Things are finally starting to shape up for Ae-jung who’s been going through some rough times with Thumb Films and work. She remains optimistic, determined, and hardworking as she’s always been, and although there’s going to be many more challenges that will present itself in the future, she cherishes her opportunities in the present. Her life-long dream of becoming a movie producer is in the process of becoming true.
Was It Love?: Episode 4 Recap
Ae-jung shakes Dae-oh’s hand and confirms her decision to work with him on a movie adaptation of his novel “Love is Nonexistent.” Right as their hands make contact, the water fountain next to them shoots out water and our past lovers flee to escape from getting soaked. They share a few giggles with each other before being joined by Yeon-woo who’s also made his way to the building to meet with Ae-jung. Ae-jung greets Yeon-woo, but she leaves shortly afterwards to dry herself in the women’s restroom back inside the building. Yeon-woo and Dae-oh are awkwardly left behind so they have no choice but to create small talk. While Ae-jung reflects on the water fountain exchange with Dae-oh (“there always seem to be water nearby when he says something important”), Yeon-woo rejects an incoming phone call from his mom.
A sense of rivalry is sensed between Yeon-woo and Dae-oh as they chat about their special connection to Ae-jung. The two guys introduce themselves to each other and Yeon-woo is grateful that Dae-oh will be guest lecturing at his middle school. Of course, Dae-oh is taken aback by this as Ae-jung never mentioned anything about it to him. Regardless, he goes along with it and shows off his relationship with Ae-jung by speaking casually about her. Yeon-woo attempts to one-up the popular author by introducing himself as Ae-jung’s housemate. The two guys shake hands with each other, but things don’t seem too friendly between them. Ae-jung reunites with the guys only for Dae-oh to leave seconds after her arrival. He heads home first.
Yeon-woo’s Mom anxiously waits for Yeon-woo to attend the dinner she’s set up with an assemblyman’s daughter. It’s an arranged blind date, but Mom grows nervous when Yeon-woo fails to pick up her phone calls. Yeon-woo is occupied walking back home with Ae-jung who can’t help but rant about Dae-oh. Yeon-woo grows curious about her relationship with Dae-oh and if they were close to each other. Dae-oh did mention that they were close back then. However, Ae-jung just merely brushes it off. She also requests for Yeon-woo to find someone else to guest lecture at the middle school to which Yeon-woo agrees. Although Ae-jung gives an excuse, he’s suspicious that there might be another reason as to why she no longer wants Dae-oh as the guest lecturer. Grandma and Ha-nee encounter Ae-jung and Yeon-woo on their way to the sauna. Grandma assumes they were on a date which Ae-jung doesn’t answer or address. The film producer joins her mom and daughter in going to the sauna.
The three gather in the sauna and munch on some boiled eggs. As Grandma commends herself on her decision to have Yeon-woo move in with them, Ha-nee excuses herself to go to the steam room. She recalls the phone call exchange she had with Jin the day before and after doing some research, finds out that he’s a popular actor. Ha-nee inquires for more information once Ae-jung joins her in the room. Was Ae-jung ever in a relationship? If so, was it with a younger man? Ae-jung assumes Ha-nee’s asking her for relationship advice so she teases Ha-nee for having a crush on a boy. Ha-nee gives up after noting that her mom’s not so great at reading people and situations, lol.
Jin is busy participating on a radio show. During the recording, the radio DJ continues to hype up Jin and his path to Hollywood which he easily becomes uncomfortable with. He wouldn’t want people to find out that he won’t be the big and grand actor in Hollywood as people is assuming he is. Eventually, they transition into a segment on the show that involves a list of rankings. The ranking for that day happens to be the top 5 scenarios or situations that terrify men the most and Jin is terrified when he receives new text messages from Ha-nee right at that moment. Omg, talk about timing! Lol. Ha-nee presses for an answer or response from Jin. Does he know who her mother, Ae-jung, is? Why is he not responding back? Jin grows more and more nervous especially with Ha-nee’s reminder texts.
