๐ Working-Class Mr. Ahnโs Unscheduled Visits to Dr. Yeonโs Clinic continuesโฆ
โ ๏ธ Just a casual warning โ if youโre following along with Asuka and Jenโs fictional arc and delusion interior series, consider yourself warned. Everything under my fanfiction tab is totally fictional. Thereโs no need to get overly serious about any of it.
Tue 21 Oct
Hi Asuka,
Just making a joke to make you laughโฆ
Reading your email – practically a whole book – I found myself chewing over this question again: why was I born into the proletariat class, a wage slave paying rent?
If I weren’t chasing paychecks like that French grandmother who lived past 120 by never working a day, I could lounge on a couch in this land of milk and honey (our deluluverse), plucking a lyre like Archie – popping grapes one by one – savouring literature like a sloth…
I’ll review your epic from the end – the part that nearly burst my cheekbones with joy.
But Asuka, never push yourself too hard.
Your talent lives and breathes in your fingertips even when you sleep, and it’s not going anywhere. I don’t want you suffering under the obligation to boil soup.
Of course, I know – it’s not obligation. It’s your literary sensibility and artistic talent that won’t let you rest until you write. Still, as always, not pissing off our salary-dispensing employers matters more than our seaweed soup. Take care of yourself.
Toys
I still have enough sanity left not to pull out my personal laptop at the office and browse Amazon’s adult section
Honestly, I spent ages agonising over the right verb – does Si-eun’s delicate doctor hands “put on” the rubber ring on Little Suho? “Roll down”? I settled on “filling” and figured that whether I fell forward or backwards and broke my nose, the meaning would get across. I’m truly naughty… *** cackles ***
The Amazon search results were a dazzling rainbowโฆ I gave myself an internal round of applause for living alone
Thanks to this wretched, maddening curiosity and imagination without boundaries, I can picture Dr Yeon’s expression as he steadies Little Suho – standing at attention – biting his plump bee-body lower lip, going “heave-ho” as he fits the ring all the way down. Not so different from his face during minor surgeries under local anaesthesia.
Mr Ahn finds these Dr Yeon Moments – barging into their private world without knocking – both absurd and endearing.
“Si-eun-ssi, you’re not working right now, are you?”
The purpose of this rubber ring is to delay milkshake production as long as possible.
One cubicle in my brick-stacking brain feels like a late-season downpour just hit. Even I find it ridiculous but I became Rodin’s Thinker, uselessly pondering: does Mr Ahn even need this? Probably yes. Because Little Suho gets far too happy in warm, moist spaces.
Achilles and Patroclus
There’s a thread somewhere denying they were lovers?
Why waste time on debates that aren’t worth a grain of sand – no, not even worth ์ข๋ฐฅ JOTBOB (that filthy, insulting Korean drama curse word )? If Archie and Pat were lovers millions of years ago, would the Earth collapse?
Fan Art
The moment I got home, I archived our arc on my blog over dinner, browsing Pinterest for suitable images. When I typed “Song of Achilles” fan art literally exploded – like gold coins bursting from a lucky pouch.
If I’d clicked just one and tumbled down that rabbit hole, I might’ve had to call in sick tomorrow.
It’s a sweet Pandora’s box. Once I start the English version, fan art will naturally follow. Thinking about all the talented creators on this planet – just like you – whose work is as countless as grains of sand on a beach, I make this vow again: don’t die this year, wait till next spring.
(Just joking to make you laugh *** cackles ***)
Primal Masculinity
Honestly, don’t girls love primal masculinity too? Prerequisite required: Suho’s face. And Achilles’ face
Random thought… one aspect that makes Weak Hero pure fantasy is Suho’s textbook-level maturity – an MMA fighter admired by the whole school, yet zero arrogance, zero showing off.
Can a 17-year-old boy receiving worship from every peer really be that precociously chill?
The production team strained credibility (thankfully!) to make us reed-thin girls fall for Suho by creating the world’s coolest boy.
But in our deluluverse, he acts like a border collie wagging his tail for Si-eun’s praise, eyes sparkling.
“Si-eun-ssi, isn’t the lighting bright? Ahem, I changed the bulbs”
“Si-eun-ssi, doesn’t the ham taste amazing? I absolutely killed it with the artistic grilling balance”
(In one of your past fluffs: Si-eun on the toilet doing morning business. Suho bursts through the bathroom door, “Si-eun-ssi! How should I cook the eggs? Should we order McDonald’s?”)
Dragon Ball Z
Right, you threw me that brick before – so sweet! No tissues in that otaku club room full of everything! How panicked those two otters must’ve been, sneaking in at dawn.
Can’t fool strategist Juntae’s sharp eyes. He sees through them more than anyone but never shows it. He definitely knows how those Dragon Ball pages were used and incinerated.
Ondol
(Thanks to Dark Fairy Godmother Beomseok’s support) Mr Ahn acquired a two-story house in Anguk District – Seoul’s old quarter filled with hanoks – in his late twenties.
If it were an apartment, there’d be central heating.
But this two-story uses a boiler.
