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Why do some people ship Baek Kyung with Dan Oh? (discussion)

Summer

First of all, I didn't read the webtoon so please if you did don't spoil it for me. Thanks!

I've watched up until ep16 while writing this so spoilers ahead if you didn't reach that far.



In almost all of the dramas I watched I had a second lead syndrome and I end up feeling very bad for him/her but for the first time I didn't sympathize with Baek kyung at all in extraordinary you and I thought it was obvious! Like they made him the villain (somewhat) and I was supposed to hate him. But to my surprise, I found ALOT of people who actually prefer him over haru so I really want to know why is that exactly?

I mean yeah he acts differently in shadow and treats her somewhat nice but he also made this whole game where he pretended to be unaware just to play with them! Also, the scene where he made haru deliver the flowers to them? what was the point of that other than humiliate the two of them (dan oh and haru)? Rub it in their faces?

He's also REALLY violent with her. Not in a "oh he's a bad boy" way (see:namjoo) but in a legit scary way.

And that scene with his younger brother. He was an asshole! I can't see any redeeming qualities really. All he did was remember some childhood memories and get possessive when Dan oh finally had someone to treat her the way she deserves.

Also, the scene where him and Dan oh were running together at the school event and she tripped and he walked away. That was his scene I know but after the scene had ended and they were in shadow he just continued to walk and left her on the ground? (I know it was a whole thing to make Haru's return look all cool and stuff but still)

My only explanation for the Baek kyung syndrome here is that there is something in the webtoon that I'm missing but even If, I don't think I can change my mind about him unless there was a flashback of those scenes where they show that he wasn't a total jerk (which I highly doubt it's possible)

Other than that, make him remember sweet memories and show me his past traumas all you want it's still not an excuse to treat people like they're nothing so I won't change my mind.

So yeah that's all, I think.
PS: this isn't as serious as it sounds lol I just tend to write a little too passionately about things.


Let me know what you think of Baek Kyung and if you do ship them please share your opinion with me. I'd love to hear other perspectives!

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SSKF

I actually ship Baek Kyung and Dan Oh... but only so far as to make Baek Kyung hurt with remorse and regret for how he treated her. He's a legit good looking asshole, and his character is played by someone who is selling the acting and who is extremely good looking. That's 50% of the reason people ship them right there.

The other few percent, for me, is his eyes. In shadow, sometimes he has really strong remorse and longing feelings shining from his eyes when he looks at Dan Oh. Even on stage, when he's playing in the storyboard, his eyes show regret that 'this is part of the story, I don't mean it' sometimes. However, he's a douche, I got you there. Point is, he's portrayed as one of those reformed, regretful, bad boy is finally in love with me, douches.

IMO though, he's just there to make Haru look good. I prefer Haru for Dan Oh any day. I'd like Baek Kyung to sit in a corner and cry over the time he wasted with Dan Oh. Lol

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JoanneSmith

I don't know becuz he's basically a jerk and has dicked her around for 10 years.  Enough already.  

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Summer
 SSKF:

I actually ship Baek Kyung and Dan Oh... but only so far as to make Baek Kyung hurt with remorse and regret for how he treated her. He's a legit good looking asshole, and his character is played by someone who is selling the acting and who is extremely good looking. That's 50% of the reason people ship them right there.

The other few percent, for me, is his eyes. In shadow, sometimes he has really strong remorse and longing feelings shining from his eyes when he looks at Dan Oh. Even on stage, when he's playing in the storyboard, his eyes show regret that 'this is part of the story, I don't mean it' sometimes. However, he's a douche, I got you there. Point is, he's portrayed as one of those reformed, regretful, bad boy is finally in love with me, douches.

IMO though, he's just there to make Haru look good. I prefer Haru for Dan Oh any day. I'd like Baek Kyung to sit in a corner and cry over the time he wasted with Dan Oh. Lol

I agree. The actor is amazing! The acting in this drama is really good in general and they're all still pretty young which is really impressive!


