I will have to agree, the childhood connection did nothing for the plot, it could have been omitted completely.
You need to keep in mind that Hye Jin, for all her pompous maturity in the earlier episodes, is still pretty much an immature adult. Bereft of parental love from both her father and mother, she was doing many childish things in her adult life. In fact in literally the first 10 minutes of episode 1, she is seen trying to show a bunch of HS track field stars that she is faster. She has always been on the immature side.
So it's not surprising, the first romantic relationship she has been since possibly college will show her acting like a teenager again, wanting to complete a bucket list full of childhood wants and needs.
I believe this contrast to Dusik's more mature approach to a relationship is meant to be stark to show the difference in the type of love coming from both Hye Jin and Dusik.
anyone else getting curious after ep.13 preview? I really hope it's not a wife and daughter he lost- cause that'll…
I have a feeling the man who passed away was most likely the original Mr. Hong, in the sense that he had a variety of different talents, and most likely taught Dusik everything he knows like reading, wine and etc..
Just a little perspective on Hye Jin and Dusik. I've been thinking about how that red lighthouse constantly makes an appearance throughout the drama. The lighthouse symbolizes people finding their way home, or providing a beacon for people who are lost.
Hye Jin has never really found a port to call home. She became lost when her mother passed away, and became lost when her father became a drunkard, she became lost when her college BF betrayed her. But every time she lost her way, she became her own lighthouse, artificially making whatever port she decides to dock into her home. She is navigating tough waters, where societal pressure, social status, material wealth and close minded "friends" litter the waters around her. And as lost as she was, she was able to find anchors, or temporary homes in Mi-Seon, and to a lesser extent Ji PD. But it's always been her steering the ship.
I believe, the reason she seems to have become who she is in EP. 11 and 12 is really primarily because, after 34 years of being a solo woman guiding her ship, a lighthouse in the form of Dusik has finally guided her home. And she can finally let someone else be the lighthouse in her life. Dusik's love has illuminated the dark waters, making those artifacts that used to pressure and control her seems like nothing more than gentle waves in the ocean. Hye Jin, in her mind, has finally found a home. Little did she know though, that the "home" she has found in Dusik is in itself surrounded by it's own hostile waters.
Dusik on the other hand, with so much people leaving him, no doubt has been guiding his own ship for the longest time. In fact the villagers, as much as they treat him like family, have their own families. A point I feel is shown the most with Gam-ri, the person who raised him as her own, still seeks approval from her own son compared to Dusik. This just point to the fact that Dusik himself hasn't found his permanent home yet. And this is paralleled in the various multiple part time jobs he does that reflect his inner turmoil of not finding anything permanent. Which is likely why he requires those regular visits to the Seoul therapist to make sure he doesn't "Drop off the face of the Earth", like he did in Seoul when his trauma occurred. His happiness in his life are fleeting. No matter how bright the day, no matter how wide the smiles of the villagers, no matter how much love Hye Jin showers on to him, the minute he closes his eyes, darkness envelops him. And the thing is, how can light drive away the darkness when you don't tell the light where to shine?
So although Hye Jin is glad she has found her home, and can permanently set up shop there, the home she chose in Dusik in itself does not have a stable ground. Surrounded by choppy waters and pitch black darkness. So although outwardly, we see Dusik save Hye Jin multiple times, it's actually always been Hye Jin who is supposed to save Dusik and guide him to his proper home by her side, but only if he will let her.
Yes, exactly.Based on the long list Hyejin has made, this honeymoon period is going to be long and i am not complaining.…
Oh my those are some cute activities lol!
Dusik though doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who is into those things. He is more than meeting her halfway to get that list done.
I just have this nagging feeling about dusik feeling the relationship won't last forever. Because you normally want to complete a bucket list when someone is very old and not much longer to live. Otherwise s bucket list should have a pretty long timeline and it seems dusik want to complete them all by next week, which I find weird.
When I analyzed Ep 12 a little bit more, I realize that although, they are both in a relationship, at the same time they are not.
I get the sense that from an outsiders point of view, they are clearly both in love with each other, but don't realize what shape the love is suppose to take form. For Hye Jin, being in love and in a relationship is about doing the things she was never able to do while single. Finishing some societally approved bucket list, as if she wants to catch up on decades of romance. She is attacking the list with such gusto, as if she is subconsciously afraid she will not be able to finish the list.
