Autumn Kaeul

SAME.

Oh my god, thank you so much for saying that and for taking the time to read my thread. 🥺 I really appreciate it a lot. ❤️ And yeah, I felt like the way that I had interpreted what's going on in the drama and the types of theories/perceptions that I have are different from a lot of the comments that I've been seeing on here as well, which is why I wanted to give my input, just to add some different POV to the conversation.

And the original movie that the drama is based on is called "Mr. Hong": https://kisskh.at/1693-mr.-hong

Yes! I agree! I love this drama so much as well. <3 It's very unique and refreshing and relatable and complex and well-written, etc. It's really a breath of fresh air, like you said. :)

And same--I wasn't really expecting much from this drama when I first heard about it and read the plot synopsis for it. I thought it just might be a nice, fluffy, lighthearted drama that I can watch to pass time. But oh my god! It's soooooooo good!!! If this drama continues to be as good as it has been so far all the way until the end, then this may become my new all-time favorite Kdrama ever!

While I'm not dismissing the possibility, since we don't know yet, I personally don't think that the woman and child in the picture DS was looking at is his former wife and child. 😅 I think it was DS and his mother. The wife and child theory doesn't add up to me/doesn't align with other things that we know to be true in the drama so far, so I just find it unlikely that he had a wife and child. At the beginning of the series, when I saw him staring at that suit, I thought it could be one of 3 different possibilities: 1) him having almost gotten married, but it didn't work out for some reason (i.e., someone got cold feet or he got left at the altar or something); 2) a suit he wore at a funeral (not sure whose funeral though); or 3) the suit he wore when he worked and lived in Seoul and it's symbolic of something for him.

The theory of him having a wife and child who died/left him just seems way too makjang-y to me though, and I feel like the old lady (his "grandma") wouldn't tease him about not being able to find a woman (since she knows the truth about him) if he had actually gotten married and had a kid and then they died/left him. There's no way she would joke about something like that if that had happened. And I feel like his aura/reaction/expressions would be much darker/sadder when people tell him he should date if he had gotten married and had a kid and then they died/left him. But he doesn't seem sad or bothered to me when people tell him he should date, so I really don't think that's it. Also, this drama is supposed to be a comedy/slice-of-life drama, so the idea of DS having a dead wife and child just seems way too heavy for this drama and doesn't match the genre/vibe of the drama, IMO. I think it's an interesting theory though, and, again, since we don't know, I can't fully dismiss the possibility of it being true. I just feel like it's unlikely.

And yeah, I agree, the sub-plot with Juri and her dad I feel was supposed to be the parallel between HJ and her dad, and we see that the two of them start to reconnect/rekindle their relationship at the end of ep. 6 after Juri and her dad make up with one another and start to understand each other better.

Yes! I definitely agree with you about DS also having a learning curve and having a tendency to get ahead of himself/jumping to conclusions about a situation or person/trying to get involved and fix things without thinking about the other party/thinking he knows best or what the other person needs/wants when that isn't always the case/etc. Both of them have flaws and things that they need to improve upon, but I feel like that just makes their characters more realistic/human and endearing/relatable.

Yeah, I agree--HJ clearly interprets DS's reactions/actions/responses as being a rejection, which is why she felt hurt and also why she started to go on the offense and start being harsh/cold to DS. Because she felt like he was rejecting her, she tried to reject him first and position herself as being "above" him (i.e., by bringing up their "social positions" and saying that she "doesn't befriend just anyone," despite her not any having friends aside from Mi Seon) because he made her feel really small, I think, and hurt both her feelings and her pride, even though that wasn't his intention.

At the same time, though, IDT anything DS did or said would've made her feel better in that situation. 😅 Because neither of them seems to be fully aware of their feelings for the other yet, and neither of them knows how the other feels about them either, and both of them feel like the other doesn't like them or has been continuously rejecting them. So, like, I feel like DS was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because he's not aware enough yet of his feelings--nor does he know if he wants to pursue a romantic relationship with anyone yet, it seems like--so, like, there was no way that he was gonna be like, "Yeah, you kissed me, and I enjoyed it. Let's date." Lol. Because he's not quite there/ready yet. And even though HJ's clearly in love with him and gets jealous and feels rejected by him, she's still in denial about how she feels and hasn't had an epiphany yet, so who knows how she would've reacted even if he did acknowledge what happened between them and was open/honest about his feelings for her. There really was no way for him to win in that situation, I feel like, because she would've had an issue with how he handled the situation regardless. Lol. I can understand how she feels though at the same time. Being in love makes you really vulnerable, and so it's easy to get hurt and to feel rejected by the other person, even if they're not actually trying to hurt or reject you.

