The Pursuit of Happiness Ep5 Rewatch

This is an episode I felt less engaged with watching the first time, but its beauty is even subtler and touches me deeper looking closer in a second try.   At first glance, plot-wise, it is crucial in laying another brick, prepping them yet again for more…Change.  Now they can appreciate rays of sunshine peeking through the shadows as slivers of hope.

After the curve ball hit, they have done some soul-searching and made an educated decision where we left off last episode … mind sternly on their own game plans, now set to put them in action.

Alas, plans so thorough and certain in life seldom unfold exactly as expected.  LL, our aspiring tigress, wishes to attack and seize the piece of WT meat…but does she still want it that very badly?  YK , very sure he is contented in being the harmless adoring antelope cheering on the side line, has to witness his fellow beloved antelope caging herself with a crazy roaming donkey, who in his/her right mind can sit still, especially when you care about that darling antelope?!  He has caught himself inching closer to the ring, putting himself squarely in ‘harm’s way’ working for Helen, seeing her constantly.  He knew he is not immune to his own desires, he has been aware the sideline is not where his heart is at, yet he has also drawn the bottom line he is not going to cross.

We go through life convinced we have made the good choices, leading down the right paths…but when setbacks throw us off, we waver, change where we are heading, again and again, till lost.

Day8 of their comradeship, it is lovely watching how easy and comfortable they have gotten under each others’ skins.  Last scene of the last episode we saw YK  giving LL a ride for a checkup in a borrowed motorbike, here we start with LL back for another checkup a week later, and YK on his bike.  We are not shown whether he has made a sweet habit of chauffeuring LL around on his way to charmingly smile at work with her arm still bandaged,  he would not make a fuss about it, as if it is the most natural thing to do, he see no otherwise, practicing human kindness every waking moment.  Nobody would be surprised he dropped LL off before work.

Waiting for me?

Awww, poor lovely thing, she is not, waiting for her donkey instead, but WE ARE!

It is good to have you as a friend!

Poor thing. Friend-zoned and not for the first time.

Lets not talk about WT at all.  He is as annoying as ciphers go.   Helen is not amused he is so easily frayed.  And for a grown human being to be knocked down completely, more so to be a whiny useless infantile and refuses to follow through a simple obligation he promised and all the drama is caused by a few very awful words from a concerned Dad at that…well, Dad has a point to be very concerned.   You are asked to say a few words on your travels, what you are an expert at, author and all, not explaining in Swahili how to defuse a bomb to the TW Taitais.

YiKang to the rescue!

With that Smile even when he is reluctant to be put on the spot and speak~  ie worst than what WT was begged to do by his gf and bff LL!  AWWWW

And what a simple sweet little speech tying in romance and travels:  bring the omamori luggage tag as a lucky charm like using this line of cosmetics, along with your feelings, your romance with you as you travel.  Make it a new experience, new inspiration to see the world through his/her eyes.  Talking from his own experience, falling for a girl is a heightened perception of her everything, you want to know what she is thinking, what she is seeing, is liking, is worrying and you would want to connect with her sharing the same experience.  What she is loving, you want to change yourself into loving it too.  And the slightest smile from her is inspiration, the fleeting komorebi, serene interplay of sunlight through the leaves. Take a moment from all the mangling thoughts we are preoccupied with and something as simple as putting on a mask, traveling, raising our head, opening our eyes and we can bask in, even under all the branches blocking, the inspiration of simplest beauty nature and life can offer.

This is why a YK is lethal to the rest of the world but very frustrating to himself.  Even if he was short on time to be effortlessly swoonworthy dropping her off at the hospital in the very first scene of the ep, he comes to check on her right after his work is done.    It is a little hug of a sweet caring gesture, and their rapport is so natural now he is cutely mugging if she is moved by his awesomeness..which he knows she is, just a little, under that joking exasperation as a fellow human being, but nothing more.   What YK is not aware of is this is indeed very touching in a tiny realest unconscious way, he never goes out of his way nor put too much effort, but it is more indicative of how perfect a man he genuinely is, and these perfect little friendly gestures keep coming in small morsels constantly adding up to an impressive mount.  It must be frustrating to be a YK though because when he wants to impress that special someone, he over-thinks and he hesitates, tripping himself at the starting line.

It is always better to have someone keeping you company when not feeling the best.

(Let me be that friend).

Let me cook.

Lets chat while we eat.