Dusik on the other hand is clearly in love with Hye Jin, but at the same time, he is slightly treating the relationship just like another one of his many part-time jobs. He sees it, he finds a way to service it or fix it. In a way, Hye Jin is on offence, and Dusik is just playing defence, allowing Hye Jin to dictate the pace and direction of the romance. The direction Dusik actually prefers is shown in the dream sequence, he just wants to chill, relax, and gaze at each other's eyes. Warmly and slowly growing their love. An idea Hye Jin has yet to grasp.
Mi-seon as Ponnu has observed, acts as that fourth wall breaking character that relays what the audience is feeling. The annoying displays of PDA, the over abundance of lovey dovey scenes are all meant to relay to us the audience that both Hye Jin and Dusik do not know how to proceed with their romance. Hye Jin feels that completing 100's of romantic situations will make their love stronger, while Dusik feels that doing those task is what will make Hye Jin happy. They themselves haven't gotten past the fluffy parts of a romance, the PDA's, the tiny kisses, the flirty banter. They have not gotten to a level where Hye Jin talks about her past, or where Dusik opens up about how he became who he is. For now, they are just having fun indulging in the fluff at a breakneck speed.
But there will be a time, when the fluff will disappear, and both Hye Jin and Dusik will have to deal with the mature feelings growing between them, and they can hopefully share a good cry, and be there for each other, when the train derails and they will face the first of many obstacles to come.
Saw some people thinking the latest episodes became a cringefest and well I did think a bit like that before,…
I believe people have just gotten to seeing just 20-30 minutes of fluff at the very last episode 16 or 20, that when being thrown a curve ball, basically 2 episodes worth of fluff in the middle of the drama, that they don't know what to do.
I've seen many dramas where I wish the fluff scenes were so much longer, and I can see the dating scenes, and the cringey things. I mean we've spent 10 episodes basically shipping the main couple, and 2 episodes of fluff is amazing for me, as it represents the payoff of our emotional investment.
Tbh, I would rather see hwa Jeong single. The way the village chief treats her hasn't changed. Her love language…
Initially I was sympathetic of him, as he started to fall for hwa jeong again, but when his first love moved in again, he just drop his feelings like dirt on shoes.
Then once he got rejected, now he is feeling like going back to hwa jeong?
Oh please, this is the definition of a toxic relationship, hwa jeong can do so much better, than a guy who treats her like a booty call.
I'm a bit surprised at all the people crying cringe fest and fluff. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I just want to point out that, even in my experience, when you don't date that much or are in your first serious relationship, your not automatically going to be an expert in love, and your definitely not going to know your limits. Your going to go through all the immature stages of first/pure love. The quick jealousy, the insane request, the clingyness and what not. Especially if you grew up fully bereft of any parental love. Your going to keep smiling, but deep down your hurting. So when you meet your first real relationships, the weights are going to be taken off, and your going to indulge that sweet/naive side of yourself that you have been sheltering because that sweet/naive child would not survive a harsh world bereft of parental love, or one that feels she doesn't even deserve the love of PD in college.
Sure watching K-drama, may give us a blueprint on how to act when we're with our first boyfriend or what not. But your not going to be able to control the emotions, the rage, the jealousy, the pettyness, the over rushing of love, the heart ache and everything else first love comes with.
It doesn't matter they are in their 30's. There are PLENTY of people who don't have their first relationship until they are well in their 30's. Not everyone has GF/BF in High School or College. A lot of people never get pass the crushing stage. So when they eventually do fall in love with a guy/girl, it's quite perfectly natural to be really fluffy and overly sweet about it. Because you are so in love with that person you want to do all those things you see other people do. You basically make that other person your whole world, and you think about them all day, and get really clingy. Of course not everyone acts like this, but for people who haven't been loved, or has loved for a long time, it's very realistic in my opinion.
I even look at my old pictures, and I cringed at some of the things I was doing in the first few months of dating, as in dying from embarrassment type of cringe. I think some viewers have been spoiled with the whole Chaebol and poor girl trope, where the guy is a playboy, and has TONS of experience dating, and the romance seems very mature.
Hye Jin and HDS romance is completely puppy love meets cloud 9. Hye Jin has totally reverted back to a naive child who has finally found someone to love her. That love she lost when her mom passed away, and when her dad became a drunk, she has finally found in someone. So just like HDS, we just give in to her. We allow that naive child to smile, we allow her to experience the things she didn't have before, no matter how inane they are, because we love her, just like Dusik loves Hye Jin.
