Extra-ordinary You: On Haru’s Character

Here are my notes on Haru’s Character as of Episode 4 (or shows 1 to 8). Feel free to disregard my theories. 🙂

1. He’s the one who created the blackhole. I said that in my “First Impressions.”

2. He came looking for Eun DanOh. She was the only one who experienced that spatial distortion in Episode 1.

3. He comes from the time in Korean history when the monarchy existed, most likely the Joseon period because beautiful people come from the era, not the Goryu era. lol.

I said the books on the shelves are noteworthy. There was one “Pride and Prejudice,” but duplicate copies of an Encyclopedia and “Contemporary Residence in a Historical.” I believe the missing word is “setting,” and the complete title is “Contemporary Residences in a Historical SETTING.”

That’s why he’s interested in drawing different buildings. They’re contemporary buildings in a historical setting.

4. Because he’s from a different era, he can understand this book.

But, if ever he’s the writer of “Secret,” then he can’t read English books.

And he can’t tell a soccer ball from basketball. lol.

5. The reason he didn’t answer when Eun DanOh talked to him in the beginning was because he was still getting accustomed to “contemporary” language after the time leap.

6. Because he’s from another time, he doesn’t know that the dating culture, like the guy must offer his jacket to the girl should she mention feeling cold.

7. He’s unaccustomed to pointing at people.

8. Unlike the “shadows” of most other characters in the manhwa, his shadow and Squid Guy’s shadow, have sparkly, floating items at night. My guess is this signifies that their shadows have an additional magical elements not found in the shadows of other characters like the bullies, NamJoo, and JooDa. Even Lee DoHwa who’s self-aware doesn’t have floating items in his shadow.

This can also mean that Squid Guy and Haru have a special power to manipulate the fate of DanOh.

9. He created this space for her, and he was testing her if she’d remember.

That’s why he asked if she knew the name of the flowers.

And if she knew the place.

He’s probably hoping that she’d remember something of their past, because he remembers.

10. The following day, he visited the palace with DanOh and was startled when she said it looked familiar, she must have been a princess in her previous life. She probably was in another lifetime.

I’ll add more when I see more noteworthy things about Haru.

22 Comments On “Extra-ordinary You: On Haru’s Character”

  1. Yeah, your guess is correct from the very little I read. But if you think Joseon guys are better looking than Goryeo guys, or ancient Silla guys for that matter, you didnt watch Scarlet Heart Ryeo or Hwarang.lol. But I hate those top knots and hats of the Joseon era. Few men look good in them.

    I wonder if Haru and Dan-oh’s story is a knock off of The Princess’s Man (a series I never finished). The reason I say this is based on when I first got into kdramas. The most popular lists always had Boys Over Flowers and The Princess’s Man at the top back then. I think it would be funny if Haru was the main lead of that series, but met the guy from Queen Inhuyun’s Man, realized time travel or book travel was a thing and blasted through to get his girl. Lol.

    I love the black hole behind the bookshelf. I think something like this must predate Haru cause I think Squid Fairy came through. But perhaps each has their own version of a wrinkle in time, space and fiction.

  2. Now all we need is for Ma Hoon to walk through that black hole from the Flower Crew universe, thereby ditching GD and move in here with DanOh. And we can have our very own happy ever after… the Matchmaker meets his match… couldn’t have written it better if I tried 😂

  3. I’m not sure if DanOh will be too much for MaHoon 😛

    I’m sure Haru is from another story! In the later episode he holds this book called Flower, which I believe is the comic he is from. The question lies in how did DanOh get into this story: Secret? Is that a secret no one is to know or a secret that should be kept from DanOh. I keep wondering why the story is called Secret, it’s like it intentionally has a secret in the story. The main character’s story does not sound too secretive.

  4. Oh? There’s a book called Flower?! What episode? I’ll see if I can get there tonight. This week’s episodes?

  5. Yeah, Mi Chae is reading the book Flower in episode 6 (11-12). Haru and Mi Chae have a conversation in the kitchen and he’s reading this book.

