Another entertaining episode.

1. HaeIn’s illness

Don’t you just love how kdramas always manage to find one outlandish disease, either factual or fictional, to move the plot? Her cloud cytoma disease appears to be fictional.

According to her physician, the tumor cells are dispersed throughout her cranial nerves, but the most concentration is found near her temporal lobe. He didn’t specify which temporal lobe. As we know, the left and right sides of our brain have a temporal lobe.

He believed that the presence of the tumor cells in the temporal lobe is the cause of her temporary memory loss. Although we’re not medical students, it’s good to know more than what the show is telling us. The temporal lobe has three functions. One, hearing or auditory recognition. Two, memory and emotion. And three, visual recognition. I find it interesting that only her memory is affected and not her hearing, speaking, and object/facial recognition. The disease specifically attacked her awareness of the passage of time.

Moreover, I hypothesize that her disease is primarily triggered by her head position, that is, whenever she lowered her head. In one instance, she dropped her lipstick and bent down to pick it up. Then just before the wild boar attack, she had bent down too and lowered her head to tie back her hair.

Lol. I consider her illness as a royal pain in the neck, literally. She can avoid her blackouts by maintaining a regal posture, keeping a stiff neck, and never bowing down.

2. Why she didn’t like Yoon Eunsung before

I have to jot this down for future reference.

HI: You should’ve let me know if you were back in Korea.
2ML: Don’t you remember the last thing you said to me? To not contact you.
HI: (feigning ignorance) I did?
2ML: Mmm.
HI: (shamelessly) I doubt that. “Let’s continue to stay in touch.” Isn’t that what I said?
2ML: (not answering)
HI: (sighing) You’re right. I told you not to reach out to me ever again because you kept crossing the line.

That’s a red flag on two counts.

First, I wondered what she meant by “crossing the line.” Did she mean this in a romantic sense or business sense? Did he make her feel uncomfortable? Did he force himself on her? Did he try to do something unethical on the job or something inappropriate, creepy, and stalkerish while they were dating?

Second, I hope it wasn’t the latter because it would be reckless of her – and she’d be lowkey prostituting herself – to court his attention just to win the Hercyna contract if she knew that he had a habit of “crossing the line.”

A real queen wouldn’t do that, contract or no contract.

3. He loves her/he loves her not

In the previous episode, HyunWoo was picking one leaf off a stem in the version of the she-loves-me, she-loves-me-not game. He was trying to determine whether to divorce HaeIn or not.

To me, that image encapsulates HyunWoo’s ambivalence towards her. In the beginning of this episode, it seems abundantly clear that he no longer loves her. I’ll limit myself to three instances.

a. from the way he equivocated when she asked him if they should die together.

HW: (embracing her) I love you, Hong HaeIn. I love you.
HI: If you can’t live without me…
HW: Yes?
HI: Do you want to die together?
HW: (instantly letting her go)

I laughed at his reaction. It reminded of that song, “I would do anything for love…but I won’t do that.” 

HI: (pointing out) You said you couldn’t live without me.
HW: (backtracking) I didn’t mean I was certain that I couldn’t live without you. I was simply wondering if it was possible to do so. I was curious.

He was using weasel words so he sounded pathetic. His “How can I live without you?” was meant to be a rhetorical question so she shouldn’t take it literally. He certainly could imagine a life without her, and he had zero intentions of dying with her.

She told him that there used to be a ritual in the olden days to bury the spouse with the dead. He looked terrified.

HI: Yes, “sunjang.” You can treat me better in the afterlife. It’s not bad.

Hmmm….this remark of hers implied she was nursing a strong grievances against him. It’s becoming clear to me that she didn’t believe he had treated her well during their marriage. But so far, in these two episodes, we only heard of HyunWoo’s side of their marriage and his complaints about the way she and her family mistreated him. HaeIn had yet to explicitly state her complaints. In the previous episode, for instance, she insinuated that HyunWoo should’ve treated her better than he did the fired store manager.

HW: (chuckling awkwardly) You’ve always been good at making terrifying jokes with a straight face.
HI: Do you think I’m joking?
HW: (smile frozen) Seriously?
HI: (coldly) I’m saying don’t be dramatic.

Naver Papago translated her statement as “don’t overdo it.” This meant that she could see that he was faking it. She knew that he was feigning concern and she wanted none of it. For a moment, he had the grace to look guilty (as he should) then he changed the subject.

HW: Tell me. (holding her arms to sit her down) What exactly did the doctor say? Where are you hurting? (hiding the divorce papers) Did the doctor really say that it’ll only take three— (rephrasing his question) that you had only three months to live?

Hear the difference? He sounded more *eager* to verify that she had three months to live than *distraught* to learn that she only had such a short time to live.

b. from the way he slept like a baby despite hearing the terrible news, and woke up like a terrible burden had been lifted off his shoulders. Looking at the mirror, he had to train his facial muscles to look sad.

