This week we get to know our main characters a bit more. Whether it’s dreams they lost, dreams they forgot, or secrets they’re trying to keep, it’s clear our OTP is intertwined in all the ways… and that they care about each other more than they pretend not to.
EPISODES 3-4
Despite being cute and engaging (I’m enjoying it, I swear!) Week 2 has left me a bit disappointed with the writing. While I really like the thematic focus of each episode, the episodes are starting to feel like a bunch of coincidental circumstances and emotional happenings just to create the crescendo — the scene we came to see. Sure, plot should lead to delicious moments like this drama is curating for us, but when it starts to feel fabricated and predictable that’s a hint that the writing isn’t holding up.
In Episode 3 our main focus is dreams. Seung-hyo lost his, Seok-ryu can’t find hers, and never the twain shall meet. We learn through a super cute series of flashbacks to high school (which the show spends a lot of time doing) that Seung-hyo was a great swimmer and even made it onto the national team. But then when a random Truck of Predictable Swimmer Plot Doom hit him, he had to give up his dream. Perky Seok-ryu finally got him out of his depression, and honestly, if you like this storyline, just go watch Lovely Runner instead — it’s proof that these tropes can still have life if you write them well.
Seung-hyo might have lost his first dream of swimming, but he truly loves his present dream of being an architect, and in these episodes we see his idealism at play (more on that later). Seok-ryu, though, realizes through a series of deepish thoughts, that she never had her own dreams. Her dreams were always based on others’ perception of her, or expectations of her, or how her life looked from the outside. This “reboot” season of hers is proving really helpful for her — I love that it’s in the quiet and the daily schedule of nothing that she realizes this about herself.
It comes to a head when she’s asked by her once-homeroom teacher to speak in front of a class of high schoolers. As is Seok-ryu’s MO, she leans on their being impressed by her, and her identity as an over-achiever. But when she can’t answer their question about what she dreamed of being, that’s when she realizes she doesn’t know herself very well. (This is a great thematic bit, and I hope this stays as Seok-ryu’s primary arc!)
Because Seok-ryu is an oddball, she believes if only she can read the letter she wrote to her future self as a high-schooler, she’ll immediately be able to reclaim her old dreams. We all know it doesn’t work like that, but her slapdash, not-so-clever way of banging through life is what makes this character endearing.
While she’s at the high school, who does she run into but Seung-hyo. He’s there for work, dreaming of putting in a bid to rebuild the school’s gym (aka, the place where his swimming dreams died). All through these episodes Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu are in a continuous cycle of sparring, bickering, or supporting each other. It’s cute for now, but it’ll get old fast if this is the main dynamic of their adult relationship. So, I’m hoping the show reveals more maturity between them by the end of our show. Because I will be seriously annoyed if the end point of our drama is these two bickering like teenagers to the tune of the wedding march. Anyway.
At their high school, Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu try to locate and dig up the time capsule (and letters to self) they once buried, but it takes the whole episode for it to happen — and honestly, if you like this storyline, just go watch Lovely Runner.
Later, Seung-hyo finally has the time capsule, and our leads are both coincidentally at the school again. Because this is a K-drama, our leads wind up chasing each other around the indoor pool, when Seung-hyo jumps in to escape Seok-ryu’s wrath for reading her letter. Is it me or did it suddenly get hot in here? (Seriously, what is it about heroes and pools?) Seok-ryu — who cannot swim — jumps in after him, and we all know how this goes. There was never a pool scene in dramaland that didn’t lead to serious sexual tension and/or skinship, and it’s obvious at this point that this entire plot arc – and entire episode — were building to this moment.
After their bickering quiets, we cut back to the pool, where Seung-hyo is teaching Seok-ryu how to float in the water. This moment, in and of itself, is incredibly intimate, but then as they’re talking he asks her if she regrets leaving her big-name company, and she says no. Then he asks if she regrets breaking off her engagement, and she says no again. Just then, Seok-ryu loses her floating confidence, Seung-hyo grabs her securely, and it’s such a perfect, loaded moment that I want to bask in it for much longer than the drama lets us. (They squabble their way out of that scene and break the tension.)
