I like the pacing of the story. Situ Mo is slowly distancing herself from Fu Pei but she isn’t rebounding with Gu Weiyi.

Highlights for me:

1. Her reflections on her dying relationship with Fu Pei

I like her metaphor on glass. I thought she captured succinctly Fu Pei’s inattention and her weariness.

“Every glassware will have a warning sticker on the packaging. Please handle with care. But not everyone will take heed. They assume that glass won’t be broken easily. ‘It’s alright.’ ‘It was okay in the past.’ However, when they open the packaging, they’ll find the glass has broken. What can we do? We have to throw it away.”

Plus, I think this picture of her squatting in front of the broken glass is a fitting image of her relationship. You see, Fu Pei acted as if he did a lot of caring for her when all she did was sit and wait for him while he ignored her and broke her heart.

Did you notice that?

She was sitting down most of the time he’d hurt her.

Literally.

Waiting for him to notice that she’s hurt on the ground

Waiting for him to sit with her and give her support during her interview

Waiting for him at the bus stop because he promised to accompany her

Waiting for him to realize that he left her by herself to get her prescription drugs

Waiting for him to recognize her as his special someone

Waiting for him to announce to their schoolmates that they were dating

So, it was fitting that as she was sitting down too as she surveyed their broken relationship and said goodbye to waiting for Fu Pei.

I also like her metaphor on kites although I was applauding WeiYi no-nonsense approach to her sentimentality.

WY: Are you okay?
Mo: Some people are just like a kite. They keep flying up once the string is held securely in someone’s hand. They never think that the person holding the string might get tired, and that the person is only holding on because it’s hard to release the string.

WeiYi lights up the string so it breaks.

WY: It’s not hard this way.
Mo: Gu WeiYi. It’s not easy for me to fly it up. I want to kill you.
WY: Calm down.
Mo: I’ll kill you.

I like that Situ Mo has been reflecting on her past relationship with Fu Pei, going forward. As she said in Episode 1, she and Fu Pei were always on different wavelengths and she shouldn’t expect more.

And now, she’s accepted that it simply isn’t meant to be. She’s getting her closure.

The day at the beach is just what she needed to clear her mind. With the sky above, the sea in front, the sand below, fresh air all around, and Gu WeiYi beside her,  it’s easy to begin again.

All she needs now is a little bit of Taylor Swift music, and she’s all set. hahaha. (There’s always a Taylor Swift music for every relationship problems.)

 

2. His separation anxiety

I find it ironic that all the while Gu WeiYi’s encouraging Situ Mo to cut ties with that no-good Fu Pei, he’s right there tying her up with his own strings.

He doesn’t want to let her go.

WY: Situ Mo
Mo: What’s wrong?
WY: You can’t leave.

He invents his reasons.

First, she has to clean up the house first.

He reminded me of Cinderella’s bad stepmother who wouldn’t allow her to leave for the ball unless she cleaned up the whole manor.

Then, she has to remove the stickers on the wall without destroying the paint.

And if she destroys the wall paint, he wants her to fix, too.  Hahaha. I guess he’s never heard of these wall stickers. The adhesives won’t peel off the paint.

Then, he wants her to unclog the shower drain.

And wait for the plumber to come the next day.

Then, that night he creates another list of rationales for staying in his apartment.

Drain clogged
Her mother won’t let her move out
Closer to internship
Horror film (probably he’ll say that she can watch horror films all the time)
Ghost at home (?? Will he say that he’s scared to be by himself)
House on fire (?? Is he going to say that he needs her to prevent fires??)
Thief breaks in (?? Huh? He’s scared in case there’s a thief who breaks in when he’s not home?)

Of course, the last three are ridiculous propositions so he crosses them off.

We see his anxiety whenever he jumps up to follow her.

We saw it first in Episode 4 when she spun around to get his blanket from her room. He was about to follow her, too.

In this Episode 7, we see it when she opens the front door to leave. He’s walking to call her back.

Then, when she suddenly stands up to cook noodles for them, he’s about to stand up too and catch her.

The following day, when the plumber arrives to fix the bathroom drain, he’s listening at the door for her movement. Remember: he told her that she could leave when the plumber arrived.  But as soon as she calls out that she’s leaving, he rushes out and goes to her room to check if she left him for good.

He smiles when he sees her Doraemon suitcase is still in her bedroom.

3. His smiles

One thing I like about this episode is that he’s smiling more now that she’s around him.  His smiles are hard not to notice.

For instance, he smiles because she agrees to wait for the plumber.

He smiles because she’s going to go to store with him.

He smiles because she’s happy that he ate the sweet food she offered him (although he said he didn’t like “sweets”).

She’s so happy to try out free samples that he just has to smile.

Later, a saleslady tries to convince them to buy a Virtual Assistant device that manages all the robotic household machines, and “has a special function. It can mimic emotional functions. It would chat with you when you’re bored.” Situ Mo ignores the lady but Gu WeiYi’s interested in the gadget.

He says, “It can chat with me!” Situ Mo snaps, “I can do that as well. Let’s go.” And he smiles.

And I’m sure he’s hiding a smile when he manages to fluster her about the condom.

Link: Put Your Head on My Shoulder: Ep 7 Bubblegum Flavor

To me, his smiles are important NOT because they’re swoon-worthy (although that helps, lol) but because they demonstrate her impact on him.  She isn’t even aware of it; she makes him smile so effortlessly.

4. Rebound love

If this was real life, I would be very concerned that Situ Mo might just be using Gu WeiYi for a “rebound love.”

Ideally, she should be spending more time after her “break-up” in reflection so she could process her emotions and begin a new relationship with a better awareness of what went wrong and how to avoid recurrence. However, I think it’s stupid to quarantine herself for emotional entanglements when a loving and healthy relationship with the Right Guy (cough. cough. Gu WeiYi. cough) was waiting to heal her.

But yes, I’ve been looking at signs that Situ Mo is falling in love with our guy, and not just seeing him as a stopgap for Fu Pei. At the moment, she sees him merely as the guy (or some kind of a friend) whom her mother forced her to cohabit with. She finds him fascinating but I don’t think it’s at a romantic level yet.

And she doesn’t suspect at all that WeiYi likes her.

Mo: Why do you want me to stay here?
WY: (he pauses) I’m afraid of your mother.
Mo: I understand you. I got it.

And also this:

Mo: That rectangular paper (he avoids her look) Are you listening to me?
WY: Yeah.
Mo: Give me the contract my mom sent you
WY: I didn’t take it.
Mo: Where is it? I can’t find it.
WY: I don’t know.
Mo: You didn’t take it?
WY: Why should I?
Mo: That’s true. You won’t be so bored as to keep it to help my mom threaten me.
WY: I won’t.

That’s why she can tease him about the condom.

And she doesn’t view their interaction as a courtship.

Meng Lu’s boyfriend does this for her.

Gu WeiYi does the same thing for her, but she doesn’t attach any significance to it.

Meng Lu does this to her boyfriend.

And Gu WeiYi stares at her.

I had to laugh.

It’s kinda obvious what he’s thinking. He’s remembering this:

And waiting to see if Situ Mo will also feed him.

He’ll have to wait for Episode 8.

See here? Intentionally, he makes her feed him.

Gotta go. Will edit later.