Dae-oh can’t stop thinking about his encounter with Yeon-woo earlier that evening. Who is this man? If he’s Ae-jung’s husband, why is he not doing anything about the huge amount of debt that she owes Pa-do? With that, he opens up all his school yearbooks and contacts past classmates with special connections. Dae-oh wants further information, details, and research on Yeon-woo who he assumes is Ae-jung’s husband. However, his investigation is unsuccessful when none of his former classmates agree to help him.
Ae-jung awakens the next morning to a bunch of texts from Dae-oh. With their collaboration now confirmed, he wants to make it clear to her what his working conditions and terms are. Among the list include limiting revision requests to only three or not working when dust levels are high. Lol. The two meet up that morning to discuss the screenplay contract. After briefly reviewing the contract with Dae-oh’s new conditions, there’s still something more that he wants from Ae-jung. Since they’re going to be working together from now on, shouldn’t Ae-jung thank him? He hasn’t signed the contract just yet. With that, Ae-jung grounds herself and properly expresses her gratitude to Dae-oh. But wait, isn’t she going to thank him for agreeing to guest lecture at Ha-nee’s middle school either? However, Ae-jung changes her mind about the guest lecture. He no longer needs to do it anymore. Plans have changed and Ae-jung wishes to keep her relationship with Dae-oh purely business and professional. Dae-oh is taken aback and flustered by the request, but he quietly agrees to it.
After the meeting, Dae-oh and Ae-jung bid farewell with each other. He wants to know when their next meeting is since you know, Dae-oh’s a busy man (he really just wants to know when he’s going to see Ae-jung again haha). Ae-jung isn’t quite sure when, but she reassures the popular author that she’ll let him know. There’s still many other things she has to do such as find a director, more investors, and actors to star in the film. She’s quite busy herself. Dae-oh grows curious as to who the director the film will be. He grows even more alarmed when Ae-jung mentions that she’ll talk about it with her investor, Pa-do, later on that day. Wait, the mobster? The scary and intimidating looking guy?! Dae-oh requests to join the meeting with Pa-do and Ae-jung. He doesn’t think it’s safe for her to be meeting him alone.
So Dae-oh finds himself outside in Pa-do’s yard with Ae-jung for their meeting. Hahaha. He’s becoming a lot more involved than Ae-jung believes he should be, but Dae-oh feels like he has the right to. He’s curious as to what kind of money is being invested into the film and plus, if there’s anyone who will be directing the movie, it should be him. Ae-jung is shocked at the sudden idea, but Dae-oh reasons that no film director in Korea will be able to tell his story as effectively as he will. Therefore, he should be the director to the movie. Pa-do remains neutral and asks Ae-jung for her thoughts to Dae-oh’s proposal. What does she think about the popular writer writing both the screenplay as well as directing the movie? Can Pa-do trust someone like Dae-oh to direct the movie to success?
Ae-jung gives it a good thought and she reflects on Dae-oh’s efforts as a director back when they were still in college. As an aspiring director, he had always put his passion and dreams first before anything else, even if that meant getting injured or wounded along the way. She states,
Mr. Cheon, we used to have the same dream once. We were friends who were driven by our passion. His passion for movies, a sense of responsibility as a director, a man who made the impossible possible. If he’s still the same as he was back then, you can trust him. At least in my memory, he was quite a competent and capable film director.
With Ae-jung’s answer and thoughts, Pa-do agrees to establishing Dae-oh as the director of the film. However, he reminds her that there’s still one more thing she needs to do prior to filming the movie: cast Jin as the main actor. After the meeting, Dae-oh is in disbelief that they would even consider casting the popular actor Jin as the main character to the movie. The up and coming Hollywood star, Jin? There’s no way they’ll be able to do it. Thankfully, Dae-oh is still in contact with Jin so there might be a way to recruit and persuade the actor to star in the upcoming movie. Ae-jung remains hopeful and optimistic upon discovering that Dae-oh and Jin still maintain contact with each other. Maybe things might work out after all and her dreams of becoming a movie producer will come true. To commemorate, she takes a photo of the pretty, clear, blue skies with her phone. She wants to remember this moment. While she’s distracted by the photos, Dae-oh’s eyes are on Ae-jung. To him, she’s the most beautiful view T_T
Yeon-woo hangs out with his friends at a bar. The reason as to why Yeon-woo wanted to meet up was so that he could ask his friends to connect him with some popular Youtubers. With Dae-oh now off the radar, Yeon-woo is seeking someone else to do the guest lecture at his school. All his friends are disappointed at Yeon-woo once again inquiring for support and help with his job when he can easily just take over his family’s business. They also learn about Yeon-woo’s crush, but Yeon-woo doesn’t reveal much about who it is he likes or why. He’ll tell them another time.
