Awake

Suspicious Partner 12

Here, summarized in a single short scene, we have every reason that Ji Wook works for me so entirely as a romantic lead. Under all his angst, posturing and generally feeling sorry for himself, he still manages to be incredibly gentle and sincere with Bong Hee.

Bong Hee has just a traumatic confrontation with DA Jang and is trying to bear with it quietly on her own. For whatever reason she has determined to keep the incident from Ji Wook. Maybe this is because she doesn’t want to burden him with more of her problems, she already depends on him for so much. Or perhaps she recognizes that he’s already struggled two set backs in his career for going up against the DA on her behalf and doesn’t want to jeopardize his newly launched law firm. We’re not told.

But despite her attempts to hide her distress behind a smile, he notices that something is wrong and goes to her room to check on her. When he notices the bruising starting around her throat, he is immediately solicitous and asks her what happened. When she insists that it’s nothing he reassures her that it’s okay to tell him.

Maybe he understands what she’s trying to do by keeping it from him. But she firmly tells him that she doesn’t want to talk about it. At that point he doesn’t contradict her. He doesn’t press her further. He simply accepts her word. The last thing he does is ask if she’s going to be okay. Because that’s the most important thing here. Not his involvement, or a patronizing desire to protect her, or prove his masculinity. If she’s okay, then that’s enough. When she says she is, he leaves without further resistance.

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