๐ Working-Class Mr. Ahnโs Unscheduled Visits to Dr. Yeonโs Clinic continuesโฆ
โ ๏ธ Just a casual warning โ if you’re following along with Asuka and Jen’s fictional arc and delusion interior series, this post deals with some heavier psychological topics and dark fictional elements.
Consider yourself warned! Everything under my fanfiction tab is totally fictional! No need to get super serious about any of it.
Scheherazade
Guys,
Asuka and my fiction series ‘Working-Class Mr Ahn’s Unscheduled Visits to Dr Yeon’s Clinic’ is already 5 posts deep โ basically a whole book at this point lol.
The naming backstory: a subscriber once asked if the canoe trio (Suho/Si-eun/Beomseok) could realistically meet as adults.
I was brutally realistic โ ‘Different social classes mean they’d never cross paths again… Suho’s working class, Si-eun would be a professional like a doctor, Beomseok’s upper-class elite.’
Total cold water splash moment.
But Asuka (also a YouTube subscriber) was like, ‘Reality’s harsh but in my deluluverse… what if working-class Mr Ahn visits Dr Yeon’s clinic?’
hahaha
And that’s how this fiction started.
It’s let us dive into all the deep topics we couldn’t cover in YouTube videos โ like the symbolic meaning behind Beomseok’s ‘feet’ and other layered themes.
If you’re into this kind of analysis, come check it out.
Started as a joke between us, but it’s grown into a proper Weak Hero character analysis plus post-coma Suho, Si-eun, Beomseok speculation.
I’m the bricklayer adding local flavour while Asuka simmers the fictional arc, soup.
Thanks for reading along!
The blog’s getting renovated for easier reading.
Will keep threading the table of contents and best lines below โ stay tuned
Neanderthals in suits
J: Hope you’re savoring Sunday after that heavy project wrap.
May your evening single-malt toast the approaching leisure ahead.
Listening to married friends confess their emotional (sometimes physical) infidelities is wretched business. Five glasses of soju left me nursing a hangover until late afternoon – wasted half my golden Sunday in bed.
A: Ah, yikes! I hope no trace of a hangover plagued you on Monday. I, too, am a repository of friendsโ marriage sob stories. Some of these are wilder than the average K-drama.
Thatโs why I retain a sort of drinking discipline, goodness knows what witchery I would release if I succumbed to alcohol.
So I put my humble acting skills to good use: resting a tipsy face in both palms; using diaphragmatic speech that echoes back from the furthest wall of a small club; cracking a sex joke out of character.
Apparently my role play is convincing enough for me to block inane conversation, slip out early, freshen up back home and settle down for a book.
(Although from May to August my literary interests were happily replaced by WH and its related commentary videosโyoursโand also other dramas and stuff by Choi Hyunwook and Park Jihoon. It looks set to persist.)
I spent half of Monday sick in bed. As in, I was in bed daydreaming of sweet tortures for Suho, and this is a fairly sick activity.
Looking forward to what wicked ideas Chuseok hatches for you.
A: I watched the wonderful Misaeng several years back, and the dreadful after-work drinking culture depicted in the show reminded me of Japanโs awful nomikai.
People swagger into the izakayas and stagger out. Gross. And unproductive. I prefer to keep my mind clear for deluded thoughts.
Ah Jangsu, that bastard. Hahaha Shin Seungho has really beaten up some pretty boys in his career. Besides DP and WH, I see he was some jerk in Alchemy of Souls also.
But yes, if Suho had been without his charisma (and his fists of punishment), and Junho without his quietly stubborn will (and also his fists, incidentally), I think both guys would have received all sorts of abuse, not excluding sexual abuse.
Male apes can ravage modesty out of some deep evolutionary impulse to assert dominance. Clearly, some men are just Neanderthals in suits.
Caged & Feet
J: Reviewing yesterday’s tipsy email to you – seems I lit another fire, lol
I wanted to capture “house of cards” – that phrase just surfaced.
Suho’s pragmatic, so discovering Oh Beom’s patronage wouldn’t crack his pride initially.
A: Hmm, yes, thatโs true.
J: The real wound? Those stolen teenage years – Oh Beom’s “feet” caused that damage. Still, even with Oh Beom laying financial carpet, Suho’s diligence built the house.
What I wanted to probe in Caged was Oh Beom’s “feet” – you nailed it brilliantly before. Those feet that could induce a two-year coma…
Korean expression: someone with wide connections or influence has “wide feet” (๋ฐ์ด ๋๋ค). Similarly, generous people who share food abundantly have “big hands” (์์ด ํฌ๋ค).
This natural-born laid-back boy who sparked Yeong-bin crew jealousy – if he faced another mental tremor, it would stem from Oh Beom’s “feet” again.
The deluluverse bricks align perfectly.
A: Yes, the โfeetโ metaphor aligns perfectly!
