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Stalkyoo After the Formal (pt.2) - Role Reversal & How Cracks in Yeong-gi's Mask Reveal His True Feelings

The black and white formal spurs fast-paced development for Shin-ae and Yeong-gi. They become friends, and perhaps begin to feel even more as they're given moments of romantic tension. This culminates in Yeong-gi realizing romantic feelings for Shin-ae on the balcony. But we see how he reacts to that and he doesn’t like what he’s feeling.

As a result, we see Yeong-gi actively try to distance himself from Shin-ae, and putting on a facade (part 1). However, we are occasionally given scenes where just for a second, he drops his guard, and we are given glimpses into what he's actually feeling.

Ep. 93 | The Earphone/Balcony Parallel

Shin-ae suddenly touches Yeong-gi to put his earphones back in and what happens next strikingly parallels the balcony scene, in both composition and sequence of events. However, his expressions are different, indicating different points in his journey of understanding his feelings.

At the balcony, his first expression is more of extreme genuine shock. What we can make out from his partially hidden face later (panels 3-4), seems pensive and reflective; he doesn't understand or know what to think of what he is feeling — this is also why we can't see his face. Something truly significant is happening internally. The strength of these new emotions is emphasized by choice to make the background white.*

*this technically doesn't happen in the earphones scene, the white behind them is actually from the building windows. If you look carefully near his mouth, you can see the window panes.

In the earphone scene, his first expression is less shocked. This isn't something new to him, just a sudden reminder of something he is already familiar with. But his later expression (panel 3-4) is actually shown this time. His brows are furrowed and he frowns; he looks tense and troubled — he knows what he is feeling and he doesn’t like it.

This difference between the two scenes is due to the amount of time he's had after realizing. When he first realizes (at the balcony), he hasn’t had enough time to understand, let alone verbalize what he’s feeling; he only feels a difference. These new feelings likely give him a sudden jolt to pursue his desires, and he tries to break up with Alyssa. But even just within that conversation, he starts to “come back to his senses” (return to a feeling of low self-worth) and "be realistic" (aka self-sabotage and listen to everyone else) and he shackles himself to Alyssa.

This is the first instance where Yeong-gi tries to distance himself from Shin-ae and it's only within minutes of realizing his feelings. When given even more time to understand his feelings, the ramifications of his feelings for Shin-Ae become more obvious... Along with Kousuke's request to stay away from Shin-ae, which essentially says, "You're no good for her. Leave her alone," he doubles down on creating distance.

But when she suddenly touches him again, he is reminded of those feelings that he was trying so hard to deny, and he understands enough now, to know that he should hate it.

After all, he isn’t worth anything good; he should just listen to what everyone else says, and that includes Shin-Ae who has consistently accused him of wanting more than her friendship. Liking Shin-Ae is bad.

Ep. 117 | Hands and Distance - Finally Reaching Him

Since Shin-ae first extended her hand to him at the formal, she has consistently been interrupted; despite wanting to be there for him and letting him know she cares for him, she hasn’t been able to. And after weeks of avoiding her, when Shin-Ae sees Yeong-gi at WcDonald’s, she makes sure to fight against his resistance so she can actually talk to him.

While Yeong-gi waits for Shin-ae’s break, her manager tells Shin-ae that:

“He comes pretty often [and] asks the employees if they’re doing alright or how everyone is getting along… Thought it was very nosy of him.. It makes sense now though. He’s probably just checking up on you.”

Despite trying to seem as distant as possible from Shin-ae, and purposefully avoiding her, Yeong-gi actually cares about her enough to secretly check up on her. As much as he tries to pretend otherwise, he cares about her. But he does not want her to know.

When they speak to each other on her break, he finally gets the chance to truly find emotional support and vent about how he feels:

"I’m getting really tired… I feel like things will never get better… I should just accept things will remain the way they are for the rest of my life. It feels like the world is always against me.”

And Shin-ae wants to comfort him in response. She places her hands in his — she closes the distance and they finally touch. She emotionally connects; at the same time her hands do, her good intentions and desire to support him finally reach.

Shin-ae says:

You've got a lot of people that really care about you and got your back. We're here for you whenever you need us.

Shin-ae explicitly includes herself as part of the "people that care about Yeong-gi." She explicitly states that she will also be there for him when he needs it.

This contrasts when Yeong-gi spoke to her earlier in Ep.86 about her financial situation; although he wants to support her, he doesn't include himself and instead says, "your friends". He doesn't presume nor assert his friendship and lets Shin-ae decide whether he is included or not.

We see the contrast in how the two treat this relationship with how they try to support each other. Shin-ae doesn't hide her intentions; she cares about him and wants him to know. Whereas, Yeong-gi hides his intentions — although he cares for Shin-ae, he doesn't want her to know since he is scared to get any closer to her.

