Start-Up: Exciting and Heart-Fluttering

To me the following conversation best illustrates the nature of Dalmi's feelings for the penpal Dosan (i.e. HJP) and the present Dosan (i.e. NDS).

H: Dalmi, which Dosan do you like better?

D: What do you mean?

H: The one who used to write you letters 15 years ago or the one you met again as an adult?

D: What kind of a question is that? Why separate the two, it’s the same guy.

H: I know that. But if we were to separate the two, which Dosan would you pick?

D: Well, if I have to pick one… I’d still pick the one who wrote me those letters 15 years ago.

H: So the old Dosan?

D: Yes. Because he’s my first love. I care about him a lot, and I’m grateful to him.

H: What about Dosan as you know him now?

D: The Dosan I know now, I’m still getting used to him. He’s like a different person at times. That makes me a little sad, but for some reason those few odd moments here and there excite me and make my heart flutter.   

At the same time, this is the conversation that probably most confuses JP stans. They pay attention only to the first half of her answer - the blue font. They conveniently ignore the second half, the red bold font.

Dalmi and Halmeoni had this conversation after their dinner with JP and Dosan in Episode 7. Halmeoni was curious and worried because it seemed to her that Dosan was already developing feelings for Dalmi but she knew how strong a hold the old letters had on Dalmi. Dalmi's answer showed two things: 

1. She was noticing differences between penpal Dosan from 15 years ago, and the Dosan she knew now, and
2. She felt differently about the two personas

For the penpal Dosan, Dalmi felt gratitude. She cared about him and would always be grateful for the comfort and solace his words had brought to her 15 years ago. That was why he was her first love. 

But for the present Dosan, what Dalmi felt was... a heart-fluttering thrill. In those odd moments when he behaved in ways that were most different from the persona of 15 years ago, these actually excited Dalmi.

In other words, while penpal Dosan (i.e. JP) comforted her, the present Dosan (i.e. NDS) thrilled her and swept her off her feet.

I say this because that's exactly what happens to Dalmi the next day, when NDS refused to accept that the only way for their company to prosper was to accept money and opportunity from a man who would emotionally assault Dalmi. When Chairman Won shamed Dalmi for her impoverished childhood, NDS stood up for her and ended the meeting. NDS knew she couldn't do it herself out of a deep sense of obligation to their company. And so NDS did it for her. There were other ways for their company to grow. He would not do it at her expense.

NDS ended that meeting with the famous (or infamous) nameplate-smashing scene in Episode 7.

When Dalmi kissed NDS on the rooftop afterwards, it wasn't because he had promised to make it up to her by finding another, more lucrative project. It wasn't because he had promised to become more influential than Chairman Won. It was because he had stood up for her, and defended her, from the attack of a powerful man. In that moment, he had defended not just Dalmi's pride but also the memory of her dear father, whom Dalmi loved so so much. He had been completely on her side.

That's why she kissed him.

I really believe that this moment, and all the moments before and after when Dalmi initiated "skinship" between her and NDS, marked those times when NDS thrilled her and swept her off her feet. The significant ones being:

• Hugging him when they got into Sandbox. As discussed in an earlier post, this achievement was truly theirs. 
• Kissing him on the rooftop. His courage and complete defense of her had won her over that day.
• Hugging him when he took her and Halmeoni to view a beautiful beach sunset. His gesture, meant to help her create as many beautiful memories with her grandmother as possible before her grandmother turned completely blind, moved her. 

These were the moments when the real Dosan shone through and made Dalmi's heart flutter. The nameplate-smashing incident however, was the pivotal turning point for Dalmi. That was the moment when she saw the real NDS very clearly: he was principled, courageous, and completely on her side. And it swept her off her feet.

To me, that moment marked the beginning of the end of the hold that the childhood letters had on her. NDS won her over that day and would continue winning her over.

By being himself.      

Start-Up: The Childhood Letters

Ah the childhood letters.

From the start it was obvious to me that Start-Up was going to be one of those stories where a young person / woman, who has been enamored with childhood ideals about "love," outgrows these ideas as she meets and falls in love with someone real. Happens all the time.