Thank you so much for saying that. 🥺 And for taking the time to read my rants as well. I really appreciate it. ❤️ This is my first time sharing my theories/thoughts about a drama on here, and I thought that people might just ignore what I wrote because it's really long, but I'm really glad that some people actually read what I wrote and appreciate my input. 🥺 Everyone who's been commenting on this drama has been so nice and respectful and supportive towards other commenters--I really appreciate it a lot.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my rants. 🥺 I really appreciate it. ❤️

Yeah, I saw that the movie didn't have good reviews, so that was another reason why I chose not to watch it, because I just want to focus on the drama and not have anything affect my perception of the drama/storyline/characters. And I see, so you felt knowing the plot of the movie helped to give you some peace of mind with regards to the drama then?

I wonder how close the drama will be to the original story though too. I thought I saw some people say that the drama wasn't that similar to the movie, so I'm wondering if certain plot points will be different in the drama, especially since the drama is much longer than the movie. I'm assuming that some details or plot points will be different in drama compared to the movie, don't you think? Or does it seem like the drama is following the movie really closely?

Lol! Okay, thank you. That makes me feel better. :) I tend to rant/write a lot too, in general, but this is the first time that I felt the urge to type up a bunch of long theories about a drama and share them on a forum like this. Normally I just keep my thoughts to myself or share my thoughts with someone I know if I know anyone who is watching the same drama as me at the same time. But I love this drama so much and am so invested in it and feel like the characters are really complex and that there are a lot of misunderstandings/mysteries, so I wanted to try sharing my POV/thoughts too since I saw lots of people doing the same. But then it ended up being way longer than I thought it would be. 😅

I read most of your comment, but you spoiled some of the things that happen in the movie, which I don't want to know because I want to be completely surprised. :( I didn't watch the movie on purpose and have been avoiding reading spoilers about it because I want to be surprised. So, I didn't read your comment all the way through because you spoiled some things that I didn't want to know that happened in the movie. If you edit your comment, I will read it all the way through, but please, no spoilers... :'( These are just my theories/speculations based only on what has been presented in the drama so far...

Lol! Thank you, and sorry. 😅 Lol. I know I wrote A LOT, but I was reading everyone's comments and had a lot to say, and I didn't want to individually comment on everyone else's comments and just repeat myself a bunch of times, so I just decided to type everything up and post it as one long thread, because then I can just address everything and get all of my thoughts out there at once. IDK if anyone will actually read everything that I wrote, but I wanted to at least put my thoughts out there since everyone else seems to be ranting and theorizing right now. Lol.

| Other miscellaneous theories |

I saw some people say that they think that DS is into photography because he’s dying and/or is going blind/has a disease/etc. However, I think the terminal illness theory was already proven to be false when we discovered that he was going to Seoul to see a psychiatrist and not some other type of doctor. If he was really dying, he wouldn’t be spending his time talking to a psychiatrist about past traumas that are haunting him, he would most likely be worrying about the future and what’s to come. There’s nothing in the drama that suggests that he’s losing his eyesight or anything like that as well. I think that the reason he likes taking pictures of Gongjin and the people of Gongjin is because he probably doesn’t have many photos of his parents, his grandfather, or himself as a child. He’s probably sad that he doesn’t have many things to remember them or his childhood by, and he’s constantly haunted by past traumas and thoughts of how he grew up with no parents and alone. So, I interpret his interest in photography as him trying to preserve the memories of the people and places he loves while they’re still around, since he’s already lost so many people in his life. Especially since most of the subjects of his photos are old people, remember? People who he loves and gets along with really well who will soon no longer be around. He wants to have things that he can remember them by, and remember them when they were alive and well and happy. Remember, he doesn’t have any family members, and the people of Gongjin are the closest that he has to a family. I think he only takes pictures of the people and places that he loves, which is why he told HJ before that he wouldn’t take pictures of her because he has “high standards” when it comes to the models/subjects of his pictures. But then he secretly does take pictures of her when she isn’t looking and he also took pictures of her when she was drunk as well, showing that he does love/care about her (whether he’s aware of it or not) and wants to remember her.

