Packmule3 at your service. Here’s Part 2 as requested.
Part 1 is here: Doom at Your Service: Eps 5 & 6 Open Thread
Is somebody keeping count of all the moments when Doom grabbed DK’s hand? I’m waiting for an enterprising fan to collect them into one clip, and post it Youtube. I’ll watch it just because it’s Seo InGuk. lol.
gifs from mostlyfate’s tumblr
Keep the discussion flowing!
Thanks @pkml3. I trust you had a good morning run. I didn’t realise that the first thread was long. It was just cathartic being able to write freely and post. I didn’t notice how the thread had grown. 😉
I need to catch up on SYHH, but I keep ending up with Doom!
The hand holding makes my heart flutter more than the kiss actually, not sure why.
Thank you @packmule3.
@TY, perhaps because he is recharging her comfort level inadvertantly each time he takes her hand?
Thank you @Packmule3!
So far for the first 4 episodes I have seen that in the video I posted at the Episodes 3-4’s thread, YouTuber: Felicity Queen has added a lot of their hand moments.
I think the most of us would watch this video!
I agree with @TY on that.
I forgot to write down.
Especially, in Episode 6 at the bus stop scene, when Doom grabbed DK’s hand to run, it was just perfect!
P.S. I have seen a similar scene, on “Oh My Venus!” and it made my insides warm instantly!
@TY @Fern @Cleo
@Fern I agree … the hand holding in this show is super hot because it recharges the pain relief. It has elements of taking care of, of protection and faithfulness connected with it. I like how MM does it so willingly, matter-of-factly, as a care-giving thing. It’s not done for the sake of romance or to get anything back from DK, but only to give as agreed, and yet it’s not a business-like transaction at all.
Hmmm time to watch those videos!
TY–
Lots of reasons for the heart flutters:
Because when he grabs her hand, he’s saying, “You’re mine.”
Because it appeals to cavewoman instincts?
We still want to be taken someplace and ravished. hahahaha.
Because we want to be shown an alpha male, instead of a squeaky clean, beta guy who has to ask permission if he can touch us?
Because it’s sexy to be given no choice but to obey?
Because there’s something intimate about the warmth emanating from hands?
WAIT! I hope he doesn’t have cold, clammy hands since he’s Mr. Death.
Because it’s Seo InGuk?? That’s my theory. If this wasn’t SIG I would be rolling my eyes by now at the overload of Neanderthal tactics.
Yes! There’s definitely added value to hand holding since DK gets pain relief, and it’s showing that he cares, right from the beginning.
The romanticness of this will decrease sharply if he has cold clammy hands >< hope he doesn’t
Yes! And surely it’s bc of SIG! This is my first SIG drama, and I am blown away. I couldn’t bear to watch the smile has left your eyes bc it’s too sad, and Shopping King Louie didn’t sit well with me (although I read the recaps). I rarely comment on dramas but this one has really grabbed me ^ ^
Oh, gosh, @ TY!
You should watch Reply 1997. I still think he said the most stirring “I hate you. Goodbye!” in kdramas.
I guarantee it’ll stab at your heart! (Oh the drama!)
I can’t remember the episode. Probably 12? I’ll post it later (if I remember, lol). I’m catching up on my other dramas now.
I am leaving this here!
Enjoy the sweetness…
🥰🍭🧁🌻🥳
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPR_ZsSn8Ue/?utm_medium=copy_link
We were teased with almost-kisses from early on, but DAYS stayed to the typical Kdrama schedule and made us wait until Episode 6 for MM & DK’s first kiss; however, their handholding started in Episode 2, which is early by Kdrama standards. There hasn’t been any of the trope of accidental finger touching or knuckle brushing to which the FL reacts like she’s been zapped with static electricity. DK was tentative when she accepted MM’s outheld hand in the crosswalk in front of the truck of doom, but from that point on their hands have clasped firmly, tenderly, or playfully, but always with intent. MM’s hand wraps so solidly around DK’s! And as he admitted on the bridge by the flickering light, sometimes he holds her hand just because he wants to, not to recharge her. Her human touch is a balm to him in his lonely state. She knows he is Doom, yet accepts his close physical proximity without fear. She even welcomes it, and sometimes initiates their contact.
I do like the term clasp to describe their handholding: their fates are fastened together, their lives are interlocked, they tightly grasp their connection and it stabilizes and empowers both of them.
The science of touch is fascinating. Do an online search for touch psychology and you’ll find many articles that explain how the right kind of touch helps mitigate pain, is persuasive, is necessary for physical and mental health, etc. I was also surprised to learn that there many different types of touch sensors in the body sending information to different parts of the brain. Here’s a link to one article I found informative, 9 Surprising Facts about the Sense of Touch:
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/1/28/7925737/touch-facts
The article includes a drawing of a human body proportioned according to how touch sensors are represented in the brain. The lips & tongue, hand, and foot dwarf the other parts of the body, including the sexual organs.
I also learned from the article that there are separate systems for discriminative touch, which conveys facts, and emotional/social touch.
When MM and DK hold hands, there’s a lot of communication going on we viewers can’t see (beyond the obvious) or hear, but because we can intuit because we have all experienced touch. We respond on an instinctual level to what we see on the screen.
I think the writer and director of this drama are clever in using many ways to build the relationship between the OTP: vision, particularly their frequently looking into one another’s eyes; touch (Think about the second lead triangle: other than one kiss, have we seen any physical contact between the SLF and either of the two SLMs? No? As a result we have little confidence in those relationships.); and hearing (they seem to voice their thoughts more openly than most Kdrama couples).
