The Last Patient
Working-Class Mr. Ahn's Unscheduled Visits to Dr. Yeon's Clinic continues...
Missed Part 1? Start here → PART 1
Warning: this post deals with some heavier psychological topics and dark fictional elements. Everything here is totally fictional.
Such a Perfect Friday
J: Hi Asuka, I once heard that God couldn't be everywhere, so he created mothers. Made me go slap knee... I think God couldn't be everywhere, so he gave us Fridays. A country where overtime is the norm, but not on Fridays. Cold coffee. Lo-fi music. Rain falling at night. And all these feasts you've prepared throughout the week! Such a perfect Friday.
Now that Mr. Ahn and Dr. Yeon are coming into the world, if my interior design contributed even a fingernail's worth, it would be an honor. Look, the blog's fanfiction menu already has 4 posts listed up. Like a Scottish pantry, stocking up food for the long winter. It's not that your niche fantasy is just "parked" on my blog — you willingly made time for this.
Psychology
J: Without the joy of analysing the complex character that is Beomseok and deeply talking about Si-eun's psychology, I probably wouldn't have spent half this year carrying WHC around.
Ultimately, among my dark interior designs, the one with dark brown wallpaper is Si-eun's unavoidable co-living with sticky boogeymen he dislikes but can't escape. Si-eun's stubbornness about not wanting treatment, and our deluluverse college Si-eun and Dr Yeon who trust that having a 'guardian deity' is enough...
In the actual source material... Beomseok takes the form of a boogeyman, and Si-eun lets go of his hand, rising from 'that pitch-black boxing ring.' Si-eun releases his hand. Rises. Accepts that growth demands loss. Learns that wounds need not mean ending. Steps across the threshold — boy to man. Su-ho wakes.
Dr Yeon, as a character — a doctor who can't solve his own biggest neurotic issues — is genuinely attractive and sexy. That boundary between the rational and superstitious, fantasy and non-fantasy, is always narratively captivating.
The Night He Closed Up the Clinic Himself
J: Toast to celebrate the Working Class Mr Ahn and Dr Yeon Clinic saga reaching Chapter 5!
Expressions that stood up like fully inflated balloons and pirouetted around my brain: "Suho's finger 'playing with' Dr. Yeon's ear" — obsessively targeting just one ear. Watching Dr Yeon's improved social skills is so cute and delightful. In his early twenties, he would've been that blank-eyed cutie potato receiving Suho's harassment. Now he conceals delight. Must've learned some social skills during Iraq deployment.
The thing spinning about 360 times around my brain: 'coming in.' Right. Why should only Suho get to 'bury'? Si-eun's a man, too.
"Shit shit shit..." — Dr Yeon in his early thirties with 'richer emotional expression' tugs at a corner of my heart. Look at his teenage years... didn't even call classmates by their 'names.'
The Last Patient
I am also convinced his dreams are giving him a paranoid streak. The fears of the night are creeping into the waking world.
So Beomseok. Monotone voice. Innocent question. As a patient. To his doctor. Like an extension of curiosity...
"But Si-eun-ah, are you certain I won't kick Suho's head in again?"
Beomseok's gone, who Dr Yeon thought was Friday's last patient — then an unscheduled boogeyman walks in as the final patient. Even politely knocking on the consultation room door... with a smile hanging on torn lips...
Pretty dark, but... what thirty-something doesn't face trials? Hahaha.
Among the bricks I've stacked — how to crush Mr Ahn's pride. The brick about gently trampling his pride would be Suho's face when he realises Beomseok was the benefactor. Because Beomseok is the 'perpetrator', the financial support he provided might seem 'natural' to Si-eun... but not to Suho.
Poverty took his parents to Japan, and even when clinging to oxygen support, couldn't bring them back — such destitution. How could Suho not have insecurities about poverty and money? But suddenly appearing Beomseok radiates wealth, high-class at that. And Dr Yeon treating him...
(McGonagall dances with her wand)
Scorpions
J: Right, using heat to fight heat. Complete nonsense, but I think this captures the essence of Korean contradictory expressions.