I’m not sure why DS lives the way he does, but IDT it’s because he’s dying or anything like that. For some reason I keep thinking that he lives the way he does because of his grandfather, though I’m not sure why I think that. I feel like it might be because his grandfather was a simple and kind person—he worked hard, but I think was probably poor and uneducated as well. It’s possible that DS feels like he didn’t appreciate or cherish his grandpa as much as he should’ve when he was still alive, maybe they butted heads a lot when DS was in middle school because DS was gifted and got straight A’s and couldn’t understand his grandpa or maybe didn’t see value in the way that his grandpa lived. (It makes me think of what DS says to Juri about how she should be nicer to her father, otherwise she’ll regret it later on.) And then maybe his grandpa died in an accident and DS saw him when he was about to die or shortly after he died, and maybe it’s his grandpa who haunts him in his dreams. Maybe DS carried on living his life the way he wanted to for a while after his grandpa’s death, went to SNU and maybe had a job in Seoul for a while, and then maybe sometime after he graduated college he started to have those traumatic nightmares? Maybe he feels guilty about how he treated his grandpa and he started to value what his grandpa valued and is kind of “paying it forward” to the people of Gongjin (many of whom are poor and uneducated and lack resources) in the memory of his grandpa, and that’s his form of “atonement” or something? Obviously, it remains a mystery for now, but that’s what I’ve been thinking/wondering.

I also think that DS started to have those traumatic nightmares when he was living in Seoul because the psychiatrist he’s been seeing is in Seoul and not in a city that’s closer to Gongjin. He could’ve tried to find a psychiatrist in a city that’s closer to Gongjin, but the fact that he’s been seeing one in Seoul about the dreams he’s been having means that he started to have those dreams while he was living in Seoul and has just continued to go to the same psychiatrist about his dreams/trauma over the years.

Also, the mystery of what DS did during the 5 years after he graduated college, before returning to Gongjin—it’s possible that not much happened during that time too. We know that none of the theories that the townspeople suggested are true (because the writers wouldn’t actually have the townspeople guess the real truth), so I don’t think he killed anyone or was in jail at all during that time. If he had accidentally killed someone, even if it was an accident, he would’ve served some time in jail. However, because that was one of the things that one of the people guessed might have happened and then the old woman/his “grandma” (who knows the truth) got mad and said that she wanted to seal that one guy’s lips when he guessed that and said it wasn’t true, that makes me think that DS didn’t actually accidentally kill someone. It’s possible that he just worked a boring job in Seoul the whole time and hated it and had an epiphany while he was working there that he wanted to live a different kind of life and then returned to Gongjin. I feel like oftentimes when shows/movies have all of these grand theories about what happened to a person during a certain period of time that the truth is oftentimes that nothing much happened and everyone’s just letting their imaginations run wild. The people of Gongjin just like to gossip and blow things up into being a bigger deal than they actually are because they’re bored and don’t have anything better to do. That’s my theory anyways—that nothing special actually happened during that 5-year period except for DS maybe starting to have those traumatic nightmares and reassessing his life.

I also see some people worrying that the SML is gonna end up with the FL in the end. I REALLY doubt that. HJ and DS are definitely gonna end up together, I feel like. I know that KSH has played other characters in the past who didn’t end up with anyone/with the FL, but I’m like positive that DS and HJ are going to end up together in this drama. I will be SHOCKED if they don’t end up together. Since this is a rom-com though, I’m almost certain that they will end up together in the end. Especially since we know that they met a couple of times when they were younger now, which, in Kdrama-land, means that they’re “fated lovers.” It just might take them a while to realize and accept their feelings and to make their feelings known to each other, but I’m fine with that since I love slow-burn romance stories. <3

| DS’s trauma |

I feel like I interpreted the scene where DS was looking at the picture of the mother and the child so differently from a lot of people, because I just assumed it was his mother and him as a baby in the picture just given the context and what we know. I didn’t even consider the possibility of him maybe having a wife and child who died. Now, I’m not dismissing that theory since it is plausible, especially since no one knows what he did for 5 years after he finished college. However, I just don’t get the vibe from this drama that something like that would happen in this drama. This is supposed to be a fluffy, feel-good/heartwarming, healing rom-com, and the ML having a dead wife and child, ON TOP of already being an orphan who lost his parents and his grandpa at a young age and having no one he can lean on in his life… IDK. Like, how tragic can one character’s life get in one drama, especially considering that this is not a makjang/melodrama either, right? (I’m pretty sure it’s not, right?) If this was a melodrama-type of drama, then maybe I would believe it, but, since IDT it is, and this drama is supposed to be a comedy and a slice-of-life type of drama, I feel like the mother and child in the picture are most likely him and his mother, and not a dead wife and child. Something like that just seems way too heavy for a drama like this, IMO…