  6. Yeah, that’s my understanding too, that Flower was their book. I’d like to see the whole series so we know who else was recycled. I think Do Hwa and Juda might have been a side character romance!

  7. Thanks! Is there only a single copy of this book “Flower”? How come we haven’t seen DanOh hasn’t accidentally stumbled on it.

    Wait a second…if “Flower” is Haru and DanOh’s book, then whose book is “Secret”? It can’t be NamJoo and JooDo’s book because their love affair hasn’t been a secret in ages.

    In my view, “Secret” is fast turning into another Haru and DanOh’s book. It’s THEIR sequel, and they’re the leading couple again or the “Secret” and hidden leading couple. NamJoo and JooDo could just be the set-up romance, the fake romance, with all the fake sunlight/spotlight on them.

    Hmmm…that will explain why the REAL spotlight and sunlight — as I’ve insisted all along — have been on Haru and DanOh. For a supposed minor character in the manhwa, DanOh’s heart condition is getting a lot of attention and “stages” in the manhwa, especially when we see Baek Kyung torturing her because of it. Those scenes are “extra” scenes. Why are we even getting “stage” scene of DanOh and Baek Kyung’s arranged family dinner when she’s only an extra? What about the spotlight on JooDo’s impoverished family or something? 🙂

    This reminds me of the Cheese in the Trap hullabaloo. The main couple were relegated to the sidelines, and the secondary couple, Seo Kang Joon and the piano received more playing time. pwahahaha.

  8. Exactly! The main characters’ story isn’t secret. The secret is with Haru and DanOh’s relationship.

    DanOh is the Gaeddong I’ve been looking for. Even her crying scene wasn’t over the top. I loved it when she told Haru that she thought it would be him who’d change her fate. She had every right to be angry but she didn’t scream at him. Gong Seong Yeon would have YELLED out her lines during that scene….she always did that in Flower Crew… when she could be emoting a different feeling had she used a softer voice.

    The actress in Extra-ordinary You did the beach scene very well. She understood her character. And she came out more pathetic and relatable (instead of makjang and over-the-top) because she expressed her hurt, betrayed feelings in a more dignified and subdued manner.

    So yes, I’m shipping the actors playing DanOh and MaHoon if they were in a drama together. They would have been well-matched.

  9. I really felt for DanOh at that scene at the beach after the whole going into the water thing. :’(

    You know after watching Kdramas, and being spoiled by so many good actors + beautiful cinematography, I can’t watch other dramas…or I have become more aware about the skill of a good actor. Actually GSY’s Gaeddong in flower crew was the first actress I have watched that I found it hard to continue watching, if not for the story and KMJ.

  10. Yes the actress who plays DanOh (Kim HyeYoon) is brilliant. First encountered her in Sky Castle and she shone there too. She understands that less is more. You have to balance the 2 extremes well. GSY just goes overboard in most of her scenes…she’s at fortissimo most times and she hasn’t mastered the subtle art of moving into crescendo gradually from pianissimo. How she acts is therefore very unnatural and hence unconvincing. She doesn’t give the audience a chance to “rest” and just ease their way into her character. She shouts at us all the time. It’s jarring. 🙄. I will see if I can play catch up once Flower Crew is done and speed through the episodes of Extraordinary You.

  11. Good! I”ll wait for you to catch up. I’m going slow anyway because of the World series. My Nats won again last night 🙂

    And Viki hasn’t subbed Ep 12 of Flower Crew.

  12. The last few episodes are quite sad, but honestly saved by the actress because she does loss and grief very well. I’ve totally bought every scene.

    Squid Fairy – is he a Lucifer knock-off? The secret book is highly reminiscent of forbidden knowledge that will make you self-aware and self-‘conscious’, and Squid Fairy’s got a curious push me pull me thing going on between warning and temptation. If the writer is creator goddess, we do need our Adam and Eve in their (trumpet creeper) garden, trees (or leaves, book leaves) of life and knowledge, a serpent/angel (sqid/fairy), a fall – or a ‘fortunate fall’ as some would have it, and ejection from the garden. We’ve actually got the entire allegory, or close to it, in Extraordinary You, with our first (written) man and woman – Haru and Dan Oh – recycling their story over and over again.

