I might as well share my notes with you all since I jotted them down.

1. The REVERSE madonna/whore complex

It is said that “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” At 29 years old, our female lead Gong YeonSu (YS) can be seen as preternaturally innocent about sex, but she luckily made two correct calls in life.

The first one is not to have sex with her then-boyfriend.
And the second one is to challenge Dokgo Dal (DD) to kiss her in Episode 3.

Let’s skip and go over that scene in Episode 3. 

YS: As for me, I hate rainy days, prefer soju to beer, and I believe that love is real. Above all, feelings come before physical desire.
DD: Will the world end if I have a beer and sleep with you on a rainy day?
YS: Sleep with me? You?!! Mmmm…. What’s wrong with you? You couldn’t even kiss me, let alone sleep with me.

There’s her challenge. Unwittingly, she triggers an urge in him to prove her wrong and to defy her perception of him. To his ears, she sounds so smug and so sure of her opinion that he feels compelled to shock her.

DD: What makes you think I can’t?
YS: Because we’re just too different. It’s fine. I understand.

Lol. She’s unaware that the more dismissive she is, the more fuel she’s adding to the fire. It’s reverse psychology.

DD: What if I do it? Can you handle it without backing down?
YS: Why would I back down? You can’t do it anyway.

She issues the same bold challenge again. She’s practically egging him on to push back. She glares at him for a moment.

YS: Stop acting tough. Let’s go home. It’s cold.

She stands up to leave. He also stands up but to grab her wrist.

DD: Why are you turning away? You said you wouldn’t back done.

Then, he leans in for the kiss. Challenge accepted!

She doesn’t resist and even kisses him back.

To me, this scene isn’t just romantic, it also enlightening. It demonstrates why in Episode 1, she had to be coached by her bestie/boss on how to turn up the heat in her romance with her then-BF.

Let’s go over that scene in Episode 1. 

YS: He’s  [the ex] always lukewarm whenever marriage comes up.
Boss: Lukewarm…. Hey, then maybe you need to turn up the heat.
YS: How?

See that? This is why some viewers are frustrated with this kdrama. They can’t imagine a 29-year-old woman being clueless on how to turn up the heat.

Boss: Get completely dolled up, head to toe, and hit him with a direct question.
YS: Tell him to marry me?
Boss: Tell him you’re going on a blind date.
YS: What?
Boss: Do you know what makes men the angriest? Losing someone? No! Losing a fight? No! Losing to another guy. I’m telling you. Just give a shot.

And then, the water kettle boils. Lol. This director is anything but subtle.

To me, the reason she has this mental block with her then-BF is because she has this “Husband Material” versus “Boy Toy/Player” complex.

I assume that we’ve all heard of the “Madonna/Whore” complex. Sigmund Freud coined the term almost two centuries ago to describe why [some] men can love women they don’t desire, AND desire women they cannot love. It’s because their minds have pigeon-holed women as either Madonna, i.e., pure and maternal women they must not sexualize or Whore, i.e., sexy and slutty women they can’t marry.

Well, in the case of our heroine YS, she categorizes men as “Good Husband Material” – like her father –
and “Players/Boy Toys.” In her mind, her then-BF belonged in the “GHM” category so having premarital sex with him felt like a taboo.

Noteworthy: in Episode 2 (timestamp: 20:01), one of YS’ happy memories of her parents was watching her mother running to take down the laundry because it was raining. Her father came out nowhere with an umbrella and grabbed the sheets for her. Then they both ran back to the house, looking very much like a young couple in love. She grew up wanting that same kind of love for herself. Now, I wonder if she had grown up seeing a different version of her dad, say, her dad being intimate with her mom (or another woman, for that matter), could she possible have a different outlook about men in her life?

In contrast to her GHM-like ex-boyfriend, she sees DD as a “Player or Boy Toy” (and ironically enough, he creates sex toys). In her mind, someone like him wouldn’t be interested in a goody-two shoes like her.