I’m not sure why the father’s face wasn’t shown, and I also found that strange when I was watching that scene. However, there’s probably a reason for it—like, the father’s picture or a flashback scene of his father may happen later on in the drama, and they don’t want the viewers to know right away who his father was, so maybe that’s why they didn’t show his face. Maybe the trauma that DS has has something to do with his father? Maybe his father killed his mother (and then killed himself), and DS witnessed what happened and that’s why he’s traumatized? When I watched the scene of DS’s dream where the bloody hand grabs his shoulder, for some reason I immediately wondered if the bloody hand was supposed to belong to his father or grandfather. I’ve been thinking that they either died due to accidents or maybe they were murdered or something, and maybe DS saw a dead body/dead bodies and that’s why he dreams of a bloody hand grabbing him. DS definitely has PTSD, as he’s seeing a psychiatrist and has vivid recurring nightmares that are connected to his trauma. I feel like he was most likely the victim of some kind of trauma-inducing situation rather than the perpetrator of some accidental murder or whatever. (Though, again, since we don’t know, I’m not dismissing the possibility of him having accidentally killed someone, I just feel like it’s unlikely.)

Someone else already mentioned this earlier too and I agree: if DS had gotten married, he wouldn’t have kept it a secret from everyone in Gongjin—why would he keep something like that a secret?? He has no reason to keep a wife and child a secret from everyone in his home village. I feel like he would want people to know if he was happily married and had a child. Also, the old lady (his “grandma”) knows where he was and what he did during that 5-year period—she’s the only one who knows aside from him. Yet, she’s repeatedly teased him about not being able to find a woman and says that he should get with someone. If he had gotten married and had a child, she would definitely not be teasing him about something like that, especially if they died or left him. Moreover, his reaction to people telling him he should date someone doesn’t seem sad or bothered at all to me either—he’s just reluctant to for some reason, but I feel like his aura and reaction would be much darker/sadder if he had actually gotten married and had a child and then they died or left him. Also, he looked at the picture of the mother and child right after having a discussion with the café owner about how he grew up without parents, and it was only during that moment when they talked that he looked a little sad. So, I high-key think the mother and child in the picture are him and his mother, and we’ll find out later why the father’s face wasn’t shown.

| DS “friendzoning” HJ |

I feel like I interpreted this situation completely differently than everyone else did. I thought it was really sweet and mature of DS to make it clear that he wanted to have some kind of a friendship/positive relationship with HJ, especially given the context/fact that they fight/butt heads and misunderstand each other often. I feel like it’s so rare for someone—especially guys—to initiate wanting to just be friends with someone that they’re attracted to/have romantic feelings for. I really hate the term “friendzoning,” because there’s nothing wrong with being friends. I interpreted DS suggesting that they be friends as him trying to extend an olive branch to HJ and essentially being like, “Hey, I’m not really sure what kind of relationship I want to have with you ATM, but I genuinely like you and want to get to know you better and have some kind of a positive relationship with you whether we end up dating or not.” That shows a lot of emotional maturity from his side, IMO.

He demonstrated that he cares about her as a person regardless of what the nature of their relationship is and showed interest in wanting to get closer to her and get to know her better and so on. And then, after they’ve been friends for a while and he gets closer to her/gets to know her better, he can decide if he wants to open up to her and pursue her romantically or not. That’s not selfish, it’s practical. Neither of them are the types to go all-in into a relationship until they’re absolutely sure about both their own feelings and the other person, and the only way for them to be sure about that is to get closer and to get to know each other better (hence being friends first). And it’s nice to see that he wants to have a relationship with her even if they aren’t dating/romantically-involved with each other, because I feel like male-female relationships oftentimes get reduced to either being dating or not-dating, and genuine, real friendships between members of the opposite sex rarely get explored or shown in media, I feel like.

Note: Also, neither of them is fully aware of or has accepted their feelings for each other yet, so being friends was the only positive relationship that he could suggest that they have since both of them act like they hate each other more often than they act like they like each other, and neither of them is fully conscious of how they feel nor how the other feels about them.

