While analyzing the class lectures and their relevance to the plot development, (link here: Extra-ordinary You: Lessons from the Classroom), I stumbled upon the second literary reference in Episode 1 of this romcom.

Remember: it’s my opinion that the class lectures shed a light on our understanding of the kdrama. They’re not random and gratuitously added to waste our time…just like the ghost stories in Hotel del Luna weren’t random and superfluous. 🙂

The first literary reference of course was Pride and Prejudice. I already pointed this out in my “First Impression” post so I’ll only quote myself here.

She WAS the original heroine of “Secret.”

To me, DanOh was correct to believe that she was the heroine. In the beginning of this romcom, she said, “There are a few things that are inevitable for a heroine. It’s her destiny to have hot guys obsess over her.”

lol. Don’t you hear the “Pride and Prejudice” overtones in her assertion? Any true Jane Austenite would have heard the familiar strains. Her introduction has the same formula as P&P’s introductory sentence. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Truth universally acknowledged = inevitable
Single man in possession of a good fortune = heroine
Must be in want of a wife = hot guys obsess over her

DanOh was the female version of Mr. Darcy: rich, smart, snobby. She’s a crowd-stopper with a keen moral sense to stand up for the bullied student, just like Mr. Darcy is protective of his young sister against the wicked Mr Wickhan. In DanOh’s case, she was pursued by three men, known as the A3.

source: Extraordinary You: Eps 1 & 2 First Impressions

The second literary reference was the poem “Philomel” by Kim Sowol. A philomel is a nightingale. It was mentioned in Episode 1 at 5:28, by Saemi when they were prepping for the test that DanOh had no recollection of preparing for.

Philomel

The philomel cries
all night
with its throat choked in blood

Our sister who was wont to live near the Jindu River,
comes to the riverside village
to cry all night.

Long ago, our sister,
who was wont to live near the river
in the farthest nook of this land,
died of our stepmother’s jealousy.

Shall I call the bird my sister?
O its sorrowful voice
our sister, who died of our stepmother’s jealousy.
has become a philomel after death.

Unable to forget even after death
her younger brothers no less than nine,
at midnight when others are all asleep,
she keeps crying, moving from hill to hill.

Our resident Literature consultant, Barbrey, posted her comment.

I love this poem. In western tradition, the philomel or nightingale is often the symbol of a raped, murdered and silenced woman who nevertheless makes her voice heard at night as a nightingale. This poem is different but does connote a similar meaning for me, a girl murdered and silenced by her stepmother, who is nevertheless remembered by her brothers in her nightingale form.

I don’t know how it relates to this story but I think of all the aware characters, who will not leave a record of themselves because only their Stage selves will appear to the public. A reminder to us of their story wouldn’t be a bird’s song, but perhaps a book’s song, the ruffling of pages to remind us to read between the lines and imagine in the spaces.

Thanks to Barbrey, I can finally post my views, not only on the poem but also the direction of this whole kdrama. This is long now but stick around because I’ll tie it to Kyung.

To me, the nightingale here in this kdrama refers to DanOh.

First, she’s the voice being stifled here by the manhwa writer. We see her anger at being forced to live by her setup. We see her determination to break free of her setup. We see her searching for her “backmate” and dragging him to help her. We see her cry at the beach when she thought “Number 13,” her last hope failed to help her grant her real wish. On her destiny stone prop, it was written “I wish Baek Kyung liked me,” but she crossed it out and wrote her real wish, “I want to live.”

But the manhwa writer is determined to silence her voice and kill her off in the story…just like the nightingale.

See? That’s the obvious way DanOh is related to the poem, “Philomel.” She’s silenced by the manhwa written. She’s killed off in this manhwa “The Secret,” and in that other manhwa, “The Flower,” and every other manhwa created by this writer.

But like that nightingale, she returns to sing of her desire to be free, to make her own choices, to carve her own fate, and to be her own person.

Now, there’s a second, more important, way DanOh is connected to the poem. She’s similar to a nightingale because she’s been silenced by Kyung. Kyung deprives her of her free will as much as the writer does.

Every time she says NO! to a romantic relationship with him AND he insists that he’s the only one for her, he deprives her of her VOICE in the matter. He essentially kills her, too.

