Highlights
- Lack of communication threatens Kiyoka and Miyo's relationship as they both keep their worries and burdens to themselves, leading to overwhelming stress.
- The shady character, Arata Tsuruki, poses a threat to Kiyoka and Miyo's future with his mysterious connections and obsession with Miyo.
- Kiyoka and Miyo's fear of admitting their vulnerabilities to each other prevents them from sharing their thoughts and worries, leading to a strained relationship.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for My Happy Marriage Episode 9, “Drowning in Dreams”, now streaming on Netflix.
There are a lot of things going on in My Happy Marriage. There are romance, action, politics, and mystery, just to name a few. Needless to say, there are times when such busy and unrelenting chaos becomes quite overwhelming. Not to us the viewers, but rather to the characters. In such times, the best approach is to properly communicate their thoughts and worries. If they don’t, things can spiral out of control pretty quickly. Because there is a danger in not speaking your mind.
Kiyoka’s Concern, Miyo’s Worry
After years of being lonely and refusing to connect to any woman who came his way, Kiyoka finally found his true love. After a lifetime of being on the receiving end of abuse and mockery, Miyo finally found somebody who genuinely loves her for who she is. After numerous hardships and obstacles, Kiyoka and Miyo are finally ready to become a proper couple. And now, a new issue appears that can threaten the future of this new lover. A lack of communication.
With the rising threat of Grotesqueries looming over the Imperial Capital, Kiyoka is now flooded with tons of works. From investigation to extermination, he is in charge of almost everything related to the issue of Grotesqueries. As a result, Kiyoka hardly spends time together with his new fiancé. He knows about Miyo’s troubling nightmare and is deeply concerned about its negative impact on Miyo’s health. But talking about it to Miyo would only make her worry, so he decided to look for a solution himself
This is the first time in her life that Miyo genuinely finds somebody who she deeply cares about, aside from her late mother. So she wants to do things that can make Kiyoka proud, which is why she decided to learn about Western etiquette from Hazuki. The lessons themselves are quite fun, but it is surprisingly hard on her mind and body. Not to mention the constant nightmares that slowly drain her energy. As a result, she found herself feeling fatigued and exhausted all the time. But Miyo knows that Kiyoka is busy at work. She doesn’t want to make him worry, so she decided to simply brush it off.
There’s A Snake In Our Midst
As expected, Kiyoka and Miyo’s reluctance to talk about what they have in mind proves to be a bad decision. Kiyoka’s head is filled with nothing but worry about all kinds of things to the point that he doesn’t even notice the declining health of her future wife, while Miyo is too considerate to bring it up to his busy future husband. Both are too polite, reserved, and concerned about each other to the point that they end up doing everything by themselves, rather than sharing their burden as they’d promised to do.
Things get even worse because without realizing it, both Kiyoka and Miyo have let a snake slither into their midst. A shady man named Arata Tsuruki. He seemed to be some sort of Government contractor who was called whenever they had to deal with difficult or sensitive issues, but it’s clear that there is more to him than meets the eye. From his relationship with the Imperial family to his mysterious upbringing, everything about this man screams bad news. What’s even worse is the fact that he seems to be connected to Miyo’s mother and is strangely obsessed with Miyo.
Unfortunately, Kiyoka fails to notice any of these red flags. There are so many things in his mind that he disregards a snake that could possibly wreak havoc on his home and put his future wife in danger. To be fair, Kiyoka does become highly suspicious of Arata by the end of this episode, but it’s clear that the damage is done and there is more to come. Somehow or another, the man has succeeded in laying the foundations for his nefarious plan. Kiyoka’s insistence on doing everything by himself has clouded his mind from seeing the snake that has been around him for quite some time.
You Can’t Handle The Truth!
The decision to not share their burden with each other in order to not worry their loved ones is certainly understandable. However, there is a clear merit in speaking your mind. For starters, it’s highly likely that your significant others will appreciate your openness and your willingness to ask for their opinions on the matter. Furthermore, being open to each other will allow both parties to make a decision that can solve both of their problems.
Ironically, those are the things that both Kiyoka and Miyo expect from their partner yet fail to do so themselves. They thought that by taking on everything by themselves, they would spare their partner from unnecessary worries. What they may not realize, however, is the fact there is a limit to how many burdens one person can take on until they are overwhelmed. By the end of this episode, both Kiyoka and Miyo are clearly overwhelmed.
The truth of the matter, however, there is something that prevents this new couple from sharing their thoughts and worries. To Kiyoka, sharing his thoughts and worries with Miyo is akin to admitting that he is unable to protect the first woman that he truly loves. To Miyo, sharing her thoughts and worries with Kiyoka is the same as admitting that she is nothing but a burden to him and that she can’t do anything for him. They can’t handle the thought of this being the truth, so they opt to stay silent.
These kinds of thoughts and assumptions stem from the kind of life that they have lived thus far, and it will take time, honesty, and perhaps some drastic measures or tragic events to change this way of thinking. Hopefully, that is what we’ll see in the next episode.