I’m sure you’ve all thoroughly covered the romance aspect of this episode, so I’ll just give the sports/fencing perspective.
1. A note on the Coach
Sidenote: Her plumped up lips, “aegyo sal,” taut cheeks, and hooked chin bother me. Did the actress undergo plastic surgery? Or is her character supposed to be a plastic surgery monster?
Anyway, the character’s face isn’t the real issue.
It’s her tolerance of bullying in her fencing club.
Heedo: (speaking about the senior fencer) Why won’t she let us train at night? She threw a fit when we did last time.
Sophomore: She can’t stand to see others do better or train harder than she does.
Heedo: That’s all? She can’t stand seeing others do well?
Sophomore: (nodding head)
Heedo: Can’t we complain to Coach?
Sophomore: We did once before, and we all got punished. We were here until 11 p.m.
That’s just wrong.
Granted, the story was set in 1998/99. Back then, people didn’t know better. But now, it’s easy to recognize that this coach was part of the problem. She chose to be indifferent to the bullying that was happening in her club.
Bullying in youth sports begins and ends with the coach.
When her young players complained to her, she should’ve listened to them. She could’ve guided them on how to respond to the bully. If she held that lecture on winning and losing after Heedo-Yurim’s fencing match, then she could’ve called another team meeting to instruct them on the code of conduct. Any concerned coach would’ve reprimanded the bully and warned her of consequences if she was found bullying again. Shoulda, coulda, woulda didn’t play.
Instead, this coach punished the victims. 🤦♀️
By doing so, she sent the message that she condoned bullying. She empowered the bully and made the victims feel even more helpless. It’s no wonder that Yurim felt that she had to suffer the abuses in silence. She knew that the coach wouldn’t lift a finger to fix the problem, and that reporting the incidents would only get her in more trouble.
See that? The toxic atmosphere in the club was created and exacerbated by this coach’s clear neglect and lackadaisical supervision.
Nowadays, the high school staff who tolerates bullying on her watch should be reported to the proper authorities.
2. The “right-of-way” continues
Heedo established priority when she arrived at the comics rental shop before Yurim.
Heedo: Full House volume 12.
YiJin: Yes. It did come out but they’ve all been rented out.
Heedo: Volume 12 came out…but you didn’t expect me? Is that all I mean to you?
Touché. While he was thoughtful enough to give her the new passcode for the restroom that morning, it didn’t make sense that he forgot the release of her favorite manga that afternoon. How could he?
YiJin: (lying) Sorry. I’ll save you one once it comes back.
He offered her another comic book instead. While he was looking for it in the stacks, she spotted the Full House he hid.
Heedo: Stop right there. I’m experiencing what it means for my blood to run cold. Explain yourself.
YiJin: The thing is…
Yurim: (bursting in) Oppa, Volume 12… (surprised to see Heedo there) What’s this?
Heedo: Was it you? Did you ask him to hold it? Baek YiJin, tell me straight. Did she ask you to hold it?
The contrast between the two girls was discernible by the way they addressed YiJin. Yurim called him “Oppa” but Heedo called him by his full name. Too bad, the subs don’t include these. These details not only underscore the differences in the relationships but also the use of aegyo. Heedo seldom used aegyo with YiJin; she spoke to him like she did with her other friends, JiWoong and Seungwan.
Yurim: Do you know each other? How?
Heedo: Can’t you tell? He’s an employee at a book rental store and I’m a regular.
She was letting him know that their relationship was a simple business one.
Heedo: (continuing) But that employee screwed over a loyal customer and gave special treatment to someone from another town.
YiJin: Girls, calm down. Let me explain.
Yurim: What is there to explain? I called and reserved it first.
Heedo: You can’t reserve books here. It’s first come, first served.
She had priority.
YiJin: If you put it that way, I gave you special treatment for Full House volume 11.
Heedo: What now? What was that?
