Yumi's Cells: How Maturity Can Make or Break a Relationship

What makes or break a relationship? There's the big three deal-breakers; Cheating, violence, and manipulation. And then there's the two that can be worked on maturity and communication. Yumi's Cells will introduce you to both. Looking back this probably wasn't the best title, instead of Maturity take a moment to insert Communication in that space instead.

Yumi's Cells was originally a webtoon by the same name adapted into a k-drama.

It's a story similar to the movie "Inside Out." The show is split between the human, Yumi's everyday life, and the activity of Yumi's Cells. Each cell represents an emotion, function, and hobby trait of Yumi's.

DISCLAIMER: This article contains spoilers so if you plan on watching the show, don't read. Or if you are the tye type who likes to spoil yourselves, read on I guess...

Yumi's Cells does a great job of setting things up so the viewer can judge things by appearances. Because when looking for a partner in real life, that's all we do right? Judge. While watching the show I've noticed it. Today, I'll only be talking about Yumi and the main man of Season 1.

When Woong, played by Ahn Bo Hyun(might I add he plays and suits his role SO well, Yumi's main love interest is first introduced, he first shows up to their date in a cute t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops he also had some chin hair.

His laid-back way of dressing makes viewers and Yumi assume he is a laid-back slob, just a typical sloppy man who makes video games for a living. And we move on with that assumption until we realize Woong is the exact OPPOSITE of what he appears.

He isn't as dumb as he looks or irresponsible, he's incredibly good at math and his mind constantly organizes and calculates things. He is neater than Yumi, he cleans his house well and organizes everything even though the only thing he knows how to cook is ramen with veggies, toast, and eggs for breakfast. He prioritizes himself because he's an independent man. But the contrast here is that Yumi prioritizes whoever she is dating over herself because she is a dependent woman.

So what could go wrong here with Mr. Looks Are Deceiving? and Ms. Does Nothing By Herself? The main conflict in their relationship doesn't stem from the big three deal-breakers. (Cheating, violence or manipulation). So what could possibly be wrong?

Both Woong and Yumi bonded over being foodies on their first date. Later in the drama, it dives and explores this as well as their differences in personality.

As much as Woong loves food he is not willing to wait at a restaurant in a long line(me neither, but that's especially because I've worked in the service industry before).

Meanwhile, Yumi is willing to wait for as long as possible just to get two sticks of churros.

Woong says he doesn't understand people who wait in long lines and Yumi doesn't say anything, but she waits later to text him about going again to eat those churros next time...because it's not like a popular store famous for its churros won't have a long line the next time as well right?

Woong responds with a short text.

Can you take a guess at what their problems are?

Throughout the drama, Yumi's inability to speak her mind, especially when she's feeling insecure, snowballs. Woong is a nice guy but he's not a mind reader. He was raised with traditional ideals, and a sense of "pride" as a man has been ingrained in him, hence it prevents him from being sincerely honest, oftentimes filtering out his reasonable and heartfelt answers for vague ones because saying something sappy goes against his "pride as a man." Yes. It is poor communication though one could argue it's also a lack of maturity. Barring yourself from being too honest because of your emotions is childish, if you don't show that you care things can get stale pretty fast.

Right, when skies are clear for the two and the couple successfully vaults their second hurdle, we learn Woong sold his house and didn't tell Yumi. He had been quietly living at his studio for a month. And after learning this Yumi puts her foot down and pressured him into moving in with her.

Woong obeyed but as much as he loved cleaning and organizing Yumi's house, he became uncomfortable staying because of his pride. He didn't want to be a leech nor seen as one by her friends/ possible love rival.

She doesn't tell anyone his situation but she does disclose that she's living with him to her friend who thoughtlessly suggests marrying him. Girls, stop doing this. No advice your friend gives will ever apply to your situation if they don't know the whole truth.

She asked him on his birthday and it takes the man five minutes and no answer, NOT because he didn't want to marry her but because his cells were scrambling around looking for his "marriage desire", something he had buried in the sea of his subconscious before meeting Yumi. It started floating after meeting her but none of his cells realized it until her question. When his love cell ventured out to retrieve it he gets ganged up on by the sharks in his subconscious as they circle him bombarding him with questions.

"Can you take care of Yumi when you're broke right now?"

"If you marry her you become responsible for her!"

Cue to Woong imagining them wriggling around in sleeping bags at his studio because it's winter, the ac is broken and Yumi's sick and dying.

By the time Woong comes up with an answer five minutes have passed. He wanted to say "When things get better." But Yumi was no longer willing to discuss it. Anything else would just feel like an excuse.

Everyone knows that if it takes you five minutes to answer something it IS SUS but Yumi's Cells challenges this common sense by showing us what's happening in Woong's mind so we end up wanting to revise our way of thinking, not only that we become annoyed with the main couple. At Woong for overthinking what to say and Yumi for overthinking that Woong's silence meant rejection + shutting him down when he was finally gonna say something.

