This is another thread on cheating. @nrllee commented on cheating and other things, and I split her post in several pieces to answer her.

Her comments are in blue italics.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

I’m answering @nrllee’s post here.

Yeah she was mad that JWan didn’t have the courage to break the news to her. It’s very hard to confront your friend with bad news. He backed away from it. Notice how SongHwa backed away from talking to IJ too when JWan told her something’s up with IJ and he wouldn’t tell him (JWan)? She said the same thing, “It must be a personal matter” and left it at that. Again I wonder what Andrea would’ve done in that situation. Would he have chased IJ down to talk about it or would he have turned away like these 2 have?

There should be a difference between the reaction to cheating and the reaction to IJ’s distress. Let’s not conflate the two.

JWan: Go check in on IkJun.
Songhwa: Why?
JWan: I think something’s up. But he won’t tell me.
Songhwa: Really?
JWan: I think it’s a family matter, so I didn’t want to pry.
Songhwa: But that doesn’t sound like him. Well, I’m sure he’ll sort it out.

Here, JWan was right; he shouldn’t pry. He “read” IJ’s distress and asked him what was up. When IJ wouldn’t tell him, he let it go. That’s the right action.

They’re both adults. IJ wasn’t in danger. He wasn’t doing anything harmful, risky, dangerous, immoral, illegal, or criminal.

Asking Songhwa to check on their friend is showing extra concern.

However, while he had no obligation to get involved in IJ’s emotional distress, he definitely had an obligation to get involved in Songhwa’s cheating situation.

No, bitches. We can’t cover JWan’s sorry ass there. He was wrong.

In Songhwa’s case, he saw that Prof Jang was doing something harmful to his friend. He should have confronted Prof Jang immediately and/or told Songhwa. Hesitating to act when he’s the eyewitness and knowledgeable party is INEXCUSABLE.

Songhwa was right to feel betrayed by him.

As for Songhwa’s response to news of IJ’s unusual mood, I think she calibrated it. When she said “that doesn’t sound like him” she meant that IJ didn’t have family issues. He was on good terms with his family, and he was a normally cheerful guy. She expected him to bounce back soon from whatever was ailing him.

Also, she may or may not have known of his wife’s arrival that at day.

Songhwa’s response here is different from her response to SH. Remember in Episode 1, she dropped by SH’s house.

SH: Then why are you here?
Songhwa: To see you. I was worried about you.

SH is different from IJ. SH needed more guidance, so she checked up on him. My gut feel though is that JW was in on her visit. Meaning, JW knew beforehand that Songhwa was dropping by to see if he was okay.

It was because of their conversation.

JW: What are you doing this weekend?
Songhwa: Professor Jang is free this weekend.
JW: Everyone’s going on a date.
Songhwa: Is Junwan still dating that girl?? This one is lasting a long time. Why did you call? I bet it’s about Seok-hyeong. I already said no.
JW: No. As for that fool, we can just ignore him. I’ve a favor to ask.

When she said “I bet it’s about Seok-Hyeong. I already said no,” it told me that she was anticipating JW to call and to ask how her visit to SH went. She presumed that JW was following up on SH.

I don’t doubt JWan wanted in some way to “protect” SongHwa but his inaction tells me he was more likely trying to protect himself. It’s the coward’s way out of the situation. And probably also because like @packmule3 implied, he was secretly happy about the break up.

As for Andrea being innocent. I doubt he would even plead innocence. He’s more than likely to feel horribly guilty that he played a part in setting them up in the first place. See the difference between the 2 JWs? One runs away from responsibilities and the other owns it and deals.

Huh? Why are we talking about Andrea’s innocence here? 🙂

I think it’s rather silly to blame or assign guilt to Andrea merely because he introduced his friends to each other. He did the introduction in good faith and he wasn’t the one who cheated.

Look at it this way: I recommend a Tesla to you, and you choose to buy it, knowing it’s an electric car. If you crash that Tesla or that Tesla suddenly runs out of battery power because you forgot to charge it, (cough, cough like IJ’s marriage that wasn’t nurtured) then what on earth do I have to do with that?

The marriage is their responsibility, not Andrea’s. The failure of that marriage to thrive is their fault, not Andrea’s. And the wife’s infidelity is her choice, not Andrea’s.

Ha! I can understand however why (if ever) JW would felt guilty about the divorce. Catholics are famous for having overdeveloped conscience. They’re always feel guilty everytime shit happens. This should stop.

I think that’s why SongHwa looked so defeated in the taxi on the way home. When she got the text from JWan, she just thought, “you know what? You’re never going to get my point anyway. So whatever.” Hence her lame reply, “Nah I was just messing with you.” He (JWan) broke trust with her. She would not be able to trust that he would tell her the hard things in future. True friends are not afraid to tell you hard things. Had JWan’s confrontation with Prof Jang been more anger fueled with blows exchanged I would’ve been more forgiving of him? Instead he approached it like “boys will be boys”, “it happens”. I would’ve been livid and slapped him for hurting my friend? So his approach is a no for me.

But wasn’t Songha napping in the taxi?

She was tired, remember? She was on her way home, feeling tired, when the guys invited her for dinner. The dinner must have pooped her out so she was dozing off in the taxi.

She woke up when she heard the text. She read the text and typed an answer right away. If you observe it, she smiled a little, too, as she typed it.

Then she settled back to sleep. For her, it was case closed. Even when JW’s text woke her again, she didn’t respond to it anymore.

But she became alert because she remembered her surgery so she followed it up with her chief resident.

As for Jwan slapping Prof Jang…lol. I was expecting a duel at high noon with loaded guns.

BTW, this is a hilarious gif about a duel. I died laughing.

I read Andrea’s disapproval (?) of Dr Maggot being the object of the fling because he thought she was not suited for IJ. He set IJ up with his wife remember? I think he changed his view about Dr Maggot during the maggot incident but he hasn’t elevated her to being a saint. It’s a realistic view (he’s not afraid to be wrong) but frankly even though some have gone on to say he’s suddenly “fallen” for her after that maggot incident, I didn’t read his face that way. There was no “halo of love” on his face. He didn’t look enamored by her.

Phew!

More like an epiphany that he had read her wrong initially. There was
no attraction registered on his face, not even awe. Which is why IJ tried his best to tell Dr Maggot not to read too much into Andrea’s actions, that Andrea was like that with everyone, not just her. So no I don’t think he told IJ off because he had feelings for Dr Maggot. It was more dismay that he picked someone like her. Okay I am going to sound shallow but she’s not knock out beautiful, she’s awkward and ungainly, she lacks social graces. So if you were the wife, would you not feel totally insulted that your husband would pick someone like her? What would that say about you as the wife? I think that’s where Andrea was coming from when he exclaimed, “Not Gyeo-Ul of all people!” All I can say is thank goodness for YYS who is adept at conveying his thoughts and feelings wordlessly. Had he been less proficient as an actor I would be less sure. We’ll see if we guess right. 😂

Okay. She does look like a plain Jane. But my opposition is NOT because of her face, but because of her blank eyes.

And her creepy crush on him, among other things. I’ll have to finish my write-up on her.

I know kdramas. There’s always going to be a make-over where the ugly duckling is transformed into a swan.