@Barbrey requested:
Can someone explain the heart monitor on Sae Mi’s wrist and what happened to me? I’d have to rewatch cause I didn’t get what was happening, and though Pkm3 mentions it, I still didn’t understand.
Here’s the context: Haru and KY had a standoff at the end of Chapter 19.
On Stage, Haru brought the DanOh’s med to KY in the clinic. KY thanked him then asked, “If you didn’t have much time left, what would you want to do the most?”
Haru: Why?
KY: I’m going to do everything for DanOh.
Haru: If I were her, I’d always want to be with you. Eun Dan Oh likes you a lot.
The two guys were telepathically challenging each other. I *hope* that Haru didn’t believe for a second that Eun DanOh loved Kyung. He was forced to say that because it was a Stage. Although it wasn’t visible on his blank face, those words must have tortured him to speak.
Note: I said that this was the same director who created that messy “The King in Love.” He’s good at twisting reality just like when the script called for a Namjoo-DanOh misconception at the beginning of the romcom. So let’s not be too comfortable that Haru’s the endgame.
But for KY, this moment was a power play. He was rubbing it in that Haru had *no choice* but to say those words. He wanted Haru to brood over those words. It’s like “Ha! Do you hear yourself now?”
As soon as Haru left the room and the stage ended, he turned around. KY blocked his return.
KY: Eun DanOh seems to be sleeping. Go, I’ll stay here.
Haru: Move.
KY: How about you just stick to your role like you did earlier? You can’t do anything for Eun DanOh on the stage. You can barely do what I tell you to.
Kyung was taunting Haru that he was forced to say “Eun Dan Oh likes you a lot.”
KY: (continuing) You can change Eun DanOh’s fate? So did anything change?
He was ridiculing Haru here. Kind like “So tell me now, Haru, what have you got to show for your efforts? You’re just a little upstart.”
Kyung: (continuing) You can’t win against me. You’re just an extra.
Seriously. Haru could have looked more ferocious, more passionate. But Rowoon’s facial expression as I told y’all is underwhelming.
The next scene was the test result when Haru won first place. I wrote about this when I talked about the relevance of “Sigma.” Haru beat KY and earned a first-place ranking. According to the class president, the first-place student would help DanOh catch up.
Kyung: I’ll do it.
Class President: The teacher wanted the first-place student to.
Haru: That’s me. I’ll do it.
Kyung: (protesting) Why would you?
Haru: Then you should have won against an extra.
Kyung: What?
Haru: I guess you didn’t expect this.
See? This was Haru’s payback for that Stage scene in the clinic. He was telling him Kyung that anything he could do, he could do better. Kyung was only in second place. Just like he lost to Haru in tennis.
Then, while he and DanOh were hanging out together in the big staircase in the school lobby, Kyung’s words still rankled. He was remembering, “You can’t do anything for Eun DanOh on the stage. You can change Eun DanOh’s fate? So did anything change? You can’t win against me. You’re just an extra.”
That’s when DanOh interrupted his thoughts.
DanOh: What’s on your mind?
Haru: Something keeps getting on my nerves. (i.e., the fact that he’s only an extra and can’t do anything for DanOh)
DanOh: What is it? Ahhhhh. Is it because I fainted earlier? Why? Did you wait for me for a long, long time? I thought I’d be okay once the stage ended, but to be honest, the pain has gotten worse lately.
Haru looked sad then. This kinda confirmed what he was feeling insecure about. As an extra, he hasn’t done anything to help her. Seeing his worried expression, DanOh backpedaled.
DanOh: No, it hasn’t. It hasn’t gotten worse. No, it didn’t. I’m really okay. Good good.
Haru: (seriously) I know you’re in pain. DanOh, I want to change your setup. Let’s change it. Let me do it.
Remember. After he disappeared, she told him she didn’t want to do anything anymore to change her setup out of fear that he’d disappeared again.
DanOh: What if you disappear again like last time?
Haru: (reassuring her) I’ve a role now as BK’s friend. I won’t be able to disappear so easily.
DanOh: You’re BK’s friend. I’m BK’s fiancée. The writer must love BK a lot. His character is better than Lee Do Hwa who’s the second-male lead…
Seeing Haru’s downcast face again, she stopped. NamJoo was the first lead in the manhwa. DoHwa was second. Kyung was an antagonist, but he was better off than DoHwa because he had his two extras revolving around him. He was like a big planet with two satellites. Haru was worst of all three because he was just an extra. But remember, he said he didn’t mind what role he took on as long as he was helping DanOh.
