Profile: Hyun Jin-heon - Part 2

As predicted, there are no benefits for Sam-soon from this love contract.  Further, soon after the dating proposal, and finding herself in a financial bind, Sam-soon tightens the love contract chains in exchange for a loan.  It’s money Jin-heon would have given her without any conditions.  He has fully embraced Sam-soon and his nature is such that he will always help those he cares about.  His generosity has a price, however, which is that the closer they become emotionally, the more demanding and possessive he shows himself to be.  At the same time, Jin-heon also becomes less argumentative, more caring, increasingly attentive to making Sam-soon happy: with gifts, in how he speaks to her, how he treats her. 

The relationship may be fake, but their affection for one another is not. At the formal introduction demanded by his mother, Jin-heon robustly defended Sam-soon against criticism (again).  This man has been taking notes. The qualities Sam-soon has are fully acceptable to him; she’s the type of person that pleases him.  Okay, then.  

Upon witnessing Jin-heon’s attitude towards Sam-soon, along with his treatment of her, I read it for a long time as misogyny.  But I’ve re-evaluated what I assumed from earlier viewings and now consider that what Jin-heon is showing is his fear of betrayal.  We learn that his girlfriend of five years suddenly left him.  Further, although she asks him to wait for her to return, he hasn’t heard from her for three years.  He is still in pain from the abandonment and has not dated since.  The fake relationship with Sam-soon allows him to go through all the motions of dating without the commitment, and hence no chance of being hurt again.  Or so he thinks.  Even with such a safety net, Jin-heon increasingly finds ways to keep Sam-soon close to him with behaviour that tells everyone but him that the fake in the relationship is ebbing fast.  When they fight, reconciliation is easy, quick, and natural. It leaves no scars.  As much as Sam-soon trusts him, he comes equally to trust her.  The good in this ‘fake’ love match is as powerful as the bad in it. 

The hurt inflicted by his absent girlfriend, Hee-jin, cut so deep, however, Jin-heon has blinded himself from seeing what his heart knows -- with Sam-soon, he is moving on from the past.  In any event, though he denies it when asked if he is waiting for Hee-jin to return, everything suggests he is doing just that.  Meanwhile, in the here and now, his demands of Soon-soon to not two-time, not look at other men, not speak to them, listen to only him, do only what he says, are actions of a man afraid that his woman will leave him.  It tells us, too, that he believes Hee-jin left him for another man.  Jin-heon covers this vulnerability by pretending he it’s about the fake love contract.  When pushed to explain, he has a ready excuse: “I don’t know why, I just don’t like it”. 

Now, what of Hee-jin who does come back to him, and for whom he abandons Sam-soon in a most cruel manner just as they essentially start an outside-the-love-contract relationship?  Not long ago, Jin-heon and Sam-soon shared a passionate kiss. Subsequently, he was comforted by Sam-soon as he grieved for the brother and sister-in-law that died in the fatal car accident of which he was the driver. Sheltered within Sam-soon’s embrace, Jin-heon cried until he was exhausted.  Sharing with Sam-soon things he has carefully kept hidden from others, Jin-heon is giving her a message.  He even makes plans for the future with her:  Mt Halla has special memories of his brother; he wants to take Sam-soon there.  Then he unceremoniously abandons her to start again with Hee-jin. Holy moly!

This seemingly impulsive act by Jin-heon is breathtakingly callous.  Again, with hindsight, I have been able to reassess his behaviour.  In order to understand why Hee-jin left him, Jin-heon must reconnect with her.  Hee-jin has made it clear that she wants to continue from where they left off, that she fully expects him to come back to her because, despite her absence, they didn’t end the relationship.  If she still loves him, he needs to know.  He still loves her, so it’s what he needs to do.  To Jin-heon, there is only a fake relationship with Sam-soon, so he isn’t really abandoning her. It’s utter nonsense, but it works for him.  For a little while. In the confines of his apartment.  Locked away with Hee-jin. As long as Sam-soon is out of sight.  The reconciliation honeymoon period, however, is brief. 

The moment Sam-soon appears before him, just days later, Jin-heon has to accept that he misses her, cares about her, is sorry for having hurt her.  Since they met, the tears he witnesses are filled with real pain and deep hurt.  Sam-soon’s not butting heads with Jin-heon even when, leaving Hee-jin on the doorstep of his apartment, he follows her into the elevator.  He doesn’t avoid the slap to the face he gets.  I hope it felt rewarding for Sam-soon but, sadly, she is in too much distress to savour it. Kim Sam-soon is truly emotionally broken, and he takes note.  So, when she falls off her bicycle as she rides away from Jin-heon, and ends up in hospital unconscious, he takes position at her bedside and stays there.   Despite being told that Sam-soon passed out from exhaustion caused by sleepless nights (worrying about his absence) and is in no danger nor seriously injured, Jin-heon remains in sentry mode.   There’s really no reason for it. The love contract is cancelled. Their relationship is over.  He left her for another woman.  Yet, looking at her with genuine affection and worry, we see a man whose choice is being questioned.  Hee-jin’s presence is redundant, as Jin-heon is oblivious to everything and everyone but Sam-soon.   

