'When the Weather is Fine' Episode 3: Coping with loneliness, Eun-seop and Hae-won find solace in each other
'When the Weather is Fine' Episode 3 Mok Hae-won (Park Min-young) meet her high school classmate Kim Bo-yeong (Lim Se-mi) who had spread rumors about Hae-won's mother being a murderer. While her friend tries to reconnect, maybe even clear the air about what happened in the past, Hae-won is not ready to speak to her. This leads to a flash from Hae-won's past when she was a high school in Seoul — the time when her mother was sentenced to seven years in prison for killing someone. Hae-won shares this with someone whom she considered her best friend. Hae-won cut off from her friend without listening to her side of the story. She does the same in the present, as she walks away from Bo-yeong.
The members of Goodnight Bookclub meet again and this time, they discuss their favorite legends. The title of the episode, 'Wolf's Silver Eyelash', turns out to be Im Eun-seop's (Seo Kang-joon) favorite legend. It is about a young boy who gets bullied and cheated by everyone that he meets. He chances upon a wolf one day and the wolf gives the boy his eyelash and tells him that if he sees people through the eyelash, he would see their true identities.
The boy, to his disappointment, only sees cunning, selfish and mean people so he goes on a search for someone who is none of it. Sadly, he doesn't find anyone and that leaves him heartbroken. The episode is centered around the narrative that all humans wear a mask, and that includes Hae-won who refuses to acknowledge any of the difficulties she faces in life. She continues to bottle up her emotions, and Eun-seop tries to get her to open up.
So he tells her that there are people who don't share their struggles even with their families. He explains how such people build a wall around their hearts and dwell upon the loneliness that results from guarding their hearts so heavily. He also adds in the end that he wonders if Hae-won is not one such person. She continues to lock up her feelings but this time, someone around her understands her need to do so. In fact, Eun-seop seems to have understood the loneliness that Hae-won felt from the time that the two were in high school. He expressed his understanding by reading a poem about loneliness. "Do not cry, for being lonely is to be human" is how the poem begins and in its entirety, the poem captures the mood of what it means to drown in the abyss of silence that surrounds you when you feel lonely.
This episode also hints at the possibility of Eun-seop struggling with loneliness too. His favorite legend, his habit of walking in the woods after dark and he searches through a cabin in the wood. He holds a secret close to his heart that he hasn't shared with anyone and this is why he is able to empathize with Hae-won as well. Eun-seop and Hae-won have begun to find solace in each other not because they drive each other's loneliness, but for now, they seemed to be engulfed in it together. Who lived in the cabin and why Eun-seop continues to visit the cabin after nightfall is a question that will be explored in the upcoming episodes.
New episodes of 'When the Weather is Fine' will air on Mondays and Tuesdays on JTBC.