J: Oh Beom’s “wide feet” – influence that could reduce an invincible “hyung” to meat on life support, feet that stride unrestricted through Suho’s sacred spaces. That composure would crumble.
Financial backing… even complex, Suho, might shrug off compensation from his perpetrator.
But recognising someone controls both his fate and his soulmate’s? That expression would be… exquisite.
A: hehehe yes *cackles*
I need to put him through a bit of a wrangle. When he finds out Beomseok has touched Si-eun, and Si-eun doesnโt resist, this should really cause him to fall apart..
J:
Beyond the darkening beer and thickening walls, glimpsing Suho’s humiliated profile kissing those “feet” – this little devil’s tail wags with glee, hahaha ๐
Suho couldn’t fathom that one touch of his jelly-soft lower lip anywhere – lips, or perhaps Oh Beom’s “head” – could claim those feet entirely. Gentle head stroking would probably make this daddy-issue sufferer tremble and weep with his whole body. (Wicked…)
Layering
J: Scanned Amazon reviews – the story structure shows through.
Early YouTube days brought frequent questions: Is Suho-Sieun’s love platonic?
Did they actually love each other?
Comments often overheated.
My highest-viewed video, “Suho’s Wordplay That Made Sieun Smile”, hit 50,000+ views. One rainbow-profile commenter wrote: “This video talks for 7+ minutes while saying nothing”
Haha, I caught their meaning – they wanted a direct romance definition, but they feel like I do bush-beating.
A: Please ignore this rainbow Neanderthal. All your videos have depth and a wealth of information.
There is no direct romance between the two boys in the show, from how I prefer to see it.
You mentioned this would be a perfectly economical reason to prevent dividing and alienating viewership ($$๐ธ); artistically, the show is also richer by keeping things deliberately vague. I totally agree.
I donโt have a large BL intake (although recently it seems I output quite a bit of it *cackles*), but the few BL novels that I was lucky enough to come across were extraordinary:
The Song of Achilles. Before that, I read A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Call Me By Your Name by Andrรฉ Aciman, Embrace by Mark Behr.
I havenโt included the titles I have browsed in doujinshi parlours. Some are promising, but these manga are mostly not of a very high artistic standard.
So I am not entirely oblivious to BL themes and tropes.
And the first time I saw WH season 1?
I sensed the two boys loved each other so deeply, and I had to pause the show more than once to sob; if not, I could not read the subtitles, but I did not detect a romance or a sexual attraction between the two.
On second viewing with an older friend, she quickly said she thought the boys had a romance going on, to my surprise.
She said Si-eun looks like a girl (I didnโt think so; I thought he looked like a cute button mushroom, however, this โboy so pretty he looks like a girlโ angle aligns with the Webtoonโs depiction of Si-eun) and she felt Beomseok was gay (here we agreed).
This lady is a very conservative Protestant Christian, I am a strange sort of Buddhist agnostic, we couldnโt be more different, and I couldnโt help but wonder if she was trying to spot some kind of sin at every turn.
But that is a whole other topic.
Well, sin or not, it didnโt stop her from finishing the series in two noisy viewing sessions at a cafรฉ with me.
She liked it intensely, even though she thought all three boys were gay.
I didnโt think it wise to ask where her Christian moralizing went, because she could have very pointedly asked what kind of Buddhist is so hungry for โxiวo xiฤn rรฒuโ (ie โlittle fresh meatโ, a catch-all Mandarin term for boys who look like the WH1+2 cast).
On my third viewing, with my mum, I tried to watch WH through my rose tinted BL lenses.
I realized it was possible to see it as a kind of very understated BL drama.
The tone and โlayeringโ is different when viewed that way, and it has a special beauty all its own.
Director Yoo has created a piece of art like that viral dress that can be seen as white, black, blue or even gold, depending on the lighting and on oneโs preconceptions and preferences.
Several more obsessive viewings later, my preference is still to see WH as mostly straight and non-romantic, although there is love, great warmth, and affection between the boys.
Belittle friendship
J: Everyone pitched perspectives on platonic versus romantic…
Love takes many forms.
Subscriber Elaine, deeply inspiring like you, said: “People tend to belittle friendship compared to love”
A: Sheโs right. They do!
On this exact topic I had a fairly heated discussion with the same conservative Protestant friend.
I said love manifests itself in myriad forms, and most are capable of reaching the greatest heights and depths of human experience.
She believes the love between husband and wife is the deepest form of love (I think it can be, but I have never been convinced that it has some official or unofficial position as the โbestโ love), and I could have immediately retorted
โOh? And not the love of God to mankind or mankind towards God?โ
but that would have been too easy; I saved it for later though and she had no cogent response, true enough.
From what little I know of common Christian beliefs, I think the Lord Jesus says something like โno greater love has one for another, than he who lays his life down for his friends.โ
In other words, kind of like what Si-Eun and Suho have.
(I pulled this line out from my deluded mind; it could be very badly paraphrased, so please feel free to fact-check it.)
