Now this is what imma talking about, drama! Episode 6 of My Princess was back to being totally awesome, not just sometimes awesome. Along the same vein, I’ve finally crossed the line from theoretically loving the pairing of Hae Young-Seol to feeling personally vested that this couple gets together. Yes, I’ve finally put my heart into this drama, unsurprisingly right at the same time the drama starts to raise the stakes for everyone.

I think it hurts the drama a little that all the good guys are good and the bad guys are so very one-dimensionally bad. Hae Young may flirt with the dark side, when he’s really playing right out in the open by telling the entire world, Seol included, that he does not support the royal restoration and will do his best to stop it from happening. It’s Yoon Joo, and to a lesser extent Dan and the opposition leader, that provide some really painful to watch plotting.

I guess all the time and effort went into crafting an awesome lead couple, who keep upping their own performance each and every episode, individually and as a couple. Kim Tae Hee and Song Seung Heon are totally in character, and their comfort with the role and this script gets reflected on how seamlessly they play off each other in every scene. I adore Hae Young to an unholy degree, above and beyond my love for my Heon oppa. Hae Young’s character is unique and droll – the chaebol heir who is prim and proper on the outside, a total juvenile cut-up whenever he’s with Seol.

I know we’re starting to get into the darker, more emotional territory, as both leads have to confront their enemies and their demons, whether internal or external. I love how light this episode was, yet had some very purposeful emotional beats that made both Hae Young and Seol grow just that little bit more in understanding of each other. All in all, MP remains a delightful drama to watch.

Episode 6 Recap:

This episode starts off revisiting the perfect scene from the end of episode 5, when Seol dreamt that Hae Young was by her bedside during the night. When she wakes up and sees Hae Young at the foot of her bed in the morning, she dismisses it as another figment of her imagination, only this time, it’s the real Park Hae Young. Who is none too pleased to be summarily dismissed by even a princess.

He introduces himself as diplomat Park Hae Young. When Seol sits up in shock, he smirks and asks if that is it? She’s confused, until Hae Young adds whether she plans to scream, or throw pillows, or such girly gestures of protest. He asks if she finds him so trustworthy (i.e. she’s not afraid he’s going to jump her). In one swift motion, Hae Young leans into Seol and props himself on her bed. He asks whether she’s always this way with any guy who shows up next to her bed – look at him with such a stare. No, you doofus, only YOU!

Hae Young says that the look Seol is giving him is the look a princess who is escaping for her life, gives to the prince who is rescuing her. Oh damn, Hae Young, can you be even more full of yourself, even if your assertion is pretty close to the money. He asks whether he’s just that good looking this morning, or maybe he’s just that nice to be around.

Seol stammers out a question about how Hae Young got into her room. He immediately retorts that she should be wondering WHY he is in her room, not how. Seol says that its obvious – kidnapping, torture, murder, extortion – any of the above reasons is why he is here. LOL, she really has a very low estimation of Hae Young. But what I lovelovelove is that anytime one of them says something snappy, the other one has a perfect retort. This, ladies and gentleman, is call romantic banter done right!

Hae Young wonders why Seol didn’t scream then, if she thinks he’s up to no good here? Seol says that its just her first day here, and she wants to do her best and not cause a scene. She orders him to leave, before she calls the guards. Hae Young stares at her, and says that she’s finally resembling a real princess right now.

Seol says that he couldn’t have come all this way just to compliment her. He says that he came to see her one last time, since their relationship is about to undergo a significant change. He gets up and places a call, saying that he’s done talking with the princess, and they can come in and help her change. Seol is shocked, thinking that he had sneaked in to see her, now knowing that her ladies let him in. Of course they did, since Hae Young will be the person responsible for Seol in the future.

