DNA Lover: Episodes 3-4

by Dramaddictally

The wackiness continues as our eager-for-love geneticist mixes up a batch of our hero’s pheromones to see if he’s her perfect match. Judging by her prancing, it looks like a go — except, while she’s smitten for his scent, she discovers one of his not-so-attractive genes in the process.

 
EPISODES 3-4

We left off last week with our leads falling through the air, embracing for their lives, while also managing to take a whiff of each other before they hit the mat below. Now, all our heroine can think about is the enticing smell of our hero’s sweat. In fact, it’s so much on her brain that she later decides to sneak away with his just-used basketball jersey in order to distill his pheromones from it.

When she’s got his body scent in a flask, she dances around the research lab in bliss, feeling like her heart will explode from longing as she smells his BO. She’s convinced he’s her DNA lover. But, since she’s got a horrible history of falling for cheaters, the next step is to see if he has the “cheater gene” — which she’s isolated from experiments with the DNA of all her exes.

As for Yeon-woo, he likes So-jin too, but for less concrete reasons. All we see is that while he’s out to dinner with Mi-eun (with a very cool friend-vibe developing between them), he’s thinking of So-jin. “I think I like her, but I don’t like her,” he says, noting that he never felt that way before so it makes him curious.

Part of this might have to do with the fact that he saw her sneak away with his jersey. He’d left it on the gym floor, in a heap of other worn-and-sweaty jerseys, and while she thought no one was watching, she confiscated it and tiptoed out of the gym. He observes her like she’s nuts, but also, can’t stop thinking about her.

The next time they meet up, he asks about his jersey and she’s honest: she wanted to understand why his scent had such a strong effect on her while they fell from the roof. He looks at her and asks, “Are you confessing to me right now?” She starts to deny it just as they’re interrupted and he tells her to keep the jersey for her research (which is definitely his nerdy way of flirting with her).

Since So-jin already collected samples of Yeon-woo’s DNA in order to find an antidote to his sideburn situation (which is conveniently no longer a situation in these episodes), she can use that same sample to test for the cheater gene. Buuuuut, like any ethical researcher, she needs his consent to do further testing. And so, she heads to his office with the antidote — along with the an ulterior motive to obtain consent.

Yeon-woo is in full flirt mode by now and as So-jin gets very close to him to apply the ointment to his face, he asks, “You’re sniffing my pheromones again aren’t you?” (LOL.) She looks down in shame and denies it. But then, on second thought, she wants to know how she smells to him. He leans into her, which freaks her out and she pulls away. Instead, she heads into her real purpose: can she have his permission to test for the cheater gene? He responds, “Is this how you express your interest in someone?” (Haha. This whole bit is hilarious with him playing the straight-man and her being a jittery mess, while also being the logical scientist. It hits.)

But anyway, he won’t give his consent. “That’s not how a man and a woman get to know each other.” (Hello, Siwon.) She leaves his office looking depleted. Even though he’s clearly interested in her (which should be a good thing), she’s too worried about getting involved without proof that he’s not a cheater.

And that brings us to parental trauma and the difficult families our leads are dealing with. We learned last time that Kang-hoon had some guilt hanging over his head for a suicide that he was unable to stop. It turns out it was So-jin’s father. And So-jin also feels guilty about it because she never told her dad she loved him — and she also knew what he was planning but didn’t act to stop him.

Worse, So-jin’s mother and sister blame her for the death. And her mother — who’s mostly estranged from her two daughters because caring for them seemed like a burden — is a famous artist who has taken Mi-eun under her wing as her “daughter” on social media. Wow. That is a total mess.

When So-jin gets into an argument with her family at the sushi spot that all our characters frequent, Yeon-woo is there to overhear and follows her out the door. He asks her about her father and she admits that her dad loved her mom a lot. Yeon-woo replies, “Not everyone is fated to be together just because you love them. One-sided love becomes more painful the more you love.” And of course, he’s thinking of his own mother when he says this.

So-jin tells him she has an obsession with DNA lovers because meeting the perfect partner is the only way to save each other. Getting wrapped up with the wrong person makes you suffer a lot. And it’s just as So-jin is saying all this vulnerable stuff that Yeon-woo realizes for the first time that he finds her really pretty. And so, why not, he consents for her to run more tests on his DNA.

Our heroine is elated and rushes right off to check on his cheater status. She finds he has the highest level of cheater genes possible, which is wholly dismaying. However, just at that moment, we learn (but So-jin does not) that she’s likely collected the wrong jersey from that heap on the floor.

Uh oh. This means two things: Yeon-woo might not have the cheater gene after all. Which, yay! But then, whose armpit sweat has So-jin been trailing all over town with butterflies in her stomach? I have a guess — and I’ll be very upset if our drama is about to pull a switcheroo with our nice-guy second male lead.

On that front, we learn this week that Kang-hoon refuses to date at all, but if Mi-eun has anything to say about it, he won’t be dateless for long. She got her hooks into him (or, rather, her fingernails) as he dragged her out of a fire in her apartment building. Now she’s eyeing him — no matter how much Yeon-woo tells her she has no chance.

After the cheater gene results come in, So-jin sends them to Yeon-woo and tells him that she can’t date another cheater. He doesn’t believe the test is correct and advises her not to hold onto her wounds from prior relationships. “For someone who was too sincere about love, some wounds can last forever,” she says. He counters that you can only get wounded if you allow it to happen. And she tells him that’s exactly why she’s running these tests — she won’t allow herself to get hurt again. (I love this. It’s a physical defense mechanism.)

Yeon-woo is annoyed that she’s labeled him a cheater before starting anything with him. But So-jin believes that even if he’s not cheating now, someday he will, and so, she can’t risk it. He argues that she knows nothing else about him. But, she trusts the clinical results. Fine, he says, if she judges people so easily, then he’s no longer interested in her either. He leaves disgruntled, but it continues to bother him, given that he knows his own reputation with women.

Lastly, we learn that when Yeon-woo’s dad left his mom, they never officially divorced. Mom keeps waiting for Dad to return after all these years, but Dad has a string of young women he dates. This time, one of those young women is pregnant and she visits our hero for her pre-natal checkup. The two end up in an argument, right in front of So-jin, and So-jin realizes that Yeon-woo’s dad must have the cheater gene too. She suddenly feels bad and apologizes for making it seem like Yeon-woo would end up like his father.

Yeon-woo is angry and doesn’t want to discuss it, but a few minutes later, when So-jin is getting chased down the street by some guy (who turns out to be her ex), Yeon-woo is there to console her. She’s thankful and starts telling him about a “healer” gene she found in his DNA. Before she can explain too much, he says he wants to get to know her better without talking about genes. Uh, no, she’d rather get to know him better by doing more tests. “This is how you perform a test,” he says as he leans in to kiss her — and we have to wait until next week to see if his lips will make it to hers.

I’m liking this a little better than I did last week. It’s cliched as hell, but funny. I laughed out loud multiple times because they’re both scientists but they have such different approaches. She’s portrayed as overly clinical, while he’s supposed to be the more rational one. He wants his behavior to speak for itself — but that’s exactly what she’s afraid of. It’s a pretty cute dynamic.

I do think something is off in the pacing though. They seemed to like each other mighty fast. I understand that it’s supposed to be a chemical attraction (at least on her side) and they’ll get to know each other later, so I’m going along for the ride. Because, I’m hoping, the getting-to-know-you phase will be even more fun than the falling-in-love-with-a-stranger’s-sweat phase.

 
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