Just because the heroine JoKyung did all the heavy lifting (literally, with the box of papers) in this episode doesn’t mean that I found her to be the most interesting character of the hour. For me, Suho was more intriguing.

The episode began with him draping his jacket over a hunched-up JK. He was backlit.

To me, the purpose of this camera shot is to foreshadow the later scene when he appeared like an angel to her again (I’ll show it to you in a bit). His jacket was like an angel’s wing.

Unfortunately, for JoKyung, deducing the purpose of camera shot is much easier than guessing the purpose of Suho’s chivalry. JK didn’t know what to make of his gesture. It baffled her that he would shield her with his jacket given that he was reputed to be sociopath. She was afraid that he found about her true appearance without make-up.

When she consulted her younger brother for advice, he speculated that Suho wanted to take his revenge on her for daring to fool him with her beauty. She’d been going deceiving everybody with her goddess-level of beauty, and Suho didn’t appreciate that. Thus, Suho was taking revenge.

For good measure, her brother added that, “revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Now, for those not familiar with this idiomatic expression — we often like to be served hot food rather than cold food. But unlike hot food, the best revenge is committed when boiling temper and fired-up emotions have cooled down. Vengeance is more effective when done in a cold, meticulous, and strategic manner.

Because her brother put this idea in her head that Suho was seeking “revenge” — or “boksu” in Korean, she kept misinterpreting Suho’s actions.

For instance, when they met along the school corridor, she thought he was coming after for “boksu” when he only wanted to give her a copy (or “boksa”) of his science notes. Then, later that night, in the comic bookstore, she thought he was about to dole out her “boksu” when all he wanted was to give her “tiramisu.” Tiramisu was a dessert best served cold.

To understand Suho, you must put yourselves in his shoes. He went out of his way to be nice to JoKyung the whole day. First, he rescued her from public humiliation.  Then, he sought her out to lend her his science notes.

He looked stunned.

He wondered if he did anything to upset her because she kept running away from him.

After school, she walked morosely past him and ignored him.

He called her up and she pretended to be an automated phone message, “This phone number does not exist. Please check the number you have dialed and try again.” He knew she was lying and thought it was lame.

“It’s not funny, Im JuBal.”

He wanted to cheer her up so he told her that he had something to give her. She didn’t want anything from him.

He told her to meet him anyway at the only place where the two of them could have a decent conversation: the comic bookstore.

He was excited to give her the cake, but he had to pretend to be cool.

SH: (pretending he didn’t hear her come in) Oh, you’re here.
JK: Long time no see.
SH: I don’t think it was a long time, though.
JK: Sure. But why did you want to see me?
SH: (offering her the cake) Here. It’s best served cold.
JK: Revenge?

lol. I blame her brother for this!

SH: Tiramisu. I wanted to thank you for letting me read “The Cursed Mask.”
JK: Oh, tiramisu. You didn’t have to get this for me.

Now let’s stop here.

1. At this point, Suho already knew that she was using makeup to hide her real face.
2. The fact that he bought her cake, on the pretext of “thanking her,” meant that he didn’t care that she was using makeup to hide her real face.
3. JK was so frightened about the coming “revenge” that it didn’t enter her head to feel “special” that Suho, the most sought-after guy in her high school, was giving her pastry. Remember when she made cookies for that lunchroom monitor at her old school? Well Suho was much better than that lunchroom monitor, and he bought her cake.
4. She half-heartedly accepted his thoughtful gift.
5. To JK, this encounter was ominous. That’s why the lights flickered.
6. To SH, however, this encounter was intended:
a. to cheer her up because she looked gloomy early, and/or
b. to clear up the situation between them.

JK: You must have come here right after school. I’ve never seen you in your uniform before.
SH: Never?
JK: Right. It’s such a pretty uniform!

Again, put yourself in Suho’s shoes now. He must be wondering how far she was going to keep this pretense going. So he decided to give her an opening to come clean.

SH: By the way, at my school, there’s a girl who looks just like you.
JK: Is that so? I have a pretty common face so I hear that a lot.

There! Despite being given an opening, she chose to continue with her pretense. She began to bluff that she never heard of Saebom High School, and that she attended a school in faraway Jeolla province (I just goggled this. Seoul to Jeollanma-do by train is 3 hours and 23 minutes. lol.)