Hae Young smirks his way out of her room, as Seol stares wide-eyed at his departing back (stare at his perfect behind some more, Seol, it’s deliciously gorgeous!). Seol meets with the President, Hae Young, and Grandpa, and is informed that Hae Young will be in charge of tutoring her on deportment, history, and politics prior to her first public appearance. He will also be moving into the palace.

Seol screams out a big fat “NO” – the earlier scandal that had them engaged is still out there, so this is not a good idea. The President and Hae Young disagree, this is the best way to defuse the scandal, by making Hae Young her tutor, they will explain his continued presence around the princess, and explain why the scandal was mistakenly reported. Seol tries another tactic – Hae Young can’t tutor her because he’s just too darn……good looking, yes, he’s too handsome, and Seol won’t be able to concentrate on her studies when he is around. The President asks Seol to accept him since he’s the best choice.

Grandpa confronts Hae Young on his intentions for taking this role and moving into the palace. Hae Young doesn’t want to be like his dad, having his entire life taken away, so he will comply with Grandpa’s wishes. Grandpa shoves a dagger in by saying he doesn’t regret what he did to Hae Young or Hae Young’s father, which upsets Hae Young to hear his own grandfather being so verbally cruel even after he has agreed to accede to his wishes. Grandpa says that he will be watching Hae Young.

Seol asks Hae Young to just tell the press their scandal was just a mistaken rumor, but Hae Young refuses since he’s a public servant and wants to remain upstanding with respect to making media statements. Seol hilariously says that Hae Young can do other stuff at the palace, like wash clothes, clean, why does he need to tutor her?

Hae Young correctly tells her that amongst ALL the public servants in Korea, he is the only one who can tutor her, since he’s the only one who grew up in a family akin to a royal upbringing. True dat! Seol mocks him as a third generation chaebol, and asks what he can teach her – how to evade taxes, invest in real estate, file lawsuits?

Hae Young says that Seol is quite interested in economics, it appears. Why don’t their first lesson be how the donation of the entire Daehan Group assets will affect Korean society and economy? Seol hilariously says “pass”, and then wonders if all Hae Young can teach her is foreign languages. She asks how many he knows, and he rattles off Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, he’s proficient in all of these, and many more if she wants to know languages he can have daily conversation using.

Hae Young says he’s not here to teach her foreign languages, since whether she knows any isn’t important to whether the citizens will vote for her. Normally in foreign relations, each party likes to use a translator anyway to assert their country’s superiority. He hands her a list containing her daily lesson plan and excuses himself. Seol is startled to read that she has to get up at 6 a.m. every morning.

The next morning, Seol’s dead asleep when Hae Young and the court ladies show up. The ladies attempts to awaken Seol gently don’t work, so Hae Young takes over, and shoves a ringing alarm clock under the covers, shocking her awake. Seol grumbles that shouldn’t Hae Young want her to get enough sleep, and he reminds her that she promised to try her best at anything she wants to do. Seol grumbles that its not even a real teaching schedule, each session is a test, what’s up with that? Hae Young says that on the first day, of course he has to do an aptitude test to determine what she knows already.

Hae Young asks Seol whether she hears the word “test” and wants to go off herself? She asks why he’s not using jeondaemal (polite language) with her now. And sneaky Hae Young says that there is no one around to hear his conversation with her. Does she have a problem with it? And he says this all with a jaunty little smirk that is absolutely his trademark now with respect to teasing banter with Seol. Seol says that she refuses to take lessons from someone without any teaching credentials, and Hae Young firmly states that he has plenty of that!

Seol is shown a stack of various teaching credentials that Hae Young has acquired. If Hae Young weren’t such a ridiculous adorable goofball at times, his utter professional perfection would make him totally a cardboard leading man. Seol wonders if he bought these certificates, but is told by her ladies that he indeed earned them and was quite famous in college as a chaebol tutor.

Seol asks if these came from Hae Young, and her court lady says that Diplomat Park is such a humble and reserved man, they had to go dig up his accomplishments themselves. Seol throws her head back and guffaws at the description of Hae Young as reserved and humble (as did I), but Mr. Two-faced just gives her his patented Seol-smirk.

