#leegon

What is your reason for doing that?

You were sitting alone by the stream.

The green grass was sprouting

and the water was splashing from the spring breeze.

You promised that even if you go, you won’t be gone forever.

That is what you promised.

I sit by the stream each day

and think about something endlessly.

When you promised that even if you go, you won’t be gone forever,

EPISODE 7

Back in her world, Jeong Tae-eul plunges into another murder case while still working on her last one.  Days, possibly weeks pass without any word from Lee Gon.  This is a long distance relationship taken to the extreme, without the comforts of technology to ease the longing.  Thankfully, she is kept busy by her work. However, during a quiet night at the precinct while filling out a form, she remembers their first meeting. She smiles and pulls out his old file.  It gives her a thrill to see “Name: Unknown, Date of Birth: Unknown, Address: Unkown, Contact: Unknown” because now, she knows all the answer to them.  She even tries to fill it out using his name, Lee Gon. She is affirming his existence, and it is now precious to her.  This is her missing him.

And then she deletes his file.  This is her going from soft and then back to her hard exterior. And Kim Goeun is absolutely wonderful here with the camera up close to her face, catching the minute her soft eyes turn sad, and then hard while she grits her teeth ever so lightly before pressing her lips in a tight line.  Jeong Tae-eul is all in in this relationship yes, but she’s still a pragmatist and hasn’t forgotten that they belong to different worlds.  And she is bracing herself for the tragedy she senses is just around the corner.

When he returns to her, she realizes how intense her feelings have become after their separation.

“HOW HAVE YOU BEEN? HAVE YOU BEEN WAITING FOR ME?”

She smiles at him when he asks how she’s been. The moment Lee Gon asks her if she waited for him, she gives him a different smile, a sadder one.  It was probably the exact moment when she realized she had been waiting for him.  And waiting for him meant she had been missing him all this time.  She probably never had time to think about it because she had been so busy with murder investigations in her world, and trying to solve the mystery of the unexplainable recordings she suspected was from his world.  And when she did have time to think of him, like that time in the precinct with his file, she would only allow herself a few moment of happiness, and them push them down.

So this is what it has come down to.  I hear a lot of people saying she went from hating him to suddenly running into his arms.  That isn’t the case as you can see.  All the development happened beneath the surface, behind the words that they were saying to each other.

After their reunion, they go on their fantasy everyday, normal life of a couple.  The have dinner, they have couple phones, they hold hands, they walk with his arm around her, she winds a teddy bear/stuffed lion for him in a shooting gallery – essentially, a date like normal couples do.  This is them stealing moments in time.  

As Lee Gon says on that fake phone call,

“I ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY THIS WITH YOU. CALL YOU ON THE PHONE. ASK YOU ABOUT YOUR DAY. TELL YOU I MISSED YOU.”  

This is them trying to cram in whatever happiness and sweetness they can to make whatever fate has in store for them a little more bearable.  

Keep in mind that although this was Jeong Tae-eul showing her softer side, she was still very much like herself. She didn’t turn into a mindless, giggly little doll.  She was a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to show it.  She got them the couple phones.  They went on a date that she thought of. She won the stuffed animal. She was the one who promised him the moon and stars if he asked them.  This is not typical k-drama female lead and it is very exciting to have an alternative image of femininity.  It’s a good thing Lee Gon’s ego is as big as it is, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to handle someone like Tae-eul.

But in true Jeong Tae-eul fashion, she moves from cool/sweet soft girlfriend to business-like detective.  She tells him she had been waiting for him as herself, but half of it she waited as her detective self.  They go back to her house and exchange information on their respective cases.  And he shares his theory that his power hungry uncle, Lee Lim, has been hiding in her world and building an army.  She confirms that a recording from one of her dead bodies is from his world. They agree to cooperate with each other for the sake of both their cases.  Now, when Lee Gon notes that this investigation will take her to even more dangerous ground now that they know it involves his world as well and Tae-eul replies,

“THIS WAS MY CASE BEFORE I EVEN MET YOU,” it does three things.

One, it reinforces the idea of fate.  Their first meeting at Gwanghwamun Square was not where they first began.  Things have been going on in both their lives that wound up putting them in each others’ paths long before they even met. As I said in a previous video of mine, that short meeting on the last 6 minutes of the first episode was deliberately put in last to show how the events of both their worlds have resulted in their fated meeting that night.  Everything that happened to them had to happen so that they would meet each other.  And it’s the same for Tae-eul with all the cases she had been getting before even meeting Lee Gon.

Second, and makes her realize that her murder investigation and his investigation into the treachery and treason of his uncle are inevitably tied to each other, the way she and Lee Gon are tied to each other.  They are each others’ answers to the mysteries they’re trying to solve. As Lee Gon said before, there must be a simple and beautiful formula for how she was involved in saving his life but he is sure that she’s the answer he has been looking for.  In the same manner, she could never solve the murders that have been falling into her lap without him and his world. He is also the answer to all the mysteries she is trying to solve.