I personally didn't see anything wrong with the fluff/cringe fest, because first/naive love looks like that for some people. Especially people with deep rooted emotional trauma. We have seem Hye Jin break free from her emotional shackles, but truth be told, we haven't seen Dushik break out of his yet. So excited to see both of them, just completely lay out their vulnerabilities to each other. Right now it's mostly Hye Jin that is being vulnerable, Dusik hasn't completely let down his guard yet. His porcupine quills are still very much up. And if Hye Jin doesn't figure things out fast, she's just going to get hurt by them.
I am personally loving the cringey scenes 😂🙈 Wouldn't mind if the writer keeps them coming coupled with…
I feel people feel they are cringy because we've seen kdrama with more mature and cultured romance.
But believe me, if you are in a first time relationship, and you and the guy are both new to it and are in cloud 9, you'd totally.be acting like dusik and Hye Jin. Maybe even more cringey.
News 
As I said I believe it's mean to show a contrast between her approach to the relationship vs dusik's.
You need to keep in mind that Hye Jin, for all her pompous maturity in the earlier episodes, is still pretty much an immature adult. Bereft of parental love from both her father and mother, she was doing many childish things in her adult life. In fact in literally the first 10 minutes of episode 1, she is seen trying to show a bunch of HS track field stars that she is faster. She has always been on the immature side.
So it's not surprising, the first romantic relationship she has been since possibly college will show her acting like a teenager again, wanting to complete a bucket list full of childhood wants and needs.
I believe this contrast to Dusik's more mature approach to a relationship is meant to be stark to show the difference in the type of love coming from both Hye Jin and Dusik.
Hye Jin has never really found a port to call home. She became lost when her mother passed away, and became lost when her father became a drunkard, she became lost when her college BF betrayed her. But every time she lost her way, she became her own lighthouse, artificially making whatever port she decides to dock into her home. She is navigating tough waters, where societal pressure, social status, material wealth and close minded "friends" litter the waters around her. And as lost as she was, she was able to find anchors, or temporary homes in Mi-Seon, and to a lesser extent Ji PD. But it's always been her steering the ship.
I believe, the reason she seems to have become who she is in EP. 11 and 12 is really primarily because, after 34 years of being a solo woman guiding her ship, a lighthouse in the form of Dusik has finally guided her home. And she can finally let someone else be the lighthouse in her life. Dusik's love has illuminated the dark waters, making those artifacts that used to pressure and control her seems like nothing more than gentle waves in the ocean. Hye Jin, in her mind, has finally found a home. Little did she know though, that the "home" she has found in Dusik is in itself surrounded by it's own hostile waters.
Dusik on the other hand, with so much people leaving him, no doubt has been guiding his own ship for the longest time. In fact the villagers, as much as they treat him like family, have their own families. A point I feel is shown the most with Gam-ri, the person who raised him as her own, still seeks approval from her own son compared to Dusik. This just point to the fact that Dusik himself hasn't found his permanent home yet. And this is paralleled in the various multiple part time jobs he does that reflect his inner turmoil of not finding anything permanent. Which is likely why he requires those regular visits to the Seoul therapist to make sure he doesn't "Drop off the face of the Earth", like he did in Seoul when his trauma occurred. His happiness in his life are fleeting. No matter how bright the day, no matter how wide the smiles of the villagers, no matter how much love Hye Jin showers on to him, the minute he closes his eyes, darkness envelops him. And the thing is, how can light drive away the darkness when you don't tell the light where to shine?
So although Hye Jin is glad she has found her home, and can permanently set up shop there, the home she chose in Dusik in itself does not have a stable ground. Surrounded by choppy waters and pitch black darkness. So although outwardly, we see Dusik save Hye Jin multiple times, it's actually always been Hye Jin who is supposed to save Dusik and guide him to his proper home by her side, but only if he will let her.
Dusik though doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who is into those things. He is more than meeting her halfway to get that list done.
I just have this nagging feeling about dusik feeling the relationship won't last forever. Because you normally want to complete a bucket list when someone is very old and not much longer to live. Otherwise s bucket list should have a pretty long timeline and it seems dusik want to complete them all by next week, which I find weird.
They are still in honeymoon stage, the real test comes after honeymoon stage.
I get the sense that from an outsiders point of view, they are clearly both in love with each other, but don't realize what shape the love is suppose to take form. For Hye Jin, being in love and in a relationship is about doing the things she was never able to do while single. Finishing some societally approved bucket list, as if she wants to catch up on decades of romance. She is attacking the list with such gusto, as if she is subconsciously afraid she will not be able to finish the list.