Hae Young asks the court ladies to leave, and then Seol says she’s off too, there is no reason for them to become tutor and pupil. Hae Young stands up to block her path, and when she moves around him he grabs her arm and they have a total stare down moment. She tells him to let go, and he said that she should have first asked him to move out of the way (before she walked around him). She tries to pull her arm out of his grasp, and he pulls her even closer with a jerk.

Ooooh, both are getting pissed at each other. I love it! Hae Young tells her that every princess he’s met has had a natural-born aura of power and strength, not afraid of anything. How can Seol, a girl who extorted a receipt from a man she just met, become a princess? Hae Young is willing to help her, why does she still resist? Because she doesn’t trust you one iota, Hae Young?

Seol says that she doesn’t trust Hae Young, and that is very important to her. He asks how important – as important as the president, as Daehan Group giving away all its assets, as important as Korea debating this issue? Seol accuses him of doing this to torment her, and he admits that he fully intends to torment her even more during their tutoring sessions. And if she doesn’t agree, he’s going to do even more bad stuff to her. Oh, do more naughty stuff to her, you know you want to, Hae Young.

Seol sits down to take her princess aptitude exams. She complains that Hae Young agreed not to teach her English, and he says that this is not an English exam, but a political history exam. He says she has thirty minutes, and then wishes her a good luck on her exam. Mwahaha, oh lord, can Hae Young get any more awesome! Why yes, keep watching, because it’s gonna get even better between these two.

Seol sits adorably on her chair as Hae Young grades the exam – whereby she got a big fat ZERO. Lord help the future of this Korea with her as a princess. Hae Young is actually impressed that she could fail every question, since even by accident shouldn’t she get something right. He puts the exam in his folder, telling her that’s he’s gotten quite a disappointing shock today, and needs to go rest.

Seol chases after him asking that he leave the exam paper with her. He refuses, a good civil servant must always write a detailed report, and he needs to report on this exam. To whom, Seol asks? Who else, Hae Young responds, the person who sent him here (i.e. the President). He hilariously sings a song for Seol explaining his situation.

The President must have better things to do than read a report about her exam results, but Seol is reminded that the President is very interested in her progress. Hae Young is eating dinner, and Seol tries to sneak up and steak the folder containing the exam paper, but he moves faster than her and grabs it out of her reach. He definitely has a Seol-dar to sense when she is around.

Hae Young hilariously puts on an act for the court ladies – asking the princess to please give him some personal time when they are not in class. She asks him to please give it to her, and when he is about to reveal the exam where she got a ZE—Seol puts her hand over his mouth to stop the rest of his sentence.

Seol then drags Hae Young off to talk in private and tells the ladies that she needs to be with him alone, and if they hear noise, or hear no noise, to not bother her (exactly what she said to them in the last episode when she dragged Jung Woo off to talk).

As they walk off, Hae Young chants “zero, zero, zero” in a sing-song voice. The two of them walk into Hae Young’s room, all the while Seol hops up and down trying to grab the folder, while Hae Young holds it up high, moving it from hand to hand to keep it out of her reach. Seol says that if the exam was so important, he should have told her beforehand. Even her mom has never seen any of her exam results.

Hae Young laughs at her fruitless hopping, and then MOCKS HER with a “nyah, nyah, nyah” gesture, replete with sticking his tongue out at her, and then shaking his body like a juvenile football player taunting an opposing tackle with a “yo momma” joke. How can anyone ever take Hae Young seriously again after watching what he just did? So. Funny.

Seol gets on the bed, and tries to grab the folder as she jumps off, and then pretends to have hurt herself when she landed. When Hae Young checks on her, she grabs the folder in triumph, only to find that the exam was never in it, but was always in Hae Young’s suit pocket. Grope him, Seol, give him a strip search for that exam, you hear me!!! I demand a strip search of Hae Young right now.