Kalispera,
I was watching Episode 6 and I realized that we haven’t commented about the bouquet of the yellow tulips that Doom / MM / Kim Sa Ram gave to DK:
I found the following info that I am going to analyse tomorrow, since I am on my cellphone:
“What Does a Yellow Tulip Mean?
Yellow tulips most commonly are used to represent spurned or unrequited love. If you send a yellow tulip to someone, it probably means that you love them but the feelings are not mutual.
From:https://florgeous.com/tulip-flower-meaning/
Also : https://www.flowermeaning.com/tulip-flower-meaning/
So, Kim Sa Ram, during Episode 6, made several confessions to DK…
😳🤩🥳
@qqq’s question: can anyone explain why Dk wished for MM to love her?
I wanted to add a few more thoughts to GB’s answer;
I think the theme DAYS is exploring is what it means to love fully (without holding back because of fear of getting hurt), selflessly and unconditionally.
1. The show’s starting point = two characters who are both emotionally numb as a result of a past traumatic loss and / or events;
2. In effect, both characters enter into a contract to die (in her case, painlessly) – metaphorically speaking the contract represents both characters’ desire to shut down pain / feelings;
3. In episode 3, DK decides she wants to fight to live and finds a loophole – love MM and she will get to live without losing anything. At this point, both DK and MM want to use love for their own gain.
4. In episode 5 asks DK to love him – not so much for his own gain he argues (although his motive for asking her is not fully selfless), but because he wants her to live – this is progress 🙂
5. In episode 6, DK refuses to wish for her to love him because, she argues, killing him would not allow her to continue to live her life happily;
6. So as of episode 6 we have two main characters who are finally starting to feel emotion again but are not willing to risk their own hearts (one is still in denial about having a heart).
7. With DK opening herself up to feeling again comes a desire to want to experience love before she dies. This is why I think she made the wish. I don’t think she’s aware of her feelings for MM because she has never experienced romantic love and seems clueless as to what it entails (as does he);
8. But by asking MM to love her and refusing to love him she is still holding herself back – her wish for him to love her is as selfish as his wish for her to love him is. They want to experience love and they want the benefits of being loved but not the risks attached to it (loss / heartbreak) – for obvious reasons although I expect the show to still dig deeper into why he shut down his emotions on the day her parents died. I think he said no to her wish by the way because he still thinks he has no heart and is therefore incapable of love – I also think he kissed her in that moment because he pitied her (which is also a parallel to Cha kissing NJN) – he couldn’t bear to see the disappointment on her face when he said he couldn’t grant the wish. Isn’t wanting the other person to be happy, to give them all they desire what love is all about – I think that is what that moment was about. Obviously, it turned into a BIT more.
I think you can apply this analysis to the other characters as well – everyone’s using convoluted methods to try and get what they want without having to put their hearts on the line again.
@welmaris I LOVE your hands analysis – agreed that their handholding scenes are very symbolic. I find all their handholding scenes really moving, thanks for putting my feelings into words.
I am still stuck mid Ep6 – ran out of time to watch. Got through Ep5.
I am seeing some parallels between 2nd lead couple and main couple?
1. The contracts
2. The superiority of the male leads – one is supernatural, the other is Chaebol. And they both seem to like dressing in muted, dull, black colors.
3. Kissing the FL out of pity?
4. 2ML said something to the 2FL to the tune of, “you’re getting back at him not because of revenge but because you haven’t gotten over him”. I get the feeling DK never quite got over the loss of her parents. The words she spat out when she realized her way out of the contract, “I will love Doom”…there seemed to be a hint of spite and bitterness? It sounded vengeful. Getting back at Doom for taking her parents.
Other thoughts
– DK went from charging herself to love Doom (almost out of duty)…to deciding to love a bad man (so as to have him die instead of Doom). Why the change? It’s probably because Doom went from being vindictive and horrible to her – she was angry when she spat out the words that she would love him – to being nice to her? Her conscience was thus pricked and she realized she couldn’t wish death on MM (he became a Person – SaRam). So she decided to move on and love another bad guy so he would die instead? She’s not going to be able to do it. 😂. Her only alternative would be to love herself the most so she dies and nobody else does.
Kalimera everyone!
@Welmaris I really enjoyed your comment about touch and I also read the article you posted for us! I agree that the Director and Writer-nim are spoiling us in a subconscious way!
@rh I read your points and I have to say that I don’t agree with number 8.
At the end of Episode 5 and from the beginning of Episode 6 until the end, we get to see that MM / Doom / Kim Sa Ram is opening up one thing at a time. I rewatched Episode 6 and we get to see that:
MM is asking her to love him.
He wants to die in her place. He confesses to her: “Saranghe. I’ll die for you. Sleep well.”
The next day he brings DK flowers, as she asked him to do. The significance of the flower is important!
It was a bouquet of yellow tulips that means spurned or unrequired love, as I wrote above.
After the Hospital Scene and @GB has posted the transcription in the Part 1’s thread, he admits to DK that: Everything is new for him.”
She is the only person, who can see him as he really is, he can call him and he answers to her and she even gave him a name. That’s why he thinks she is weird, echoing his Mother’s words.
After all that, Doom / MM / Kim Sa Ram gets jealous that DK will go to a blind date and he impersonates her Unni’s boyfriend to just be there.
When the blind date crosses a line, or so MM / Doom / Kim Sa Ram thinks, he intoxicates both Unni and the blind date and takes DK away from there.
He is telling to DK to choose him as a bad guy in order to die for her, then he tries to make her wish to love him. He even hypnotizes her to be kissed.
So, we are heading to the Bus Stop Scene.
