#nirey rambles

[nireey]

This is one of my favourite accidental BL comedy moments in the entire show: Jihoon indirectly outing Dongsik under the disguise of doing him a favour by volunteering to team up with the 'rich, arrogant newbie inspector who totally isn't your type anyway, hyung'.

Upon Juwon's arrival and the discussion about the new line-up, Jihoon chimes in, saying he'll volunteer too because he's just a patrol officer and can learn a lot from Inspector Han. Noble intention, but Jihoon also texts Dongsik under the table.

"Didn’t you say he wasn't your type? Fine, I’ll sacrifice myself [and take him instead]" and it looks like he just wants to help Dongsik with no second thought. He knows from the dinner evening before, Dongsik obviously meant"he's not my preferred type of police partner" , as in "he's a privileged kid and causes nothing but unnecessary trouble".

But when Jihoon says it out loud here the entire context is missing, everyone else at the table perceives it as: Inspector Han isn't Dongsik's type of man.

While not acting in bad faith, Jihoon 100% does this on purpose, like the mischievous little wingbrother he is (I mean look at his grin!). Meanwhile, Dongsik is dying inside because no one knows the original context.

Chief Sangbae, having a little too much fun, turns to Dongsik and asks if he also wants to volunteer because he knows Dongsik too well and instantly gets what Jihoon was saying, which is literally 'Banjangnim, Dongsik is in love, please team him up with Inspector Han'.

Dongsik, flustered and very defensive, is somewhat exposed now with everyone in the team thinking he really talked about the type of men he likes in a romantic/sexual context.

The double meaning and the wordplay here is so simple, yet so amusing because to everyone else in the room it looks like Dongsik rejected Juwon romantically on Day 1, and Jihoon swooped in with a joke like "fine, I'll date him then if you don't want him." to stir the homo pot.

This whole sequence is a masterclass in how Beyond Evil layers comedy and character dynamics. Chronologically Jihoon is the first who senses Dongsik's interest and attraction in denial towards Juwon - and he is absolutely savage about it. Jihoon (and Sangbae) saw these two men glare and throw insults at each other and concluded: yeah, soulmates.

[nireey]

Occasionally Juwon slips into full British-English mode when he rants or talks to himself and thinks nobody is listening. Sometimes he forgets he isn't alone. When Dongsik is around and Juwon has a cleaning frenzy in the house and complains about dirt and grease in places where it definitely shouldn't be, Dongsik listens and tells him he sounds like 'Shakespeare having a breakdown'.

[nireey]

Something Juwon would never admit in a million years is that he really likes Christmas; not necessarily because it's a "couple-day" in Korea and a family reunion-day in Europe (that part hurts), but more because of the decoration that channels his child-self. He cherishes the lights, the atmosphere, the quiet insistence, the glowing houses, the mulled wine and eggnog...because in England, Christmas was basically everywhere and he grew up with it.

Unfortunately, Dongsik has some kind of long-standing Christmas-aversion. He hates the flashiness, the forced cheer, the obvious marketing tricks wrapped in gold paper and tinsel etc. Since Korean households don't really decorate much anyway (unless they are tradition-following Christians) compared to Europe, he usually ignores the season altogether...until he somehow figures out that Juwon likes it.

At first he comes up with something subtly negative to poke Juwon's seasonal weakness nostalgia and sentimentality: "Aigoo...if I'd decorate our lakeside house like this, it'll look like a damn beach love hotel. ㅋㅋ", followed by a stubborn silence, an embarrassed blush and a very judging gaze by Juwon who refuses to engage further. But Dongsik won't shut up: "Oh, so you've never been to a love hotel before, Juwon-ah?" pushing Juwon into a predicament in one sentence.

But suddenly, when they walk through the decorated city, Dongsik takes longer routes back to the car without any explanation, even if he's freezing his ass off. Just coincidentally passing more lights. Coincidentally, right.