Seol throws the folder away in disgust, calling him a big fat liar, pretending it was still the folder. She says it’s on. Seol hops on the bed and lays down, looking surprisingly sultry, but threatening to take back this room in the palace, leaving Hae Young with no place to stay.

Hae Young laughs at her half-assed attempt to threaten him, and tells her not to regret it. He then hops on the bed right next to her, which freaks her out and she rolls over with a shriek. However, Seol composes herself and turns right back facing Hae Young. She tells him that she’s not so missish that she’ll freak out just because he’s laying so close to her on the bed.

Hae Young is disappointed that Seol’s not so easy to scare off. She uses her feet to try and push him away from her, which leads to her almost tumbling off the bed. Hae Young moves to stop her fall, and the two of them end up face-to-face, in almost embrace. Sigh, finally, a quiet and swoony moment between them. Both of them look at each other, their eyes registering the close presence of the other person, but unsure of what to make of it now that they are not bickering.

Both of them push each other off simultaneously and quickly get off the bed. Seol immediately wants to walk out of the room, but Hae Young stops her. It’s too cute how they are suddenly uncomfortable around each other. He asks her if she wants the exam paper, and she replies that he has a report to complete. He says that he will see her at 6 a.m. tomorrow, and if she’s late, he’ll send the exam directly to the Blue House. She smiles and agrees. Yay, happy détente between them.

That night, Seol has set multiple alarm clocks, but she can’t fall asleep. She types in the following in a search engine “when one is affected emotionally by a man and can’t sleep”, but changes it to “when one is affected emotionally by a civil servant and can’t sleep”, and finds suggested results for her insomnia. My suggestion – go to his room and jump his bones, I guarantee you will sleep like a baby, Seol. Bonus points is that you won’t need to wake up at 6 am because I guarantee he’ll be sleeping like a baby next to you.

Seol tries hopping up and down, holding her ears, doing push ups on the bed, but nothing works. She’s outside gurgling with water when the cute kitchen boy, Gun, comes by and surprises her. Seol turns and sprays her mouthful of water all over the poor cutie. He makes her a warm milk and honey drink, which is delicious.

The next morning, Hae Young shows up next to the fountain, wearing an all-white track suit, natch, but Seol is nowhere in sight. He goes to her room, followed by the court ladies, and leans into the sleeping Seol to tell her to wake up right now. Seol is sleep-talking, and calls out “professor…” and then makes a kissy kissy face in her sleep. Whoops, way to get the already irritated man even more annoyed, Seol!

Hae Young’s face immediately freezes, and he tells Seol that he will wake her up from her nightmare. Oh god, jealous Hae Young is back! He picks up Seol and carries her out of the room on his shoulders, and then proceeds to gleefully dump her into the fountain in the courtyard. Hae Young asks Seol whether she’s cooled off now, and he flaps his hands like a chicken and taunts her a bit before happily toddling off.

Seol dries off and finds Hae Young in the study reading a newspaper. She asks for the exam, and he tells her that he already sent it. When her face falls, he hands her the exam, but tells her to take her studies seriously going forward. Studies all day, including running around the courtyard for physical exercise. Seol asks if Hae Young genuinely wants her to be a princess now, and he asks in return whether she really believes that she can do it.

Seol is called out to meet with Secretary Oh (Yoon Joo’s dad) about the upcoming press conference. Turns out the press con is rigged with only reporters hand selected, no one gets to ask any questions, and there will be no discussion about Seol’s father. Hae Young listens with a hard look, and tells Seol that this is his grandfather’s method – pushing things through accordingly to his own desires.

Yoon Joo is sitting in her office when her staff surprise her with a cake celebrating her appointment to run the Royal Group. They tell her not to forget her role at the Haeyoung Museum. The staff also invited the head court lady who serves Seol, who used to work with them at the museum. Yoon Joo and Lady Hong, who brought her little daughter along, go have coffee and catch up.

