Red herrings.

1. Red Herring: Jung JiHo’s profession

He’s a family court judge.

The screenwriter tried to mislead us into thinking that he was the serial killer, but we didn’t fall for it. We weren’t sure whether he was a criminal profiler or lawyer, but I said he was an attorney because he mentioned animal protection laws and had leather bound books on the bookshelves. (These law books are just props, you know. Legal research is done online through Westlaw and Lexis.)

He was in the legal field alright. He was the judge who presided over her divorce six times in two years.

What amazed him about her was that she took responsibility every time. That quirk of hers attracted him because in his daily work, he’d seen enough people who blame others for their failures.

JiHo: Everyone is the same. Everyone says it’s not their fault. Even those who admit it was their fault, blame the other for their failure. Whenever I see them, I am killing her [meaning his wife or lived-in partner] in my mind repeatedly, although she’s already gone.

This confession of his tells me that he still resented his former partner, despite the fact that he admitted that their break-up was all his fault. He wasn’t any different from the complainants and respondents he encountered in his court.

I can only speculate on the possible reasons he sought the business arrangement with SangEun.

One, he had to work on his interpersonal skills as his boss ordered him, too.

Two, he learned his lesson from his first relationship. If he was to embark on a new one, he wanted someone who wouldn’t blame him should they fail. This time around, he wanted a no-fault divorce (or an uncontested divorce) as he didn’t want to go through the same emotional upheaval as he had before.

Three, he was attracted to SangEun from the moment they met.

2. Red Herring: The last dinner

They thought it was their last dinner, and since it was their last one, they were able to ask personal questions of each other.

JH: What will you do when you go abroad?
SE: I want to date. I’ve been married many times already, but I’ve never dated anyone. I didn’t have time for it either. That’s why I want to give it a try.

Keeping her personal life separate from business, she didn’t date the men she married for work. However, since she was too busy juggling these professional marriages, she didn’t have time to date for real.

SE: Don’t you want to date someone?
JH: It’s not my specialty either.
SE: What kind of woman do you want to meet?
JH: I don’t want to meet anyone.
SE: Don’t be like that.

She didn’t want him to take her question literally. She wanted him to be more forthcoming, to supply more details, and to answer her questions in a general sense. She was unconsciously teaching him how to be more sociable.

SE: You must have a celebrity you like or a type you’re drawn to.
JH: Well, not really.
SE: (insisting) But if you really, really, really had to choose?
JH: Why do I have to?
SE: Because it’s fun!
JH: (pausing) A woman who doesn’t wear makeup?

In other words, he likes a woman who’s simple, doesn’t need to pretend and is comfortable in her own skin.

SE: Men are always like that! No makeup? A bare face? They’re actually wearing a peach lipstick, naturally drawn eyebrow, eyelash extensions, and they cover the skin’s blemishes and pores. It’s full makeup.

As she was saying this, I thought of cosmetic surgery. If he was looking for a woman without cosmetics, then what did he think of women who underwent cosmetic surgery? I thought this was an awkward moment for Park MinYoung,

JH: (snorting)
SE: You can’t be fooled by that.
JH: (turning the tables one her) What kind of person do you want to meet?
SE: Someone who loves my bare face like that?
JH: (chuckling)
SE: I also don’t like my bare face.
JH: You’re looking for someone to like you when you dislike yourself. That won’t be easy.

SE: It won’t be easy for you, either.

They both laughed. Since SangEun revealed one of her insecurities to him, JiHo reciprocated by disclosing one of his.

JH: The thing is I’m not good at getting close with someone. I’m trying very hard, but I wonder if it’s necessary. But I think it’s a nice thing.
SE: What is?
JH: Having a smiling person in front of you.

She wasn’t this from him.

And she smiled.

From this dinner conversation, I gather two things:

a. while SangEun seemed attuned to other people’s feelings, JiHo was actually more astute and perceptive than SangEun gave him credit for.

b. JiHo paid her a very nice and sincere compliment. I wondered if that was his first time.

Anyway, all the angst of goodbye stirred up during this last dinner proved to be unnecessary because they met up again for another dinner a few days later. This time, they ate at a restaurant.

When they ordered their food, SangEun made sure to request that his food be cooked not too spicy. And when her soup came with black pepper, he requested another one without. Of course, this whole fuss about the food was to show that they knew each other eating habits very well after being married for five years,

Unfortunately, this sense of familiarity didn’t last long.

