#mriag

[wolha]

Characters → Lee Dam in MY ROOMATE IS A GUMIHO 떨어지는 동거 (2021)

[jaehwany]

when you’re trying to work up the courage to call your 999-year-old gumiho boyfriend “oppa” for the first time (and he knows it)

[beeedelweiss]

You made my boy ji pyeong suffer, then it was seojun and now HIM ???? TVN WHATS YO DUCKING PROBLEM

[cafe-hallelujah]

Woo yeo trying to kick them out of his house IS very human

[ariays]

Just WOODAM being a power visual couple

[soufflebread]

the longing in his eyes i cant do this rn

[forepop]

"A reckless and bold confession. Now that I think about it, she has always been like this. She never hesitates and she's daring.

Living a thousand years, I've seen, heard, and touched many things, but I have never felt anything. Just like sceneries out the window, everything in my life passed by so fast and hazily. Then I met her, and for the first time, I felt like I fell from the clouds and bumped into reality.

I became a significant being to someone. I was no longer a dream that vanishes after a night. I became a part of someone's everyday life. I had someone to wait for, so time stopped passing by so meaninglessly.

What has possibly made this girl so bold, clumsy, and true to herself? I found it very silly, yet at the same time, very lovely."

- Shin Woo Yeo, My Roommate is a Gumiho, ep.9 (2021)

[i-watched-a-kdrama-once]

My Roommate is the Love of my Life

I love MRIAG. A lot. I like that TVN showed me this drama at the time it aired, as if they knew I needed more cute scenes, laughter and romance. I like that MRIAG didn't make me suffer so much, because my heart is very weak. I wouldn't be able to take a heartbreak.

I usually dislike when characters keep things to themselves, but I see where Wooyeo is coming from when he is not able to tell Dam that he is ought to disappear. Did he not try enough so he could become a human? He could've sworn his love for Dam was unbreakable. Was it not the reason to become human?

He tries his best to spend time with Dam, since time is money. That 'money' has never been precious to him. So he skips school, takes her out to eat, walks around with her..., and she is so pretty, so amazing..., he would do anything for her. They come once again to that point in which he tells her to ask for a wish, but she is hesitant about it. The last time she made a wish, he disappeared. She doesn't want that to happen again. He feels a burden and, when Dam trips, he is not able to control his powers. He is sent away.

Fear. That is what crosses Wooyeo's eyes.

Dam is confused.

Wooyeo had gone with Dam to see her brother before, when he was suffering from a slump. She introduced him as her boyfriend, even when Dan couldn't believe his sister, and Wooyeo caused a great first impression, with his archery skills. He did that so Dam didn't go home, but now he tells her to stay with her brother. She wonders if she did something wrong, yet Wooyeo tells her it is not like that.

There is a moment in which you know things are about to explode. When Shin Wooyeo visits Yang Hyesun, it is not to fight with her or tell her one of his usual intellectual insults. She knows what is about to come, but she can't accept it. Wooyeo? The gumiho who has lived for a thousand years? The being who has walked the earth in order to become human? About to disappear into thin air?

Lee Dam is not aware of it all, but she definitely knows there's something wrong. The frame she holds with her shows a disappearing Wooyeo.

What?

Now, the next sequence is a bit rushed in my head: Dam calls her beloved gumiho, who answers the call. She knows it all. She runs. There is a truck coming all the way that she's running to. Wooyeo hears the situation. This time, his powers are as precise as he would have wanted them to be. The truck doesn't hit Dam. She doesn't have a single scratch on her body. On the other hand, an injured Shin Wooyeo lays on the floor, searching with her eyes for her: Dam.

We see a bit into Wooyeo's thoughts. We see Dam's worried face, we see into the way a non-human saw humanity for the first time when he met the one who taught him love.

"Perhaps I knew from the beginning. That you would change my destiny. That you would bring meaning into my meaningless and worthless life."