Yoon Joo tells Lady Hong to pretend that they don’t know each other if she sees Yoon Joo in the palace. She asks how Lee Seol is going, and is told that Hae Young is tutoring her – sometimes they seem to fight, but overall it seems like they get along quite well.

Hae Young is meeting with the slimy opposition leader and other politicians. Once they are along, Hae Young tells the opposition leader that he is not a man of his word. Hae Young had asked him not to reveal reports about the princess’ father, reports that were unsubstantiated. Hae Young informs him that he will someday be sitting in the Chairman’s seat (of Daehan Group), and warns him to be careful with what he is doing.

Seol leaves the palace for a day, but not before telling Grandpa that she is confident she will return, she will not run away anymore. She goes to visit her university friends, and meets up with Jung Woo. She asks him to buy her lunch. During lunch, Seol stares at Jung Woo the entire time she’s eating, and he has to lean in to remind her that this is not class, she should look at her food instead of his face.

Seol says that her staring is because she was looking for the right time to ask him why he left her at the hospital the other day. He asks her back whether she resolved things with Hae Young, and is surprised to hear that he’s tutoring Seol in the palace now. Jung Woo tells her that a person always wants to know what the enemy is doing. Seol repeats that Hae Young is her enemy, right? Jung Woo asks whether she’s upset to be reminded that they are at odds.

Seol says that she doesn’t want them to be at odds, because that will require her to think about him. Seol says that she can’t talk about her father during the press conference, and wants Jung Woo to help her. Jung Woo says Hae Young is the perfect person to assist her – test his ability and ascertain what his true motivations are. Jung Woo tells Seol to make use of Hae Young as much as she can.

Back in the palace, Hae Young asks Seol about her trip out of the palace. She says that she went to see Jung Woo, and Hae Young cuts her off abruptly, telling her never to mention another man in his presence again. Ooooh, snippy, aren’t we, Hae Young? He warns her again that she has to do everything he says, otherwise he’ll do bad things to her and make her life difficult. Even Seol is taken aback at Hae Young’s exceedingly crappy attitude all of a sudden.

The scene cuts to Hae Young, sitting in his apartment, drinking a beer, and victoriously watching Grandpa’s lackey scurry around removing all the red-tags from his place. He’s such a gloat, especially when he points to a red-tag still on his indoor slippers, and then jerks his foot around so that the lackey can’t remove the tag. You are such an immature git sometimes, Hae Young, but I love you all the more because of it.

Yoon Joo stops by to drink wine and toast her appointment as the Managing Director of the Royal Group, and Hae Young tells her in person that he’s been appointed by the President as the princess’ tutor. Hae Young confesses that he wants this position, as the princess is his only weapon now. When Yoon Joo heads to the restroom, her phone rings and Hae Young answers, seeing that it’s a call from Jung Woo.

Jung Woo asks to meet with Yoon Joo, whereby he tells her that he accepts the appointment on the board of the Royal Group. He sees it as a good opportunity to further his research. And this gets all four of our leads in close proximity again. He confesses that he would have immediately accepted this offer, if it had not come from her.

She chides him for making it so difficult, and he throws it back at her, wasn’t the last 10 years difficult on him? He understands, because Yoon Joo is so selfish, and has such a sense of insecurity. Clearly she never once thought about what Jung Woo is feeling. Yoon Joo asks him to not treat her this way, how can he be around her in the future.

She still thinks she has him in her pocket, but his next words destroy that illusion. He says that he has no problem being around her going forward. She is not his woman, and he has no feelings for her. D’oh, that just bit you in the arse, didn’t it, Yoon Joo? You had that coming. Jung Woo tells her that she is nobody to him anymore. He goes home and puts the picture of him and Yoon Joo face down. Yoon Joo sits in the coffee shop, her face contorting and tears coming as she processes this.

