a ridiculous “love at first sight” tripe. Instead, it showed me a likely encounter of one man, burnt for life by his fickle mother, and one woman, burnt by a cheating boyfriend. Both of them were in search for a good person to love from the “ashes” of broken trust. They became friends first, and lovers after.

credit: coffeeanddramas’ tumblr