Kimsamsoom

I don't get the little mermaid reference.

I don't know, for me regardless if HJP is main lead or not, the writing is a mess.

I think it's clear on the preview that Dosan's friends and family are pushing SDM and DS together. So it may not be so weird if Yong San pretends to be NDS and writes to SDM.

I'm sure in Yong San's eyes, making sure NDS and SDM end up together is like getting his revenge as well.

In the preview, it is probably NDS cousin who tells her about cheul san's vlog, so she can see NDS.

OMG lol! who said that lol, that is funny!

I just googled. It's called either a Prelude or a Frame Story, or as you mentioned In Medias Res.

I think the writer may have written the end, where we see SDM and NDS together already. Then worked her way backwards to show us the trials and tribulations the couple goes through. And the remaining 4 episodes will show us the story go back to the beginning again.

In this particular comment, I would like to defend NDS as if I was an NDS fan (i'm not by the way!) And i'll attempt to to do it as unbiasedly and logically as I can, and hopefully this post can serve as benchmark for future NDS fans to learn how to defend NDS without being toxic. I think this can be a fun experiment :) So give me your best shot HJP fans!

Since we still have a few more days until episode 13, I wanted to delve deep into the mind of a NDS fan... I find that NDS fans don't do a very good job of defending NDS, so I wanted to try and see if I can be successful in defending NDS, or at the very least apply some possible doubt on his villainization.

In this episode of UNDERCOVER STAN, we delve deep into the mind of why NDS fans like NDS (even if they don't know how to explain it).

There is this literary device that some writers use, where the start of the movie is the end of the events, the middle of the movie shows how the main couple got there, and the end of the movie is the aftermath of the first part of the movie.

I truly believe this is the tact that Park Hye Ryun was going for. The first few episodes serve as a slight atmospheric settling. Then we start our story when SDM and NDS meet at the party, and their relationship begins. Some people have stated that SDM and NDS didn't have barriers in them becoming a couple. That is true, because the writer wanted to use the literary device showing the FL and ML becoming a couple right away.

We then proceed to the middle of the story to show how the couple grew. Although it is easy to dismiss the feelings that SDM has for NDS as fake, due to the stolen history, as HJP himself said, a lot of the things that NDS did to help SDM and make her fall in love with NDS is because of NDS own actions, and not because HJP tells him to.

Part of this middle story will include the barriers the main couple faces in their love. As we approach the last 4 episodes this will be the part of the story where the writer attempts to show what happens after the first part.

I forget the literary term explaining this writing style, but i've seen it done in many movies.

LOL! Funny :)

we all know the letters will make a comeback somewhere in the next 4 episodes, which is crazy, since the last 3 episodes, the letters magically were not important anymore.

This show lacks consistency.

I want this show to lose all the Kdrama awards except for best couple Halmoni and HJP :)

that was my first thought, I'd be majorly sad if this happens.

Saw a theory on reddit that NDS for the past three years has been writing letters to SDM.

But HJP in his jealousy has been hiding them...

I'm a believer :)

I'm actually hoping NDS becomes a villain after the time skip, and everyone, including Yong San and Cheul San sees how good HJP really is.

It would be so satisfying that everyone sees that HJP is a good boy, not just grandma anymore.

IG has never been about how good of an actor you are. It's really about your IG personality, if your interesting to follow and etc...

Also keep in mind majority of Kdrama watchers don't even really use instagram as much, or don't follow every single person. Those adding on IG are probably mostly below the age of 26, where IG use is more concentrated. People over 30's are less likely to follow on IG IMO.

He used to be a model, so maybe he had a lot of fans already prior? I also don't like his looks.

I prefer Lee Min Ho's looks, and that's saying a lot because I detest Lee Min Ho.

I think school nurse files also wasn't well received.

NJH is handsome.

I've noticed a lot of the people who claim the HJP fans' are toxic are lumping HJP fans on MDL, with HJP fans on twitter, IG, and elsewhere. We here in MDL are a pretty nice bunch of fans. And we will call our fellow HJP fan's out if they step out of line.

The HJP fans on MDL for the most part are harmless, we don't attack the actors/actress, and we very rarely attack other posters. We post our feelings on NDS and HJP. Will our views be biased, most likely, but we are open minded people.

If we see growth in NDS, we also point it out. The problem is, the good things that NDS has been doing are either too far in between. OR, they are bad things, being hidden with good things.

What some people considered as cute that he is stalking SDM, is just seen as plain creepy here. Leaving a drunk girl in a dark park for god knows how long isn't romantic to us, it's downright disturbing.

Plus keep in mind, that most HJP fans have already accepted a SDM and NDS ending, some of us hope for a twist, but we don't expect it. We just want a decently realistic happy ending.