I’m saying this now: should the screenwriters and director contrive an endgame with DanOh and Kyung as the OTP, this show will get an automatic fail from me.

I oppose and reject Kyung as the man for DanOh.

1. I understand Kyung’s setup. He’s an angry rich/genius/handsome male with a lonely, unwanted, tortured soul just crying out to be loved. He’s a tsundere character that’s a staple of misogynistic dramas like “Boys over Flowers,” “Mischievous Kiss,” and “Before We Get Married.”

But this is Episode 12 already.

Four episodes will not be sufficient time to rehab his toxic behavior, not only towards to DanOh but to other people around him. He’s been cruel at worst, negligent at best. This cruel and selfish streak is endemic to his character. Look at Saemi. They’re the same because they’re antagonists.

They’re bullies.

He’s totally lacking in self-awareness when he lectured Saemi at lunchtime. (Ch 18 5:43)

Saemi: Did he attach a GPS tracker on her what? I’m the only bad guy, I am.
KY: You have no choice since your role is to be the antagonist, Shin Sae Mi.
DanOh: Yah!
Saemi: Antagonist?
KY: Yeah.
Saemi: I am? Is there an antagonist that gets their place stolen from them? (she leaves in a huff and Soochul follows her)
DanOh: There’s no need to tell her that.
KY: No, I do. You have to tell them their role, so they know their place.

Three points from that conversation:

a. The saving grace for Saemi is poor Soochul who accepts her putdowns as friendly banter. But DanOh is no Soochul.
b. He would complain that he was being setup to be a bad guy, too. (Ch 19 at 15:56)

c. He liked the status quo and insisted that people know their place when the arrangement benefitted him. In the “Flower,” his character Prince Kyung did NOT know his place and had no problems trying to upset the Stage and become the Crown Prince. Because he attempted to change the Stage in his power grab, Squid lost everything precious to him.

That’s what Squid meant here:

KY: What’s with that bastard, Haru? Just what exactly is he?
Squid: You also know this. The person that can change it.
KY: Ahh…all those stupid stages? I can change it, too.
Squid: (snort) You? How?
KY: I’ll find a way.
Squid: (getting angry) You will change the Stage? Because of that, I lost everything that was precious to me.
KY: I told you to say it in a way I can understand.
Squid: Because of you, I… because of you… Go away! I have nothing to say to you. (but he was the one who left?)

Squid guy considered him the dangerous guy.

Which brings me to this point: Kyung was the one who changed the Stage in “Flower” that killed DanOh. That’s the whole point of his younger brother’s insistence that he shouldn’t change anything. (Ch 18 at 20:30)

Brother: Hyung!
KY: Don’t follow me. I’m about to go insane.
Brother: Hyung, can’t we just live like this?
KY: What?
Brother: Father isn’t like that all the time. Once you marry DanOh noona—
KY: What would someone like you know? All you do is play your part.

And then Kyung suddenly has a flashback of Haru and DanOh telling him the same thing.

Haru: Is there a reason behind your setup of bullying and hurting people?

DanOh: I understand we have our parts to play while on stage, but you bully Saemi and Haru. (sigh) Stop hurting them.

KY: (sighs) This feels awful.
Brother: Hyung. Please don’t change anything.

And immediately after this scene, the Stage began. Dano was taking her medicine but she choked. Kyung handed her water. (Ch 18 at 22:00)

KY: Are you okay?
DanOh: Ah. Thank you.
KY: My family told me yesterday that our wedding will be moved up. Do you really want to marry me?
DanOh: Yeah.
KY: Don’t do it. I’m giving you an out for your sake. It doesn’t matter to me whether I get married or not, but you’ll get hurt.

I find this interesting. The manhwa writer actually made him say this line? Why! It sounds like he cared for DanOh in STAGE.

DanOh: I’m fine. You’re Baek Kyung. The love of my life.

lol. The second the Stage ended, she jumped up to look at Haru’s desk. Finding he wasn’t there, she moved to look for him.

KY: (blocking her path) You look like someone that was waiting for the Stage to end.
DanOh: There’s nothing I can do of my own free will. I can’t move or speak freely. I know you don’t like the Stage either. Oh, it’s Haru!

She bumped him to run off to Haru.