Sam-soon’s sister arrives and is surprised to meet Hee-jin there.  They met on the flight back to Korea from the USA.  The two women wander off to talk.  However, Jin-heon does not move.  We have seen in the past his ability to simply wait for and wait on Sam-soon.  This is no different.  He’s going to stay put until she fully recovers.  Jin-heon looks like a man who realises he has lost something precious as he watches Sam-soon sleeping.  As he listens to Sam-soon’s tearful answerphone message whilst waiting alone at the airport on Jeju Island, Jin-heon’s expression seems to be one of sorrow and maybe regret. In real time, her sleep talking plea of “Don’t go!”, to not leave her, is almost too much to watch.  The gentleness with which Jin-heon shakes Sam-soon awake is typical of his discretion and loyalty.  He doesn’t want her to be embarrassed and interrupts the dream.  She’s still crying when she wakes up, however. They present as two people still deeply connected.

Has Hee-jin been paying attention?  Because there is an increasing number of clues that all is not well with the rekindled love between her and Jin-heon.  From the day Sam-soon turned up at his apartment thinking he was ill, followed by his chasing after her, his response to Sam-soon at the hospital, and not forgetting his overall distracted demeanour, Hee-jin should have been analysing the clues -- and getting worried.  “How much and for how long?” in response to her declaration of love should have put Hee-jin on high alert.  There should have been a catch in her voice when he scoffed at the assurance that she will love him for ever and ever.  “Is that all” instead of ‘I love you, too’, really should have caused her to sit up.  Jin-heon, for all his complicated persona, is a simple man when it comes down to it.  Like Sam-soon, he can be blunt with his words.  Those words are sparse in the presence of Hee-jin compared to when with Sam-soon. Perhaps it’s because his conversations with Hee-jin are nearly all about the past -- a place of painful memories that it can be imagined he will not wish to linger.  The time lost, it becomes increasingly clear, cannot be erased or recovered, and the growth they have experienced cannot be reversed.  Ultimately, their paths diverged and has taken them in different directions.  The three years apart have become a problem. 

All evidence suggests that Jin-heon is not one to two-time.  Still, he finds himself desperately reaching out to Sam-soon.  He phones her, he texts her, he makes up excuses to see her.  Between all that he takes comfort by standing in the space she occupied when she was his pastry chef.  That’s still not enough.  These days you only see him smile when he’s reading the words from a notebook Sam-soon left at the restaurant.  He’s clearly in a bind and struggling to put it right.  The more Sam-soon ignores him, refuses to meet him, the more she fills his thoughts.  He can’t concentrate on his work; he sees her image everywhere, hears her voice constantly, dreams about her nightly.  This is a man in love.  He can no longer deny it. He still does.

In the past, Jin-heon has purposely made unforgiveable blunders during dates knowing that it will cause the woman to lose interest in him.  His rudeness has extended to deeply personal matters, including plastic surgery and questions about breast resizing.  An unintended blunder leaves Hee-jin recognising she can no longer ignore that Jin-heon’s attention is wavering. Maybe his heart is, too.

After rejecting an invitation to spend the night with her, Hee-jin finds out that Jin-heon is with Sam-soon instead.  She confronts him with the discovery, to which his repeated response is one word:  Sorry.   Hee-jin’s solution is to draw him into family time with Mijoo, his niece. She invites herself to accompany Mijoo to her therapy play session with, one suspects, hopes of concentrating Jin-heon’s focus on the three of them as a unit.  They are a happy-looking group, with Mijoo strolling hand-in-hand between them. The offer to buy Mijoo a toy makes Jin-heon smile in approval.  Hee-jin selects a doctor’s set, which Mijoo likes.  Wait a minute, she also wants a kitchen set, plus a book about Momo.  Whilst Hee-jin may not know the connection of Momo to Sam-soon, there’s no confusion about the kitchen set.  Hee-jin hesitates but ultimately agrees.  If she is taken aback by Mijoo’s choice of the kitchen set, Jin-heon can hardly hide his own reaction.  It sets his mind wandering.  If Hee-jin had paid attention, she would have seen the evidence of a man with another woman on their mind. Jin-heon picks up a second copy of the Momo book.  We know it is another to conjure up Sam-soon, make her present in his life, and for Mijoo’s benefit. 

Hee-jin doesn’t have to wait long for the full force of his distraction to hit her.  In response to her observation that taking Mijoo to therapy meetings twice a week must be tiring, Jin-heon answers that it’s not a problem now she’s there with him; they can share the task by taking turns. Except the person he responds to is Sam-soon.

“But you are here now, Sam-soon. We can take turns every week”.

Leonora

asiandramaobserver@gmail.com