Technically speaking…

Last week when E30 only showed one scene with TH and J, you could hear silent cursing (maybe some audible ones too) across the world wide web. At first I was pretty disappointed right along with you, but then I stepped back and got some perspective. Even though we never got these scenes yet:

We shouldn’t complain since technically speaking, TH and J did sleep together too. Just not facing each other and one of them wasn’t even aware of it till the next morning so basically it was the rated PG version. Only reason why it’s not rated G is cuz it’s not animated. Was tempted to give her partial credit and count it as rated G cuz she is sucking her thumb. 🙂

All along, OB’s writer had been giving us plenty of scenes to appreciate between TH and J that most of us wouldn’t trade for anything. To some, none of that matters because all you want to see is a kiss, a hug, or some sort of typical overt affection. You’ve had enough and think 30 episodes is pushing the limit of our patience. Part of me agreed, but like some sort of meditation ritual that is equivalent to “taking a chill pill,” I started to mentally count how many times there was actual physical contact between TH and J and I was surprised to learn just how many there have been. Then instead of working on the remaining five earlier recaps like I was supposed to, I started screencapping every scene between TH and J that qualified as contact. Next thing I know, I had to get all methodical and differentiate between them by classifying and grouping them.

As far as other physical contact, I went back through some screenshots and there have been quite a lot of instances when TH and J were in really close proximity that I had forgotten about. Like this one where TH thought she was a robber and held her in a choke hold. After they recognized each other and TH found out who she was, J made the mistake of wanting to exact revenge and threw his phone against the wall since he had previously cracked her phone by making her drop it. She flippantly said she would pay for the cost of damages with interest, but he swooped her up claiming he doesn’t like owing debts. He spun her around and then tossed her down on some bags. Then the next time he picked her up, it would be under very different circumstances and this time he was being so careful and gentle trying not to drop her. You can even hear him exhaling audibly from the exertion of carrying her in from the rain.

These are all the other times when there were wrist grab scenes. In light of his actions on E31 preview, these screencaps tell a whole different story now. Before I was going to say that even though I am not a fan of wrist grabs in Kdramas, I found these interesting since he held onto her wrist and led her around unnecessarily. It’s not like she was a flight risk, but when he escorted her into the van and out of it, both times he held onto her wrist. Same for the police station scene – he could have just walked behind her and made her walk ahead of him, but he chose this route again. That fourth shot was included just cuz he looked good in that picture.

After all those indifferent callous ones above, their relationship evolved and so did his behavior towards her. Now when he held her arm or wrist, they became these – tinged with instinct to protect, desperation to have her hear him out, deference for her wishes, or one where he doesn’t ever want her to let go.

There were only two scenes I could find where J slapped TH. Once for mistaking her as the counterfeiter and not letting her watch the news about her dad’s accident and the second where he insulted her father. Now that I think about it, in the first scene she used her bag to hit him so it doesn’t really count since I don’t think it hurt at all. But in that same scene, she kicked him when he held her cell phone out of reach so that was an additional contact he could probably have lived without. In that second shot, see how his hair is messy? that’s where she hit him. the slap was too fast to screencap. Something tells me that he has another one coming after what he said and did in E31 preview.

These two contact scenes are my all time favorites. When it was on TV, my mouth fell open cuz I was shocked that TH had the nerve to do that. She isn’t exactly a kid so I had no idea what he was thinking when he decided to tap her on the butt with that rolled up paper to get her to sit up. Most guys would never dare to do that so I wondered where he thought he had to right -maybe cuz he is a cop or at this point he was just fed up with her tantrums. At least it worked since she stood up quickly out of anger. Then even though it’s not your typical contact, just the fact that he dared to thump her forehead so hard to leave red welts all over it cracked me up. I seriously could not get enough of this scene that night it aired. I was tempted to add the necktie scene, but technically all she touched was his tie the whole time.

