Gravity: A Summary of the Development of Jeong TaeEul’s Feelings for Lee Gon in “The King: Eternal Monarch (Part 1 of 3)
*spoiler warnings for episodes 1-8*
I’m responding to a specific point that critics have raised about “The King: Eternal Monarch having a slow pace while the romance between the leads have happened at an extremely fast pace. That, or there has been no development whatsoever. In the K-drama world, yes it was fast, but in my humble opinion, just because it was fast doesn’t mean it was underdeveloped. I think it had to be that way because of the kind of characters they were created to be. And I am going to try and prove this by tracing the development of Jeong Tae-eul’s feelings from the first episode to the 8th only. I’m leaving Lee Gon out because his emotional journey is different from Jeong Tae-eul’s and he comes into the series with his feelings almost fully developed. The one that needs to catch up is Jeong Tae-eul so I will follow her.
Now, let’s look at these two characters.
Lee Gon is a mathematician and well versed in scientific matters. He is a man of logic, relentless in the pursuit of a final answer to any equation. He comes into the series already half in love with Jeong Tae-eul. Upon seeing that she exists, he pursues her. His character’s conflict now is how to convince Jeong Tae-eul that what he feels for her is real. But before he even gets there, he first has to prove that his identity as the King of Corea is also real. Aside from this, he also has his own emotional journey to take on but that’s another discussion.
This one is about Jeong Tae-eul because it might seem baffling that she spent 6 episodes seemingly annoyed and exasperated with Lee Gon’s crazy declarations of King-ness and her utmost importance in his life, and then suddenly came running into his arms by the 7th episode and ended up confessing to him by the 8th. It’s not that baffling if you take a closer look at her character.
Jeong Tae-eul is a taekwondo master, detective, not very good in math and science, but well versed in chicken and beer. What with her being a detective, one would think that she would be as logical as Lee Gon. She is.
But she and Lee Gon do not have the same kind of logic. Lee Gon can grasp non-material knowledge like theorems and possibilities of other worlds from a theoretical point of view and only cancel them out when they are proven incorrect. Like a mathematical equation. It’s also why, between the two of them, he’s the more romantic one. But Jeong Tae-eul’s logic is that of a flat-earther. I’m not sure if that brand carries the same stigma in South Korea as it does in the west, but I’m sure that the writer, Kim Eun-sook, did not mean to make her look like a nutter by branding her a flat-earther. It just means that she’s one of those people who need to see something first before they believe it. It’s also why she speaks so bluntly. She says what she needs to say as honestly as possible because she demands the same kind of transparency in order for her to believe someone else.
She was also never really good in school, particularly in math. (Okay, science too.) Even Kang Shin-jae knows it as shown by his tired expression during the time they went on a stakeout. This means abstract concepts like square roots, quantum mechanics, and parallel worlds fly over her head. She relies on physicality to navigate the world. That’s what Taekwondo, a contact sport, gives her. She perceives the world through her senses. Eating fried chicken and drinking beer satisfy her body, her sense of taste and smell. They’re real to her and so she likes doing it. But if she can’t hold them, see them, smell them, taste them, and hear them, then they do not exist.
And this is why, when Lee Gon couldn’t produce his identification papers when they first met at Gwanghwamun Square, refused to tell her his name, and told her he lived in a parallel world, it drove her up the wall.
“IF YOU KNEW I WOULDN’T BELIEVE YOU, WHY SAY SUCH BULLSHIT? SHOW ME YOUR ID”
“I DON’T HAVE AN ID BECAUSE I AM WHO I AM”
If she can’t believe that he’s the unnameable King of Corea, how else is she going to believe that she is as important to him as he says she is?
In Episode 2, she gets his money, fingerprints, and DNA tested – methods she knows will work, and trust to do so. In Episodes 3 – 4, the fingerprints and DNA turn up with nothing. The money, despite appearances, is proved to be genuine by Forensics by the 4th episode. But her first clue that Lee Gon might actually be telling the truth was his diamond button. A legitimate jeweler accepted it in exchange for cash in the 2nd episode.