Look. For 15 years Dalmi thought that when she was 12, a boy of 12 called Nam Dosan wrote to her because he wanted to be her friend (maybe she even thought he was a secret admirer). He was eloquent, considerate, and always on her side. Reading his letters comforted her. She puts him on a pedestal because he just seemed so beyond any of the boys his or her age.

And then she finds out that that was because the boy who had been writing to her was an 18-year old young man who was doing her grandmother a favor. Sure later on, he may have grown real feelings of empathy for her and he felt less lonely with her letters. Still, while she was utterly besotted with the letters, he had not felt the same. He certainly does not remember them the way she does. He didn't even remember her name at the start of the drama (see Episode 2, conversation with Halmeoni as she asks for his help to locate Nam Dosan).

So you see? Even Dalmi's feelings for those letters must have become questionable to her after she found out the truth. What she thought was her first love now felt fake. She must have felt embarrassed. A lot of JP fans cry out, "Why did she not even talk to her Halmeoni and JP about the letters after finding out the truth?" Well, if she did talk about it with them, what would they talk about exactly? What's the point of railing against her Halmeoni? Dalmi can't exactly get mad at her. What's the point of badgering JP? When he confessed about the letters, he opened with the explanation, "You're grandmother asked me to write them." So clearly, he hadn't written to her because he wanted to be her friend. Dalmi understood that the letters had been written with good intentions. What's the point of dredging up the rest?

And besides, by the time she found out the truth, she had already fallen in love.

Her confusion wasn't really about whether she liked JP or Dosan. Her confusion was about whether or not her feelings for Dosan were because of the letters or because she really liked him for himself. 

In the end, she chose Nam Dosan. Why? 

He was always kind and gentle with her; he was considerate. Even if Dalmi wasn't a programmer, Nam Dosan always patiently and earnestly listened to her inputs and wisely found the value in them. Remember how he had coaxed her to talk about her thoughts on the anti-forgery algorithm for the Hackathon? His friends had been quick to dismiss her suggestions but Dosan encouraged her to share them anyway. And good thing he did, because her thoughts on the problem made something click in his brain leading the team to try out a different solution which helped them increase the accuracy of their program.

Nam Dosan always had Dalmi's back and defended her from anyone who shamed her (Chairman Won), intimidated her (Injae), and made her cry (Chairman Won and yes, Han Ji Pyeong). On the two occasions that Dosan gets physical, the act is precipitated by Dalmi crying in helpless anger (Chairman Won) or despair (Ji-Pyeong when they were acqhired. Watch that scene again when JP went on and on about how it was their fault for not reading the contract properly and pointing out relentlessly how NoonGil was unprofitable that's why the CEO-Dalmi-got cut. He was basically saying she had failed as a CEO. Yes, this was the truth and it was important that she and the team hear these important lessons at some point. Dalmi had asked JP to give this answer truthfully, and JP "merely" complied. But was that really the best timing and delivery for that kind of a lecture? And then to cold-heartedly walk out on the group immediately after? Where's the empathy? Where's the humanity? Watching JP say those words as a stricken Dalmi listened, watching JP walk away right after, hearing JP dismiss their pain with the words, "If this hurts you, you shouldn't have started a business," well it was all Dosan could take).

If you think about it, these qualities: being considerate and being completely on her side, were qualities that Dalmi had loved about the penpal Dosan. So Nam Dosan, different as he was from the penpal persona, had at least two of the three significant qualities. 

Dalmi had also loved the eloquence of the penpal Dosan.

Ji-Pyeong was eloquent yes, but he was often also brusque and Dalmi confesses to him that he had hurt her feelings at least 2 or 3 times (but definitely less than 10). 

So no, Ji-Pyeong was not the Nam Dosan in the letters either, as he points out in Episode 16. Compared to him, Dosan was actually more like the Dosan in the letters. When Dalmi confesses to Halmeoni in Episode 7 that Dosan seemed like such a different person from the one who wrote the letters, I think she meant there that he spoke rather differently. He was plainspoken and rather scientific and literal. Penpal Dosan was more poetic. But actions speak louder than words and in many instances in her young adult life, it is Dosan that comes to Dalmi first in her hour of need. 

The real Dosan.

Start-Up: Why Dosan

There have been many good analyses done for why Dosan wins Dalmi’s heart. I wholeheartedly suggest that you visit bitchesoverdramas.com for some excellent analyses of the episodes and commentaries from the readers on why Dosan was always meant to be Dalmi’s “true love.” There are many excellent expositions there on the qualities of Dosan that make him male lead material.