BTW, I hated his mindset that he’d be fine whatever role he had as long as he could help her. It smacks too much of subservience and self-sacrifice…as if he’s willing to give up DanOh to Kyung in the end if that’s what DanOh “needs.” That kind of perspective appears to be setting him up for noble idiocy.
Haru: What if the one who can change your fate is Baek Kyung, and not me?
See that? He’s having self-doubts. It was DanOh from the very beginning who chose HIM to be the *key* to her life. DanOh was the one who searched him with just her heart, her heart monitor and her back. DanOh determined it was him.
Anyway, he noticed the crowd gathering behind them in the lobby. He sensed that a Stage was about to happen.
Haru: This isn’t good.
Grrr…Again, Rowoon’s facial expression is a problem here. You cannot easily tell what he’s thinking. Frown, dude! Knit your eyebrows. Squint your eyes. Clench your jaw. Twitch a muscle twitch.
DanOh: (monitor beeping) I’m fine. Why is this suddenly ringing when I’m not in pain?
Haru: The Stage is about to begin.
Haru already figured out that right before a Stage occurs, characters are being positioned. They have to be at the right spot when the “action” begins. Hmmm…he must have figured this all out during NamJoo’s birthday party.
Haru: I’m going to change your story.
He brought her down to the Grand Foyer, and approached Saemi. She waved hello then noticed him holding DanOh’s wrist.
Saemi: You! You’re holding DanOh..DanOh…
Soolmo: Oh my! What’s going on?
Haru: (ignoring them, explaining to DanOh) You’ll probably faint in this stage. Baek Kyung will come to save you.
lol. He remembered this was a manhwa and everything was recycled. Her monitor was her “prop.”
Haru: If this Stage is yours, and you need this for the Stage, something could change.
He removed her monitor and showed it to her. The monitor should have immediately ceased beeping since it wasn’t measuring her pulse anymore.
Haru: It’s still ringing when it’s not on you. (He strapped it on Saemi)
Saemi: Why are you like this, Haru?
Haru: (talking to DanOh) Although…everything could return to the way it was.
This is what I think he meant: yes, he planned to change her Stage by removing the monitor. But if his trick didn’t work, (i.e., he couldn’t stop her from fainting due to her heart condition), then he was right beside her to pick her up. Notice that he kept a steady eye on DanOh to monitor her condition.
Saemi and Soolcho continued to banter about the heart monitor.
Then, as Haru predicted, Kyung arrived and DanOh fainted. Kyung took a step toward her but —
Click! The Stage activated.
Kyung found himself in front of a melee. The kids were murmuring, “This is bad.” “What do we do?”
Over the heads of the kids, Kyung again sent a telepathic message to Haru. Just like in the clinic, he wanted it drained into Haru’s head that he was only an extra. He was telling Kyung, “Watch and see…if the main character of this stage is you or me.”
And Haru got his message loud and clear.
Kyung broke through the crowd and saw Saemi on the ground. See? Since she was the one wearing the heart monitor, she was “required” to faint. And the kids were Staged to gather around her.
Kyung: Why are you here? Where’s EunDanOh?
Saemi: I thought my heart was going to burst because NamJoo was so handsome.
Then the Stage turned off and Soolcho came out running. I think that Soolcho said what should have been Kyung’s line on the recently concluded Stage. “Don’t get sick without my permission.”
While the attention was diverted to Saemi and Soolcho’s unlikely romance, Kyung searched the crowd for DanOh. That’s when he saw Haru running off with DanOh.
Kyung could only stare after them in disbelief.
In effect, Haru showed him that despite being a mere “extra,” he could change the scenario because of his ingenuity and his determination to change things for DanOh. Ahhh. Love.
Of course, he didn’t know that Haru already did this once to him in the forest. DanOh had been shivering in the dark waiting for the Stage to happen because just like in her preview, Kyung had left her behind in the forest after saying, “This is why I don’t like you.” But he was supposed to show up, shouting, “Eun DanOh. Where were you? I looked all over for you.”
But while she was pleading with the writer, Haru came out nowhere. Haru stepped into his Kyung’s Stage because DanOh needed rescuing right there and then. Because he was an extra, he could move in and out without the writer’s awareness.
I hope this helps, @Barbrey. 🙂
Actually when HR said, “ Although…everything could return to the way it was.”