He was there for her, obviously. He was not covering from rain, but he didn’t want to admit it out loud.
He knew that DK was returning home from work and he knew that it was going to rain.
Since it is a first of him, I think MM / Doom / Kim Sa Ram is grasping the whole situation, because he hasn’t experienced any of that before, which makes him vulnerable and maybe transparent to her.
In my opinion, the kiss was a confirmation of his feelings.
He was not pitying her.
For the whole part of Episode 6, MM was grasping the situation of his feelings and what DK meant for him, when DK was for the most part in denial.
He was showing her that he – the mighty Doom / Myul Mang -, the Shin of destruction and disappearance of things, who got named by DK, has already fallen for her.
And he kissed her because it was a validation by his side, that her wish has already happened. It was a sincere kiss, after all that pent up energy that was building up for some episodes now.
The unfortunate thing is that Doom got “informed” about the program error, that’s why he took a step back from her and then vanished.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts in detail @rh and @Cleo. They are interesting and thought provoking. We watch the same show and discover multiple perspectives of the same scenes.
Of course your words inspired me to rewatch the kiss scene *ahem* more than once. This is what it looked like to me.
– When she asked if it was ok for her to wish for him to love her, it was still ‘business-like’ for the contract and he gave the official answer.
– She looked disappointed.
– He watched her and thought a while. His eyes went to her lips, he swallowed (sign that he was holding back?) and sighed (decided not to hold back any more) then swooped in for the kiss.
– When the kiss ended he looked a while at DK then became aware of something. He looks at her again and steps back, as if to distance himself from her. It looked like he moved back to keep her from being involved/endangered, before he vanished.
Hmm…okay I am finally caught up and am making sense of why the confusion about the reset after the kiss.
So to reiterate the terms of the contract
DK has 100 days to live at the end of which she has to call Doom on the world
To break the contract of bringing doom on the world, the person she loves the most will die.
She has a “wish” she can claim in the interim.
Which I guess then begs @qqq’s question – why would she want Doom to fall in love with her? How does that affect the contract? If at all?
– Was she hoping that because he was crazy in love with her, he would observe her request to nullify his destruction of the world? Open to discussion.
– Was she hoping to escape death? That he would nullify the contract AND refuse to let her die after 100days? I don’t think so.
– Was she hoping that by him loving her crazily that she would somehow respond in kind? Because she has been struggling to muster up all those “love feelings” for a while now? So this may be her plan?
DK has been exploring all the various options open to her regarding the contract. And testing them out. She’s getting second/third opinions from workmates, friends. And her most recent one is from her TL Cha…get him to fall crazily in love with her.
I think @rh is correct in part. GD wants the love between them to be genuine. Not forced. Not some magical spell. Does MM love DK genuinely or is there pity mixed in there? Or does he just find her fascinating, that she sees the “real him” so it’s a love borne out of loneliness (only she understands me!) – which is self serving? They have to BOTH get there at the same time. MM almost kissed her because he cast a spell on her (to want him) which she despised him for. But I also agree with @Cleo and @GB, MM has fallen for her way quicker than she has for him? She has definitely moved from dislike/hate/resentment but she’s not at that heart fluttering stage yet. So I think GD decided to abort this iteration because it wasn’t going to plan. The pot plant hasn’t bloomed. I think that’s the acid test. But I am not sure what that means about the contract then…if this particular Doom has disappeared. Is it nullified?
Dear @nrllee,
I think that DK wants to be loved truly and madly before she dies.
She hasn’t experienced love in a romantic way. The same applies to Doom as well.
At the same time MM / Doom / Kim Sa Ram came to her world and everything became upside down.
She might be emotionally detached from the fact that she is dying, but at the same time, she has realized by now that she is indeed dying.
She wants to live happily -with Doom-, but she doesn’t say that out loud as well, still she implied it.
Their conversation in the beginning of Episode 6:
DK: So what does…that mean?
MM: Saving me, you said you just did it.
So you told me το just thank you.
This is how I’m just saying thank you.
DK: You just want to die.
MM: I want to save you.
DK: You’re just putting it in a nicer way.
MM: Is my proposal anyway bad to you?
DK: Yes. My feelings. I feel bad.
MM: Are your feelings more important than staying alive?
DK:You have to idea what you look like when you see things disappearing.
I know because I see it every day.
When I see you looking at me, I can really tell.
MM: Tell what?
DK: That you’re a good guy.
It’s not that I don’t want to live, I want to live happily
I just realized that now.
Which comes to the conclusion, that I…(DK becomes emotional, her eyes are watery) can’t live happily after killing you.
So stop playing around.
(MM realizes what DK said and he smiles)
From that scene alone, I understand that DK has already fallen for MM.
The reason she is fighting it, is her realization that she doesn’t want Doom to die.
Because now, he has become her favorite person as well, along with her little brother, her Aunt and her Unni / Writer friend.
So, they are both in love with each other, but in different phases of realizing their emotions.
Yes @Cleo. I believe DK shut down emotionally after her parents died. She has unresolved resentment issues with Death. Everything is just in her head? She says things and runs through facts in a very detached manner. She may be falling for MM but she hasn’t acknowledged it. The conditions are not right for their relationship. So the pot plant stubbornly refuses to bloom. Until her tears start to flow again, she will never “love” him right. That wall needs to come down. To love is to be vulnerable.
I agree with you @nrllee, to love is to be vulnerable.
Everyone has issues with Death, the problem is that when you see “death”, as DK said back some episodes, the fear becomes real.
The problem is, we analyze the story as spectators and DK, even as a tv character, experiences it real time.
