What I love about these episodes is we’re beginning to see a pattern in their relationship. I’ll limit myself to three, four, hmmm…let’s make it four-and-half ways to be more interesting.

1. An accomplice

She bails him out when he’s in trouble. She ends up being his accomplice in his shenanigans.

How many times did she save skin in these episodes? He’s come to rely on her to bail him out. And unlike that ditzy Haeri Go in “Vagabond” she does it because she keeps her wits about her in dangerous situations.

It started in Episode 1 when he asked her to rescue him from taking a bath with the other widows. That time, she didn’t get his pleas. By Episode 5 though, she can read his mind.

When the female assassin Seok said suspiciously, “We heard a male voice coming from this side,” Nokdu tapped the scratch on DongJu’s ear and silently pleaded with her not to give him away.

Immediately, she gave a cry of pain that sounded decidedly male.

Later, she walked in on him ridiculously hiding himself under dried leaves because he’d just suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.

Again, he pleaded with her to save him.

She told him to call her “noonim” (older sister) and he quickly fell to his knees and begged her.

lol. This is like payback for when they were in jail and she called to him for help. “Hyungnim! Hyungnim! Hyungnim! Hyungnim! Pull me out!” He told her to say please nicely before he tugged her out and freed her from the wooden bars.

But it’s a good thing that grovelling wasn’t something Nokdu considered beneath him because, as soon as he was done calling her noonim,

the widow assassin Seok came looking for Nokdu.

To protect his secret, DongJu led Nokdu out of there. She dragged him to a cliff, and they jumped into the water to escape his pursuers. When Seok and the other widows found them swimming in the creek, our quick-witted DongJu improvised that they were taking a bath together and Nokdu was scrubbing her back. For good measure, she invited the widows to join them bathing, too.

But look! Had the widows really looked at our swimming couple, they’d see that Nokdu and Dongju were still wearing their tops. They couldn’t have been scrubbing each other’s backs.

hahaha.

At the end of Episode 4, Dongju came to Nokdu’s rescue again. She accidentally chanced upon the widow assassin Seok heading toward Nokdu’s location. She turned back to alert Nokdu and his Madam to hide.

Remember now: At this point, Dongju does NOT know a) that the widow Seok is an assassin and b) that Seok sent Nokdu on a mission as part of his initiation into the all-female assassin group. Dongju’s goal is to protect Nokdu’s gender secret. According to her, she doesn’t want it discovered that he’s a man because of the irreparable damage on her reputation as she’s been living with him. lol.

Unfortunately/fortunately, Seok also spotted Dongju from a distance and mistook her for Nokdu. Now, Seok had traveled to Hangyan to save Nokdu’s alter-ego, Lady Kim, from being discovered and captured “her” evil father-in-law. So, when Seok saw Dongju and chased after her, she was only trying to rescue her. She had felt guilty for sending Nokdu on that mission.

After Dongju frantically warned Nokdu of Seok’s unexpected appearance, Nokdu rushed the real Lady Kim to hide in Dongju’s empty ancestral home… and straight into Yulmo’s company.

Uh-oh! By now, Yul-mo will have TWO women in custody who know the truth about Nokdu’s cross-dressing. How will this complicate Nokdu’s existence in the Widow Village? We’ll know by next episode….

Once again, Dongju had to think on her feet. She pushed Nokdu inside the palanquin and joined him inside. Her plan was to exchange clothes so Nokdu’s secret wouldn’t be discovered. But Nokdu wasn’t in on the plan.  Much to his shock, she began to disrobe him.

So that’s how Dongju has saved him in these past two episodes. She helps him whenever he was in a, literally and figuratively speaking, in a tough spot. But in offering her help, she becomes an unwitting accomplice to his subterfuge.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the assistance has only been one-sided. Nokdu, too, has come to her aide in the most consequential way possible. He rescued her from being a gisaeng. He stumbled on her departure from the gisaeng’s house and he knew she was in trouble. Then, without waiting for her to cry out for help, he stepped in to help her out.

So I think they’re even-steven.

2. Nokdu’s “feminine” problem

To Nokdu, his biggest problem is that her female disguise must remain secret while he’s finishing his mission in the Widow Village.

To Dongju, however, his biggest problem is that he’s surrounded by women. That’s his female problem: he’s a chick-magnet.

She started nagging him about women on the very first day after she learned that he was a man. She found him talking to a group of gisaeng and accused him of making a pass at them. She dragged him home, leaving him to explain to the shocked courtesan that Dongju looked after him very well. In the privacy of their room, she accused him of flirting with the courtesans.

DJ: A man dressed up as a woman and making a pass at the courtesans!
ND: Who’s making a pass?
DJ: You’re denying it? Then, what were you doing since early in the morning squeezed in between the courtesans? Does Madam know that you’re a lascivious man?