SH: Then, are you a transfer student?
JK: What do you mean transfer? I dropped out!

Of course! There was no way Im JuBal persona could be a transfer student because the real Im Joo Kyung was a transfer student. She had to distance herself from anything vaguely connected to Im Joo Kyung. Her lie became bigger.

JK: I’m immigrating to Canada soon. But in the meantime, I’m staying with my grandma for a bit.
SH: Where in Canada?
JK: Where?
SH: The capital. Got to go to the capital. Vancouver!!
JK: Ottawa?

Realizing her mistake, she blamed her ineptitude in geography.

JK: Anyway, I was really glad to have met a fellow horror-maniac. But it’s such a shame that I’ll never see you again for the rest of my life.

She and Suho were talking at cross-purposes. Suho was trying to get her to admit that she was Im Joo Kyung. She, on the other hand, was trying to convince him once-and-for-all that she was NOT Im Joo Kyung.

So by lying about emigrating to Canada, she was opting to burn all her bridges…or at least her connection to the comic bookstore.

Now, put yourself in Suho’s shoes once more. This cat-and-mouse game was getting too old. He didn’t understand why she had to lie to him when he saw no problem with her putting on makeup to hide her real face. He wasn’t judgmental. He already rescued her from their classmates who were about to discover her secret.

SH: (with a straight face) Why do I have the feeling that we’ll see each other again then?
JK: Gosh. You must be sad about it, too. Come visit Attawa when you’re in university!
SH: (correcting her) Ottawa.
JK: Ottawa. That’s what I said, Ottawa. I…I should get going now. Thanks for this. Stay healthy. Bye!
SH: You’re unbelievable. JuKyeong. You can even act properly. I know you’re Im JuKyeong.

For this part of the dialogue, I’m using Kissasian sub, not the Viki. It’s better.

I like the details here. The director made the comic bookstore look like it had a poltergeist playing with the lights, speeding up the clock, boiling the water, and moving the mug. What caused these “spiritual” movements were JK’s extreme agitation. This moment of truth terrified her, and her terror manifested itself as telekinesis.

“She” was making the lights flicker, the pendulum swing, the water boil, the mug jitter because of her distress.

Meanwhile, from Suho’s point-of-view, her lies didn’t even make sense. This whole confrontation was frustrating for him.

JK: No. I’m Im JuBal.
SH: I checked the school phonebook and called your number, and you showed up. How are you going to explain that?

Not only that, he called her “Im JuBal” on the phone and she answered to that name. She continued digging a hole. She baldly lied that Im JuKyeong was her cousin. She borrowed her cousin’s phone because her own phone was broken.

SH: (in disbelief) You expect me to believe that?
JK: Why wouldn’t you?
SH: Your voice sounds just like hers.
JK: It runs in the family.
SH: So you’re not her?
JK: Of course not.

Suho sighed. He approached her. He removed her hair tie and her glasses.

SH: But to me, you’re Im JuKyung.
JK: (she vigorously shook her head)

But her mother barged in, screeching, “Im JuKyung, you came here instead of studying, didn’t you? Im JuKyung!” Her secret was out.

JK: Fine! I’m Im JuKyung. What about it? Will you report me for fraud or something? (pushing him back) What are you going to do about it? Huh? What are you going to do?!

The lights turned off completely. She grabbed her glasses from him (but not the hair tie) and ran out of there.

My comments. Three things.

First, I’ve been ignoring Cha EunWoo’s acting. But this scene is a good example of why I find his performance frustrating. I can’t sense the immediacy in his delivery. Although he said the words, there wasn’t any tension in either his stance or his voice. He should have been like a cat, ready to leap up if a bird comes near. He should have been waiting in stillness to pounce on every slip of the tongue that JK made.

Instead, he was just delivering lines. Ugh!

Second, script-wise, this was a compelling scene. I like how their dialogue escalated. JoKyung was on the defensive the whole time. Suho was asking her questions and she had to block or parry them with more and more lies. She was at her wits’ end. And her quick and jerky answers were totally believable and deftly performed. But it was clear that there could only be one outcome here: she was going to have admit that she was Im JoKyung.