The reason DS’s friendship suggestion didn’t work/back-fired though is because HJ doesn’t know how to be friends with people or how to get close to people or how to have positive relationships of any kind with other people. Remember, she only has ONE friend (Mi Seon), and that ONE friend is literally the ONLY person she opens up to and has any kind of positive relationship with. She doesn’t have any other friends, she’s not close with her dad or her stepmom or other family members, and nobody in Seoul or Gongjin really likes her that much. That’s why DS says that he pities HJ, because he knows that she basically doesn’t have anyone in her life, and he knows it’s not because she has high standards/because no one’s good enough for her (though that’s the lie that she tells herself to protect her pride), but because she doesn’t know how to have positive relationships with people. She lacks and struggles with the qualities that are essential for getting close to people and having positive relationships, and that’s why he keeps “nagging” her and trying to help her open up to others and get close to other people and teach her how to establish and maintain positive relationships with other people. However, that’s clearly the biggest obstacle for her character, and it’s something that I’m sure she will learn to overcome as the drama progresses.

Also, DS—despite his good intentions in initiating wanting to be friends with HJ—ended up handling the situation kind of poorly too in the sense that he didn’t understand, and wasn’t in tune to, how HJ actually felt when he approached her and suggested that they just be friends (which is what he wanted/thought was the best solution—there’s no way he could’ve known how she felt/what she was thinking though). I honestly think that HJ would’ve perceived him as being a jerk regardless of what course of action he took, so he was doomed to be the “bad guy” in her mind no matter what he did/said (lol). I personally don’t think he was being a “jerk” to her or trying to reject her or brush off what happened between them, I think he just genuinely doesn’t know how she feels or thinks. He thought he was being considerate of her feelings by acting like nothing happened and like it wasn’t a big deal/didn’t mean anything because he thought she probably felt embarrassed (which she did) and he assumed it was just a drunken mistake (like her pole-dancing, lol), and also because he doesn’t know for sure how she feels about him either. Both of them don’t know for sure how the other feels about them—they both suspect that the other might like them, but they both also give each other mixed messages and act like they straight up don’t like each other at all sometimes as well. And neither of them wants to be rejected by the other and they both have their guard up around the other, so they can’t tell how the other feels about them. So, he thought he was being considerate of her feelings, but, because they think and interpret things completely differently, and because he doesn’t know how she feels about him, he ended up giving her the impression that he was rejecting her by suggesting that they just be friends, when I feel like his intentions were the complete opposite when he said they should be friends (because he wants her in his life and to get closer to her/get to know her better and to have a positive relationship with her).

Note: DS also tries to get close to and befriend most people too, and he’s well-liked/gets along with most people, so he probably didn’t think anything of it and didn’t think she would interpret it badly when he suggested that they be friends. Also, he clearly has a compulsive need to try and get involved in everything and to “fix” everything immediately, which is why he felt the need to go to her clinic ASAP and try to mend the situation and clear the air between them (but unknowingly did just the opposite, lol).

I’ve been reading everyone’s comments and would like to share my POV since I feel like I have slightly different interpretations of the things that have happened that I would like to share, just to add to the conversation (note: this is gonna be a REALLY long, multi-part rant, lol):

| HJ being mean to DS |

I’m not defending her because I also felt like she was being too harsh at times, but I feel like how she acted is understandable if you think about it. I’ve seen lots of comments saying that she’s being mean to DS because of her past relationship trauma, but I personally don’t think that her past relationship trauma has much to do with how she’s treating DS.

I think that DS was right when he said that HJ was being “immature” and “childish” (as he also can be at times though too, IMO), because how she was acting is typically how kids/younger people sometimes act when they like someone. Even in real life, people sometimes try to be cold/standoffish to people they have feelings for, especially if they know/have a feeling that their feelings won't be reciprocated by the other person. (DS also acted cold/standoffish to HJ first in the first episode, even though we later learn that he was somewhat attracted to her from the very first moment that he saw her.) It’s a defense mechanism. She has feelings for him (though she doesn’t fully realize it yet), but she's trying to protect herself from getting hurt by trying to put distance between them and trying to make Doo Shik leave her alone/stop making her fall even more for him, because she doesn't want to be stuck in a one-sided crush/relationship. She's trying to protect herself from being rejected by rejecting him and being cold to him first, essentially, and trying to make him stop making her fall even more in love with him.

