The ending was another thing that the fangirls of Ryu Joon Yeol, and shippers of JungHyun-Deoksun made a big stink about. Unwilling to accept the ending, they claimed that the writer changed the OTP (One True Pair) at the last minute.

Their assertion is pure sour grapes and blatantly false.

There were plenty of signs in both Episodes 1 and 2 that Taec would be the endgame. But before I list them in part 2, let’s first go over the “crushes.” There were plenty of signs that the all five kids had developed crushes on their childhood playmates.

Crushes:

1. JungHyun’s crush is Deoksun.

In the beginning of Episode 2, he shooed his dad away from his room when his dad was taping him. He didn’t want to be bothered. But when DS walked in and started singing that goofy song with his dad, he came out of his room and sat at the table.

He obviously heard her singing and couldn’t resist joining in.

The problem with JH, however, was that he insulted and nitpicked everything she did. Do you remember how it was like to be a teenager, @agdr03?  When a guy criticized you, you didn’t psychoanalyze his behavior as a sign of his attraction for you. You simply dismissed him as a colossal jerk and then ignored him.

That’s how Deoksun regarded JH. She thought being rude and grouchy was his natural self so she didn’t mind him. He was just like another male version of Bora to her.

That’s why it was funny to watch JH pretend not to like her one bit; he was in denial. When at the end of this episode when the guys were discussing how pretty Deoksun had become, only JH protested loudly that she was pretty.

Well, in kdrama world, it’s a rule that “a strong denial means a strong affirmation.”

From Extra-ordinary You, Ch 17 at 18:50.

It was clear that JH liked Deoksun from the start.

2.  Sunwoo liked the sister Bora from the start.

This was easy to spot. Lying that she had “new clothing” on, Deoksun asked him how he liked the jacket on her. He immediately noticed that the jacket wasn’t hers. He knew it was Bora’s jacket. And he didn’t even spare her a second look. lol.

3. DongRyul’s crush was Deoksun.

DongRyul (he’s the guy from “Pegasus Market”) also liked Deoksun from the start. Pulling her hair and calling her “Special Forces” (i.e., dumb) are childish indicators of a guy liking a girl. Kindergarten teachers see this sort of boy-girl dynamics.

4. Deoksun liked Taec from the start.  My explanation will contain spoilers.

DS: (greeting Taec’s dad) Hello, Go Gil-Dong Ahjussi. (stopping to chat with Taec, although she was late!) Hey, Hee Dong! When did you come?

Taec had just arrived from winning a big tournament. Note the names she gave them from a popular Korean cartoon show about a dinosaur named Dooly. According to wiki, Gil Dong was a dad who had to take care of his nephew, HeeDong. HeeDong grew attached to Dooly, a baby dinosaur with magic powers. Later on in the kdrama, we would learn that Deoksun’s pet name was Dooly. lol.

And here’s another spoiler to give you context: The reason Taec played baduk was because of Deoksun. Her dad had brought the two of them to baduk class when they were little kids. Deoksun wasn’t interested in playing it but for Taec, baduk opened a whole new world.

Taec: Yesterday. Are you going to school?
Deoksun: My Taec, drink milk and hurry and grow up. You have to grow up and marry Noona. (patting his bum)

Hahaha. This whole teasing takes on a different meaning when you realize that she’s planning to give him a chocolate bar with a love confession in it. She’s only HALF-joking about him growing up to marry her. She actually does NOT mind the idea of marrying him. Think now, @agdr03: did you ever joke about marrying a guy face-to-face? If you didn’t like the guy, you’d die of embarrassment, right?

Look: in Extra-ordinary You, DanOh was told to imagine kissing her dream guy. If she could imagine kissing him, then she liked him for sure. So DanOh closed her eyes and puckered up her lips. In a heartbeat, she pictured herself kissing Haru, and she was thrilled at the thought.

Kim HyeYoon was so cute here so let me fangirl her.

See that face? She was thrilled.

Same thing here: Deoksun had no problems teasing Taec about marry her because she wasn’t opposed to that idea. She could imagine that scenario, and she was thrilled by the prospect, too. Hence, the butt-patting.

Look at her wide grin here. She was thrilled like DanOh was thrilled.

Taec must have found that physical touch unusual, too. She never did that again, that is, pat his butt, but she’d show physical affection in other ways in later episode.

The other funny thing here about the marriage joke is, not only did Deoksun tease Taec about it, her parents openly match them, too. Her mom joked about here:

And the dad teased Taec, too, in front of all the other parents. And her mom said the same thing. Taec didn’t mind the teasing either.’

5. Taek’s crush was Deoksun.

I told the people in soompi to pay attention to Taek’s eyes. If I remember correctly, the JungHyun fangirls were arguing that JungHyun liked Deoksun FIRST therefore he should get the girl (insert my eye-roll here).

And I told them NO. They really should learn how to observe the eyes because they fail to see that whenever Taek entered the room and talked to the group, his eyes would unconsciously seek out and wander toward Deoksun.

For instance, when he entered JongHyun’s bedroom to celebrate his baduk win, he saw the gang spread around the room. He glanced down to look at Deoksun.

Deoksun was the one who asked him first to treat them out to deokbokki.