Ha-nee and Dong-chan recycle some bottles at Sook-hee’s bar for some money. It’s going to take them forever to make money for a DNA test at this point, lol. Things aren’t shaping up so well for Ha-nee’s investigation on who her father is. Jin has yet to respond back to her texts so Dong-chan takes another look at Ae-jung’s old phone from college. He notices a text that Ae-jung had sent Jin back then about needing to tell him something. Maybe Ae-jung wanted to tell Jin that he was the father to her baby?!
Their conversation is cut short when Sook-hee approaches the two to check up on them. The middle school students panic and lies that Dong-chan was seeking dating advice from Ha-nee; he has a crush on someone from school. Sook-hee doesn’t buy into the lies and she tells the students to come inside and eat some tteokbokki. When Dong-chan arrives home later on that night, he awkwardly greets his dad at the door and pleads for his dad to not hurt Ae-jung. She’s his friend’s mom and he wouldn’t want anything to happen to her. Dong-chan also notices the bandage that Pa-do has wrapped on his hand, but remains quiet about it.
And so Dae-oh works his magic and attempts to recruit Jin to join him and Ae-jung with the film adaptation. Dae-oh announces his plans to work with Ae-jung which Dae-oh is confused about. Wasn’t he bent on getting revenge on Ae-jung? Why did he suddenly change his mind? Dae-oh can’t quite seem to understand and comprehend why Jin feels so strongly about it. Does he not want Dae-oh to work with Ae-jung? Regardless, Jin says no to the request. He won’t work with the both of them on the movie.
Dae-oh doesn’t give up so easily and he continues to give Jin several different reasons as to why they can join. There’s no one else who understands the script and the story better than Jin himself. Plus, they can help Ae-jung’s life long dream of becoming a movie producer come true. Wasn’t she Jin’s favorite back when they were in college? Oh, and Ae-jung won’t be able to pay back the whopping amount of debt she owes Pa-do unless Jin agrees to do the movie. The actor remains conflicted and he feels as if there’s an underlying reason as to why Dae-oh agreed to work with Ae-jung. Despite Dae-oh’s claim that he doesn’t have any feelings for Ae-jung, Jin feels otherwise. Dae-oh must still have feelings for her. If she hadn’t disappeared like she did 14 years ago, what would have happened to Dae-oh?
Ae-jung and Hye-jin are permitted to use their office for work once again. Although they’re unsure as to how or why or who helped them, they’re just grateful nonetheless. A few minutes later, Ae-jung receives a big basket of flowers from none other than Pa-do. Although romantic and nice at first, Pa-do leaves a card with a message reminding Ae-jung that she has three days left to recruit Jin. Lol. So she gets on it and holds another meeting with Dae-oh. They don’t have a script just yet so they’ll need to work with Dae-oh’s original work. However, Dae-oh surprises and impresses Ae-jung by sending her an email with a working script. You see, “Love is Nonexistent” originally started out as a script which Dae-oh just transitioned into a novel afterwards.
Ae-jung is excited with the progress. After reviewing the script, she suggests to Dae-oh a few scenes that he can revise. The male protagonist doesn’t seem so attractive in some of those scenes. Ae-jung would know because she has a good eye when it comes to finding attractive men. But hmm, if she has such a good eye for attractive men, why is her husband not doing anything upon finding out that she has a huge amount of debt she needs to pay back? She’s in a tight spot, isn’t she? Ae-jung takes defense to Dae-oh’s harsh comments. Sure, she might not be in the best situation at the moment, but she’s never considered herself unfortunate. Plus, what does Dae-oh know about her life anyways? She loves her kid and does the best that she can to bond with her daughter and to provide for her. How dare Dae-oh judge her life? With the situation now sour, Ae-jung cuts the meeting early. She’ll write up the proposal and send it along with the script to Jin’s company the next day.