I'm totally with you on the "sit in a corner and cry over Dan Oh" part. He's still convinced that Dan Oh is going to end up with him even after everything that happened so I look forward to seeing the moment he realizes that he really did lose her forever. I think it would be very interesting!

 But to be completely honest, Apart from Dan Oh, I don't want him to end up all that miserable. Like I hope they at least do something about his father because I really despise his character! 

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Summer
 JoanneSmith:

I don't know becuz he's basically a jerk and has dicked her around for 10 years.  Enough already.  

Although it wasn't his fault technically in all the 10 years (because he was unaware) I totally agree that he's a jerk and doesn't deserve to be shipped with Dan Oh! 

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snakeu

baek kyung is an interesting and multi-dimensional character whose already fucked up life has become even more complicated when he realises that he's just a pawn who exists to be controlled by the writer.  

but that still doesn't make him any better bc he made the conscious decision to be a tool to danoh and haru in the shadow. he's aware and is confused but that in no way justifies how he intentionally hurts someone whom he apparently 'likes'.  

i would've shipped him with danoh if he were a tsundere type character but more than half the time he's a straight-up douche and as far as i know, we left behind douchey male leads back in 2015. treat her right or gtfo!

shoutout to lee jaewook tho. he's basically a chameleon when it comes to acting. from marco to seol jihwan to baek kyung, it feels like three entirely different people acted as those characters. 

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Reiko
 SSKF:

I actually ship Baek Kyung and Dan Oh... but only so far as to make Baek Kyung hurt with remorse and regret for how he treated her. He's a legit good looking asshole, and his character is played by someone who is selling the acting and who is extremely good looking. That's 50% of the reason people ship them right there.

The other few percent, for me, is his eyes. In shadow, sometimes he has really strong remorse and longing feelings shining from his eyes when he looks at Dan Oh. Even on stage, when he's playing in the storyboard, his eyes show regret that 'this is part of the story, I don't mean it' sometimes. However, he's a douche, I got you there. Point is, he's portrayed as one of those reformed, regretful, bad boy is finally in love with me, douches.

IMO though, he's just there to make Haru look good. I prefer Haru for Dan Oh any day. I'd like Baek Kyung to sit in a corner and cry over the time he wasted with Dan Oh. Lol

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Reiko
 Reiko:

WOWWWW......hahahaha.......hmmm........i mean.....it's not that he wants to waste dan oh's time right? Thats just how his character plays. Hhahahah..........altho i do ship haru and dan oh but also dont want that to happen to baek kyung.....however......someone has to suffer.....which is most likely gonna be baek hyung :( But haru and dan oh is definitely the couple i wanna see happen :) So....sorry baek....>_<

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kdramaddict1

I am team hsru!! Baek does not deserve. I agree with everything yiu said

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Helena

I'm not necessarily shipping Baek Kyung and Dan Oh, but in my opinion Baek Kyung is more interesting character than Haru is. 

1. Baek Kyung has a personality. Okay, his personality is bad, anti-hero almost, but he has some. As for Haru, I still don't know anything else about him than that he is nice, somehow connected to Dan Oh and Baek Kyung in the other manhwa. I know it's intentional, he's nameless extra in the Secret comic, but I'm hoping we get to see more of how he feels and thinks about the events. 

I'm not justifying Baek Kyung's actions, he's been an asshole and horrible person, on stage and off stage before coming self aware. But the actor is doing a great job portraying his character, cause he's haunting. 

2. Dan Oh is clinging to Haru because she thinks he can help her change the story line. In a way, he's almost a tool for her to change HER story. It was clear, when Haru came back, but didn't remember her anymore, that Dan Oh was almost furious that is wasn't HER Haru anymore. When he got any background (Baek Kyung's friend, tennis player) she felt betrayed and wished her old Haru came back. Now that Haru has a name and role in the Secret comic, I wonder if he's able to manipulate the story anymore and how that will affect their relationship. Their relationship is not as healthy as it seems on the surface, on the contrary, I think it's very selfish of Dan Oh to cling to Haru, not because she genuinely likes him, but because he's a way to change her miserable story line. 

