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.