What conclusion can I draw from here?

In the past (or in the manhwa “Flower”), the love triangle resulted in a tragedy because Kyung changed the Stage. DanOh was killed in the process.

In the future (or in this manhwa “Secret”), the love triangle may end up tragic again because Kyung will change the Stage out of jealousy to keep DanOh by his side.

Someone will get killed trying to protect that person from Kyung’s irrational emotions again.

2. There’s no romance when a male lead/second lead forces his attention on the heroine. #metoo

Throughout the 12 episodes of this romcom, we’ve been shown that off-Stage, DanOh never liked him.

Deal with it, Kyung fans!

The opening scene when she walked into school, Kyung asked her why she never answered his calls, she just flipped her hair.

See that? This happened in the Shadow. She didn’t return his calls. Would a girl in love do this? He was the one interested in her all along… kinda like a jerk-version of Mr Darcy who was interested with Elizabeth but pretended not to.

She was grossed out when she was the love fridges full of love she was making for Kyung.

She repeatedly tells him that she likes another guy. Kyung was never her choice.  Here, I’ll cite four scenes as a reminder. lol. I’ve to limit myself.

A. From Ch 21 at 0:12. At the hospital, the moment her Stage ended, she rushed off to find Haru, leaving Kyung in the hospital.

She kissed Haru. Her choice.

B. From Ch 21 at 12:22. At the school clinic. She went to bandage her finger after she cut it on the “How-to-date” book that DoHwa was lending to Haru.  Incidentally, the book was offered to Kyung first, but he didn’t take it. Haru returned to get it from Dohwa.

DO: (berating herself) How could you think of Haru all the time?
KY: (from out of nowhere) Don’t make that face.
DO: Ah! That surprised me. Who was that?
KY: (coming out of another cubicle) Don’t make those expressions in front of me.
DO: There you go again. You’re picking a fight again. I thought it was weird that you were nice to me lately.
KY: Is it weird?
DO: Yes. Totally weird.
KY: You’re right. Haru can change the stage however he wants. Do you fall for anyone who can change the Stage?
DO: Yeah. That’s right. It started out like that. When I was with Haru, the Stage changed. I wanted to change my terminally ill patient status by any means necessary.
KY: So what? What will you do after you change it? It doesn’t change the fact that you and him are—
DO: Are what? Just extras? (Remember: Haru explained about being “extra-ordinary you” in Ch 19). Yea. That’s right, too. I’m still an extra with the same setup. But I don’t care anymore. Haru is special to me now.

DO: (continuing) Remember what I told you? I’m Oh NamJoo and Yeo JooDa’s classmate, your fiancée, and an extra in “Secret.” But before all that, I’m Eun DanOh. When I’m with Haru. I become myself. He makes me the main character of every moment we share.

DO: (continuing) It doesn’t matter what my role is in this world. Haru and I are more than happy outside of the scenes.

She sashayed out of there.

Note: DanOh’s comment about not minding her setup because she and Haru are happy together echoes what Haru said in the antique store. He doesn’t mind his setup is as long he could be by her side to protect her.

She joked that she’d be the one protecting him from Baek Kyung. Foreshadowing alert?? Or is this what happened in the “Flower”?

C. Then, there’s Ch 24 at 16:08. She saw a preview of her getting a marriage proposal from Kyung after touching the burned pages of the manhwa “Flower”. She got mad at the writer.

DO: The writer is seriously…! Now, why are they so hold up on getting us to marry each other? Aren’t we just high schoolers?!
KY: What did you see?
DO: It seems like we’re going to get married.
KY: So what? You were the one that always wanted to get married.

Omilord! This guy is dumb as rocks. There’s a difference between Stage and Shadow.

DO: Fine! That’s why you always yell, get mad, and push me away. You pretend to like her (the Stage DanOh) even though you hate it to death. But you have to (pretend you like her) because of your family.

See? Good point. If he believes that she likes him because of her sweet Stage words, then she’ll also have to believe that he really dislikes her because of his cruel Stage words.

DO: (continuing) I really pity the Eun DanOh who only got hurt by you for the last ten years, who has a heart that can stop at any moment, who doesn’t know if she has a long future, and who has been holding onto someone who doesn’t even love her.

