The Painful Past
Episode 9 of At A Distance, Spring Is Green begins with Yeo Joon suggesting that he and Soo-Hyun should live together. To celebrate this union, the pair head out for food. Soo-Hyun is obviously taken aback by the amount on their plates, but it does help him sleep soundly afterwards. Elsewhere, Mi-Joo continues to slump into her depressive state – not even corn dogs can help shake her mood. After confessing her feelings to Soo-Hyun and being shot down, she’s struggling ti move past this. Interestingly, Young-Ran spied her being rejected. In the morning, Yeo Joon tries to impress Soo-Hyun by buying expensive mushrooms for breakfast. He’s certainly shocked that he’s spend that much money on this and eventually leaves. After their lecture, Soo-Hyun continues to question Yeo Joon’s choices, especially when he buys identical white t-shirts. Back at university, So-Bin heads in to see Professor Joon Wan but he’s too busy looking over the footage of Yeo Joon’s fight. He’s determined to figure out who’s responsible. So-Bin interprets this as him caring but Yeo Joon is not so sure. Speaking of caring, So-Bin is duped into following a college student up to the club room. With the camera on, Yeo Joon notices the live stream and realizes she’s with Chun Gook. When So-Bin realizes what’s going on, she attempts to leave but he grabs her and pulls her back. When Yeo-Joon shows to help, flashes of the past come flooding back. These memories include his own brother coming at him and beating the boy. This spills over to the evening too, as Yeo Joon finds himself huddled by the end of his bed. Soo-Hyun notices and tries to comfort him, but Yeo Joon is understandably a mess. In fact, he even cancels on So-Bin during their scheduled date. Staying in bed all this time, Chan-Ki bides his time and tries to interject, desperate to take care of So-Bin. This happens to be linked back to a promise made all those years back. For now, he’s going to let her go and that means drinking copious amounts of alcohol and flirting with Young-Ran! That evening all the kids gather for campfire games and stories. Among those is a “crying game” where the different students and teachers discuss their past. Memories of Yeo Joon’s past come back again, including Joon-Wan telling him as a child that he has no one and that he’s on his own. This is only further compounded by him receiving a beating by his Father. However, this memory also clears one thing up – it wasn’t Joon-Wan doing the beating after all!
The Episode Review
At a Distance, Spring Is Green returns this week with another emotionally charged episode, this time honing in on Yeo Joon’s past. Seeing that his father used to beat him and the continued horrors that stoke his memories is testament to the fact this kid has not had an easy life. The focus this time is really on him, with Soo-Hyun along for the ride and uneasily accepting that Yeo-Joon is trying to impress with all these different gifts. However, money can’t buy true happiness and this show effectively portrays this – especially given the hole in Yeo Joon’s heart. There’s not an awful lot of movement with the main plot line this time around though, and the story grinds to a halt to explore more of the past. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but hopefully the next episode can pick things up a bit.