Yeon-woo’s Mom attempts to get her son to worry about her. She pretends to be terminally ill and in the hospital in hopes that he’ll care about her and do what she wants him to do. Maybe he’ll also start to care if she was to lie that she’ll be revising her will. So when Yeon-woo arrives to the hospital, his mom puts on a show with her lawyer. However, Yeon-woo doesn’t buy into the acting and he’s okay with Mom revising her will however she wants. Mom snaps out of her acting once Yeon-woo catches onto her. He apologizes for not showing up to the blind date and excuses himself shortly into the visit. On his way out, Mom assumes Yeon-woo is acting this way because of the woman he met back when he was in high school. Is he doing this because of her? Yeon-woo is brought back to the time when he revealed to his mother that “this woman” (who I’m assuming is Ae-jung) was pregnant. Mom is in disbelief upon hearing the news from her son and she watches as he walks out of her office.
Yeon-woo is clearly affected by his hospital visit and Mom’s question later on that evening during dinner with Grandma and Ha-nee. It’s obvious something’s up with him, but he doesn’t say much. Ha-nee grows even more concerned seeing Yeon-woo’s behavior, but she too remains quiet about things. Ha-nee and Yeon-woo volunteer to deliver some late-night snacks to Ae-jung who’s still in the office working. Dae-oh gets there first and although he tries not to worry about Ae-jung, he ends up getting food for her that night. When he enters the office, he discovers her asleep on the couch. She’s been working hard on the proposal that she plans on giving to Jin. At first, Dae-oh merely just drops off the food as well as the revised script in the office, but he helps Ae-jung sleep more comfortably upon giving things a second thought. To remove the book in Ae-jung’s arms, Dae-oh grabs Ae-jung’s hands to do so. While her hand is resting in his, he feels a slight squeeze by Ae-jung and he grows even more sentimental. He cherishes the brief moment before exiting the office.
Just as he’s right outside of the office, he overhears Yeon-woo and Ha-nee approaching as well so he quickly runs away. Seconds before the two enter the office, Ae-jung wakes up to find the food and the revised script from Dae-oh. Yeon-woo and Ha-nee sit with Ae-jung and together, they chat while munching on some snacks. Dae-oh eavesdrop on their conversation from outside the office and then quietly enters the office to witness the three sitting together at the couch. He grows heartbroken and sorrowful at the thought of Ae-jung happily spending time with Ha-nee and Yeon-woo who he assumes is still her husband. That night, Ae-jung goes over the revised script by Dae-oh. She’s impressed with the revisions and the ending to the entire script. Job well done, Dae-oh.
But Dae-oh isn’t feeling that great. That night, he has a drink with Jin at the bar they frequent. Tipsy, he expresses his honest thoughts on reuniting with Ae-jung. Dae-oh isn’t so sure he made the right decision in working with her. He’s now finding himself doing all these things for her and doing all that she wants him to do. If Dae-oh knew he was going to develop feelings for her again, he wouldn’t have chosen to work with her. What exactly happened to him and Ae-jung? How did things get to this point between the two former lovers?
When Jin gets home, he stresses out about his conversation with Dae-oh. He recalls the moment when Ae-jung was crying to him after breaking up with Dae-oh. She was clearly heartbroken and sad over the separation and she wanted to know the reason as to why they broke up. She also has a hard time understanding why Jin isn’t saying anything to her or isn’t comforting her with any words. Why is he so quiet? All Jin can think about is why Ae-jung doesn’t seem to care about him. She takes another shot of the alcohol and resumes to crying her heart out.
The next morning, Jin receives a call from Ha-nee and he answers again. This time, they arrange plans to meet up that night. Ha-nee announces the plans to Dong-chan and she’s confident that she’ll find out who her father will be after the meet-up. Meanwhile, Ae-jung makes her way into the office where Jin’s entertainment company is located. She approaches Manager Myung with the proposal and revised script and asks for him to relay the news to Jin. Manager Myung doesn’t think too much about it; he throws the packet into the box filled with a countless amount of scripts. However, Ae-jung is determined and she reminds Manager Myung to notify Jin about her visit to the office. Along with giving him her documents, he must make sure to mention her name.
