These next two episodes were pretty rough for Bok Joo, as she has a lot she has to deal with, both physically and emotionally. Between dealing with her feelings for the doctor, her demanding training schedule and life throwing the weightlifting club a giant curve ball, it’s not surprising Bok Joo comes to find herself stuck in a pretty serious slump.
But before we can start talking about where Bok Joo ends up at the end of these next two episodes, we first have to talk about how she got there. She started off doing pretty well in this next set of episodes and I was really proud of the way she was trying to wrap up her feelings for the doctor and send him off as her memorable one-sided first love. I thought Bok Joo did a good job of owning up to her feelings, not just to herself and Joon Hyung but also to her friends and her coach. It was nice, seeing Bok Joo have that heart-to-heart talk with Coach Choi and even nicer, watching Bok Joo finally decide to let her feelings for Jae Yi fall to the wayside as she got serious with her training.
Alas, all of this hard work on Bok Joo’s side was constantly undone by the good intentions of both Jae Yi and the school’s doctor, Ah Young. I don’t really know why, but it seems like Ah Young really excels at making Bok Joo miserable. I know she’s not really doing it on purpose, but it seems like anytime she, Jae Yi and Bok Joo are together, she always seems to say and do exactly what will hurt Bok Joo the most. Take that whole dinner for example. I know Ah Young thought it would be cute to set Joon Hyung and Bok Joo up like that but in reality, being forced to watch Jae Yi be all sweet and attentive to his college friend was pretty much the most painful thing Bok Joo had ever experienced. The whole dinner was like a giant slap in the face and though Ah Young had no idea what kind of pain she was inflicting, that doesn’t do anything to lessen the pain Bok Joo felt.
The same could be said of Ah Young when she mentioned Bok Joo’s competition to Jae Yi. I know she had no idea having Jae Yi show up at the competition would cause such trauma to Bok Joo. I know she would never do anything to intentionally hurt our heroine, or anyone else at the school, for that matter, but once again, her best intentions brought about an unbearable amount of pain to Bok Joo. Having Jae Yi show up at such a crucial moment was pretty much the worst thing that could ever happen to Bok Joo. His surprise visit almost cost her the medal, as she was so distracted by his sudden appearance she almost ran out of time to compete. How she managed to gather her wits enough to compete is beyond me but I think her ability to do so shows exactly what caliber of an athlete she is. Being able to pull off a gold medal when she’s that distracted means she’s far beyond the level of some amateur student. At the same time, her reaction afterwards shows that no matter how much of a professional she is on-stage, deep down, she still has the heart of an innocent young lady who’s struggling to deal with all of the emotions that come from a disappointed love.
While I don’t blame Jae Yi for Bok Joo’s pain, I do have to marvel as his ability to remain so clueless when so many people are suffering because of his actions. I mean he’s a doctor, for crying out loud! Shouldn’t he have some sort of ideas as to why so many people keep getting upset with him? Sure, I can kinda understand his cluelessness about Bok Joo’s feelings, but what about Ah Young and her feelings? Or Joon Hyung and his? Surely Jae Yi has to have some idea as to why these two are upset with him. It’s not like either one of them is getting mad at him just because they feel like picking a fight that day. Both Joon Hyung and Jae Yi are simply tired of being kept at arm’s distance by Jae Yi’s niceness. Which, I suppose sounds a little bit weird but really, we all know that there are different levels of relationships and Jae Yi’s determination to treat everyone with polite respect has kept him from developing any deeper relationships. I suppose maybe he does this as a means of self-defense. I mean it’s possible he could have suffered from a bad relationship in the past and has decided to keep everyone around him at an arm’s distance as a way of ensuring that kind of hurt doesn’t happen again. But if that’s the case, he’s going wake one day to find himself a miserable, lonely old man. I’m sure that’s not really what he wants but until he realizes that his actions (even the most well-meaning of them) are hurting others, he’s never going to find the depth in relationships that he craves.
I suppose that’s why I was so happy when Joon Hyung finally confronted his brother about his actions. I know that part of Joon Hyung’s motivation for this confrontation was his deepening feelings for Bok Joo but also, his therapist did encourage him to start facing his demons head-on. It’s hard to imagine Jae Yi and his parents as demons, and really we all know that they’re not, but again, the family’s need to make Joon Hyung feel welcome all these years has prevented him from developing any really deep relationships with them. I know Joon Hyung loves his aunt, uncle and cousin and I know he appreciates all they’ve done for him, but there still has to be a part of him that craves something more which, sadly, is something that can only be achieved once this family stops lying to each other and starts communicating instead.
Perhaps it’s the level of open honesty Joon Hyung has with Bok Joo that draws him to her. As Bok Joo keeps pointing out, she’s laid out all of her darkest secrets to Joon Hyung. There really isn’t anything he doesn’t know about this girl and I think that’s really what makes her so attractive. Well, that and the fact that she’s just and adorable, admirable, easy-to-love girl who makes him feel all sorts of warm fuzzies whenever she’s around. Having an easy, open, honesty relationship with Bok Joo has to be the most therapeutic thing in Joon Hyung’s life, other than therapy, that is, so it makes sense that he keeps worrying about her. The idea of losing the one person in his life who doesn’t tip-toe around the difficult issues and can see through all of his crap, has to scare Joon Hyung to death. Which would explain why he goes mental, trying to find her when she disappears. I love, love, loved the scene where he finds her and immediately starts freaking out. Not because I loved watching him yell at her (that wasn’t cool) but because he’s finally starting to realize just how much Bok Joo means to him. She’s not just some silly friend whom he likes to pick on to make himself feel better, she’s become a source of comfort and strength in his life and one he really can’t live without. Now if only Bok Joo could realize the same about Joon Hyung. *sigh*
I know that it’s going to take some time for Bok Joo to figure out her feelings for Joon Hyung. She’s dealing with so much at the moment, there’s no way she could be in a place where she even wanted to think about falling for someone new. Her heart is still very much hurting over Jae Yi and the fact that he felt he had to apologize to her because of her feelings just made things so much worse. Poor baby! I wish she could see just how awesome of a person she is but it’s hard to do that when you have so little faith in your own self-worth. I’d like to say that at least Bok Joo has confidence in her abilities as a weightlifter and takes pride in her sport, but at this point, she’s started to see weightlifting as more of a curse than anything and that’s just not cool. I really hate that Bok Joo has let her feelings for a man affect her dedication to a sport she’s loved since she was a kid. Of course I can understand all of her tears and frustration but I really wish she could work through all of these feelings as quickly as possible and get back to being the spunky, amazing Bok Joo that we’ve all come to know and love.
As is always the case, only time will tell how quickly Bok Joo recovers from her current slump. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best but we all know how much good that does in Dramaland. I suppose the only thing I can really do is take a deep breath and dive into the next episodes. Which is exactly what I’m gonna do. But first I wanna know what you thought of these episodes. Do you have any thoughts, ideas, theories, gripes, criticisms, or complaints? Let me hear them in the comments below!
You can catch up on all of my Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo reviews here: