I woke up today to plenty of great posts. Thanks @nrllee, @barbrey and @leedale9198 for your comments. If I’ve time today, I’ll post my reply out here.

I’ll edit this later to post screenshots and the Episode numbers. I’m obsessive that way.

I’ll answer @barbrey’s comments first.

From @barbrey

No I don’t think Dan Oh is hated by the writer. I think the writer loved her so much she wanted to give her a happy ending in Secret, but Haru had become too entwined with her as a tragic couple, so the writer left him out. In R&J, you really do get the sense Juliet might have been moderately happy with Paris, and she would have lived, if she had not met Romeo. If Dan Oh was not self aware, I think Kyung was already coming around to love her and her surgery would have been successful (I mean, what drama would traumatize the poor boy twice with dying loved ones in the hospital – mother and girlfriend?) We learn he has always loved her but couldnt bear the thought of losing her so kept pushing her away. Duh. So a happy ending for Dan Oh and Kyung except she’s aware, and aware Dan Oh knows she belongs with Haru.

I agree. Many of us here in this Bitches blog have to come to question whether the writer was really as anti-DanOh as DanOh had characterized him/her to be.

What made me dial down my animosity and distrust for the writer was Haru’s response to the writer’s intrusion. He never blamed or resented the writer for their present situation. Even when he was told that he would suffer pain and disappear if he continued to change his fate, he went on ahead to save DanOh from the pool.

He worked with (and sometimes, even AROUND) parameters set by the writer. That episode with the heart monitor was significant.

However…

although Haru may not rail against the writer’s cruel plot, he certainly becomes enraged whenever Kyung spoke of or treated DanOh badly. Those moments when Kyung hurt DanOh are the times when he would jump up and grab Kyung by the shirt and punch him.

I’ll edit this to post all those scenes/screenshots later.

pics

DanOh was Haru’s weakspot.

But I’m not so sure about about DanOh and Kyung’s *happy* married life together. DanOh would have remained a simpering idiot and pathetic doormat while Kyung would have continued to ignore her feelings and push her away.

Finding Haru, she redirected her affections to Haru. And THAT made Kyung wake up and realize his errors. lol. In a sense, too, Kyung’s beginning was with DanOh, too. He began to become aware when he sensed that he was losing something.

***Which is another significant contrast with Haru. Haru’s consciousness began when he realized that he needed to PROTECT DanOh. Kyung’s consciousness, however, began when he realized that he needed to KEEP DanOh.

Haru = keep her safe
Kyung = keep her

For Kyung, this is the appropriate moral lesson and the applicable meme. “They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Truth is, you knew what you had, you just thought you’d never lose it.”

He knew he had DanOh from the beginning, and he assumed he’d have her forever.

@barbrey continued:

So I think the writer needs one more do-over, maybe has already written it in that A Rose for You romance manwha. Personally, I would rather the two got an adventure romance like Romancing the Stone so we’d see her the picture of health!

I love this idea, @barbrey! And do you know why?

For two reasons:

First, that romance manhwa was offered to Kyung first. I believe DoHwa showed him the book three times. Once in the library (when DH was reading it), then once in the corridor (when DH mentioned giving it to Haru so he’d learn how to date), then that third time when he spotted the two dating.

Kyung thought it was stupid book.

But Haru took the book, much to DanOh’s embarrassment. The flustered DanOh grabbed his hand to run away with him and escape DoHwa’s teasing. Haru returned, grabbed the book from DoHwa, and thanked him.

Chapter 10

She became flustered and snatched the book from Haru. She got a paper-cut and Haru instantly grabbed her hand with a concerned look. DoHwa suspected that something was going on, that there was a different vibe between them.

The funny thing here is she returned the book to DoHwa and grabbed Haru out of there.

He returned for the book.

Now, I always thought it was a foreshadowing.

Meaning, DanOh was the flower. She was the rose. Kyung wasn’t interested in romancing the “rose.” He was just fixated on the burnt pages of the past…which is symbolic, of course, of his obsession to return things to the way they were before.

But Haru was interested in romancing the “rose” because he was in love with DanOh.

Second, the rose already appeared to both DanOh and Haru.  Did you see it?  🙂

When Haru first became aware, he was in the garden with the trumpet vine flowers. Then, when DanOh dragged him to the chem lab to ask his help to change her fate, his eyes lit up when she said, “Let’s change our fates together.” The trumpet vine flowers bloomed.

Note: for me, the trumpet vine flower’s primary task is to make him become aware. It wanted him to become aware, to remember who Dano was. That’s why when he walked past the arbor, the flowers started to give off that sound… like they were screaming and protesting. Same when the Squid guy burned the manhwa “Flower,” there were sounds of wailing in the background.

I think the trumpet vine has always been important to Haru and DanOh, but so is the rose.

You see, when Haru and DanOh kissed under the 300-year-old tree, there were roses. The roses bloomed.

But the pink flowers were there, too… (Note: this is what I mean about the director showing ambiguity)

To me, the manhwa “A Rose for You” is significant because it’s their book, too. It’s their romance story. It’s a manhwa, unknown to Squid and ignored by Kyung. Only the three of them know about the book, DanOh and Haru, and Dohwa.

