#striving4mikey

[vindicated-truth]

Companion piece to this post—

Because Han Joowon refuses to be outdone by any handsome crooner whom Lee Dongsik loves, damn it 😤

Enjoy Yeo Jingoo’s actually beautiful singing voice ❤️

Tagging @striving4mikey 😉

[vindicated-truth]

Replying to @striving4mikey's latest comments on my post re: the juxtaposition of how Dongsik is with Jeongje, Jihwa (and Jaeyi), and Joowon in turn.

Oh Jihwa and Yoo Jaeyi

I don't know if it's the right English word for it—or if there even is an English word for it—but with both Jihwa and Jaeyi, Dongsik has what I can only describe as a strange sense of misplaced chivalry. It isn't even ill-intended, because it's coming from his trauma-based fierce protectiveness over everyone he loves, and both Jihwa and Jaeyi are enfolded tightly under that umbrella of care.

The problem is that Dongsik's protectiveness over them robs them of the chance to make informed decisions for themselves precisely because Dongsik locks them out of pertinent details that should have been their right to know. In essence, he's lying to them by omission.

Case in point is how Dongsik tried his best in the beginning to lock Jaeyi out of the truth about Kang Jinmook, even though it should have been her right to know as the victim's daughter. With Jihwa, while Dongsik did need her help with Lee Changjin, with the rest of the details of the case—involving Han Kihwan and Kang Minjeong in particular—he also locked her out, if only so that her reputation as a cop won't be tarnished.

To a certain extent he does the same to the other men of Manyang, like Jihoon and Gwangyoung, but there seems to be in Dongsik's case a well-intentioned yet still gender-biased view of the women as those who need his protection, rather than those who can fight for themselves and make decisions for themselves. In essence, he makes those decisions for them instead.

Contrast this, for example, with how Joowon doesn't have that gender-based bias at all when he sees how capable Jaeyi is as he continuously asks for her help, both in chasing down Han Kihwan and then later on in saving Jeongje. He sits side by side with Jihwa in their interrogation of Lee Changjin and they keep each other well-informed of the progress of his case.

The difference is, if there are certain details the women doesn't know, Dongsik intentionally doesn't reveal it to them in order to protect them. With Joowon, his intention isn't based on his relationship to them but rather based on their relationship to the case: if the detail isn't pertinent enough yet or he still lacks evidence about it, the less people know, the better.

In this as in everything else, Dongsik bases his decisions on emotion, while Joowon bases it on logic.

Park Jeongje

There's a moment the day after Jeongje's breakdown at the restaurant, and Joowon was reviewing the facts of the case so far, that Dongsik deliberately interrupts him and refuses to listen to what Joowon was trying to say about Jeongje.

This is of particular interest because it demonstrates what I have always theorized: that Dongsik has always known the possibility that the reason his guitar pick was found by Bang Juseon's body is because it was previously in Jeongje's possession.

Joowon himself was getting to this point in the conversation when Dongsik abruptly cut him off—because Joowon was right when he said the night before that Dongsik wasn't ready to hear this yet.

Dongsik had known all along that Jeongje was the last person he was with before his guitar pick disappeared, that night at the deer farm. It was the last place he had brought his guitar case and played his guitar in—whether or not what he says that he doesn't remember using the guitar pick there is true.

Because in the flashback, he was very clearly using the guitar pick at the deer farm with Jeongje.

A case can be made, in fact, that he knew all along, but omitted saying the truth when the detectives repeatedly questioned him 21 years ago about his guitar pick, for the same reason that is still very in character of him, 21 years later: he protected Jeongje.

He let the police arrest him, question him, and beat him up, even when he knew the possibility that the guitar pick had been in Jeongje's possession.

This was never confirmed in the show itself. But it wouldn't be out of his character to do so, because that's always been quintessentially who Dongsik is: keeping secrets to protect the people he loves.

He alluded to it later on himself, when he finally exploded and threw it all in Jeongje's face, asking him if he ever wondered why Dongsik never asked him anything all these years. Why Dongsik didn't question Jeongje belatedly stepping up as Dongsik's alibi, both in Bang Juseon's and Lee Yuyeon's case, and with Kang Minjeong's case. Why Dongsik didn't even question the fact that Jeongje lied to him about going to the US and was in fact admitted to a mental hospital, which he found out from Joowon.

Part of it I believe is that Dongsik himself didn't want to know. He didn't want to face the possibility that the person he trusted back then, and still chose to trust all these years later, despite everything, could ever hurt him—betray him—like this.

Joowon himself pointed this out to Jeongje before he dropped him off at Dongsik's basement: that even after all this time, Dongsik was still waiting for Jeongje himself to come clean—because Dongsik trusted him.

Because Dongsik loved him.

And when Dongsik couldn't anymore deny the truth of what Joowon has been trying to tell him all along, that's when Dongsik finally snapped—and with it, a three-decade long friendship.

The person Dongsik loved, trusted, and protected all these years—couldn't even tell him the truth.

And this is who Dongsik is, too: He will love you unconditionally, until you break him.

And he will break off his love for you.

Han Joowon

This now makes Dongsik's treatment of Joowon all the more fascinating.