Every line coming out of YK’s mouth…DROOLZWORTHY.   A LL’s secret is reveal, she hates carrots.  She is not a rabbit ‘but a tigress‘.  It is adorable when she pouts he is silly and he smiles at her friendly jab.

And everything he cooks, is not giving us a break from more droolzing! ><

Homecooking, is a bit of simple love from the heart to cause a most direct happy sensation.  And the thought YK puts into the effort, with so many aspects of LL in mind, on top of him being a terrific cook is what dreamboat is made of.  If I am to witness a gf with this experience with a guy, I would have hollered at her to hurry up and snatch and marry him.  He has so much to say with this simple perfection of a meal.

Nothing speaks I care more than a lovely meal.  She does not like carrots, but he keeps in mind the result of her checkup, he is nosy like that but subconsciously, he is starting to notice and care about minute details of his landlady.  To borrow his words, he is worrying about her well-being even when she has not start her own worrying.  He makes something she hates the taste of but good for her, palatable, just as she wormed him a plan of action he thought was deploring not long ago… and opened his mind to perceive it as palatable.  Without LL planting the idea, he would be too proud and obsessed with being this honorable gentleman to take care of his own happiness first.  With his respect of LL as a person through his own observations, what she sets to do, has a logic he can freshly understand and must not be as wretched as he naively assumed.  He is knocked down from his high horse by accepting Helen’s offer out of his own desire and free will and is miserable with every little mindless whims of Helen nudging he is nothing more than a good friend, being the noble idiot.  He hates or fears being a bad guy by any definition, but those sweet smiles Helen is throwing his way… who is to say he can’t make Helen happier than she is now and if he can do so,who cares about the bad guy tag.  LL is tasting yummy food, the fruit of his lovely thought and labor that is good for her, if he did not mention it, there is no need to label the carrots in the ingredients as well.

This is how I am changing you. 

Do not stop me thinking too much into it as echoing back to the theme of the episode:  Change is LOVE.  This is how he acts upon being grateful with LL being subconsciously generous and kind to him.   She takes him in in an impossibly bumpy time, he is butting in with his sheer presence, with his mindlessly hurtful constant quipping and opinions and judging her when she did not ask for…but she lets him in.   She lets him truly be friends with her even when she stated otherwise…yet she lets him change her.  He was sure his opinions are very right, but she instill a harsher, realistic side of what love truly is: at the core of it, there is this nagging self-serving desire to obsess no mortal is immune to.  As he put it himself, Helen is in his every fiber of thought, care, worry, likes, dislikes.  A tiny smile from her changes his world.  In LL’s way, she rescues him from his delusions.  That is probably me reading too much in what I assumed was YiKang’s id.

I want to change.  I hope she will change as well.

And we have a flashback to the proper trigger. The writer must love Infernal Affairs VERY much.

Helen:  How am I supposed to take care of (/babying) you more than I am already? 

Argh.

For once, I actually feel sorry WT has to be this useless insufferable douche serving the story.  Just for a split second.

Why is it this hard loving someone?

Sweetie, needs not be.  Just do not fall for useless childish egomaniac.  I think Aggie is wonderful in this scene.  It takes true dedication for someone as pretty as she is to cryugly from the heart.

YK: From that moment on, my head keeps spinning how weak/cowardly I have been.

I do not think YK is weak, he is just ignorant to his own humanness.  And as humans we feel before we think.

Lets join forces in fighting for our happiness!

This is the face of a changed YiKang.

Often, a moment of happiness needs not be pursued, it can be as simple as having a companion, a comrade.  Although happy receptors in our brains are not wired to categorize…a perfectly friendly innocent smile is just that, but if that certain someone, a stranger mere days ago can disarm you to all this smiling, it is not far from the condition we call love.

This ease…

…Everyone needs company.

Here I am washing the dishes, why are you giggling over there?

In LL’s own words, this companion of hers gives her an ease of mind, a security, a comrade to fight battles alongside, an ally to pursue happiness with…and the pillar of support for her to change for the better.  And she reaches a new epiphany: loneliness should not be a human feeling.   That is, she has already written her wedding vows waxing poetic about her husband right here.

Hi~!

Just throwing in some passing OTP couplish glances.

Ji An Lei, you can’t be serious…

We have to pretend we do not know each other well!

YK’s face is all:   No!  HOW?! We know each other very well, we are buddies, we are fond of each other, I like you Ji AnLEI!

LL urges they have to be strictly business at work.

So what can I do for you, manager? YK snickers.