When they are back at home, Juwon wakes up first in the morning...only to find the kitchen decorated; a string of fairylights on the window, a small, glittery artificial tree on the table, a tiny wornout plastic snowman lamp (a baby Lee-Twins' 80's relic) guarding his fully automated coffee machine.

Taped to the fridge there are hand-cut, crippled paper snowflakes made from old police memos and reports because he ran out of printing paper (one snowflake looks okay-ish, the others have the shape of bacteria under a microscope). A tiny wreath hangs on the cabinet handle. Juwon's favourite coffee cup is suddenly replaced by a big, cheesy red Merry Xmas!-mug. Some battery lights are lined up on the counter (which Dongsik only digs out for Chuseok). A blue bauble dangles from the kitchen lamp and a single Santa hat is pulled over the coffee machine.

There is nothing symmetrical, everything is all over the place but for Juwon it means the world in that moment. He realizes Dongsik decorated (with zero Christmas instinct) because Juwon likes it, and he was doing it at 4:12am like an overworked santa elf on his last shift before retirement while Juwon was still snoring.

[nireey]

In my headcanon this is post-canon Han Juwon happily married to Dongsik, proud husband and father of their cute kid.💍💕

[nireey]

Even if Dongsik is arrested and not physically in the frame, his presence is so strong there in this scene and not only because Sangbae brings him up; Juwon's cleaning-up framed with Dongsik's locker right next to him is that constant, silent reminder that he is in Dongsik's space and that they can’t stay in separate lanes.

Juwon's doing one of his most controlling, self-contained acts, cleaning himself up, trying to regain composure after Jaeyi's eggssault, but right there in frame is the literal visual embodiment of his "contamination" that is (indirectly) the root of the eggssault in the first place: Lee Dongsik.

Maybe I look too much into it, but to me it's like the camera is saying: Inspector Han, you can wash your shirt, your hands, your skin… but you can never wash him off.

[nireey]

I have this headcanon that Dongsik is scared of big birds (not as in 'birds aren't real'-conspiracy but rather as in "They're watching me. I don't like this.").

Pigeons, sparrows and ducks are okay ("annoying"), birds of prey not so much (He sees and hears them when he goes hiking, "Maybe let's walk on the other side of the road..."), owls are ghosts with feathers, herons, cranes, swans and cormorants are a nightmare ("Too much dead-eyed confidence, they are planning something, why are they so big??"), don't get me started on pelicans ("Juwon-ah, they want to swallow me whole!!") and shoebills ("The final boss. Ancient dinosaur curse eldritch creature straight from hell...").

When Dongsik goes hiking with Juwon, and spots a black kite (one of rural Korea's most common birds of prey), he hates the circling.

"Why is it flying like that."

Juwon: "Territorial behaviour, searching for food, mating rituals... That's what they do."

Dongsik: "I don’t like what they do."

Juwon absolutely clocks his ornitophobia immediately. He wouldn't tease at first because he knows he also had an irrational fear, so he quietly adjusts their routes, slows his steps when he sees a big bird, positions himself between Dongsik and the bird without making a big deal of it. And then later, when Dongsik is safely far away:

"So, do you think it would eat you feet-first or head-first?"

Dongsik doesn't like it very much.

[nireey]

Juwon has seen naked people before, at boarding school bathrooms, locker rooms etc. and it’s not a big deal when he sees them because he isn't interested in nudity. But the moment he sees Dongsik naked, he freaks out like a horny highschool freshman, has to leave the room, and nuts into his pillows at night.

[nireey]

Thinking about how awkward and funny Juwon is when he and Dongsik sleep in a bed together for the first time. Dongsik turns around to give him his back for a bit of personal space but all Juwon does is staring at it in the darkness, thoughts spiraling about 'why is your waist shaped like that'?? as if the curves of Dongsik’s body are some calculated act of seduction rather than just the natural anatomy of a man who is sharing a bed with a socially deprived, horny touch-starved chaebol son with a long history of inconvenient arousal and unprocessed affection.