For my part I will try to add to the defense by approaching it from the point of view of plot development and kdrama tropes. Because this drama does follow the tropes, you just have to discern which ones apply.

1.       Dosan recognized his feelings early and acted on them.

As early as Episode 3, Dosan already knew that he liked Dalmi and immediately worked toward winning her heart. His first move in this direction was to try to live up to her belief that he was a hotshot CEO, that’s why he entered Sandbox. He didn’t want to disappoint her, so he tried to better himself.

One could even argue that Dosan acknowledged his feelings for Dalmi in an earlier part of Episode 3, when he turned back, and against JP’s exasperated instructions, walked toward Dalmi to give her his business card. He already liked her then and wanted to keep in touch, that’s why he gave her his contact information.

In contrast, JP only admits his feelings for Dalmi in Episode 9/10. The truth of it is, he developed romantic feelings for her much later than Dosan. At first he sought to preserve the illusion of the letters for her out of a sense of debt to Halmeoni. This was his motivation in Episode 2. In Episode 3, he still insisted that he was embarrassed for having written those letters, readily agreed with Dosan to continue preserving the illusion, and flat out denied to Halmeoni that he has feelings for Dalmi.

Now JP fans will contest this, but his reason for denying that he had feelings for Dalmi was not selflessness. It was a lack of self-awareness. At that point, whatever he was feeling for Dalmi was inextricably entangled with his feelings for Halmeoni. At best, he couldn’t tell them apart. At worst, he really had no clue.

What’s the evidence for this? In Episode 7, after having dinner with Dalmi, Dosan, and Halmeoni at Halmeoni’s house, JP drives Dosan home – or was going to. When Dosan starts to tell him that he was beginning to having real feelings for Dalmi, JP steps on the brakes and tells him to get out of the car and ride the bus, as Dosan originally wanted. Dosan is confused by this and asks JP:

“Are you jealous?”

Dosan was confused because three episodes back, JP made it sound like he wanted some distance between him and the letters (i.e. he was embarrassed to admit he had written them). Thus, all along, Dosan thought he was free to pursue Dalmi because JP was not interested.

Was JP jealous? JP himself doesn’t know. When he gets back to his apartment, he denies being jealous because the definition of jealousy presumes that he is in love with someone. So at this point, he still hadn’t realized that he had feelings for Dalmi. After all, why deny it when he was all alone in his room? The only answer could be that he hadn’t realized it at that point.

Ultimately, that is what cost him the “race,” if you will, to Dalmi’s heart. JP realized his feelings too late and so acted too late. It wasn’t gentlemanliness or selflessness. It was his lack of self-awareness. So in this sense, Dosan followed the male lead trope of “following his heart” early, earnestly, and persistently. JP did not. He only realized and admitted his feelings for Dalmi in Episode 9/10.

 

2.       Dosan and Dalmi shared significant experiences and survived crises together.

Although I am aware that for decades, and perhaps until now, there is still the kdrama male lead stereotype that denies his feelings and the relationship consists of funny bickering until the leads admit their mutual feelings, this only works when the story establishes that the bickering couple actually bond over several significant shared experiences. You will know that they are significant experiences if several episodes are devoted to expounding on them.

Dosan and Dalmi share many significant experiences . Getting into the Hackathon, getting into Sandbox, confronting Chairman Won and walking away from his exploitative offer, building NoonGil, experiencing the phenomenal rise in NoonGil’s use, winning Demo Day… these were all incredible personal successes that the young Dalmi and Dosan achieve for themselves, largely by themselves.

 

·       Getting into the Hackathon – This success was 50% Dalmi and 50% Dosan. Dalmi qualifies as CEO but didn’t have a team to work with. Samsan Tech was a team, but none of its members qualified as CEO. By asking Samsan Tech to recruit her as their CEO, Dalmi gives SST and Dosan the chance to enter the Hackathon. By accepting her as their CEO, SST and Dosan give Dalmi the chance to prove what she can do as CEO. Later on, we find out that Dalmi was only able to finish high school so presumably, without SST accepting her, she may not have been able to secure a team to work with in the Hackathon. Even if she qualified as CEO, she could not have entered the competition. That is why she was so moved by Dosan’s choice, especially when his other option had been to take on a more experienced CEO. So through both their actions, Dalmi and Dosan give each other a shot at realizing their own dreams.