Dae-oh stops by Thumb Films again the next day. Ae-jung isn’t there so he’s greeted by Hye-jin instead. She properly introduces herself to the popular author and shares details about her connection to Ae-jung. It’s only been a few months since she’s started working at the company, but she’s quite close to Ae-jung. Hye-jin’s met Ha-nee and Grandma a few times. But wait, what about her husband? Has Hye-jin met Ae-jung’s husband before? Hye-jin is confused by the question as Ae-jung doesn’t have a husband. In fact, Hye-jin commends Ae-jung for being a working single mother who was able to successfully raise her child and never once has she ever complained about it. Dae-oh is confused by the revelation that Ae-jung doesn’t have a husband. Things weren’t as he thought they were.
The reason as to why Ae-jung isn’t in the office is because she’s at Ha-nee’s middle school. She discovers a bunch of parents waiting outside Ha-nee’s classroom, upset that Ae-jung wasn’t able to get Cheon Ok-man to guest lecture like they thought she would. Dong-chan, who’s inside the classroom, notices the commotion and chaos and he informs Ha-nee who’s inside the girl’s restroom rehearsing for her meet-up with Jin that night. Upon being notified, Ha-nee rushes to the hallway to find her mother trying to calm the upset and frustrated parents as best as she can. She then pushes for her meeting with Jin to happen much earlier than they originally planned; Ha-nee sends a text to Jin and asks for him to meet her at her middle school at that moment.
Upon seeing the text, Jin grows conflicted. After learning that middle schoolers are usually at the age of 14 years old, he recalls a memory between him and Ae-jung from 14 years ago. It was on the same rainy night when Ae-jung and Dae-oh broke up and Jin is seen trailing after Ae-jung. He manages to stop her from fleeing. Devastated, she gives him a hug and leans her head on his chest. Whatever she just saw was too much for her to handle and process. With that, Jin makes his decision to meet up with Ha-nee. He escapes from his van and runs over to the school. Yeon-woo himself is attempting to resolve the situation by contacting the person who failed to show up to the guest lecture. Ha-nee hopes that Jin’s appearance will alleviate the commotion with all the upset parents and she meets him right outside of the school entrance. EEEEK.
Ae-jung’s attempt to calm all the parents down is interrupted with a sudden visit (and wrist grab) from Dae-oh. He drags her up to the rooftop of the school building which Ae-jung isn’t so happy about. Why does he keep appearing from out of the blue and pestering her? Can’t he just leave her alone? However, Dae-oh feels the same way about Ae-jung. Ever since they’ve reunited, he’s changed because she’s swayed his heart. Right at that moment, Yeon-woo grabs onto Ae-jung’s other wrist and expresses his anger towards Dae-oh. The school teacher witnessed Dae-oh dragging Ae-jung up the stairs to the rooftop and he wasn’t happy with what he saw. What does the popular author think he’s doing to Ae-jung? Dae-oh himself has a question for Yeon-woo: who exactly is he and what is his connection with Ae-jung? Is he her husband or what role does he play in her life? While the two men stare at each other intensely, Ae-jung has her eyes locked on Dae-oh upon hearing his question. She stands in the middle of all the chaos, first with the parents and then now with Dae-oh and Yeon-woo. How will all of this be resolved?
My Thoughts:
Oof, I didn’t realize how chaotic that ending scene was until I was recapping it and had a difficult time catching up with the different scenarios that was going on. The last few minutes of this episode was all over the place, but I liked that it was. If anything, it exemplifies and resembles the different situations that each of our characters are caught up in at the moment and everything that they’re each going through, respectively. I wasn’t so much a big fan of the last scene in this episode itself. Wrist grabbing is so 2010, but I’m also not a big fan of Yeon-woo swooping in to “rescue” Ae-jung from the haughty, frustrating, and feisty Dae-oh. There’s a timing and place for everything and Dae-oh couldn’t have came at the worst (and right) timing possible to confront Ae-jung about his feelings. She was caught up in another situation with the parents and yet he dragged her away to address his uncertainty and concerns with his feelings. Dae-oh’s presence would have proven to be much more helpful and impactful had he introduced himself as Cheon Ok-man to assist Ae-jung with the angry parents, but instead, he stole Ae-jung away and only made her more upset. Dae-oh has proven to be selfish and arrogant in all four episodes so far so it didn’t come as a surprise that he mainly focused the attention on him with the conversation on the rooftop. He came in at a moment when his presence would have been helpful to Ae-jung, but yet, he approached her for the wrong reason. He could have helped her out with all the angry parents, but he put himself first in the end. That conversation is for another timing, my dude.