Yurim: Whatever. Oppa, you choose. Who will you lend it to? Me or her?
Heedo: No! Don’t choose. You have no authority. It’s obvious I should get it.
True that. She had the right-of-way. If rules were followed, she would get the comics.
YiJin: Stop it! If you two keep it up, I’ll rip this up. (the girls grabbed the comics) Girls. We can’t bend the book. Girls. I’m begging you. I’m sorry. Darn it. (getting the comics back) I admit I broke the rule. I’m truly sorry for causing this. But Yurim. I’m really sorry. But this store is run on a membership system, so this copy of Full House will have to go to Heedo.
Heedo: (grabbing the book) Nice. That’s right. (paying up) Do you know how much money I’ve spent here?
Yurim: How could you do this?
YiJin: I’m sorry. But strictly speaking, you have a membership with our competitor.
And that’s the “right-of-way” applied outside of fencing. Heedo is a stickler for the rules. But this “right-of-way” also applies to girls’ relationships with YiJin. Just like Heedo had asked whether he was dating Yurim, Yurim was curious about his relationship with Heedo.
Yurim: How close are you and Heedo? You two seemed really close.
YiJin: I owe her a favor. And I’m grateful to her.
Yurim: You know she transferred into my school’s fencing team?
YiJin must think that the two girls were mirroring each other. Heedo also mentioned that she was on the same team as Yurim.
YiJin: I know. I even know what she did in order to transfer.
The irony here is Yurim indirectly knew what Heedo had to go through in order to transfer because she was Injeolmi. However, she was unaware of this fact since she and Heedo were chatting with usernames.
Yurim: I don’t like her. She rubs me the wrong way. So don’t get too close to her, Oppa.
YiJin: You’re being childish.
Yurim: You were my first love! So you should do that much for me.
There. She was asserting her right-of-way by emotional blackmail. She had priority because she knew YiJin first as her “first love.” YiJin quickly disabused her of her delusion.
YiJin: I was your first love? Past tense? Not anymore? Because my family went bankrupt?
Yurim: Yah!
YiJin: When you were in the ninth grade, right? Should I tell you the truth about your first love?
Flashback of him driving up in his red convertible and offering to drop her off at her practice. 🤔 What’s up with the bike and red convertible? As Dosan in “Start-Up,” he rode on them, too.
YiJin: Your first love wasn’t me. But my sports car. You thought I was a pathetic loser before then.
Yurim: I did not.
YiJin: Yes, you did.
Yurim: I did. Damn it. How annoying. That means my first love wasn’t a person.
YiJin: Hey. What’s annoying? It means you’re still waiting for your first love. Isn’t that exciting?
I like how YiJin let her down easily. He didn’t lead her on. He wasn’t romantically interested in her.
I also like how he kneeled when he talked to her. He was getting down to her eye level like a parent would when talking to a child.
This was different from when he talked with Yurim. He sat beside her or stood in front of her.
To me, his body language, or his body orientation, indicates visually how he related to the two girls. With Yurim, he must “age up” because she acted infantile.
With Heedo, on the other hand, he could act his age. Although Heedo was childish (e.g., crying in the street) at times, she wasn’t disposed to aegyo behavior. Plus, she would surprised him with her mature insights on life.
3. Three-legged march
I like how the piggyback trope was replaced by the three-legged march. I thought for sure that he was going to offer her to hop on his back because of the way he knelt before her.
But come to think of it, this was a nice payback for her comment earlier. I also thought that she was going to say something sentimental.
Heedo: I thought you couldn’t see your dad because of me. I felt so bad that I didn’t think I could face you again. And that terrified me.
There. I was expecting her to say that she wasn’t ready to lose him because he was the best thing that ever happened to her. Blah blah blah.
Instead, she was only terrified for a rather self-centered reason: her source of Full House might be jeopardized.
Heedo: (woefully) Then I can’t go to rent Full House.
