The Paranoid Streak
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.
Smell of Boy and Spice and Yesterday
Asuka: Thanks, Jennie, glad you liked it. The expression came to me in a cafe, which did not smell of boy and spice and yesterday. I would have walked out.
Jennie: Hahahaha yeah I can picture that so clearly.
Song of Achilles
A: I am an amateur writer, haha, but I probably read too much fluff. The last BL I read was a marvel — The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller. I was enraptured by it, and I found it entirely by chance — someone dumped it next to a book on Zen Buddhist masters on a bookshelf on Buddhist History. Guess which book I bought? Hahahaha. If you ever have the precious time to read it, you should do it in English. Miller can really write; I'm nowhere close, and I remain deeply honored by your appreciation.
I have been fantasizing of another BeomJeon alliance to rock the happy canoe. I think Suho is his prime real estate. Other dark arcs I have flirted with include Suho getting life-threateningly ill for real. Protecting Si-eun from accidents or hired stabbings and sacrificing himself — the list is brutal hahaha.
Cutest Potato
J: I've heard Korean fandom call Suho "young potato" as a pet name. It's like potatoes were born into this world just for Suho. That was probably Si-eun's first time at karaoke. And that scene where Beomseok was churning with bitterness — it fed my cute, sadistic demon side so much I wrote a post about it. But I'm innocent... It was just Suho and Yeong-i and their song choices that pissed off Beomseok even more. The WHC production team definitely outranks the fandom in little devil levels.
Paranoid
A: One afternoon Suho pops by for an unexpected, thirsty visit. The next he's almost dead. This sort of trauma lasts for years and years, especially for the sort that aren't used to talking things out. I imagine Si-eun becomes quite paranoid whenever Suho is involved.
J: Your touch on Si-eun's paranoid keys opened up the dark interior I've always wanted to weave. This passage has been sweetly shattering my entire week. It's getting harder and harder not to catch the scent of a seasoned writer from you.
Paddles
J: I have various cubicle rooms inside me, and in the one tagged 'fetish', there'd be paddles, right? But would Suho actually use tools? This fundamental question popped up. In some ways, Suho's truly one-dimensional guy-ness is both cute and sexy. Would Suho's pride be flexible enough to hand over what his 'palm' could perfectly handle to a paddle? During foreplay with Si-eun? Hmm. Delicious imagination. The 'transparent hat' for heads is always ready in Suho's house, bedroom, and brown nightstand drawer. And in the bottom drawer of Dr Yeon's clinic desk, too.
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 Vanilla
J: You are what you eat. Too brilliant. Koreans eat a lot of kimchi. My ex used to call me 'garlicky' sometimes. Wasn't offended at all. Just found it funny.
Suho's a carnivore, and Si-eun was barely nibbling triangle kimbap, so I don't think his eating habits changed much. But I have this weird headcanon that Dr. Yeon would eat a lot of vegetables.
Speaking of vanilla, Beomseok's 'head' would probably impulsively milk just from those sweet boogeyman jelly lips he loves and hates touching his own lips. Dr. Yeon completely misdiagnosed. There's only one cure in the world for Beomseok.
Jeon Clinic
J: "Sigh… the day these two puppies snap at the same time, Jeon Clinic will go up in flames…"
You know those cliche romances: "You're the only woman who won't submit to me" — Korean chaebol third-generation guy falling for a commoner girl.
Young-bin: "You're the only bastard who won't grovel to me, Yeon Si-eun."
If Si-eun had submitted to Young-bin, Suho never would've reacted to Si-eun in the first place. In the script, Suho comes off much drier, often with nuances of despising 'servility.' That's why Suho didn't like Beomseok much initially either.
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.'
Aegyo
J: Obviously this is deluluverse-tinted delusion, but in the source material, Suho definitely made adorable expressions toward Si-eun. A male subscriber on my YouTube channel even described Suho putting his 'arm' around Beomseok's shoulder as putting him in a headlock. Said it could've been humiliating. But Beomseok clearly enjoyed that headlock intimacy. Until Yeong-i appeared. The script even says Beomseok 'shyly smiles' during headlock intimacy. Hong Kyung, who performed those script directions, is on another level. Such delicate acting.
My deluluverse interior design that I set on fire — the brick about Beomseok hugging Si-eun tight and deeply inhaling those 'vanilla notes' through his nose — I drew inspiration from the 'headlock' and 'shyly smiles' stage directions mentioned above. He remembered the scent.
Question
J: 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)
Function
A: He can only function when he knows Suho is ok. It's very sweet, but also sad and worrying.
J: I use the word 'function' daily at work. Same word, but how can it feel so different? I want to separate the soulmates, Mr. & Dr., but feel like I shouldn't. Want to give them trials, but feel like I shouldn't.
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...
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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