 

·       Getting into Sandbox – Again, this success was 50% Dalmi and 50% Dosan. Dalmi delivered the persuasive presentation that illustrated a business model for their AI technology, while Dosan and SST created the impressive technology. Even though their technology initially wasn’t able to beat another team’s creation, one of the judges of the competition saw sufficient potential in Dosan and team’s work to consider giving them a chance at entering Sandbox. So really, if you think about it, getting into Sandbox was really the group’s true accomplishment. Now, JP fans might contest this, but I would remind them that in terms of getting into Sandbox, JP was only able to contribute some edits to Dalmi’s presentation script. That’s it. Let’s give Dalmi some credit here and not presume that her original work was not already great. I believe it just needed some polishing, which JP does. Otherwise, how could Dalmi have delivered the presentation so flawlessly with such last-minute changes? The answer could only be that the edits were not that substantial. JP helped shorten and focus her words but the core ideas were already all there, careof Dalmi herself.

 

·       Escaping Chairman Won’s exploitative offer – Now, this is a contentious one for viewers and many JP fans decry this scene as a “red flag” on Dosan’s behavior because it shows him to be violent. My answer is a big LOL. Stop being so sanctimonious.

 

Now see here, let’s review what happened in context. SST was just in its early weeks and Dalmi had decided to take the practical route of securing some income-generating projects for the team so that they can have the funding they need to pursue their true passion projects. Hence, SST sends a project proposal to Morning Group (43^rd largest company in SK) offering an AI solution for their inventory system. At the meeting however, Dalmi and Dosan are shocked to find out that they were only being offered to do the menial task of collecting images (instead of developing software) and moreover that the head of MG, Chairman Won, was reneging on the offer to pay for their solution.

It was humiliating and insulting. But both Dalmi and Dosan were determined to remain calm and agreeable until Chairman Won started shaming Dalmi.

That’s where Dosan drew the line and decided that enough was enough. While the Chairman went on and on telling Dalmi how he felt sorry for her because she stayed with her father instead of leaving with her mother who married the Chairman - a wealthy man - Dosan walks up to the Chairman’s desk and shatters the man’s nameplate.

Was it an ill-advised and impetuous move? Yes. Did it clearly show Dosan’s values? Also YES. And what did this action reveal about Dosan’s values? That he was willing to walk away from offers of glory and success if it required sacrificing Dalmi’s well-being. No money, no opportunity was worth that kind of suffering for Dalmi. She was humiliated and angry but she was unable to speak up in that meeting because as CEO, it was her task to secure funding for the group. However, she didn’t need to compromise herself like that; that’s what Dosan’s action meant.

Of course they could have just literally walked out of the office, but this is a drama yo, and the scene needed a bang! LOL.

Later on, there are repercussions to that outburst and Chairman Won attempts to exact revenge but luckily, with JP’s helpful suggestion of recording the meeting, Dalmi is able to turn the tables on Chairman Won, to escape the consequences of breaking the nameplate and in addition securing funding for their company. For that, we do give points to JP.

 

·       Building NoonGil and seeing the phenomenal increase in its use – The breakthrough inspirations for NoonGil’s differentiating features are a product of Dalmi’s ideas and Dosan’s genius capabilities with programming. Dosan and SST boys soon create NoonGil, an application that combines image recognition with voice technology to assist visually-impaired people, and are able to launch a global version. Then Dosan’s cousin manages to secure a personal endorsement from a baseball superstar that Dosan met as a child, and this endorsement goes viral so that NoonGil’s user base increases to 20,000 after a single night. This was both a blessing and curse though, as more users meant more funding needed. JP’s tip described above, helped with that. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of NoonGil as a solution for the visually-impaired was an accomplishment of the combined efforts of SST and Dalmi.

 

·       Winning Demo Day – Now again, this was Dalmi and Dosan. Dalmi delivers a winning presentation and Dosan and SST boys showcase a winning application. This success was all theirs. And lest it be forgotten, that win gave them 50M won.