Whoa! She hated THAT character setup made for her by the writer.

DO: (continuing) That’s why I want to change it before my heart stops.
KY: What?
DO: It’s already enough that the writer can make me move however they want and play with my illness.

KY: Don’t bother.
DO: What?
KY: No matter how much you try, it won’t change. You have to be my side. It was already decided. Then and now, too.

Dang it! That means a) he totally didn’t get what she said and b) he’s a psycho ex-boyfriend.

D. The latest is in Ch 24 at 28:25.

DO: You scared me! What the heck? Since when have you been standing here?
KY: Did you just wake up?
DO: Well, of course. No matter how much I tried to stop that weird proposal, I can’t stop my sickness. Since I ended up being in the nurse’s office with you, right? Anyway, since my stage is over, I’m going to head out.
KY: Where are you going? To Haru? Did you really want to change our story? I didn’t really want to change it. I’m telling you that I don’t want to change it. Eun DanOh. Isn’t your beginning with me?
DO: From the beginning it was always Haru. My beginning is Haru.
KY: No. You also know that. We can’t leave each other. Ever.

His voice, words and actions are becoming more controlling, more delusional and obsessive.

And she walked out on him.

See those? She doesn’t like Kyung that way.

Should the screenwriters and director try a twist in the ending or a “Gotcha” moment to show that we misunderstood her hatred for love all along, then they’re perpetuating this execrable worldview that:

a) girls really don’t know what they want,
b) girls are totally delusional,
c) girls easily get carried away with a swoony character,
d) girls should tolerate abusive behavior because he’s guaranteed to change into a prince of guy in the end,
e) girls should reject good guys for the bad guys,
f) a girl’s “No” actually means “Yes.”

3. I call bullshit on his sob story.

To justify her pairing with Kyung because he deserves her as his compensation, reward or consolation for his terrible childhood is as sick as telling a girl to lie back and enjoy non-consensual sex because the guy has his dick out and it’ll hurt his fragile ego if he’s told to fuck off.

Do you see what I’m getting at?

While the latter is about sexual assault and the former is about emotional blackmail and mental coercion, in both cases, no consent has been given. When a girl says no, it means no.

I detest writers and directors who continue to romanticize and normalize forced romances. For me, a big part of the romance in these kdramas is the belief that a woman is worth it, that her journey to self-discovery is relevant to the plot, and that her desires and wishes are important to the male lead.  DanOh is the plot here, not the side-story to Kyung’s rehabilitation.

4. His jealousy can kill her. 

In the poem, the philomel is killed because of its stepmother’s jealousy. Here in kdrama, it’s Kyung’s jealousy that’s driving him crazy. I can see him endangering, perhaps killing DanOh because of the bad choices he’ll make to keep her at his side.

He sees DanOh as nothing but part of his setup. He doesn’t regard her as her own person.

From Ch 23 at 16:27

Haru: (chasing after him) Baek Kyung, we’re in a comic book world.
KY: So what?
Haru: We have to speak and move according to the writer.
KY: If you know that, then just follow the storyboard. This all started when the writer drew the first page.
Haru: The writer definitely drew me but why do you think I feel emotions the writer didn’t draw? The feeling of liking someone and protecting them. These feelings weren’t drawn by the writer. They were done by DanOh.
KY: She’s mine. We were meant to be from the start.

Haru: Eun DanOh isn’t yours or the writer’s. She’s just Eun DanOh.

KY: The writer drew DanOh as my fiancée. You just keep trying to change the stage. Think about it. Was there anything that changed as planned? We’re still following the writer’s story in the end. Don’t talk as if you can actually change anything here. Whether it’s DanOh or the world we live in.
Haru: Even if the story continues as the writer’s storyboard, I’ll try my best for DanOh until the very end.
KY: Do you want to vanish again?
Haru: I don’t care. You say we’re here because the writer drew us but for me, Eun DanOh is my beginning. So I’m okay if my role ends with her. She may be an extra to you, but Eun DanOh to me is the main character.

And there you have it.

All the arguments the Team Kyung puts forth are invalid. No matter how the screenwriters and director rehab his character, discriminating, smart bitches know that Kyung isn’t the right man for DanOh. I hope she flies away from him before she gets killed.