SE: I’ve a legal question. I’ve felt like someone has been watching me lately. A man in a helmet attacked me today. I did have clients with aggressive tendencies, but it felt very different this time.

Yes, I already commented about this in the Open Thread, didn’t I? Her two clients weren’t his attacker. Her ex-husband that she met in the shopping mall was too short. And her ex-husband who blocked her car in the parking lot was too quick-tempered to think ahead and wear a helmet to cover his face and wrap his knife in newspaper.

JH: How about his voice? Did he say anything?
SE: It sounded computerized. He called me dirty and cheap. Stuff like that. Do you think it’s a hate crime toward women?

She was asking whether this is a “random” act of violence towards women in general. He argued that her attack wasn’t arbitrary, but targeted.

JH: I don’t think it is.
SE: Why?
JH: Because you’re a plausible target? A lot of your clients likely have strong feelings toward you.
SE: “Target”? What kind of feelings?
JH: Probably negative ones. Frustration stemming their failure to possess. Hatred arising from those frustrated feelings.

JiHo was dispassionate as he gave a couple of examples of negative feelings.

SE: I did have a few clients like that. But there were very few of them.
JH: Women tend to be very suspicious of men. But they automatically believe that the men they know will be kind. You’d think that they’d become more aware that they’ve entered the danger zone by getting close to those men. It’s foolish.

He meant that women are generally suspicious of men. But when they become acquainted, familiar, close, or related to these men, they drop their guard. He believed that women should continue to be wary and cautious even when they’ve formed a relationship with men.

Again, he was being dispassionate about he gave his observation. However, SangEun got her hackles up because she thought he was criticizing her.

SE: “The danger zone”? “Foolish”?
JH: (apologizing) I didn’t mean it like that –
SE: (interrupting him) I know. So?
JH: Do you want to hear more? Well…simply, the end of the desire to possess is achieved when they kill the other to feel they own them.
SE: Wait a second. “Kill”? Who kills whom? Why?

He was clinical and dispassionate in giving his opinion but he missed the fact that SangEun was getting agitated. He didn’t see that SangEun had stopped needing to hear legal advice from him but was wanting to hear some sort of calming and soothing words.

JH: Like I said, whether you intended or not, the biggest drive in your business is man’s ego. It’s usually the reason for violent crimes. The ones with a severe inferiority complex might say, “She deserved it.”

JiHo said nothing wrong, but he said nothing right, either. Clearly, he and SangEun were on different wavelengths. On one level, he was focused on psychoanalyzing her clients and didn’t realize that he implied that “she deserved” the attack. On another level, she was focused on the implicit criticism that her day job attracted weirdos, and insecure men prone to violence. She thought he was saying that the attack was her fault.

SE: “She deserved it”? Why should I die? Why?
JH: Choi Sang Eun.
SE: What?

Lol. She probably thought he was going to backtrack and apologize. Instead, he just phrased his argument differently.

JH: No victim believes she deserves to die.
SE: (coldly) Excuse me, Jung JiHo.
JH: (still not getting the hint) But if you plan to travel abroad, you probably don’t need to worry so much.
SE: Yes.
JH: I’m not exactly foolish so I plan to leave Korea.
JH: Did I say something wrong? I thought you just wanted legal advice.
SE: Ah. Yes. I see. Thank you so much. But it makes me think this way: I prefer you when you didn’t speak as much. Thanks for the meal.

I actually thought this scene was funny because:

a. JiHo was clueless till the end.
b. I see now how JiHo can be spurred to talk a lot: just ask for his legal opinion. He did this too when he talked about the pigeons in China.
c. JiHo liked to see her smiling face in front of him, but he obviously couldn’t recognize her angry face when he saw it.

3. Red Herring: The thirteenth divorce

This was a good one! I expected his business envelope to contain the divorce papers, and I thought he was about to knock on the 2ML’s apartment to deliver the papers himself.

But in hindsight, it made total sense that the envelope contained the tickets. He was told that SangEun got injured and went with the 2ML. So, naturally, his first thought should be on her wellbeing. He shouldn’t be thinking of divorce papers when her health was a more important concern. The concert ticket was just his excuse to drop by the 2ML’s house, uninvited.