The truth is some people- RESPONSIBLE people especially, need more time to think about important life-changing decisions. He wasn't even living in her apartment that long for that question to be sprung on him and he's at a financially low point of his life at the moment so why would you ask a man that, real talk, as a woman?

Woong has his pride as a man and is overall a responsible person, we know that much, but the drama only continues to expand on the severity of it, as well as to how much he loves Yumi yet doesn't express it. And when Yumi misunderstands we end up wanting to scream. But then she turns around and doesn't say what she needs to either.

It happens when Woong brings up moving out, Yumi doesn't want him to and feels it's because she brought up marriage, completely forgetting that he wasn't okay with the idea to begin with, but she forgot since things were going well. Woong doesn't explain himself, that he was embarrassed in front of her friend. And everything begins to go downhill from there.

When he breaks her favorite table after changing her apartment's lightbulbs before he left, he mentioned wiring the money to her to give the movers when they arrive, and she tells him not to.

But when he does anyway for the first time, Yumi becomes an enigma once she states "her pride" was hurt. And she falls out of love with Woong. = _ =

It's because we saw Woong's reasoning that it makes it hard to accept Yumi's reasoning. Yumi's Cells started with us on Yumi's side by default but the later episodes turn the tables. I've noticed some fans still remained on Yumi's side. I'm kind of leaning more towards Woong's side but that's probably because I'm insensitive to a woman's feelings even though I'm a woman.

One would think Yumi would have learned from her failed relationship of being used and wouldn't have even asked her boyfriend to marry her when he was in a financial rut, one would think him giving her money to pay for something he broke wouldn't be that big of a deal.

But she asks for a break, and in similar fashion she offers no explanation or reason as to why just like when Woong asked to move out.

Time and time again Yumi's Cells establish that Yumi is not an emotionally independent person. Her joy always revolved around relationships and it's only after asking Woong to "take a break" that she remembered she was unhappy, but she learns to accept it and that if things go south, it's okay. She needs to learn to be active on her own.

Ultimately when Woong and his game developer partner Louis secretly talk about their business, we don't get to see much or know much but the last thing all viewers expected was for Woong to break up with Yumi himself. Despite not wanting to break up, Yumi's pride cell wouldn't allow her to do anything else other than to accept it with grace.

Was I mad at Woong? No.

He didn't want to break up with Yumi, that's why it's tough but for the best. It's highly likely Woong had to move because of work, and since Yumi put their relationship on the rocks, it would be easier to end things. Woong is a smart man he was able to re-evaluate himself and the things he could have been doing wrong the moment he sensed Yumi was going to ask to break up. The sad thing is, she never said it. If someone doesn't let you know what's wrong how can you fix it?

Was I mad at Yumi? No. But I sure as hell thought she kind of deserved it. Woong censors himself because of pride but her? Why didn't she tell him all her complaints about him instead of bottling it? Then there's the proposal. As much as I understand how it feels to have to wait for someone to speak for five minutes, I also find that her shutting him down when he was finally ready a huge disservice to her emotional well-being. And let's not forget asking a financially unstable man to marry you. =_= Girl, your ex literally used you as his wallet while he was dating someone just shows she didn't fix her habit of wanting to pay for everything when her boyfriend's broke.

So this is my take of Yumi's Cells. This drama... teaches the viewers how a woman's own emotions can sometimes get in the way of letting her appreciate a good partner. And how a man who is not expressive enough or doesn't pander to his partner's insecurities could end up losing her. Yumi's Cells also hints not to settle, that just because a man is good doesn't mean he's End Game and it's okay to dump him and "take a break" for reasons you never shared with your partner. =_= (she's equally as bad as him for that!) But you know what if you break up it's okay cause there will never be a "leading man" or woman in your life. You are the only leading person in your life. :) =_= It was touching but at the same time not.

I'm incredibly annoyed because both are good together, if they could just talk... It was a relationship that could have been worked on. The relationship didn't fail because it was toxic...really just levels of emotional maturity/communication.

Woong, disregard your pride, stop filtering yourself and just be honest!

Yumi stop sitting on your emotions and let him know what you want! He can't fix it if you don't let him know!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to season 2 but all I know is, Woong is as good as it gets. She could end up with Bobby but I don't think it would be enough. I don't care what anyone says. Any woman that ends up with Woong will have won the lottery. A man that loves cleaning and organizing?! Who doesn't catch an attitude?! Shoooooot. Some petty part of me hopes Woong ends up with a woman that can appreciate him, but I'm also hoping Yumi and Woong mature and return to each other someday. It's simply sad that neither of them ever got to know what they were thinking because they never confided in each other.

Years later they will look back at the relationship and have ideas as to how the other person may have felt, but they don't truly know. Perhaps they never will.