It’s impossible to even feel sorry for Yoon Joo because not only is she a bitch, she’s self-absorbed and manipulative. I totally wanted Jung Woo to have this cold talk with her, because it was a long time coming for both of them. She can’t treat people like crap and expect that they will take it and ask for more. What is ironic is that she’s angry at her own father for treating her like crap, and then she turns around and does it to Jung Woo. What a hypocrite.

Hae Young sits at his apartment and flips through Jung Woo’s book, and sees Yoon Joo’s name on the cover as well. Seol sits in her bed and goes through the news reports about her dad and doing her own investigation. The next morning, Seol’s mom and sister arrive, and mother and daughter have a tearful reunion. Seol is excited to see Dan, who just rolls her eyes and looks away. I just don’t understand what Dan’s problem is with Seol? Seriously, what is with the attitude?

Mom pulls Hae Young aside and asks her future son-in-law to take care of her Seol. Hae Young doesn’t have the heart to burst her bubble. Yoon Joo introduces herself as the Director of the Royal Group, and informs mom that she has been summoned today to deal with the princess’ household registration. Seol finds out from Dan, and worries about how her mom will feel to lose a daughter.

Dan tells her to just live her life properly from now on, otherwise the world will accuse them of not raising her properly. Dan accuses Seol of always having things come to her so easily. Parents, college, achievements, Dan had to work hard for all of it. Seol looks at Dan with dismay, knowing how her sister feels about her. It’s called jealousy, Seol, and it’s 100% her issue and problem, and nothing caused by you. Drop-kick her from your life, I guarantee you won’t regret it.

When signing the registration forms, Seol is sobbing, and her mom worries whether Seol can still be a beneficiary of her life insurance, since she wants to make sure her daughter is taken care of when she dies. It’s a really poignant scene. Seol and her mom grab each other and cry. When mom is leaving with Dan, she reminds Hae Young to take care of her. Watching the car pull away, Hae Young apologizes to Seol’s mom.

Seol is sitting in her room, sobbing for her mom. My heart really breaks for her. Hae Young stands outside her room, listening to her cry. Just go in there and comfort her, you big lout. The next morning, Hae Young enters her room, and sees Seol wide awake on the bed, looking terrible after a night of crying. He tells her it’s time for her studies. He apologizes to her, for what he did that brought pain to her mother.

Seol gets out of bed, and tells Hae Young that she is headed to study now. The two of them are studying across from each other in the study, and my love for them is compounded because I’m such a nerd that any study scene to create character interaction makes me squeal in delight. They are actually researching more about her father’s background, and have put out an ad asking for anyone who knew her father to contact them.

Seol is taping a video message, and Hae Young keeps making her re-do it, even reminding her to cut the cutesy because she is not trying to lure a certain someone with this video clip. Seol goes though every single cute sign-off known to feminine kind, and Hae Young asks whether she is intending to compete for Miss. Korea.

Hae Young finds evidence that Seol’s adoptive father was the one who sold a fake antique, which is currently being blamed on her real father. He asks Seol to make a choice – which father was the swindler. Seol is asked to go meet with a stylist to pick her outfit for the press conference. Yoon Joo is with the stylist already, and Seol and Hae Young arrive together.

Yoon Joo offers to accompany Seol downstairs to look at the outfits. Once they are alone – Yoon Joo commences to skeeve me the hell out even more than I already abhor her. She smiles and tells Seol to enjoy this lavish lifestyle…while she still can. Seol’s smile freezes, and she asks Yoon Joo what she means? Yoon Joo says that it doesn’t matter if Seol leaves herself, or she gets dragged out by them, but Seol will be leaving the palace.

Yoon Joo tells her that there are lots of people who hate her, and who knows when Grandpa will collapse. There is no one on Seol’s side in the palace, so Seol should start considering her back-up plan. When the time comes, Seol should just disappear quietly. When the citizen support for the royal restoration starts to slide, isn’t Seol afraid of what will happen to her? Nothing will happen to her, you twat! She has Hae Young and Jung Woo to protect her, unlike you, sure to die alone a shriveled bitter old maid.