Hence, she doesn’t need her bestie’s advice to turn up the heat on DD. Unconsciously, she knows which buttons to push to make him react to her. She also doesn’t even need to make DD jealous. All she needs to do is claim that they aren’t each other’s type, and he’s challenged to prove her wrong.

2. The dolly zoom

It’s not often that I discuss camera tricks here. I remember introducing the Dutch tilt/angle to show that a situation is going off-kilter or a character is becoming unstable. I also remember mentioning match cuts to move from one scene to another by spotlighting two matching objects to link two scenes together (e.g., a tram in one scene morphing into a bus in the next scene).

Here, I’ll introduce the dolly zoom. It’s an optical illusion involving two things:

one, the camera lens which ZOOMS in or out on an object, like the face of YS, and

two, the dolly upon which the camera stands. The dolly MOVES in and out, to make the background behind YS appear to move either nearer or farther.

If you rewatch the scene (timestamp: around 4:00) when YS’ grandmother lectures her on the role of women to marry, have kids, and raise a happy family, you’ll see good examples of the use of dolly zoom.

First, her grandma. While she nags YS, the background behind her moves closer, and her face looks bigger. This camera illusion is meant to give us the impression that her influence is looming. YS can’t avoid the blind date that her grandma’s forcing on her.

Second, YS herself. As she listens to her grandma’s lecture, the background behind her recedes. The effect makes her look smaller while she’s being chastised. She’s losing her will to argue against her grandma’s orders.

3. The “Horizon”

I already mentioned this in my first write-up but I’ll point it out again. In DD’s first scene, he’s shown talking to Yoon Jio, his right-hand man. He orders him to find the ad agency behind the “Horizon” campaign.

Next, his phone buzzes about his blind date with Gong YeonSu.

Then, the camera focuses on the billboard with the “Horizon” ad.

Obviously, the connection is there. She’s in his horizon.

4. The double meaning

Lol. I know DD was merely talking about the condom, but he could have been talking about love.

Do this as a mental exercise. Instead of thinking about condoms, pretend that they’re talking about love.

YS: By the way, is that really true? Does using one really just hurt, numb the sensation, and ruin everything?

She’s referring to condoms but imagine if she’s asking him about love. Is it true that loving someone inevitably leads to getting hurt, becoming cold and indifferent, and ruining everything?

DD: Who told you such nonsense?
YS: A guy. He said it’s better without one.

Meaning, it’s better without love.

Exasperated, DD stands up to correct her.

DD: First, these condoms are high quality. So you can still feel everything. Second, condoms aren’t for pleasure. They’re for contraception and STI prevention. In other words, they’re a way to care for each other.
YS: Exactly! That’s what I wanted to say. Caring for each other!
DD: And third, if a guy can’t even be bothered to put on a condom, that’s as far as he’ll go.

Now, see what happens if we convert “condoms” to love. 

His arguments will sound like this:

First, if you have a “high quality” love, or love that is satisfying, fulfilling and enduring, then you can definitely feel everything.

Second, love isn’t about pleasure. It’s about caring for each other. It’s looking out for the other person’s well-being.

Third, if a guy can’t be bothered to put in even the LEAST amount of effort for you, then consider that as indicative of his MAXIMUM investment in your relationship. Stay away from him because he sees a minor inconvenience as a dealbreaker.

See that? Oddly enough, what DD said about condoms is also true about love.

5. Moving forward…

That’s how I’m going to judge DD’s love for YS in this story. I’m going by his standard. Is he looking out for her welfare? Is willing to put up with inconveniences? Is he willing to put in the effort? And so on.

For instance, I’m going to watch when he’s going to attend to her food before his. You see, during their blind date, he helped himself with the cheonggukjang stew and began eating when she still had an empty bowl in front of her.

I want to see him serve her first next time.

Also, after she threw up on him, he simply called the police to let them deal with her. He didn’t want to deal with the hassle of her drunken state. Next time, however, I want to see him go out of his way to take care of her when she’s sick.

These are a few of my benchmarks.

Next up, Episode 2.