YiJin: (snorting)
Heedo: (voice trembling) I’d have to find another store.
YiJin: (smiling)
To me, their three-legged march home was another great symbolism. They were both handicapped by their particular circumstances. But they could reach their destination together when they synchronized their acts and got their rhythm going.
4. Classic sign of abuse
Yurim displayed one reason victims do not try to escape their abusers. They fear that their abuser will become more violent.
Heedo: Why should we apologize? You were always like this, weren’t you?
Yurim walked away but Heedo blocked her with the sabre. Yurim struck it out of her way.
YR: You’re both equally impossible to talk to. It would have been over if you had apologized. Talking back like you only makes then nag and abuse us more.
See that? She was siding with the bully although the bully was prodding her with the sabre. If Heedo hadn’t stepped in, she would have endured the jabs without complaining.
YR: (continuing) Life becomes easier if you back down briefly.
No. Backing down only emboldened the bully to do strike her harder and longer next time.
I disliked how the writer swept the issue of bullying under the rug after Heedo made a big show of her apology in the following episode. To me, the lesson for the viewers was “Oh well! Bullies will be bullies. You just have to appease them.” It sent the wrong message when the bully wasn’t appropriately censured or disciplined, and the Coach didn’t intervene on the victims’ behalf.
Heedo: How is it any easier? You can’t train properly and have to tiptoe around them. You have to lose to them in a spar and in official matches too. How is that easy?
YR: That only applies to average fencers like you, not to me.
Here. Yurim was displaying one ugly reality of bullying: sooner or later, the victim assimilates the ways of her tormentor. She’s redirecting her frustration, resentment, and other negative feelings for her bully to a “weaker” target like Heedo.
Also, Yurim’s superiority complex actually concealed her insecurity that Heedo was better than her. She knew that Heedo was the acclaimed child prodigy of fencing.
YR: (continuing) If you stand out, everyone wants to support you.
Heedo: Average fencers should shut up no matter how they’ve been wronged?
YR: (coldly) Don’t disrespect what I’ve had to endure.
To me, Yurim was just thinking of her pain and her survival. In the future, if she sees a junior fencer similarly bullied, she won’t risk her neck (or her position and reputation) to defend that poor fencer. She won’t speak out against unfair or wrong practices. With this kind of mindset, she isn’t destined to be a trailblazer or crusader like Heedo.
Heedo: Sure. What a gold medalist had to endure is worth much more than what an average fencer like me endured. Well, I guess there are tiers even in effort although everyone endured the same.
This is the moment when Heedo realized that her idol had feet of clay. She had put Yurim on a pedestal for nothing. And we all know that love and hate are two sides of the same coin.
Heedo: I really liked and idolized you. I think that’s exactly how much I can loathe you from now on. Clean the floor by yourself. I did nothing wrong, so I won’t do it.
Good for her! Why should she help Yurim when Yurim found her effort contemptible? Even if they cleaned the floor side by side and exerted the same hard work, in Yurim’s mind, she bore the brunt of the labor. Because she was a gold medalist and Heedo a nonentity, Heedo’s suffering was inconsequential.
I would’ve left YuRim to do the job on her own, too.
5. Controlling the distance
YiJin: What is it? What’s wrong? Hmm? You said we should be happy when we’re together. It doesn’t work if it’s one-sided.
Heedo: Then can you say something, no questions asked?
YiJin: What is it?
Heedo: “Yurim was in the wrong.”
YiJin: (silent)
Heedo: You can’t. Can you?
YiJin: I don’t know what –
She walked out and he went after her.
YiJin: Na Heedo. Na Heedo. Don’t just leave like that.
Heedo: I’ve had a really crappy day. Was that so hard to say? It’s not like you had to mean it. I’ve always been on your side.
YiJin: “Yurim was in the wrong.” Does saying that help you feel better? I don’t think it does.
