REWATCH: Personal Taste - Ep 7 - Part 1 of 2

Previously
JinHo leans in; GaeIn doesn’t move away. He moves into the small space separating them. Closing his eyes, gently, he presses his lips over hers. GaeIn closes her eyes. JinHo’s eyes stay closed. Upon closer examination, we see GaeIn’s eyes are actually wide open, filled with confusion and uncertainty.

Oh, the webs we weave...

Sunlight is flooding into GaeIn’s bedroom. She’s cocooned herself deep inside her blanket. A moments later, she pops out of the wrap of cotton and bounces upright into a sitting position. She wasn’t sleeping at all, but likely reliving the incredible event of JinHo laying his lips over hers in a drunken stupor. Her mangled hair is evidence of a long, restless night tossing and turning in bed, replaying the event over and over in excruciating detail, as any girl with half a mind would. “What was that…?” she mumbles to herself. “What was that about? Did he develop feelings for women, too? Me?” She taps her own chest. “Me?”

When she hears his bedroom rattle awake, she rushes out to intercept him. “Are you heading out?” she rushes at him. JinHo looks as if he’d hoped to escape without a morning confrontation, but upon seeing the wide-eyed question marks in her gaze, he steels his own expression. He averts his gaze a little before offering in an exceptionally cool, polite tone, “Last night, it seems I was really drunk. I don’t know if I did anything improper…” he trails off. His expression looks stomped upon, as if he wants to turn right but is forced to keep walking left. In fact, it almost looks as if he’s daring her to tell him what impropriety he may have committed. Hesitantly, she ventures, “You don’t remember…anything…at all?” As plainly plaintive her expression is, JinHo’s is completely blank. His stare is as cold as sculpted marble. It is miles and miles away from friendly.

GaeIn hedges, “Then…you probably don’t remember…the fifty dollars…I gave you five ten dollar bills…” He keeps looking at her, seeing right through her. After a beat, without a word, he pulls out his wallet and starts to pull out bills. She waves her hand, “Ah…no, that was a joke…uh...how can a man drink that way…gosh, you were no fun at all…” she tries to laugh it off, but it is awkward and sounds like a hollow voice in an empty hall. Her bravado cracks as she turns away from him. JinHo calls to her retreating back, “If I did something improper…” he falters for a brief second before finishing in the same cool tone, “I ask for your pardon. I drank way too much last night.” Her face carries in it disappointment. His expression carries…expectation? There is an almost-question in his flat words, an almost-question in his steady gaze. Did he do something that requires forgiveness? Was kissing her something he needs to ask forgiveness for? The look on his face tells us that, without a doubt, he remembers what happened the night before.

GaeIn is a simple creature. Not only does she see JinHo as a gay man, but she accepts his words at face value because first and foremost, she doesn’t know the whole story and therefore sees no reason why he should lie to her. Second, it is far easier for her to believe that JinHo was drunk and out of control rather than consider the possibility that he may have kissed her with any sincere feelings. She puts on a bright smile and turns to face him, “No need to worry about things like that between friends!” She shrugs off the previous night’s events with one careless wave of her hand. “It’s all good. Go to work.” In the safety of her bedroom, however, her shoulders slump and her voice also deflates, “That’s right. He just mistook me for his boyfriend.” Then grumbles miserably, “No matter how drunk he was, how could he do that with just anyone?”

In his car, JinHo is held at a red light and his gaze finds the bus stop where he had his first encounter with GaeIn. He travels down memory lane. He remembers that first contentious bus ride...ChangYul’s disastrous wedding...GaeIn’s walk of shame across a row of honking cars after her heartbreak...back then, she had merely been an annoying stranger and those events hadn’t really meant anything to him other than being a passing irritation. Those same events were longer meaningless to him. They are now filtered through the lens of friendship. He thinks about their first hug, initiated by her; about the kiss she’d placed on his cheek during the photo shoot. Thank you very much, JinHo-sshi, you are like a friend and a father to me. I want to welcome you to this house. He smiles at all the memories they’ve shared in such a short period of time…but his face sobers when he remembers why she’s even in his life. He recalls TaeHoon’s accusations that using Professor Park’s daughter as a means to win the Dam Gallery bid is not right. Things are changing for JinHo. The situation has become more than just complicated, it has become twisted. What he is doing isn’t right. Last night he had crossed a line.
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