Love for a Thousand More - Episode 9&10 FINAL (A Mini-Squeecap)

 

Episode 9: Are We Too Different to Stay Together?

Cold Open: Repeats the end of episode 8 when Junu and the laptop guy see how Mi-Jo heals completely after being hit by a car.
After credits: Junu clearly has piggybacked Mi-Jo all the way home. In the apartment, she tells him she is okay. He asks her what just happened, and she goes to show him the matching ring she has and tells him that she is the woman he saw as a boy. He’s keeping it together, but you can tell he’s freaking out on the inside. She goes on to tell him that she can’t die or get old. He asks if this is why she was pushing him away, and she agrees. She tells him that even though he says he loves her, there isn’t anything she can do, and he will come to see her as a monster. She says that now he should have no regrets and should just go away. He wants to say something, but what can he say? He leaves. Mi-Jo begins to cry.

It's so sad.
Sob.

While Junu walks around the town unseeingly into the evening, Mi-Jo is in her apartment packing, looking fairly bereft. Jason shows up with aegyo and drinks but immediately reads the mood and becomes the Jason about whom I want to know more—serious, comforting. He tells her that he will follow her and that he won’t leave her alone no matter what. When he puts his hand on her shoulder, she leans into him. 
I'm starting to think I was wrong about Jason and that he actually is a decent guy. If he would just tone down the aegyo and maybe scale back on the hair cream...
I always thought he was a decent guy.

Next day shows us Yeon-Ji at a bench in the park looking sad. Hyunsik shows up and sits next to her, asking her outright if she likes Junu. She doesn’t answer, but he says he likes Junu, too, because he’s more like a mom than just a friend. He tells her that Junu was the one who taught him how to use chopsticks (really?  In South Korea? I was assuming that they've known each other since they were small then) and how to be more patient. Yeon-Ji comments how Junu really does act like a grown up. They agree that’s why they like him, but now they need to act like grownups, too.
I am now confused because nothing about that reads as HyunSik being into Junu, but I totally believed that HyunSik had a thing for him.

Mi-Jo is really making headway in packing her things. When she comes across the Krunk Soul CD (the little bit of music we've heard doesn't "krunk"), she thinks back on different scenes of her and Junu. Unfortunately, her memory doesn’t end with the good things but with her last memory of her telling him to leave. That night she makes ink (I love this) and settles in to write him a letter filled with life advice based on her long experience with living.
'Dear Junu, I'm leaving, but before I go let me tell you how to do absolutely everything, so that you never forget me and are miserable.'
Seems good enough.

Junu is sitting by their tree, remembering the odd story that Mi-Jo told during the Liar’s Game, realizing now that just like his story wasn’t a lie, neither was hers. Before he can think about that anymore he gets a ping on his phone which makes him realize that he’s missed several calls from Yeon-Ji asking him if he is coming to their concert that night.

He shows up backstage, and Yeon-Ji has her say. She asserts that even though in the past she wanted him to be her boyfriend, she now just hopes they can remain friends. More than that though, she tells him to be a man—to not think of anything else than what is deep inside his heart. She then gives him Mi-Jo’s letter that she found at their studio space. She doesn’t break down until after she has left the room. Can I say how much I loved her for this speech? She should give workshops to female 2^nd leads. Maybe she could go into partnership with Mi-Jo in the love counseling business to subsidize her music career.
Yeon Ji deserves a glitter banner, Trot.
Aw, I love Yeon Ji.

The letter, which makes Junu smile, is full of miscellaneous advice to keep him healthy. (from variety shows, I've often noticed that Korean advice on how to stay healthy is different from what we hear in the West.  Of course, I can't remember any of it now.) Of course, this makes him run off and makes me worried about how much time he has before their concert is to start.

Although, cleaning teeth daily is probably good advice across all cultures...

Mi-Jo is waiting with all her packed things, thinking about her two options—Junu and Jason. Jason shows up with a briefcase (that’s it?) and aegyo ready to go.
Knickers and a toothbrush is all you need, according to one of my well-traveled friends. And then she whispers, 'the knickers are optional, actually...'

Post-credits: Mi-Jo is having a counseling session with a child actress who is struggling to decide between two boys at her school that she likes. Mi-Jo isn’t listening because she is trying to make her own choice. She finally tells the girl that she’s on her own.
Child actress should go for an option 3.

Episode 10: Forever in Love: Romance Tips

No Cold Open. I get why they didn't have one, but I loved the cold opens in this show and would've loved a last one. Instead we see Junu booking it through town, running back to the apartment building from the concert venue. He gets there in time to see Mi-Jo and Jason looking like they are ready to leave. He runs to her, telling her that he thought of her as a monster and that he loves her. She tries to speak, but he envelops her in a hug. She tells him that they will break up and get hurt. He says what couple starts like this and that they need to live in the moment. He asks her not to go away with Jason. Woohoo!!
Yes!
Yay!

But wait. Have we been tricked? Because right after this we go back to where we left off at the end of the last episode with Jason showing up with his briefcase and aegyo, ready to go. However, Mi-Jo apologizes to him and tells him that she is staying (woohoo!!). She has realized that she had stopped living and enjoying life connecting to people like he does. She’s decided that she really wants to live her life.
So was she saying goodbye to Jason, then? Why would he need to leave if she's not leaving?
I don't understand that either.  Besides, he's the one person who really understands her situation. 

