Thanks, @GB!

I’m replying to @GB’s “Ad Hoc Thoughts” on Episode 2 out here on the blog. Note that I’ve already watched till Episode 6 so although spoilers are unintentional, they’re unavoidable. Proceed as you wish.

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Episode 2 Ad Hoc Thoughts

Hong Ye Sool protests often that she’s not interested in Cha Min Hu, and she really believes it, but her reaction when she sees that he goes up to speak with actress Oh Ji Young during the Billy shoot, suggests that his paying attention to the girl who calls him ‘oppa’ does affect her.

Yes, @GB. This is one of the things that confused me about our female lead, YeSool (YS). Although she tells her coworkers that he’ll make a bad boyfriend, she looked jealous when he chatted with Oh JiYoung.

I guess, she didn’t know that he was merely doing his job. Actresses like OJY can get temperamental when they feel ignored. Since he didn’t want any delay in the filming of their commercial, he played nice with her so she wouldn’t up and leave in the middle of the shoot.

He wasn’t trying to make YS jealous.

YS is convinced that the visions of the future always come true, and is floored by the fact that MH does not have a scar on his back as seen in her vision.

For a while there, YS thought her vision (or her “sixth sense”) was false because MH didn’t have the scar. I’m not sure if she was relieved or disappointed that her vision wouldn’t transpire. But when MH had the accident and was stitched up in the hospital, she realized that her vision was inevitable.

It’s noteworthy that during the hospital scene, MH was signaling to his friend, the good doctor Oh  Seongtaek (is he the actress’ brother?) not to talk about his illness in front of YeSool and to get YeSool out of the Emergency Room. He clearly didn’t want her to know about his condition.

I’m assuming that he received report about her from his friend. (Ha! Doctor-patient confidentiality isn’t recognized much in kdramas.)

MH’s enhanced senses are phenomenal because he’s way up in his apartment and not only does he hear the motorbike racing on the streets far below, but with his naked eyes, he can report the license plate numbers of the 3 motorbikes.

MH’s sense of smell is so acute, that long before the strong smelling homeless man comes to the pop-up store, he asks for air freshener. It’s almost as if he, too, has foreknowledge. He can also see that one of the frames of the display structure is not stable.

Yes. I thought it was odd when he wore dark glasses and earplugs after their kiss.

But then, JiYoung the actress mentioned that he got sick too when they kissed. He promptly corrected her and said they didn’t kiss. Their lips just bumped.

Which is pretty much what happened to his lips and YS’ lips. They bumped, too.

At least three of his senses, namely, his sense of sight, hearing, and smell, are already preternaturally keen, and kissing aggravates his condition. In a way, this is his “sixth sense.”

If YeSool gets a vision — or a “third eye” — after a kiss,

then he acquires an EXTRAsensory perception (ESP) after a kiss. Hence, the title “Kiss Sixth Sense.” It’s all about the kiss.

But do you know who else has a gift? Her coworker. lol. She didn’t actually see them on the bed together since she arrived too late.

But she “knew” they were in bed.

MH gives us a model of what a good mentor is: He expected that YS would make mistakes but says: “But since I let you take charge of the project, I thought I should let you experience going through the whole process too. And I still have faith in you.” He did not want her to be overly dependent on him but he still stood by with a more likely winning proposal in case YS failed in hers. At the end of the successful project, he gave credit to YS and to the team members. He even gave them a treat as a reward. The other Team Leaders are shown to be some of the worst types as foils to MH.

For me, @GB, the main takeaway here is that he had faith in her.

It would’ve been easier for him, and the whole team, if he had just told them his concept for the ad from the beginning. His idea was a sure winner. However, he let her go ahead with her own concept because he had faith in her creativity. Only when her plan failed due to unexpected circumstances (i.e., the weather and their lazy colleague) did he present his idea as a back-up plan.

I like that he gave her a chance to show her skills as a PM, although he knew that she wasn’t yet at his level of expertise. He showed that he was a great mentor.

