[One True Pairings] Because I’m relieved

by Guest Beanie

By @azzo

When I read about this month’s theme I knew right away who I wanted to talk about, and no, I don’t mean Oppa and me, a thousand words are just not enough. I almost always love the main pairings of the dramas I watch. There is just something so sweet about two people meeting and falling in love, whether it’s them being drawn to each other from the very first encounter or butting heads and bickering their way into love. They all have their special stories, they are all different, and I’m sure I’ll always remember them fondly.

But if I am to choose only one couple to call my ultimate OTP from my ten years of drama-watching experience, it would be the most recent one: the couple that crept into my heart, clung to it hard until it took over it, the couple that cannot and will not be replaced, our Ice-cream couple from Just Between Lovers, our Gang-doo and Moon-soo!

I never rooted for anyone like this before. My heart never ached for anyone like this before. Those two were just so broken, their souls scarred and their dreams lost, trying to deal with the aftermath of tragedy. Gang-doo spending his days with no hopes and no aspirations, still enduring so much pain from the past, tormented with nightmares in his sleep and voices in his head when he’s awake. And Moon-soo, living with survivor’s guilt, suppressing her feelings, suffocating, haunted by that one scene, locking eyes with her sister then having her disappear.

Seeing those two find their way to each other, fall for each other, learn to depend on each other, and heal each other was so heartwarming. They didn’t need anything else when they had each other’s company; they didn’t ask a lot of questions but they understood each other, their conversations flowed naturally, there was never an awkward moment and there was never a forced smile.

What I love the most about them is that their love was never loud. They were never about grand, sweeping gestures. They were never about screeching chemistry and hot kisses. Their relationship was built on little moments that showed how much they cared for each other: warm hugs, tender pats on the back, and encouraging words. It was created when they found comfort even in their silences; it was all about missing buses because they wanted to spend that bit more with each other, about quiet long walks and gentle handholds!

Another thing that sets those two on a different league for me is how persistent they were with their love for each other. Even when one was being a noble idiot (for all the right reasons, I swear), the other never gave up and just let them be. When Gang-doo started pushing Moon-soo away because he thought he was too damaged for her, that he could never make her happy, and that she deserved better, she didn’t just sit around and accept that, she confronted him. She told him he had no right to choose for her, that it was her decision to make and she decided on him.

She was just as stubborn as he was, and knew him too well to believe the façade. She could see the cracks in his pretense and through that, she could get to him. She showed him that what she needed wasn’t someone who had everything, who she would hide behind and cover her scars. She needed someone who would understand what she’s been through, who’d help her carry those scars proudly and still make her feel beautiful. She needed him, and once Gang-doo understood that, once he took her hand, he never let go of her, even when later she pushed him away (she had good reasons, too).

What makes them so perfect for me is how much they worried for each other. Even when they tried to keep their distance, they didn’t do it to hurt each other. They did it because they were hurt for each other, because they wanted nothing but to give happiness to the other. And that thought, that desire of theirs, is what brought it to them. I think they were each other’s miracle. They learned that forgiving themselves didn’t mean forgetting, how to open up and show their emotions, and that they were good people and surviving shouldn’t make them guilty. They learned that they deserved happiness and they deserved each other.

 
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