Heedo: (stares at him) I just realized why I’m not a good fencer. Controlling the distance between you and your opponent is the most important thing in fencing. I think I’ve failed at that. I’ve expected too much from Yurim and from you.
Here’s another fencing metaphor that needs to be explained.
Controlling the distance is more important with the sabre than with the foil and epee, because the whole blade – not just the tip of the sword – can touch the fencer, resulting in a point for the opponent. By “controlling the distance,” a fencer has to judge the right distance between her and the opponent. If she’s too far from her opponent, then she’s going to miss her opponent when she lunges for the attack. If she’s too close to her opponent, then she risks getting touched by the opponent’s blade.
Thus, distance is important, and the fencer must use her judgment to determine the correct distance in order to hit her opponent.
To me, the fencing scene in Episode 4 could be viewed in conjunction with this fencing metaphor of controlling distance. (I’m jumping ahead because I don’t know when I’ll have time to write about Ep 4.)
YiJin dropped by her fencing hall and they played a match together. After the match, she practiced some more while talking to him. She forgot the time and the lights turned off at 11 pm.
He walked up to her, picked up her sabre and pressed it against his lamé (or fencing jacket) so there’d be light.
YiJin: You are by far the most experienced fencer when it comes to losing. Those losses were blocks to build yourself stairs leading up. Think about it. Now you’ve got the highest staircase. Take your time to climb it and take whatever you want.
The lights turned off again. And she slashed him with her sabre.
Heedo: Why do you root for me? Even my mom doesn’t.
YiJin: Because you give me hope. And I want more for you.
To me, he was subtly telling her that she was mistaken when she said that expected too much from him.
She didn’t have to worry about controlling the distance with him. She didn’t have to worry in case he failed to live up to her expectations. He would come through for her.
Once again, he was fulfilling what Injeolmi had written to Heedo.
6. The problem-solver
Ever since they met, Heedo expected YiJin to be smarter and solve the problems she put out for him.
When she was angry that the pissing boy lost his pecker,
When she broke her sandal,
When she couldn’t unlock the restroom door because of the math problem,
When she got mad with Yurim,
And when the lights turned off leaving them both in the dark.
He smiled in the dark. He knew without being told that she was expecting him to figure out something.
In all these instances, she expected him to come up with the solution, and he did. Sooner or later.
In a sense, she was rooting for him to solve the situation, and her confidence in him made him try harder. When he was feeling “mentally weak,” he needed her because her self-confidence — and her confidence in him — boosted his morale.
Similarly, he was confident that she would find a way to overcome her losing streak in fencing because he was rooting for her. He was hoping for her success because he identified with her. There was no distance between them since he saw himself in her.
More on this in Episode 4. Toodles!
Thanks for your analysis @packmule3. Since you’re on the subject of fencing I’ve been curious about (high school) sports culture in SK as depicted in this show (and other k-dramas).
Are SK high schoolers who are on sports teams really exempt from going to class?! It doesn’t just seem to be Olympics-level athletes but anyone on a sports team. (For example, when NHD shows up at her new school and says she is on the fencing team, someone at the school says, Oh, then, you won’t be going to class much). They only have to show up for class for minimum attendance and exams–which, apparently, they don’t even seem to need to pass; they will still promoted. I can’t think of any equivalent to this in the USA except maybe those athletes who train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado don’t go to (regular) school? Most high school athletes I know, even those who went on to successful sports careers, took a full load of classes.
Also–is fencing that big a deal in SK? I can’t name one famous American fencer, but people on the street seem to recognize the older NHD.
@BethB @welmaris researched this and put down all the Olympic gold medals South Korea has won in fencing (go to the Ep5/6 open thread and scroll down close to the bottom). I didn’t realize how successful they were in this sport till she listed them out. So yes it is a big thing in South Korea. Maybe not with a huge following like soccer is but they’ve definitely had successes there.
SPOILER
And perhaps the level of public interest and popularity of the sport can be gauged by the lottery draw for the TV coverage by the stations (in Ep6).
