More thoughts on the pottery class from Chapter 24.

This is what I previously wrote:

11. Pottery class: Be careful with her heart

From Ch 24, at 3:00

The art teacher: The biggest charm in ceramics is the warmth of the creator goes right into the piece.

True. To DanOh, Haru was like the warm sunshine in her dreary days. Once, she grumbled that Jooda has the spotlight because she was the main. But Haru made her the main character, and thus shone the light on her. As I’ve told a poster here before (🤪 who was that?), she was needlessly searching for the spotlight because she was unaware that the sunlight had always been on her and Haru. The sunlight was significant.

Student: If your hand’s warmth is there, isn’t your heart there, too?
Another Student: What the heck? He sounds like an oldie?

Then, DanOh has a flashback of the time she and Haru were playing with the starlight on their palms. Yes. Obvious connection to warm hands, warm hearts.

The art teacher: More than anything, you need to have good understanding of what you’re making. Even if it keeps spinning in the same direction all the time, everything you do will never end up looking the same way. (talks to the clay) What did you say? It said, “I don’t want to be any taller.”
Student: Teacher, how would we know what the pottery is saying?
The art teacher: It’s based on your instinct. Look at this, if you want to make it look tall, and do whatever you please…(breaks it) Whoa! You’ll ruin the pottery and the creator’s heart will be hurt, too.

Was this a warning to Haru to be careful with DanOh’s heart? He could make her heart and heart monitor go wild simply by calling her name and smiling at her. In pottery class, her heart monitor went off when he put his arms around her.

I got it now.

It was a warning to Haru.

You see, in the past life, in that other world described in “The Flower,” he did NOT listen to the Sageuk DanOh’s heart.

Sageuk DanOh wanted out of her engagement with Prince Kyung. (Ch 24 at 11:04)

Here’s the backstory: she had returned a sachet that Prince Kyung dropped (which we all know was a ruse) in the library. Prince Kyung told her that it was a sachet given to him by his late mother and that it was precious to him.

Kyung: Therefore I really wanted to give this to My Lady. (she looks horrified) No one is telling me to do this.

Her face!! How I love this actress! She’s so transparent.

Note: this is what Kyung said, too, during the school proposal. He had the engagement ring and he said that nobody forced him to do it…which was ironic since it was on Stage, and thus, a forced confession.

Prince Kyung returned the sachet to sageuk DanOh, saying, “It’s coming from my heart.” She answered, “Are you serious?” He answered non-verbally, with a blink and a nod. She said, “I’m happy that you’re my lover. My beginning is you, My Prince.”

But back in her room, the Sageuk DanOh was looking, NOT at Prince Kyung’s sachet but at the norigae that the sageuk Haru had given her. She despaired of her situation. (Ch 24 at 12:01)

DanOh: My heart already settled on you, but why doesn’t my body follow along with me? Is it my destiny to marry the Prince?

She saw Haru’s shadow outside her window and rushed to meet him. Haru was about to leave her. His eyes seemed to be shiny with tears. (lol. I’m imagine the actor Rowoon needed eyedrops here for the “luminous eyes.”)

DanOH: Haru! Do you know how long I waited for you? How could you do something so dangerous? What if someone saw you?

He turned to face her. She must have seen his eyes because she looked worried.

This scene reminds me of Juliet in the balcony. She too was worried to find Romeo at her balcony because he would be murdered if they found him there. lol.

Then, they went to the pavilion. (Ch 24 at 13:01)

DanOh: I feel like the stars will fall soon.
Haru: Yes.

DanOh: If I go into the palace, I won’t be able to freely see all this. I should stare at it until I’m satisfied. Should I tell you a secret? To tell you the truth. I don’t want to get married to the Prince.
Haru: (no answer)
DanOh: (looking up at him) Why aren’t you asking me anything if you are his loyal subject?

She meant that if Haru was loyal to the Prince, then his first response should have been to ask why DanOh was thinking of ditching the Prince. His second response should have been to convince DanOh to continue with the marriage…as a loyal subject.

But Haru didn’t say anything. She interpreted his silence as tacit understanding, or maybe even an encouragement of her change of mind.

But then he spoke…he had only been weighing his words.

Haru: I won’t listen to it.
DanOh: You know that we can’t do anything about our feelings even if we close our eyes and block our ears.
Haru: I will not listen to you.

Perhaps out of loyalty to the Prince (or perhaps because he was aware of the danger to her life and family if she backed out. He knew the Prince would order him to kill her), he moved to leave her behind. But she held on to his sleeve. She was teary-eyed and she hugged him. He just stood still.

