First, thanks nrllee for letting us know that there are titles for each episode.

Ep1 – I’m really dying
Ep2 – Hold my hand
Ep3 – living together with MM
Ep4 – how to love MM
Ep5 – why would she do that?
Ep6 – Now what?

Episode 5’s title “Why would she do that?” had me grinning. It told me that spotlighting the word “Guenyang” was the right thing to go Link here: Doom at Your Service: Ep 5 On “Geunyang”

Question: Why would she save him from the madman?
Answer: Just because.

MM was convinced he found the right person in DK, and I could see why. When MM told her that he was going off to work, she asked to go with him. He didn’t need to know her reason. Most likely he was expecting her to say, “Just because.” Unlike the others who feared, hated, or wanted something from him, she treated him like an ordinary human being.

Second, I think the reset is necessary. I’ll explain.

The Girl Deity (GD) styled herself as the gardener of humans. She created the butterfly MM to work for her but she noticed that the butterfly had become listless and morose tending the garden as Doom incarnate. It wanted out.

What was she going to do? She didn’t have any other butterfly to replace MM?

I say the scriptwriter of this drama borrowed a page from the Genesis book of the Bible. Adam was also feeling lonely in the garden of Eden so God created Eve. Similarly, MM was lonely, and the Girl Deity most likely created a companion for the butterfly MM on his birthday.

Of course, MM wasn’t to know about the Girl Deity’s plan for him.

GD:  Go! Go and become someone’s wish. Today is the only day you can do such a thing.
MM: (grumbling) Even my birthday isn’t for me.
GD: For humans.

The Girl Deity meant DK to be MM’s companion in her garden but there were many impediments. I count at least three.

Her first problem was how to make the attraction between DK and MM bloom without being noticed. She had to make everything look like happenstance because MM would abhor interference in his affairs and manipulation of events. In fact when MM discovered that the Deity staged a meeting with DK, he was swift to retaliate. While he could hardly attack the GD, DK was an easy target because she was human. He withdrew his protection and abandoned her to feel pain. Then he mocked her for believing him to be compassionate being. He only stopped his cruelty when DK moved to jump off the rooftop.

The Deity’s second problem was how to grow MM’s feelings for DK when he was adamant that he felt no emotions. The GD knew he was in major denial about his budding compassion and empathy for DK.

(Thanks, @GB, for writing the subs.)

GD: Do you realise what it means to have compassion?
MM: I don’t know what that is.
GD: No, you do. You just tell yourself that you don’t. You smile a lot and feel bad for her, don’t you? Your feelings will grow.
MM: Never.
GD: Do you think you can let her die?
MM: She was fated to die, to begin with.
GD: Can’t you change her fate?
MM: How can I worry about her? How can I feel bad for her.
GD: You pity yourself the most in the world, don’t you?

Touché! Of course, he knew how to feel pity. How could he not when he’d been self-pitying non-stop? He must be an expert of pity. I like the GD’s sarcasm.

MM: What about you. Do you know what compassion is?
GD: I pity the person who will die in place of her, in case you break the contract.

The GD had her work cut out. Convincing MM that he had feelings was only half of it. Convincing DK that MM was only pretending to be a cold and unfeeling person was the other half. That’s the reason she bumped on DK. She wanted DK to remember her first encounter with MM as a child. She once spotted him at the funeral home, weeping as if his heart was breaking. This “retrieved” memory convinced DK that MM wasn’t unfeeling as he claimed to be.

In addition, the Deity’s “accidental” encounter with DK conveniently awakened MM’s protective instincts toward DK. He believed that the god was up to no-good so he was vigilant that no harm would come over DK. He stuck by DK’s side to watch over her.

By Episode 6, the GD’s plan to grow MM’s feelings finally worked.

As @GB had written,

MM’s feelings have grown, and he can no longer let DK die. He asked her to love him, so that he could die in her place. He wanted to save her. This is MM doing an about-face.

His feelings changed for her.

MM: I thought I made the wrong choice of picking you.
DK: Do you still think that?
MM: No. I think I picked well. So that led me to conclude this…Love me. If you can love me, do so. I thought that will be a good method. So, become the first human to ever love me.

credit: deokmis’ tumblr

But while the GD’s plan for MM appeared to be working out, the GD’s third problem came to a head: how to make a human being like DK choose death and doom over life.

You see, DK had a lot of adjustment and learning to do if she was to accompany MM for a life of doom. Would she withstand such an existence for eternity? Was she willing to be beside him forever “just because”? Would she throw away the world for him just like what GD told MM, “Love can be more dangerous than you think. To protect their loved ones, they can throw away the world”?

To me, as of Episode 6, she wasn’t ready to be MM’s life-companion.

I thought it was symbolic that they were watching a traditional marriage scene when MM proposed to her. Unlike an ordinary marriage between a man and woman, being MM’s partner for all ages presented extraordinary challenges for DK.

MM: Love me.
DK: So what does…that mean?

She was wondering what made him suddenly change his mind. She doubted that he fell in love with her. She suspected that he was up to his usual tricks and wordplay.

MM: Saving me, you said you just did it. So you told me to just thank you. This is how I’m just saying thank you.

Note how he mimicked her “geunyang.” If you listen to this segment, he repeated said “geunyang” as if to stress that he was doing this without ulterior motive. He was downplaying his sacrifice. He was offering to sacrifice himself “just because.”

But DK wasn’t buying it. She suspected that he was using this as an excuse to escape from his tormented existence.

