When last we left our unhappy teen and (game) player, all the progress had been lost and everything teetered on the brink of disaster. In this episode, things change again!
But first, rewind! ⏪
Back to before the race, when Myungha discovers Sangwon and Yeowoon fighting. Because of Yeowoon’s affection reduction, a negative buff happens that he transfers to himself. Then he drags Sangwon away from Yeowoon.
That neat bass rumble (which I don’t think we’ve heard since episode one) starts again and Sangwon’s voice gets muffled. Myungha seems disoriented before he falls down the stairs.
His leg is hurt but he’s in good enough shape to make Kyunghoon skip class for the first time ever. As they go over the wall one way, Sangwon is about to go in the other direction, sneaking on campus because he’s late. When Sangwon realizes that Myungha gave Yeowoon the shoes, he changes directions and joins them.
Things change again!
From Myungha’s vantage point, we see Yeowoon isn’t preparing to run as the other racers get into their… starting marks or whatever they do before running. Myungha sees this too, gets up, and yells at him to run.
Now we’re at the end of the previous episode.
As Yeowoon kneels, his affection level rapidly rises, and the triumphant retro-computery music that is so cool plays. He runs and he is in his new shoes and they’re hitting the ground in a gold shimmer. It’s a great moment.
His affection level hits 0 as he gets third place. He’s crying but Myungha tells him he did well. Yeowoon is so sensitive and sweet under the coldness. He doesn’t understand why Myungha is still nice to him. He says if Myungha keeps being nice, he’ll misunderstand. I think maybe Myungha finally understands what he means here.
Yeowoon gets cute, Myungha gets confused
They go out for a meal afterward, and Yeowoon’s affection level rises as he piles meat on Myungha’s rice. That’s kdrama for passionate love. His affection level stops at 17 and he pouts when Myungha won’t tell him why his leg hurts.
Myungha won’t lean on him as they walk home either. Yeowoon feels like Myungha is still treating him like a guardian. Yeowoon’s gone from cold and closed off to shy and hesitant. It feels right for the character and the actor pulls it off well.
As they part, Myungha’s gate light flashes ominously. Myungha grabs his head and kneels. We flashback to him at the bar with the writer-senpai also not seen since episode one. The writer-senpai wants Myungha to write about who will make him happy. Myungha wonders out loud if there will be happiness for twenty-nine-year-old Myungha.
That rumble starts again, and Myungha can’t hear writer-senpai anymore.
He goes to his room and opens a notebook with notes on his game progress. He wonders what the nineteen-year-old Myungha can do. Then he realizes he doesn’t know the writer-senpai at the bar. The notification about impending death pops up: 288 days left.
At school, Kyunghoon talks about the future with Myungha, planning to do things together. Myungha agrees easily, but looks sad.
Kissing as a defense against bullies
(Not a thing I recommend under non-drama circumstances).
Homophobic bullies show up for Kyunghoon. Myungha backs the lead guy into a corner and pulls him into a kiss. Everyone is stunned.
The bully punches Myungha which doesn’t phase him. He threatens to kiss the guy again. A teacher arrives and the confrontation is over. Myungha is punished for being bullied by being made to wash windows. High school sucks.
Yeowoon finds him and is horrified by his bleeding lip. Myungha won’t tell him who he fought. Yeowoon takes him to the nurses to care for his wound, another act of love. He wants to kill whoever punched Myungha but Myungha says rather than get hit he kissed someone. Yeowoon is stunned and wants to know more about Myungha kissing guys. Myungha refuses to share.
We get to be in Yeowoon’s head for a second, which is strange, unsurprisingly his thoughts are disordered.
Somewhere else entirely, the kissed bully is warning Sangwon that he’s going after Myungha and Kyunghoon for being gay. I guess he tells Sangwon because Sangwon is the King Bully? Sangwon doesn’t kiss the guy but punches him and says he’s gay.
The kissed bully has like 10 guys with him and Sangwon takes them all on. We don’t see the fight, but Sangwon doesn’t show up to his modeling work for Si-a so presumably he didn’t come out unscathed. Myungha gets to model instead.
Yeowoon gets jealous
Myungha sets up a meeting between Si-a and Yeowoon. She’s fangirling but Yeowoon is more interested in Si-a and Myungha’s relationship. Si-a gets what’s going on while Myungha is oblivious. She smooths things over, probably not out of concern for either guy but because she wants an autograph.
When she asks about Yeowoon’s running, he says he used to imagine running away from scary things. Now he imagines running towards someone waiting at the finishing line. Myungha of course, but he doesn’t say it. Aw.
On the way home Yeowoon is annoyed Si-a was there because he wanted to be alone with Myungha. He got some amusement park tickets as an award for his run and wants Myungha to go with him. Myungha seems bewildered, Yeowoon happy.
No really, things have changed
Myungha dreams that he’s given a side mission to kiss Yeowoon. He wakes up to texts from Yeowoon about their trip and other texts from a number he doesn’t recognize. The unknown sender’s texts mention having no time to meet.
Myungha waits outside because he’s the sweetest thing ever. They take the bus out to the seaside. There, they talk about being sea people versus mountain people. This is not the first Korean thing I’ve seen to tackle the contrast between the two. Yeowoon is a mountain person and Myungha a sea person.
Myungha knows Yeowoon doesn’t like seafood, and Yeowoon says it feels like Myungha has known him for a long time. But he’s never met anyone like Myungha. Yeowoon says he thinks he knows why Myungha likes the sea, and he’s come to like it too.
The show is still light, but it feels like the darkness is creeping in
Some things not seen since episode one/beginning of episode two have crept back in to remind us this isn’t just a light hearted High School show.
There’s the return of the negative buff, the death notification, and those flickering lights at Myungha’s place. Then there’s the new things, like Myungha getting confused and collapsing. Myungha not recognizing writer-senpai at the bar is interesting, because before it seemed like they knew each other.
There’s also a nice reversal, Myungha has made so much progress that Yeowoon is smiling, but that makes the potential loss worse. Before, this was just a strange game world where he didn’t know anyone except from a book. Now, when Myungha and Kyunghoon talk about the future, it’s sad to think about him leaving this happy high school bubble.
Speaking of the happy high school stuff, I take Yeowoon’s happiness rebound to mean he secretly wanted Myungha at that race this whole time. His reaction to learning that Myungha kissed another guy is interesting too. I’m not sure if it means he was aware that he liked Myungha but hadn’t gone so far as to imagine a relationship with him, or just didn’t think Myungha was attracted to men. Or maybe a bit of both?
Yeowoon isn’t the only one taking a big turn here. Between post-race Yeowoon talking about misunderstanding his kindness and piling meat on his place, Myungha seems to finally understand Yeowoon’s affection isn’t entirely platonic. I don’t think he knows he likes Yeowoon yet, but the kiss dream says something is happening in his subconscious.