The dangerous raw material like coal briquettes belongs to Suho’s grandma’s old house (remember D.P. – that shantytown where Junho and Ho-yeol went undercover looking for the AWOL sergeant with the grandmother with dementia? Those neighborhoods still use briquettes).
Suho’s new nest uses a boiler, but when our two otters want to embrace tightly all night, rubbing below their waists making love – deus ex machina – the boiler in the first-floor utility room breaks down. Neither complains suspiciously.
Iliad and BL
I don’t know if my intelligence and intellectual level… are high enough to read the Iliad, but I can’t fathom how many works have quoted and transformed this epic with its clear structure, written in the unimaginably distant past. Even I, born in this era of sending people to Mars, know about the Iliad.
Like you, I prefer watching Weak Hero without the BL filter. No problem because the deluluverse exists and I can easily toggle the filter on and off. But for filmverse Weak Hero, it’s more accurate to say I prefer drinking it in purely aligned with Si-eun’s growth – one isolated boy.
Growth means loss, the message goes.
Returning Suho to Si-eun at the end might’ve been because Director Yoo felt “too sorry” for Si-eun, or catering/fan service for audiences. But even if Suho had gone to heaven in the original, that would’ve been an acceptable ending too.
(Having said that, if it actually happened, my hand gripping the remote would’ve trembled violently)
Women
You know that sequence where Si-eun’s tailed and chased by Gilsu’s gang? Afterward, Si-eun calls Yeong-i to a cafe – wearing that black cap that fit like skin – to ask about Gilsu.
I saw bts footage.
Probably a passerby.
Jihoon sitting cross-legged playing guitar in front of a cafe, Lee Yeon sitting beside him – very low quality photo – but Jihoon’s masculine figure really hit me. Of course, Lee Yeon being so small and slender made Jihoon’s build stand out more.
If Beomseok hadn’t made that mess, while Suho was Sleeping Beauty, Yeong-i would’ve been great comfort beside Si-eun.
Maybe they’d have naturally developed into lovers.
The image of a petite woman beside Si-eun looks really good.
In some corner of the deluluverse, during deployment, there could be something with another female military doctor. Like Pat, “If not for Suho, wouldn’t I have dated this womanโฆ?” Lost in thought in the dust-blown military camp.
Mapping
In our deluluverse, the underworld goes down three floors and ladders stack up to the moon, so effortlessly pasting Archie and Pat’s aspects onto Suho and Si-eun isn’t unreasonable at all
Maybe believing makes it so, but considering Archie and Pat’s narrative has been reasonably “plagiarized” in countless works, our two deluluverse otters can freely plagiarize too.
Iraq
I read in some book that women don’t menstruate during war.
When I asked my grandma and great-grandmother who survived Korea’s civil war, both said they could count on their fingers the days they menstruated across nearly three years.
Remembering examples,
Sandra Bullock’s “Bird Box” and Squid Game – though I don’t love the series – shows men and women relieving urges even in life-or-death situations.
(*In Bird Box, two supporting charactersโฆ if you haven’t seen it and like this apocalypse genre, I recommend it – on Netflix!)
Come to think of it, if my stamina doesn’t dry up, someday I want to brick-stack Suho and Si-eun in zombie apocalypse-verse.
When Pat first entered battle, only by “afternoon” did he realize why he was still alive and why spears weren’t flying toward him – Archie had placed an invisible “barrier” around him.
In apocalypse-verse too, when Si-eun’s about to be bitten by zombie hordes, Suho – licensed to carry guns in deluluverse – would plant bullets precisely in foreheads. Conversely, when Suho’s in danger, Si-eun, with his near-170 IQ, would lure zombie swarms to a cliff and eliminate them all at once… More ink wasted… *** cackles ***
Lord Chiron the Centaur
Lord Chiron probably watched those two testosterone-packed boys enjoying summer’s peak with inner satisfaction…
“I was like that once…”
reminiscing about his past
Old classic films have those scenes, a woman returns to the castle with the white cloth draped around her, stained with raspberry juice on the back. Why?
This is my boyfriend
When Suho shows Si-eun’s photo to the girl from last night who’s desperately pursuing engagement, saying “This is my boyfriend”, he doesn’t use casual speech but polite formal.
“Je NamJaChinGu Ipnida” (my/boyfriend/is)
When the ending is “-da”, it’s extremely formal speech used for clients, elders, or bosses – Mr Ahn’s finishing move to send the hysterical woman 1,000 meters away in one blow
(In Weak Hero, Aide Park mixes formal and informal speech with Beomseok… He uses informal when Beomseok’s crying in the closet – remember how gorgeously you described that scene in your previous email?
Crying in that closet thinking only of the one boy he loves and hates most, facing Aide Uncle with reddened eyes…
Looking down at Beomseok, Aide Park says, “If you want him to even breathe, you’d better listen to the Congressman” with slightly contemptuous informal speech….)
Contract
Sorry to the lady who spent last night with Suho, but I imagined his profile as she comes to his office clinging and crying while he pretends not to notice, meticulously reviewing contracts – Suho only reads print when scanning stock market news in the morning paper or reviewing contracts.