Dusik on the other hand is clearly in love with Hye Jin, but at the same time, he is slightly treating the relationship just like another one of his many part-time jobs. He sees it, he finds a way to service it or fix it. In a way, Hye Jin is on offence, and Dusik is just playing defence, allowing Hye Jin to dictate the pace and direction of the romance. The direction Dusik actually prefers is shown in the dream sequence, he just wants to chill, relax, and gaze at each other's eyes. Warmly and slowly growing their love. An idea Hye Jin has yet to grasp.
Mi-seon as Ponnu has observed, acts as that fourth wall breaking character that relays what the audience is feeling. The annoying displays of PDA, the over abundance of lovey dovey scenes are all meant to relay to us the audience that both Hye Jin and Dusik do not know how to proceed with their romance. Hye Jin feels that completing 100's of romantic situations will make their love stronger, while Dusik feels that doing those task is what will make Hye Jin happy. They themselves haven't gotten past the fluffy parts of a romance, the PDA's, the tiny kisses, the flirty banter. They have not gotten to a level where Hye Jin talks about her past, or where Dusik opens up about how he became who he is. For now, they are just having fun indulging in the fluff at a breakneck speed.
But there will be a time, when the fluff will disappear, and both Hye Jin and Dusik will have to deal with the mature feelings growing between them, and they can hopefully share a good cry, and be there for each other, when the train derails and they will face the first of many obstacles to come.
I've seen many dramas where I wish the fluff scenes were so much longer, and I can see the dating scenes, and the cringey things. I mean we've spent 10 episodes basically shipping the main couple, and 2 episodes of fluff is amazing for me, as it represents the payoff of our emotional investment.
Then once he got rejected, now he is feeling like going back to hwa jeong?
Oh please, this is the definition of a toxic relationship, hwa jeong can do so much better, than a guy who treats her like a booty call.
Sure watching K-drama, may give us a blueprint on how to act when we're with our first boyfriend or what not. But your not going to be able to control the emotions, the rage, the jealousy, the pettyness, the over rushing of love, the heart ache and everything else first love comes with.
It doesn't matter they are in their 30's. There are PLENTY of people who don't have their first relationship until they are well in their 30's. Not everyone has GF/BF in High School or College. A lot of people never get pass the crushing stage. So when they eventually do fall in love with a guy/girl, it's quite perfectly natural to be really fluffy and overly sweet about it. Because you are so in love with that person you want to do all those things you see other people do. You basically make that other person your whole world, and you think about them all day, and get really clingy. Of course not everyone acts like this, but for people who haven't been loved, or has loved for a long time, it's very realistic in my opinion.
I even look at my old pictures, and I cringed at some of the things I was doing in the first few months of dating, as in dying from embarrassment type of cringe. I think some viewers have been spoiled with the whole Chaebol and poor girl trope, where the guy is a playboy, and has TONS of experience dating, and the romance seems very mature.
Hye Jin and HDS romance is completely puppy love meets cloud 9. Hye Jin has totally reverted back to a naive child who has finally found someone to love her. That love she lost when her mom passed away, and when her dad became a drunk, she has finally found in someone. So just like HDS, we just give in to her. We allow that naive child to smile, we allow her to experience the things she didn't have before, no matter how inane they are, because we love her, just like Dusik loves Hye Jin.
I personally didn't see anything wrong with the fluff/cringe fest, because first/naive love looks like that for some people. Especially people with deep rooted emotional trauma. We have seem Hye Jin break free from her emotional shackles, but truth be told, we haven't seen Dushik break out of his yet. So excited to see both of them, just completely lay out their vulnerabilities to each other. Right now it's mostly Hye Jin that is being vulnerable, Dusik hasn't completely let down his guard yet. His porcupine quills are still very much up. And if Hye Jin doesn't figure things out fast, she's just going to get hurt by them.
And near the end of 12, it's clear she's a bit dense.
Puppy love/cloud 9 romance looks exactly like this in real life. Couples do the cringiest things at the peak of their love.
But believe me, if you are in a first time relationship, and you and the guy are both new to it and are in cloud 9, you'd totally.be acting like dusik and Hye Jin. Maybe even more cringey.
When people who are not used to dating start dating, they do really cringy things. Have you ever seen new couples wear matching t-shirts? Cringe!