I like to think that (unknowingly) Dohwa’s making amends for returning the flower keychain back to Kyung. lol.

By the way, how did Dohwa gained his consciousness? Because he was in love in Jooda?

More thoughts on the flower:

Meanwhile back in the hospital while our couple were kissing under the tree, Kyung was remembering the flowers that he gave DanOh when they were little. (Ch 21 at 5:11)

Little DanOh told him that her mother said all flowers have meaning. So Little Kyung went to the flower shop to buy flowers that would mean, “You’re the only one that knows my feelings.”

Kyung: Here. You can have it.
DanOh: Wow! What’s the meaning of this flower?
Kyung: Eun DanOh is an idiot.

She put the flowers down and hid under the blanket. He didn’t tell her that he picked those flowers because a “light pink rose means you’re the only one that knows my feelings.”

Remember when the Squid got upset that DanOh gave Haru a name?

He warned her that things would disappear. She went home to see her dad planting flowers. (Ch 8 at 6:49) and they talked about her mom planting flowers, too. Later in her room, she would remember her flowers when she was little.

Dad: DanOh, what flower is this?
Little DanOh: I don’t know.
Dad: Mom’s flower.
Little DanOh: (copying) Mom’s flower.
Mom: Then, whose flower is this one?
Little DanOh: Dad’s flower. (lol because when you’re a kid you think of people as a set)

Mom: This is DanOh’s flower.
Dad: Then, whose flower is this one?
Little DanOh: Baek Kyung’s flower! (And the parents laughed.)

Later in that episode, (Ch 8 14:34) she studied Haru’s polaroid taken during the beach trip, and compared the picture to the real Haru who was sitting at his desk.

She startled when she saw that he was looking at her. She asked him silently “What are you looking at?” and became all excited when he pointed at her said “You.” She dragged him outside, but he faked ignorance about doing that.

Then, in library, (at Ch 8, 16:32), she was staring at him and hoping that he’d notice her again. Lol. She was flipping a book, pretending to read it. The title of the book was telling. “Hoping for a Faint Light like the Moon and the Stars.”

When he looked at her, she jumped in her seat and pretended to read in earnest. She looked up again to look at him, and he was gone. He transferred seats next to her.

Then, they did the hand game — which we know is connected to the stars in Episode 11.

And she shone her heart monitor/watch on his face.

I love her here.

See that? She’s remembering her past life with him, too, when he reflected the light on her face. And more importantly, she CHOSE him.

Kyung had seen this interplay. When he got caught in her sunlight, he slammed his book down and stood up to walk toward her. (To be fair, he could have been just passing by her table on his way walk. Note, too, what I said about the director’s setting up the ambiguity.)

Then Click! The Stage happened. He grabbed DanOh’s wrist to tell her that her actions bothered him.

He grabbed Haru up and asked if he was having fun. He slammed him against the bookshelf. Books fell on Haru and his forehead bled.

The blood on his hand was on the same spot as his scar.

Kyung threatened DanOh, “If you don’t want to end up like this, (meaning, injured? bloodied?), then don’t do things that bother me. (her heart monitor started ticking) I can’t only put up with so much.” She fainted.

To me, the manhwa’s writer point here in this Stage was to warn off DanOh and Haru from repeating the ill-fated story in “Flower.” It was to scare them off.

And it worked. Later, (Ch 8 at 20:11), she went home sad. Then she saw that the flowers that the swing and flowers her mom planted were all gone. She was shocked because those were her memories of her mother. She knew that changing her fate meant that some of her memories would be lost.

But what really distressed her was the image of Haru getting hurt. She wasn’t bothered for long about losing her memories of the swing and the flowers (including the Baek Kyung’s flower). It pained her that, in her desire to become free, she injured Haru.

To me, this was always an interesting point. She didn’t stay upset that she lost her CHILDHOOD memories but she was anxious about injuring Haru in the future. And now, I think I understand why. The flowers in her childhood memory, like the flowers Kyung brought to the hospital, weren’t important to her.

Haru was the one for whom the flowers bloomed. Not Kyung.

In both stories, Haru’s the one linked to flowers. In the past, Haru met her at the flower field when Prince Kyung didn’t. He told her he liked flowers. He bought her the keychain withe Trumpet Vine flower.

In the present, he helped her reach for the umbrella stuck in the Trumpet Vine arbor. She caught his attention when she opened the umbrella with the floral design.  He sat at the Trumpet Vine arbor to wait for her. He drew her always with the flower. While on the beach trip, he found that secret waterfall with the flowers blooming and he brought her there. They saw the flower norigae under the old home. When he lost his memory, the flower helped him remember. It popped out of portal to remind him. He waited by the flower arbor some more.

Even the present-day keychain was something DanOh remembered from the past. She was fascinated with it. (lol. When Saemi praised her for her “faithfulness,” she smiled.)

The writer STAGED it so DanOh was forced to give the floral keychain to Kyung. Kyung crushed it to the ground. It’s too bad that, in the Shadow, DoHwa returned it to Kyung.

Haru knew that Kyung crushed the flower keychain to the ground. But Kyung was keeping it from him because he discovered that it was important to Haru. It’s not because the flower held any significance to Kyung. He just wanted to keep it so Haru wouldn’t have it.