Third, the coverup was worse than the lie. Suho already found out about her “fraud” and it didn’t bother him. He rescued her from their gawking classmates, didn’t he? He was nice to her at school. And after school, when he saw her trudging miserably home, he called her to the bookstore to give her cake.

But what bugged him about this incident was that, even after he repeatedly gave her the chance to confess, she insisted on deceiving him. And on top of that, she misconstrued his intentions and assumed that he was going to snitch on her, and make her the laughing stock of the school.

Do you see what I mean that Suho was more intriguing character? He was the misunderstood character here.

The following morning, he became instantly excited when she texted him. He thought she was going to be in a more reasonable mood when he read it. “I need to talk to you, so let’s meet up early.” He smiled at the message and immediately left for school.

But she continued on her warpath. He must have been surprised when she yelled his name and charged at him. She threatened him, “If you tell other people how I look without make-up, I will…” Naturally, he wanted to know what she was going to do. He raised her hairtie to show that she couldn’t threatened him when he had the definite advantage over her.

SH: What will you do?
JK: (backpedalling) Well…I’m not saying I’ll do anything…I’m ASKING you not to. I’ll beg like this (on her knees, with hands clasped in prayer). People born good looking may not understand, but I’m desperate. It’s very important to me. I’m begging you.
SH: Must I? For you? Why? Why must I listen to you, who deceived me with two faces?

Note: by “two face” he meant her coverup, and NOT her make-up. He was fine protecting her secret and hiding it from their classmates. But he didn’t like it when she tried to deceive him, too, even after he gave her the opportunity to come clean.

JK: I’m begging you. Let your gracious heart forgive me just once. Keep my secret and I’ll do everything you ask.
SH: Get up.
JK: That’s right. He’s the other sun that shines. Suho the Greatest. Please have mercy on me.
SH: You’ll do everything I say?

As soon as he said this, JK realized what she had done. In her mind, she made a colossal mistake promising to obey his commands. She wasn’t to know that Suho was only verbalizing his own confusion. He didn’t understand what she meant by “doing everything.”

It was only in the classroom when she rushed to draw the curtains in case the sunlight hurt his eyes, did he grasp that power that she’d given him.

Here we see the difference between Suho and their teacher.

I know that, for many viewers, the scene with JK’s Unnie and their literature teacher appeared to be random. It seemed to be arbitrarily mixed in with the JK and Suho’s encounter.

But I think these two scenes were meant to contrast the guys’ reactions to the girls.

The teacher thought the Unnie’s remark, “Be someone’s first than live in a memory,” sounded romantic but he didn’t know how to apply this romantic theory to practice. The Unnie was already sending him a clear signal when she said, “When sparks fly up again, we’ll go steady,” but he still missed it and said, “Sorry?”

Sigh. He was a literature teacher whose head was still in his books.

Meanwhile, JK gave Suho a thumb’s up, and Suho immediately schemed of ways to get closer to her.

He was testing her when he sent that text message, “I’m thirsty.” He probably didn’t expect her to jump up to get him a drink as soon as she read it.

Same with the box of test papers.

To me, he wanted to know how far she was going to carry this game. He probably thought she would back out with the heavy box. Then, he smiled at her message.

That night, he wanted to meet her again. Since it wouldn’t make sense for her to search for a comic book if he was already inside the bookstore, he arranged to meet her at the playground. When she didn’t arrive in 10 minutes, he went looking for her. Then he pretended to be waiting for her in the playground.

But his plan to spend time with her backfired. He didn’t expect her to just drop off the book and leave.

The following day, it got worse. At school, he saw her ignore his message. Then, when he contrived to meet her at the bookstore instead of the playground, she again came running to deliver him a neck pillow but fled right away before he could even invite her to eat the ramen he bought for the two of them.

So, on the third day, he devised a plan to make her stop long enough to talk to him. He brought food to school for her and arranged to meet her for lunch.

She didn’t know it, but he was giving her a “lunchbox” or a “dosirak.” The “dosirak” is a popular trope in kdrama. Usually, the female lead prepares the lunch kit for the guy with cute heart-shaped fruits and veggies. She also spreads ketchup in a heart.

In this drama, there was a role reversal. Suho was the one sharing his cleaning lady’s prepared food with JK. But he could hardly admit that he wanted to spend time with her so he said that she was going to be the “garbage disposal.”

On a side note: I like it when she gave him japchae; this must have been something his mom used to do for him as a child.