 

Through these shared experiences, Dalmi and Dosan help each other grow in confidence and competence. And they share many more personal, caring experiences. Dosan helps Dalmi deal with Halmeoni’s impending blindness. Dosan helps Dalmi regain her confidence for Demo Day. Dalmi gives Dosan encouragement and faith that one day his parents will see him for the great man she already knew him to be.

This is what many JP fans miss when they ask how is she in love with Dosan??? They are so hung up on the letters that they completely miss the significance of all these experiences for Dalmi. In each of these experiences, it was the talents and virtues of Dosan that help her accomplish wonderful things. As a young woman trying to find her place in the world, what Dalmi needed was to know and feel that she was capable of accomplishing her own dreams. She didn’t want to be rescued --- what she wanted was to be able to make something of herself. That’s why JP’s offer of Plan B didn’t appeal to her. It’s not that she was ignoring him; it was more like JP just didn’t understand that what she really needed was to become successful on her own merits, not on someone’s charity.

This is not to discount the help of JP as mentor but Dalmi’s experiences with JP were quite impersonal. Also, he tended to put her down as much as he helped her so he pretty much established himself as the crusty mentor very early on.

We will discuss the letters in a separate post since this post is already way too long, LOL.

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So, to some up those are my two major arguments. Dosan “wins” the girl in the end because he knows his heart early on, acts on his feelings, and shares many experiences with the female lead that helps him bond with her and truly understand the hopes and dreams of her heart. And more importantly, helps to make those dreams come true.

Start-Up: The Real Story

There will be many angry viewers out there who will convince you that Start-Up's story made no sense and that the writer is a hack. Don't believe them. Start-up is a wonderful, heart-warming story. It's pretty easy to understand as long as you are really paying attention instead of banking on kdrama tropes. 

So fair warning, for those who would rather not be spoiled leave now, but for those who want to read on, please do: 

Start-Up: The Real Story (that Deluded Viewers Refuse to See) 

Dalmi was a 12-year old girl who was writing penpal letters to a boy she thought was also 12. He was eloquent, gentle, and always on her side. The memories of the letters are so fond, her mental image of this secret admirer (who she never meets face-to-face) becomes a larger than life standard against which she would measure all other boys. 

Fifteen years later she finds out it was actually an 18-year old boy who started writing the letters as a favor to her grandmother. It's a relationship that started with a lie. A well-intentioned lie but still not the truth. The 18-year old boy was not a secret admirer who wanted to be her friend. Eventually perhaps he did start writing the letters in earnest. And the letters did bring her comfort. For this, she would always be grateful.

Also 15 years later she meets a boy who she was instantly physically attracted to, who listened patiently to her and could always see the value in what she was saying, who helped her grandma cope with blindness, who helped her dream big and was always on her side. His name was the name of that long-lost penpal but he didn't write those letters. Their relationship also starts out with a lie but in the end real feelings grow between them. They survive many crises together and come out stronger. Even when she had broken his heart, he continued working on the application that her grandmother needed. Because he loved her that much. Because her grandmother deserved at least that much. 

The letters were a sweet fond memory. But she didn't need their comfort anymore. She had found someone who always came to her when she needed him. Who did not speak with the eloquence of the letters. But who turned out to be all the good things that she had imagined the boy who wrote the letters to be: 

... he was kind and gentle with her; 

... he was always, always completely on her side. 

And she loved him. 

His name was Nam Do San. 

The End.

Start-Up: Introduction

Yes this will be about the k-drama.

First off, I really love how entertaining this drama was and how heart-warming. I want to be writing about it in the coming days. 

I will tell you right off the bat that I'm Team Nam Do San, so those who are not you have been warned, LOL. It seems the other team is more popular in social media or just louder. Teams and all are alright but I take issue with how they slam the writer, director, and actors because they do not agree with the direction the story took, or judge it to be illogical or nonsensical, when really their problem is that they refuse to pay attention to the story playing onscreen and instead insist that the story should have followed what was in their heads. A lot of this disagreement seems to come from a willful misinterpretation of what they are seeing or just an inability to understand, LOL.

Anyway, do watch it for yourself. It's a good story. If you read Team Ji-Pyeong comments that spew vitriolic hate for the drama please know that what they think they saw is not actually what happened in the drama. Watch it for yourself.

That's it for now. Bye!