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!