Just five points so I don’t repeat myself when I comment on Fern’s post later.

1. Coffee metaphor

The ex-GF ChungHa remembered the time when they ordered coffee. He ordered ice for her coffee then told her to just order iced coffee next time.

Ex: “Why can’t you be like this?” You have no in-between. There’s no cooling down. Why is it either too hot or too cold for you?

She realized that he viewed the world from a binary perspective. He was either hot or cold, his way or her way, dating or break-up. There’s no gray area for him.

He didn’t give her a choice in their break-up. One minute they were dating; then the next, he was walking away from her. He didn’t believe in attempts to make their relationship work, in second chances, or in trial separation.

TaeHee: You just had to wait. It’ll become warm. It’ll cool down. (sigh) Just give it some time.

Since he was using the same coffee metaphor as she was, his words didn’t come off cold and harsh. But there’s no mistaking the finality of his decision. He was telling her that there’s no hope for their reconciliation, and that she must get accustomed to the break-up. Like hot coffee cooling down, her feelings for him would fade away too in time.

Ex: Do you still think it’s your fault?
TaeHee: (no answer)
Ex: Is it because of me?
TaeHee: No.
Ex: See? Time doesn’t heal everything.

Touché. He believed that her feelings for him would go away in time. But she pointed out if his feelings regarding the death of his brother had remained unchanged despite all these years, then how could he say that her feelings for the death of their relationship would go away? Especially when the death of her brother is directly linked to their break-up.

Ex: Time has passed and you’re still not okay. Do you need more time?
TaeHee: (no answer)

To me, they’re talking about two different things: their relationship and his grief over his brother’s death. The ex-GF is linking the two together. She believes that once his grieving is over, he’ll come back to her and they’ll continue where they left on.

For TaeHee, however, the two issues don’t appear to be connected. The only similarity between the two issues are they’re both dead.

2. The cold medicine

This role reversal is cute. Typically, in kdramas, when the boy and girl are caught in the rain, it’s the girl who gets sick the next day.

Here, it’s TaeHee. I’m not surprised that he’s acting like a baby. He stuffs his head in the mini fridge to cool off and he refuses to buy cold medicine for his symptoms.

When he coughs in front of DongJoo, she immediately chides him.

TaeHee: (coughs)
DongJoo: Cold?
TaeHee: No.
DongJoo: Is it because you got hit by rain yesterday? Please go to the hospital. You’re making me feel bad.

That’s because she made the decision to run in the rain. He offered to get her an umbrella, but she then decided to no longer fear getting in rain. He had no choice but to run alongside her.

TaeHee: You don’t need to feel bad. Let’s grab jjamppong later.
DongJoo: (pfft) Don’t you want to do anything else than eat with me?
TaeHee: So, are you down? Or no?

Lol. He’s ex-girlfriend was right! He goes again with the binary choice. He’s asking her to accept or refuse to eat jjamppong with him.

DongJoo: (snorts)
TaeHee: I know you want to go.

She buys him medicine but she’s unable to give them to him because he calls off their lunch date.

The other funny thing about the role reversal is that DongJoo isn’t impressed when she finds out that TaeHee trained to be a doctor.

DongJoo: You talk exactly like my doctor? Are you a doctor or what?
TaeHee: (looking away)
DongJoo: What’s wrong? Right. That classmate of yours. You’re really a doctor?
TaeHee: A long time ago. I was for a while. I’m not anymore.
DongJoo: You don’t have to tell me. But were you a quack? (feeling his cheek) You were getting a fever earlier. You don’t even know you’re sick.

Then, she treats him like he’s her patient. She gives him sikhye, a non-alcoholic drink made from rice and barley.

DongJoo: Here. It’s made of rice so think of it as a meal.
TaeHee: Con artist.
DongJoo: It’s better than running on an empty stomach. Drink it. Hurry.
TaeHee: (obediently drinks it)
DongJoo: (gives him the medicine) Here, take this. I bought it because you looked ill. I was supposed to give it to you yesterday.
TaeHee: Thank you.
DongJoo: (hands him water) Drink it.
TaeHee: I’m glad I came today.
DongJoo: I doubt it, especially with your driving skills. Hurry, and take them.