How many days have passed since her malign brain tumour diagnosis?
How many days have passed since Doom / MM / Kim Sa Ram came uninvited into her life?
Since when they are living together under the same roof?
Since when she is watching him and notices how he feels?
I say it is more or less a week?
In order her walls to come down she needs more time, DK is structured by the Writer-nim, to react in a specific way.
She is grasping everything, but in a very detached manner as you said, and that is her way of functioning. She thinks everything in a logical way and deals only with those, that make her move on / live each day.
As a result, I have understanding, technically speaking, how she was crafted.
I cannot fully accept yet, that the deity girl is on their side.
I cannot fathom her motives, so I am a sceptic for everything she does so far.
My lovely @GB,
Of course it is interesting and thought provoking to see that everyone grasps things differently. I always read with interest what everyone says and I am writing down my thoughts, in order to engage in the conversation! 🙂
I agree, nrllee.
She shut off everything after parents’ deaths.
I’ll have to comment on this and @ cleopatra’s observation on the Girl Deity on the blog. ✅
@welmaris that info on touch is really profound
@cleo your comment about DK experiencing this all in real-time, helps me understand her a bit more. It is a lot to take in after such a short period of time. The fact that she’s still going to work and living a sort of normal life is incredible, and probably due to the fact she’s so good at compartmentalising herself.
@nrlee I agree with you, I think a big turning point will be when she can cry and be vulnerable again. Wonder when that will happen.
@GB never thought of the possiblility that he moved away from her to keep her from danger, that is a really sweet interpretation, I like it 🙂
I agree about Girl Deity. Deity figures in KDramas are never completely black or white. Even Doom is showing shades of grey and has “lapses” of kindness. So I am not entirely sure about the motivations behind GD’s “experiment” for Doom and Gloom couple (whoever coined this for the main pairing is a genius 😂. Fits them so well). What is her agenda? Why has she suddenly decided to interfere when she was all about sitting back singing Que Sera Sera?
@nrllee, Yes, deities cannot be trusted 100%. There’s much they know but little they say, so others do not have full info and agency.
About GD’s motivation. One of the things she left out saying to MM was that she does not/will not interfere with the plants in the garden, EXCEPT for the one in her personal pot. He might not have been aware of the significance of that pot of soil LOL, that it was very different and that it manifested what was going on with him.
We’ve all figured it represents him or him and DK together, both of whom being Doomy and Gloomy are still in their grey scale state, and not germinating. I liked what @rh summarised in 1 sentence … essentially these 2 made a death pact/a contract to die. If that contract cannot be revoked or essentially altered to become a contract for life or for being life-giving, then I guess GD who grows things to live, decides it’s time to toss out her plant.
My current wild guesses for the system errors could be:
1 MM as a deity cannot feel love. If he starts to feel love, it will affect his judgement and cannot remain objective for the job. It would be too painful to be Doom.
2 MM wants to die for DK. This may create a vacancy for the system. (Or MM can be replaceable)?
3 DK may very well wish doom for the world so she can save MM.
That gift from GD reminds me of the marble at the end of the movie MIB. That scene shows humans live in the universe which is contained in the marble, and the alien looked at it from a far.
I wonder what MM really wants? On face he wants the world to end. In the dialogue from @Cleo’s post, DK notices MM is a good person and he doesn’t like things disappearing. I wonder if he truly wants the world ends. Does he have any desire to live or just merely existing?
DK’s brother thought MM wants to use DK. Perhaps his little brother intuition is right as that was MM’s motive as first. The little brother dynamics between MM reminds me Do Min Jun and Yoon Jae in My Love from the Star. Always a good laugh!
@Viva. I think MM wants the world to end because he’s sick of his job, he wants out. When DK shifted her focus to loving Doom so that he will “die”, he decided that her way was another option to tap out of the job? So he went along with it and said, “fine then, just love me (and in so doing, end me)”.
Hi guys, thanks so much for your analyses 🙂 Enjoyed reading all of your comments.
DK’s wish – perhaps she really did want to feel real love (or lust). It’s just that I’m not totally convinced yet. I see her as a rather stoic character: one who doesn’t really care if she did experience love/lust. However, she still couldn’t help, but to whine about her poor life whenever it rained.
Why MM wants the world to end – He is basically ‘sick’ of human beings and their entitlement/selfishness.
Why he suddenly vanished aka reset thingy – Deities and supernatural beings are not supposed to fall in love (or lust), let alone with human beings.
The kiss – Doom did not wait for her request or even asked her permission, he went ahead and kissed her. Yes, it might be love, or lust – we don’t really know, but there’s definitely something… ‘alive’ about the kiss. I don’t think it’s ‘pity’.
DAYS kind of reminds me Death Takes A Holiday (1934). It has this ‘Love is greater than illusion, and as strong as death’ vibes going on.
@qqq it depends on what model for deity the writer pulls from in creating this dramaverse, whether deities can be in love/lust with humans. Think about the Greek god Zeus: he had many affairs and trysts with humans,some resulting in children. Pity his poor, long-suffering wife, Hera!
Perhaps I am the only person to see this, but I thought the scene where the TDK gets off the bus in the rain and asks MM why he doesn’t have an umbrella might be a meta reference to this scene in Shopaholic Louis (I’ve started the video where the FL gets off the bus): https://youtu.be/5AYRdzdl8TI?t=163 . I thought this especially because the two then run up multiple flights of concrete steps, like those of the apartment in SL, which reinforces the reference for me.
If this is a meta reference, I wonder if there might be more of them in this show. Unfortunately I wouldn’t catch them, because I haven’t seen any other k-dramas that either the FL or ML have been in.