But it wasn’t until the 4th episode that the pieces of evidence began to stack up to support Lee Gon’s claims. When he left to go home and Jeong Tae-eul saw that Maximus was gone from her yard, she actually searched for Lee Gon’s movements through CCTV footage. She found him disappearing into the bamboo forest and that was it. Although she couldn’t confirm that he had an actual home, the fact that he had disappeared into somewhere told her that he must have one. It was also on the 4thepisode when she lost her ID card and it was reissued to her exactly on the date that Lee Gon told her it would be—Nov. 11, 2019. This shakes her to the core because her flat world just wavered. And when Lee Gon reappears at the end of episode 4, she tests him about her ID picture and asked if it her hair was up or down and what she was wearing. He answers correctly and seeing that he was finally getting through to her, he asks the very thing a flat-earther, taekwondo master, detective would want to hear,
“DO YOU WANT TO SEE FOR YOURSELF? COME WITH ME TO MY WORLD.”
She says yes and when she crosses over that barrier, all the flat-earthing walls she put up to protect herself came crashing down. And when she lands in the Kingdom of Corea to the tune of his guards calling him, “Your Highness,” she finally gets the two things she had asked of him back in episode 2.
“I AM THE KING OF THE KINGDOM OF COREA. AND MY NAME, WHICH YOU CANNOT SAY, IS LEE GON.”
He does have a home. He does have a name. He is a king. This means that everything he ever said was true – including the way he feels for her.
Now, I know what you’re going to say. She can’t have fallen in love with him in one day just because he’s got a home and a name. Honestly though, I’m pretty sure most of us have fallen in love with undeserving men for less than that.
Episode 5 may have been very significant when it came to a shift in her feelings but, things have been brewing beneath the surface since their first meeting. She just put a lid on it because she couldn’t properly identify him and what he was. Now that she has no excuse anymore, standing on his kingdom and even brazenly saying his name aloud, she’s now forced to confront this strange pull that this man has on her. It took her 8 episodes to explore this gravitational pull she has with this man and it is developed in an uneven pace.
Episodes 1 – 4 are slow paced but with a huge amount of screen time. By the 5th episode, their interactions become fast and heavy, but they begin to share less screen time together, making all their moments even more bittersweet up up until the 8th episode when Jeong Tae-eul properly tells him that she loves him.
On their first meeting, he hugs her with his eyes wide open. He has pined after her for 25 years. What started out as deep gratitude for his savior had grown into a balm for his lonely existence as a young monarch. He wanted to find her and he did. This is probably why he couldn’t even close his eyes when he embraced her—someone he had searched for for so long was finally in his arms and he didn’t want to miss a minute of it.
In the precinct, Jeong Tae-eul continues to interrogate him much to her annoyance but didn’t miss the fact that he said, “I have finally met you.” Her brain tells her this is strange, but obviously, not enough to make her fall. Nevertheless, it got her attention. And his answer will continue to boggle her mind.
“I WAS CURIOUS ABOUT YOU AND I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU A LOT. YOU ALSO LOOK BETTER IN REAL LIFE”
She gets a weird answer, and then a compliment. Her brain latches on to the weird answer and sets aside the compliment. However, the weird answer also suggests the pre-existence of a connection between them that she knows nothing about. This draws her into his mad world.
“THE PROOF IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. I CAME FROM THE OTHER WORLD.”
He fixes his steady gaze on her after saying this. The subtext here is, “I came from the other world to find you. I exist now, because of you. And now you’re questioning my existence when you’re at the root of it all.” But of course, all this is lost on JTE. However, she does notice that something more is bubbling beneath his words and his very still form because she then asks,
“WHY DO YOU LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT?”
“HOW ELSE SHOULD I LOOK AT YOU?”
He answers maddeningly. He says this in a teasing manner, breaking his intense eye contact. But even if the manner is meant to irritate her, it also carries another layer of meaning known only to Lee Gon and the audience, “I don’t know any other way to look at you except with awe and love given that I’ve spent the last 25 years searching for your shadow.”
