Small touches and cuddling are pregame for intimacy. Men are built more like a light switch and women are a control panel where you have to push certain buttons to make the experience more pleasurable once "the big game" comes around. So being a bit awkward at establishing too much or too little is the double-edged sword of getting them to that better moment.
And, also, it's likely because he's asking for it more due to stress.
Korea is still very very old fashioned where PDA is a huge no no. It’s lightening up but it’s still gawked at so most people keep that indoors. The issue with almost never seeing PDA in public is that it makes it hard to normalise private non sexual affection since sex is the one that most people save as an exclusively private affair. Jiah and mincheol used to act like brother and sister as kids so now that they are married and actually have genuine feelings for each other, all of this is new to them and add on the fact that being openly affectionate isn’t a social norm, it’s hard to BECOME affectionate. It’s why there’s a stereotype that Korean men are bad lovers since they want to hide you away and Korean women become very possessive (this is a stereotype with foreigners). Once you start to normalise intimacy and physical displays of affection, it’s quite hard to stop.
Am I the only one who lowkey still doesn’t understand why they so shy now being touchy and hugging? I mean we ended last season with mincheol picking her up midday to have intimacy, so why did we do a 180?