Gisaeng - Damo and Saran tl;dr
So, I restarted my Gisaeng watch and much love.
One thing that keeps me guessing though is - how is Damo going to fix what he has done?
Tbh, I understood his breaking up with Saran. He's not the most mature or self-reflective person and seeing that he didn't realize how much she meant to him until she was gone (idiot boy), I can see him breaking it off due to unwillingness to deal with even the possibility of parental opposition due to dating someone not of the same class.
I can even, sort of, understand the way he did it, even though it was needlessly cruel - obviously his reason for the break-up is not "you don't put out and that is what I wanted" but, in a twisted way, that is what it would rather be and he's trying to make himself believe that (a lot of their earlier interactions, after all, involved him trying to process their interactions and his feelings as driven purely by physical desire because that is something familiar to him and because then he doesn't have to process that what he feels is larger and more complex).
So, yeah, I can get into Damo's headspace and understand, even if not condone.
But, ironically, he's basically dug his own grave. First, whatever objections his parents may have had to him dating a poor but University-educated, poised and beautiful young woman are as nothing to objections they would have to him dating a gisaeng who, fancy trappings or not, is societally considered one step up from a prostitute. Damo's dumping Saran was the thing that eventually but inevitably led to her becoming a gisaeng - it was a total domino effect.
More importantly, how is he going to win Saran's trust again? In her view of the events, they were dating, everything was going on swimmingly, Damo was a good bf, and then out of nowhere he said he was just using her for sex and that wasn't working out. How do you trust him after that? Yes, he may be shining her shoes now an even working in the gisaeng house for her sake (sadly, not as a gisaeng :@) but the problem wasn't that he was always disdainful before and now changing his tune. No, he was sweet before and then bailed. How is Saran to know and trust that this isn't just another fit and he's going to decide next week he doesn't want her after all? I can see it taking a long time to remove her belief he is completely unreliable especially since Saran, for all her lady-like poise, is very reserved with her barriers a mile thick.
One thing that keeps me guessing though is - how is Damo going to fix what he has done?
Tbh, I understood his breaking up with Saran. He's not the most mature or self-reflective person and seeing that he didn't realize how much she meant to him until she was gone (idiot boy), I can see him breaking it off due to unwillingness to deal with even the possibility of parental opposition due to dating someone not of the same class.
I can even, sort of, understand the way he did it, even though it was needlessly cruel - obviously his reason for the break-up is not "you don't put out and that is what I wanted" but, in a twisted way, that is what it would rather be and he's trying to make himself believe that (a lot of their earlier interactions, after all, involved him trying to process their interactions and his feelings as driven purely by physical desire because that is something familiar to him and because then he doesn't have to process that what he feels is larger and more complex).
So, yeah, I can get into Damo's headspace and understand, even if not condone.
But, ironically, he's basically dug his own grave. First, whatever objections his parents may have had to him dating a poor but University-educated, poised and beautiful young woman are as nothing to objections they would have to him dating a gisaeng who, fancy trappings or not, is societally considered one step up from a prostitute. Damo's dumping Saran was the thing that eventually but inevitably led to her becoming a gisaeng - it was a total domino effect.
More importantly, how is he going to win Saran's trust again? In her view of the events, they were dating, everything was going on swimmingly, Damo was a good bf, and then out of nowhere he said he was just using her for sex and that wasn't working out. How do you trust him after that? Yes, he may be shining her shoes now an even working in the gisaeng house for her sake (sadly, not as a gisaeng :@) but the problem wasn't that he was always disdainful before and now changing his tune. No, he was sweet before and then bailed. How is Saran to know and trust that this isn't just another fit and he's going to decide next week he doesn't want her after all? I can see it taking a long time to remove her belief he is completely unreliable especially since Saran, for all her lady-like poise, is very reserved with her barriers a mile thick.