We actually also criticize the writers here a lot for writing NDS character poorly, and for SDM for being a weak female lead. So it's actually not all NDS, but understandably it would be him mostly because he dominates the most screen time of all the characters, thus can make the most mistakes.

wait what!

That's just so wrong...

I would like to talk about the most misunderstood character in the Start Up. Won In Jae. You see HJP may have the tragic backstory, but a lot of the audience actually root for him. From what I gather from different websites, WIJ is not as popular, and not as many people empathize with her. Warning, this may be the longest post I will be making, as I am heavily rooting for WIJ's happy ending.

So allow me to set the record straight, and let us dig into the life of WIJ.

To full understand WIJ, we first need to understand the importance of birth order in Asian society. In Asian society, being the first born comes with both advantages and disadvantages. These advantages can sometimes come in the form of monetary, emotional, and material benefits, often at the expense of the younger siblings. But being the first born son or daughter is not as attractive as it sounds because of the inherent responsibilities of being the eldest child.

Sometimes when you come across two sisters, you will often notice the elder one dressing
more conservative, and act overall more responsible than the younger sibling. Of course this a simple generalization and there are many exceptions.

Young WIJ actually takes her role as a big sister quite seriously as we see her protecting her sister on a few occasions, and even being the one to lead her sister when they followed her dad to his work. The sisterly bond is quite strong. Also I would like to point out, regardless of the age difference of WIJ vs SDM, WIJ is mature for her age.

The first episode does a great job of showing us the dynamic between the two sisters. We see a sort of idol worship from the side of SDM towards WIJ. In fact all it takes is one word from her sister about liking pump over DDR that quickly made SDM change her mind and follow WIJ's advice. But here we begin to see birth order starting to take place.

We often see WIJ in nice, and clean school uniform, while SDM is wearing sweater and jeans, a more simpler attire. Asian parents, regardless of the wealth status places a lot of emphasis on education. That is why to NDS parents, him getting into college at a young age is a huge accomplishment, and they were understandably irritated when NDS purposely failed college.

We know the the family's finances are not the best. There is a very real chance here that the parents of SDM and WIJ could only afford to send one child to private school, and since WIJ is the eldest one, she got the privilege, and SDM went to public school. That is why we will notice that often SDM will be wearing just regular casual clothes, while WIJ is always wearing school uniform. This notion is supported when the mom mentioned, "and how will we get the money for cram school, you will tutor yourself?". She had directed this question to WIJ.

The parents of WIJ and SDM appeared to have fallen in love in one of the most romantic way, as pen pals. And persevered through a meddling mother in law that did not approve of the mother. This caught me by surprise, because this is the standard Kdrama plot.

In fact Ep. 1 could easily be a continuation of the happily ever after of many Kdrama couple, where the main couple go through many barriers to their love, have kids, struggle with money problems, then eventually get divorced. For this precise reason, most Kdrama make sure either the FL or the ML are rich, so that money never becomes the problem that break up the couple.

Anyway, we can surmise that this is not the first time the married couple had fought about money. And I'm sure the mother had used the threat of divorced before, as a weird motivation tool for the husband to work harder. The father though, who loves both his daughters, is trying his best to keep his family intact. But after the mother talks bad about him and imposes the importance of money over family, it was just too much for the dad to bear, and he, in that second, lost the will to fight. Remember, it was the dad who asked for the divorce.

This is an important distinction, because as I've said before, WIJ mom has threatened divorce before, but key word here is threatened. She most likely is all bark and no bite. And WIJ probably expected the dad to continue to fight as he had before. As children, we rarely understand the marital pressures couples go through, and most likely WIJ didn't understand why her father on that day stopped fighting to keep their family together.

Did WIJ want to go live with her father. Absolutely, but the ever responsible WIJ knew that SDM would never go with the mother, so she had to do the right thing, which is to make sure that someone will accompany the mother. But inside, she was hurt. She was hurting that her father just stopped trying, and gave up. Effectively giving up on his daughter WIJ.

As the sisters split up, we can see SDM crying to Grandma because her best friend was gone. Which led to the letters from HJP. What isn't shown is WIJ also crying, because she lost her father and sister. Although apart, the sisters still made it a point to meet up and update each other on what is happening.

Based on the story of WIJ, we can already get the sense that this new step father is buying WIJ's love, by buying her pretty clothes, eating in buffets, and making her life as easy as possible. But, WIJ, still missed her father, and the step father could never replace the father in her eyes. Plus WIJ still misses her sister dearly.

The step father, quite the manipulator as we've seen in later episodes. Decides to move the family to the US to move WIJ as far away from her real father as possible. WIJ knew that moving day is fast approaching, that is why we suddenly see her less excited with each meeting with SDM, because she knew that these meetings were limited and would soon come to an end.

