Yay, the epic kiss scene! I love this moment, because Choi Young takes one step forward from his personal acknowledgement of his feelings for Eun Soo and declares it publically by kissing her in front of the whole council, Deok Heung, Ki Chul, Lady Choi, etc. I suppose we have Deok Heung to "thank" for this development. It is quite a significant one which reveals not only how deep Young's love for Eun Soo ran by this point (in that he was prepared to be drawn and quartered in order to save her from being forced to marry Deok Heung), but also that although Young's honor may have guided him to place duty before personal feelings thus far, he's still very much a man.
Despite Young consciously moving on from MH and accepting that his heart was now directed towards Eun Soo (Ep 12), our rare glimpses into his inner thoughts through conversations with Lady Choi and his interactions with Eun Soo showed that there were still things hindering the development from moving further.
1. He still viewed her as someone from "heaven" who must return to her esteemed place. He does not dare to show his love for her, because to him he is someone who is out of his reach - her ramblings about working out the date of the portal's opening and her comments that her modern medical equipment is running out only hammer in this idea. Young deals with this by hiding his feelings behind his constant reiteration of his promise to bring her home, which served more as a reminder to himself not to overstep his boundaries than to reassure her. Even when Eun Soo was gravely ill and the very real possibility of losing her forced him to reveal more of his love for her than he would otherwise have done, the date of her inevitable return to heaven hung heavily on his mind.
2. His insecurity regarding Eun Soo's feelings for him, which are compounded by his heightened awareness of the "heavenly" characteristics (her behaviour, her personality, her appearance) that sets her apart from anyone else he'd ever known.
Young's obvious feelings remained unanswered by Eun Soo - imagine how confused he must have been! On one hand Eun Soo was affectionate with him and their interactions were clearly those of lovers. On the other hand, Eun Soo chose to remain silent on the cause of her distress - the audience is aware that she worried about his safety, but to Young it must have seemed like she was deliberately keeping her distance from him. It's very revealing when he comments to Daeman that "That person has no heart [for me]" and his assumption that Eun Soo has no desire to stay. After all, he knows her homesickness better than anyone and she has never expressed enough affection for anything in Goryeo that would suggest that remaining would be a possibility. That is also why it isn't until Eun Soo saved Young's life by promising to marry Deok Heung and then admitted the truth of the diary's contents to him that he gains hope that she feels something for him.
A few Faithlings commented awhile ago that Young does not seem like the jealous type, and I agree. In this instance, however, I believe that one of the motivators that drive Young to express his feelings for Eun Soo in such a public manner is the fact that Eun Soo may spend her remaining days in Goryeo as someone else's woman; this is something that would irk any man, even one who is as unexpressive as Young. Eun Soo is someone whom Young had, for so long, not even dared to reveal his love for because she is a person who must return to heaven. She is someone whom he believed was out of his reach, but now that he has hope that she returns his feelings, the possibility of her with another man is even more abhorent to him. For the first time, Young allows himself to entertain the thought that even if she would not be by his side forever, she could at least be with him for her remaining time in Goryeo, and this frees him to express his feelings which were previously held back due to his own sense of insecurity.
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