All throughout this episode he drops heart bombs on her one after another, including a proposal/command to marry.
“ARE YOU LEAVING? WHY? DON’T GO. IT TOOK 25 YEARS FOR ME TO MEET YOU. I HOPE TODAY WILL BE A LONG DAY.”
“I HAVEN’T DECIDED YET. I SHOULD HAVE, BUT I POSTPONED IT FOR LATER. I LIKE BEING HERE WITH YOU LIKE THIS.”
“JTE I TAKE YOU TO BE MY WIFE, THE QUEEN. YOU JUST BECAME THE REASON WHY I SHOULD STAY IN THIS WORLD.”
However, she ignores all this, ridicules him, or changes the subject. Also, she behaves this way because she doesn’t seem to have any romantic bone in her body. However, only this one incident seems to have visibly affected her. He plays up the entire issue of tasting food for poison before he eats their chicken dinner and uses it to tell her this:
“THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. BECAUSE YOU EXISTED SOMEWHERE, I WAS LESS LONELY FOR THE PAST 25 YEARS.”
For one, imagine being someone’s salvation from a lonely life for 25 years. It was a declaration too heavy and too earnest to dismiss and Jeong Tae-eul stares at him, almost frozen. You can see her lips move so minutely, it would be easy to miss, as if she’s trying to say something, respond or change the subject as she usually does when she’s made uncomfortable by his sudden declarations of affections. But for the first time, she can’t. It is Lee Gon who changes the subject by advertising the chicken he’s eating.
Her inability to dismiss this shows that she listened to him this time. She doesn’t believe his words yet at this point, but something in the way he said them made it hard for her to respond in her usual brusque manner. This stays with her.
Towards the end of the episode, she left Lee Gon standing alone in the middle of her yard, possibly cold and hungry, to grab some chicken and beer with Sin-jae and Eun-sop. However, upon remembering what Lee Gon told her last night, about being the the reason why he hadn’t been too lonely and trying to find a reason to stay in this world, she went back for him. She actually gives up chicken and beer for Lee Gon.
Lee Gon’s geeky comparison of Jeong Tae-eul to Zero was beautiful but I’m pretty sure she understood none of it. I understood only half. Having understood none of it, she remains unaffected. His DNA results haven’t been out at this point in time yet so she remains doubtful and issues a challenge for him to take her to his parallel world.
Their walk through the bamboo forest, fruitless of course, irritated her. But three things of significance happened that time. She found out from him that his parents died and that his first duty as king at 8 years old was to bury his father. Just like before, she couldn’t respond to this and it is Lee Gon who changed the subject when her face started showing signs of distress. He doesn’t know it yet, but Jeong Tae-eul’s mother passed away when she was very young so she knew a thing or two about losing a parent. And she just realized that Lee Gon lost both of his.
Being able to put herself in his shoes makes him real person for her, a scary thought for someone who still doesn’t believe anything he says. And because Lee Gon allowed himself to be vulnerable, to be open, with her, it became easy for her to do the same for him.
When he asked her a personal question about why she chose to be a cop, she had actually answered honestly. This event is the 2nd significant event for this episode.
“WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A COP? IT’S A DANGEROUS JOB.”
“NOT EVERYONE IN THE WORLD CAN BE BRAVE. SO I DECIDED TO BECOME BRAVE.”
This was probably the first real connection they ever made. It will be later revealed in one of those extended flashback scenes in Episode 4 how they had this actual conversation in the bamboo forest. But as of Episode 3, this detail about one of her most important life choices is revealed by showcasing Jeong Tae-eul and Kang Shin Jae fighting a pack of goons while at work, while the voices of Lee Gon and Jeong Tae-eul having this short conversation are played on screen throughout the fight, as Lee Gon observed them from a distance. This might make him look like a ponce, like a King who would never dirty himself with a street fight. But what this scene shows is how Lee Gon respects her as a soldier, a warrior even.
