I know reading my long posts can be tedious because it’s wordy. Although it’s time-consuming, I like to explain the actions and write down the dialogues to show you where I’m coming from when I interpret the drama. Sharing “feelings” is well and good (i.e., oppa’s handsome!) for another sites but here I’d like to understand WHY we feel the way we do with certain scenes, images, characters, lines and ideas.

We appreciate a drama, ballet, opera, painting or even long-winded legal ruling (lol) when we deconstruct their basic elements and composition. When we put them back together again afterwards, we acquire a different perspective, not only of the object we were studying, but also of ourselves.  To get the whole picture, we must see the small pieces.

Okay, where did I leave off last time?

6. Her heartbeat monitor

At home, she looks at the comments on the uploaded video of Kyung’s proposal. They’re mostly disparaging and she deplores her unchanged status. “Why is my one-sided love of 10 years set-up still the same when the story has changed? Why?”

Sigh…I don’t think she understands. Her set-up hasn’t changed but her Stage did. That’s what Haru was trying to tell her earlier. She was back to being Kyung’s woman although she previously broke up with him.

But she sees Haru in the video and zooms in on him. Too bad, of course, that she can’t crop out Kyung from the picture.  Only Haru’s side profile is visible but Kyung is face forward.

She smiles his picture and remembers Haru’s tenderness that day which sets off her heart monitor. She thinks it’s broken. obviously, she’s in denial. She’s beginning to regard Haru as more than a friend but she doesn’t want to admit it.

The following morning, she lectures her heart monitor to be quiet. A mysterious hand reaches out to tug her backpack and she twirls around, almost colliding faces with Haru. He teases her with a “Hi” and her heart begins to pound. Her heart monitor had no choice but to beep again.

Haru immediately apologizes for surprising her.

Haru: I’m sorry. Did I surprise you?
DO: Yes…No! No, it’s… I think this is broken. It’s broken. Yes, it definitely is. (she’s “spanking” her watch for misbehaving and almost revealing her feelings for Haru.)
Haru: Are you sure you’re all right?
DO: Yeah! Of course. Of course, I’m alright.
Haru: (smiling at her) Let’s go.

He walks around her with her backpack in hand.

I love this smile on her.

She realizes that she’s swooning over him and snaps out of it. “Otoke? Eun DanOh! You must be broken.”  Her watch isn’t broken; her heart is  because she’s falling for Haru. When he smiles at her again, she runs to him.

He waits for her to catch up.

And I like this because that’s a repeat of where they left off yesterday. He waited for her to catch up, too.

As they walk down the corridor together, Kyung appears and observes them.

I told you about “Dutch Angles” or slanted shots, right?

For those newbies here: when a director tilts the camera to shoot an image in a slanted or diagonal shot, there’s a purpose. We’re used to seeing images with a level horizontal line so viewing an askew scene gives us an uneasy feeling.

Take for instance this shot. Haru and DanOh look like a boyfriend and a girlfriend walking together to their class.

But this scene looks off. There’s a sense of disequilibrium, and we feel off-kilter, unbalanced.

With this camera angle, the director is hinting that something’s not quite right. That’s there’s an unstable character present or there’s a disturbed emotion raging in Kyung. He doesn’t like Haru and DanOh together.

Later, DanOh confides in her bestie, Saemi, about her feelings, or rather a “friend’s feelings” for a guy. DanOh says her friend is “constantly thinking about this guy and her heart races whenever she’s with him.” Does that mean her friend likes the guy?

Her friend teases her and says the guy is heading their way. DanOh excitedly thinks it’s Haru.

See that? In her mind, Haru’s the guy that she likes. She’s always thinking of him, and her heart monitor is set off when he’s around. Remember when he first walked in front of her at the stairs. Her heart started pounding and her heart monitor went crazy.

She doesn’t feel that way with Kyung…

Warning to the screenwriter:  I’d be pissed off with this screenwriter (not the manhwa writer, but the kdrama writer) should DanOh end up with Kyung, and her sweet memories with Haru recast as her memories with Kyung…like the manhwa writer did with NamJoo in Episode 1.

Don’t do it, screenwriter.