The stylist comes with the dresses, and Yoon Joo pretends she didn’t just threaten a princess and tries her best to look all innocent and shit. Seol looks stunned, and stares at Yoon Joo like she just sprouted horns. Which she did, but it’s currently invisible is all.

Thoughts of Mine:

Oh boy, was this a great episode. Great from beginning to end, not a single minute that wasn’t either enjoyable or meaningful, and mostly every scene had both. It’s like the writer heard my ESP request, because the entire first half of the drama was comprised of only Seol-Hae Young scenes, one after another.

It wasn’t just pointless interactions for fan service either. It served to move the plot forward (princess needs a tutor, princess accepts her tutor) and to bring our OTP closer in awareness of each other as more than political foils (the bickering got upped considerably, but then defused by the funny but sweet bed scene where they both simultaneously got affected by each other).

There were way too many amazing scenes between Seol and Hae Young in this episode that I won’t rehash again, but I love how the writer keeps their dynamic solidly consistent. Neither dramatically changes from each interaction, but their gradual understanding between them continues to add to their knowledge of each other, even when they know they are likely reluctant enemies at the end of the day. It’s like a fair fight, a gentleman’s battle between a princess and a diplomat, for lack of a better description.

I can’t hate on Hae Young for taking an opposing position to the princess – I’d be surprised if anyone took having your birthright stripped away laying down. What I do love is how he tries to be honest about it with her, and never try to hurt her intentionally. He’s starting to apologize to her a lot, and I think deep down she knows that it’s not personal, even if it’s going to hurt her for Hae Young to be her enemy.

Jung Woo finally stuck a spork in his maybe-relationship with Yoon Joo, and not a minute too soon. It’s too bad that Yoon Joo is already so deathly jealous of everything Seol has that throwing in a Jung Woo-falling-for-Seol subplot in the future isn’t going to be juicy for me to watch Yoon Joo die of jealousy. I don’t think she’d have a genuine emotional sadness when Hae Young falls for Seol, more like her meal ticket getting away, and some loss of pride. But Jung Woo? I believe she did/does have genuine feelings for him. Too bad her love of herself trumps it all. And now Jung Woo can finally see it, and good for him.

I’m actually enjoying the Seol-learns-to-be-a-princess plot line more than I thought I would. Mostly because Hae Young serves as her foil and her confidante during this process. Everyone is worried about Dan taking the satchel and pretending to be the princess, or Yoon Joo doing something terribly devious to destroy Seol. Yes, those plot devices annoy me, too, if it were to happen. But let’s be honest here – there are a boat load of people in this drama that likely wouldn’t want the restoration to happen. One way or another, Seol is going to keep going up against people looking to bring her down to preserve their status quo.

Whether its Dan, Yoon Joo, the opposition leader, and a bevy of others, it doesn’t matter to me. This story comes down to Seol’s difficult journey from commoner to princess. Whether the monarchy is restored or not, I know that it’s not really the exact obstacle that gets in her way that interests me, is how she deals with it and grows stronger.

This is my third recapped series, and the Hae Young-Seol pairing is once again an unique K-drama couple. Whereas Seung Jo-Ha Ni were complementary two parts which put together make a whole, and Mu Gyul-Mae Ri were kindred spirits that could only be stronger because of each other, Seol and Hae Young are like two random atoms colliding.

Both are perfectly fine without each other, and honestly, without this princess situation, neither needs or completes each other. But in a big world, they randomly collided, and the result was synthesis and a surplus of sparks. You can’t undo a meeting. When Lee Seol met Park Hae Young, and their lives intersected with each other, a moment took the first steps towards becoming a lifetime together. As viewers, we are only along for the ride.