Heart, be still! Or thank goodness for Korean cable TV. These are adults and their feelings are adult and the skinship is adult and ... I AM IN LOVE! I must admit, I have been in a KDrama crisis (aka Kdrama slump) ever since Heartless City ended last year. Nothing grabbed my attention for long or truly warmed my heart, all the countless and ever-same issues with KDrama (mediocre idol acting! unsatisfactory scripts! sudden makjang!) even made me turn away from them completely over the Holiday Season. This drama on the other hand makes me remember why I loved them in the first place: So. Friggin. Good!
Episode 5
We are back at Han Joon-Mo's
nice apartment, where our two ex-spouses pick up clothes for their son, when super-jealous brat makes a sudden appearance at the door. (Her name is Kyung-joo, by the way. Since she doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, we probably need to learn it?) A short moment of utter panic is the result, but when she enters the apartment, all happy and gleaming to be surprising her beloved oppa, there is no sign of Jung-wan: "Oppa" has hidden her in the study!
But the very eager soon-to-be-wife wants to go put their wedding picture, which she framed as a present for him, into his office. Omo! He cannot hold her back, but when she bursts in, Jung-wan has already hidden under the desk. She is almost caught (you need better shoes, woman, shoes that stay on your feet!) and then, suddenly overcome with great tenderness for her oppa, the spoilt brat starts seriously kissing ex-husband, right there in front of Jung-wan. Han Joon-Mo is of course mortally embarrassed (cause he's a nice guy). He steers her out of the apartment as quickly as possible. Once they're gone, Jung-wan pulls a face ... not so much fun seeing your ex kissing another woman, huh?
Ji-hyun brings her angelic husband to the car, commenting on how hard he is working. But he has important business to take care of (yup, investing into Oh/Ahn's movie!), so there's no way around it. He talks about Ahn and how much he likes him. He simply doesn't understand why a guy as nice as him is single/divorced and asks his wife whether a blind data with, for example, Sun-mi would be a good idea? Uhm ... no?! LOL. Before he drives off, he asks her to take particular care of Sera again, who told them she is ill.
Sigh, Sera ... poor girl. She is on the phone, talking to a nurse at an abortion clinic about an appointment. Her mother, coming back from seeing off her husband, interrupts her by demanding entry to her room, actually getting quite agitated about the fact that her door is locked. When Sera opens, her mother immediately starts to search her room for alcohol: that's how much she trusts her daughter. They shout at each other again. It really hurts to see those two and their complete inability to communicate with each other.
Sera "flees" to her grandmother again, partly out of spite for her mother, partly because she needs money for the abortion. She gets the money easily pretending that it is for entertaining a friend and goes to the clinic immediately. But when she is lying on the table as the nurse preps for the operation, she cannot get the sound of her baby's heart beat out of her head, the heart beat she heard during the ultrasound earlier. She jumps up and runs outside, ending up retching and crying her eyes out in an alley away from the main crowd.
Ahn Do-young looks at pictures of himself and Ji-hyun (on a smart phone? hm. there were no smart phones back then, so are we to believe he put them on there much later?) and then calls somebody. It is a guy that knows Ji-hyun's brother - and more importantly, knows
where he currently is. Ahn now also knows and he immediately goes to the restaurant. Ah, these are good people ... when he asks them what happened, why Ji-hyun didn't follow him to the US (he had given her dad the ticket), the truth finally comes out: Ji-hyun's brother took money from Ahn's parents; he was in trouble after an accident, and Ahn's parents wanted them apart. Hm ... is that the truth? Not the full truth! The niece says that people think she looks a lot more like "aunt" than her father (Ji-hyun's brother)? *suspicious* ... omg! It is indeed confirmed later that Sera's cousin isn't her cousin at all, but her half-sister! Nobody knows that, though, but for Ji-hyun's close family, i.e. dad and brother.
When Ahn drives away, he crosses paths with Ji-hyun, who just arrives in her car. They don't see each other. But when she steps into her family's restaurant, she overhears her father and brother talk about Ahn's visit just now ... and she hears all about the money. She cries and wails, but what does that help her? Anyway, I am glad the truth is out, because we can now move on to the next chapter!
Sun-mi has a meeting with her gang, about props and costumes. When
she steps out for a phone call, she overhears some other employees (PD Park among
them, that's Director Oh's right-hand man) discussing the need to work
on a contract instead of going location hunting. Obviously, a crazy idea pops into her head, because she goes outside and kicks in one of
her own side mirrors. Yes... It's always a good idea to destroy one's
property when you want to get close to someone else! Jeez, woman ...
She gets what she wanted: a ride with Oh-boy alone, while her
two employees bring her car to the repair shop and order some stuff she
claims she has "forgotten".