On their last meeting, the two sisters are walking beneath cherry blossoms. And here is an interesting scene. Gone is the WIJ that we knew, replaced by this mean spirited, materialistic girl who doesn't care about her father or sister. WIJ, knew exactly what to say to hurt her sister, she pushed every foreseeable button of SDM. Does this look familiar?

This is the same exact tactic that SDM uses to push NDS to go to San Francisco. WIJ, didn't want her sister to be sad that they would not see each other again. So she had attempted to make SDM hate her, so that when WIJ is gone, and they don't see each other anymore, SDM will not be sad. The sadness will be replaced by hate. It pained WIJ to do this, but she wanted her sister to grow, to be happy, even though WIJ could not share in her sister's happiness. It was, in many ways, her final gift to SDM.

Another interesting fact, is that we now see SDM wearing the same school uniform WIJ used to wear. The reason for this is that, as the parent that SDM chooses, the father wanted SDM to believe she made the right choices, so he never told his daughter about his financial problems. He also sends her to private school and brings home chicken. All a bit of a sham to show SDM that things are going great. It's understandable, he doesn't want his daughter to see how much harder their life have become. He even tries to hide his woes from his own mother, and feeds her hopes and dreams.

Fast forward 15 years later, and both ladies have grown.

The dislike of SDM to WIJ, had morphed into toxic jealousy. But WIJ had actually matured and saw the world much more different than when she was young. After having worked in corporate and understanding the world of start ups, she realizes her father's dream would never have worked as the father was too much of a dreamer, and not enough of a realist.

I notice a lot of users feel that WIJ had become like a carbon copy of her mother with the way they see money. But I would like to correct his. WIJ's mom sees money as a way to do nothing. What I mean is that she feels that having money means not having to work, not having to cook, and not having to clean. WIJ on the other hand, viewed money, as a means to an end, meaning she views money as a way for her to achieve her ambitions/goals.

WIJ and SDM finally meet. SDM wanted WIJ to see how well she was doing, and she wanted to show WIJ how great her life is. WIJ on the other hand, genuinely wanted to see how her sister was doing. When she saw her sister putting up a front, and talking about platonic pen pals, she knew then. She knew her sister had subscribed to her father's dreamer mentality, where she believes in the one in a million chance. Also, she realizes that SDM still dislikes her because she feels WIJ betrayed their father.

WIJ is understandably devastated. She knew that at this point, SDM would not respond kindly to any sisterly advice, since SDM's common sense was clouded in a layer of jealousy and hate. And since she knew that SDM had fostered this toxic one sided rivalry, she would use this as a tool to help her sister. WIJ's goal was to wake her sister up from this dream like revelry she found herself in. First on her agenda was to wake her sister up from the dreamlike world she lives in where Dosan is real. And so she challenges SDM's bluff and ask him to produce Dosan.

Once Dosan is revealed to be a fake, WIJ knew her work was not done. She needed to light a fire in her sister to help her achieve success and wake up from the dreamlike state she is in. During Hackathon, she even tells SDM that they are also using the same tech as SST to show SDM that the one sided rivalry had turned into intense competition. Of course WIJ was not really competing with SDM, but rather she knew if SDM thought they were competing it would light a fire under her.

You will notice that a majority of SDM and WIJ's interaction is SDM still being jealous, and WIJ trying to personally challenge SDM. One could ask, if SDM is being so petty to WIJ, why doesn't WIJ just ignore SDM? It is because WIJ still loves her sister very much, and is trying her best to wake her up.

Unfortunately for WIJ, she did not include in her plan one NDS. NDS complicated SDM's potential character growth, because he didn't allow SDM to grow. You will notice WIJ personal challenges to SDM has never been challenges to SST, but to SDM herself. She is trying to drive and push SDM to achieve more and more. But NDS is always there to make things complicated, as he doesn't want SDM to worry about these things, taking it upon himself to solve the fires.

WIJ was worried, she knew if her sister continued this dream like state she would fall. It all culminates in EP. 12 when WIJ's worsts fear comes true. Instead of finding inner strength as WIJ had wanted, SDM allowed her inner strength to be a person, which means if that person were ever to go away, SDM would be left with nothing to defend herself.

Now that SDM has applied to WIJ's company, WIJ can finally help her sister leave the dreamlike state she has had ever since she was a little girl to burst out and mature into this amazing woman that WIJ always knew SDM could be.

She has that chance now. She will be able to work under WIJ and learn from her sister, and potentially be a better CEO because of it.

Based on the preview she does.

SDM is working in the same office as the twins, and you clearly see WIJ facing her.

Let's post more KSH pics :)