I took it to mean he was running the risk of raising the ire of the writer so much that he/she scrubs the scene out and rewrites everything again the way he/she wants to. They don’t know how he/she will react to the changed scene. Like what happened when HR1 disappeared first time and HR2 came back with memories wiped and everything was “reset” back to the original order. Like you mentioned in a previous post, the characters had to learn by trial and error about their world and where their boundaries of behavior lie and how much change the writer will tolerate. 😂 DO had decided to toe the line after HR1 disappeared, she decided no more experiments to change her set up. It’s HR2’s turn to “experiment” now that his character isn’t just #13 but an extra like DO. But yes, HR upstaged BK in that scene…he was more than an extra, he was BK’s equal and maybe even more because he got to whisk the girl away in the end. ❤️
But yeah, Rowoon is like a living sculpture…marble. 😂 guardian angel. I only experience his emotions via DO’s reactions. I needed to see resolve and some insolence in his glare to BK for having upstaged him but I didn’t get much of anything at all. He was supposed to be throwing the gauntlet down and putting himself out there as a genuine contender for main lead in DO’s life…but I didn’t get that from his demeanor, I got that purely from the dialogue alone. As for noble idiocy…yeah. I can feel BK’s fierce desire for DO to the point of obsession. For HR…I feel like he’s so terribly mild…like he only wants to be with DO because she wants to be with him? He has no mind of his own. He exists solely for her? Whilst it’s very noble and self giving, it can be a tad underwhelming in the love department because “desire” isn’t there 😂. Us woman folk so hard to please. On the one hand, we like to be given a choice in the matter but we want to see that you want to be in the relationship as much as we do. We want our men folk to say, “I want you…most ardently…but I will restrain myself until you give me the green light.” One order for Mr Darcy please. 😂
Hmmm… I saw your point, @nrllee about “running the risk of raising the ire (emphasis mine 🙂 ) of the writer so much that he/she scrubs the scene out and rewrites everything again the way he/she wants to.”
I considered that, too.
But I’m beginning to think that, for Haru, the writer isn’t so much a capricious enemy that he has to rail against, as an indifferent rule-giver whose rules they all have figure out.
Don’t ask me explain further because I’m still developing this concept.
All I know is Haru doesn’t rant, complain, whine, protest, object loudly, etc., as DoHwa and DanOh do about the writer. He doesn’t even get mad at the Squid guy who acts as the writer’s moderator-in-chief.
Did you notice that?
I pointed out more than once that Haru shows respect, but not deference, to the Squid Guy. The Squid guy doesn’t intimidate him but he listens to what the Squid guy has to say. He doesn’t ask for more answers than the Squid guy is willing to tell him. (remember their conversation in the arbor? He didn’t press the Squid guy to explain) Meanwhile, Kyung always comes off as rude, loutish, condescending, critical….
That’s why I wrote that Haru was telling DanOh,”Hey! Let’s try Plan B but if this doesn’t work out, then that’s okay, we’re back to the original setting.”
The point there was in his acceptance of the consequences. He was neither going to shake his fist at the writer for unfairness nor tremble in fear that the writer will kill him off….because he’s been killed off already.
Do you get what I’m trying to say? He’s not scared of the writer’s whims and caprices.
That’s why in the library in Episode 12 (?), while they were talking about the stars, DanOh said something like there’s no way that the writer is that smart. He kinda smiled at her, and said, “Then were we made by a stupid writer?”
Anyway…go ahead and list down what Haru’s been saying about the writer. Like in the antique store, or at the rooftop when he explained to DanOh that we’re still moving outside the stages. He’s accepted the writer as somebody THERE, a fact of life.
To me, he’s more riled up about Kyung than the writer.
Anyway, let me end there. As I said this is an idea I’m just playing around with.
Yes I did notice that disparity with HR and the others when it comes to badmouthing the writer. Which is why I always got the feeling he was “different” from the other characters in Secret. He seemed more “real” as a character in TF. Probably because he had a set up from the get go – he was a bodyguard. Which was why I thought it was odd that BK yelled and said he had no beginning in the TF set up when HR tried to walk away? That confused me.
In Secret, it’s almost as if he was trying to work out who he was (hence his naïveté) and what was his reason for being. I think it had to do with DO deciding he needed to be there? She gave him a reason for being? More than just a protector but as her bf, the person to change her set up. Without her, he wouldn’t exist. Really he has nothing to lose because he (HR) never existed in the first place in Secret.
“But I’m beginning to think that, for Haru, the writer isn’t so much a capricious enemy that he has to rail against, as an indifferent rule-giver whose rules they all have to figure out.”
Yes exactly. He’s testing the waters so to speak. DO tried initially to do the same but she’s now so terrified of losing HR that she’s stopped experimenting. HR is the one doing that now.
