In the first 4 episodes of this drama, we see the development of how our male lead, Sun Jae, comes to fall in love with our female lead, Hye Won. Now in these next 4 episodes we see what drives our straight forward Hye Won to choose Sun Jae. I would love to show these pictures in more light, but this show is really intimately lit for most scenes and since I don’t own photoshop and am also not talented in that area… we’ll just have to make do with how dark these pictures are.
When we left our story, Sun Jae had been rescued by Prof. Kang and brought to the house. Hye Won and Sun Jae ended up playing together again and built more camaraderie between them. They explained a few things to each other and cleared the air a little more so that Sun Jae had an idea that Hye Won did not want to put her life into jeopardy even while she acknowledged his crush on her. While she was crossing the line a few times in her fantasies, see picture below, she was behaving and trying to keep him at a distance.
That starts to crumble however when the bosses who make up her life start a interpersonal war for power that add more stress then Hye Won can handle. Lets take a look at our three players I want to refer to as the axis of evil.
In the second picture you have our Chairman and his spoiled, unhappy daughter from his first wife. The picture above is his second wife and hated stepmother of said daughter. They women are in a power struggle over the foundation and other investments. The daughter, Young Woo, may actually be a decent human being. She seems upset by the corruption going on in the art center under the direction of Stepmom, Sung Sook, but instead of being smart about it, she has fallen in love with a scheming opportunist who is just out to use her for her money. Even I can tell what a slimeball he is. She is long time friends with Prof. Kang and at one time was friends with Hye Won as well until the Stepmom took her over. Hye Won tries to balance the needs of these three overly rich and spoiled people as they try to hide money, investments, affairs and back deals over the art center. But as is the case when you try to please everyone, you please no one and they all make comments that show they are willing to bite the hand that helps them because after all, Hye Won is expendable.
Prof. Kang overhears a conversation between Sun Jae and Hye Won where they are talking about giving each other hugs. Now, since Hye Won was not supposed to be where her husband found her, it has put his suspicions on full alert. Neither of our leads know that he overheard this conversation.
Through the rest of the episodes, we deal with Sun Jae auditioning and getting accepted into the school, Prof. Kang becoming increasingly suspicious and with the situation with the axis of evil getting more precarious. When Hye Won is attacked by Young Woo, her husband reacts with concern that someone will think he hit her instead of concern over her. He’s aware of how tough her situation is but he does little to ease it or comfort her. In another instance of Hye Won being humiliated and degraded in front of Sun Jae by the axis of evil, she learns that Sun Jae wanted nothing more than to step to her defense and protect her but due to his age and lack of position, could only watch helplessly and do nothing. Hye Won comes to see that the only person on her side, is this young pianist who loves her passionately. With all her foundations crumbling, Hye Won foolishly runs to the only source of comfort she has. In an ironic twist, Prof. Kang has gone to a psychic to see if his wife is cheating on him with Sun Jae only to be told that he needs the boy to advance in his career. That he would be a fool to ever let him go and to not lose him under any circumstance. He’s also told that Hye Won priority is work and that she would not betray him. Since we know that she has gone to Sun Jae for physical and emotional comfort, it leaves the viewer wondering what her loyalties will be to her husband now.
Personally, I don’t really like these characters. I feel sorry for Sun Jae because he’s just in over his head. He has no freaking clue about the train that’s about to run him over. Building a reputation as a genius pianist is hard enough but now he’s got this affair to deal with and it could and probably will cost him everything. Hye Won can easily be destroyed by the axis of evil and so it will be interesting to see what she does now that she has finally opened herself up to a weakness that can be manipulated, which she didn’t have before. I don’t feel that she really cares about Sun Jae, just that he is the only source of comfort in her boring and increasingly dangerous world. She should have turned to her husband, but for whatever reasons did not. They are good enough friends, and he’s not exactly a bad person, that I think if she had made it plain what she was going through, he’d be on her side. Maybe.
As episode 8 comes to a close we have our lovers who have just made love for the first time and we have an increasingly conflicted Prof. Kang. Will he look the other way so he doesn’t lose Sun Jae?
____________________________________
Ep 1-4 review