@packmule3 I am glad I wasn’t the only one perturbed by lady Coach’s face. 😂. I kept looking at her lips and wondering if she had fillers or if her taut face was botoxed 😂.
Yes to the 3 legged march. Symbolic that they were BOTH each other’s support. No one was more supportive than the other. Had he piggybacked her, she would’ve been the one seen to be solely relying on him. Theirs is a team effort. They were both marching in time together towards a goal.
As for the sunbae “bullying”, looking at it through a cultural lens, it’s acceptable. Sunbaes have an unspoken authority level and respect due based on their seniority. If they say no training late, then that rule stands. Breaking the rules they lay down makes them “lose face” and usurps that hierarchy. Yes it is bullying and abuse and unacceptable nowadays but it was probably acceptable then. HD’s speech to the sunbae allowed her (sunbae) to still “save face” and be seen to be the person with authority but forced her to be “magnanimous” to allow the juniors to practise late. Keeping the hierarchy intact but still getting her (HD) way regardless.
I love all the references you’ve highlighted through the episodes with fencing terms/rules and how you’ve broken it down for us 🍪🍪🍪. Makes the drama so much more enjoyable. 👍🙂
Apparently in the broadcasting club, the seniors threw their weight around too.
@nrllee, I thought that HD was very clever with her ultimate response to the bully. She asked that the whole team train together in the evenings, right? Very loudly.
“I assure you, I will never train at night alone….Instead, I would like to train at night with everyone… If we all train together it will boost our morale and efficiency. It will be good for all of us.” Then she said that she would like the older girl to join her. “I need your guidance.” She goes completely OTT, throwing herself at the older girl’s feet. Even YR was smiling, as was Coach Yang behind the door. I thought it was both hilarious and very astute.
Thanks @pkml3! I really like that you’ve pointed out how the situation in relationships illustrate aspects of fencing, (and vice versa).
I didn’t apply the right of way to fencing.
I agree with @nrllee. I believe I didn’t deplore the bullying as much, because it was such a cultural thing. We even see Seung Wan from the Broadcasting Club, being super sensitive about seniority, because the Club was like that. She’d made a big boo-boo, contravening the taboo of talking back and being rude to her revered sunbae, YJ.
Her attempts to make right on her mistake were laughable, but they showed how ingrained the attitude of seniority and hierarchy is, from the youngest age, and how it is expected in every area of life.
It encourages bullies, but as we see in HD’s case, it forced one to be creative in getting on past one’s sunbaes. Her strategy was to be bull-headed and persistent in respecting her sunbae, typical Hee Do stuff LOL, but it worked.
In just the way living life well can be applied to a game like fencing, (since Coach was telling her she needed to strategise more in her game), the way of fencing well can also be applied to real life. Whether it’s to give way, know the right of way, maintaining the right distance, when to charge forward and when to pull back, to attack or to parry.
I’ve never been interested in fencing until now! LOL
Really well put, @Growing Beautifully.
It also reminded me of the delaying, flustering tactics of the last of the opponents. Just within the guidelines of the rules, and a sort of attempt to gain psychological advantage. Not Hee Do’s type of thing, so I think she was very surprised by it. But I also think she will also learn something from it that she can use.
Hi @Fern, that’s true… the psychological game is not HD’s style, but she’ll encounter this in real life. She is direct and not at all subtle. Fair, above-board, but the kind to take the bull by the horns and nothing else.
I really like that no matter how angry she was at YR, she never did anything to hurt her or allow her to be hurt. Her sense of justice is A++.
As for the psychological game … she needed Coach Yang’s perspective to see her opponent’s tactics for what they were, and to know how to respond to them. If instead of responding, she’d reacted out of frustration, she’d have handed control over to the opponent, and likely lost the match.
