Our resident amnesiac circles back to the vignettes of his past, while those around him scramble to keep up the facade. Alas, the fault lines have long been etched into their relationships, and the widening cracks are about to drive them all apart.
EPISODES 11-12
Basking in the afterglow of their kiss, Gun invites Joo-yeon to stay the night at his grandma’s house. It’s empty, since she’s abroad, and the pair stargaze in the front yard while Gun reminisces about his childhood memories. They fall asleep next to each other in the car’s trunk, serene and contented.
Morning dawns upon the media day at the athlete’s village, but Shin’s camera anxiety has him avoiding all the interviews. When Joo-yeon approaches him to talk, Shin opens up about his imposter syndrome — he’s been walking in his brother’s shoes for so long that he fears the cameras will expose him as an empty shell.
In turn, Joo-yeon advises him to acknowledge that feeling, and grow accustomed to it. She empathizes sincerely — she isn’t without struggles either — and that finally spurs Shin to take it one step at a time, together. Holding out a marker, he asks her for a talisman to cheer him on, and she draws a cute smiley face on his palm.
Unfortunately for our little spitfire, she can’t run away forever. Sae-yan’s mom has flown in to urge her back home and discourage her search for her biological father. After all, Sae-yan’s Italian stepfather had taken them in back when they’d been penniless, and they ought to be grateful instead of inciting his fury. Overhearing, Gun comes to Sae-yan’s defense by spinning a case about her work visa — only to panic later once he learns her dad is part of the biggest mafia syndicate in Italy, lol.
Gun ends up whisked along on Sae-yan’s hunt for her father, and as they traipse through their hometown, a villager recognizes Gun and recounts a memory. There had been a period of time when Gun refused to speak or go to school: “Someone died because of that child.” The words trigger a migraine, and Gun nearly jumps into the creek again, chasing his memories. His first love had pulled a young Gun out of the water, then searched for the medal on his behalf — but the girl hadn’t resurfaced, leaving Gun to shout futilely across the silent creek. Oh no…
Shaken by the memory, Gun rushes back to the training center, sweeping Joo-yeon up into a hug. “Don’t leave,” he pleads. “I thought you died because of me.” She reassures him that she isn’t going anywhere, embracing him in return — and from afar, Shin witnesses this scene. Wounded, he heads straight for the toilets, frantically scrubbing the smiley face off his palm.
Meanwhile, Sae-yan’s run into trouble yet again — a jealous Shi-on immaturely spiked her drink with a laxative, then trapped her in a wetsuit. Unable to extricate herself from her predicament, Sae-yan latches onto the first person to walk past. Which just so happens to be Shin. With no other choice, Sae-yan pleads for him to help unzip her wetsuit, then shrivels up in shame afterwards. Guess they’re now even on the embarrassment front, at least.
Since Sae-yan won’t listen, her mom reaches out to Joo-yeon for help, since Joo-yeon is the only person Sae-yan has ever willingly followed. Joo-yeon reiterates that Sae-yan is a grown adult and can make her own decisions, but Sae-yan’s mom insists it’s for her own good — and for Joo-yeon’s too. Huh, I wonder what that means.
When Sae-yan’s mom reveals her previous involvement with Shin, Joo-yeon connects the dots and realizes Sae-yan is Gun’s actual first love. Reeling, she stands Gun up, opting to confront Shin at the swimming pool instead. Except Shin’s jaded and hurting, and he lashes out: “Why, did you catch feelings for Gun while acting as his first love?”
Then Shin notices Gun approaching, and impulsively — deliberately — pulls Joo-yeon into a forceful kiss. Ugh, not cool. Gun accosts Shin, and in their tussle, Shin ends up pushing Gun into the pool. Submerged in water again, Gun freezes up and blanks out, though he’s hauled to safety by the other two.
Subsequently, Joo-yeon avoids the issue entirely by occupying herself with household chores and rejecting both brothers’ calls. So much for her advice about facing problems and emotions head-on — she can’t bring herself to walk the talk. Instead, she cares in the most roundabout way possible. At her request, an overzealous Sae-yan nurses the feverish Gun (through hilariously questionable methods, but A for effort lol).
It’s at this worst possible time that Gun’s old emotion diary resurfaces. Joo-yeon finds it among her books — Sae-yan had taken it out from their mixed-up luggage — and it’s filled with entries about Gun’s first love and how he wants to see her again. Then later, when Joo-yeon is out, Shin pays her house a visit and accidentally stumbles upon the diary too.
Unsurprisingly, Joo-yeon is incensed when she returns home to find Shin playing cards with her mom in the living room. Shin attempts to defend himself — he couldn’t reach her any other way — then tells her he didn’t kiss her just to make Gun give up on her, but because he likes her. Coldly, Joo-yeon informs him she hadn’t known of his feelings, and doesn’t reciprocate anyway. (Um, you’re telling me his obvious flirting and date requests somehow flew right over your head?)
Right then, Gun walks in, piggy-backing a woozy Sae-yan who got drunk off the home remedy she attempted to make for him. Joo-yeon worriedly fusses over Sae-yan, and Gun pointedly asks why she isn’t concerned about him. He’s the one who’s been sick all day. Joo-yeon avoids answering, and when Shin purposely says things that can be taken the wrong way, she doesn’t correct him. Oy, these two are testing my patience.
As they leave, Gun challenges Shin to a game of tennis. In the heat of the match, Gun asks a pointed question about the neon bracelet Shin used to always wear — why isn’t he wearing it anymore? Did he, perhaps, lose it in the Han river? Ah, Gun saw that in his memory. Shaken, Shin freezes up, uncharacteristically missing the ball.
Later that night, Shin burns Gun’s emotion diary, but a mysterious person retrieves it after he’s gone. The next day, Shin receives a message with a photo of the emotion diary and the brothers’ bridge altercation. The anonymous sender asks to meet, but it goes awry when Director Hong’s men waylay an innocent fan instead. Shin chases after the escaping blackmailer, even running into the path of a car in the process, but he doesn’t manage to catch up before the episode ends.
Whew, as if our leads don’t already have enough on their plate to contend with! I can’t help but feel the emphasis on the (messy) romance is detracting from the Lee family’s redemption arc, because the focus is no longer on Gun healing from his perceived worthlessness, but on tracking down his lost love. That aside, I have to admit I grew quite exasperated with our leads this week. (Thank goodness for our sunshine Sae-yan, at least.)
Shin is acting like a spurned lover, when he’s the one who got ahead of himself after falling head over heels. Joo-yeon isn’t entirely blameless either; she did inadvertently lead him on by being wilfully oblivious, and she never properly set boundaries with either brother. It’s a mess all around, and I need these two to start communicating properly — not just with each other, but also the people around them.
As for Gun, he’s gleaned an intriguing piece of information from the police — Shin had been soaking wet down to his shoes, despite people usually removing their footwear before diving in to rescue someone. I wonder if that implies Shin fell in first, and Gun injured himself trying to save him? That would be a nice mirroring of his childhood experience, but it wouldn’t explain why the incident is grounds for blackmail. Hmm. Maybe all our leads should just stay away from large bodies of water until they have their feelings sorted out.