Good things come to those who wait. 😂 Thanks for being patient.

I’m getting confused between hour-long episodes and the half-hour long episodes so for the purposes of this blog, I’ll call the hour-long shows *episodes* and the half-hour shows *chapters* until I find a better term for the segments.

4. The importance of names

Naming Haru was a milestone in their DanOh and Haru’s relationship. In school, their literature teacher read a line from the famous poem, “Flower” by Kim Chun-su, to underscore the moment.

In Chapter #5, at 11:18, he explained, “’When I called their name, they came to me and became a flower.’ They became a flower. How did this happen? What did they go through? Name. It’s because they were called a name. According to this, calling out a name means that a wish was embedded into it. Therefore, becoming a flower means that their relationship was fulfilled.”

Here’s the poem he was discussing. Don’t be deceived by its simplicity.

Flower
by Kim Chun-su

Until I spoke his name,
he had been
no more than a mere gesture.

When I spoke his name,
he came to me
and became a flower.

Now speak my name,
one fitting this color and odor of mine,
as I spoke his name,
so that I may go to him
and become his flower.

We all wish
to become something.
You to me and I to you
wish to become an unforgettable vision.

source: Korea Joongang Daily This is a good read if you want to know more about the poet.

For DanOh and Haru, calling each other by name meant they became real to that person. If you think about this for a minute, speaking their names, whether their actual or invented name, is an intimate act.

In DanOh’s case, she was giving Haru a name to represent her deepest wish to be freed from her “set-up.” In the manhwa, she was only a terminally-ill girl with an 10-year-old unrequited love. Haru was the personification of her wish to change her pathetic fate, little by little, step by step, day by day. His name Haru means day.

As for Haru, calling Eun DanOh by name was to acknowledge that she was someone significant to him. He’d been drawing her face from the beginning, sometimes in the dark, sometimes during the day, but always from his memory.

And the funny thing was, everytime she sought his company and talked to him, he pretended not to know her. So to finally call her by name meant that he was done with his secrecy. He was revealing that he’d never forgotten her even in the shadow.

That’s why their calling their names was important. They became real to each other. Haru was no longer just a nameless face; he was special to DanOh. And DanOh was no longer just an “extra” serving the main characters; she was special to Haru.

🙂

But for the Squid guy, calling Haru by name was a terrible thing.

DanOh: Oh, there was one weird thing that happened though. Maybe it’s because I was tired from traveling with Ha Ru.
Squid: Ha Ru?
DanOh: Yes! If I’m with Ha Ru, the continuity really does change, even though you may not believe me.
Squid: You gave him a name, didn’t you? Do you know what it means to call him by his name? You’re a supporting character.
DanOh: I know. So what?
Squid: Supporting characters should exist for the main characters.
DanOh: I did support them a lot before coming back.
Squid: When something that was originally supposed to just exist is given a name, and moves around, everything will go wrong. Leave.

To the Squid guy, Haru should have remained nameless because he was designed to live anonymously.  The Squid guy was concerned about the *punitive* aspect of breaking the rule of the manhwa world. If extras like DanOh dared to aspire for something not intended for them by the writer, there would be bad consequences. Sure enough, DanOh lost her childhood memories of her mother’s garden and her front-yard swing because of her greed to give Haru a name. Not only that, she blamed her “greed” as well for causing Haru’s head injury. Kyung pushed him against the bookshelf and the books fell on Haru’s head. She vowed to the Squid guy that she’d never speak to Haru again to spare him.

In my opinion, however, she was attributing Haru’s injury to the wrong person; it wasn’t the writer’s fault. It was Newton’s fault, lol, and his Third Law of Motion. It states that, “to every action there’s always an opposite and equal reaction.”

Haru didn’t receive the head scratch because DanOh gave him a name. No. Haru got injured because of Kyung’s jealousy. After giving Haru a name at the class beach trip, they naturally became closer and friendlier. Kyung became jealous when he saw them playing with their hands in the sunlight.