ND: Lascivious? Hey, we just talked! Can’t I even talk with them? (he denied flirting with them)
DJ: Awww. I see. So if you tell Madam that, she’ll be sure to believe you. Right? (she meant that she was onto him so he couldn’t fool her like he did with the gullible Madam)
ND: My madam isn’t so twisted like someone!

That night after he danced for her at the waterfall, they slept with their wrists bound to each other. She used a long twine to tie him to her so he wouldn’t escape in middle of the night. Nokdu pointed out that it was useless since she wouldn’t know anyway if he’d untie himself. There was a wall divider between them.

Besides he wasn’t interested in women.

ND: I’m not really interested in women. I can’t, and it’s not the time, to either.
DJ: You love your madam that much? (misunderstanding him)
ND: I do. I miss her and I want to meet her. (staring at her silhouette on the wall divider)
DJ: (sighing) Yes. Thank you for sharing with me your ardent speech that I wasn’t even curious in hearing.

lol. Welll, she asked didn’t she?

When she woke up the following morning, she found out that he DID untie himself without her knowledge. He left her a note to tell him where he was. “To the distillery to make wine.”

DongJu must have loved his note too because she was smiling after she read it. She wondered, “What’s his real identity, really?”

Awww… She was wondering how he could talk so ardently about missing his MADAM while simultaneously be so sweet to care enough that SHE didn’t worry about his whereabouts. Which kind of man was he, really?

But the Administrator arrived and reported that there was man harassing the women in the village. He said, “That man! He’s so wicked. I hear he’s so crazy over women that he doesn’t care whether they’re widows or courtesans, and sexually harasses them!”

The Administrator’s report upset DongJu. She thought that he wasn’t only making a pass at courtesans (like she accused him of doing yesterday), but he was also despicably harassing women, both widows and courtesans alike.  She ran down to the village in search of him. As (bad) luck would have it, Nokdu was catching one of the widows/assassins who lost her footing when DongJu arrived in the village. The sight of the Nokdu with a lady in his arms confirmed her worst fears. He was obsessed with women.

I guess, DongJu didn’t hear their conversation. It was actually the woman who tripped  who was fawning over Nokdu.

ND: Are you okay?
Widow: How did you see that I was going to fall? (whacking his chest, flirtatiously) What’s with you? My heart fluttered for a split second. If you had been a man, I would have just…(she leans her head on Nokdu’s shoulder).
ND: Oh. Wait. Wait.

Even the assassin Seok apologized for her fellow assassin’s behavior. “She’s just lonely. So don’t mind her.”

When Dongju came up behind Nokdu, Nokdu knew he was in trouble. They both returned to their room. (They looked like a married couple here; the guy trying to dig himself out of the hole.)

ND: Hey, I know what you must be thinking, but can’t we just talk about this later at night?
DJ: (accusing him without proof) The guy who went into the Widow Village and got chased out, that was you, wasn’t it?
ND: That is… (he couldn’t explain and divulge his mission, of course)

She told him it wouldn’t do any good for him to hide there waiting for his Madam when he was sexually harassing any and all woman in sight. She threw his bag at his feet and told him to leave. Nokdu was hurt by her words.

ND: Hey. Do you really think of me that way?
DJ: Who cares what I think? You’re that kind of guy. And if you’re found, you’re dead.
ND: I got it. I’ll leave.

She walked with him to the bridge. Now, she seemed to regret her words.

DJ: Where will you go?
ND: (sulking) Why do you need to know?
DJ: Don’t do anything dangerous and hide. When Madam comes, I’ll —
ND: Even if something happens to me, pretend you don’t know anything. I’ll also do the same.

lol. So melodramatic! Let me see now. This farewell of theirs should last…let me think…four hours? For four hours, they’d pretend to have forgotten each other. No worries because on their next encounter, he was going to insist on being called “Omoni.”

She stopped him again to wrap a bandage on his self-inflicted wound. She told him to go.

At this time, DongJu’s image of Nokdu was still evolving and easily influenced by outsiders. She only realized that he couldn’t be a harasser when he’d bought her from the Head Gisaeng to become his “daughter”.

ND: What is it now? I mean, are you still worried that I might really be the kind of man that harasses women?
DJ: If that were the case, it would have been better to live as a courtesan house wastrel with that kind of money.

Also, in Episode 4, she called him a romantic. Nokdu had bought her a pair of chicks as some sort of going-away present.

ND: While I’m not around, get along well, the three of you.
DJ: Are you going somewhere?
ND: Ohhh… to Hanyang to see Madam. I’ve an opportunity to see her from afar. Tell the others that I went to see my family.
DJ: What a romantic. Where in Hanyang are you going to see her?
ND: There’s a tavern next to the police bureau in Hanyang. There.