Which brings us to the third point.  Her murder investigation and the evil plot his treasonous uncle are a mirror of their relationship.  And this realization plays an important part on why she told him she loved him in the very next episode.  When Tae-eul spoke of the dead bodies in her world coming from his world,

“THE TWO WORLDS SHOULDN’T GET MIXED UP LIKE THIS.  THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO STAY ON THEIR RESPECTIVE PATHS.  BUT, THE TWO WORLDS ARE ALREADY COLLIDING AND I’VE DISCOVERED IT.  SO WHAT ELSE COULD I DO? I DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE. I’M A POLICE OFFICER OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA.”  

she might as well have been talking about the two of them.  This is very much a reflection of what she thinks about their relationship.  It shouldn’t be happening. But it did.  Like all the cross-world murders falling on her lap that she has to solve.  In the same manner that she can’t ignore them because it’s her job to solve them, she also can’t ignore this thing she has with Lee Gon.  Call it fate, destiny, gravity.  But there it is.  She’s a detective, she will solve murders, no matter how dangerous they become.  She is Jeong Tae-eul and she will love Lee Gon, because she is who she is. She is someone who would choose to love him, no matter how difficult things could get.  But then, she ends the statement with,

“I AM A POLICE OFFICER OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA.”  

This is the equivalent of her seeing Lee Gon in his navy uniform with his imperial robes behind him.  She is reminding him that she is still planted firmly in her world, with her own responsibilities.  They may not be as big as his, but they’re just as important.  She can’t just leave everything and go live with him in his world.

As they enter into a new phase in their relationship, they are now faced with this conflict. Neither of them can just up and leave their world. So they made rules for each other, 2 from Lee Gon, and 17 and pending for Jeong Tae-eul, as a way to bargain with the universe. They’re trying to right the wrongs that have happened prior to them meeting. The only thing they’re asking is that the universe would let them them be together, for now.

The very fact that Lee Gon had only 2 rules and they were what they were is significant, and kind of true to their character. His two rules mean that his solution to their situation is to continue going back and forth between the two worlds. It would be this decision that will be challenged much later I suppose, when the gateway to both dimensions would eventually crack. But as for now, he has decided to split his world into two, a world of responsibility in the Kingdom of Corea, and the world where his only dream and desire resides, Republic of Korea where Jeong Tae-eul is.

Jeong Tae-eul plays it loose by beginning with 5 rules and a pending 13 more, making it up as she goes along.  And that’s essentially how she has always been since the beginning of the series. She starts with what she can confirm, what she can believe, and then change by adding or taking from it with every new information she gets as she goes along, just as what she did with Lee Gon.  Her route to a decision is circuitous, while Lee Gon’s is a straight line.

At this point, they’ve already solidified their relationship AND their plans to investigate murders and treason. And neither of them have told each other that they love each other.  Which bring us to the next episode.

EPISODE 8

They begin to share less screen time here as the reality of their two worlds and Lee Lim’s plans begin catching up to them. More of Lee Lim’s plot is revealed.  Jeong Tae-eul slowly begins to unravel their cases.  There is no time to cross worlds to go on dates.  And I suppose this is one of the major complaints of people – that they don’t spend enough time with each other.  At least long enough to give us heart fluttering moments.

Well, the thing is, two parallel worlds are about to collide into each other, there’s a barrier between worlds that freezes time on both sides in the number or seconds of frozen time keep rising, and in the meantime, people are disappearing and getting murdered.  We have here two characters who aren’t free to go on dates and flirt whenever they want.  You know, like actual adults with real world responsibilities.

But they have done the essentials of a relationship without even doing much of that.  They’ve learned each other’s way of thinking and haven’t tried to change each other.  They’ve learned how to empathize with each other, which wasn’t that hard considering they’re both emotionally strong people.  They’ve gotten to know each other.  She knows of his traumatic past that has shaped the kind of king he is now.  He knows of her girlhood dreams that have shaped the kind of detective she is now.

They’ve opened their eyes and assessed their impossible situation.  They reacted differently, talked it out, and arrived at the conclusion that decisions about the two of them should be made together.  They were able to do all that without going on “normal” dates.

She acknowledges how they have done everything in reverse, skipping over some parts and getting right to the nitty-gritty of a relationship that challenges the rules of the universe without even saying things to each other. That’s why she’s now backtracking, and trying to do things properly.

“IN THE BEGINNING, YOU ASK ABOUT EVERYTHING. WE JUST SKIPPED TOO MANY THINGS.”