Hey Ladies!
@TY I am glad I helped you understaning more DK. Yes that is true, in a short time had to realize some things that are not easy to digest.
The fact that she is compartmentalizing is what brought her this far.
@nrllee and @GB,
No, I cannot trust “mommy” dearest, as I have said above.
As for the “Doom and Gloom couple” I really like that reference should we keep it?
@Viva, I agree with @nrllee on why Doom / Muyl Mang wanted the world to end. We have commented on that with @GB previously in the earlier threads. MM has become emotionally numb, because he couldn’t take any longer what was happening. It is not easy to live with the notion: “That everything you touch is dying in front of your eyes”. It can break you down.
Also, “mommy dearest” didn’t take his feelings into consideration at all. She thinks that he is doing like a child. But everytime she dies, he stays all alone, as long as she is needed to be rebirthed.
@qqq, I don’t think that either of them wish to feel lust. Lust is a sin. Low frequency emotion. It has nothing to do with love and from what I have understood so far, the story talks about unconditional / self / pure love.
As for the reset, from the very beginning I though the reset in TV Series: W: Two Worlds Apart (Where is @WEnchanteur when you need him!)
I am not sure about what exactly the reset means: It could mean that Doom got too involved with DK, that lost his ability not to interfere directly with humans.
IF that’s the case, then “mommy dearest” doesn’t like that he got together with DK in the first place, so she is trying to break their bond. Something we all wondered when the Deity Girl wanted to touch that red string of Fate bracelet in the bus stop scene.
@Welmaris,
I don’t think that the Writer-nim is using that love/lust aspect.
She definitely uses the Yin – Yan aspect, since we have only two deities responsible for the entire world.
She also used that red string of Fate. There are some aspects about the souls interwined that in the beginning was one, is known in Plato’s – Symposium.
As for that reset we are going to find out this Monday, but my hunch is that Doom will be reprogrammed by “Mommy dearest” to fit her Garden’s criteria.
Thanks @BethB. I didn’t watch more than the first couple of episodes of Shopping King Louis. What did Louis (the SIG character) do after that rainy day bus stop meet? Were there any changes in him or in the relationship between him and Bok Shil? We can look out for this in this Doom show as well to see if the meta give greater insight. 😉
@BethB I watched all of Shopaholic Louis and was entertained by it, but have forgotten most of it. Some dramas stick with me longer than others, but SL isn’t one of them.😏 After watching your clip, I believe it’s a stretch to draw a conclusion about a meta reference. Using public transport is common in South Korea, and characters often ride buses in Kdramas. Neighborhoods in Seoul are very hilly, and stairs are common, so just a fact of life in that city. Getting caught in the rain without an umbrella is a common Kdrama trope. In the SL clip Louis has an umbrella to offer. He foresaw and prepared for the FL’s needs. In the DAYS scene, MM thinks ahead enough to meet DK at the bus, but didn’t seem to think it was his job to shield her from the rain. Think about it: he could have even turned back time, gone home, and been back at the bus stop in time to meet her, umbrella in hand. Instead, he lectured her.
@Welmaris @BethB
I was thinking that MM could have stopped the rain for them at any time, but he stood at the bus stop, presumably waiting for DK to arrive and he let it continue to rain. He just stood there with her until she complained. It’s as if he chose to take some initiative, but then waited to see what she wanted or would do next. In fact MM has been doing that. He has always respected her wishes in the sense that he asked her first and did what she wanted. He has seldom taken the initiative except to go to her to fulfill the contract, to ask what her wish is or out of a certain jealousy.
When she felt sorry for herself saying “Why does it always rain in my life? (Which we know is a metaphor for the bad things in her life.) And why don’t I ever have an umbrella? (protection from life’s storms)?” He decided to show her that instead of waiting passively for the rain to stop, she could take action. She could run in the rain and although wet, she could get home faster.
She was the one who pointed out that everyone has some tribulations in life. And yet when the rain reminded her of her own tribulations, she felt sorry for herself. I like that MM chose not to stop the rain for her at this stage (which would have been very romantic too!!!) but chose instead to take her hand and run with her in the rain.
He was prepared to lead and accompany her in her trials and tribulations, and to bring her home (whether home is a metaphor for death or rest). When she was breathless and tired, he was prepared to stop and wait for her in the rain.
When she asked for the wish to be loved by him, he felt either that he could not grant it, (or that it was already fulfilled) but he could not just leave it at that, with her disappointment. She looked sad and a wet mess in the rain. He spent a couple of moments looking at her, thinking it through and decided to go all in to kiss her, to dispel her depression, to take the initiative in their relationship, at last.
(Perhaps it was this change in him that triggered Girl Deity to feel her program had gone wrong.)
All this time, he could have stopped the rain, but didn’t. He was ready to continue the journey with her, and he had decided to make the deepest connection that he had ever had with a human person, in the midst of the messiness of her life.
@Welmaris I find that whilst DK seems to go out of her way to help others, to the extent of being a doormat for her brother who takes advantage of her, she’s lacking in the self care department? Maybe forgetting her umbrella is just another metaphor for that. Or maybe not 😂. It’s interesting that the other mirror pair talked about umbrellas as well. I haven’t looked too hard at that link but I feel there’s something there.
I like that interpretation of the scene @GB. ❤️
Previews seem to show DK looking for MM. And he appears in scenes but minus his usual somber attire. Interesting to see how the reset plays out.
