Seasons of Blossom: Episodes 5-6

by mistyisles

The trouble with lying — even to protect someone else’s feelings — is that it often snowballs into even more lies and even more hurt feelings. And, as our students in both the past and present storylines are learning, the more one hides one’s true self, the less support one is able to both give and receive from others.

 
EPISODES 5-6

When Bo-mi and Jin-young announce that they’re now dating, their friends are stunned — but none more than Sun-hee. She furiously points out that there’s no context for them to be close enough to become friends, let alone romantic partners.

Bo-mi freezes, so Jin-young comes to her rescue. He developed feelings for her while cleaning the art room together, he claims, and so he asked her out. (Never mind that his condition for agreeing to this charade was that it be clear that she asked him out first, and she would ultimately be the one to get dumped.)

And so, their little act continues. Sun-hee glowers at them from a sullen distance as Bo-mi makes sure the whole school sees them being together and Jin-young goes along with pretty much everything she suggests. When Sun-hee catches them bickering over terms, Bo-mi links arms with Jin-young to demonstrate that they’re definitely really in love.

Only after Sun-hee has left and Bo-mi lets go of his arm does Jin-young let out the breath he’s been holding, his face turning just the slightest shade of pink. Boy’s a bit smitten for real, methinks.

Meanwhile, Jae-min seems to be trying his best to hang on to his friendship with Bo-mi and push aside the feelings of hurt over her rejection. It helps that he has a distraction in the form of learning about Ha-min from So-mang. But, as So-mang observes, he’s a lot like Ha-min in that he hides his worries from everyone else and tries to handle them all on his own.

Still, he comes very close to opening up to Bo-mi. When Sun-hee finds an excuse to drag Jin-young away and leave Bo-mi and Jae-min alone together for a few minutes, Bo-mi asks about his conversations with So-mang, and he says he has something to tell her very soon. Just as they’re about to pinky swear on it, the other two come back, and Jin-young takes Bo-mi by the hand and declares he’s ready to leave.

In parallel to this fake relationship potentially developing into something more, So-mang reminisces on the beginning of her relationship with Ha-min, and it breaks my heart all over again each time she steps back into another memory.

The more time So-mang spent with Ha-min, the more she realized that the warm, caring class president everyone else knew was all an act. He’d sweetly give a piggyback to a girl who sprained her ankle in gym class, and then complain nonstop about his sore back in the art room. With So-mang, he never censored his sarcasm or disdain for other students, but to their faces, he was all humility and softspoken selflessness.

The one person he showed genuine warmth for was Jae-min. He’d never hesitate to take Jae-min’s calls and offer whatever support was needed, and he worked hard to keep up his perfect, popular image solely to keep his mother off his — and Jae-min’s — back.

But the more time he spent with So-mang, the more he warmed to her, too, probably because he didn’t have to put up an act and she wasn’t afraid to talk back and call him two-faced when it applied. One day, after watching her fuss with her bangs that were hanging in her eyes, he offered to cut them for her. Despite her hesitance, she let him.

When she opened her eyes to see the result, it took her a moment to even notice the mirror he was holding up, because they were both too busy staring into each other’s eyes. When she did finally look in the mirror, she promptly screamed in mortification at the awful cut he’d given her.

The next day in class, he made an excuse to talk to the student sitting in front of her, resting his hand on So-mang’s desk as he did so. When he removed his hand, he left a hair clip sitting there, along with the cutest little apology note.

So-mang still has that hair clip in the present day, and wears it when she meets with Jae-min. Jae-min admits he wasn’t sure what to think about her, because his parents contacted all of Ha-min’s friends when he died, and So-mang’s name never came up. With a sad smile, she explains that it’s because they were secret friends.

Sometimes it was a fun secret, but sometimes it was painful. Once, when passing Ha-min and another girl in the hallway, So-mang had involuntarily chuckled while thinking about how much he wasn’t acting like himself. The girl took offense, and later she and her friends swarmed So-mang’s desk, threatening to cut her bangs even shorter. Ha-min defended her, but claimed he was only concerned the girls would get in trouble — and that he didn’t even know who So-mang was, so he couldn’t possibly be taking her side.

The encounter left So-mang with a scratch on her hand from the scissors and a wounded heart from Ha-min’s words. But later he came to her in the art room with his head hanging low. He didn’t explicitly apologize, but he exuded contrition as he placed a butterfly-shaped bandage over her scratch and then gave her the whole box for good measure.

That was the turning point in their relationship. Not long after, So-mang found the art room unlocked and Ha-min already waiting for her inside. He was ready to hang out with her outside of school and asked to visit the art studio she’d told him about.

So that Saturday, So-mang took Ha-min to see the studio, even though they had to sneak in using the spare key. Of course, not long after they arrived, the director showed up, and the two squished themselves into the storage closet to hide.

The more we see of Ha-min’s story, the more tragic it gets. Not only was the picture-perfect Ha-min that everyone thought they knew all an act, but also no one except So-mang and maybe Jae-min got to see and know the genuinely caring, flawed, and playful Ha-min who actually existed. It’s little wonder So-mang latches onto Jae-min and worries over whether he’s able to open up to his own friends.

I do hope that, regardless of how the teen romance shakes out, Jae-min and Bo-mi don’t totally lose each other as friends and supporters. I think it’s rather telling that Bo-mi seems more concerned with Sun-hee’s feelings than with missing her own chance at a relationship with Jae-min. And while they’ve each sent their share of longing glances in the other’s direction, they’ve also both made it clear that what matters most is each other’s happiness.

As dramaland is so fond of reminding us, sometimes relationships are all about timing, and it looks like that ship may be about to leave the harbor without them — but it doesn’t mean they can’t still confide in each other or lean on each other when they need to.

 
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