DanOh thinks it’s Haru coming down the hallway and is disappointed to see that it’s Kyung. (Notice? Normal camera view?)

From across the hallway, her bestie teases Kyung and parodies his famous proposal. “Hey, Baek Kyung. Let me make an official announcement. Your one and only girl, Eun DanOh, is here! Over here!” Embarrassed, DanOh runs and hides in the clinic. She pretends to be asleep when Kyung walks in in search for her.

From behind the curtain, Kyung asks if she’s sleeping. When she doesn’t answer, he pulls the curtain and takes a seat beside her. Inwardly, she’s thinking, “Darn it! Please hurry up and go.”

Kyung: Eun DanOh, why am I always worried about you?

She’s surprised at his admission because this isn’t even a stage. He shakes his head and leaves. He pulls the curtain and wonders, “It doesn’t make sense…for me to be with someone like her.”

As soon as he’s gone, she sits up in bed, shocked, “What’s with him?”

Obviously, Kyung likes her more than he lets on. That’s why he’s “always” (quote-unquote) worried about her. He doesn’t think it makes sense for him to like someone like DanOh because she reminds him of his mother who died on him, too.

Second warning to the screenwriter: It’s obvious, too, that the screenwriter is trying to persuade the viewers to empathize with Kyung’s predicament because he’s a lost and tortured boy.  Ugh. This trope of a woman as a “healer” to a tortured male soul is so 1980s.

One of the reasons that “Boys Over Flowers” is anathema to me is the normalization of the jerk because of his redemptive arc. The second reason is that whole absurd notion fed to viewers that a woman’s love will heal all wounds, slow the rise of oceans, end all wars, and warm the tsundere’s heart. Bleagh!! The last reason is the whole psycho-babble about soulmate vs true love.

It wasn’t enough that the male lead gets the girl in the end, but the viewers were introduced to this idea that one’s sweetheart can be a soulmate, first love, last love, true love, fated love, passionate love, and life partner. Viewers had to pigeonhole the male characters into these sub-categories because the writer was trying to justify why an abusive guy should end up as the hero.

Fail. I didn’t buy into any of those.  And if I had a daughter, she would be instructed on how to spot misogyny in romance books and dramas.

I’m glad the screenwriter of this romcom hasn’t yet tried to depict the rivalry between Haru and Kyung as a soulmate vs true love dichotomy. Nor has she/he yet tried to force Kyung on viewers as the endgame for DanOh because he “deserves” happiness after all his misery.

Love shouldn’t be regarded as a consolation prize to the male hero with the saddest “sob story.”

7. Jealous Haru

This is an adorable moment.

DoHwa tells Haru and DanOh that the manhwa world is scary because anything can change on the spur of the moment, at the whim of the writer. “Depending on what the writer intends, the genre can suddenly change from romance to horror. Also, a main character can become an extra in the blink of an eye.”

DanOh and DoHwa move closer to each other to talk while Haru walks away to investigate the piano on stage. She notices DoHwa’s cut lips and asks him if it hurts. DoHwa chides her for being too slow notice it. As DanOh raises her hand to touch his lip, Haru crashes the piano with a discordant chord.

DanOh and DoHwa look up at questioningly. He says, “When one thing changes, other things also change.”

This is cute because it tells me that Haru pays close attention to DoHwa even though he’s a friend. DoHwa just said that a main character can switch role without warning, so Haru’s keeping an eye on him lest he becomes DanOh’s love interest, too, without warning.

And he’s right. When one thing changes, i.e., DanOh shows concern for DoHwa, other things DO change, too, i.e., he becomes jealous.

DoHwa says it drives him crazy not knowing exactly what’s going to change. But there’s one thing that he can be certain about: his feelings for Jooda will be unchanging.  Haru smiles at him when he says that.

But then, DanOh emphatically applauds in agreement. She says, “That’s right! Even the writer can’t change the way we feel!” And suddenly Haru’s mood switches and he bangs the piano again.

Do you know why?

My guess is he’s suddenly reminded of their situation. Just because the writer can’t change their emotions, doesn’t mean the writer won’t try over and over again to force them to change their emotion to MATCH their set-up in the story. And the writer can use a variety of methods and rules to get them to change.

