고맙다. 안녕.

[karened]

It was just...15 lines in 3 paragraphs, but it took me 2 whole days to read it. After reading the first 2 lines, I scrambled back into the shell of ignorance and pretended not to have received it. In between episodes of Slingshot (Which was great, and I'll get to it in a while), I kept convincing myself that "Even if I don't read it, he would have assumed that I've read since he has sent it out". But everytime, just as I start to pick up the card, logic will give up to fears. I managed to steal peeks at words. Words like "friends" and "hope" kind of hinted to me the gist of it all. Well, to be honest, the opening line already gve it all away. But today, the final deadline for sending a reply in time (he's out of country now, but will return soon), I finally mustered up the courage to read it in whole.

What could be worse than being rejected? (although that isn't too bad actually since I've already decided to end the 8 years of on-off feelings.)

That would be finding out that he already has a girlfriend since a few months back, the very same few months which held the best memories. How foolish it was to read too much into those moments.

But what came later was the final stroke. He said that he had screwed it all up after I confessed. As if misinterpreting things wasn't embarrassing enough, I have to find out that those incidents were most probably planned to send me a message of an entirely different kind.

Yet, I had the decency to think, "Gosh, he is still so cute."

I'm thankful that he wrote to me to clear it up and that he was very serious in that letter. He took it seriously, instead of trying to avoid and brush it off. That's someone worthy of being my one and only longlasting crush since Sec 2. That's someone worthy of being my one and only male best friend for a long time to come.

I wrote him a reply in a less serious tone, and even poked fun at him for concealing his girlfriend from our group of old friends. I planted a few small lies here and there. Why do people lie? Some lie to protect their image, some to get something they really want, some to protect something or someone precious. I lied because I really treasure the friendship we all share and the ease I feel when with him. Hopefully this impulsive act of mine doesn't changes things between us, or I'll really grow depressed. My friends used to say that I can act very well, refering to me acting to fish out information whenever we plan for birthday surprises. There's one final act I have to put up. That's when he's ready to introduce us to the girl. I think my heart will still ache, I'll still feel awkward, but for the sake of all of us, I'll have to pretend everything's fine. I hope that by then, I wouldn't have to pretend though.

So, another 'first' in 2009 would be: First Rejection.

あんたのことが好きだった。それだけで十分だ。今から忘れていく。

Now, enough with the melancholic reflections! On to raving about Slingshot.

 

I don't have to repeat myself on how hot Park Yong Ha is. But I have to say how much his acting has improved since On Air. He was good in On Air, but in Slingshot, he showed a totally different side. And to think that that was his 2nd drama after a 5 years break from acting! The plot was tight and filled with twists, though not as witty as dramabeans had rated it to be. No, don't get me wrong. It was witty, just not to the degree dramabeans claimed that it was. There was no loose ends, and happenings were logically and believable, not contrived. Acting was evenly superb. Dialogue was witty and evokes thinking.

You can tell how well characters have been established throughout the drama when it didn't feel like the screenwriters were trying to force reason into the ending by saying that Chae Do Wu had split personality (more on that later) and hence he committed all those crimes. Incidents, dialogues, actions and thoughts in the earlier parts of the drama seemed to support that conclusion. And you can actually sympathise with how he turned out that way: His father seemed to have a Personality Disorder himself (hence, genetics?), he grew up in a dysfunctional family. To add some humanity to the character, Do Wu loves his sister very much. So much that at times, I wonder if I was watching BokuImo, and that Do Wu actually has romantic feelings for Chae Eun Su (I suspect that he got married to force Eun Su to choose between him and Kim Shin.).

There're only two things I want to complain about.

1. Since when did Kim Shin and Eun Su start to like each other? The screenwriters tried to explain it in the last few episodes, where Kim Shin spoke to An Kyung Tae about how he tried to push Eun Su away at first because it seemed like he'll hurt her by just looking at her, but she was always following her around and helping him out. I'm not very convinced though. ARGH why did she have to dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee??! I get it. She had to die so that Do Wu will be pushed beyond his sanity. But!!
    
2. What the hell is wrong with that bodyguard of Do Wu. There was this shot (of him looking on as Kyung Ah kissed Do Wu) that seemed to hint that he was gay. Why else would he be so loyal to Do Wu? I'd like it better if his character had more depth instead of being just a ridiculously loyal servant of the antagonist.

The final scene was especially freaky, mainly due to the pyschotic aura the antagonist had managed to build around him. *shivers* I really want a sequel, although that's unlikely to happen, especially since the drama didn't score too much on the ratings chart. *rolls eyes*