The Scrapbook in the Sepia Drawer
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.
Rainy Monday
J: Hi Asuka, the holiday's over and it's a rainy Monday, but surprisingly my workload isn't going crazy heh. Maybe the rain clouds my brain too, haha.
In between work, our deluluverse keeps creeping into my head — "ah, around now Suho must be wrapping up work, gathering his interior tools from the job site, right?" Imagining some auntie, ajumma wistfully watching from afar as this young, handsome guy who exudes a certain handsome cuteness with sexy nuances and subtle vanilla notes finishes his work hahaha. I had to laugh out loud at my desk. My boss has sensed that some part of my sanity has been on vacation for months now, but as long as I keep my face and voice hidden on YouTube, he'll never figure out the cause hahaha.
It's Monday so you're probably resting — hope you're completely relaxed with a glass of single malt, watching your favourite works.
Two Witches Stirring the Cauldron
J: I'm honored you're seeking local bricks for the dark miyeok-guk flavour! (Suddenly imagining Asuka and Jennie wearing long, pointy black witch hats like Hermione would wear, stirring the miyeok-guk in a big cauldron with long ladles to brew a rich broth — I burst out laughing again. My imagination knows no bounds hahaha.)
Si-eun-ah, Tell Me About Suho
J: Friend, on the train ride home I developed Oh Beom's feelings toward Si-eun a bit deeper. (The train has basically become my thinking space now, hahahaha.)
Before, you said something like "Jennie, you're a destroyer of boys' love" and I laughed so hard hahaha. Remember when I talked about how Oh Beom would love to tightly hug Si-eun's body that has Suho's vanilla notes and inhale those remnants?
Same context here — without Suho or Si-eun realising it, they become soulmates sharing souls, so while they don't consciously notice it, they'd be incredibly similar. Si-eun wouldn't mimic Suho's playfully flighty way of speaking, but I think one reason Si-eun's social skills improved so much is because he unknowingly came to resemble Suho and "learned" from him too.
When Oh Beom becomes the Friday 5 PM patient and goes to find Si-eun at the Yeon Clinic, it's initially to provoke Suho out of that absurd disappointment. But once he's actually sitting face-to-face with Si-eun, talking about this and that as doctor and patient, in Si-eun's behaviour, speech patterns, expressions... every little gesture, wouldn't he see Suho's "face" overlapping?
The boogeyman inside Oh Beom wouldn't be running rampant 24/7... Fundamentally, Oh Beom's feelings toward Suho are based on love-hate, but looking at Si-eun and seeing Suho's image, his heart would melt momentarily.
One day, invited to Beomseok's house, the two get thoroughly drunk, lying side by side in bed, looking at stars shining in the black darkness through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Beomseok's spacious, high-ceilinged bedroom. I think Oh Beom would say this:
"Si-eun-ah... tell me about Suho. Anything's fine."
Normally he'd be sparing with words, but drunk Si-eun isn't oblivious that Oh Beom loves Suho as much as he does, so with his mind loosened, he'd murmur on... The guppy-like cluelessness of not understanding how to use a defibrillator no matter how many times he's taught, or the innocent belief that he thinks Si-eun doesn't know when he's pretending to sleep... or despite his build, how he lets out sexy moans when you gently rub his nipples...
Hearing these small, detailed episodes about Suho, I think Beomseok would be genuinely smiling. (I'm really like a devil, hahahaha.)
So, because Si-eun is closest to Suho and shares his soul, feeling Si-eun as Suho-like continues good feelings. Like if Suho is the cold dad, then Si-eun is Suho's mom version, you know — having a soft spot for him, being lenient with him. And already knowing well that Si-eun is weak when it comes to Beom, even the boogeyman inside Oh Beom wouldn't incite bad feelings toward Si-eun.
Jen.
Si-eun-ah, I'm Still Hurting
J: P.S. I forgot to write this...
In a corner of this brick, this image of Oh Beom also flashed through — Beomseok acting like an immature child, being clingy toward Si-eun...
"Si-eun-ah, I'm still hurting... I'm unhappy... I wish you'd heal me... You're a doctor, you can do it, right...?"
Beomseok drunk out of his mind, pulling Si-eun's shoulder into an embrace, whining like a completely soaked towel — could that delicate Si-eun push him away? hmmmmmm.
The Scrapbook in the Sepia Drawer
J: Hi Asuka, sending you a really short, light brick piece for you while you're battling that cold —
Back when Suho wanted to buy Si-eun a scooter once he became a college student, he briefly took on a modelling gig for a clothing brand. On weekends, Si-eun would tag along to the photoshoot studio, and watching all those stylists swarming around Suho like fluffy clouds — doing his makeup, dressing him — Si-eun would slip into one of his signature math-genius deduction spirals:
Are these people safe? Are they safe for Suho?
And Suho, catching that ingrown expression in the mirror's reflection, reads him like a book. Not long after, Suho quits — even though the pay was generous...
Fast forward years later, Si-eun's four years into Iraq, and Suho finally buys that two-story place in the Anguk district. One Sunday afternoon, while packing up their things from Grandma's house where they'd lived together for six years, he's boxing up Si-eun's stuff — mostly medical textbooks — when a dark brown file tumbles out...
There's this deja vu moment, so he opens what looks like a scrapbook, and Suho — so unlike him — feels his nose tingle and twitches it to hold back the sting... Inside, every single magazine spread from that brief modelling stint — barely a blip in his life — is carefully preserved, each page crisp and protected in clear sleeves...
And a scrapbook made in the same meticulous format? Tucked away in a sepia-toned drawer in the study at Beomseok's Seoul residence...
Jen awaiting Friday.
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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