Why the Kiss and the Hairpin are Connected
I had an epiphany moment when I was in the washroom, and I must write it down before I become too lazy to do so.
When Yona gave Ogi the hairpin as payment, it was her way of rejecting Su-won who now isn’t the most important existence to her anymore. We know that in the beginning of the series she wouldn’t have been able to do that no matter how much she tried but now, he isn’t the whole world to her anymore. Now her world is filled with Hak and her misfit family. Su-won in many ways has no real place in it anymore at least not in the way he once did.
What's important here is that the hairpin did a full circle after Yona had it taken from her in Sei, Suwon gives the pin to Lilly, who gives it to Hak, instead of Yona. Don’t people find it strange that rather than going straight to the source she gives it to Hak instead? Who in the following chapter ends up having a whole chapter of inner monolog about why he hates that pin and why he hates Su-won and in general why he is so broken about what happened. Because Su-won gave her that, the day he murdered her father. Why would he give her something with so much thought and then commit murder shortly after? These are the thoughts going on in his head and then its Yoon who gives it back to her instead of Hak because he is not ready to confront Yona or Su-won about his feelings for either of them. But then she casually throws it away because, Hak, Yoon, the Dragons, Lilly, all of them who brought back the hairpin for her, have a connection to her that is much stronger than the one for Su-won now as she was finally able to let it go.
Her feelings about Su-won are starting to get resolved and in many ways that hairpin connected Hak with Su-won as well. When Yona threw it away, it was a sign that Su-won isn’t the most important thing in her life anymore. That she isn’t the same person she was when she was in the castle, that’s why she was able to kiss him after she did it because it was a way of saying goodbye to the love she once had and accepting the love she now feels and the man behind it.
Yona and Hak would never have been able to have that kiss with the hairpin around because it would always feel like Su-won was in between them but now he isn’t. Now they can love each other wholeheartedly. It took Yona possibly losing her family again to realize what mattered to her and what didn’t and that hairpin doesn’t have the power to control her anymore because it simply does not matter anymore.
YONA IS JUST SO GREAT! YOU GO GURL!!!!