  13. “ Squid Fairy – is he a Lucifer knock-off?”

    I am completely getting that vibe so far. Slightly devious, not fully telling you the whole truth. Taunting. Dangling the carrot to move from light (stage) to the dark (shadows). What bothers me is that he gives them (DanOh and DoHwa) enough to keep them curious, but not the full picture. What happens when you do become fully “self aware”. Is there a consequence? What lies beyond Eden (stage/light) may not be as wonderful as he’s allowed DanOh to believe? I am up to Ep 7/8 (Ep 4 if you count hourly).

  14. And if Squid Fairy is the Serpent, then Haru is giving me all the messianic vibes so far. Voiceless – like a lamb to the slaughter. Scar on his hand 🖐. He stacks the rocks to grant her the wish to live on.

  15. I thought of that too but so far I’m just getting Adam vibes. Follows his woman. We’ve even got the temptation guilt thing happening. She’s all it’s my fault, but we wonder about Haru being responsible, or the Squid Fairy. Age old debate:Who is responsible for the Fall: God/writer, for leaving the trees/books in plain sight, Lucifer for tempting Eve with knowledge, Eve for being tempted, or Adam for following Eve. I say it’s a group project but you can ignore me.

    Perhaps a messiah shows up to save Dan Oh from dying or restore her to the garden. I’d say this would likely need to be the writer him/herself or an avatar of the writer as a webtoon character.

    As for the stage/shadow divide: in Paradise Lost, the main tension between Lucifer/God is free will versus obedience. The Stage is Obedience to the Writer’s Will, so God’s territory but it’s hellish for the self-aware. The Shadow is Free Will so Lucifer’s territory but hellish with doubt, self-knowledge, guilt, etc.

    I have to say I’m enjoying the writer’s take on it. I compared it to The Matrix as well, which was almost a clinic in post-modern thought but then transformed into the same Christian allegory with the intro of The Architect. (Which is one reason why critics turned on it in the later films).

  16. The other thing that pushes me to think of Squid as the Lucifer equivalent is that despite him obviously being “self aware” with the ability to read all the comics, he is unable to change things. He can “tempt” and act as an independent agent but he can’t write the stories. And he makes no attempt to change them either. He just warns, advises but the characters themselves are still fully responsible for their individual actions. Lucifer is the angel of light. It seems fitting that Squid has bleach blonde hair. 😂 I am not sure how much of this is me just making it up so the plot fits this thought process. I guess we’ll see as more of it is revealed. As for Haru… first Adam is Adam of Genesis – who became a living being. Christ was seen as the last Adam – life giving spirit. (1Cor.15:45). Haru may be the confluence of both.

    The writer is clever. Acting has been stellar. I hope it’s sustainable to the end.

    Also did you catch the monologue where DanOh asks if a romance novel can turn into a sad story (I forget her actual words)? When she learnt of her impending death? I thought it was ominous. Foreshadowing maybe? Maybe not hers, but that of another character.

  17. I dont think either of us is making it up. My first thought when I saw Squid Fairy with his blond hair was Light Yagami, another Lucifer-based character. Light’s an iconic manga character (from Death Note) and in a Kdrama gone meta with iconic kdramas like Boys Over Flowers, it’s not really a stretch to think he might be a manga inspiration for a manwha character who wandered off course. Yagami’s first name might be Light (Lucifer means ‘light-bringer’) but his last name means “night god”.

    And Haru’s name means Day.

    Intriguing anyway.

    If Secret was the Tree of Knowledge, is Trumpet Flower the Tree of Life? Because we have Dan Oh’s death always hovering over and simmering under the story.