Now, given that Lee Gon knows why she became a cop and how important it was to her, he had respected her enough to not intrude in her fight, in her work. This is Lee Gon recognizing how capable she was to fight and defend herself, and trusting in her abilities enough to not intervene. And for a woman who prides herself in her strength, this would register in her mind, despite Lee Gon still being a source of annoyance to her at that point.
And lastly, on their way back, he put his coat over her shoulders because in the middle of her frustrated rant earlier about following him on this foolish errand, she said she was cold. This appeared to have touched her quite a bit. She has been helpful to him, yes. But she had also been mocking him, ridiculing him, and doubted him every step of the way. And yet here he was, still being very considerate of her. This also means, he listens to her. How can that not be attractive for any woman? A man who actually listens.
“SO THAT’S MY STORY. TELL ME WHAT KIND OF KING YOU ARE. A YOUNG, HANDSOME, AND RICH KING?”
More of their conversation in the bamboo forest is revealed in this episode. This line is significant for both Lee Gon and Jeong Tae-eul. By asking him this question, sincerely, without any trace of sarcasm or ridicule, she opens herself up to the possibility that he has been telling the truth about who he is all this time. She openly acknowledges his identity as a king, for the first time. And if you look at her eyes, they are a little softer now, not as sharp as when they bicker. (Of course, the bickering can be considered foreplay or unresolved sexual tension.) Anyway, this goes without saying that her question was sincere too, in response to his earlier sincerity. She genuinely wanted to know what kind of king he was. Furthermore, she also openly acknowledges his handsomeness. She has eyes, of course she knows. She stated it as an observation. Now, it’s supposed to be a compliment, but she cleverly sandwiched it inside a question, so it doesn’t look she gave it at all. This could very well be a very very mild case, of Jeong Tae-eul flirting. But just a mild one.
Deeper into the episode, we see her in the library, reading up on the existence of a parallel universe. So now, she’s also acknowledging the possibility that he could have been telling the truth about where he lived. So she sits there, trying to learn his world. An episode ago, he sat in the same library, on a chair opposite hers, trying to learn about her world. And then we are treated to a beautiful split screen of Lee Gon, sitting in the same library, but in his world, missing her, not knowing that across the universe, she was doing the same thing. She’s not exactly missing him with the same fervor as he is with her. But she is making leaps in bounds in the romance department here because she is essentially trying to learn more about him. You know when you have a crush on someone who likes Star Trek, and you’ve never seen an episode, you start to look up stuff about it, trying to learn something that is of interest to him so you can have common ground? That’s kind of what she’s doing here. She is trying to understand him. It is ironically at this point where they are farthest from each other, that they were actually becoming closer.
By this time though, all the evidence Jeong Tae-eul has of Lee Gon all point to the fact that he was telling the truth (button, DNA, fingerprint, money bill, disappearing into the bamboo forest from the CCTV). Then the last piece of the puzzle came to her in this episode – her ID card issued on Nov. 11, 2019. So by the time Lee Gon showed up at the end of this episode, she had no excuses left. Everything he told her had been proven true, and all pointed towards an existence beyond her world. She tried to test him one more time by asking what she wore and how her hair looked in her new ID picture. HE answered both correctly in the most tender way possible, because he wasn’t just answering her question. He was reliving every day he had spent staring at her picture for the last 25 years!) Anyway, when he answered both questions correctly, the flat-earther in her was left with no more questions except for the first two that she had ever asked of him. His name. His home. And because he had waited until he had gotten rid of all her other questions save for those two, the moment he asked her,
“DO YOU WANT TO SEE FOR YOURSELF? COME WITH ME TO MY WORLD.”
there really was nothing left to do but to give in to whatever was pulling her to Lee Gon and his world. She wanted to know those answers. She wanted to know him. And of course, the start playing Kim Jong Wan’s “Gravity” in the background. A song about surrendering to an undeniably pull you feel towards someone who is destined for you.
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