If I am not too far off, it means Christian orthodoxy has recognized the love present within deep friendship and placed it on a pedestal of the highest respect for 2000 years.
Iโm wondering why so many forget this? Sometimes, after couples divorce, best friends still remain.
Some best friends would die for each other. I know this. And some married couples look ready to kill each other, and a few do so. And many unmarried romantic couples of any orientation have a brittle relationship of the thinnest superficiality.
I think we have seen all of this in some form or another.
There is by no means just one type of true love.
True friendship always has true love
J: Your recent wit-and-philosophy-laden comment that opened this Yeon Clinic saga perfectly nailed the love-versus-friendship theme.
I adore that comment, really.
Hearing “You’re really psycho(thorai)” delivered like “I can’t stand how much I love you” – their emotional exchange was obviously love. They shared ์ ์ฐๆ (comrade love). Since you likely know Chinese characters: Korean ์ ์ฐๆ already contains ๆ (love).
Their bond while restraining Gilsu was ์ ์ฐๆ. Calling each other crazy was a metaphor for that comradeship – Suho’s love confession to Sieun.
A: Yep, I said it before, and Iโll say it again:
True friendship always has true love.
I really adored that entire scene.
A bruised-up Suho, dehydrated and still concussed from a bat to the head, actually looks like he would lose his first fight. Then, a desperate Si-eun protects Suho with a belt and an attitude that screams, โDonโt touch him, you bastardโ.
One loving brick to the knee and one romantic kick to the face later, and the two high schoolers have subdued their local gang lord. And then they exchange thoughts so precious, they echo in Si-eunโs warmest dream.
Some couples pronounce affection like hastily written Christmas cards, and even when they are together their minds are lost in their own little separate phone-worlds.
But Si-eun and Suhoโs actions speak louder than words, and their words mean more than what they say.
I thinkโฆ they are saying โI love youโ all the time.
J: Our beloved final scene, “Yellow Hospital Light Sequence”, contains what I consider the most admirable wordplay:
Sieun: “Sorry” (๋ฏธ์ํด/MIANHAE) Suho: “Me too(๋๋/NADO)”
When Sieun suddenly says “mianhae”
I hear “saranghae” (์ฌ๋ํด/I love you) – two heterosexual boys post-tragedy using wordplay to hide sincerity, as teenage boys do.
Both “mianhae” and “saranghae” end with the action verb “hae”
Sieun actually said, “I love you”, and Suho’s faint smile with “me too” was the automatic romantic response.
A: What a beautiful interpretation. Thank you for this.
J: People debate whether WHC qualifies as BL drama.
I disagree – true BL would’ve made sexuality central, which this drama consciously excluded.
But did Suho and Sieun share love? Absolutely.
Suho was Sieun’s first love.
Suho, attracted to “strong mental will” shared ์ ์ฐๆ with Sieun.
(Even praising Yeong-i, Suho noted her wildness and “guts” – qualities supposedly rare in girls)
If that’s not love, what is?
This sparked our deluluverse arc, haha.
Must organize these ideas into posts eventually.
Thanks for the brain exercise, friend.
A: Yep, I think so too.
Oh, deluluverse is a different thing. Yes yes. And Iโm probably trying to compartmentalize.
Iโm not a shipper, and I realize the mortifying irony of having mapped out a deluluverse with several thousand words in recent days.
For this I can only offer Beomseokโs defence: โI donโt know why I did it.โ
But no award-winning tear is going to flow out of my eye.
Because Iโm gonna do some more.
Although mine is a paperback crusted with heartbreak.
J: Song of Achilles likely explores such comradeship, too.
(That era’s Greek/Spartan male love was exceptional – mutual attraction to masculinity ran wild, haha. The most heterosexual imagery inevitably connects to homosexuality in countless works, as far as I know)
A: Yeah, it does explore comradeship. I donโt see either of the two main characters as effeminate. But it is a BL, and they do explore their feelings physically.
And my god, the first time they do this is in a scene so quietly and gorgeously written. It was like being let in on some secret. I can only pray to absorb a tenth of Millerโs talent.
Ssibal
J: Right, Suho rarely swears compared to peers.
“Bastard” barely registers as profanity for that age group, right.
His most vicious cursing came in the boxing ring when Tae-hoon grabbed his ankle – that savage “ssibalshaki”. He’s no walking “fuck fuck” machine, which makes him more elegant.
A: Absolutely hahaha
My conservative friend, who hates profanity, noticed Si-eun used his very first โssibalโ only towards Beomseok, and it is hissed out with such wounded breath.
Of course, we all know he soon births another โssibalโ. That one has the sound of his soul being torn out.
And that face. If I ever meet him in a fan-signing (deluluverse speech I know), Iโm going to print that face out and ask him to sign next to it.
Want to see where Scheherazade’s tale begins? ๐ Click here to jump to Part 1
Or, jump to next episode ๐