@Cleo, I just read again what you said about the reset. It is similar to what I was saying to Welmaris and BethB. I feel it could be to do with interfering too directly with humans. On the one hand Girl Deity seemed to want him to make contact with a person, to be the wish of a human. Instead of choosing someone like the doomsday lady who was giving out posters and saying doom was about to descend, he chose DK. He wondered later if he had chosen the wrong person.
With someone like the doomsday lady, his contact would probably have been fleeting, and there would have been few if any ties or any contract. However with DK, a relationship had developed. I still feel that GD wanted to see how far this would go. She did not directly intervene except to make DK remember MM, to chat with her about the plant that had yet to germinate and to give her the blue and transparent marble (or ball or whatever).
GD wanted to touch the red bracelet either to remove its ability to give DK pain relief (to hasten the need DK would have for MM?) or just to appear as a threat so that MM would be more mindful of DK (also to get him to do more?). She noted that MM had wanted as a child for someone to call out to him. So might it be that she was giving her ‘offspring’, MM, the experience of having a name and of being called? It did not seem that she minded that DK and MM got together at first. However by the end of Ep 6, the situation seems to have changed with DK and MM.
We are not given enough of GD’s motives as yet to know in what way the situation bothered her.
We’ve heard before, I can’t recall where, that the world is a big blue marble. I think there was a children’s song about it!! In essence, when GD chose to pass the marble to DK (and NOT to MM), she seems to have put the world in DK’s hands.
@nrllee Thanks!
About what you say:
It’s possible that DK’s never having an umbrella ready, is a sign of her lack of self care. About Cha’s umbrella, I thought too that there might be a compare or contrast between couples, but hadn’t developed any clear ideas.
I hope to tease them out by simply writing LOL.
We only see a very short snippet of the Cha-NJN couple in the past. I’m therefore guessing that this is what happened. According to what was said at the reunion, LHK and NJN were dating until he left the country. This would put the kiss to sometime after the break-up.
Cha lets NJN use his umbrella as she sat in the rain (We don’t know if he was just passing by and saw her or whether he had deliberately brought her the umbrella). Instead of walking away, he felt sorry for her and kissed her out of ‘pity’ (I always repeat that he probably liked her at this stage because no guy will kiss a girl they are not attracted to no matter how much they pity them!!!)
In shock, she drops the umbrella but remains unmoving otherwise… ie she allowed him to continue to kiss her. She didn’t push him away or run away, in fact, after he leaves, she keeps his umbrella carefully and retains it in her home. Hence I surmise that she didn’t dislike Cha, she sort of liked his attention, but she still held a candle for LHK.
The umbrella symbolised a moment of connection and possibly a heart-fluttering moment even. In any case, although NJN did not dwell on that kiss, she still valued it enough to keep the umbrella.
What does it mean that Cha is the one who owned let NJN use his umbrella. (Perhaps that Cha rather than Lee Hyun Kyu was prepared to take care of her, that he was ready to protect her.)
What does it mean that until the present, he recalls kissing her out of pity, and he recognises the umbrella immediately. (He has never forgotten her, but he never followed up with her either because she retained an attachment to his younger tutee. As the tutor, he was also in the difficult position as the older one who should not be stealing his student’s girl.)
And what does it mean when he takes back the umbrella? As (I think it was) @Welmaris suggests, it was to draw attention to it and to fluster NJN, to get her to think more about him and pay him more attention as a man and not just as an editor. It can also signify that he wants to put aside the past, because he’s starting something new with NJN by getting her to sign the personal contract with him. In effect it was a contract for ‘enforced meetings’ like dates. And most dangerously, she had to fulfill all his demands!!
Simple conclusion after all that rigmarole!
Both NJN and DK had no umbrella. Cha was willing to shelter NJN temporarily and leave his umbrella with her, but he walked away without further contact (as far as we can tell). At least, he didn’t seem to know that Writer Lee Hyun was NJN, or he knew but pretended that he didn’t. He may have kept away because LHK was a contender in the love triangle
When Cha regains the umbrella, he can shelter NJN in the previous way once again. He has already begun to do so with that personal contract. This time the length of time was not just for as long as the kiss but for as long as they kept to the contract and she delivered the story. We note that the company is called ‘Life Story’. Might the story last as long as their lives?
MM didn’t bother with umbrellas (because he could have stopped the rain falling over his own head I’d imagine), but he was waiting for DK and ready to stay the course with her. Their contract was to last for the rest of DK’s life/or his own life. He didn’t walk away, although loving DK would probably mean his death. He had no love triangle contender, but he had a life story contender in the person of GD, who planted her flowers to live.
More other interpretations are welcome!
My dear @GB,
I will write down here, what I wrote back in Part 1, mostly I think you guys missed it.
It is scene where the girl deity gave DK that sphere, I wrote for that:
Now, when I saw that scene I knew instinctively that things wouldn’t go well in the Episode.
Let me explain why. In the early societies, before the invention of money, they exchange gifts. Products exchange was the thing back then. They could even marry someone, in order to strengthen a bond between families.
Do you know the significane behind a gift?
The one who was accepting the gift bore responsibility towards the giver.
What exactly was that gift that deity girl to DK?
It looked like a sphere with a milky way or if you looked closer, its shape reminded me of an eye.
The eye of the Goddess? Kinda like, I am looking at you?
Hence my sceptic self regarding the “mommy dearest”.
First, the deity girl tries to inflict fear to Doom about taking off that red string bracelet of Fate.
Then without Doom knowing, the deity girl gives DK that sphrere that was the game the deity girl won, while Doom was there and had that interesting conversation what we have analyzed in Episodes 5-6 Part 1.
She also told him, that she wants to be entertained!
TGD: Human love is more dangerous than you think.
They can abandon the world to get one person.
