Just in time for tomorrow’s show. I heard this kdrama has been extended. I hope the writer won’t fill the extra episodes with fluff.

1. The murder suspect

The writer did a good job throwing viewers off the scent in these episodes and showing Dongbaek’s mother as a suspect. It started with the Police Chief who said that he had a grandmother with dementia and she looked very different from Dongbaek’s mother. What he meant was Dongbaek’s mother was very helpful around the house, and at the bar, unlike his grandmother.

Later, the mother showed interest in Dongbaek’s bank statement. Studying the deposits and withdrawals, she asked DB, “Is this your life insurance?” Dongbaek talked her into leaving because she wouldn’t have a good luck if she stayed around.

DB: Nothing good will happen if you stay with me. The three of us will suffer together. Wouldn’t it be better for you to suffer alone in peace?
Mom: You cause trouble if you suffer alone. A fool will think of foolish things. And a bad person will only think of bad things. If you suffer all alone, become angry and desperate, monsters can pop out of the mirror.
DB: You’re scaring me. What are you saying?

But no, she isn’t the killer. Even if it turns out that her dementia is all faked, she can’t be the murderer because she wasn’t at the bar when Yongsik was painting the wall and discovered the Joker’s message.

The murderer is Hongsik. As I said before, he was with Yongsik when Yongsik was painting the wall. He delivered the paint, and Yongsik was waiting for him to offer his help. Instead, he sat watching Yongsik paint while he played with the lighter under the table.

The captain is right that Yongsik had his work cut out for him. Not only did he have to list as suspects all the customers at the bar that night, but he also had to list down all the people who knew that the CCTV was installed.

Hongsik had been with him all the time as they bought the CCTV from Hongsik’s father’s hardware store. Yongsik remembered being irritated with Hongsik because he apologized politely to the Mr No for having to put nails into the wall. Then, the two of them passed by Yongsik’s mom and the alley ahjummas. His mom was upset that he was installing a CCTV at Camellia’s but not at their crab restaurant. She was going to disinherit Yongsik. Then, they encountered Mrs No hanging outside Camellia. Ha! Now that she knew that Dongbaek wasn’t her husband’s mistress, she was looking for a place to drink and probably confide in.

When they entered the bar, they saw JR.

In the 33 minutes that elapsed between buying the CCTV and arriving at the bar, he encountered: Hongsik, the rice cake lady, Jungi’s dad, Jungi’s mom, his mom, Dongbaek’s mom, Kang JongRyul, Hyangmi and Dongbaek.

Hongsik was the constant.

2. “I am the lynx in this area.”

DB insisted that she wasn’t rattled by the writing on the wall and that she was fine going home on her own. But she became unnerved when had to walk through a dark tunnel with a drunkard. It was a good thing that YS disobeyed her request to stay at the bar and paint the wall, and followed her home.

On the way, YS noticed her clenched fist and uncurled her fingers. Wiping her palms, he said that she clenched her fists so hard that they become sweaty. He started talking about this legendary street fighter, Sirasoni, who never achieved great power because he had no supporters. She was like Sirasoni but with one supporter, him, who can be relied on to come to her aid.

This is one of the unique traits of YS. In every episode, he’d spout a weird trivia and relate it DB’s case. In Episode 7, for instance, it was about food. After she had that heart-to-heart conversation with his mom, YS asked her out.

YS: Well, do you want to go have some dumplings with me? As they say, you can’t do anything if you don’t eat. Your heart and intestines are only a handspan apart, so you need to fill up your stomach when you’re upset. That fills you up emotionally as well, and…
DB: Okay, let’s go. Let’s go for some dumplings.

lol. THAT was a weird pick-up line but oh well… it worked.

BTW, I googled this: Sirasoni is the moniker for Yi Sung Sun, a gangster in the 1940s. Sirasoni means lynx. It looks like a bobcat.

I think the title came from this moment. The title of the show is “I am the lynx in this area.” I’m guessing it means something like “Don’t mess with me. I’m the Godfather in this area.”

At first glance, it appeared like YS was a tough person who could handle this renewed threat from the Joker. But at the end of the episode, she broke down. She was worried now because she had Pilgu to worry about. She confessed, “To be honest, I don’t have any guts, and I’m not strong, either. Do you know what a loser I am? Yesterday, I thought the same thing that I thought five years ago. ‘Why me? Why me again? Why does it have to be me again?’ I just want to live a normal life with Pilgu. Is that too much to ask? I’m not a hero. I’ve absolutely nothing. I’m just really exhausted. I think I tried too hard. I can’t do this anymore. I don’t need to pretend like I’m okay, right? It’s okay if I just run away, right?”

YS knelt before her and said, “Yes, of course. That’s okay. Dongbaek, it’s okay.” She answered, “Yongsik, I’m done pretending like I’m okay. I don’t want to be Sirasoni. I just want to hide. I just want to… I want to leave Ongsan.”