TH and his impulse to lean. I can’t even begin to describe how I felt during these two scenes when I was recapping. I vaguely remember muttering “thank you” to the kdrama gods for letting me accidentally discover this gem of a drama and then another quick “thank you” for knowing enough Korean to be able to understand and translate these scenes. It was quite obvious from J’s expressions what she was thinking and feeling, but TH’s face was not so easy to read and guessing became half the fun. Those two nights had slower translations cuz I kept pressing replay. Just look at these – how could anyone hold that against me. 🙂

Do you know where I was when I watched this scene for the first time? On public transportation. The absolute worst place to watch something humorous. Do you know how much I laughed out loud and embarrassed myself? So much I contemplated getting out and grabbing a cab to finish watching. To this day I can’t keep a straight face when I watch this scene. There were more shots of TH fanning the air and scrunching up his face cuz of the smell, but I just couldn’t add them in without grinning again. Notice how she grabbed his hand for quite some time. Her legs had totally cramped up from squatting too long so she waited until the pain subsided. I bet anything he wouldn’t have passed her the tissue if he knew she was going to kidnap his hand like that. Then the next day when J recognized his hand, I was sort of annoyed at her for accepting his denial so easily when he brushed it off saying it wasn’t him. I sort of wanted her to insist it was the same hand, but I guess that would have been awkward for both of them. OMG his face still cracks me up.

This may be the first time on a drama where a character breathes on someone’s forehead to warm it up to inflict pain. As soon as J did that, he was so startled and the fact that his hands went straight to her waist to push her away did not escape my notice at all. Plus, he actually listened to her when she told him to hold still and he let her breathe on him again. Man I love that scene so much cuz of that. If you think this doesn’t count as physical contact, keep in mind where his hands went and that her breath was on him so that should qualify as well. That sort of came out sounding gross, but that’s only if she has bad breath. 🙂

Yes I realize these scenes do not count as any kind of physical contact, but I wanted to highlight the emotional ones as well. These are the scenes that bridged their relationship and brought them closer. Girl asks for coffee, boy ignores her. Then girl checks expectantly to see if he brought coffee, so boy feels guilty and offers bread instead. Girl pouts and gives boy a lecture on borrowing something and coming back empyhanded. Finally, boy’s brain starts to function and girl gets coffee and an apology and their relationship starts to grow.

*******

I swear this post started out to be about listing all the physical contact between TH and J, but then these screencaps of TH started to pile up. And then it became a whole other post. The looks her gives her. Swoon. The ones where he can’t figure her out, but he is starting to want to. When he fights the urge to stare, but can’t suppress it. He just can’t seem to look away…

The smiles he usually keeps reserved, but it comes out cuz its directed at her.

The intensity of growing emotion undetected, especially the ones she can’t see.

You respect her wish even when it’s the last thing you want to do.

You keep your promise even when you know it’s killing you inside to do it.

When I asked myself – how did you manage to hang in there for so long without so much as a decent hand hold between your favorite two leads, the answers were in these screencaps. How can you think of anything else as you watch these two go through all this just to get to this point. Everyone might be frustrated that their love story is on the back burner now as they go through their angst, but look at what we have been given so far. If it’s this good when it’s just starting out, can you just imagine how amazing they will be once they are finally on the same page? All I can say is as long as all they keep going the way they have been with all these memorable moments, I’m not going anywhere.

*****

I think by now it’s no secret where my focus and attention has been when it comes to the OBrothers so I thought I would say a bit about each of the other brothers.

This extra big photo is for Anya who thinks KJ is being overlooked and should have some attention too. 🙂  Just look at him, he is sort of hard to ignore. I remember hating him in Brilliant Legacy cuz he lied about ES’s brother “Piano” for all those episodes. Then on OB he comes into the picture and causes more trouble by hitting on TH and confusing me. Now that I know he only did all that cuz he was just trying to get closer to his younger step brother, I forgive him. That doesnt mean I want him to fall for J though. [Back off buddy – she is taken.]