But this jealousy was pretty much what DanOh exhibited when she saw NamJoo and JooDa bathed in sunlight, too. She thought it was unfair that the writer only focused the spotlight on Jooda. To add injury to insult, her classmates gathered around NamJoo’s drawing of JooDa and they all ignored her. So she tried to get the attention back on her with her ridiculous poses until she knocked down a bust. She then hurled a bust in anger.

Kyung’s attack on Haru wasn’t instigated by the writer. Kyung’s reaction was triggered by his jealousy at the sight of DanOh paying attention to Haru, like DanOh’s envy was triggered by all the attention showered on Jooda. He threw Haru against the shelf, like DanOh threw the bust to the ground.

To me, the two scenes are similar but, because of the Squid guy’s warning and power of suggestion, DanOh suddenly became scared of hurting Haru because of the writer’s retaliation and/or cosmic bad karma.

DanOh missed the point that when she moved from being an “extra” whose existence has no bearing on the plot, to a significant character, her actions will have an impact, both good and bad, on the direction of the “stage.”  The “extra” DanOh can have her tantrum deleted and expunged from the manhwa because she isn’t relevant. But the self-aware and independent DanOh can’t.

Shemust learn that forming relationship with Haru entails taking responsibility for any and all consequences, too.

5. The flower

These are my notes on the flower.

a) Haru and DanOh both got hurt around the flower arbor. Haru scratched the back of his hand. Probably from touching the flower.

And DanOh tripped and bruised her knee. She bruised the same knee that she scratched when she fell down the stairs.

What does this mean? I don’t know, to be honest. The flower can’t be an evil omen, can it?

But after they bandaged each other in the clinic, she told him, “Number 13. Be sure to remember me next time. My name is Eun DanOh. Eun Dan Oh.” The camera switched to show the flowers after that.

This obviously connected to the poem. “When I spoke his name, he came to me
and became a flower.” She wanted him to call her name. She’d go to him and become a flower.

Note: He touched his bleeding forehead with scarred hand. To me this is the writer’s foreshadowing that in the previous lifetime/manhwa, he was injured because of her.

b) The flower of July–Chinese trumpet creeper’s legend.

http://mokajing.blogspot.com/2009/07/flower-of-july-chinese-trumpet-creepers.html

This article was written in 2009 so it was’t reinterpreted by fangirls to fit their agenda…err…ship.

c) the keychain should be returned to Haru. I know that “possession is 9/10ths of the law,” meaning the individual in actual possession of the item in dispute is presumed to be its rightful owner unless proven otherwise. (😂 That’s enough legalese for the day.)

The original flower keychain belonged to Haru. The new keychain was chosen by DanOh. She was shopping with Bestie.

Her image here is similar to the picture made by Haru.

Noteworthy 1: Her conversation with her Bestie was a foreshadowing

Bestie: Omo, omo.You’re trying to give Baek Kyung a gift? Baek Kyung should count his blessings. There is no one as faithful as our DanOh when it comes to love.
DanOh: Faithful?

And she smiled.

She didn’t realize that she was going to give this as a gift to Kyung on “stage.” She didn’t want to but she couldn’t stop her feet. And neither did Kyung want the gift. He held it out to her, asking, “Are you telling me to use such a thing?” He then dropped it to grind it into the ground. Their kind-hearted but misguided friend DoHwan returned it to him.

Noteworthy 2: DanOh actually didn’t get to touch the heirloom ornament. Haru dropped it when he felt pain from the scar on his hand. She was about to pick it up when she was teleported to her “stage” at the train station. She and Haru were separated by a crowd of students, and he could only stare at her intently. On board the train, she stared at the window because she could see Haru’s reflection on it. Meanwhile, Haru was stared at her reflection then drew her name on the glass.

So this picture of DanOh holding the ornament was only in Haru’s imagination (or adaptation of a memory??)

 

6. The change in Haru

There was something about the keychain and her sketch that changed Haru.

You see, he suddenly stopped drawing.