The talent show came later that afternoon.

JK was willing to do it because it would end their arrangement. He probably thought that she was going to sing like the other students who auditioned. She was practicing the song after school.

But she decided to switch to dancing because she was better at it.

Her dance routine would have been fine if she had performed in front of her peers. But since her unintended audience was the faculty and administrators of the school, she was humiliated, of course. Fortunately, none of her classmates witnessed her embarrassment. Only Suho did.

That night he called her out again to the playground. He wanted her to bring “Garden of Blood” books 4 and 5. He didn’t expect her to arrive with a bloodied knee, of course.

By the way, the titles of the comics books seemed to be connected to the epilogue. Last time it was “The Cursed Mask” to allude to the “mask” she had on her bare face. Now, it was the “Garden of Blood” because she had a bloodied knee and they were meeting at the park.  lol.

SH: (asking about her knee) What happened?
JK: (thinking he was wondering why she was late) Here.
SH: Don’t you have an umbrella?

He assumed that it started to rain as she was leaving her house and that she would grab an umbrella on the way out. He wasn’t to know that she left early – before it started to rain. But she was delayed because of the incident outside the minimart.

JK: Why? Do you want me to buy you one? Okay.
SH: That’s not what I meant.

He was getting angry with her. He thought that she always twisted his motives and actions, and put him in the worse light.

JK: Then what? You’ve been treating me like a slave and making me do stuff for you. You’re so mean. I know I volunteered to do everything you asked, but did you have fun using my weakness against me? You’re no different from the kids who bullied me and made me buy them dumplings. It’s not my fault that I’m ugly. Why do people always pick on me?

Again, she got him wrong. Remember: she still didn’t know that Suho was the guy who stopped her jumping off the ledge. Knowing her fragile emotional state, he wouldn’t bully her. He befriended her when she looked her ugliest. But her accusation made him realize that she did lump him with the school bullies. And there was no point in trying to persuade her otherwise.

To me, however, it was clear that she missed seeing the signs that he was interested in hanging out with her. Signs like:

one, he was the one who always initiated contact with her,
two, he never failed to arrange a meeting with her after school, using the comic books as pretext,
three, he was giving her more attention than he’d given other girls.

JK: What’s the point of wearing makeup and becoming pretty? I’m still ugly. I got caught by you as soon as I transferred schools. I can’t even sleep properly because I’m scared you might tell everyone. And I’m always busy running errands for you.

Yes. She also couldn’t sleep properly because of the helmet that her brother sold.

JK: Do you even know how I feel? Don’t you have any secrets of your own?

Actually, he did. It was something that he kept hidden in the room that he didn’t want the cleaning lady to enter. What was in that room? His music room?

JK: It’s really mean to mess around with someone’s pain.

This was a great line. I like the Viki version slightly better, “You really shouldn’t play around with someone’s pain.”  Jokyung was telling him that he was sadistic to enjoy tormenting her so. She said it in such a gentle way, however, that he instantly felt remorseful.

He removed his jacket, wrapped it around her. (Well about time, too! She’d been standing out there in the rain. sigh.)

There! This was foreshadowed in the beginning of this episode. This was the “bookend” of the scene when he put his school jacket around her to protect her from their classmates.

He sat her down, told her to wait, then ran off.

When he came back, JK wasn’t to be found at the pavilion where he’d left her. I don’t know if he was supposed to be frantic or just calling out to a lost kitten. His delivery was so bland. (What do I do with this actor? I can’t help thinking that Lee JaeWook would have killed this role!).

She was sitting at the park bench.

SH: I thought you left.
JK: I was a bit embarrassed. I must’ve been out of mind earlier.
SH: (kneeling down to apply ointment on her knee)
JK: I’m okay.
SH: Sorry. I’m sorry.

Now, do you understand why I find Suho most intriguing? If he had been bullying her all this time, then yeah… his apology at the end was just right. He should apologize for what he did.

But…

if she had been wrong to suspect him of wanting revenge,
if he had NOT been bullying her all this time,
if he had been actually seeking out her company because he liked her,
if she had been misinterpreting his motives and his actions like I said she did,

then he was apologizing for something deeper.

He was actually apologizing for the pain and suffering she was going through because he couldn’t be there to protect her.

🙂