Early Access: Mad For Each Other E2 (Patreon)

E2. Hm.. I'm gonna say that I found this episode less funny than our first episode, but I think this was necessary, in order to give us a better sense of what Hwi Oh's been dealing with, all this time. I hafta say, I do feel rather sorry for him, and I do think he's a decent dude, at the heart of it.

I mean, like I mentioned last episode, Min Kyung is a sympathetic character too, but this episode, the focus is basically on Hwi Oh. I figure we'll get an episode focusing on Min Kyung's point of view soon, to balance things out.

I kind of love how shocked Min Kyung and the convenience store girl are, individually, when they each realize that the pervert that they've been so wary of, is actually a respected detective. I can practically hear the gears turning in their heads, as they try to process this new information, ha.

I think one of the reasons Hwi Oh doesn't rub me the wrong way, despite being the one with anger management issues, is that he doesn't come across as spiteful, even when he's angry. At the police station, where we open this episode, he's earnestly stating his case and pointing out how Min Kyung's broken the law, and the vibe I get, is more that he wants to clear his name and clarify the situation, rather than punish Min Kyung for treating him badly. Even though he points out the things that Min Kyung's done wrong, and states the legal punishment she could be subjected to, and is clearly rather upset as he does so, it just doesn't come across as malicious, to my eyes.

And, given all that he's suffered because of Min Kyung's anxiety, I imagine that someone else in Hwi Oh's shoes would likely feel much more vindictive, towards Min Kyung. Because of this, I feel like Hwi Oh's a decent guy at heart, who's just suffered a lot of unfortunate circumstances, that have come together to become his rather wretched situation in the present.

Also, HAHA, that Min Kyung tells the police officer that Hwi Oh's a sex offender because of the ankle monitor she saw on his ankle - and said ankle monitor turns out to be the locker key from the bathhouse. Tee hee. I can see how this misunderstanding could have occurred, but it doesn't lessen the amusement I get from it.

When we see the flashback, though, to how things started to go so wrong in Hwi Oh's life in the first place, I can't help but feel rather sorry for him. Yes, he went against orders and entered the bar even though the search warrant hadn't been approved, but it is quite understandable from his point of view, because he and his team had worked so hard to stake out the place, and now, with the very real possibility that they'd be able to nab the drug traffickers redhanded, I can imagine how a hotblooded detective would throw caution to the wind, because they just can't stand the thought of the criminals getting away from right under their noses.

After that, things just get even worse for Hwi Oh, because not only is his teammate seriously hurt from the incident, it even feels like he's being baited, in the interrogation room.

I'll probably change my perspective later, when Show gives us more context for Min Kyung, but it does feel like her actions are unreasonably aggressive, when it comes to Hwi Oh. I thought it was unnecessary to take his picture repeatedly like that, outside the police station, and when he took her picture too in retaliation, I thought it was too much, that she grabbed his phone and threw it down the concrete slope. I winced for Hwi Oh's phone, not gonna lie. 😅

I also thought it was unreasonable for her to give Hwi Oh the evil eye, when he's walking behind her, because they're both making their way home, and she already knows that he's her next door neighbor. Of course he's going to have to walk the same way as she.

Altogether, so far, I feel more sympathy for Hwi Oh. Things just don't seem to go his way, no matter what he does. That scene of him tearfully eating the dinner that Mom's left for him, is so poignant. For all of his blustering, Hwi Oh really is hurting, on the inside.

I do think that Hwi Oh's reasonably decent, in that he actively takes steps to avoid Min Kyung, so that he can avoid getting into potential clashes with her. I mean, some of the steps he takes are quite inconvenient too, like how he takes the stairs to go down to throw away his rubbish, when the elevator would have been much more convenient. The fact that he does this in an effort to avoid losing his temper and stay calm, is oddly endearing to me.

It's too bad that it doesn't seem to be working, with him running into Min Kyung anyway, and clashing with Min Kyung anyway, when all he's trying to do is live his life and eat his burger. 😆 I'm curious to see exactly how Min Kyung's going to be convinced to lower her guard around Hwi Oh, because that's surely going to happen, right?