3. Baek Kyung since becoming self aware has also shown different side of him, more caring one and rebellious towards his story line. I think his story is just heartbreaking. To stay in a hospital to see his mom to die, then be used as pawn by his own father and to be engaged to a childhood friend, who is also dying. Having to take Dan Oh hospital has to be agonizing to him, he lost his mom there. Will he have to bury his fiancée too? 

I'm not shipping Baek Kyung to Dan Oh, but boy I hope he gets redemption arc so bad, cause he deserves some. His role in Secret is no better than Dan Oh's and he has as little chances to change his story than Dan Oh has to change hers. 

So, Baek Kyung to me is simply the most mesmerising character, I really hope to see him to get his happy ending, that's why I'm #teambaekkyung, I just love good anti-hero get redemption story arc. 

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haruny

@Helena Just wanting to comment on your point 2 where you think Dan Oh is selfish for wanting Haru just so that he can change her fate. When they first met she definitely only viewed him as someone who can change her fate and nothing more. But the more time she spent with him, she definitely started to treasure his presence and even her own life started to revolve around him. As evidenced by episodes 13-16 where he disappeared and she lost her own will to literally live because she was sad all the time without him. She started to love him because he was the only one who viewed her as who she really is, not the "Stage Dan Oh" she really despises. Idk if you watched episode 17-18 already so SPOILERS AHEAD, but: she said she doesn't want to change anything anymore if it means Haru can stay being himself and be by her side. Her priority to live and change her fate has changed to just wanting to spend precious time with Haru. Of course she wouldn't treasure Haru right away since the day they met because she technically didn't know him at all, but the more she got to know him, the more she started to view him as someone even more precious than her own life.

Although the way Dan Oh treated "non-Haru" in episodes 13-16 bothered me a bit, making it seem as if she didn't want him anymore since he didn't remember her. I thought about it a little more, and I think it was less of a "I dont want you anymore if you don't like me like before" and more of a "you are someone else entirely that only has Haru's exterior appearance, but not him in essence". She probably viewed him not as Haru but someone else, hence why she acted the way she did. She lost her own reason of happiness aka the Haru that she shared so many precious memories together, and the writer just made another character that looked like him but wasn't him, she was just tired and feeling like everything was just too cruel, so I can understand her actions a bit.

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haruny

As for why so many people ship Kyung x Dan Oh. This is just my humble opinion, I don't ship them at all but I think I understand why so many people ship them. The main reason is probably because many viewers feel sympathy for Kyung (and also because Lee Jae Wook does such an amazing job at portraying him) and since he seems to "like" Dan Oh, his fans want him to be with her just so that he can get his "well-deserved happiness".

As much as I wish a lot that Kyung can get his happy ending too, there's a really big difference between wanting him to be happy and wanting him to be with someone he wants to possess. Like many people said, he is a multi-dimensional character. Not only his parents treat him like a tool for money but once he discovers that he is a character in a comic and that the only person in his life who seemed to actually like him doesn't actually like him at all, he doesn't know how to cope with it, thus he does what he has always been accustomed to do: abuse and harass people. Because that's the only thing he has known his entire life: abuse (mostly from his shitty father). While this can explain why he acts the way he does, that doesn't justify his abuse towards other people. And his "like" towards Dan Oh seems more a possessive behaviour than a genuine romantic feeling. He doesn't want her to leave him because she is the only one he knows in his life that seemed like she cared about him, so it's more of a "I want to be loved" than a "I want to love".

Instead of a romantic love from Dan Oh's side, I think Kyung needs genuine care from someone. He needs to feel loved and cared for, that doesn't necessarily means it has to be romantic. If anything, I think his step-brother could actually provide him that, since the latest episodes have been showing more and more of him. Hopefully his brother can provide some kind of solace to Kyung's complicated inner turmoil, since Dan Oh definitely doesn't seem like she cares about him that much, at least not how he wants her to.