Left behind, she started to grumble how foolish he was to travel all the way to Hanyang just to catch a glimpse of his Madam. She called his action (and him) “ridiculous.”

Her lack of self-awareness is amusing. She didn’t realize that her lame excuse of needing the services of blacksmith in the city in order to follow Nokdu was MORE ridiculous than Nokdu’s reason to visit his Madam for a short time.

Futhermore, her denial that she missed him was deliciously absurd, too.

She easily found the tavern where Nokdu was staying, thanks to his precise description. She claimed to be his sister so she could stay in his room. Seeing that he wasn’t in, she made herself at home, hanging her things on top of his. She suspected that he was out somewhere, “so excited at the thought of seeing his Madam,” and she kicked his small bag out the way in displeasure. It struck her then that he could have already met up with his Madam. She reminded herself that it had nothing to do with her.

And she looked out the window to wait for him.

That night, Nokdu couldn’t believe that she ended up in the same room as he was. Was it by coincidence?

He thought she must have followed him but she insisted that her trip to Hanyang was to see the blacksmith on business. According to her, she had no interest in him whatsoever.

Of course, her dejection when she saw him the following night, hugging the real Lady Kim, belied her words.

In the future, DongJu will have to contend with the various women in Nokdu’s life. There’s his child-bride, for one. And then the strong widows who guard the village have taken a liking to Nokdu. Their leader especially likes to hug him. The real Lady Kim can be bothersome, too, because she relies on Nokdu to solve her affairs.

Last but not the least, there’s the assassin Seok. Impressed with Nokdu’s honor and courage, Seok has come to care for him, too, without realizing that Nokdu is the man she’s been searching to kill.

Here’s a short list of the many women in Nokdu’s life.

So, yes, Nokdu definitely has a colossal headache with women. And DongJu will have to deal with them all in the end.

3. Sleeping together

This is one element of this romcom that I look forward to in each episode because I want to see the progression.

In Episode 1, they slept in the same prison cell. She was disguised as a man. He heard her moaning her mother’s name in her sleep and he patted her back to comfort her. He lent her his outerwear as a blanket and when they woke, they were shocked to see their faces so closed to each other, and their legs entangled.

In Episode 2, they shared a cramped room in the gisaeng’s house. Now, he was disguised as a woman and he was embarrassed at the logistics of undressing in the presence of each other at night.

Then, when she burned her hands, Nokdu had to scratch her back. Her verbal directions, “Harder. A little harder. Oh, that’s it. Right there. Ah! A little bit over. A little bit lower. Oh, that feels good. A little lower. It feels good! A little bit, a little bit lower.”

so flustered him that he stopped and unfurled his bed to go to sleep without a word.

Later, he woke up to Dongju trying to lift his skirts up so she could rub ointment on his burn. He pushed her down and started screeching, “What are you doing? Sinning against God and man! Acting like a fool who’s no better than a beast! Aren’t you afraid of the heavens?”

I think it’s funny that he’s such a prude. It would be fun when they kiss because it’ll be his first time.

In Episode 3, she bound him to her with a rope. There was a divider between them. And they had that pillow talk about his lady love. As I said elsewhere, I love the optics of this whole scene.

But the added delight for me here is the note he left at her breakfast table while he went to work #marriagegoals I would like my daughters to have…if I had daughters. lol.

In Episode 4, they were having pillow talk. She thought nothing awkward about sharing a room with him. She settled herself in before he arrived. And they had a pillow fight before sleeping.

These gifs will explain it.

As I said before, their Tom and Jerry relationship might actually be the perfect one for them.

I look at these bed scenes, not as prelude to sex (ha!), but as a cozy moment for the two of them to become familiar with each other. I look forward to more bed scenes. 🙂

4. The terms of endearment

She’s trying to find a name for him. In Episode 1, she called him Hyungnim.

Then, in Episode 2, she asked permission to call him “Unnie.”

In Episode 3, she wanted to be called “noonim.” Then she teased him that she’d call herself his daughter if he danced well without mistakes.

Then, in Episode 4, they formalized their mother-daugher titles when he adopted her away from the gisaeng’s house.

But we know it’s not going to stop here of course. They’ll probably adopt more petnames for each other until they share their real names.

Names are important but neither of them knows the real name of the other one. They can’t truly say that they know each other well until they have revealed their real names. For DongJu, there’s a psychological trauma that prevents her from divulging her real name. Not only that, no one can know that a member of that family survived the massacre; her name has to be secret. For Nokdu, there’ll be a political upheaval when he finds out his true identity.

So, yes, these terms of endearment will have to work for now. But they can’t truly be a couple until they’ve established their own identities.

4.5 On eating

4.5 Continuation