I feel like she is extra harsh to him because she feels like he’s giving her mixed messages (which he kind of is) and keeps giving her the idea that he likes her, even though part of it is her own misunderstanding (though he does have feelings her, but he doesn’t outwardly show it like she thinks he does sometimes). Remember, she hasn’t dated much and is a super conservative/non-affectionate/close-minded person, so DS was right to an extent when he said she has “princess syndrome,” because she is the type of person who will misconstrue someone just being nice to her as them leading her on. She felt like he misled her/led her on to an extent (which, he didn’t, but that’s her perception), and then she kissed him first—something she never does—probably because she subconsciously thought that he liked her back (which he does, lol). But then he brushed it off and said that he didn’t have any feelings for her, which probably made her feel really vulnerable and embarrassed and powerless, because she kind of put herself out there and then interpreted his reaction as him rejecting her (which, it wasn’t meant to be, but that’s how she interpreted it). So, like someone already mentioned, her lashing out at him was her trying to take back control of the situation and prevent herself from getting rejected and feeling like she made a fool of herself or like he made a fool out of her.

I feel like they both have been really harsh to one another at times, but I don’t feel like either one is actually being “mean” because I can genuinely understand where both sides are coming from and what types of things are informing their actions and words. I think the main issue is just that they’re complete opposites and they have a hard time understanding each other and they keep misunderstanding each other. However, they both seem to be aware of their own flaws and they both are able to own up to their mistakes and try to make things right/make it up to the other in the end, which makes both of their characters really human/realistic and also endearing/likable, IMO.

I like that they both try to be honest with one another though (except for being honest about their feelings for each other, lol, but that will happen later, I know) and actually try to communicate with one another and let the other know how they feel/what they think (especially DS—HJ kind of doesn’t know how to do stuff like that yet, but she’s gradually learning how to be better). I feel like that so rarely happens in shows/movies, where characters actually genuinely try to communicate with one another and understand each other better and be honest with one another/try to clear up misunderstandings (even if they accidentally fail sometimes and just make things worse, lol), rather than just letting the misunderstandings continue/compound over time and then result in a big dramatic situation later on. They’re continuously trying to resolve the issues that they have and communicate with one another and figure the other out/try to understand the other despite the fact that they’re complete opposites and think/interpret things so differently. This aspect makes their relationship very realistic and mature, IMO.

I felt that way too initially when I was watching the new episode--that she was being too harsh/mean to him. However, I feel like Doo Shik was able to see through her when he called her "immature" and "childish," because how she was acting is typically how kids/younger people sometimes act when they like someone. Even in real life, people sometimes try to be cold/standoffish to people they have feelings for, especially if they know/have a feeling that their feelings won't be reciprocated by the other person. Doo Shik acts like he genuinely isn't aware of his feelings for her (though he might be sub-consciously aware), he doesn't outwardly show her that he has feelings for her in a way that's obvious enough to her, and he keeps insisting that there's nothing between them and that he just wants to be friends with her.

So, how she's acting makes sense to me when I think about it--it's a defense mechanism, as someone else already mentioned as well. She has feelings for him, but she's trying to protect herself from getting hurt by trying to put distance between them and trying to make Doo Shik leave her alone/stop making her fall even more for him, because she doesn't want to be stuck in a one-sided crush/relationship. She's trying to protect herself from being rejected by rejecting him and being cold to him first, essentially.

Oh my god! That's an interesting theory! I actually think that you might be right too. It does kind of seem that way.

That's what I'm wondering too, if he has some kind of trauma that makes him not want to be in a relationship with anyone, since the people in Gongjin were saying that lots of women are lined up to date Doo Shik, but then the one old lady said that Doo Shik is good at everything "except finding a woman." But it's obviously not because he's undesirable or anything like that, since lots of people like him. So yeah, I'm also wondering the same thing, if his past trauma is preventing him from getting too close to people or something like that.

I really hope that Hye Jin and Doo Shik's relationship/friendship doesn't become awkward/uncomfortable/sad now though. Like, I hope that Hye Jin just tries to clarify the situation/set boundaries with him, but that she doesn't chase him away or make him not want to be around her anymore. I hope that they continue to be friends and that there isn't this uncomfortable tension/drama between them..

There are probably mentions of "Gongjin" in other contexts, but not specifically the fictional town in HCCC. Check out this article: https://www.korea.net/TalkTalkKorea/French/community/community/CMN0000011705