Then, she orders him to sleep in the room.

My Comments:

a. I like that she doesn’t make a fuss about the sleeping arrangements…unlike Kim GoEun’s character in “Little Women” who was scandalized to see a guy in her room when she woke up.

b. Based on the few flashbacks that I saw, I think that TaeHee had been the dominant one in his previous relationship. Once he made up his mind, his ex-GF ChungHa couldn’t make him change his mind. This is different from TaeHee’s relationship with DongJoo. Sure, there are some moments when TaeHee bosses DongJoo around, like when he convinced her to eat lunch with him or to change her password. But when DongJoo makes up her mind about something (e.g., when she was convinced that he was the taxi driver’s son, and when she wanted him to take the medicine), she’s a force to reckon with. TaeHee ends up conforming to her wishes.

c. Despite their age difference and life experiences, DongJoo doesn’t regard TaeHee as a somebody wiser or sager than she is. I like that she doesn’t have to kowtow to him. She views him as a peer. Sometimes, he sounds more mature than her, and he babies her. Sometimes, she sounds more mature than him, and she mothers him. I think happy marriages are like that.

d. She has already guessed that his meeting with Chungha is causing him distress. She obliquely refers to this the following morning when she tells him that one’s body aches if one’s heart is aching.

e. Lastly, I don’t consider this storyline about the cold medicine trivial. I think the cold medicine is a metaphor

and it counters the coffee metaphor used by the ex-GF.

After meeting him for the first time in years, all the ex-GF could do is to accuse him of having a flawed hot-or-cold mentality. She was whining that he left her. DongJoo, on the other hand, has come to understand TaeHee’s character better than the ex-GF in a short time. DongJoo sees that he’s a sick patient who’s been denying treatment for himself. He’s good at prescribing treatment for others but he doesn’t know how to heal his own self.

3. The door passcode

I’m curious to know what her passcode is. Aren’t you?

This scene is quite novel in kdrama. For one, I haven’t seen a guy nag a girl about her door security before. For another, I haven’t seen a guy admit to having a first love so casually before.

DongJoo: So cool.
TaeHee: I know I am.
DongJoo: What the?? I’m talking about the doctor. I saw her at the bridge. A man was in a critical situation, and she just ran over and handled it. She was speaking in English to the paramedic, telling them to hurry. Oh! And she just threw her bag that looked very expensive.

Right here we see what DongJoo considers enviable qualities about the girl: her medical profession, her English-speaking ability, and her wealth (she threw an expensive bag without care). But she’s also fishing for more information about her. I’m sure she wants to know what the situation is between TaeHee and the girl. She doesn’t know that she’s his ex.

TaeHee: That’s who she is. She has that side to her.

But he doesn’t sound impressed. It’s interesting that he found DongJoo’s hands “pretty” and “great” when they tended to the dead. But he wasn’t impressed when his ex-GF’s hands saved a man from almost dying.

DongJoo: Is she your friend?
TaeHee: Yes.
DongJoo: How do you have a friend like her?
TaeHee: She’s an alumnus.
DongJoo: (asking in jest) Your first love.
TaeHee: Yes.
DongJoo: (shocked) Yes?
TaeHee: (looks at her)
DongJoo: (flustered) Ah. Your first love. No wonder she looked like the type to be someone’s first love. If I were a boy, I’d like her too. First love.

My Comments:

a. Lol. The rule about holes applies here.

But I get that she’s flustered because she isn’t expecting him to be so candid about it.

b. However, the important thing to remember about TaeHee is that he’s forthright about things that do NOT matter, but he lies about things that do matter to him.

He can tell openly her that ChungHa is his first love because it doesn’t matter to him anymore. It’s all in the past.

But he lied about liking the rain because the rain still bothered him since his brother died on a rainy day.

He stopped lying about it after he got rained on with DongJoo. Like DongJoo, he learned not to fear — or to hate — the rain.

4. “A Girl Showed Up”

So, who’s the girl who showed up according to the title? In the Dramacool version, the title is subbed as “She Has Appeared.”