To me, SangEun made an honest mistake. If I were her, I would’ve also presumed that his envelope contained the divorce paper like mine. But I wouldn’t be so bossy like her to demand it from him.

SE: Excuse me. Let’s end this cleanly. You brought that document for me, right?
JH: Well, yes, it’s true but…
SE: Here.

She gave him her envelope but didn’t wait for him to hand over his. She simply took it from his hand.

SE: I’ll submit this one.

Okayyyy. She might not “deserve” to be killed by the stalker, but she deserved all the embarrassment when she saw the tickets for being so bossy.

4. Red Herring: SangEun/Jamie’s assailant

I already posted about this, so I’ll transfer it.

He isn’t the mysterious Hyung whom the 2nd ML asked to look into SangEun. The 2ML only contacted the Hyung AFTER SangEun’s attack The ending is misleading because it seemed like JiHo was accusing the 2ML of setting up the whole attack just so the 2ML could befriend SangEun.

No. I think that the attacker was the 2ML’s stalker. According to his manager, he had a stalker breaking into his house. That’s why his mom wanted him to move back into their home because it had the best security in the country.

(Ahhhh… was this the reason he moved into a new complex?)

There’s rumor going around that 2ML is gay. The stalker might be a male fan who assumed that he was dating a “dirty and cheap” girl like Jamie and decided to get rid of her.

Hence, JiHo told the 2ML that the Choi Sang Eun’s assailant was “related” to him and might be known (or familiar?) to him.

Personally, I like the Second Male Lead. I like his earnestness.

First, he was concerned that Jamie was living with a murderer, then he was concerned that she was being abused by JiHo.

2ML: You wear no ring again.
SH: Uhhh…
2ML: Let’s just say that…I worry about you since you look like my cat. Be honest with me. I can’t just believe that guy and ignore a woman who might be in a serious danger. A judge can kill, too.
SH: I think you like playing detective too much. We’re just a normal married couple.
2ML: A wife from a normal family doesn’t borrow clothes from the man upstairs.

Touché again.

2ML: You disappear late at night. You show up two days later and disappear again after a few hours. (pausing) By chance, is he taking advantage of you? For instance, are you in some sort of … traveling sex service?

She laughed but he was intently studying her face. I don’t think he sees himself as a detective but a knight-in-shining-armor. When I think of all the other girls and actresses who threw themselves at him, but he ignored, then it’s romantic that he only shows this kind of protectiveness towards his first love.

SH: (thinking to herself) Yes, why should I keep pretending to be his wife? I won’t be seeing him anymore.) Yes, I travel for work.
2ML: Are you serious? That bastard –
SH: I’m a traveling housekeeper. I cook rice and soup every two days, and some side dishes. You heard him right? He said, “I’m hungry. Give me food.”
2ML: Don’t you think you have expensive taste for that?
SH: Looks like you have a prejudice against housekeepers. (patting her bandage) Thank you.

He poses no real threat to JiHo; he isn’t going to get SangEun anyway. But I hope he ends up with a girl of his own anyway.

5. The Viki subs

These aren’t red herrings but I just want to note that the Viki and dramanice have subs for a couple of scenes that may cause confusion.

a. Per Viki, the 2ML called Jamie “Jin HyeMi” as she was leaving his apartment after he bandaged her cut.

2ML: Aren’t you Jamie, only daughter of Eena Group’s CEO?
SH: (stopping) I noticed your cat is not here today. (walking away)
2ML: Jin HyeMi.

I don’t know where “Jin HyeMi” came from but it does sound like “Jamie” doesn’t it? Per dramanice, he called her “Jamie.”

SH: (turning back to look at him)
2ML: We’ve met before, although it was very long ago.
SH: (sneezes)
2ML: Are you okay?
SH: You do have a cat in here. I’m allergic to cats.

Then, they resumed their conversation.

SH: Are you the youngest son of the Kangjin Group CEO?
2ML: I caused serious trouble then. I’ve been curious. I didn’t think you’d change your name.
SH: You caught me off-guard.

b. Here, I think the dramanice version made more sense. Jamie was the one who caused serious trouble back then.

SH: So you’re the youngest son of the Gangin Group?
2ML: You caused such a big commotion back then, so I was curious. I had no idea you had changed your name.

That’s it for this episode. Moving on to Ep 4.