And I think we’re seeing this in Kyung’s change in a bit.

8. Becoming recognized

Then, a strange thing happened after Haru decided to “stand at Eun DanOh’s side.”  Slowly, their classmates recognize Haru. First, he gets invited by NamJoo to replace DoHwa in the A3 group. Then, he earns a perfect score in Chinese but a zero in English. Saemi, the bestie of DanOh teases him as coming from the Joseon era.

lol. Yeaaah. We already know that he’s from a different time. We can tell when he didn’t understand the dating culture, like when a girl says she’s cold, it’s a hint for the boy to offer his jacket.

The weird thing is whenever Haru gains attention, Kyung is pictured observing him from a distance.

At music class, Haru shocks the class by playing a recorder like he was an expert in playing a Korean traditional daegeum. lol. The teacher says he feel the “deep sorrow” in the melody. Ha! We got that foreshadowing, right? He can play a melancholic music because there was a deep sorrow in his past.

Notice Kyung observing him from across the aisle? Yeahhh, the director is pretty subtle (not!) about including this guy in Haru’s frame.

Then, at art class, the art teacher is blown away by Haru’s drawing. She says, “This touch…this texture…” It looks like Chinese calligraphy.

See Kyung again? There he is, keeping an eye on our Haru.

The teacher said that she could hear the flowers cry out, “Save me.” “Please don’t pick me.” Ha! Another foreshadowing, I’m sure. Somebody in his previous life was crying out in the past to rescued.

But what shocks DanOh and Haru in art class is that Saemi and the art teacher remember Haru’s name. When DanOh looks at his nametag, his name has become visible.

At lunchtime, DanOh investigates his nametag. She wonders whether the writer did it or they did. Her close proximity is making him shy and jumpy. Then, just like when he felt her forehead to see if she has a fever, she checks him and remarks that he’s sweating a lot.

When he wipes his sweat, she sees his scar for the first time. He tells her that he’s always had it. Too bad, he doesn’t have time to explain more about it because his adoring fans arrive. DanOh shoos them away like she has the sole right to claim Haru for herself.

The girls left him snacks and they go in search of DoHwa to share their bounty.

Then, they listen to DoHwa’s girl problem and give him advice.

Three things noteworthy about these scenes.

a) it shows that Haru is an accomplished guy, although a bit old-fashioned. Except for sports, his skills and talents seemed to be outdated. lol.

b) it shows DanOh and Haru behaving like a campus sweethearts. I like how easily they fell into the relationship without drama.  And considering that Kyung declared DanOh as “his woman” in that party, DanOh and Haru spends a lot of time together. Nobody questions why the two are always together. I guess, that’s one benefit of dating as extras in the shadows: no one pays attention to them.

c) Haru must have been in pain but he bears it for DanOh. Remember as he changes his fate, the pain in his hand becomes more severe.

9. The 7th preview

I believe all her previews have “trigger words.”

Preview 1 (Ch 1 at 17:26): she was reading books of amnesia shortly before she discovered the manhwa “Secret.” She said her mental state was like amnesia. And she read, “total amnesia, partial amnesia. Partial memory loss?”

Preview 2 (Ch 3 at 26:31): she was cleaning her closet and thinking of her rebirth. The Stage clicked but she warned the writer NOT to interfere. And then she gets the vision.

Preview 3 (Ch 5 at 21:00): she and Dohwa were saying that her backmate could change her fate. She fainted after that.

Preview 4 (Ch 6 at 20:37): her bestie gave her a rock she’s cheering for her love with Baek Kyung. She said she didn’t need it. Her friend said, “Who knows? Maybe your wish will come true.”

Preview 5 (Ch 7 at 2:52): after the destiny stone, she just forbade her bestie, Saemi, from every talking about Baek Kyung.

Preview 6 (Ch 10 at 6:21): she asked Saemi why she liked NamJoo that much. Saemi answered, “Why would there be a reason when we’re meant to be? I just like him.” The trigger words were “meant to be.” She dreamt of NamJoo proposing to Jooda.

Preview 7 (Ch 12 at 9:09): DoHwa said he’d been friend-zoned seven times that day. Haru said that Jooda couldn’t remember anyway. DoHwa replied that he couldn’t help himself because “she’s so pretty I could die.”