I imagined Suho in his early twenties working construction sites, going to lunch with the site hyungs. For samgyetang. In the blazing summer. Downing that samgyetang broth in one gulp, making that 'uhhh~' ajeossi sound. The money he saved that way to buy Si-eun a bicycle. So sweet. He also did clothing model work, this time wanting to buy Si-eun a scooter. And the clothes stylists 'dressed' him in during modeling were all Beomseok's taste...
I've never fleshed out this brick, but he quit quickly because every time he came back from advertising shoots, Si-eun's sleep-talking got more intense. Without saying — 'Are all these people suddenly around Suho really good people?' — Si-eun probably became a wide sleeper, tossing and turning. The frequency of kissing Si-eun's head and saying 'it's all okay' would've increased... So Beomseok's plan to seek forgiveness through 'money' currency shipwrecked...
To be continued...
Book Recommendations, Buddhism, and Evangelion
J: Evangelion. Had the chance to watch it, but got intimidated by that epic episode count. But so many people reference it that I roughly know the content. I read an interview where Director Yoo said he drew inspiration from Shinji's explosion scene for Si-eun's explosion. I included that in a video, and someone left a comment about Shinji — think that was you. I also thought your pen name Asuka was an Evangelion extension.
Maybe Director Yoo split Shinji into Si-eun and Beomseok? Pure headcanon, but feels like evidence-level intuition. They're twins after all. If I were to touch Evangelion now, what should I start with?
Your bricklayer Jen dancing Friday Night.
Asuka: Evangelion is a little like Marvel with its multiple multiverse re-tellings. The best place to start is the original 26-episode 1995 series. Each ep is under 30 mins. It's a wild ride, rich with symbolism.
I am now at one of those infernal 'compulsory parties' to celebrate an End of Project. Are there a lot of these team festivities in Korean office life? I have just pretended to be drunk to write this in the washroom. As someone who single-malts stress away, it will take a lot more than four measly pints to fell this head nurse, though I admit I am a little tipsy.
Oh yes — I think a heart-torn Suho will use language a lot stronger than, say, 'shoot.' Will this trigger any adverse warning for your blog? Personally, I'd rather not resort to grotesque contortions like 'forking' or 'what the fuchsia.'
ASL, thinking of watching WH1ep1 right in this cubicle.
J: Hope you're not still trapped at those infernal compulsory parties. I finally escaped my friend's two-hour hostage situation, and I'm home sipping decaf coffee. Just posted the 5th instalment of our arc — what a day.
There's autumn rain outside, so I added some imagery of Oh Beom standing under that streetlight with its anxious yellow glow, and Dr Yeon's increasing disappearances... Suho frantically putting down his phone.
Tomorrow I'm spending the whole day leisurely swimming in this delusional ocean.
from J
A WH analyst of your depth will be able to quickly perceive the Si-eun and the Beomseok within Ikari Shinji, who has serious daddy issues. Thanks very much for Caged. I think I am going to end up incorporating very large chunks of it into dark-hued soup. Always happy for your arc designs, or anything else. They hit in a way coffee cannot.
Yours, Asuka, looking forward to Monday.
Who is Jennie? Bricklayer. Local correspondent for the Yeon Clinic deluluverse. A sous chef who checks whether the soup actually tastes like Seoul. A specialist who designs this kitchen to hold more than Suho's coma — philosophy, history, society, culture, stacked one recipe at a time.
Who is Asuka? Head nurse and main chef of the Yeon Clinic. A Scheherazade who sings the Song of Achilles she found shelved next to a book on Zen Buddhist masters. Fluent in several languages, conversant in single malts and the precise emotional damage of Weak Hero Class 1. Signs off as ASL. (Always starch linen.)
This free ebook will ruin you. In the best way. A character analysis of Si-eun, Su-ho and Beom-seok that goes beyond what subtitles can carry. Take it — it's free → DOWNLOAD HERE
This post was originally published on Jennie's blog in the autumn of 2025. The original blog has since moved to Blogger due to hosting changes — welcome to the new home.
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