The only thing left to do, really, is to make it official. To say the words. And even that feels anti-climactic, knowing that everything she has shown him surely let him know how she feels already.   And even if he hadn’t literally said the words I love you to her, his entire existence and crossing over to her world was an entire love letter to her. So she knew it was her who had to say it first, just to be as clear, as he always had been with her.  

And ultimately, this is what attracts me to her as a viewer.  She’s a strong-willed, independent, no nonsense woman.  And she’s the same, even in matters of love.  She doesn’t suddenly turn into a blushing 13 year old who doesn’t know what to with her feelings.  She had doubts about Lee Gon even if something was brewing between them.  When the doubts were are dispelled, she dealt with how she felt with him. And when she understood that she loved him, whether by fate or her own decision, she told him.  There was no teenage angst of wondering who should say it first, no annoying ancient mindfucks of men should always do the chasing.  True to her form and character, Jeong Tae-eul felt it, so then she had to say it. It was that simple.  Their situation was complicated enough. There was no need to

So she goes to see him before a stake out on a beautiful sunlit afternoon.  There’s nothing more poignant than verbalizing a hopeless love with a slowly setting sun in the background.

She begins it with a string of questions of “What if”?  It is her way of questioning the role of human choices when fate is at play.  Lee Gon insists that no matter what she would have done, he would still have fallen in love with her.  It was his fate to love her.  It mirrors what she’s thinking in the voice over that would come next.

She had tried to deny the existence of his world, his feelings for her, and his own very existence.  They had all turned out to be true and she had found herself unexplainably drawn into his life. And she couldn’t pull away, even if she had tried.  So she had arrived at the same conclusion as well.  It was also her fate to love him.

“IT TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO REALIZE THIS. WHEN IT’S FATE, THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES.  YOUR FATE IS DETERMINED BY THE CHOICES YOU MAKE, BUT THERE ARE TIMES WHEN YOUR FATE CHOOSES YOU.”

And the thing is, she has never lost track of how dire their circumstances are.   She’s fallen in love with her eyes wide open. That’s why, as she walked back to her car, her internal monologue ran,

“THINGS THAT ARE BOUND TO HAPPEN ARE TAKING PLACE EVEN AT THIS MOMENT. I WAS STRUCK WITH A SAD PREMONITION THAT THIS WILL BE SHORT-LIVED, BUT I DECIDED TO LOVE MY FATE THAT CHOSE ME.”

This gut feeling that she has about their love being short-lived didn’t come out of nowhere. Once the murders and treason are solved, they would have to go back to their own lives and worlds, if they don’t die while trying to solve them.  At this point in time, she knows she won’t leave her world, and he won’t leave his. She knows heartbreak is waiting for her. And the audience knows too, that if one of them do decide to give up their world, it will create ripples in both timelines, which will no doubt affect them. At every turn, there is heartbreak waiting for them.

That’s why she told him she loved him.  She knows every moment they spend could be their last and what was the point of feeling all that love, if she wasn’t going to say it out loud? So, she said it.  In the most unromantic tone possible. 

“I LOVE YOU.”  

And then, Paul Kim’s “Dream” swells in the background.  The first two lines say it all, “You are my dream. You are my love.”  Because for the longest time, she was all he ever dreamed about.  And here she was, finally, telling him and showing him that in loving him, she was surrendering to her fate.  But in choosing to surrender to it, she also makes it clear, that it was also a decision on her part.

It took 8 episodes to hand him this gift in small, measly little parts.  Theirs was never going to be a love with murder in the background to prevent people from being saturated with sweetness. Theirs was a love that had to bloom in the dark. Their love had to find little spaces in between murders, parallel worlds, and evil plots.  The long wait between encounters gives them a sense of urgency, allowing them to dispose of games people play in love and just simply be loving towards each while dead bodies pile up and gateways to other worlds collapse around them.  It was an optimal situation for two people who speak plainly, who say what they want to say and mean it. No words are wasted between the two them.  Because if their fate is to steal moments in time for them to be together, then there’s really no point

in playing games, pretending to be coy, giving chase, and other expected k-drama behavior between couples.  It was also never a journey about discovering how they fell in love with each other and realizing that they were in love.  It’s going to be about finding that love and what they’re going to do with it, when murder, treason, an ambitious Prime Minister, powerful magical flutes, parallel worlds, and time challenge that love.  

That’s why the love confession happens early on in the middle of the series. The next 8 episodes would then be used to hammer at that love, testing how far it can go and how much it can withstand.

What is your reason for doing this?

You were sitting alone by the stream.

The green grass was sprouting and the water was splashing from the spring breeze.

You promised that even if you go, you won't be gone forever

That is what you promised.

I sit by the stream each day and think about something endlessly.

The cinematography of this drama is so aesthically pleasing. 😍 It feels like a visual treat.

and I’d choose you in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.