I’m also puzzled and baffled at how entitled Dae-oh feels towards Ae-jung. There’s reasons as to why Dae-oh’s on my good side so far (which I’ll touch on in a bit), but there’s also reasons as to why he remains a frustrating character. Sure, he’s developed feelings for Ae-jung again after 14 years of not being in contact (feelings which I personally believe was just resurfaced.. I don’t think he ever really forgot about her or got over her after their breakup) and the two once used to be lovers at one point. However, that doesn’t automatically give him the right to know everything about Ae-jung now that they’ve reunited. That doesn’t mean he can call Yeon-woo out and make assumptions about who he is to Ae-jung. It’s one thing to be curious about what Ae-jung has been up to and then it’s another thing to be confronting her for something that she has no control over or that she didn’t intend on doing. I mean, I can see why Ae-jung was upset with Dae-oh at the cafe. The two haven’t talked or seen each other in 14 years and yet, here he is pitying her and making all these comments about Ae-jung. Part of it is because Dae-oh assumes he’s this big hotshot with a superiority complex so he feels as if he’s her savior of some sort, but another part of his behavior stems from their history which he’s using for his own selfish advances. They were once in a relationship, but that ended 14 years ago and it doesn’t excuse or justify Dae-oh’s behavior and treatment towards Ae-jung in the present. If Dae-oh really wants to win Ae-jung’s heart and earn her trust again, he’s going to have to do some heavy lifting and take more respectful and meaningful approaches that aligns with Ae-jung’s boundaries. He can’t just show up randomly at places and expect her to give in to his wants and wishes. Things are different now than it was 14 years ago and I think that’s something that Dae-oh has yet to realize or is having a hard time grappling with.
As disappointed and frustrated as I was with Dae-oh in this episode and the ending scene, the only reason as to why I still have a small soft spot for him is because he genuinely cares for Ae-jung. His approach and his strategies in showing these feelings, affection, and care needs to be different, but he’s intent on helping Ae-jung because he still has feelings for her. Dae-oh had an offer from Hollywood, but he chose to work with Ae-jung instead. Dae-oh sees the potential in Ae-jung that no one else did (such as the employees from the film company who wanted to buy the copyright contract from her) and he values her insight and thoughts about the movie adaptation. He revised the script as she suggested accordingly and he was willing to do the guest lecture at Ha-nee’s middle school even though it wasn’t something he knew about initially. I think the earlier Dae-oh would have turned down the idea and not even give it a second thought, but the new Dae-oh was willing to do it for Ae-jung. The new Dae-oh is doing all these things that she wants and is going out of his way to help her. Although actions like delivering her food or revising the script is small, these things add up and proves how much he wants to work things out with Ae-jung.
It doesn’t help that Dae-oh never received the closure to their breakup like how he wanted so he wants to try again this time so that 1) his work with “Love is Nonexistent” will be completed and so that 2) he can heal from the pain and hurt he received from their breakup more than a decade ago. Beneath all of the demeaning attitude, comments, and wrist grabbing is a confused and hurt Dae-oh who is clearly still in love with Ae-jung and their history that they shared together. All the memories of their relationship as well as college experiences with Jin is still so vivid in his mind and they’re memories that he doesn’t want to give up on just yet. He’s frustrated at how things have turned out for him after reuniting with Ae-jung and he’s not quite so sure what he should do with these feelings that he had been denying, suppressing, and rejecting this entire time. He finally came around to accepting his situation and the fact that he was never really over Ae-jung like how he presented himself to be. I mean, the way Dae-oh was staring at her as she was taking photos of the clear, blue sky after their meeting with Pa-do killed me and spoke volumes about how he genuinely feels about Ae-jung. The memories, experiences, and feelings are still there and they’re not going away anytime soon. I would argue that his curiosity and determination to receive closure has only gotten stronger. Now that Dae-oh’s accepted this first phase in his life, he needs to learn how to process it and handle it appropriately with Ae-jung. He’s going to need to learn to respect the boundaries that she’s set with him. That’s going to be the difficult challenge.
