The playground and Cha Soo Hyun’s change of heart

A lot of viewers perceived the parallels between the scene in the episode 16, where Cha Soo Hyun returns to her boyfriend’s side and the scene in the episode 2. The playground symbolizes the place, where their love began and was completed. In the episode 2, our heroine went to that place after reading Kim Jin Hyuk’s letter of motivation. In his letter, he described how meaningful this place was to him. While watching the view, the viewer listens to the song CSH listened to, when she watched the sunset in Cuba. The music serves as a tool to show that our heroine is remembering the wonderful moments she lived with KJH in Cuba. However the difference between the two scenes is that their position is reversed. KJH caught her at the playground which surprised him and made him happy. In the episode 16. KJH is sitting there looking at the falling snow when Cha Soo Hyun appears behind and joins him.

Each time, KJH is surprised as he didn’t expect her there. The other similarity is, the two situations are always encounters. The right timing played a huge part in their love in order to start and to be completed.

Striking is that Cha Soo Hyun sits on the left swing, while our protagonist is seen sitting on the right swing. It was as if the left swing would always belong to his girlfriend. He doesn’t dare to sit there. This playground with the swing is so sacred for both of them. Nonetheless, this scene from the episode 16 is not just as a reminder of the saying: this love began and was completed there. There is another scene which shares a lot of similarities with the scene at the playground: the fateful encounter at Morro Cabana and the beautiful sunset. At first, you might wonder. Let us go back to the scene in Cuba. First, CSH has a problem with the taxi as the latter is broken.

She is forced to leave the taxi, take the ferry and walk to the top of the hill with her high heels.

And now, if you go back to the takings before Cha Soo Hyun meets her loved one in the episode 16, she is also forced to leave her car as there is some construction work on the road.

Then we see her walking to the top, determined to reach that place: the playground. The takings are quite similar to these from the episode 1.

Both scenes illustrate her determination. On the one hand, she wants to watch the beautiful sunset and the other hand, she wishes so much to be at the playground, the place she remembered her experiences with KJH in Cuba, the place where he approached her knowing now her identity and later acted as if he was her knight touching tenderly her knee.

Sure, there are huge differences between these scenes (day versus night; moon versus sun; coldness versus warmth) that’s why the beholders might not catch the resemblance between these two events. Yet both have something in common: the presence of water (sea and falling snow). In another analysis (forum soompi), I had written that Cha Soo Hyun’s element is water. The snowflakes look a lot like stars due to their form. It was as if the stars would celebrate their reconciliation and the finalization of their love. Moreover, Kim Jin Hyuk is also attracted to go outside, when he sees the snow falling. He looks at the window

and his feet are the ones leading him to that place.

Nature is leading him there. And just like in the episode 1 where Cha Soo Hyun arrived on the top before Kim Jin Hyuk and sit on the wall waiting for the sunset, in the episode 16 our hero is waiting for the snow. CSH is about to rescue him from his melancholy, just like Cha Soo Hyun was saved by him from falling down the wall. While the sunset in Cuba touched her heart and led to her awakening, the scene in the episode 16 symbolizes a different aspect: Cha Soo Hyun’s change of heart.

In Cuba, she woke up literally and decided to change her life (enjoy life and abandon her sadness), the viewers witness the change of her mindset. However, only her mind has changed, not her heart, as she keeps controlling her heart. In the episode 16, the change of heart happened in the dark room.

Here the red color reminds us of the sunset in Cuba. That’s why the scene in the red room was added, while we see her walking to the top in order to reach that playground. This was her third and last huge revelation: her own happiness was dependent of her boyfriend. Without him, she is not able to be happy. If she had given up on him, then she would have been miserable all her life. The difference between the time (day versus night) can be easily explained. Cha Soo Hyun’s world is the night as she is associated to the moon which means that KJH has been able to enter her world completely, just like she entered his world as well: the playground. In both events, we see natural phenomenons: snow and sunset. Nature is omnipresent and is a driving force for them, although our OTP is surrounded by houses and buildings.