The introduction of a vivacious young musician shakes up our ex-lovers’ dynamic, bringing repressed emotions to the forefront and steering them towards candid conversations. Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but proximity makes the heart yearn for what it truly wants.
EPISODES 3-4
“Things only feel difficult if love still remains,” Hyun-seo says, and this poignant line underscores this week’s episodes. It’s far from easy to move on if your heart still yearns for the past, and our leads are all too familiar with this feeling. They’ve been burying their history and suppressing their emotions, but they can’t keep running away from something they keep instinctively returning to.
Working with K reignites Hyun-seo’s love for music; when he tells Hyun-seo that her music moves his heart, his sincere words strike a chord in her. Hyun-seo confesses that she’s been intentionally avoiding music in its entirety, knowing that clinging on would only make it harder to give up. However, K’s given her a different perspective. By completing this song with him, she’ll be able to have a beautiful farewell with the piano. It’ll be her last chance to love it with all she has, then finally let go once and for all.
Meanwhile, watching them make music together fans the flames of Soo-ho’s jealousy. Not only does he cobble together a poorly-veiled excuse for Hyun-seo to move in with them, but he also wriggles his way into every chance K and Hyun-seo get to hang out, resulting in a hilarious grocery shopping trip where Soo-ho hangs off them like a third wheel. In addition, Soo-ho insists on calling K by his real name “Bong-gil,” which only serves to make K seem even more like an adorable puppy.
Both boys notice an old scar on Hyun-seo’s wrist, but K acts on it first by bringing her a heating pad to soothe her wrist from the day’s work. Later that night, when sleep doesn’t come for either of our exes, Soo-ho brings the topic up. Hyun-seo admits that she’d had surgery on her wrist, and Soo-ho realizes it’s why she’d missed their backpacking trip. Wrist injury or not, they wouldn’t have worked out anyway, Hyun-seo says. Their paths had been too different.
The next day, the tension — and lingering sadness — between Soo-ho and Hyun-seo is awfully palpable, which the perceptive K immediately picks up on. Hyun-seo feigns indifference to Soo-ho, until his tinnitus has him collapsing in the middle of their trip to a LP store. K runs off to buy water, while Hyun-seo unconsciously reveals how worried she is with her frantic nagging.
Next, our trio goes location scouting to find a good backdrop for their music video. When Soo-ho walks off to film our musicians from a distance, K takes the chance to ask Hyun-seo if she’d dated Soo-ho for a long time. Ha, he totally caught on quick! Hyun-seo’s flustered, but she insists that things are over between them. In response, K confesses that he likes her, explaining that her music filled the empty gap in both his song and his heart. K is earnestly sincere, but Hyun-seo’s conflicted expression suggests she doesn’t quite reciprocate.
I really liked how the show handled K’s confession, with the way K was considerate enough to keep Soo-ho out of it rather than retaliate with even more pettiness, and the way he checked in with Hyun-seo first before proceeding with his confession. (Though of course, we know she’s in denial!) K’s supportive sweetness makes his puppy crush on Hyun-seo even cuter than it already is, and I’d be rooting for him, if not for the lingering feelings and unresolved tension between our leads.
On the way home, K suggests naming their song “Da capo,” a musical term meaning “from the beginning.” Hyun-seo interprets it as “starting over again,” then corrects herself — perhaps it indicates repetition. Conversely, Soo-ho thinks it means returning to the beginning, a callback to better times. Oh, this is such a nice bit of characterization. Ever tactful, K tells Soo-ho to drop him off along the way, allowing our exes to get some much-needed alone time.
When they get home, though, Hyun-seo says she’s moving out. They’re almost done with practice, and she’s overstayed her welcome. Soo-ho insists on helping her move her luggage, which results in a catch-up session over drinks with their respective friends.
Afterwards, Soo-ho walks Hyun-seo home. Perhaps it’s the liquid courage in them, but they finally talk about their breakup candidly. Hyun-seo apologizes for dumping him the way she did, mired in her anxiety about the future, and Soo-ho admits that he hadn’t understood the extent of her struggles.
A passing shower has Hyun-seo inviting Soo-ho in for shelter and another round of drinks, which gets them drunk enough to giggle and play the piano together like old times. (Spot their matching jelly rings — so cute!) In a rare moment of vulnerability, Soo-ho admits that he resented her in the aftermath of their breakup. He’d wanted to take revenge and hurt her tenfold, but he’s realized that he can’t do that to her. “I missed you,” he confesses. As tears well up in Hyun-seo’s eyes, Soo-ho leans in and kisses her tenderly. Then they’re sobbing into each other’s arms, years worth of regret and longing threaded through their embrace.
Oof, the emotions in that scene. While their breakup initially seemed like the fallout of irreconcilable differences, this week demonstrated that their core principles aren’t that different after all. Both Hyun-seo and Soo-ho are diligent workers, and both of them care far more deeply than they’d like to admit — they aren’t as diametrically opposed as their miscommunication led them to believe.
Learning about Soo-ho’s overwork-induced tinnitus was a turning point for Hyun-seo, who up until that point had only seen Soo-ho’s aspirations as childishly idealistic. Now that she’s realized how hard he’s worked to achieve his dreams, she’s starting to realize how she’d mistaken his genuine effort for immature escapism.
On Soo-ho’s end, finding out about Hyun-seo’s injury recontextualized her choice to leave and opened his eyes to how oblivious he’d been. Both our lovers had been too wrapped up in their own struggles to notice each other’s, allowing their circumstances to override their love.
As we enter the finale week, it looks like reconciliation is on the horizon. It’s a testament to the strength of their love for each other that it still shines through years later, even after all the pent-up hurt and frustration. Hyun-seo claims that she regrets the last two years of their relationship, when she’d been trying to make things work, but I think what she’s really frustrated by is her perceived inability to change things for the better. Now that everything’s out in the open, I think Hyun-seo and Soo-ho can finally work towards supporting each other in the way the other person needs, rather than forging ahead with what they think is best.
Our ex-lovers’ relationship may be on the mend, but I also hope that the bond between our trio stays strong. K, with all his emotional maturity and empathetic sensitivity, has been such a positive influence on our two leads. Even amidst the love rivalry, I love that Soo-ho’s interference remains squarely in the realm of petty, never crossing into malice, while K continues to be a bright ray of sunshine who enjoys spending time with his hyung and noona. As much as I enjoy their interactions with Hyun-seo, I also really like the boys’ endearing dynamic — please let this friendship last!