Our next episode continues Seok-ryu’s search for her dreams. But much to Seok-ryu’s disappointment (and our non-surprise) hubris-filled teenage Seok-ryu didn’t know her dream then either outside of words like “best” and “prettiest.” Seung-hyo’s letter, however, reveals a truth we suspected last week: he has loved her since forever and honestly, if you like this storyline, just go watch Lovely Runner. “But not anymore!” Seung-hyo tries to convince himself, being all kinds of awkward trying to hide the letter from Seok-ryu, and the contents of the letter from his own heart. Good luck with that.
While all this dream-searching and time together is happening, there’s a lot going on in the background for Seung-hyo and his company Atelier In. He’s moved back to his parents house because plot reasons, and their family environment is as cold as ice and a stark contrast to the loud, emotional, vibrant house Seok-ryu grew up in next door. At work, his company is struggling, and Seung-hyo’s high ideals won’t pay for their brand new building or wacky employee.
Unfortunately/fortunately, Seung-hyo would rather work on the high school gym remodeling project for nostalgia and closure when there’s also a mega deal on their plate to build some luxury housing. Seung-hyo can literally not stomach the snobbery of these people, and as that prospect crashes and burns, he has an argument with his partner YOON MYUNG-WOO (Jeon Suk-ho) about the company. Just when they’re continuing to flail, another deal appears on the horizon: a building for… Greip! That’s right, the very company that Seok-ryu left. And to quote her directly, she’s not sure “if I quit or they forced me out.”
It’s at this point where this week’s writing really suffered for me — and I don’t mean the motley attempt at business-level English, although that was pretty bad too — but just overall, this entire arc felt contrived. Of all the companies to reach out, it’s Seok-ryu’s. Of all the people to send them the email expressing interest, it’s a woman Seok-ryu knows. And when they all meet together in Seoul, who appears but a slimy ex-coworker CHRIS who once made a living mockery out of her. (Okay, points to the writer for this guy not being her ex-fiancé, which I was convinced was happening at first).
In case you’re wondering why Seok-ryu is attending business meetings with Seung-hyo and Myung-woo, it’s because they hired her on the spot to help them with their English and with any intelligence she had around Greip to help them win the bid. Seok-ryu tries to talk Seung-hyo out of it, telling him they’re an awful company and she overheard that the bid is just for show, but his ideals hold and he stays the course.
This all culminates in a giant mess of a meeting between Greip and Atelier In where the tensions rise the more this Chris character acts out. And the present-day scene is interspersed with the humiliation Seok-ryu dealt with from him back in the U.S., and Seok-ryu is so traumatized she gets up and runs out.
Seok-ryu’s upsetness leads to a confrontation with Chris which leads to the moment this was all written for: Seung-hyo rushes onto the scene in hero mode and protects her while Seok-ryu puts Chris in his place. Long story short, it actually ends quite well. The other Greip rep turns out to be quite human after all, and not only does Chris get fired, but the bid for one of the buildings is awarded to Atelier In.
This is all well and good, but this entire arc just felt so forced, from the way Seok-ryu was suddenly working for them to the way the reps were suddenly in Korea for a meeting. The passage of time felt off from the rest of the drama, but I guess if the sole purpose was for Seung-hyo’s (highly attractive) protectiveness to come out, I guess it was worth it? (Dramas are made for these moments, after all; I’m just used to strong lead-up, I think).
Frankly I’m also a little disappointed with our second lead loveline. After last week, paramedic Mo-eum left heart-eyes in reporter KANG DAN-HO (Yoon Ji-on) after her kindness, and I loved where we were heading.
This week, Dan-ho does the same for Mo-eum — attracting her attention with random kindness — but she doesn’t know the “superhero” she’s crushing on is him. And this is where it gets annoying, because the two characters who were constructed on selfless kindness and generosity are suddenly acting uncharacteristically petty this week. What happens is that Dan-ho’s just moved into their neighborhood, and every time he heads to the convenience store, he and Mo-eum want the exact same item and get into a squabble over it. I’m so over their squabbles already, and the impending reveal to Mo-eum that this is her dream man holds very little appeal, actually. Let’s hope they change it up next week because I was enjoying the random acts of kindness that were bringing them together; it was a refreshing bit of meet-cute, and I want it back.
Speaking of couples coming together, that’s the note we end on for Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu, too. In a bit of mirroring, we see how Seok-ryu glomped Seung-hyo when he won his swim competition back in the day. And now, in the present, she glomps him again when he gets the Greip deal. Poor Seung-hyo can barely keep it together, so perhaps he’s ready to admit to himself that the contents of the letter he wrote in high school are still extremely current.