YK wants nothing to do with LL’s charade.  He is sure of his capabilities of coming up with his own strategies.  LL is impatient with YK’s languidness.  She has already set the wheels turning for him giving Helen a romantic present in his name.

Guys, we have a wristgrab!  By our heroine towards the guy!

Tryst?

Yup.  Good instincts.

Did LL write the note too?  If so, how can Helen not recognize the writing?   I can let it slide after the ‘tryst’ YK went with LL’s plan and wrote his note in his handwriting with a lot of LL’s contribution.  HAHA is LL implying she is the Evil Queen feeding a bite of sweet apple/pavlova to an unsuspecting SnowWhite?

Yum.

I can not think of another word describing the glances YK is so used to throwing at LL since last episode.

Just as LL is having the thought: If we have to wait for the rescue by the prince in our lives…

we are served this timely screen of YK texting a message to ‘rescue’ a LL from overworking.

(Lets leave together?!)

(You are very welcome to be the very first passenger on my new bike.)

I hope you feel a burn and an ouch, WT.  Here is a guy who knows LL for barely a few weeks and already she is respected with the ‘girlfriend’ status of leaving her scent on the guy’s fresh machine.

(I am not a princess), but I have my own happiness.

And my knight in shining armor.

Yes, rub it in LL, luckylucky you!

LL and her knight in a brand new motorcycle are caught red-handed at the door nudging cute nothings by their precious coworkers:

YK: We are living together.

(simultaneously) LL:  I want to go to bed   YK: I will take a shower.

Lolz and that does the trick hurrying the nosy bodies off their love den:

LL consults her strategist Tiffany.  She is worried about WT, who is ignoring her calls. Tiffany is sure he will break up with little Princess Helen very soon. Hm.  That is not a look of much excitement.  I see a lot of lesigh can I just get over with pining over that WT?!?!

Tiffany’s advice of the night: throw yourself at him (at his most vulnerable) is also a killer move!

Always true to her words.

YiKang puts on his move which consists of asking Helen how WT is doing, how Helen is doing, incessantly.  I think he is getting on Helen’s nerves a very tiny bit even with his rainbows of lovely smiles on her praises of his design and a sincere thank you for his sweet thoughtful gift LL masterminded.

Team YK has his first taste of success on the Helen front. His first priority:  asking LL out for lunch throwing in a tease if he uses the product LL is promoting, will he be (as beautiful as) her.  I call it flirting even though they are innocent.

I can make my own moves impressing Helen.

The lunch is to set boundaries, yes, they are joining hands (haha) but she should not be meddling.  He set his own pace in his own relationships.  Perhaps LL is just paying him back the WT necklace YK retrieved from her trash, which YK does not miss a beat to tease her a little.   LL half-jokingly makes it a competition:  she is going to make her advances tonight, necklace in tow.  Game’s on!

While LL shows up at WT babysitting him, YK takes Helen for a drive to let off some steam darting paint balloons:

Actually you are very pretty when you smile.

His moves, his words are quite cute, but it is too tame for someone who is friend-zoned and not liking it.

I do not think it is the right approach to always emphasizing how much you are worrying about her and her boyfriend, the one she is terribly missing.  Imo, Helen is never stupid nor slow, if she has listened to YK’s speech for the event earlier closely, she should know what he is hinting on with this whole business of worrying her worries.  But then, this is more suitable coming from a good friend than a guy trying to vie for affection.

  Why don’t you take an easier way out?

Why don’t YOU take an easier way out, LL?!?!

WT is inebriated, that gives him and writer the excuse to be more annoying I just can’t deal with a word he is saying.  LL tries to talk ‘sense’ into him of not being a child and stuck up with his stupid pride and principles.   He calls her a party pooper.   After he notices the necklace, LL clearly needs a moment to deal with her emotions telling him she keeps everything he has ever gifted him, all he can come up with is something in the tune of, ‘consider yourself very lucky. I get too lazy nowadays with Helen.’   GEEZZZ.  I think LL chooses to hear what she wants:  WT took the time and dedication to make necklaces for her and her only.   She seizes the moment as time to profess.

Take a look into your past, perhaps you will see things clearer.

It falls into deaf ears.

WT thanks LL for keeping him company, being a best friend with a suffocating hug, as if dumping his angst on her.  LL muses she is more miserable than him.  I see a slight shift in LL, she still gets her point across but there is a fatigue in her pining for WT.   She still loves him, it has been a habit, but she is aware the habit is getting very tiresome.  I see it as, if this very moment she wants WT very badly and he is this vulnerable, she would not let go of his hug, she would attack with dropping a bomb…they were and are better fit in her eyes, no need for the awash of bruised pride/principles he is so not good enough for Helen.  But she does not.  She turns around and goes on her way home, during which she keeps texting a YK.

