Jung Hae In’s K-Drama Infuriates Female Viewers With Scene “Too Close To Home”
One scene from the latest episode of tvN‘s rom-com K-Drama Love Next Door has infuriated its female viewers.
In Episode 7, female lead Jung So Min‘s character, Seok Ryu, is seen walking down a dark neighborhood alley when male lead Jung Hae In‘s character, Seung Hyo, starts to follow. Seok Ryu, sensing someone following, starts running until she eventually gets to a dead end and is forced to turn around to confront Seung Hyo.
Seung Hyo then calls Seok Ryu out for running off. When asked why he didn’t make himself known, Seung Hyo blames Seok Ryu for not turning around and checking for herself.
Seok Ryu: You crazy bastard! You scared me!
Seung Hyo: Quiet! This is a residential area.
Seok Ryu: That’s not what’s important! Why the hell did you follow me and scare me like that?
Seung Hyo: Why did you suddenly run like that?
Seok Ryu: Because I thought someone was chasing me. You could’ve called my name.
Seung Hyo: Well, you could’ve looked back. Why were you only looking straight?
Seok Ryu: You should’ve called out and reassured me.
Seung Hyo: You should’ve checked first before blindly running… Jeez. I think this is our problem. We pass things off to each other, make excuses, and shift the blame.
The scene struck “way too close to home” for some female viewers.
아제발이딴개같은장면좀넣지마
특히나 남주가바로잘못인지하고사과안할거면 더더욱
한번 돌아보면 될걸 왜 무작정뛰냐고?
걸음잠깐멈췄다가 바로 폭행당하고 죽임당하는 여자들 기사가 매일매일 쏟아져나오는데 진짜 저게 로코 남주 대사임? 남자한테나 헤프닝이지 여자한텐 진짜일어나는공포라고 씨발 pic.twitter.com/y0d9DmDWwI— 누깅이 (@hiiamnugu) September 7, 2024
For the love of god, please stop including dumb f*ck scenes like this in K-Dramas—especially if the male lead isn’t going to realize his wrongdoing and apologize for it right away. ‘You should’ve checked first before blindly running’? Every single day, we see news about women getting assaulted and even murdered for stopping and checking. How is a rom-com male lead going to say sh*t like that? It may not be a big deal to men, but the feal is real and part of daily life for all women. F*ck.
— @hiiamnugu/X
In response to a viral tweet with over 1.2M views, criticizing the scene for its insensitive portrayal, viewers agreed that “the fear is real and part of daily life” for most women and not something for a K-Drama character to downplay in such a manner.
- “I cannot believe the scriptwriter thought this entire conversation was supposed to be a cute back-and-forth between friends-turned-lovers. Zero awareness, LOL.”
- “A lot of men actually don’t know why that’s terrifying. They don’t understand it because it doesn’t really happen to them. I mean, if I were a man, I would not be scared to walk around alone either.”
- “Insane…”
- “I stopped watching this K-Drama because it was getting so weird. Like, it has such a pretentious concept to begin with… But the episodes kept highlighting all the negative sides of reality. IDK, it made me uncomfortable overall.”
- “I would hate it if my ‘friend’ couldn’t relate to the fear I felt. But for a love interest to say sh*t like that? How is he even a rom-com male lead?”
- “They’ll never understand why I choose to walk full speed in the middle of the street, huh? It’s because I don’t want anyone to jump out at me.”
- “So he decided she’s the problem when he couldn’t relate to the fear she felt? I cannot believe this is a K-Drama airing in 2024… Be real. There are people who got murdered because they looked at someone wrong.”