Oh-boy and Sun-mi check out
locations together. He takes pictures of her again, she pretends to be
all shy about it, eeek, with a lot of
aegyo.
Flirt mode... activated!!! He quotes lines from the movie they are going
to shoot, she thinks for a moment he just told her he loves
her. Silly girl ... doesn't get it ... They also have a friendly and
once again flirty conversation on their way back, in which she "agrees"
to buy him a meal for the photos he took (after telling him she did that
for another guy, hint-hint). He is incredibly charming (he probably isn't aware of his affect on women?!) and she seems to
be falling more in love by the minute.
Earlier, we learnt that there is construction work going on somewhere in Sun-mi's apartment building and
the dog is going crazy because of it. She needs someone to take care of
him - for obvious reasons, Jung-wan can't help, but Puppy can! Ohhhhh
.... a puppy with a puppy!! Loooook! So cute ... He takes puppy to a friend's place.
Waiting
for her at home when she gets back from her trip with Director Oh is the sweet Boy, bringing back her puppy.
She seems delighted to see the one puppy but not the other. When he
tries to kiss her goodbye (she quasi kicks him out) she turns her face away. He is still smiling though, probably thinking
that his noona is cute, but for how much longer? This is really mean. I
am waiting for the moment when she stops just using him as a rebound
guy and develops real feelings for him - and I hope he will then play
hard to get.
After seeing her ex kissing his new bride, Jung-wan spends the night with her kid at the hospital -
she hardly sleeps. No easy life, this one has ... Her mother comes in
the morning, comments on her panda look and orders her to sleep a bit
more, right there in her sons' hospital bed ... only "a bit more" turns
out to be much too much!
She
rushes out, loses one of her shoes (again?) and gets drenched in a
sudden downpour. The emergency umbrella that she buys doesn't live long
either. The poor woman has an appointment at the court, about the issue
with the house: I think she is applying for a loan? Quickly drying her
hair under the dryer in the toilet (I hoped for a moment that the
perm would disappear, but alas ...) she gets there just in time. She is
lucky, the clerk is the funny security guard from Master's Sun! But ...
not so lucky after all. She has to answer a lot of questions about her
financial situation; the clerk doubts that she can make the monthly
payments she needs to (cause being a writer means not having a steady
income) and warns her that she will default if she cannot pay three of
them. She claims to have "confidence" but the look on her face says
otherwise.
Jung-wan is in the conference room, thinking about the conversation she had with the clerk, about her situation as a (still) unsuccessful writer with no money. She has a cute and heart wrenching phone call with her son as well: he kills me with his sincerity and love for his mother. And in comes Oh-boy! He jests around, not meaning any harm of course, telling her in his teasing way to try harder and behave age appropriately, since she has a kid and all. But of course, this is not at all funny to her - it's hitting far too close to home. She bursts into tears. Oh-Boy and Park PD look at her puzzled (and a bit guilty, at least Oh-boy. As he should).
Eeek, it's a bit awkward at the restaurant they go to after that... Oh grumpily apologizes for his harsh humor - but did she really need to cry like that? She made him look right a bad guy. Pretty soon, PD Park excuses himself, his honey wants him home! (wink-wink, they are newlyweds) When they're alone, Oh apologizes again - but she doesn't carry a grudge and think she acted really pathetically. She confirms that she has been having a hard day - and in general, aging is hard on women. Oh, but he? He likes maturity in women!!! She calls him a liar, since it's a well known fact that men always prefer the younger ones - but he is quite adamant that a woman's true beauty only develops in her 30s.
They decide to go to a
noraebang together. Incredible cuteness follows... Oh-boy sings to her, she sings to him (is she doing an S.E.S. song?! Ah, no ... thanks to my readers, I now know it is Hyuna's Bubble Pop). He is (mainly) trying to make her laugh and succeeds (by mimicking a boy band!!! Beast, in fact). It is also clear as day that these two people like each other. A lot. When they get to the slower songs, he sings that she is a beautiful woman.
At that, she gets all melancholic again, but she doesn't let it show: when he has finished, she claps cheerfully and gives him 85 points for his song. He is mock-offended that she dares judging him: she should consider herself lucky to be among the few women in Korea he has sung to.
Kissing couples on their
noraebang screen let her heave a sigh ... how long has it been since she kissed? She is briefly embarrassed to be talking to this almost-stranger (and man!) about this, but she has had enough beer to get over her embarrassment quickly. She tells him about what happened today at her ex-husband's place, somewhat still troubled by it, and they start talking about kissing more generally. She says she misses it a lot (woman! what are you doing?!) - he says it must be only been about a year since she last kissed - isn't that when she divorced? But she replies that married people stop kissing after a while, a thing he obviously cannot know since he has never been married. Her lips are completely useless now. Ahhh, he goes ... since she doesn't have any other lips, should he lend her his?