See that? In the past, DanOh clearly told him that she didn’t want to marry the Prince but he didn’t listen to her heart. DanOh was like the potter’s clay who was shouting, “I don’t want to be any taller!” but Haru was following his duty to be loyal to the Prince. He didn’t listen to her cries. So, he ruined the “pottery” and made her heart hurt, too.

But this all happened in the past, or the “past perfect”.  As the English teacher stated in his example, “When I arrived there, the tragic stage had already finished.”

Meaning, Haru couldn’t do anything about the past. What’s done is done. But in the present manhwa world, there’s a chance for Haru to correct what he did in the past.

Haru woke up to the voice of the teacher talking about past perfect. (Ch 24 at 14:01)

I wrote this about past perfect.

The English teacher was talking about grammar, “The past perfect is when you talked about something that had happened much before. In another words, it’s about something that happened and ended in the past. Should we listen to an example? ‘When I arrived there, the tragic stage had already finished.’ (looking at KY’s table) When I arrived, the tragic stage had already finished.”

For me, something made him look at Kyung’s table. Probably he sensed that Kyung would be the one to precipitate a tragedy involving DanOh which he would be unable to avert. The tragic stage would already be finished by the time he got there.

Hence, when he saw Kyung in the hallway after class, he wanted to know why he wasn’t going to class. He asked twice, not because he was concerned about Kyung’s whereabouts but he was worried that Kyung could be up to something that could potentially endanger DanOh.

At the end of Episode 12, Haru and DanOh were at the rooftop. Haru was feeling uneasy. He suspected that the past was repeating itself and encroaching on their present happiness. DanOh reassured him that it was all in the past. She said, “Haru, it doesn’t matter what the outcome was like. That story already ended. What does an already-ended story matter to us? We’re here trying to change the fate that the writer has determined for us. I’m certain. From the moment I met you, you’re the one to change my destiny.”

Then she collapsed on him. She had a preview of her storyboard in surgery with Kyung in attendance.

She hugged him tight and didn’t want to let go of Haru. (Ch 24 at 30:01)

Note: This scene ties in with the sageuk vision of Haru. She hugged him tightly, too.

DanOh: I’m going to die?

She hugged him tightly.

Haru: DanOh, what’s wrong?
DanOh: Wait.

He hugged her tightly, too.

DanOh: Wait. I want to be like this for a moment.

Meanwhile, (I think) his hand tingled again.

In the past, she was most likely stabbed with a sword. In the present, her death due to heart failure has been forewarned. In her preview, the doctor called out her name AS IF to suggest that she was going to die.

The successful outcome of the surgery (i.e., she lives instead of dies) probably depends on Haru changing her Stage. 😂 Ha! I would be pissed off if Haru ended up like a heart transplant donor or something as ridiculous.

A note on jealousy:

Many Kyung-DanOh shippers think that DanOh doesn’t care for Haru because of her reluctance to reveal that she and Haru are dating. According to them, this shows that she really like Kyung. 😂

DanOh: I’m upset. You worked so hard to prepare it, but it disappeared in a moment. Your hand is still harmed. It’s so unfair.
Haru: Are you that upset?
DanOh: (nodding)
Haru: It didn’t disappear. Even if the stage changed, the time we spend together will still continue.
DanOh: (heart monitor beeping) There you go again! You’re saying all these romantic things as if it’s nothing.
Student: Haru, do you want to do it together with me?
DanOh: (mentally thinking) It was just a good atmosphere.

This girl’s face is so adorable. I wish I had been as cute as her when I was giving an evil eye to annoying girls in high school. DanOh was upset because this girl interrupted her private conversation with Haru just when Haru was saying sweet nothings to her.

Haru: No. I’m going to do it with DanOh.
Student: What?
Haru: (looking at DanOh) I’m going to work with Eun DanOh.

And she beamed at him.

Except for that time when she told Saemi the truth about liking Haru (remember? Kyung just told Saemi that she was an antagonist ), she was always embarrassed to let her friends know that she and Haru were dating. On the other hand, Haru was willing to let DoHwa, and Saemi and Soochul in on their “secret.” I think her shyness is a normal reaction because she’s never been in love before. And Baek Kyung never treated her like Haru has.

However, since the other girls thought that Haru was single, and since she didn’t want their dating secret known, she had no choice but to pretend that she was fine with girls flirting with Haru. She couldn’t shoo them away like she did when Haru’s name became visible and known to the whole class.

But I’m glad that Haru knew that the Other Woman wouldn’t sit well with her so he reassured her that she was his only choice.

He was taking good care of her heart here.