Yet more Gisaeng. I know you are sick of it...
I kept thinking about Gisaeng at random intervals all day (which is why I am posting this and not watching 49 Days, for example). You know, even though Saran is pushing her happiness away with both hands (as everyone is telling her), I cannot blame her for it. Her choice to stay in the gisaeng house instead of leaving with Damo is not a rational one (because, even if she didn't love him, and she does, it's better than her current occupation) but she is not currently in any state to be rational - she found that everything about her very identity has been a lie, including things like her proper name and birthday. To make matters worse, it came right on the heels of Damo telling her he never cared for her. Not only did she find out her existence is a lie, she learned in short order that people closest to her and ones who acted as if they cared the most for her (her parents, her boyfriend), lied and lied and lied. It's as if there is nothing she can trust and everything can change without a second's notice. No wonder she doesn't want to come out of her self-imposed cocoon - she's given up expecting happiness so that she won't get her heart broken and she doesn't want to risk anything again. She tells Damo that she's barely holding it together as is and she couldn't take anything else. I think Damo does get it, too - even if she didn't enter gisaeng house because of him, it is partially his fault - she would have never learned the truth about her parentage if he didn't leave her (because stepmom would be so happy about her marrying up, she'd treat her as a queen) and even if somehow she did, she would have some support.
I love his response to her question about whether the price of having dating her is not too high (entering gisaeng house, looking for her parents, going against his own etc) and he replies: "No, that is the price for betraying you twice." I looooove that scene. (I presume by 'twice' he includes back in ep 5 (???) when he propositioned her, though I am not sure how it's a betrayal. Crass maybe, but a betrayal? Though I suppose he means betrayal of her expectations in him). Btw, I really loved the scene where she told him if he wants to be with her he can raise her hair (it's a gisaeng thing where he can make her his official mistress and get her an apartment and accounts). It's such a reverse mirror of that early scene where he propositioned her and she was so offended and appalled. And now she's the one offering her body and he's the one telling her to forget it, he'll marry her properly or nothing. Just as well, Saran must really not be thinking at all - how does she think it will work? His parents would have a fit if he married an orphan gisaeng, but does she think they'd have less of a fit if their only son (and an unmarried one at that) set up an official mistress? Yeah, right.
Oh, and this scene totally cracked me up - he tells her working all these menial tasks made him really get into perfect physical shape so they should get married asap so as to take advantage of that. Ahahahahaha. Damo is just so oddball sometimes.
Hey, his parents seem to be dead-set on grandkids, so clearly his future wife's n1 job will be to basically stay in bed with him forever and be very diligent about it, which doesn't sound too bad :P