My IOUs.

1. Write-up on Ep 7: his money worries/her offer to help
2. Write-up on Ep 7: the airport goodbye
3. Write-up on Ep 18: the roller skating.
4. Shamelessness of DJ

I’m in a rush so let me do my write-up on Ep 19. It’s a short one.

Chapter 19. Lean in close. The rhythm of happiness
Featured Object: Laptop

1. The buggers in Sang Zhi’s life

a. Her brother

She quarrels with Sang Yan over her decision to stay in Yihe during the summer for her internship. He knows that that the real reason she’s staying in the city is to be with her boyfriend. Since she won’t listen to him, he cuts contact with her.

Naively, she assumes that her brother will approve of her choice of boyfriend since they’re close friends. She thinks, ”He’ll surely believe in Duan Jiaxu.” She makes a clean breast of her dating secret by texting him.

Sang Zhi: Gege. You don’t have to worry about me. I just want to intern over the summer to gain experience in the animation industry. I’ll be home for Golden Week. I lied to you earlier. My boyfriend isn’t a postgraduate student here. You know him too. He’s Jiaxu Ge. He’s not a bad person.

Fortunately/unfortunately for her, Sang Yan has blocked her so her text confession remains unread. She receives a reprieve from his wrath.

b. Her summer internship supervisor

Her manager is the Psycho’s best friend who witnessed the water-slapping incident in Ep 11. She bullies Sang Zhi to retaliate. Fortunately, her summer internship is only for a month.

Jiaxu doesn’t bring up her manager but I’m sure he’s overheard how her manager scolded her for being on the phone. I haven’t seen Episode 20 yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did something about it.

2. The dinner date after her first day of work

Jiaxu gifts her with a bouquet of sunflowers. This is a nice touch since she gave him flowers too when he graduated. He chooses the sunflowers because he hopes that her days at work will be bright like them.

He also gives her a stress doll.

SZ: You don’t have to worry about me. I’m working now. I’m a mature adult. I’m no longer a child.
DJ: (chuckling) A mature adult. Very well. Well, I have a gift for our little adult.
SZ: It’s so cute!
DJ: Doesn’t it look like you?

It does look like her. So did the birthday cake she had ordered for him.

SZ: Is this a…pig?
DJ: It’s a rabbit! How is it a pig?! Its ears are so big.

Besides what kind of boyfriend would give his girl a pig and say that it looked like her???

SZ: It looks like a pig though. (squeezing it) Oh! It looks like Sang Yan.

DJ: (laughing) I got this for you because I remember when I first started my internship, I was lost and clueless. I was stressed out every day. I tended to doubt myself. So I hope that you won’t experience this. I hope you can be happy and everything will go well. And I know that you stayed for the internship so you can spend more time with me.

Wasn’t her double meaning obvious when she told him, “I want to give it a try” last episode? She’s staying in town, ostensibly for her summer job, but in actual fact to be with Jiaxu. She doesn’t want to have a long-distance relationship so soon after they started dating. She probably still remembers her distress when she flew to Yihe because she heard that he found a girlfriend.

Nonetheless, it’s nice of him to thank her.

He appreciates her foresight, planning, and boldness to look for a summer job just to be with him. Ha! If he only knew of her resolve to end up at YiHe university! Applying for a summer internship is nothing compared to working her way up to the top percentile of her class so she could study in YiHe University.

DJ: If you’re upset, you can vent on it. It’s great for relieving stress.
SZ: (banging on the table) Screw you, Sang Yan.
DJ: Did you fight with him?
SZ: How did you know?
DJ: I’m not blind yet.
SZ: (giggling) He blocked my number.
DJ: Why?

He puts an arm around her seat’s backrest. I notice that they sit next to each other now, instead of across from each other. Personally, I prefer sitting across from my husband so we can look at each other while talking over dinner. But for young and new couples like Sang Zhi and Jiaxu, I get the appeal of sitting side by side. She feeds him food, for instance.

SZ: He doesn’t want me to stay here. He wants me to go home. Moreover…have you told him about us?
DJ: I haven’t told him yet. I planned to go back with you this summer to tell him about it. It’s better to tell him in person. But now, I’ll have to wait until Golden Week to go back with you. (pausing) We need to be sincere.
SZ: (unconsciously, playing with the piggy stress ball)
DJ: Don’t worry about it. Just leave it to me.
SZ: (pounding the table) He’s so childish. Really childish.
DJ: I guess I’ll need to buy you a new one soon.

There’s a new diary entry for Monday, July 2nd.
Don’t doubt yourself. Happily face the challenges.

