-CookieMonster666-
Message Maven
- Nov 20, 2018
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Yeah, IDK. Like I said in the underlined parts of my previous response, I wasn't trying to convince anyone to give her a chance or anything. I just was trying to point out how it came across as very oversimplified in earlier posts.
Not sure why you wrote the first two paragraphs, given what you wrote in the fourth. I think "doesn't seem worried about his draconian retaliation" is a pretty big mischaracterization. She's absolutely seems worried to me, and not just sad / sorry; otherwise, why develop some kind of plan to appease her father? If she didn't worry that he would potentially do something extreme if he thought her life stalled out again, why try to get away? She had already gotten him to loosen up a little by being employed and putting her life "back on track".Kim made it *very* clear that her father would find a way to hurt the MC if he continued to 'stall' Kim's life (as he evidently saw it), which had nothing to do with her sister. I'm skeptical her father really had that kind of power, but it's not impossible and that was her argument.
Yet now she's trying to smuggle her sister out from under her father's nose and doesn't seem worried about his draconian retaliation. The impression I got was not that her father was dormant, but rather that her new corporate job had mollified him, at least for the moment, because she was back on track to whatever lofty heights he expected of her. I find that explanation pretty flimsy, particularly since there was nothing stopping her from getting a new job last time, but that's what the game seems to be saying.
So let's say we buy her reasoning, and further buy that Kim can keep climbing the corporate ladder indefinitely (rather than burn out in a few months as she did with the internet girl in Korea). Won't her father be furious when Eun-ji starts bumming around the US just like Kim used to do? And won't he instantly blame the exact same guy he blamed last time Kim defied him? Sure seems like he would to me. So really, nothing has changed - save maybe endangering Kim's sister in addition to endangering the MC. It's not like her dad won't be able to track them down instantly even if Kim never talks to him again: he knows exactly where to start looking! So either Kim's dad was never the implacable threat she thought he was, she stopped caring about the consequences, or she somehow fails to realize the danger hasn't gone away. None of those make her very appealing to me.
Now you suggested she recognizes the danger and plans to disappear with the MC once her sister arrives. To me that would make her actions dramatically worse than before. Running away from your home and family is a hell of a thing to ask even when you aren't doing so to escape violent reprisals... and I can't help but notice she hasn't actually asked it yet! Which means that far from committing to being honest with the MC, in this scenario Kim is once again deceiving him until she can drops her last minute bombshell! That's reprehensible, regardless of whether it's motivated by stupidity or malice. It's not like the MC would be safe if he declines to run away with Kim; he'd effectively be left holding the bag when her father comes calling! This would be Kim making the same mistake all over again, just this time erring on the side of endangering the MC.
And the point is, in fact, what she perceives as something her father could do. Reality doesn't matter, actually, because her perception of it is what's behind her actions. Is she very possibly totally wrong about the actual threat or how things might play out if the threat is real? Absolutely. But her belief or naïveté is the direct cause of how she behaves. Again, not trying to justify anything here. But even if there's no real threat, that doesn't change how she will act; her belief that it's there is what motivates her to do what she does.
Not sure where you get this idea. It certainly shouldn't have been from my post. I never said he wouldn't be a problem. In fact, I very specifically said she seemed to act like he was a "dormant threat". If he is mollified so he's not currently going to take any severe action, then the threat from him is dormant: he is suspending his potential action. That implies that he absolutely could be a problem at any given time in the future. And to be clear, that wasn't my own opinion of how things actually are, but how I believe Da-Som seemed to think they were.
Kim might be somewhat indecisive, I agree. I think "delusional" is too harsh... unless, ofc, you mean "delusional" in the colloquial sense similar to naïveté (i.e., not thinking things through very well). To me, she seems totally naïf — but that's a far cry from being actually crazy. I think she's desperate and that's prevented her from thinking things through clearly. She seems very driven by emotion and not logically-minded when it comes to her father and sister.
I don't think she expects the MC to do anything. In fact, she seems to me to be acting like she's done the unforgivable already, so I doubt she expects anything to happen. I think she's currently drifting back and forth between uncomfortable with being around the MC given what's happened and slipping into feeling like things were before she left (i.e., some conversations come very easily, like they were still close and never had broken up).
But I don't believe she's under any illusions about the chance of rekindling the old flame, although I'm sure she "hopes against hope" that it might be possible. This might be one of the only parts of her current actions that don't exhibit naïveté to me. Yes, sometimes she pauses and seems to long to be close again, wishing things hadn't happened as they did. But wishing doesn't mean she thinks it can happen.
Apparently folks are missing my underlined text from before, where I specifically said I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I'm just trying to point out where I think some statements have come across as "she leaves like a bitch and then returns and acts like everything's fine". That's clearly not how things happened.