Additionally, when Shin-Ae starts to get embarrassed about holding hands, we see a similar expression on Yeong-gi's face as earlier, a slightly muted version of The Look™.

Later, when Yeong-gi shares his music with Shin-ae, we get an ambiguous thought bubble, similar to on the balcony, where it is difficult to tell who is thinking it.

I argue that this bubble is ambiguous because it is meant to roughly reflect what both characters are feeling... They both like this.

Ep. 118-9 | Lingering thoughts

Later, we see how significant the moment was to them, as they interlock their own hands, trying to recreating the feeling, and thinking back to it.

Yeong-gi recalls specific things Shin-ae said that stuck out to him:

You looked like you were having a bad day.

It means a lot to him that she noticed how he had been feeling and was worried about him enough to reach out.

You looked like you were running away from me.

He has been running away from her. Not only does he now recognize that Shin-ae has noticed this, but her statement essentially confronts him with that fact and asks him, why.

Things will get better for you… I’m sure of it…

Yeong-gi: “God, I sure hope so.”

Her good thoughts reach him and comfort him slightly. He goes from saying, “I should just accept it'll be like this forever” to hoping for it to get better.

The WcDonald’s scene finally shows Shin-ae truly reaching Yeong-gi; her good intentions, her concern, and her desire to be there for him are wholly communicated. And we see how much it means to him, as he recalls the feeling of holding her hands and thinks back to what she said.

Ep. 133 | Intimidating and Out of Reach

When we see Shin-ae “stalk” Yeong-gi at work, we see another reversal of their old dynamic, where Yeong-gi used to be Mr. Stalker. Instead, we see Shin-Ae is actively seeking out Yeong-gi to spend time with him.

While waiting for him for lunch, she reflects on her feelings for him.

She thinks about how he seems at work:

“He looked a bit different… Not really scary…But almost… intimidating? Out of reach? … Huh? Why does that make me feel a bit sad? Maybe I miss the “usual” him?”

What Shin-ae describes as "intimidating" is more than his ability to blend in at work… it’s how he closed himself off from her. He’s emotionally unbreachable and out of reach, and she's stuck viewing him from the outside. This opposes Shin-ae's desire to reach him which feels intimidating.

She even misses him, and how they used to more simply spend time together. She doesn’t want him to be out of reach. Here, she realizes the emotional distance between her and Yeong-gi (that he carefully created).

Later when Yeong-gi arrives, he seems somewhat… rude Standoffish? A bit of both? (My guess is that he accidentally lets his feelings of not wanting to talk to her slip).

Shin-ae also gives him The Look™.

They start to talk and the topic of Yeong-gi’s apparent aptitude at work comes up. Yeong-gi admits that he’s just as lost as Shin-ae is and puts up a façade to appear competent. This causes Shin-ae to wonder — does he do this to her as well?

Yes. But not to appear competent. Instead, he does so to hide his fears, his insecurities, his grief, and his affection for her… anything that is emotionally vulnerable. He carefully distances himself from her without letting her know, and crafts a friendly enough image so as to not hurt her feelings while doing so.

Yeong-gi is suddenly confronted with this fact when Shin-ae asks him,

“Do you put on a persona with me too?”

This is a tough question, and one he chooses not to answer (making the answer obvious). Now in a more emotionally volatile state, he’s easily caught off guard when Shin-ae suddenly gets close to him…

His persona drops for a second… and he blushes.

Keenly aware of his new flustered state, he turns his head away shyly — he’s embarrassed!

Yeong-gi’s response to Shin-ae is not unexpected as we’ve seen small glimpses into his true feelings. At the balcony, the earphones scene, WcDonald’s, and now here — we see the core beyond the layer beyond the mask.

This scene chips away of the layers of his mask.

1. First, we see his overall appearance of being friendly.

2. Then, through his standoffish behaviour and Shin-ae's questions, a layer is chipped away to reveal his "wishes" to distance himself.

3. Then finally, at the inner-most core — he feels something that would cause him to blush and turn away...

On the surface, he appears to simply be friends with Shin-ae. Below that, we understand he is actually trying to distance himself in accordance to Kousuke's wishes and his own. But even deeper than that — we see the real reason he's distancing himself and his truest feelings... We see his insecurities... and fond feelings for Shin-ae.

Conclusions

After the formal, we see Yeong-gi's attempts to distance himself from Shin-ae. Now under a whole new kind of pressure, from Kousuke, Alyssa, his family, and the trial — Yeong-gi feels as though he has no choice to put on a mask — a façade that convinces those around him that he is fine and which allows no one to understand how he feels.

However, one other source of this newfound pressure is himself.

He starts to feel something for Shin-ae on the balcony.

But he can't entertain those thoughts, let alone show them — so even these feelings are hidden behind this façade. But when Shin-ae suddenly gets close to him, the facade cracks just slightly, giving us glimpses into what he actually feels.

And... he likes her.

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