We see that when she was upset by the delaying tactics, HD was super frustrated that the referee did nothing to warn the opponent. But once again, Coach got her to look for a solution by looking to her own strengths, instead of expecting someone else to step in. It was a great teaching moment at a crucial, high stress point, and it was amazing that the teaching hit home at once.
Thanks @PM3 for another good write up! I totally agree that coach is letting the bullying fester in the team. She did not even address that when Heedo mentioned it to her and talked about strategy blah-blah. I don’t trust her that much but she believes in Heedo so I hope she can have a redemption arc as well.
Seniority is ingrained in asian culture in general and it’s a challenge to navigate around that. Kudos to Heedo for finding a clever way to do it and for Yijin not using it against Seungwan.
I like the 3 legged walk as well vs piggyback (Heedo’s save on that was so funny). They are both putting in the work to get to their goals, they also have to be in synch!
Heedo is definitely a formidable, memorable and one of my favorite FL in kdrama. I actually like Yijin’s role better than Nam Dosan because Dosan was so love-struck and super focused on Dalmi. In 25/21, the friendship is focused more and their struggles to success (but we still get a lot of heart fluttering moments).
@PM3 – can you also do a thread for the OSTs also? They are really good, the lyrics are so apt to the story and used well in the scenes, making it more memorable. Kumawo!!! With cookies 🍪 🍪🍪 and ice cream 🍦 🍦🍦
At the beginning of this drama, we see Hee Do trying to be a problem solver, but going about it all wrong. Her problem was to continue being on a high school fencing team, ideally the same high school where her idol, YooRim, trains. Hee Do goes about solving her problem all wrong because she resists the most logical first step in her solution: getting her mother involved. Yi Jin gave Hee Do credit for her basic solution–transferring high schools–and gently steers her toward a more likely method than compulsory transfer for delinquent behavior.
As @Packmule3 outlines above, Hee Do leans on Yi Jin as her problem solver because she finds him practical and confident. To grow up herself, Hee Do also needs to cultivate a practical and confident manner of thought. I think learning from Yi Jin’s example will help her get there.
@Packmule3’s discussion on controlling the distance makes me think of the difference in how Hee Do and Yoo Rim handle Yi Jin’s disappearance in episodes 5 & 6. Yoo Rim feels abandoned by Yi Jin: her focus is on herself, and with him gone, the distance between them seems overwhelming to her. Hee Do is saddened by Yi Jin’s sudden disappearance, but chooses to trust his reasons and ability to take care of himself, and puts her focus on being an example of strength to him. By adopting that mindset, that she and Yi Jin are still a team even though they are apart, she reduces the distance between them.
@Welmaris you said it. When it comes to YR, everything is all about herself. How the fall out affects ME. How losing affects ME. How your snoring affects ME. She’s got a diva complex. Fed by those around her who pander to her needs and wants.
@packmule3
Thank you so much for your notes in this episode. I really like the Three legged march, and about Controlling the distance notes. Also thank you so much for your lesson about fencing. Here in my country fencing is not a popular game, so I have almost zero knowledge about it.
What makes me happy seeing HD and YJ relationship is that they influenced each other to bring out the best in them. No matter how far they were, how long they have not been talking with each other, their spirits are remained within each other’s soul.
I will be waiting for your next notes ♥️♥️
@Welmaris, I think that Hee Do is already learning how to solve SOME of her problems. I like the way she handled the older girls and the night practice issue, as well as the fencer who tried to fluster her. She also, although rather abrasively, handling YR’s antagonism well. -Although like others have written, HD has told YR to study her opponents’ fencing and to take care of her ankle, which may come back to bite HD. Ultimately their matches will be on an even field, and then true skill will win.
Thank you for this @packmule3! My favorite are the right-of-way write ups. My analysis skills are poor but it would be fun to to try and check out other instances in the future episodes. I’m loving this show, my comfort drama. It’s comforting that when life became difficult, YJ and HD found each other and have come to rely on each other.