My comments:

a. The stress ball replaces the stuffed toys he used to buy her when she was in high school. During the cotton candy moment, Sang Zhi told him that she would eat sweets to cheer her up in the past. To me, Jiaxu is more tactile than gustatory. His preferred method for soothing/self-calming are items like stuffed toys, stress balls, Sang Zhi’s hair and Sang Zhi’s cheeks. Lol.

b. In her diary entry, we see how Sang Zhi leans on Jiaxu for wisdom and encouragement. Her parents called to find out how her first day of work went; they’re excited of course. But it’s Jiaxu who’s at her side to support her physically and emotionally. He’s taken responsibility for her.

c. How quickly they started dating! Last year, Sang Zhi arrived at Yihe, and Jiaxu waited for her to visit him on Golden Week holiday. He brought it when they first met again outside the sing-along club. Now, Jiaxu’s planning to fly to Nanwu with her and present himself as her boyfriend.

d. Visually, we already can see how they’re leaning close to each other and finding their rhythm to happiness.

Finding their rhythm basically means that they’re carving out time during their busy day to see each other, usually around dinnertime. I like that if they really can’t meet, they still demonstrate that they’re thinking of each other with food deliveries.

I also like that Jiaxu stepped up his game and was driving her to and from work. To me, it’s the least he could do after she went against her family’s wishes to come home for the summer, and decided to stay at YiHe with him.

3. Being the envy of his coworkers

For the first time in his life, his coworkers are jealous of him for having a girlfriend who thoughtfully orders food for him. But she’s very demanding. She wants proof that he’s eaten up his food.

4. Couple energizers

DJ: You can lean on my shoulder.

He taps his shoulder, and she doesn’t need a second invitation.

DJ: How is it? You’ve worked all day. Are you tired?
SZ: (shaking her head and smiling) I have a question. Have you really never had a girlfriend?

Lol. I’m guessing that she’s suspect her manager to be one of DJ’s ex-GFs who’s taking it out on her.
DJ: (surprised)
SZ: Have you?
DJ: No. Wait. Why do you ask?
SZ: Well…it suddenly came to mind.
DJ: Hold on. Did somebody speak ill of me?
SZ: (deflecting) Yes. I have eyes around you. I know whatever you do.
DJ: Eyes? I get it. Who doesn’t have that? The guy who sits on your left is a short-haired fatty with glasses.

Sang Zhi pretends to be stunned by his clairvoyance.

DJ: Did I guess it right?
SZ: Of course not, Silly! Dummy.

DJ: I was just tricking you. Be careful. I’m watching your male coworkers.
SZ: (hugging him again)

DJ: You should feel rather different now. In school, though there are a lot of classmates, the social circle is smaller and simpler. Now that you’re in a company, every department has its own agenda. You also have superiors and bosses. No matter what they say, let it roll your back. Your job is to observe and learn. Don’t take anything to heart. You’re still an intern anyway.
SZ: (nodding her head)
DJ: Okay?
SZ: You’re so strange. I was so tired from work today. But after seeing you, I feel recharged.

DJ: Are you fully charged now?
SZ: Mmm.
DJ: Well, I also want to feel recharged.
SZ: (hugging him tight) Are you fully charged now?
DJ: Not yet.
SZ: How about now?
DJ: Let me charge a little longer.
SZ: (squeezing him)

Then she receives a phone call. She wants to ignore it, but Jiaxu tells her to answer it. Jiaxu also gets a phone call. They both have to go back to work.

DJ: Intern. Do interns get this much work?
SZ: Didn’t you have work when you were an intern?
DJ: So internships…there’s always a learning curve.

They walk hand-in-hand and reach a lamppost. Instead of releasing her hand, he deftly switches hands so he never breaks contact with her. I thought that’s a subtle symbol of their relationship.

My comments:

a. I think he knows more than he’s letting on. He knows that she’s unhappy at work and it’s likely caused by a person, rather than the job itself because Sang Zhi isn’t slow and incompetent. But he’s waiting for her to tell him. All he can do is give her general advice.

b. The featured object in this episode is a “laptop” because of the impact their work has on their mental and emotional well-being. For her, it’s difficult to find her rhythm at work because of her boss. For him, it’s difficult to find time with her because of the launching of their program. But despite their struggles at work, they play down their  hardship so the other person won’t worry about them.

c. In the epilogue, when his colleague asks Jiaxu what he plans to do after the launch, he answers that he plans to move to a new place and spend time with his girlfriend.

I think he meant these two activities concomitantly. That is, he intends to a new place AND spend time with his girlfriend at this new place. I’m guessing that after Sang Zhi spent a day with him in his apartment, he realized that having her around him wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Gifs from twelve-feathers’ tumblr.

source: twelve-feathers’ tumblr