I used to despise TP for being so mean and disrespectful all the time to TH, but lately he has been going out of his way to be nicer to TH so now all is forgiven. Also, I love how he is in his element at that store and running it so well. It’s good to see him finally showing off his full potential as a business savvy guy. Lord knows Y needs all the help she can get cuz I have never seen a grown woman be so helpless and scatterbrained as her. I think it’s hilarious that her character is only a year older than SY, but Y is her aunt. That is some age gap between SY’s mom and her younger sister. Try as I might, I had a hard time picturing TP falling for Y, but lately I am starting to get there. Y needs someone like TP – even though he is younger, he behaves more responsibly than Y.

Next to the main couple, I have been rooting for TB and SY the most. A part of me wants to believe TB finally chose to do the right thing and marry SY after his heart to heart with TH. TH confided in him about what it feels like to grow up feeling abandoned by a parent and it seemed to waken TB’s realization that he needs to consider his unborn child. Speaking of which, why isn’t SY showing yet?

It’s pretty clear why I chose to talk about TS last. Also, finding a good screencap of him was no picnic. I’m beginning to think he doesn’t deserve a happy ending, but if he doesn’t get one then it means N won’t either. That poor kid has suffered enough being saddled with such a lousy dad so for N’s sake at least, I hope MS can look beyond the fact that TS is a total butt as a man and father. Maybe he won’t be such a crappy husband or step dad at least since he is super sweet to Hanah. His best scene so far was when MS shoved him into the lake – man that was satisfying to watch.

As a fan of OB, I should spread the love a bit more and distribute main pictures among all the characters so I am ashamed to admit I have been way too unfair and biased up to now. I put sole blame on TH’s dimples and the fact that J and TH have faces that were just meant to be screencapped together. Since there are only 20 more episodes left, I really will try super duper hard not to post anymore J or TH screencaps, but there will be some nights where I just can’t help it. If you think about it, SG and SOAW were 20 episode dramas so we actually have a whole drama series worth left. On the one hand that is great cuz there is a lot more story to uncover, but the flip side is more episodes of conflict. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that OB will give us some respite soon from all the angst and intermingle some more humor and light moments. Highly unlikely that will be this weekend though judging from that preview.

*******

About E31 preview:

I wrote this post Wednesday night before E31 preview came out Thursday night. When I read over it just now, I adjusted some parts now that my emotion is welling up over that preview. I keep saying I have faith in this writer and I really want to believe that she wouldn’t turn TH into the person he is becoming in that preview. It’s not my place to judge why the writer made him so angry, but after watching 30 episodes and rooting for him to finally find some happiness, I think we earned the right to question why she made him feel justified in behaving that roughly towards J.

As for why the grandmother slapped him, this is total speculation, but there is no denying the inevitable outcome of that last scene with KJ. A part of me already senses TH must have learned the truth from KJ that TH’s birth mom never wanted to leave TH behind. The grandmother that TH loves and adores might be behind all this and now it will be TH’s turn to feel the sting of betrayal from a loved one. At 6 yrs old he was never given the choice to choose between his father’s family and his mom, but at the age of 30, he is going to feel like it shouldn’t have been the grandmother’s choice as well. Especially since she lied to him all these years and said his own mother abandoned him. Making him grow up hating his mom is not something the grandmother had a right to lie about. Anyone can understand that she wanted to keep her grandchild close by, but she scarred him in the process and that is not something he can forgive so easily. I really hope I am wrong about my assumptions. What I am also curious about is why the grandmother decided to ask J for help.

As for J and how she might react to TH’s words, I hope she doesn’t let him get away with talking like that to her. It’s bad enough he treated her like a common suspect since there is no need to shove her so hard. There had better be an apology from him as soon as he finishes his sentence and realize he went too far. If by any chance he doesn’t take his words back, I say he is close enough so she should just kick him again.