He looks sad but remains smiling at her asking if she really likes the guy upstairs. She doesn’t answer. He asks, without a shred of rancor, if she is okay knowing that one day she will get hurt and they will break up and if she is okay with that. She nods and says she’s fine with Junu.
I mean, it's not Kim Shin choosing to wander the Void for ten years on the off-chance that Eun Tak will call for him, but it's still something.

We cut back to that scene outside from before. I’m wondering now if they really meant to have that bit earlier as the cold open. It would’ve made more sense and not made me think it was all in her mind if they had done it that way. Junu is bashfully asking whether or not she is really not leaving. When she confirms that she isn’t leaving, he grins broadly and then grabs her hand telling her he has to show her something (I’m thinking he better be getting his ass back to that concert venue), and they run off. Jason, cheerfully calls out to her “Mi-Jo, come back to me when you break up with him. I can wait a hundred years!!!” She waves over her shoulder.
He really is a nice guy, whaddya know.
Very sweet.

Krunk Soul concert: Some rapper, Micro-dot, is rapping. He’s the opening act, so when he is done, he introduces Krunk Soul. However, Junu hasn’t shown up. Hyunsik goes out to the expectant crowd and does some weird voice/sound stuff into the microphone while I and the audience cringe from embarrassment. Finally, Junu shows up with Mi-Jo (so they were going to the concert after all, thank goodness!). They, of course, sing his song—the full version. We get a bit of a montage of them together and Mi-Jo in voice over saying that she doesn’t know what is going to happen in the future but she wants to keep this moment forever in her heart.

The next scene has them in the apartment unpacking her stuff. Junu is upset that she really was planning to leave. He wants to know where she was planning to go. She tells him, only half teasing, that she was planning on going somewhere where he couldn’t find her, which upsets him. He tells her that he doesn’t ever want her to hide from him. When she says that will depend on him, he leans in close getting all flirty with her. Instead of kissing him senseless at the obvious invitation (like any sane person), she bangs two pots together to make him back off.
Because she can't help being the 1000 year old granny she really is.  Junu is gonna have to work for his bride.
I know she looks young, but isn't it weird to date someone so young compared to herself?  Still, love is love.

She is worried though about the laptop guy and what he’s going to say since he saw her, too. Junu says he has an idea.

Cue to next group meeting. The woman and the glasses guy clearly don’t’ know what is going on. However, the laptop guy turns and says “Dr. Wang, do you really think I have mythomania?” (This is a real diagnosis. I looked it up http://health.ccm.net/faq/1326-mythomaniac-definition) He says he knows what he saw and wishes he had a witness. Of course, Junu is conveniently there . . . to deny everything. This makes laptop guy very angry. Especially when he makes the connection between everything Mi-Jo has been saying at these meetings with what he saw. However, this just confirms to the visiting doctor that he is delusional. The worst thing about this is that this is the last time we see Junu.
Plus it's a really mean trick.
Yes, it wasn't nice.

Next scene we have Jason fresh from a shower wiping down the condensation off of an old looking mirror. This is not aegyo Jason, but hot namja Jason who refers to “my Mi-Jo” when he is wondering what she is doing right now. We flashback to when Mi-Jo is given the immortal elixir by the masked stranger, a scene that we have seen before. There is a close up of the stranger’s tattoo which transitions to the shot of that tattoo on Jason’s arm! He says into the mirror that he can wait as he has already waited a 1000 years for her.
Well hot damn. I demand a second season, set about 70 years in the future. Let Junu have his time, but come ON. How can we not have Jason win the woman he's waited a thousand years for? That he MADE IMMORTAL? And how did that happen? Did they know each other? Did he just happen on her and fall in love with a dying stranger? I need answers.
Me too.  And why wait so long when he could've just approached her before?  And how long has he lived?  And how did he make her immortal?  And what the heck is he?

Post-credits: Hyunsik is in for a counseling session with Mi-Jo, and he’s clearly been there a long time not saying anything. Mi-Jo is tapping her back scratcher impatiently. He finally confesses to never having a girlfriend. I love how she whips out her magnifying glass to take a closer look at him again since she feels that he is too handsome to not have had a girlfriend. Is she missing something?  He does confess that he has a crush, which makes Mi-Jo excited. He even describes her in saeguk speak. So cute! He tells her the person is Yeon-Ji, but he’s concerned that girls don’t like guys without experience. We end the show with Mi-Jo promising to make him the most wanted man in the country.
I...what? I wasn't wrong thinking that at certain points the show kind of made it seem like HyunSik was into Junu. Was that supposed to make Yeon Ji like him, because he would be someone who wasn't into girls that she 'converted'? I don't like this.
Hyunsik's feelings for Junu were just one-sided bromance, for those who like that sort of thing. 

Comment

I was really disappointed with that last bit. I’m glad that Hyunsik got some air time because I really like him, especially his saeguk speak, but no more with Junu and Mi-Jo, who frankly had more chemistry together than many leads in full-length dramas?

I also really want a second season all about Jason now. He makes me think of the fairly annoying fancyman Don Diego de la Vega by day to become the masked crusader Zorro at night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB8tiSMCwRE or Sir Percy in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Childhood crushes. Yes.
Hyunsik's childhood crush?

Overall, I did enjoy this show. It held up to rewatching for squeecaps much better than Thumping Spike, but maybe that is because it focused on less characters with more serious themes of losing and loving. I hope that Hwang Seung Eon gets more parts because she is good in both and I see an improvement here.
I just like her. I want to see her again because she makes me smile.
She's lovely, and her acting is brilliant.