HW: Humming? Really? Do you want to get buried with her? I’m sad. We’ll be parting ways. We’ll be parting ways in three months even without a divorce. (smiling at the mirror) No. Don’t smile. Go down.

Lol. I thought he made a very good clown face.

c. from the way he looked uncomfortable when HaeIn assumed that he had been researching on the internet about miracles stories of cancer survivors because he was truly worried about her.

HI: Hyunwoo.
HW: Yes?
HI: To be honest, I suspected you.
HW: What?
HI: I thought you’d be happy to hear that I was dying. I thought that was why you were being so good to me.
HW: (blinking fast and looking away)

His body language indicated that HaeIn was correct in her suspicions. He looked nervous because HaeIn was onto him.

HI: I also suspected that you had an ulterior motive.
HW: (looking at her)
HI: I admit. I was a bit suspicious. I didn’t know you had looked up those things.
HW: (looking at the articles then back at her) These miracles happen more often than you think. (cautiously)
HI: (marching up to him)
HW: (backing away from her) What? You don’t have to come here.

He looked like a cornered animal. He kept his eyes averted. He was scared that she would find out that he had planned to divorce her all along, but scrapped his plans when he learned of her terminal illness. Lol. The moment of truth will be delicious to watch. For maximum groveling, I hope it happens once he’s fallen in love with her again. He can’t live down the fact that he made a conscious decision and tactical move (some would call it mercenary) to treat her better AFTER he learned of her illness. He wouldn’t have done so otherwise.

HI: Don’t worry. I will live no matter what. I acted tough but I was shocked to hear my diagnosis. I was dispirited. A part of me didn’t care about what would happen to me. “But if I really ha donly three months, would receiving treatment even help?” “Should I just give up?” “No one would mourn m death.” “Not even my family.” I had all sorts of thoughts.
HW: (nodding) I see.
HI: But there’s one person. (looking at him) You of all people want me to live.
HW: (surprised) Me?

His surprise indicated that nothing could be further from the truth. But he had to go along with her.

HW: (assuring her) Uh. Of course. Yes. I do.
HI: It had been tough for me. It was too much to handle, but seeing you gives me hope.
HW: (blinking furiously again)

She then told him that she did her own research and found many experimental labs that just needed funding.

HW: (dismayed) Really?
HI: Are you that happy?
HW: (nodding his head) Of course, I am.
HI: Don’t worry. I’m not going to die that easily for your sake.
HW: (nodding his head more slowly)

When she left his room, he sank to the floor.

This conversation is only comical if we understand that HaeIn’s promise to fend off death for his sake actually gave him chills because he couldn’t envision a long life with her anymore. The dramatic irony is delicious.

4. The number of times he saved her

I’ll make a list for this episode. Did I forget something?

a. When he stopped her mother from scolding her and, taking her hand, led her out of the room

But instead of thanking him, she lashed back at him.

HW: You wanted to keep it a secret from your family.
HI: But?
HW: But wouldn’t they suspect that something’s up if you’re all tense and your fists are trembling?

The key point here is that he was paying attention to her reaction all the time. He noticed that she was breaking up in front of her family.

HI: Right. I know I was acting out of character. But what about you? You interrupted my mom and sided with me. You also looked me in the eye lovingly.
HW: (speechless)
HI: (tugging her hand out of his) You were the most suspicious. Just act like you always have. When did you ever peel shrimp for me? (walking away)

And the key point here is that she had been paying attention to his lack of “tender loving care” (TLC) towards her all these years. She noticed – and worse! She remembered – that he never did these romantic things before her illness.

b. When he appeared by her side at the Hercyna reception

She texted him, wanting to know when his trial would end. When he didn’t reply, she thought he couldn’t come. But one second he was absent, and the next, he was there catching her from falling. By kdrama standards, that move was a cliché.

But what elevated it to swoonworthy level was his cool response to her query.

HI: What about the trial?
HW: I won. I won quickly to come here.

Lol. I have never heard that one before….

c. When he jumped in front of HaeIn and shot the wild boar in the nick of time

It was assumed that he didn’t know how to shoot because he always came back empty-handed from the family hunt. But as it turned out, he was a crack shot.

As I said in my “First Impressions,” the role reversal in this kdrama is only superficial. The hero is still expected to save the girl. What’s new, however, is that the a) he’s under-rated by most everybody because he sometimes acts insecure like a country bumpkin, and b) he hates her…allegedly.

5. The grandfather’s mistress

Is there a reason he can’t marry her? Is there something in his deceased wife’s will stipulating ownership of the company? Will he lose control if he remarries?

At any rate, the mistress is playing the long game here.

6. The pictures of a little child in their rooms

Her room has a big photograph of a young girl wearing what appeared to be a wide-brim hat and smiling at the camera.

His room has a sketch of a little boy with a puppy.

I don’t know what these signify (maybe nothing? Lol.) But I’m noting them for now.