Thanks so much Pkm3, and for additions nrllee. I think I got most of that but for me, I still don’t understand the logic of the heart monitor as when a Stage starts they could be halfway across campus dressed in uniform holding a flower during Shadow but show up in Stage in a hospital bed hooked up to other props and in pajamas. So why would the heart monitor make any difference? Why is it an exception to all other props?
@Barbrey Like you, i was scratching my head after that and had to think really hard to find some plausible explanation as to what happened. The only thing I could figure out is that the heart monitor is such a defining prop for DO that the removal of it and placing it on Saemi meant that all the students would be looking at Saemi (the beeping) which would allow HR opportunity to sneak DO out of there unnoticed by everyone bar BK. So her heart condition hasn’t changed because she (DO)faints as well but it freed him to step into the stage to rescue her instead of BK. So just as tennis balls were for BK, the camera was for Saemi’s friend, the violin for DH. Without the prop, some of the characteristics of the original character transmits to the person with it. It was an experiment HR was conducting. Like I mentioned before, he’s trying to change her set up but he has no idea what will work and what will not. That’s why he said the risks are high (that it wouldn’t work or worse still, they incur the wrath of the writer and she scrubs them all out). In that instance, HR became the lead in DO’s life not BK. The problem we have is that it could prove costly. His attempt to change her stage could well result in her losing her life.
But honestly I don’t know how that translates in the drawn comic? That’s my problem. Does it mean the writer has drawn Saemi as fainting then? Not DO? 🤔. I think that could be the case. Because it means HR has changed the stage scene again this time, like he did at NJ’s party.
I’m glad it confused you too! I thought about Juda and her crappy shoes defining her, but even though she donned the bright new ones in Shadow, she was back to the crappy ones in Stage.
So is it the prop, or is it Haru? He’s still not original to this plot no matter how you dress him up or what lines he’s given. I called him a change-maker, and was glad to see the actor call himself that in a bts.
@Barbrey I think it could well be HR being the change maker. He’s the one to find out how to do it, everyone else has pretty much given up. I think he’s a really ambiguous character. Even Rowoon thought so because he initially wanted to audition for BK’s part (I just watched the Press Con clip). He changed his mind after chatting with the PD and the writer. At the end of the press con the PD was asked what the audiences should look for in the drama. I found his answer telling, he said, “watch HR”. So he must be the one to enact change.
PS I sent you a message in Soompi. 🙂
😂 So we’re right all along? That each change in scene is to be approached like an experiment to find out what works or not? 👍
I was exasperated with one of the comments here, which said something like “But didn’t we know already that Haru is game changer?”
🤦♀️ Facepalm moment. 😂 Knowing that he was a game changer was only the BEGINNING of the story. HOW he was going to change the “game” or manhwa was the whole plot of the story.
DO said it herself when she first grabbed Haru on the stairs, that she could play well. The writer gave her the answer key (= Haru) but she could find out the rules, so no worries.
And that’s what they should have been doing had Haru not disappeared, and had she not been spooked by his disappearance, return and memory loss.
They stalled their “experiments” because of Haru’s incident.
The problem in this week’s episodes is Kyung now has discovered the basic rule of the game, too. For instance, substitute players are required to step in last minute to change the scene.
Kyung’s discovery will mess up Haru because Kyung will try to undo whatever Haru’s doing on Stage. And Kyung probably will have a helper…that new student who’s also an extra. 😂 Hopefully, that new student will side with Haru.
“ Knowing that he was a game changer was only the BEGINNING of the story. HOW he was going to change the “game” or manhwa was the whole plot of the story.”
Yes it was obvious he would be the key but I think all of us here just what to know how and if the “how” actually makes sense 😂.
“ Hopefully, that new student will side with Haru.”
She’s Squid’s squeeze in TF I think. Which was why before her introduction, Squid was happy to just sit in the sidelines and play Yoda. She’s appeared now and he’s finally seen her so it’s going to throw more variables into the mix. I get the feeling Squid did in TF what HR is in the process of doing now with DO by changing the scenes and it had disastrous consequences in TF which is why he is trying to prevent it from happening again here in Secret.
I am just worried that with so many new variables it will descend into a chaotic mess given we don’t have many episodes left?
Ahhh. She’s Squid’s gal? Interesting.
Yes. so now even Squid has a dog in the fight now. Good! It was all find and dandy for him to watch everything in the sidelines but now that one of his own is in the game, too, he’ll just have to be more invested in DanOh’s story.
I know right? It’s going to be one giant mess if the writers don’t tie up the loose ends. Kdrama writers don’t have a good record of finishing strong.