It was as if he had a flash of thought and consulted the book “Secret.” He flipped to the page where DanOh gave the keychain to Kyung and Kyung rejected it.

He then looked at his sketch and remembered how he held the ornament in his hand and showed it DanOh.

And he had a moment of revelation. He realized that the sketch he drew was different from the manhwa,

And he closed the manhwa.

He looked at his sketch before tearing the page from his artist’s drawing book. He folded it carelessly then stood up.

His actions should tell us that he saw something he didn’t find acceptable in both the manhwa and his sketch.

The following day he went in search of Kyung. He passed by two classmates, carrying a water cooler. He offered to put it away. When they protested because it was their job to put it away, he replied, “People don’t care about extra characters anyway.” The classmates wondered who he was.

Inside the gym, he made a beeline for Kyung. He saved Kyung from getting hit by a fast basketball and coolly saying, “You almost got hurt.” Kyung stared at him wonderingly.

Kyung: You’re a funny guy.
Haru: Where is it? (Kyung didn’t know what he was talking about) The keychain that Eun Dan Oh gave you?
Kyung: Why are you looking for that?
Haru: Because I need it.
Kyung: I threw it away.

He turned to leave.

Kyung: Who are you? Who are you that you keep showing up in front of me.
Haru: Ha Ru.
Kyung: What?
Haru: My name is Ha Ru.

Meanwhile, in the library, Haru’s sketches were sweeping into the room and disrupting the Squid fairy from his manhwa. He decided to investigate and saw that they were all drawings of DanOh. He followed the paper trail into a room wall-papered with her portraits.

This is how I interpret the sequence of events.

Haru was angered by what he read in the manhwa but I think he was angrier at his sketch because he tore it off and folded it away. For some unknown reason, he didn’t like what he saw in BOTH the manhwa and his sketch.

And he quickly moved into action to CHANGE the story.

Instead of being satisfied staying in the background as an extra, he deliberately called attention to his existence by offering to put away the cooler by himself. His statement about “extras” was full of resentment.

Next, he saved Kyung from the ball. But he pointed out that Kyung was going to get hurt. What he meant was he didn’t save him out of pleasure. His quick reflex saved Kyung because he was merely an “extra” whose job was to save the main characters like Kyung from exactly this kind of danger.

He was also rude about asking for the keychain. He needed it, he said. He sounded like he had the right to keep the keychain, that is, more right than Kyung, the fiance.

Then, when Kyung asked for his name, he proudly and almost defiantly said his name. “My name is Ha Ru.” It was the name chosen for him by DanOh and he was proud of it. This was different from the first time they met in the library and Kyung asked who he was. That time, he had no name to give Kyung.

To me, Haru became a changed man after he compared the manhwa and the sketch. There was SOMETHING very important about that keychain that made him come out of hiding and fight for DanOh more aggressively.

Just like he didn’t care that he left his classmates wondering who he was, he didn’t care that Kyung was offended by his rudeness when he demanded for the keychain from him.

To me, that’s the reason his sketches blew into the library, in plain view of the Squid guy. He didn’t care anymore to hide his secret drawings of DanOh.

And that would also explain why he showed up at the amphitheater when DanOh and Kyung were fighting. Hmm…I think he was the one who sent the rain; he made it rain so the other students would leave and not witness the scene.

He came to rescue DanOh. He called her by name, “Let’s go, Eun Dan Oh.” When Kyung asked “Who are you?” he answered, “You won’t remember even if tell you. The scene will change soon.” At this point, he didn’t care whether Kyung found out that he’d been living in a manhwa world.

Now, do you know what that SOMETHING is that propelled Haru to take action? Do you want to guess? I believe it’s one word. 😂

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

Faithfulness.

DanOh said it earlier when she and her Bestie was looking at the keychain. DanOh was faithful in love.

The keychain was a symbol of her faithfulness and Haru didn’t want her to give it to Kyung. He wanted to take it back from him before it became permanently his. Once it became Kyung’s, there was no way Haru could get DanOh back because she was a faithful one.

🙂