The kitchen scene between CY and Kang... dear God... is just... did someone turn up the heat around here?! All that frustrated sexual tension coming from Kang. I thought that he was about to explode at any time. (It probably did when he collided with the metal crockery) On the one hand he wants to get close but he has no clue about the first thing he needs to do to bridge that gulf from civil collegiality to the romantic intimacy his boyish self craves. (Maybe he could take a leaf or two out of Camelia's Yong-shik's playbook) It's a massive jump for someone like him who had been living in emotional numbness for a long time. Michael's dilemma is a convenient excuse of course. What he really wants is to spend more time with her in her space so he can watch her and satisfy some his inner desires in relative safety.

The camera work for it was fascinating in terms of how it shifts from CY's perspective, the viewer's and then to Kang's. The way he was gazing at her during the apron tying, tracing her facial features in particular her eyes and mouth... yeah... he wanted to do more than make dumplings with her.

Yoon Kye Sang... Kang was delightfully hilarious in this episode. His inexperience in matters of the heart presents itself in these "I'm a dill and I want to kick myself" moments. The involuntary sighs and eye-rolling are an outlet for his inner frustrations with his self-perceived idiocy. Our doctor who was at the peak of his profession is a complete mess around the woman he's fallen in love with.

Soju gives him a moment of courage... the briefest moment. He is on the verge of confessing. But as soon as she probes and he remembers/thinks that it's all one-sided, his courage collapses. So he changes tack to something that doesn't require him to go the route of confession.

But fate intervenes and he gets to spend another day at least... with her. Judging from the previews, he even gets to cook for her again. (I hear that YKS is quite the whizz in the kitchen).

"Good things come to those who wait patiently".

That was something my father used to trot out periodically while I was growing up. Even in those days when the "instant everything" era was already firmly taking root, that was fast becoming countercultural advice.

What @nrllee said about melting chocolate yesterday reminded me of how I was raised regarding desserts and sweets. I can even hear the voices of the adults in my life say it now... "there's a time and a place for everything." Sweet things were meant for later... after the consumption of the main meal. That was fruit usually. But things like chocolate were treats. Rare and only for special occasions. These days of course they're easily and widely available but their place in our lives... so says the science... should remain largely in the category of "treats".

To extend the cooking metaphor further, I think we can all agree that all the best dishes take time to prepare and cook. This is why I don't make dumplings all the time. It's a lot of work and it gets devoured in half or a third of the time. I was curious about sujebi and ongsimi so I looked them up. Sujebi reminds me of something my Chinese grandmother used to make. It brought back memories of the last days I spent with her. Even cheap cuts of meat can become something special when slow cooked.

Why this long-winded preamble? :D Well... it's true that the romance has progressed slowly compared to what we're used to in K dramas in general. But I've always been confident that the writer and director know exactly what they're doing.

What I wasn't sure though was whether CY would admit to being in Wando previously or to remembering Kang from childhood. That she was so upfront surprised me. Perhaps the fact that she can't lie to him helps.

It's clear that recent revelations about CY being the girl he waited for belong at a particular time and a place. Not in Seoul... not even in the hospice but in Wando at his mother's restaurant where it all began for them. A hungry, deprived girl stealing food and met her first love in the process. Kang had unfinished business, unfulfilled promises to deal with when he was unceremoniously plucked out of his beloved hometown where he was the happiest. It was a terrible interruption with huge ramifications that would shape the rest of their lives in positive and negative ways. The impact on Kang has been the greatest in terms of his emotional growth... or the lack of it as the case may be. Despite enjoying the trappings of success he lost his way especially after the death of his mother. He's a stellar doctor whose his heart and soul had been numbed by repeated loss. Going back to Wando to Uncle Ha's funeral is the final key to unlocking Kang's emotions. He needed, I think to learn to "seize the moment" before taking things to the next level with CY.

The positioning of Jun in the drama is also fascinating. Since being at the hospice, he has gradually had a shift in perspective. Increasingly he is becoming an outsider rather than a participant in the family feud. He is learning life changing lessons at the hospice and it's going to be hard for him to unlearn them. Now all he does is observe his dysfunctional family doing what the plebs do: fighting over money. He has become the observer... and often the POV through which the viewer considers what is in front of them.

No one as far as I know has ever asked Jun what he wants. Has he even asked himself that question? It has always been presumed by his mother that he would be the heir to the Gosung empire. It is her lifelong goal to put him in that seat. She thinks it's her ultimate act of love for her son to give him that so she plots and schemes until she's completely destroyed her moral compass. She can't care about that because that's the default position of a programmed mind.

When I look at the Lee family I see people who actually care about each other. They do. Really. But very dysfunctionally. And with boisterous snobbery that's embarrassing. Of course the matriarch at the helm has brainwashed them to such an extent that they they've stopped thinking for themselves and act like the puppets she fashioned them to be. Now of course Frankenstein's monster is pushing back because her sense of entitlement is strong. It was supposed to be a fair fight ... but that was always nonsensical with Kang largely on his own and defenceless... and her son apparently was just the sparring partner for the real heir.

Personally I think fighting over wealth and power is ridiculous and stupid but then perhaps I've never been short of much. It may be too that I've seen this kind of conflict tear families apart in highly unpleasant ways that there are no easy ways to come back from. All the money in the world will never be able to undo the damage that's done. I've also seen families divide over the silliest little things and it goes on for years. Life is too short... far too short to have these sorts of unnecessary regrets. No one knows when they could be taken.

This drama constantly evokes such a mixed bag of emotions in me. It is magical but it is also realistic in that it depicts certain truths about relationships. I cried a lot in that last episode but it was cathartic to do so.