DK: You just want to die.
MM: (denying) 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. I’ve come to the conclusion that I…can’t live happily after killing you. So stop playing around.

Three points here:

1. I don’t think she fully realized the depths of MM’s torment.

She said that she couldn’t live happily after killing MM. But if the thought of killing MM left her unhappy, then what more of MM? As Mr. Doom, he had killed, was still killing, and would kill countless more lives than he could bear. Her sadness was small-scale when compared to MM’s misery.

That’s why MM wanted to die. He couldn’t go on as Doom.

2. How could she be MM’s companion for eternity when the mere thought of killing him was already unbearable to her? Bloodshed was intrinsic to MM’s job. She would have to get used to blood shed by a psycho and by a hero, by a stranger or a loved one.

Besides, what happened to the girl who smiled at her parents’ funeral or ate cake on their memorial? What happened to the girl who tried to comfort MM with scientific trivia, that he was like a dying supernova about to burst into a new star?

3. Her feelings were important to her. She said she would live miserably for the rest of her life after she killed him. On the surface, this sentiment sounded romantic enough. But by kdrama standard, her attitude was wholly inadequate. The true measurement of love in kdrama is taking on all the pain for the loved one even when the pain is unbearable.

Kdramas are masochistic, don’t you know? 😂

In Episode 4, MM said that he couldn’t die even when he tried killing himself.

MM: If I could, I would have died a long time ago.
DK: I can’t kill you, I’ll at least make you miserable so that you can live in misery forever.

credit: dramaism’s tumblr

If she truly loved him, she wouldn’t want him to live miserably for eternity. She’s step in and shoulder his pain. She’s be willing to free him from his never-ending misery even if it meant sacrificing her long-term personal happiness.

I remember in “Hotel del Luna,” the heroine ManWol was punished to live for centuries to atone for her sins. When she finally had a chance to pass on to the afterlife, she was reluctant to die because she didn’t want to leave Chansung behind. So he told her to go in peace. Because he loved her, he’d endure the sorrow of losing her, and the hardship of being alone for the rest of his life.

That’s true love by kdrama standard. ❤️

That’s one possible interpretation of GD’s remark that “Love can be more dangerous than you think. To protect their loved ones, they can throw away the world.” And DK hadn’t reached that level yet of loving MM that she’s throw away her own safe world.

🤨

Since DK was unwilling to see MM die, she resorted to Plan B which is to search for another man to love and die in MM’s place. MM found it strange that she was trying to detach from him after vowing that she’d make him fall for her, and he mentioned her bizarre behavior to the GD when they met the following day. The GD just thought that they were a match.

To me, she was checking up on DK when they met at the hospital.

(Thanks @Cleopatra for writing down the Viki subs!)

DK: What is that flowerpot?
GD: This? I am waiting for it to sprout.
DK: What did you plant?
GD: Well, I don’t know whether it will sprout or not, and what it’ll be if it does sprout.
DK: (thinking) What if something strange sprouts?
GD: I will have to pull it out.
DK: Pull it out?
GD: It’s okay. I just have to plant it again since this is mine. That’s not mine but this is mine.
DK: Then I hope that something nice sprouts.
GD: I hope so, too. I’ve put in a lot of care into it and waited for it since it’s my first-time planting. I am done drinking so I am leaving. (offering her a gift) This is a gift since you opened my drink for me.

Talking about her flowerpot, GD sounded hopeful that something good would come out of it. If she meant the flowerpot to represent DK and MM’s relationship, then she was cautiously optimistic about their future.

Also I see the toy capsule the GD gave DK as something that would come in handy in the future. It could be that GD was giving it to her to hold onto should she need something to cheer her up. Or it could be something to remind her to embrace both light and darkness, life and death.

If you ask me what changed the GD’s forecast for MM and DK’s relationship from “cautiously optimistic” to “requiring a reset,” it was DK’s ditching Plan B for Plan C. Instead of simply searching for a replacement for MM, she listened to coworker Joo-ik’s suggestion to change the plot of her romance. Bad mistake.

JI: Then, you should say you want to experience deep love with him.
DK: What?
JI: Isn’t that how all romance begins?
DK: Sincerely. Sincerely, make me love you. Is that what I’m supposed to wish for? That’s really the only thing I can wish for!
JI: What are you saying? There’s the opposite.
DK: Instead of me loving you, make you love me. If possible, crazily.

To me, the GD didn’t mind the couple’s bonding time in the rain. MM was looking happy. He put a positive spin on getting drenched. He told DK not to mind walking without an umbrella, and enjoy the rain.

To my ears, MM sounded transformed. He wasn’t his usual doom and gloomy self.

Surely, the GD wouldn’t mind this new MM.

But when DK wished for MM to love her, and MM followed it up with a kiss, the Girl Deity talking about reset for the budding romance.

GD: If you mess with the system, it means you were programmed incorrectly. Anything incorrect … should be deleted or should be reset.

Three things here:

1. This was the first time the Deity compared MM and DK’s relationship to a computer program; she always used the flowerpot metaphor. By switching to a computer as a metaphor, she made the relationship between the two sound calculated and engineered. In contrast, the flowerpot metaphor made the budding relationship seem organic and natural

2. In light of what I said about DK’s willingness to sacrifice her happiness for the good of MM, I think her wish for MM to love her was taking the easy way out. MM would be doing the sacrifice for her when it should have been her carrying MM’s burden for him.

3. Listening to JooIk wasn’t a good idea.

🌸🌸🌸🌸

Ending here.