In her vision, Baek Kyung stops her to invite her to the movies and she dresses up prettily in pink. She answers the phone while waiting for Kyung in the lobby. She collapses after her vision and Haru catches her.

Haru asked her if Baek Kyung was bothering her again in her vision, and she said no. “It was nicer when he bothered me. Now, he’s acting as if he likes me.”

However, DoHwa congratulated her because finally after 10 years of one-sided love, Kyung was finally paying attention to her. He encouraged her, “Why don’t you give it a try?”  

“Why not give it a try?”

But he spotted Haru’s unhappy face looking at him behind DanOh and he backpedaled.

She looked back at Haru, and agreed that it was too late to reconsider Kyung.

She said that DoHwa made a mistake to suggest it.

Now, remember how Haru banged the piano earlier? He didn’t like what DanOh said.  “That’s right! Even the writer can’t change the way we feel!” I think he doesn’t trust the writer not to manipulate the Stages so that DanOh will be enticed to revert to her original character set up where she’s in love with Kyung for 10 years.

10. On Kyung

Sure enough, Kyung asks her out. Haru witnesses it.

On Stage: 

Kyung: Do you have plans today?
DO: Plans? No, I don’t. Why?
Kyung: Take this.
DO: What’s this?
Kyung: It’s a movie invitation.

Note here: His voice is subdued here. This is unlike him. It’s as if his invitation is sincere. And I think the Manhwa writer is readjusting Kyung’s personality in the manhwa to make him more considerate and kinder to DanOh after his declaration at the NamJoo’s party.

DO: I know it’s a movie invitation.
Kyung: I’m asking you on a date.
DO: (mentally: What the heck is this? face is grimacing)

Kyung: (reading her face) You don’t want to?

This is unusual for Kyung, too. When has he ever consulted her about what she liked or not? And on Stage, too.

DO: No, I’m just a bit worried.
Kyung: About what.
DO: Honestly, I don’t know how you truly feel. You said you didn’t like me because I was ill. I think you only said what you said at NamJoo’s party because I said the engagement was off.
Kyung: Then, should we not go?

What the heck?? When did he become this mellow on a Stage?! Why is he asking for her opinion?

DO: No.
Kyung: Now, the words “break off the engagement” won’t come out of your mouth anymore.
DO: Baek Kyung. (she smiles contently)

And the Stage switches off.

As soon as the stage ends, she scolds him for making her cringe. She tells him she no choice but to go because it’s a Stage, and warns him not to be late. Then, she runs off to Haru.

Meanwhile, he scoffs that it’s a Stage. This is a weird comment, but I’m going to let it pass for now because I haven’t studied Kyung’s character in-depth.

As it turns out, he cancels the date because of an argument with his father. On his Stage with his dad, he puts his foot down on marrying DanOh telling his father that he didn’t want to be exploited anymore for his business purposes. (Ah! So he has a conscience after all even in a Stage setting!) Kyung then calls DanOh and tells her that he isn’t going to the movie theater. He doesn’t want to go anymore so she shouldn’t wait for her.

To me, this is a very peculiar development in Kyung’s Stage personality. I can imagine him developing a conscience in the Shadow, but on Stage?? This means that the manhwa writer is changing his personality in the manhwa to make him kinder and gentler to DanOh.

But why??

I guess I’ll find out in the next episodes, right?

He’s still a bully in the Shadow.  He approaches Haru in the bleachers in the basketball court, and grabs the polaroid from his hand.  Haru was contemplating his disappearing image on the photo when Kyung grabs the pic. Then, just like at NamJoo’s birthday party, he arrogantly taunts Haru, “You must be very interested in Eun Dan Oh. You do know that she’s my fiancee, right? This bastard…This is interesting.” Haru doesn’t say a word to him but simply grabs his picture back from him.

But in the next scene, at the pool side (Ch 12 at 25:27), Kyung shows his thoughtful side during the Stage moment.

DanOh is at the pool, feeling cold. She spots Haru in the distance and waves at him.  Immediately, the Stage turns on and Kyung struts in, like a model, with a towel that he wraps wordlessly around DanOh.