He doesn't have a strong desire to protect Joowon the way he does with Jihwa and Jaeyi; part of it is because their history isn't (yet) as long and deep-seated as it is with the women, part of it may even be perhaps again a gender-biased view of Joowon as not "pure" enough to warrant his protection anyway, compared to the women.

Because Dongsik, remarkably, trusts Joowon with everything. Throughout their partnership, there is no secret he hasn't kept from Joowon himself: not even his hand in tampering with the scene of the crime and planting Kang Minjeong's fingers as fake evidence.

It's remarkable because Joowon at this point isn't (yet) someone he has come to love as long, or as deeply, as the people of Manyang.

But as @striving4mikey pointed out: he's getting there. Fast and intense and oh so deep in such a short period of time that it surprises both himself and Joowon with how uninhibited, how unconditional Dongsik's trust is for Joowon.

It may not be love just yet: but it has a great potential to be. The greatest love Dongsik has ever and will ever let himself feel, in fact, simply because he has never been so open—and so free—with anyone else, like this.

Because as @striving4mikey also pointed out: no one has ever proven himself to Dongsik, like this.

Not even Jeongje.

(Even when Dongsik wanted it so much to be Jeongje.)

Because that's what fascinates Dongsik about Joowon: that he isn't even doing any of it to prove himself to Dongsik. Joowon does what he does simply because it's right.

And it's that kind of unwavering moral compass and unrelenting pursuit of justice that Dongsik can finally, finally let himself go.

He doesn't have to worry about Joowon being unable to protect himself, because Joowon can.

He doesn't have to worry about Joowon breaking his promises to him and betraying him, because Joowon won't.

He doesn't even have to worry about Joowon not listening to him, because Joowon does.

Here, now, is the one person who will never let him down.

Here, now, is the one person that Dongsik knows is competent enough, capable enough, clever enough, and strong enough, to bear all of it with him.

Here, now, is the one person who can finally keep up with him in every way, in the truest sense: as his partner.

More than anything, Dongsik doesn't have to worry about not having his trust—his love—not returned in full. He doesn't have to worry about not receiving the same trust and love he's been investing in all the people he loved and trusted all these years.

Because it does, with Joowon.

Which is why Dongsik doesn't mind having Joowon arrest him. Why he wants no one else but Joowon to arrest him.

Because it's only with Joowon that he's finally free.

[vindicated-truth]

Replying here to @rumpleteasa's comment on my post because as always the reply section is never enough for my rambling. 😆

The thing about the meticulous directing and tight writing of Beyond Evil is that every single detail is deliberate. I agree with what you've said that the body language (and physical distance) between Joowon and Jaeyi had been directed / written that way to deliberately refute any notion of anything romantic happening (or will happen) between them.

The interesting part here to me is if I try to evaluate it from Joowon's point of view.

With the way both Joowon and Jaeyi talk about Dongsik at length (and indeed, as @striving4mikey had also mentioned, Dongsik is always their main topic) it would've been clear to Joowon that Dongsik is very dear to Jaeyi.

Here's where it gets interesting: I wonder why Joowon had never thought of Jaeyi as someone who might be interested in pursuing a relationship with Dongsik.

(Objectively, even to the audience, the age gap shouldn't matter; if we see the potential of Dongsik with Joowon, age gap wise it's not that far fetched to see it with Jaeyi too, considering Jaeyi is canonically a year older than Joowon.)

The thing is, the age gap didn't matter to Joowon either, considering he saw Minjeong of all people as potentially a girlfriend to Dongsik—and Minjeong is six years younger than Joowon, nineteen years younger than Dongsik.

The history together, closeness of relationship, and fierce protectiveness is something Joowon had considered too, when he once also saw Jihwa as a potential romantic interest for Dongsik.

Both the age gap and the tight-knit closeness applies to Jaeyi. How come Joowon never once thought of the possibility of Jaeyi as Dongsik's romantic partner?

It's fascinating, because the only thing I can come up with is: Joowon knows, for some reason, that Jaeyi isn't and wouldn't be interested in Dongsik in that way.

Is it because he can tell that Jaeyi's inclination isn't towards men? Is it because he can tell that she's not interested in relationships at all / possibly aro / ace?

Or is it because it's clear that Jaeyi doesn't see Dongsik as anything more than her ahjussi, because she doesn't even call him oppa, when Jihoon, who is two years younger than her, readily calls Dongsik as hyung?

(Interestingly, Jaeyi puts up a bigger societal distance between herself and the men, the older of whom she all calls ahjussi, while with Jihwa, who's the same age as Dongsik and Jeongje, she readily calls unnie instead of ahjumma. And isn't that interesting too, how she does feel closer and more comfortable around women than with men?)

Either way, it's fascinating and amusing to see that at least to Joowon, Jaeyi is not and will never be interested—romantically or otherwise—in Dongsik.

(And on a tangential but related note, this is why I can picture Jaeyi as potentially more interested in Jihwa anyway, just because she even addresses Jihwa closer and sweeter than she does any of the men. 😉)

[vindicated-truth]

(Discussion originally posted in the replies here with @striving4mikey and @rootofallevil)

[vindicated-truth]

(Discussion originally posted in the replies here with @striving4mikey)

[vindicated-truth]

(Commentary originally from here, with @striving4mikey)