You don’t know what result will come out.
That’s always fun for me.
In the end of the episode we got the reset and Doom is disappearing. Hence my comment above that Doom will reprogrammed in order to suit her garden’s criteria.
Thanks @Cleo, I did read what you wrote in the other thread. In fact gift giving still has the same implications today, although perhaps not to the same degree as entering a contract. Usually we feel a little burdened by gifts given and we feel a need to reciprocate, even giving to the same value that was received.
GD says that the gift was in exchange for DK helping her to open the drink bottle. So if what you say is implied, then when DK accepts the gift from GD, she becomes beholden to her. However if it was a gift in exchange for the help that DK gave, it may not have the same weight?
If the sphere is like the eye of the goddess then DK is being ‘watched’ without being aware? But we know that the Deity knows everything anyway, so everyone is being watched by her … the same way that everyone is being followed by MM from birth. We’ll have to see if that sphere/marble/ball makes a repeated appearance and does anything.
The other description where the sphere looks like the space/Milky Way is closer to how I saw it. To me it looked like the sky and the sea. And we know that the seaside was the place that DK went to, to bury her frustrations and tears.
I agree that GD deliberately went to the bus stop when she knew MM would see her. She wanted him to react in some way. Whether it is for good or bad intentions, is being unfolded.
I mentioned before that she’s callous. So her idea of fun was (I said like the Greek gods, but LOL you should know better) to engineer a situation/series of situations and then to sit back to watch and be entertained. This was what I said too, so again we are on the same page here.
The Soompi article still leaves much in doubt. Whether the confrontation between MM and GD is like between enemies, like between ‘lovers/non-lovers’, like parent and child/creator and creature…. remains to be seen. As we have noticed, show and the dialogue is ambiguous and I’m wondering if this ambiguity is deliberate.
Unfortunately, even with the meaning of flowers, we have ambiguity. The first reference is to tulips generally. The second one is to yellow tulips in particular.
https://www.flowermeaning.com/tulip-flower-meaning/ (Bold highlights added by me)
“While it’s not the fanciest flower in the garden, the beauty and grace of a simple Tulips means the flower has become a symbol for meanings like:
• Perfect, enduring love between partners or family members
• Undying passionate love, whether the passion is spurned or returned
• Royalty and a regal nature
• Forgotten or neglected love
• the 11th wedding anniversary
• Abundance, prosperity, and indulgence
• Charity and supporting the less fortunate”
https://www.petalrepublic.com/tulip-flower-meanings/ “Years ago, it was said to represent jealousy and was associated with the rejection in love. But in recent years, the color acquired a more hopeful and brighter representation. The modern interpretation of yellow has linked it with sunlight, cheerfulness, and pure friendship.”
So again, it could refer to romantic love or love of family or love of a friend. Still ambiguous, but because this is a kdrama, we expect that it refers to romantic love. But does that apply to GD is the question.
If it does, then the way GD behaved was totally misleading, because she had all the opportunities in the world to win over a lonely MM, but squandered them and pushed him towards DK instead. I will rant if this turns out to be the case.
@Cleopatra,
Did you also write the dialogues from Ep 6? I’m looking for the opening scene, the scene at the vending machine, and this scene outside hospital when girl deity gave DK that toy sphere capsule.
Thanks.
Yes, I want to trust this GD but at the same time, she contradicts herself.
She told MM, “Human love is more dangerous than you think. They can abandon the world to get one person. You don’t know what result will come out.That’s always fun for me.”
But then she changed her mind about fun value of love’s unpredictability and said that a reset was in order because the result wasn’t what she expected. 🤦♀️Okay… I also thought she was hands-off with flowers and let her garden be, so why was she uprooting plants that didn’t come out the way she wanted?
And this has nothing to do with subbers. This confusion arising from the inconsistency is all on the writer.
@Packmule3,
Yes I have! Check in Part 1!
I agree with you. She contradicts herself, so until, I can understand her motives I cannot trust her.
🙂
Thanks! Will search 🔦 for it then. You saved me the work.
@packmule3,
I just cheched better, since I am outside.
Also check this part! I have posted the opening sequence overe here. The other conversations on Part 1’s thread.
@Welmaris @GB Thanks for your thoughts on my posting above about the possible meta reference to Shopaholic Louis.
Perhaps I have been looking too much for meta references since watching “True Beauty” earlier this year (which was chock full of them—and which was part of the viewing fun). But that scene where TDK was on the bus and (the same actor) Seo In Guk is waiting for her at the stop really did seem, at least for a moment, a reminder of that scene in SL. (And then running up the narrow concrete steps, which were almost exactly like those leading up to Bok Sil’s apartment in SL…) And the first thing TDK says to MM after getting off the bus is: “Do you not have an umbrella?” as though she was expecting him to have it for her.
The meaning of the scene in SL was that Louis was finally showing empathy, and not just thinking of himself. I don’t think there was much further meaning beyond that.
I have to admit here that I’ve only been watching k-dramas for a little more than a year, so there are probably loads and loads of couple/umbrella scenes I’m not even aware of, and that this could be like/reminiscent of.
Question: does it really rain a lot in SK? Otherwise, why are umbrellas such a romantic trope in k-dramas?
I like your further interpretations of the meaning(s) of this scene, taking it far beyond the possibility of any slight or momentary meta reference.
@Cleopatra
Also, if MM disappeared, then how would DK recharge her red thread bracelet to avoid feeling pain of her cancer? Didn’t she have to recharge bracelet before 12 midnight everyday by holding hands with MM?