Kind of sexy…
Status
One directing choice I find very interesting and love in Weak Hero is the atmosphere where boys naturally form hierarchies in Byeoksan High’s classroom – practically a small army.
Director Han recalled his high school days as a “jungle kingdom”, reminiscing about invisible competition between boys, everyone prepared to overturn everything if a fight broke out. Of course, being an artist, he might remember that fishy-smelling all-boys high school era more uniquely, but I also know well that hierarchy culture and status-obsessed culture among men.
Even 80-year-old men who seem headed for the afterlife tomorrow still try to be leaders at senior centers.
In rural communities full of elderly, they compete to be “village chief”
If I remember correctly, the Korean translator of Song of Achilles added information as an appendix at the end – Ajax later died screaming from rage when Agamemnon (that Neanderthal) chose Odysseus over Ajax (Not sure spelling is correct) as the war’s greatest contributor, giving him the honour.
As you said, look at Beomseok desperately wanting to be alpha.
Sensitive to status in the pack, the moment he misunderstands being pushed to a status lower than some street girl between Suho and Si-eun, he completely “darkens” into a demon lord.
Odysseus
From this perspective… you’re absolutely right – Odysseus was brilliantly cunning.
I too thought if Pat and Archie participated in the Trojan War, it’d be because of that absurd oath – the blood oath Pat made at nine, dragged by his father to the agora under what was basically blackmail-coercion.
But ultimately, Odysseus stokes Archie’s hunger for glory, reminds him of his lonely father-in-law – awaiting death, foreseeing his kingdom’s fall – touching Achilles’ insecurity.
That cunning strategist!
Naturally transitioning to Odysseus’ story,
I think the epic’s original author over-gifted Odysseus with good setting.
Mostly for the greater good, but Odysseus is a man who lies habitually.
Yet his stories about his wife Penelope and children were true – by making everything lies except the romance with his wife, the author created this rarity that made him a devoted husband.
Actually, my good impression of Odysseus comes from this song (I’ll attach lyrics below) depicting his journey back to Ithaca after war. Even without savoring lyrics, just the melody conveys that lyrical atmosphere of him returning home riding billowing waves, avoiding Siren temptations and nymph threats.
The problem is this bastard made naive Archie – who lives and dies by honour – walk into fate’s snare with his soulmate…
Still, after Pat and Archie die, Odysseus advises Archie’s psychopath son to show respect to Pat, so I can’t hate Odysseus.
(Truth is, I think I like his character)
Achilles
There’s an opinion calling Achilles flat?
This lively boy falling for the cunning strategist uncle’s tricks, suffering under his control-freak mother’s control yet unable to disappoint her, making love with Pat while watching her reactions, treating Deidameia like stone, wanting to show off and boast about his dazzling battlefield performance to his boyfriend, asking him to go to war together – this boy is flat?
Maybe they’re confusing “flat” with “pure and straightforward”…
(Neanderthals who don’t know how sexy that pure straightforwardness is…)
Pat’s Face
Probably I’ll touch fan art when I have time but in my imagination, Pat has darkish skin and lots of freckles on his face, especially his nose bridge… come to think of it, Dr Yeon too… (mapping activates again)
Asuka, I’ll stop here before you vomit from reading.
I wish I could time-travel to Friday.
Asuka, I’m attaching analytics. See, most visitors read on desktop, not mobile. This means they’re really reading – that tsunami of text would be uncomfortable on mobile. And ladies from still-hot countries are still fanning themselves hard, enjoying your fiction.
Yours,
Jen
Ingrown Expression
Hi Asuka, sending you a really short, light brick piece for you while you’re battling that coldโ
Back when Suho wanted to buy Si-eun a scooter once he became a college student, he briefly took on a modelling gig for a clothing brand… On weekends, Si-eun would tag along to the photoshoot studio, and watching all those stylists swarming around Suho like fluffy cloudsโdoing his makeup, dressing himโSi-eun would slip into one of his signature math-genius deduction spirals:
Are these people safe? Are they safe for Suho?
And Suho, catching that ingrown expression in the mirror’s reflection, reads him like a book. Not long after, Suho quitsโeven though the pay was generous…
Fast forward years later, Si-eun’s four years into Iraq, and Suho finally buys that two-story place in the Anguk district.
One Sunday afternoon, while packing up their things from Grandma’s house where they’d lived together for six years, he’s boxing up Si-eun’s stuffโmostly medical textbooksโwhen a dark brown file tumbles out…
There’s this deja vu moment, so he opens what looks like a scrapbook, and Suhoโso unlike himโfeels his nose tingle and twitches it to hold back the sting… Inside, every single magazine spread from that brief modelling stintโbarely a blip in his lifeโis carefully preserved, each page crisp and protected in clear sleeves…
And a scrapbook made in the same meticulous format? Tucked away in a sepia-toned drawer in the study at Beomseok’s Seoul residence…
Jen awaiting Friday
Want to see where Scheherazadeโs tale begins?ย โ Click here to jump to Part