I think they’ll eventually separate and lose contact. You see, if that had been Dongbaek’s body, even if her face had been unrecognizable, he would have been able to identify her by the clothes she was wearing. He should have remembered the clothes that she wore on the day that she disappeared.

If they were living apart, however, and had lost contact, then he would have no idea. There might even be a chance that he didn’t know that she’d gone missing, until the unknown body, which looked similar to DB’s figure, surfaced and he was contacted.

She was right to feel afraid. The fire at the elementary baseball clubhouse was arson. There was sawdust, thinner and disposable lighter found at the place. Mr. No had a purple lighter just like that green lighter but the kleptomaniac Hyangmi pocketed it (Episode 1 at 49:45).

To me, the real street fighter aka Sirasoni here isn’t Dongbaek but Hyangmi. She’s the one with morals of alley cat.

3. Hyangmi

Between Dongbaek and Hyangmi, I can see why more people prefer to see Hyangmi dead. She’s vile.

Of anybody there in that alley, she’s the one who demonstrates psychopathic tendencies.

She accidentally met Mrs. No at the motel Hyangmi had forced Mr. No to rent for her. She shamelessly greeted Mrs. No, acting as if they knew each other. Mrs. No didn’t recognize her. But she wanted to be recognized. She wanted Mrs. No to feel stupid later on when Mrs. No realized who really she was later on. Mrs. No tried to end their uncomfortable chitchat so she could go on her investigation.

No: It looks like you were on your way out.
HM: So I should go on my way?
No: Yes, sure.
HM: Everyone always say I should just go on my way. They must all think I’m on the sidelines. It makes me want to do bad things.

Psycho.

She extorted money from Mr. No. I think Mr. No is a scum, but at this point, she’s the bigger scumbag. In the beginning, it was hilarious to watch Mr. No get his comeuppance. But now, she was psycho. She wanted to drive him to the edge to get money to fly to Copenhagen.

Did she pull off wings of the dragonflies when she was young?

That’s why I like that JR was onto her and put her in place. She saw him outside and tried to blackmail him with a picture of him grabbing the wrist of Dongbaek. She had no loyalty to her friend Dongbaek as long as she could blackmail JR.

If you have friends like this, who needs enemies?

4. Their kind of romance 

They finally discussed what kind of love affair they’ll have. She admitted that she liked him but they couldn’t have a relationship.

DB: I’m not going to have a relationship.
YS: What?
DB: Now that everything’s out in the open, let me tell you exactly what’s going on so that you don’t overreact. I do care about you but it’s not like I’m so crazy about you that I’m willing to ignore what Mrs. Kwak (his mom) Pilgu and everyone else thinks. And I don’t want things to get that messy anyway.
YS: What is that messy? Love is like fire.
DB: No! I don’t want that. Well, as you know, I’ve been in that kind of love. And I lost. I’m not young and I’m not alone, so I have to earn money. I can’t shove everything aside and get all lovey-dovey. I really can’t do that. Find someone else if you want some kind of passionate relationship. I’m not doing it.

I’m glad they had this conversation. They were at different stages in their lives and their expectations of their romance and its ending would naturally be different. So, although I’m running out patience with Dongbaek’s “blow hot, blow cold” attitude, this uncertainty had to be dealt with.

YS: You’re pushing me away again. Let’s drop it. Why don’t we just eat these dumplings.

He started stuffing his mouth with dumplings. I guess this was to stop him from saying anything.

DB: Yongsik. Steam is all you need to cook dumplings, you know. You don’t have to boil them to cook them.
YS: Right. (mumbling)
DB: Forget fire. Why don’t we just take it slow and be warm together? (YS looked stunned) You can love like fire, but it’s all over when you break up. I’ve had to say goodbye to my mom, as well as to that guy (meaning, JR). If I’ve to go through that again… Gosh, I can’t do it. Then, I’ll really be knocked-out.

lol. He started chewing fast then swallowed. He couldn’t talk when his mouth was stuffed.

The funny thing about these kdramas is the unusual metaphors about love. I never thought of love compared to steam. It’s always been associated with fire.  But I get it. Steaming means there’s no agitation or upheaval. Unlike with fire, it means that the “ingredients” or the lovers aren’t changed into something they aren’t; they retain themselves. Also unlike with fire, it means handling people gently, with more care.

Ha! I’m going to look at dumplings differently from now on.

YS: (stuttering) So you’re saying… I mean, you want us to do something together, right?
DB: Yes. Let’s us… let’s see how things go.* I want to be warm for a long time.

He looked like he was about to cry, but she warned him that she’d take back what she said if she cried.

*According to the translation in Netflix, she said, “let’s see how things go.” But I think I heard the word, “some.” She wanted a SOME relationship.

A “some” relationship is an undefined relationship. There’s definitely something going on between two people (hence, the word “some”) but what it exactly is, is still unsettled.

Here’s the song that popularized that “some” relationship.

The girl here is the actress in “He’s Psychometric” – the sunflower unnie who died.