Helen notices the texting and quickly jumps to the conclusion he has a secret gf, possibly an office romance.   Again,  I like Helen, one of the reasons is she is never dumb.

Helen goes on singing praises how good a guy YK is and his girlfriend must be the luckiest girl.  YK smiles, fleetingly, asking her to repeat her praises of him.  He insists he can be bad by growling, with cute handclaws.  Yes, I did pause and repeat and go batshit for a while.

And he is at it again, hinting on a WT in the conversation. Lesigh.

All girls want bad boys.

Helen gets the hint.  WT is not a badboy to her.  She will stand staunchly defending her love for the guy and won’t be defeated.

I guess this is as close to a Tony Yang’s Forever Alone face as we will ever get. Not saying it is a good believable meme, but it is beautiful to look at.

Back home, he flops himself on the couch defeated.   Isn’t it a bit odd and telling LL is almost chirpy and in a relaxed mood after her time with a very dour WT she claims she is more miserable?!  She even has the time and care to be concerned about YK’s defeated mood first and foremost.

It is always lovely to have someone there to commiserate and laugh misery off.

Their giggly moment is interrupted by a call for help from Tiffany.  She needs YK to be her boyfriend (DONT WE ALL!) to vend off a moving too fast too serious suitor.

We are sure from the flow of the scene LL is just outside on YK’s bike as we cut to a lovely scene between the ladies right after.  Tiffany is scared, very shaken, of herself.  Because she almost said yes to the huge bouquet, to love…true, serious, binding, love.

Tiffany:  He said…

This bouquet I am giving you is what I like… but if you are willing to tell me…

 What you like…

In the days ahead of us…lets like it together.

I covet this face of Sonia telling us her LL is beyond moved and happy for her bff she is at the bout of happy tears but she is holding it in, keeping calm.  It is not the moment for LL to get overemotional listening to her bestie.  So Good. :~)

I am happy I am a princess to all the guys catering to my every whim, but nothing feels real. 

He does not see me a princess, he just treat me genuinely for who I am (a woman he loves).

If you want to love, go for it!

LL is giving Tiffany back her own words along with the loveliest bff glances I have witnessed.

But is this love?

Never as certain.  What else can throw a Tiffany off to doubt herself and shaking in FEAR she is losing her tight rein of control over every fiber of herself and her life?!

You never know till you try.  Take this as a gamble!

I risked my life riding on a motorbike just to see you.

Oh did you really risk your life, LL??! 😉  You seems to make an easy, comfortable habit taking that intimate backseat to your knight, a nick you coin it yourself.

I can droolz at a blurry backside of Huang YiKang being ridiculously sweet and dreamy forever.

LL: We are not fragile/soft/weak, we are just women (in love).

If you look up, this should be the moment there are fireworks and rainbows above your head.

LL is not aware of this beautiful scenery waiting for her outside a nondescript 7-eleven and it is convincing LL is too engrossed with her girl talk with Tiffany, because that was a perfect scene, one of many throughout this drama.  We can not ask too much from our LL.

Not that this following scene is any less effortlessly charming:

LL:  Why are you still here?  There are so many mosquitoes.

YK:  It is too late, you won’t have a ride.

LL:  I can call a taxi.

YK: I assume I am more convenient than hailing a taxi.  Or I can call a taxi for you right now~!

LL:  *Roll eyes at his lame tease* Let’s go!

From my experience it is not typical for a guy friend to wait in a mosquito infested balmy Taipei night while you are having an obviously emotional and serious girl talk that can take forever and a day at a 7-eleven.  A typical Asian 7-eleven still has a useable phone, or there is the cashier who would not mind calling a cab for you even if you have no cell.    This is above a guyfriend/gentleman’s duty.  Let alone a HYK would pout cutely he could call a cab for LL if so she wishes more than riding on his bike.  Let us do a mental note, of the few days YK got his new ride, he has been predominately occupied with giving LL rides.   Of course what YK is aware of is he needs a ride now he has decided to settle down in TP, but without that extra incentive of what he felt like as natural as breathing, the duty of chauffeuring LL.  He is not the type of guy who would make an impulse buy, or do anything on a whim.

Having someone to wait for me, heading home together…it is warm and fuzzy.