I really love your translation notes for Ball Boy Tactics! I was looking for a post about Episode 7, specifically the very last scene, but couldn't find it. I found myself very confused by the whole conversation and wondered if it was a translation issue or just me! 😁
I'm convinced you and I are telepathically linked bc I just finished a rewatch of this show and I thought "wow I never ended up finishing my translation notes" and you heard me through our brain connection and decided to send me an ask. and that's science, baby!
You see, even as someone who could fully understand what they were saying without subtitles, I was also confused abt wtf was going on in that conversation!! and to be fair to both you and I, anon, poor Jeongwoo was also confused as hell abt what Jiwon was talking abt too.
If you're worried about the translation then all I know is that iQiYi has very accurate subs for the conversation in question. It's pretty much 1:1 word-for-word accurate. I'm taking a break from my Gaga subscription, so I'm not able to check their translation but my guess is that it's probably not....the best.....from what I saw, at least......
Hypothetically, if the subs you saw were from iQiYi then it wasn't the subs that were the issue, but I don't think it was you either. In this argument, they're both talking past each other and around each other and they are not at all on the same page. They're both being pretty stubborn about it too, and Jiwon especially refuses to see eye-to-eye with Jeongwoo. So, let's breakdown the fight together, shall we? Take my hand 🤝 let's go
Why Don't You Tell Me Anything?
Jeongwoo's first point is that he told Jiwon to call him once his phone was fixed. Which he follows up with "Shouldn't you have told me before the clarification post was uploaded?"
Like I said, iQiYi subs are very accurate haha but Jeongwoo is trying to tell Jiwon that he has no idea what's going on in Jiwon's head because he won't reach out to Jeongwoo or tell him what's going on.
And Historians Will Say They Were Really Good Friends
Ok, so this is where the conversation went off the rails for both of them and they started having completely different interpretations of the same issue. This is also where I started getting just as confused and frustrated as Jeongwoo.
Jiwon thinks Jeongwoo is upset about the post because he's jealous so he reassures Jeongwoo that him and Hyoseok are just friends.
This was not why Jeongwoo was actually upset. He's still upset because he can't tell what Jiwon wants, what Jiwon is thinking, how Jiwon is feeling about their dating rumor, what Jiwon wants to do about the dating rumor, where Jiwon wants to go from here, etc etc etc Jeongwoo basically feels like he's in the dark. However, no shade to my good friend Jeongwoo but he's doing a pretty bad job of communicating all of that here. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because he was clearly stressed out and frustrated at this point, but his wording next is what causes Jiwon to basically start spiraling the conversation directly in the direction of disaster and destruction.
What Jeongwoo meant: I don't know whats going on with you or with you and this dude. You're not letting me in, so how am I supposed to know whats going on with anything?
He's saying it in a very Jeongwoo way, though. He doesn't clarify himself until Jiwon has already completely misunderstood him and spiraled past the point of no return.
Clearly The Problem Here Is That We're Dating
Instead of trying to understand where Jeongwoo is coming from in their current conversation, Jiwon gets caught up in their conversation back in ep. 6 where he takes a hard left turn when Jeongwoo wants to tell their friends that they're dating. Jiwon tells Jeongwoo in that conversation that he was afraid Jeongwoo was going to break up with him.
and BOOM! That becomes the driving force behind the rest of Jiwon's half of their episode 7 argument. Because he tells Jeongwoo, that he can't stop thinking that they're going to breakup at any second.
which then brings us to the the next part of the conversation I've angrily titled:
Fear Stacked On Top Of Shame and Insecurity Wearing A Trench Coat of Noble Idiocy
Jiwon's half of the conversation is borderline unhinged. He seems to be saying anything just to end their relationship at this point:
Do you want me to disappear from your side? Would that make this all better? Bc I can do that
You've only dated girls until now, it's so much harder in comparison to be with a guy, right?
I don't want to be the reason your career is destroyed
like, girl he's saying anythinggggg. he's clearly distressed because he thinks that them being together is causing too many problems for him to deal with which then brings us to Jeongwoo's counterpoint:
Why Are You Dealing With This All Alone, Diva?
Once Jiwon is done verbally spiraling in front of him, Jeongwoo gets upset that Jiwon hasn't told him how heavily all of this has been weighing on him
He then pleads with Jiwon, telling him that he doesn't need to hide his true feelings to be considerate of him, he should just be selfish and greedy and be honest with Jeongwoo about how he really feels about things.
Jeongwoo figures that this should be enough to reassure Jiwon that Jeongwoo is here for him and that all of those things he was spiraling about are irrelevant because they're together and they'll deal with it all together
Unfortunately, Jiwon has already convinced himself that Jeongwoo would be better off if they weren't dating. And so he brushes him off when Jeongwoo tries to kiss him.
Or at least that's just my interpretation!
to be clear, I personally think the writers could have fleshed this conflict out better. Part of the reason why I stopped doing translation notes for this series is because I had too many issues with how they were handling the final arc that I needed to turn my brain off in order to keep enjoying it. and I did enjoy it! But basically everything I've written is just me extrapolating. I was able to extrapolate this much because the writers left everything a bit too vague for my liking.
I know this isn't exactly what you asked for since you wanted translation notes, but hopefully it was at least a little helpful or you, my friend.