Shin Wooyeo was a gumiho. He was a mere animal. Bu he had learned how to yearn for Dam from the moment he understood he loved her. It was her love, so pure and undemanding, so patient and understanding, that had made him want to become a human, once and for all. And he had sacrificed his life, because it was supposed to end anyway, for her. Would it have any meaning, to wait to disappear in a world where there was no Dam? A world in which Dam wouldn't be able to smile? A world that wouldn't have her essence and presence would be a cold, empty, lifeless place. The world deserved better. The world deserves Dam.

And so, he dissipates. Wooyeo, the fox, has vanished.

She finds herself crying at his house, reading the letter he wrote. And so, Dam, the human, needs to learn about grief.

Hyesun finds herself in the equation when Dami sees her pictures with Wooyeo: he still appears in every picture she has, in every moment she remembers. Hyesun is the one to dry her tears, the one with a mission.

Gumihos keep the bead they once had on their insides. Powerful as they are, those cursed beads can be a gift, too. Wooyeo had asked Hyesun to use the bead to erase Dam's memories.

Dam doesn't want to. As long as she misses Wooyeo, she will be missing the many good memories they made together. She would be missing the love of her life. It is okay to wait, it is okay to be miserable now. She knows she was happy then.

Before a thousand years have passed,

Before you grow more than nine tails.

If you manage to learn to be patient,

To love,

Sacrifice,

And to eventually find a reason to live...

If someone who desperately wishes you to live is waiting,

You will turn into a human.

Wooyeo is able to hear Dam's crying from the numb place he is in. Is he able to hear her say she prefers to remember her love?

Darkness. And then, another day comes.

He is there, waiting for her to look at him.

Wooyeo is there, and Dam is just a look away.

A human is there, waiting for his love to see him.

Before a thousand years have passed,

Before you grow more than nine tails.

If you manage to learn to be patient,

To love,

Sacrifice,

And to eventually find a reason to live...

If someone who desperately wishes you to live is waiting,

You will turn into a human.

They hug. They kiss. They are there for the other.

Hyesun feels it, too. She was a Gumiho until five years ago, she still has some of its magic in her. She breaks into crying, and hugs Jaejin when he comes to her. He is not dead. Her old friend is alive, as a human.

I love to see Wooyeo and Hyesun interacting with each other. I find their dynamic a siblings situation, always bickering around, always caring about the other in their very own way. Hyesun cried him, and Wooyeo considered her to be the only being he could trust to ask for a favor. Their dynamic, and Dam, give me the feels. And then, of course, they change it all when Dam calls Wooyeo "oppa" once again. They are all lovey-dovey, cute and sugary, all over the other. And Hyesun is sick of it, because Jaejin is nowhere to be found. Our main couple takes a walk.

What I like about male gumiho stories is that they never forget to put the usual female gumihos into the narrative. Hyesun is a cute character, despite being an ex-gumiho, who is supposed to be seductive. She is cute, shy, clumsy and innocent. And she tells Jaejin her secret, who doesn't really care about it, because why would he care if his girlfriend was a gumiho? She doesn't mind that he is a very sensitive guy, and she likes him at least a portion of the amount of love he feels towards her. And she wants to wait for him even when he has to go to the military service. The situation is just funny and ridiculous, because these two are the silliest, cutest characters out there.

A few couples are born, though. Seonwoo's sister wants to date Dam's brother after he gets back her stolen objects, and Dam's friend, Sookyeong, suddenly gets in a red-thready-situation with their senior, Jungseok.

We see our main couple once again, sitting down, looking at the sky. They look at each other.

"You were supposed to keep the marble, not fall in love with the owner."

"You were supposed to steal my energy, not my heart."

They look at each other, Wooyeo suggests to go home. Dam agrees.

A red thread connects their pinky fingers.

And I know that even when life is filled with happy and sad moments, sometimes life can be a romantic comedy.