Then, midway through the episode, when he opened his bedroom and the gang was there to surprise him with his birthday party, his eyes again darted to Deoksun.

Spotting Deoksun first.

Looking at Deoksun.

Then, looking at the rest of the gang. To me, it was obvious that he always liked Deoksun although he kept it low-key.

From the very beginning, Deoksun and Taec liked each other; they had a bond that was closer than the rest of the gang. And if JongBong didn’t steal the chocolate, they would have known about their crushes earlier.

Deoksun’s Dad: But why isn’t Taec coming?
Deoksun: Why?
Deoksun’s Mom: He’s a star for sure. He’s very late.
Deoksun: I told him to borrow some comic books.
Sunwoo’s Mom: Woooww. Deoksure sure does have a huge liver. (Meaning, she’s gutsy. She had no qualms bossing around Taec and telling him to go on an errand for her.) She treats the Great Master Choi like her slave.

Later, we’d find out that Taec could be very stubborn when he didn’t like to do something. He just didn’t mind Deoksun ordering him around and he willingly gave her “dominion” (lol) over him.

Moreover,  whenever Deoksun bossed him around, she was exhibiting signs of  being “territorial.”  She was staking a claim on him. Taec was “hers.”  She had special privileges with him, like patting his bum and grabbing his wrist.

lol. If she had a crush on Sunwoo, she would have been embarrassed to do this in his presence.

A couple more comments about this episode. I’ve to be out of town today.

1. There were many instances in this episode when I was glad I didn’t have a sister. Bora would have been deadmeat is she was my older sister. She was horrid except for that whole funeral episode. And reading Deoksun’s diary, well, that took the cake.

Bora: (beginning to taunt DS by quoting her diary entry) “That time when everything is dressed in black. That time when I become more lonely. At this hour even the field flowers have gone to sleep, but my heart for you will not rest so easily…”
DS: I will kill you!
Bora: “They say love is about expression so today I’m going to be brave and to him…”
DS: Really!
Bora: Mom! Deoksun has a crush on somebody! She gave him chocolate!

Grrrr… Had my brothers done that to me, they would have found their secret stash of porn magazines hauled into our parents’ bedroom the following day.

I fight dirty.

2. The epilogue was hilarious but at the same time poignant to watch. The actor who played the adult Taec, Kim Joo Hyuk, passed away two years ago in a car accident.

November 2015

Adult DS: With what mind did I write this? I want to throw it away but I have no place to throw it away. I can’t throw it in the trash, because I’m afraid that someone might read it. If someone reads it, I’ll be so embarrassed–

Spoiler: She did throw her diary once and Taec read it. hahaha.

Adult Taec: You were a cheeky little thing. Why is a high school student so into boys already?
DS: You read my diary, right? Wow…really…What the? (She said, “wenyeol.” Note: this was a word that she tried to teach Taec to pronounce properly.) You read my diary, right?
Taec: No…
DS: You read it!
Taec: I didn’t read it.
DS: Yah! Tell me truthfully.
Taec: What is with the “yah!” to your husband?

This is another giveaway that the husband wasn’t JungHyun. JungHyun used crude language with her like, “Get lost!” Growing up, Taec was stickler for manners.

DS: You say, “yah” to me, so why can’t I? You read it, right?
Taec: I didn’t read it. Who did you give the chocolate to? I didn’t receive it.
DS: Really… Why do you read someone else’s diary? Why did you read it? (whacking him)
Taec: Who did you give it to?
DS: I gave it to you. To you!

Taec: Wenyeol. Jugolae? (Two expressions I learned from this drama which mean “What the?” and “Do you want to die?”) It was not me.
DS: It is! (suddenly hesitating) It’s not you?

lol. This is funny because, after all these years, she thought he’d received the chocolate and, more importantly, rejected her when he didn’t respond to her confession. She must have been waiting for him to acknowledge the chocolate, and when he didn’t, she assumed that he was rejecting her…and she let the issue drop. After all, she was assuming that her “first love” was doomed because her pencil broke anyway. lol.

And that’s the fourth and final meaning of “Answer me” or “reply to me.” Remember, I said that the title of the series meant something? I gave three explanations for Episode 1. For Episode 2, however, this was the question that needed to be answered. “Who did you give the chocolate to? Answer me.”

He was sure it wasn’t him because he never got the chocolate. But she was so certain she gave it to him because she could ONLY have given it to him. There was nobody else that she liked at that time except for him. HE was her first love.

That was why she was positive that she gave it to him.

DS: It was you, for sure.
TK: I’m going to smoke a cigarette.

Another clue there. Only Taek smoked when they were teenagers.  Remember: JongHyun liked the soccer bully because he didn’t smoke. lol. JongBong was sickly when they were kids and JongHyun was careful not to do anything unhealthy and harm his body as well as his hyung’s physical condition.

DS: It was you!
TK: It was not!

Once he left, she tried to recall what she did with the chocolate. She must have remembered placing it in the jacket. (Not the bag, because she didn’t have time to unzip and zip the bag)

DS: (addressing the interviewer/camera) It’s definitely him. He must have forgotten because it’s been almost thirty years since. He used to be really smart a long time ago.

To be continued later. Have a flight to catch.