She should sue him. Whatever…
@Packmule3,
The thing is that MM didn’t disappear, because he wanted it to…
As @GB wrote above and I agree with her, it is like he heard / realized something is wrong, took a step away from her and then vanished.
In my opinion, DK should sue the deity girl!
Tomorrow’s episode, I think, will explain more between the deity’s motives…
In contracts, intents don’t count, just the performance. It doesn’t matter whether he intended to disappear or not, or if he was bound or gagged somewhere and couldn’t go to her. He just had to carry out what he was contracted to perform.
They should have added a “Force Majeure” clause. He could be excused or allowed to suspend performance of his obligation because there was literally an “act of God” (lol, the Girl Deity no less) that had a material effect on the circumstance beyond his foreseeable control. Blah blah blah blah. This is just drama so whatever goes. lol.
@Packmule3,
I haven’t thought about that…🤔
I guess he should…lmao!
Hey my lovely @GB,
I have finally access on my laptop and I can answer to you.
Yes, the deity girl asked for DK’s help and I would say that it was a mere exchange, IF the deity girl wasn’t the Shin of life.
Here the Deity girl has the upper hand in power, even though DK doesn’t know it.
As for the deity girl, we don’t know how she handles her flowers. We only know what MM told DK that he was there since her (and everyone’s) birth. DK, because of her diagnosis and wish, became in tune with Myul Mang.
I don’t believe in callous Gods. There are so many greek mythologies, for example the Orphic one and I have to check because I am not sure, who wrote the one we all know now.
So, if the deity girl is callous that means she fits the yin and yan criteria, where there is good in evil and evil in good.
Still, for me is bizarre the Shin of life to be callous and take pleasure, not only hurting her creations aka the garden, but also her “son” who is the Shin of everything that disappears.
As for the colour yellow, I know that in the beginning meant jealousy. I still recall that a fellow student brought me yellow roses at my birthday and I looked to see what that meant. I was perplexed at first, but then I realized that he had a crush on me.
So, I want to believe that Kim Sa Ram brought flowers to DK for romantic reasons in order to show his feelings.
I agree with you and I have to say that I am afraid that “mommy dearest” is simply jealous. If that is the case, then I will rant with you!
My dear @Cleo, noted on all your points. We have now to watch the show tonight and tomorrow and see how far we are on the right track.
@pkml3 Yes, the contract was broken, but how to sue?? LOL.
And the previews do show us DK in distress, wheeled into hospital or whatever. I imagine she was there because of the pain (the pain meds didn’t work?) so yes it seems that contract had kept her feeling fine.
Oh, a little reminder to please open a new thread for Episodes 7 and 8 please!! Much thanks!
Thanks for the reminder, @GB.
I made the new thread. It’s scheduled to come out at midnight.
I agree with @Cleo that GD is callous. I went back to rewatch some of the scenes to try to gauge her (GD) intentions. Her interest in the red bracelet was definitely intentional. She waited for MM to emerge from the car, watching him approach from the corner of her eye before she turned her interest back to DK and asked about the bracelet which seemed to freak MM out. I think MM understands that she is “above” him and she can override him in any circumstance. There was genuine fear in his eyes when he saw how she “interfered”.
I am wondering if GD’s experiment is more so to ensure that MM re-engages with his emotions once more? Because it would make zero sense for her to just be jealous and want him for herself because let’s face it, DK is human and she will die at some point whilst MM and GD are immortal and will keep on living. Unless she’s the petty sort and just wants him for herself all the time. She was amused that he had shed tears at her “funeral”. Not sure how a deity loses her omniscience but okay😂. So does she just want him to re-engage with his emotions so that she can have another being to talk to (for eternity) on an emotional level? And DK is just the catalyst? She didn’t know that MM shed tears for her at her funeral? Did she want (in a selfish kind of way) someone to “mourn” her passing as a Deity (not as her human form – because there were mourners at her last funeral). Because it looked like MM shut his emotions off after that. Does she just want companionship on an emotional level in their metasphere?
Thanks @pkml3, your midnight would be in 6 hours time? See you!
@nrllee
Yup, both @Cleo and I said GD is callous. She was deliberate in her actions of interference. She chose the time when MM was not nearby to approach DK again outside the hospital. There was likely no reason to ask for help to open the bottle. She pretended at first that she did not recognise DK. She chose not to speak about her illness so that DK would naturally notice the plant pot and ask about that instead. Then she gave her the marble/sphere. That part seems to have been the reason she approached DK. I’m not sure if the rest of the conversation was supposed to make sense to DK but her having that marble in her possession was a change in their interaction.
I notice that both times when GD intervened, she began with a request/question. She expressed a so-called need and then DK responded. If DK had been more callous herself and ignored GD, I wonder what would have happened. By responding, DK opened herself up to interacting with another deity, without knowing it, and possibly, unwittingly participating in her schemes.
I just got caught up on DAYS which sent me on a google search of Greek and the Korean mythology. I don’t know if this has been brought up in the blog already, but there is a Korean God Igong who tends over the flower garden of life and death. The flowers each representing humans. And this God is specific to Jeju Island which is where the Aunt lives and presumably where DK grew up. Need to dig deeper to see how jealousy plays out in the myth. This reminds me a bit of Dangerous Liaisons in the sense of the god(dess) putting in motion a courtship and not liking the outcome.
Thanks for the info @Good Twin. Sounds like it’s worth delving into.
( •⌄• ू )✧
Hey my lovely @GB,
Kalimera. Let us see how it will go tonight. I do hope we are given some answers to our questions / thoughts.
I agree with what you wrote above to @nrllee. 🙂
@GoodTwin Thank you for the info, I am also looking information for that god.