OK, So I Rewatched This Scene In Ep 1 In Light Of The Scene In Ep 6.

OK, so I rewatched this scene in ep 1 in light of the scene in ep 6.

Compare:

And in episode 6:

This is so clever and so interesting and such good writing!

Because when you watch ep 1, without having seen any other episodes yet, Hyun Soo’s statement comes across as cold-blooded boasting of a manipulative psychopath. “Hahahaha my wife is so dumb, I show her whatever she wants to see and she swallows it; I can read her like a book. We are a match made in heaven because I control her.”

But!!! By the time we finish episode 6, the meaning of that speech is so starkly different. Not just because it has become clear that anything Hyun Soo tells the unparents there is to both protect himself and Ji Won and their relationship from them and because they view him as a cold-blooded psychopath so he plays that role in front of them to fit into their expectations (he tries really hard to keep them and anyone in his orbit satisfied enough not to wreck his life.)

But also because everything he says has such a different meaning - yes, they are a match made in heaven because she believes only what she sees. That means she did not judge him for his oddness or his inability to process things properly (he may be an ideal husband now but when she first met and fell for him, he was openly a maladjusted freak, to put it bluntly.) AND now, she is also not going to judge him based on hearsay or rumors or suppositions. She is going to judge him on the actual facts. In fact, from the start she judged him for what she saw and not what he said - he said “go away” and “I am insane and violent” but she judged on what she actually saw - someone who kept staring at her with longing and protected her from robbery without expecting her to ever know. She is literally unique in that from everyone else he has ever interacted with (other than their daughter and possibly his noona.)

Even his statement of “I only show her what she wants to see” is quite different in retrospect - first, he does do that but that is because he’s trying to be as ideal a husband as he can be so she will stick around because he needs her for his actual sanity but also, second, she is the first person since possibly his noona, who reacts nicely when he does nice things - when he treats her well, she treats him well back, as compared to for example his delivery roommate who tried to kill him in return for Hyun Soo trying to help him find his wallet.

Oh, and his “I can see through her” is both ironic now (he obviously has no idea why she is upset in ep 6 and it freaks him out so so badly and not because he’s losing control of her but because he NEEDS to know what she thinks so he can make sure she’s happy with him and not mad at him for his world to be OK because he’s frankly badly codependent on her. This is no suave manipulator winning over deluded victim; this is a horribly damaged man who needs his wife a lot more than she needs him) and true in a very different sense - one of the reasons he is comfortable with her is because she’s very straightforward and even blunt about her wants and needs which for someone like him, who is bad at nuances of emotions and reading cues like that, must be amazingly restful.

In conclusion - her belief in only judging what she sees is going to save him, if anything will. They really are a match made in heaven.

Kang Yo-han and Jung Sun-ah are either gonna hook up or kill each other, there is no in between.

I knew she was #girlboss but I didn't know she would be THE BOSS

holy shit the secretary?????????,

Get you a man who's steel

But also so soft

SNARKY

ADORABLE SCARED CUTIEPIE

WHO'S STRONG ASF??

AND SO DAMN PRETTY? (This white sweater I swear)

WAKES UP LOOKING LIKE THIS!

A complete DORK

Who is so handsome T_T (damn forehead exposure)

AND UHHHH HERE I DON'T HAVE WORDS

Yup, one man. Seo Jung Hoo, Park Bong Soo. HEALER. Man, Ji Chang Wook couldn't have been better for this role.

Gifs are not mine.

(…) It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women. At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers. Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table. This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun. (…) - Joy Harjo

The day the second episode aired, my grandfather had passed away. Before that, I never used to watch ongoing K-Dramas. But I looked for comfort in this drama and fell in love. This drama was so beautiful, captivating and comforting, I can't describe how much I love it. Thank you to the writers, the directors, the actors, especially Seo In Guk and Park Bo Young whose chemistry really kept me on hook! Thank you so much💗