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Helena

@haruny I wrote my previous comment without watching the episodes 17 and 18. This drama is very meta and keeps twisting the drama tropes we are so used to. 

SPOILERS AHEAD: 

Baek Kyung has all the traits we are used to see in a male leads in this type of dramas. He's cold, arrogant and the female lead has one sided crush on him. (Itazurana Kiss, anyone?) Yet it's so clear that despite being the arctype of the male lead, he's SML in this show. I'm super interested in his story, cause I want to see whether he gets a redemption arc or if he keeps being abusive and is going to end up miserably. 

And, Baek Kyung wants to be Dan Oh's male lead but because of his abusive behaviour, he can't. Dan Oh said so much herself in the latest episode. Because of portraying the classic male lead traits, he can't be her male lead. It's so very bittersweet, cause it's the only way of behaving he knows. 

Haru didn't even have a name in the first four(?) episodes. He didn't have a personality, cause he didn't have any role in the Secret manhwa. For example, I think Do Hwa has been portrayed as nice character. He had a personality. I don't mean nice guys can't have personalities/are boring, I'm saying, that the show intentionally made Haru look bland. 

In the latest episodes, it's clear that he's getting more "real", still being all sweet, and their love story with Dan Oh is the cutest. He's the arctype of SML, yet he's clearly the main lead of this drama. I think the story was directly trying to make us feel that Baek Kyung could be the main lead, only to show us, that nope, this time it's not. 

Dan Oh is the damsel in distress, yet she is strong willed and took her story to her own hands. That's why their romance didn't start the usual way, where Dan Oh waits Haru to save her, but on the contrary, she is actually pro-actively using him. 

I know in the latest episode she said, she won't change her story anymore so that she won't lose Haru, but their romance started different. I think in the original webtoon, it's even more clear. It's the character growth story for Dan Oh as well, who was very self-centered (she thought she was the lead, when she wasn't she wanted to change the story, when she realised Haru could help her she got close to him because of that). Only after getting a taste of the consequenses of her actions she realised she had started to appreciate Haru, not only cause he helped her to change her story, but because she actually likes him. 

I know, that some people might be into the-abusive-male-lead, but really, I just find how this show keeps twisting these existing arctypes very interesting, and despite Baek Kyung being abusive asshole, I still want to see where this drama is going to his character. 

Anyway, I wish people could stop with the name calling, if you don't personally like a character, that's fine. But calling those who root for Baek Kyung idiots or stupid is degrading. I'm neither idiot or stupid, I'm not supportive of abusive relationships, I'm not into Baek Kyung only because he's handsome (it's a factor though, the actor is swoon worthy), but because I really like what the story is doing with this character arctype and male lead trope. 

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YooHae96

I srsly don't know, even though it makes sense  if you think about it, he has all the traits the ML has most of the time and it doesn't matter how many of us have SML-syndrom (Harus traits), at the end of the day almost all of us  root for the main leads and watch it until the end for them and I guess so many people got so used to that  scheme and to this trope (bad boy with a soft core ) that it comes naturally to them to ship it? At least thats how I explain it to myself

In my case...I don't ship them AT ALL. When BK started to be somewhat nice to DH I was like "Nicee a human beeing", but the thought of them together never occured to me actually, like he treats her a little better so what in the recent episodes he still choose to behave like an asshole (he has his reasons but still- thats not an excuse), escpecially how he treats his brother  really shows me how toxic of a person he is, no matter if he is a bit different to the person her cares about, his good sides don't change the other 80%  of him, that's how it is to me at least

I like him as a character though, he is interesting for sure and I like Lee Jae Wook, but that's that

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laviolet

I think you may be misunderstanding (although in some cases you're probably not and I share your bafflement). Personally, I don't like the way his character arc and storyline has been handled by the writer. I think he and Dan Oh had a lot of promise but now at episode 5 I feel very dissapointed. Also, I find the male lead very boring. I have actually decided to stop watching and just came here to vent my disapointment. I'm sure we've all experienced this, where we feel that the story could have been better if a significant detail (often the male or female lead) was different. 

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