For @agdr03.

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I like this drama because it’s relatively cliché-free. Just when I expect it to show me an overused trope, e.g., “to fall head over heels in love at first sight,” it upends the trope, e.g., to make the love interest enter the room upside down…or literally, heels over head.

However, for all its fresh takes and hilarious scenarios, I struggle to find something to write about it because the plot is all over the place. In particular, the story keeps jumping from one main character’s flaw to another without a satisfactory resolution. For example, in one episode, it focuses on the female lead’s propensity to smile to ward off unpleasant or awkward situations. The guy even points this out to her because her smiles irritate him. Then, in the next episode, the story concentrates on the male lead’s victim mentality and self-pity. Though he’s keenly aware of his problem, he does nothing about it, too.

It’s only in Episode 7 that I see a major shift in the characters.

For example, SeongA (SA) drops her amiable and timid act. To get along with her peers and make new friends, she’s been masquerading as a good-natured, submissive girl.

Once, when the class president derogatorily calls her a “pick-me girl” (i.e., an attention-seeker or boy-crazy girl) in class, she tolerates it and pretends that her feelings weren’t hurt.

But in Episode 6, she furiously confronts the bad shaman Yeonhwa for calling GyeonWoo (GW) a “Newly Dead.”

SA: Have you been calling GyeongWoo Newly-Dead all this while? That’s what you call the ghost of a person who died recently. GyeonWoo’s alive and well, so why call him Newly-Dead? Just why?!

In Episode 7, she reveals to the Evil Spirit the importance of names.

SA: I can’t keep calling you Evil Spirit.
Evil Spirit: Keep calling me that. Who cares what you call me?
SA: That’s nonsense. If you call something an evil spirit, they’ll become evil even I they weren’t. You may be an evil spirit, but I can’t call you that. I should call you by a nice name so you become nice! Parents are super careful when they name their babies for a reason. Wait. If you have no name, I’ll give you one.

With cunning and guile, she tricks him to accept the name of BongSu so she can hold his hand and turn him back into GW.

Then, in Episode 8, she gently but firmly requests the elderly shaman to refrain from calling GW a ghost.

SA: Great Aunt, may I ask you a favor?
Great Aunt: A favor?
SA: Yes. I’m a shaman so I can hear, see, speak with, and smell ghosts. But you don’t call me a ghost. GyeonWoo can only hear ghosts, and he’s the one who manages to subdue BongSu…
Great Aunt: (addressing GW) I’m sorry for calling you a ghost. I shouldn’t have done that. I apologize.
SA: (smiling) That’s exactly what I wanted.

In these instances, it’s clear to see that SA is no longer ashamed to be a shaman, especially when GW’s well-being is at stake. She’s coming into her own.

GyeonWoo (GW) sees SeongA (SA) bawling in the rain and realizes that he’s the cause of her tears. He promises he’ll never make her cry again. To me, this is the pivotal moment he breaks out of his pity party. He’s found somebody else to focus his energy on.

Hence, he enters the haunted house to rescue SA. Although she yells at him to leave the place immediately, he insists on staying for her safety. Later, he confesses to her that he’d rather have the evil spirit possess him than her.

GW: As soon as you let go [of my hand], I’ll become that evil spirit. But I don’t regret it at all. I went in knowing it would be dangerous. And even if I had known this would happen, I’d still have gone it. If I hadn’t been there, you’d have been the victim. This is a thousand times better than that.

This is a sign that, going forward, GW has found a new way to view his misfortune.

Unbeknownst to him, the bad shaman Yeonhwa had made him absorb all his family’s bad luck for the last ten years. Then after his grandmother passed away, she chose him as sacrifice to the evil spirit in the haunted house because he was easy prey, with no one beside him.

But with SA at his side, he can no longer view himself as weak and helpless. He has somebody now whom he needs to protect from harm. He loses the victim mentality and acquires the hero mindset instead.

Now for the other notable events in this episode —

1. The Evil Spirit named BongSu doesn’t appear to be as terrifying – or demonic – as that bad shaman Yeonhwa made him to be. (Remember what I said about this kdrama upending the tropes?) He appears more trollish than anything.

In one episode, it was mentioned that to turn into an evil deity, he must kill 100 people. To me, however, it’s most likely that a large number of deaths attributed to him were casualties of war, rather than homicide. Judging from his insistence on going back to Hwamok High School, he appears to be a student soldier in the Korean War. According to wiki, many students volunteered or were conscripted into the military as emergency troops to fend off the North Korea’s invasion. Unfortunately, countless of them were sent to the front lines without proper training and they died.

Theoretically then, BongSu would be around the same age as GW and SA when he was killed. And that fact alone makes him less fearsome in my eyes.

2. I can understand why the Evil Spirit was instantly attracted to SA. He’s been watching her through the cracks in the window while she was dancing with the bad shaman Yeomhwa and being hugged like a precious baby by her spirit mother and flower shaman.

source: jievn’s tumblr

But goodness gracious, I don’t want this to be kdrama getting us viewers all confused between GW and BongSu.

3. SA finally clears up the misunderstanding with GW that she’s helping him out due to pity.

SA: I won our game of hide and seek. Now grant me my wish. Please let GyeongWoo go.

I like that the deal she made with the Devil was just an innocuous game of hide and seek.

SA: (continuing) The thing is…you’d feel sorry for GyeongWoo, too. He walked into my shrine upside down when we first met.

Note: upside-down = head over heels, lol.

SA: (continuing) People who do that are destined to die within 21 days. He had only 3 weeks to live when he was just 18 years old. I couldn’t just let him die. So I’ve protected him. “Let’s get him past those 21 days and keep him alive at all costs.”
GW: (pretending to be BongSu) Goodness! What a pitiful kid.
SA: You’re wrong. That in itself isn’t pitiful. He is just unfortunate. What’s pitiful is that the whole world has been hating on him and that made him hate himself, too. He doesn’t love himself one bit. And that is what’s pitiful about him. Today’s the last of the 21 days. He can live freely after today, so please. I beg of you. I need to save GyeongWoo.
GW: (tearing up) Why would you go to such great lengths?
SA: Because he’s my first love. Because I like GyeongWoo a lot. Please help me.

Usually, love confessions like this are done during a “Drunk as a skunk” trope when the couple can’t remember/tell whether the confession is real or not afterwards. But I find it funny that while she’s confessing to the “wrong” person (i.e., she thought he was BongSu), he’s actually the *relevant* person who needs to hear her out.

4. Handholding scenes

source: jievn’s tumblr

Good acting. I like his nervous look and bow here.

source: jievn’s tumblr

The white cotton cloth looks so innocent on their wrists. I’m sure the image would have been much different if they had used handcuffs to link them together.