Oh. My. Gawwwwwd.
Hell yeah. Of course, he doesn't have to say that twice (though he probably wasn't completely serious when he said it). She DOES use them by initiating a rather passionate (but also short) kiss. Hmmm, I love
everything about that kiss, his surprise when their lips meet, him closing his eyes almost immediately, even his slight passiveness - maybe due to the surprise of being kissed by her or maybe because he is such a gentleman, leaving the initiative to her.
She breaks off, looking truly shocked to have done this, he on the other hand ... looks on fire. His service has ended now, he says huskily, this time, it's for real. He leans in again and kisses her back, not holding back this time... oh, boy! Oh-boy must be a really good kisser, considering the small excited squeaks she makes.
Woah! Get a room, people! This is getting so heated, I expect them to start ripping off clothes next. But she pushes him away, suddenly embarrassed and very aware of him, her short skirt, their situation ... with a last distraught look at him, she rushes out, past him. He doesn't hold her back, even though he clearly wants to, but does this incredibly cute thing where he touches his lips in surprise and smiles sweetly to himself, like a boy that got a treat he didn't expect.
The next morning when she gets to the office, Oh seems to have told everybody about the kissing. Her colleagues are all smiley and "wow, well done", and Jung-wan is mortified!
She goes into the meeting room, where Oh-boy is his usual snarky-collected self ... She is furious he told everybody, but he presses her against the wall and leans in (*gulp*), but ... instead of kissing her again, Director Oh starts barking at her. Huh?!
Jung-wan open her eyes in surprise and realizes she is still on the couch in Sun-mi's apartment. Hahaha, it was just a dream!
The real meeting that morning is slightly different. Of course, Oh Kyung-Soo hasn't told anybody, cause he is NOT the type to kiss and tell. Jung-wan is super nervous in his presence though. When they are finally alone afterwards, she takes heart and approaches him: she wants to apologize. She made a mistake last night, and it's all due to the alcohol. But ... that's absolutely
not how he sees it. A mistake? Certainly not on his part. It is clear to him that they kissed because they have feelings for each other - and he wants to know her better, wants her to consider being together with him.
But she cannot believe he is serious. Him and her? He must be joking: They don't live in the same world. Not even close. He is way up there, while she is way down here. And, in addition, she doesn't even have time or energy to think of men. So stop joking, Oh Kyung-soo: it was a mistake. It will not happen again. And she leaves him standing there, scratching his head in frustration.
Comments
Oh man! What an episode!!! It feels SO GOOD to be falling in love with a drama. Who am I kidding, I AM in love! Finally, after so long, a romance (even rom-com, cause there is plenty of funny in this one) comes along that doesn't do anything else than just deliver the warm fuzziness somewhere in the area of the heart/stomach, stemming from watching two people fall in love. Sure, there's heartbreak ... but hey, there also is cuteness, cuteness, cuteness! And ahjussis!!!And Uhm Tae-woong!
I can fully relate to Jung-wan's character. Her life has been so difficult, IS so difficult, and she lives in a society in which divorced women still face major difficulties. It is unfathomable for her that a man as desirable as Oh Kyung-soo could want someone like her. That said, he got it right: they BOTH have feelings for each other. But while she is still in denial, he is not. What will he do to get her to open up?! I still don't like Eugene's hair, but I must say, I am pleasantly surprised by her acting. It was a bit choppy in the beginning, but by this episode, she has fully grown into her character and is both believable and adorable. It will be wonderful to see her (futile) struggle against her attraction for him, and at the same time see her grow more confident of herself and her status.
The Ji-hyun - Ahn Do-young arc is a bit ... well, too well-worn. It's like every melo trope ever and then some. A child? Puleeease! Was that really necessary? Anyway, from here on out, the question is how she will deal with the truth, that has been revealed now. The man she hated
for breaking her heart into tiny pieces and stomping on it is completely innocent. And what will he do? He is such a nice person - of course, he will not want to butt in. She is married with children, and seemingly happy. While I am not overly interested in that part of the story, I still stay mildly curious about how their relationship will be handled.
As for Sun-mi ... she only has eyes for Oh Kyung-soo, who has no eyes for her. I feel pity for her (that pity could soon turn into dislike!), but I also hope she will be punished for mistreating Choi Yoon-Seok, who just wants to make her happy. I hope that punishment comes in the form of heartache ... because Yoon-seok will no longer simply be used by her and she will realize at the same time that she genuinely likes him.