DO: I’ve been looking for you for a long time. Why didn’t you come to the movies yesterday?
KY: Something came up. (note his voice is calm.)
DO: I see.
KY: Why are you here? (again his voice is calm. He sounds concerned.)

DO: Why? I came to see you swim.
KY: Make sure you wrap it around you properly. You might catch a cold.

DanOh nods and the Stage ends. Quickly, she drops his towel to the ground and runs off to Haru.

They both play in the water. DanOh wonders why he’s dressed in uniform. Haru thinks that the writer must’ve made a mistake. She agrees, “The writer can be sloppy at times.”

Then Kyung walks over to the happy couple and kicks the water at them.

I get that he’s jealous but this malicious behavior is inexcusable. As this occurs in the Shadow, his action is on him.

Note: On Stage earlier, he was concerned about DanOh getting cold. But in the Shadow, he soaks her.

DO: What are you doing?
KY: It just looked fun. (and DanOh looks flabbergasted.)
Haru: (Looks at him, then decides to leave quietly without a fight.) Let’s go.

He takes DanOh’s wrist (Do you see that, Kyung apologists? Haru didn’t grab her wrist violently like Kyung does.) and walks away.

Kyung shoves his chest.

KY: Why are you constantly meddling when I’m trying to be with my fiancee? (thumps him on the chest again) Why are you?

He reaches again to thump Haru but Haru throws him into the water.

Kyung gets mad and takes it out on the water. Haru leads DanOh out and another Stage starts quickly. To me, the sudden switch to Stage indicates the manhwa writer’s displeasure with Haru’s interference and decision to make him disappear right away.

DanOh immediately notices that Haru’s name has disappeared on his nametag, and worries. Haru, on the other hand, is staring at her. It’s amazing to think that he must have been in excruciating pain now but he manages to look at her without giving it away.

The fire alarm sounds off and there’s a mad scramble of students leaving the pool. DanOh gets shoved in the water; Haru dives in after and rescues her.  The polaroid falls out of his pocket. When DanOh revives in the hospital, Haru has already disappeared.

Do you see it?

The manhwa writer appears to be “rehabbing” Kyung and to make him less harsh and more caring — at least in the Stages in this Ch 12. But in the Shadow, he’s still the prick that he is because of his jealousy.

11. The movie date

I’m saving this for the last.

Winner: Haru

For showing up at the theater when Kyung stood up DanOh. I like that his first remark was “I found you.” lol. If he went through the black hole in search for her, finding her in a movie house shouldn’t be hard.

DanOh: But why did you come here?
Haru: Baek Kyung was acting a bit weird.
DanOh: He was? Why?
Haru: Just because.

Winner: Haru

For having wide shoulders.

He doesn’t even notice that he’s bumping her.

Winner: Haru

For whispering in her ear in a dark place. lol.

For the innocent babes around here: Whispering often causes “autonomous sensory meridian response” or ASMR, which is a tingling sensation on the back of the neck, and the spine. It’s like frisson or shivering.

Winner: Haru

For sharing a tub of popcorn with her.

After her bestie Saemi coached her about what to expect on a movie date, she’s the only who’s feeling self-conscious about these accidental contacts with Haru.

Winner: Haru

For being innocent. He’s not doing this to be a filthy perverted.

Winner: Haru

For the indirect kiss.

Loser: Baek Kyung

For telling her NOT to wait for him, then expecting her to wait for him.

On Stage:

In the Shadow:

If Haru hadn’t shown up, she would have gone home. Why would she wait for Kyung? Is he delusional? Does he think she still likes him?

Loser: Baek Kyung

Never tolerate a boyfriend, fiance or husband to yell at you like this. He’s trash.

Also, the screenwriter who normalizes and romanticizes this kind of verbally abusive, tsundere hero is trash.

Lastly, female apologists for this kind of abusive behavior need to be lobotomized. lol.

Winner: Haru

For defending DanOh and teaching Kyung how to treat a person with respect. “Don’t talk to Eun Dan Oh like that. She may be your fiancee, but she’s also my friend.”

Winner: Haru

For putting words into action. “Instead of being an extra that doesn’t know when, where, and how he’ll disappear, I want to be the only person who can change someone’s fate.”