We see that certain individuals have a bee in their bonnets about certain topics. Eom Ji has getting a boyfriend, and sex on her mind.

Min Hee keeps astutely guessing that there’s something going on between YS and MH (and later YS and Pil Yo). She repeatedly asks about these.

Oh! So that’s her name. MinHee. Yes, she has great intuition, doesn’t she?

As EJ and Min Hee speak about dating boss MH, YS lays out 2 scary scenarios of what it would be like to date their sociopathic boss. I don’t think she believes them herself, they are too over-the-top!

Scenario 1. MH comes up the stairs cheesily with flowers and balloons, while making a dramatic entrance for YS. But he pushes the balloons aside to demands to know if she read the ‘sign’ (as interpret his behaviour?) that he was going to ask her out that day. He proceeds to criticise her, then almost as an afterthought, he says she can go out with him if she likes, as he rudely tosses the bouquet of flowers at her.

YS’ point here is that he has no romantic bone in his body even though he’s going through the romantic motions.

Scenario 2. MH comes screeching YS’s name. He scolds her in high pitch tone for her incompetence. He tosses all her printouts into the air. Then suddenly asks if she knows how to kiss with much tongue flicking action LOLOL. (This show has a lot of tongue flicking. Eom Ji does it, now the imaginary MH does it and later Sang Goo does it too!!!) He demands a kiss although he can’t kiss her for the whole night. YS screams in protest as eyes bulging, he puckers and smacks his lips at her. LOL. Of course Min Hee and Eom Ji change their minds about dating the boss.

And here, she was saying that he doesn’t have sex appeal because he’d be brusque and domineering about his kisses.

But my takeaway here, @GB, is that Minho HEARD everything that YS said to her coworkers about him being a sociopath, and that he was hurt as a result of her rejection of him.

When she was asked why she didn’t she date him, she was horrified.

That’s the reason he was upset with her. Did you notice his behavior towards her afterwards?

a. He was subdued the following day when she presented her report to him. She noticed that he dismissed her without saying much.

b. He closed the elevator on her. He heard her calling out but he didn’t hold the door  for her.

c. He avoided her by pretending to be busy. She called out to him and he immediately got on the phone.

With his extra sensitive hearing, he definitely heard what she said about him and he was hurt. After all, he’d just told her that he had the utmost confidence in her.

The real MH shows up to stop YS from drinking another Red Bomb that keeps her awake. He tells her to do her work in a shorter time so that she can sleep instead of relying on Red Bomb. His concern shows up in his nagging.

Yes. He knows that YS drinks “Red Bomb” (this is a product placement but it works) to keep her energized. But in the same token, YS knows that he likes to snack on this chocolate brand.

This tells me that a) they’re familiar with each other’s quirks and habits, and b) there’s a backstory to this candy. This can’t just be another random PPL.

Oh Ji Young puts on a appearance to look sweet to the public, but because she overheard YS venting (badmouthing MH), she punishes her by making her get coffee. OJY is a petty, spoilt, entitled brat.

Yes, she’s spoiled brat, isn’t she? I like that Minhoo always asks her where her manager is, whenever she shows up solo uninvited. He obviously doesn’t want to be caught in a scandal with her.

The missing scar is explained when MH saves YS from falling backwards, himself landing on flower pots. His doctor friend tries to get him together with YS by making her drive MH home from hospital. We get to see the first time that YS drags MH home over her back. It’s interesting that this will not be the last time. There will also be a time (or more than 1 time?) when he’d be carrying her on his back as well.

This show has a few repeated tropes which bring in the manhwa feel.

YS cannot believe that she’d end up in bed with MH, while she recalls her vision of them in the future. She decides to check out the vision again. In the theme of being convincing, it seems YS herself has to be convinced. It takes 4 more episodes to convince her.

Yes. It takes about 4 more episodes to convince her that her vision isn’t an error.