On the face of it, the title seems to refer to the ex-GF ChungHa. She shows up unexpectedly at the start and end of the episodes. On both times, she interrupts a cozy chat between DongJoo and TaeHee. The first time it happened, DongJoo punishes her stuff toy – her proxy for TaeHee – by making it face the wall.

But it can be argued that the title refers to DongJoo because of TaeHee’s bedtime confession.

TaeHee: Why aren’t you asking?
DongJoo: [Just go to] Sleep.
TaeHee: Everyone else asks.
DongJoo: I’m like that, too.
TaeHee: (turns around to face her)
DongJoo: Everyone asks me, too. They ask me why I quit ping-pong. (lying on her back to face the ceiling) I’ve been playing ping-pong since I was ten years old. I played ping-pong while everyone was studying, while they went on school field trips. I’ve played ping-pong my whole life. Why would I quit? It wouldn’t have been for the good. I had my reasons. That’s why you don’t have to tell me.
TaeHee: I’m not going to.

He turns his back on her.

TaeHee: Even if I don’t say… What if I tell everything to the girl who understands, and [this] makes me want to depend on her? What happens if I want to lean on her? (sighing) Then what do I do?

My Comments:

a. DongJoo is the girl who understands him. ChungHa simply cannot understand him.

b. It’s interesting that he avoids making the conversation personal by saying her name. Instead, he refers to her as “the girl,”

and uses the third person, “What happens if I want to lean on HER?”

He refrains from directly speaking to her like this, “What if I tell everything to YOU? What happens if I want to lean on YOU?” It appears like he wants to maintain detachment so as not to impose on her or to sound too needy.

c. The title similarly strives to be impersonal. It mentions the appearance of a certain girl without indicating the upheaval her arrival had caused in his life. This brings to mind that scene in Episode 2 when he told himself, “I met a weird woman. And… (sighing) I think I’m screwed.”

Hmm… I’d like to know why he thought he was screwed when he first met her.

d. When it comes to impact, TaeHee is aware that DongJoo’s arrival in his life has changed him more drastically than ChungHa’s reappearance could ever move him.

5. DongJoo’s epiphany

Thanks to Sora, DongJoo confirms her feelings for TaeHee.

Sora: Do you two know how it feels to be concerned about someone?
Friend 1: No.

DongJoo reflects on her meeting ChungHa on that rainy evening and learning that she’s TaeHee’s first love. Then, she remembers being concerned about TaeHee getting a fever.

Sora: You want to take care of him…

Flashback to when she put him to bed.

Sora: More than anything. You get butterflies.

Flashback to when she self-consciously held on to him when they rode the motorbike together.

Sora: Your heart beats fast.

She remembers when he appeared before her with the umbrella and when he gave her a piggyback.

Sora: It’s when you like someone. (offering her the macarons) Here, you can have this. I’m not even hungry.

My Comments: 

a. This isn’t a kdrama trope yet but giving a box of macarons is an acceptable way of declaring one’s affections. It’s a subtler alternative to chocolate and flowers.

b. According to Sora, when one likes somebody, one becomes oblivious to hunger pangs. But from DongJoo’s experience, when she likes somebody, she likes to eat with him and share her food with him.

Example 1.

Example 2.

Example 3.

She said no because she was angry with him. lol.

c. Normally, I’d find an exposition like this whole scene tedious because it only re-states the obvious. But in this episode, I think it’s important to see why DongJoo is leveling up her game.

After the night that TaeHee confesses about wanting to lean on a certain girl, she tells him that it’s okay for him to do so.

TaeHee: I need to hurry before you start nagging me. I just got promoted so I might get in trouble if I get any complaints.
DongJoo: Jeez. What do you take me for?
TaeHee: I told you I’d piggyback you if I had to and not to worry.
DongJoo: Just don’t get sick. Your body aches if your heart is aching. You can lean on me when you’re having a hard time.

He knows that she’s referring to his confession.

DongJoo: You’re doing it again. Look ahead. We’re going to get into another accident.

From her casual way of talking, it sounds as if all she’s offering is to be a dependable friend, and nothing more. However, this moment with Sora puts her actions in an unambiguous context. She’s into him, and she’s consciously upping her game.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Gotta sleep.