"When the walls have ears and the doors have eyes, what do you do if those ears and eyes are yours?"
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This is a BinJin Story mostly told from the POV of a stranger. It speaks of combined fan perspectives, of a hodge podge of truths...
Winter in South Korea had bitter cold bites. As such, CLOY filming had to be put on hold for at least a week giving my team at least two days' worth of rest. We were still playing catch-up on Christmas Eve but thankfully caught up seven hours before the clock struck midnight, enabling everyone to do some last-minute shopping and/or go home and have Christmas Eve dinner. The days, however, that led to the New Year somehow got us all a bit behind as some transcriptionists had to call in sick. We didn't know the same was being experienced by the cast and crew, and maybe even worse.
The elevator door to the 35th floor pinged open just when I was opening the garbage chute at the end of the hallway. I saw Binnie come out, a worried look on his face.
"Oh no," I thought to myself, especially when Ye-jin's apartment door opened two seconds later and she walked out, weakly, with her personal assistant (PA). Her PA was carrying an overnight bag and at the same time, trying to be her boss's crutch. She was very pale. The sight had Binnie crossing the distance in just three long strides to quickly sweep her up and carry her. Mercifully, the elevator still happened to be at the 35th floor and opened as soon as her PA pushed the button.
The grapevine would later churn out a a combination of hospitalization, pregnancy, dating, marriage and break-up rumors, with the last two prompting VAST Entertainment to consider legal action against anyone propagating those.
"Hmmm... They still had to confirm they're dating and yet his agency's willing to go through lengths to quash a break-up rumor? Of all things for which they're willing to sue people! I mean, I could understand them wanting to threaten legal action for marriage rumors - marriage, after all, was something the two did not take lightly. They made that much clear in separate interviews. But to sue over a break-up rumor when they could have just easily shrugged it off? Seems to me they did not want the thought of a break-up clouding their honeymoon bubble." And with such thoughts, I closed January 2020.
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SHORTLY BEFORE THE CLOY WRAP-UP PARTY (FEBRUARY 2020)
Six hours after the final day of filming for the two, I sat at the conference room, pondering what I had just witnessed 12 hours, earlier...
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12 HOURS EARLIER
I was reviewing some documents in my car when I saw Ye-jin loading brown shopping bags filled with what looked like packed food into the trunk of her car. Just as when she was to enter the driver's seat, her PA, who had just come rushing from where the elevators were, called her attention, made a hand gesture, pointing at her left ring finger. Thank God for prescription sunglasses as I was able to see what she was wearing: A gold ring!
Ye-jin quickly removed the ring and looped it through the gold chain she was wearing. She then hid the necklace and its "pendant" under her cashmere sweater.
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Just as when I was ready to let go and shift my focus on the work before me, one of our office representatives who was present at the final day of filming sent a group e-mail. He was excitedly telling everyone in our team how he'd witnessed some tender moments between the two. He said Ye-jin got two brown bags from her PA, retrieved a thermos, food containers for what looked like side dishes and some sandwiches, set the table at the VIP lounge of the studio and picked up Binnie from the dimmed sleeping lounge to feed him. He said he didn't have photos of that moment but that he managed to take a photo of the two after the photoshoot. The behind-the-scenes photo showed a visibly tired Binnie. He had his left arm around Ye-jin's shoulder while she had her right arm on his waist. Both were looking at each other, with Ye-jin smiling, as though trying to cheer up her sick co-star. While the story and the photo thrilled everyone to bits, I zoomed in on one particular detail that everyone must have missed: Her left hand was playing with her gold necklace, its "pendant" still underneath her sweater.
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FEBRUARY 16, 2020
My transcription team and I were invited to attend the wrap-up party of CLOY.
At the party, we were seated two tables away from the two. They arrived in well-coordinated outfits. Both clad in tan/beige coats with black buttons, she was in off-white turtleneck and pants while he was basically in the same ensemble, only in black. On top of the fangirling actively happening at our table over the matching outfit of the two, some folks in my team were debating, among themselves, the chances that the two might have already gotten engaged/married and that the suspicious-looking cake was either an engagement or a wedding cake - a congratulatory cake for those "in the know".
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Now for all intents and purposes, and in all forms, shapes or sizes, my being an Asian still did not mean anything at this neck of the woods. I was more of a Pacific Islander in looks and possessed none of the Oriental features people from East Asia were known to have. It was no surprise then that people still either talked to me in English or spoke, among, themselves, in either Chinese or Korean, if they wanted me to not understand what they're saying. But what a lot of people didn't know was that while my attempt at acquiring the Korean accent failed me and that my tongue processed things a lot slower than my mind, I could, in fact, already understand what native speakers around me were saying. Or at least 72% of the time. Handling an international transcription client sure did come with benefits and months-long language immersion was one of them.
So when it came down to being "in the know", I mostly benefited from people around me who talked thinking I could not understand. This theory of mine got tested at the party when, in English, I asked a server for a water refill. Two girls who were standing a foot away from where I was seated then started talking between themselves in Korean.
Girl #1: "So I heard designer Kim Jeong Ju was approached again by our guy."
Girl #2: "Really? Wait, this is the same Kim Jeong Ju, the designer from whom our guy got the couple rings? But for what this time?"
Girl #1: "Yes! The one and only Kim Jeong Ju of LaMucha. Apparently, this was a private appointment meant for the two of them."
Girl #2: "You mean, our guy and his girl?"
Girl #1: "Oh yeah. And we could only guess why."
I did not get to finish the rest of the conversation, anymore, unfortunately. Someone called the attention of the two girls and my water refill arrived. My takeaway? The mention of renowned Korean jeweller Kim Jeong Ju, the couple rings from Yoon Se-ri's birthday scene, and the memory of seeing Son Ye-jin and her ring earlier this month were more than enough confirmation of the couple's commitment to each other.
Whether married or just engaged, it was heartwarming to know that even if Capt. Ri and Se-ri had uncertainty that lay ahead of them, at least with Kim Tae Pyung and Son Eon-jin, in spite of what people around them knew or did not know about them, no demarcation line existed that separated his North from her South. They could only fall for each other and descend on and remain in a place where no pressure from anyone could ever divide them.