    Eps 11 and 12 are quite sad. The situation resolves but I think it’s going to turn sadder as they try to deal with Dan Oh’s impending death. That’s the impetus for our own story-line: how can Dan Oh cheat fate?

  18. Actually my fear is that in attempting to exercise her “freedom” to rewrite her “fate”, DanOh is actually doing herself a disservice. It’s only in the ManHwa world that you can have happy ever afters? It may be saccharine sweet and over the top but it’s predictable? Her life threatening heart illness can miraculously be cured in the stage setting but less so in the shadow setting? Maybe that’s why Squid keeps telling Haru that his job is to “stop” DanOh.

  19. “ In my view, “Secret” is fast turning into another Haru and DanOh’s book. It’s THEIR sequel, and they’re the leading couple again or the “Secret” and hidden leading couple. NamJoo and JooDo could just be the set-up romance, the fake romance, with all the fake sunlight/spotlight on them.”

    This is the vibe I am getting. The scenes between the scenes in Flower and Secret are intersecting. In Flower, DanOh and Haru are the main characters. In Secret, they started off being extras. Haru didn’t even have a name. But inadvertently (?) DanOh named this extra character #13 (I wonder if it’s a play on 13. In the Chinese when you say 13 with a slight variance tonally it means “always alive”). He ends up being a character in the comic Secret (now even with his own face). I feel like Ep 10 at the party when they are trying to hook JooDa up with DoHwa was when they rewrote all those pages…that’s why the Ep has those comic pages intermittently appearing after each scene plays out. Haru makes the ultimate sacrifice by rescuing her from the swimming pool. And then he disappears. But not before he makes this declaration before Squid Fairy, “I want a different fate for my character too. I don’t want to be an extra that can vanish whenever the writer feels like it. I decided to be the only person who can change someone’s fate. If there’s no answer as to how I came to this world, I will make my own answer.” That to me is the key. He had no beginning. So chances are he will have no end. He resurrected and penned himself back into the story. He became the writer? That would make sense as to why he can draw so well. All ManHwa writers draw well? There was also a weird “glitch” that I noticed when DO was in the hospital (stage) with her dad. He asked her what she wanted and she said, “I wish to get married tomorrow.” Then she gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth as if to say why did I say that? And the scene replayed again, this time she said, “In my next lifetime I want to be your daughter”. That little slip up was strange because it was weird given the context of the setting? She was in hospital, sick and thinking of impending death so the latter statement would’ve made sense not the former? Was that a scene from Flower? Squid Fairy did say in an earlier episode that the only way an extra could escape their fate was if they became a main character? Something to that effect. Haru is attempting to do just that I think. I get the feeling somehow they (DO and Haru) had unfinished business in Flower?

  20. There is something to the glitches, particularly the marriage line. It comes up again in the last episodes, where it’s a stage line with Kyung and their families. I’ve been trying to make sense of it. Hopefully you and Pkm3 will catch up this week and can figure it out for me! 🙂

    I did mention earlier somewhere about his drawing and being possibly a writer avatar. I think it could be cool if in this webtoon world he was writing a webtoon of his own and all the self-aware characters escape into it!

  21. I think I see DanOh and modern Mahoon here….
    https://www.instagram.com/p/B4FdrLSJW3v/?igshid=165gol0nxf2qd

    I also have a feeling that DanOh and Haru has unfinished business in Flower and I wonder if DO got moved to Secret or did she escape into Secret…and Haru went looking for her in Secret.
    Could Haru be from Joseon period in Flower? Will it mean that he had the skill to paint, draw, play music really skilfully and why isn’t DanOh doing so if she was from there?

  22. That’s a good question,@Grace, one at the root of the difference with Haru’s character. Dan Oh was literally overwritten by the Writer with her Secret character. Haru, on the other hand, as a nameless, faceless extra, was never overwritten with a history, situation, relationship chart, motive, etc. The extra was kind of a blank template that could be overwritten at will, so either Haru or Dan Oh overwrote it with his Secret character,or the Writer did, or someone playing tricks.

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