What Comes After Love: Episode 3
by Dramaddictally
We get a bit extra perception into the breakup backstory this week, as our leads sit in silence collectively within the current. Additionally, an essential lady from our hero’s previous makes an look, giving us a complete of 4 characters who’re tortured by unhaveable love.
EPISODE 3
We’re solely issued one episode this week, which doesn’t give us a ton of recent data to seize onto, however this story has sufficient uncooked emotion to make up for it. Final week, we ended with Jungo stepping in entrance of Hong’s automotive to cease her from leaving. This week, as quickly as she stops, he waltzes over to the passenger facet and hops in.
They drive round in silence for a very long time earlier than Hong tells him there’s nothing left to say. Something she used to wish to ask him, it’s too late. Jungo tries to get previous her ice wall by calling her “Beni,” like he used to. However she maintains the space between them by calling him by his pen title, with a stern “Mr.” tacked onto it. He needs to clear up any misunderstandings that may exist, however Hong shuts the dialog down promptly by telling him she’s about to get married.
After she drops him again at his lodge, with out a lot as wanting in his route, she pulls out of sight and takes a breather. After 5 years, she had no thought she wouldn’t be over him but.
Later, when Hong is with Min-jun, purchasing for a marriage gown, she nonetheless can’t cease fascinated about Jungo and the way he mentioned he’s by no means as soon as forgotten her in 5 years. She remembers a time when she as soon as tried on a marriage gown with Jungo and tears effectively in her eyes. The damage on her face is horrible and I really feel each second of the heartbreak on this scene. She’s not enthusiastic about marrying Min-jun, and though the gown she’s making an attempt on is gorgeous and suits her completely, she doesn’t present it to him and says it didn’t match.
By way of flashbacks we be taught extra about what led to the breakup in Tokyo. At first, it’s all love and smiles whereas Hong reveals up at every of Jungo’s many part-time jobs to attend for him till he will get off work. She tells us that she didn’t wish to be away from him for a second. And she or he didn’t understand on the time that it wasn’t only a regular approach love would make somebody behave.
It isn’t till her pal and one-time roomie, PARK JI-HEE (Mi-ram), leaves Japan to return to Seoul that issues grow to be extra stark. On the times that Jungo is caught serving tables till late at night time, we see Hong sitting dwelling alone ready for him. In reality, at any time when he’s not together with her, she’s alone.
One night time, she’s out jogging and hurts her ankle. He can’t reply his cellphone whereas he’s on the restaurant. And by the point he will get dwelling and he or she’s already been to the hospital and on crutches, she’s fuming. An argument ensues the place she says that work at all times comes earlier than her. He apologizes for not being there for her that day, however she sees it as a sample. She insists he stop all this jobs.
He reminds her that he’s working to pay for his research and he or she begins asking, “What about me? What am I in your life?” Lastly, she lands on the pertinent query: “Why am I at all times alone?” However Jungo is a bit confused. He responds by saying that they go to mattress and get up collectively day-after-day. “As a result of I wish to be with you. I’m working arduous and doing my greatest,” he says. She’s contemptuous, remarking that she doesn’t know what he’s doing his greatest at. After which she says, “I’m sick of the truth that the one individual I can get mad at is you.”
And now we’ve hit the foundation of it. I questioned in final week’s weecap if Hong’s loneliness overseas would play into their breakup, and now we’re seeing that it’s the principle downside. In voiceover, Hong says, “Desolation makes individuals anxious. Loneliness weakens love. And, with youth added to that, all the pieces turns into unstable.”
I wish to take a second out right here to say that whereas this dynamic is totally plausible, the lead as much as this emotional scene was not sufficient, for my part. We’ve simply seen that Hong bought accepted to grad college, however she advised her sister that she bought rejected. Why is she not going to college? And what occurred to the job she had on the ramen store? Each of these issues would get her out assembly new individuals. And let’s not overlook that she speaks the native language completely.
We nonetheless don’t know what items of the story are lacking, however by not placing these items up entrance, it takes the bang out of the argument they’ve. I discover it arduous to empathize with Hong (though I’ve lived a model of her story myself) as a result of she has methods to combine out there to her. I can consider the reason why she could not, regardless of that reality, or why it could be arduous anyway, however we haven’t seen them. And with out some clarification, she sounds unreasonable on this scene (though, from expertise, I do know she’s in all probability not).
The opposite massive factor that occurs this week is that we meet Jungo’s ex-girlfriend, KOBAYASHI KANNA (Nakamura Anne), whom he dated previous to Hong. We see that after Hong left Tokyo, Kanna bumped into him heartbroken at a bar. She says she feels unhealthy as a result of he was by no means that damage when she broke up with him. In the long run, she asks, if he’s in a lot ache, does he wish to get again collectively?
Minimize to the current and we see Kanna in Seoul assembly up with Jungo. She says she’s there for work and thought she’d shock him and hang around for just a few days. However later, at dinner, she reveals that she’s actually there to see him. She’s been ready 5 years for him to like her once more, she says. And I’m confused about what precisely which means. Did he flip her down that day about getting again collectively? Or are they a pair proper now and he simply doesn’t present any like to her?
After Kanna says that bit about ready for him to like her once more, Jungo’s eyes go crimson and he seems away. She guesses he should have run into Hong. And after they half methods and he goes again to his lodge room to consider Hong and be unhappy, Kanna reveals up at his door and exclaims, “Let’s get married.” She’s hugging him and he’s wanting like he’s unsure what to do.
That’s how the episode ends, however I wish to word that we additionally get a bit perception into Min-jun’s character this week. We see in flashback that when Hong returned from Tokyo (with nothing as a result of she left in such a rush), Min-jun was on the airport with Ji-hee ready for her. He’s a physician and was caring for Hong’s father within the hospital simply then. Because the weeks go by, Hong is working arduous to assist out her dad’s publishing firm, and Min-jun is working arduous to maintain her.
There’s a second after the marriage gown store, the place Hong and Min-jun are out having snacks and drinks and he says that he missed her whereas she was in Japan, and that’s why he lastly determined to go after her. She begins to talk, and he cuts her off when the meals arrives. However then he says that her emotions would possibly change, and he or she would possibly by no means have to say no matter she was about to say. And so, the purpose is, he is aware of she doesn’t really feel the identical approach about him that he does for her.
Oof. Effectively, it’s doing a great job of constructing my coronary heart damage. Now I really feel for all 4 characters as an alternative of simply the 2. Min-jun and Kanna are in powerful positions additionally, taking part in the again up and the secure wager, who’re each clearly in love. They know that their love pursuits have their hearts elsewhere — and but they proceed to stay round and love them anyway. It’s bought to be a form of fixed heartbreak. However I like that the drama is letting us see from their views and never treating the principle leads as the one ones we’re alleged to really feel for.
My solely actual qualm is that I want we had two episodes to dig into. I care concerning the characters and the story, however the little style of what occurred in Tokyo was not sufficient for me. I suppose I’ll simply sulk and be unhappy as I look forward to subsequent weekend.
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