I’m trying to piece together all the hints that the drama has been giving us in regards to who Ha-nee’s father is. With all the flashbacks so far, we saw that Jin played some type of role 14 years ago. While I’m assuming that he must have had a one-sided crush on Ae-jung and never had the chance to express his feelings for her because she chose to date his best friend instead, I wonder if there was anything else between him and Ae-jung. I don’t think they had a romantic relationship of some sort and I’m assuming he was someone who Ae-jung heavily relied on after her breakup with Dae-oh, but I wonder how and why they lost contact with each other. I might be completely wrong given that we’re only four episodes in, but I’m not convinced just yet that he’s Ha-nee’s father. I also don’t think Yeon-woo’s the father either. After reading some theories and comments, it seems as if Yeon-woo was just someone who wanted to take care of pregnant Ae-jung and look after her since she was single at the time of her pregnancy, hence, the announcement he made to his mother back when he was in high school. I’m not completely dying to know who the father is either as I’m more intrigued and interested in Ae-jung and Dae-oh’s complicated relationship both back when they were in college as well as in the present. I want to see how the two are going to make up and work together on this movie adaptation. However, I figure we’re going to get answers as to who Ha-nee’s father is along the way which should be interesting. Like I mentioned in my recap for the last episode, I just hope it’s not the only thing that the drama focuses on.
I’m excited at the thought of Jin possibly reuniting and working with Ae-jung and Dae-oh on the project. It made sense that he was reluctant to do it at first given the situation 14 years ago, but I hope he warms up to the idea and gives in to starring in the film. I’m just excited thinking about how the three will finally reunite and be able to achieve the dreams that they set for themselves back in college. If Jin does decide to go through with it, they’ll be able to work together like old times and hopefully be able to witness the movie become a big, successful project. They’ll be able to do what they did back in college, but on a much larger scale and for different reasons. Of course, things won’t entirely be the same if our college trio was to reunite. For one, it’ll take some time for the three to adjust to things since it’s been 14 years since they’ve all spent time together. Two, they’re all grown adults dealing with their own issues in life and this new dynamic is something that they’ll have to learn to navigate.
Nonetheless, this doesn’t take away the insight that both Jin and Ae-jung offers to the film that no one else can. Dae-oh’s comment to both Ae-jung and Jin still stands in that no one else will understand “Love is Nonexistent” as best as they do because it was such a personal and intimate novel for him and they were there personally to witness everything unfold. Only Jin can act as the male protagonist because he was there during Dae-oh and Ae-jung’s relationship 14 years ago and acted as the middlemen between the two. Only Ae-jung can produce the film because she’s a part of the story as much as Dae-oh is and she can provide some insight and perspective into the story that Dae-oh was missing. Only Dae-oh can direct the movie as well as write the screenplay because it’s his novel and his emotions were reflected in the book. No one else will be able to capture the details and subtleness of it all than these three. Times are different in the present and a lot has happened within the last 14 years since they’ve cut ties with one another, but it’s obvious that the three are still clearly affected by their shared history. It’ll be interesting to watch them address and confront these memories if they all work on the project together.
More than anything, I’m just excited thinking about how the three will hopefully and finally achieve the dreams that they had back in college. Sure, times were greater back then and they were all on good terms, but this movie adaptation might just be the grand opportunity that will push them towards bigger and greater successes. It’ll be awesome to see the three work together, produce the movie, and then watch as it succeeds and become a big hit. Not only then will they have achieved their respective dreams that they had from way back in college, but they’ll also be able to achieve even bigger and better things in the future. What a greater way to be successful than to do it with your friends who you shared similar dreams and goals with in the past? Additionally, in the process of this project, Dae-oh, Jin, and Ae-jung will also hopefully be able to heal from the pain and trauma that they faced 14 years ago. It’s apparent that more than anything, this is what they all need at the moment so please, Jin, change your mind and say yes.
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