Our fairy tale tackles childhood baggage and its aftermath this week, with a focus on love that comes from within. It’s a bit of a twist on the classic white-knight love that saves the day in most romance stories — but twists are what we’ve come to expect from this modern tale that follows none of the rules.
EPISODES 7-8
We left off last time with our heroine tied to a chair and our hero hugging her after knocking out the bad guys. This week, we drop back into that same scene, with Jae-rim acting like a badass and tying up her kidnappers before she and Cha-min walk out the door. But once she’s outside and away from harm, Jae-rim begins to cry. Cha-min makes her feel safe, and she realizes from his rescue that he does in fact care about her. But, she also wonders if his silence on the issue is because he thinks she’s not good enough for him.
But no. The truth is that Cha-min has serious trust issues when it comes to women — mostly concerning his mother running out on him (or so he thinks). And so, even though he wants to confess to Jae-rim, he can’t bring himself to do it. There’s also the fact that his father has told him that he must see women as stones (that’s where Cha-min got the idea) and that if he likes someone, Dad will disown him. Sheesh. Suffice it to say, Cha-min has some serious obstacles ahead if he wants to charm his lady love.
On the home front, Jae-rim gets in a skirmish with her step-sister and decides to leave the house that very night, ready to make it on her own in the world. She roams far from the city, out to a one-room shack where she and her father used to live when she was young and they were dirt poor. The place is unoccupied so she stays the night, but it has no water or heat (and it’s freaking cold).
The next day at work, Cha-min is still worried about the kidnapping (but don’t worry, he’s already threatened Dan-ah that he’ll call off the engagement if any other shady stuff happens). So, he’s teaching his staff self-defense. In practical terms, this means he and Jae-rim are hugging on a mat — until they start knocking each other down with strikes to the throat. Ah, these crazy kids. Pushing each other away metaphorically just isn’t enough for them.
In the middle of self-defense class, Do-hong shows up and wants to talk to Jae-rim one on one. The two walk off together — making Cha-min practically hallucinate with jealousy — and Do-hong tells Jae-rim that he’s fallen for her. She saw him for who he really is and she didn’t judge him, and now, he’s confident that he can love her, even if he doesn’t know her that well yet.
Jae-rim is conflicted. This is a real shot at her Cinderella dream, but she’s pretty sure Cha-min is harboring feelings for her and just won’t open up. To try to coax him to do so, she tells Cha-min that Do-hong asked her out in a straightforward manner because “he’s a real man.” That sets Cha-min off talking about how social hierarchies shouldn’t matter and if Do-hong thinks they do, she should watch out for him.
This kerfuffle provokes Jae-rim to test Cha-min’s class consciousness by inviting him to her shack for the night. She’s thinking: can he survive in that kind of place even for one night? And he’s thinking: OMG did she just invite me to spend the night with her? (I really do love how we get these gendered interior commentaries in this show that seem so ridiculously dead on.)
When they arrive, she wants to know if his opinion of her has changed now that he sees the level of poverty she once lived in. His answer is about as correct as they come: “Why would it? It’s not your fault you grew up poor.” And with that, he pulls the camping equipment out of his car (that just happens to be there) and they make ramen and chat in front of the shack.
The scene turns serious when she talks about the fight she just had with her step-family. Jae-rim feels like it’s her fault and starts saying unkind things about herself. But Cha-min doesn’t buy it. “You’ve been hating yourself for a long time,” he says, “viewing the world through the lens of hatred.” He reaches over and pretends to remove invisible glasses from her face. “I’ve removed the lens for you. Now take a good look at yourself. You’re a lovely child too.”
Jae-rim realizes that she’s been wanting to hear that from someone for her whole life. She’s always acted like she didn’t need anything from anyone, but now that she’s gotten what she needed, she begins to cry. And once the lens of self-hate is removed, she can see that if Cha-min can’t accept her, it’s something to do with him, and not because she’s not good enough.
Back inside the shack, our leads try to keep warm on a heating pad with a blanket around their shoulders. Cha-min is determined to stay and pass her test, but he suggests that she go to his place and wait it out there. She’d like to go, but when they get an alert about heavy snowfall on the way, she convinces him to go with her.
And so, now our pair is in a ginormous apartment with all the amenities — where Jae-rim can take a hot bath and relax. That is, if she can figure out how to shut off the water from the digital control panel before the tub overfills and floods the room.
She can’t. So she has to call Cha-min in to help. As he’s getting the water situation under control, he slips, falls backward, and lands on the floor — with her on top of him. That’s right, it’s a class K-drama kiss, with shocked faces and open eyes. But just as I’m thinking the biggest change-up is trading the usual trip-and-fall for a slip-and-fall, we get an even bigger surprise: Cha-min puts his hand to the back of Jae-rim’s head and pulls her in for a real kiss!
Only, he’s imagining it. (And I totally fell for it.) In real life, they get up off the floor and go to the living room, where Jae-rim gets a call to go home since her step-sister wants to make up. And while neither Cha-min nor Jae-rim really wants to part, she goes anyway and has a heart-to-heart with her step-mom. Jae-rim admits that she never thought they could be a real family, so she protected herself by never trying. She sees now that her step-mom has always thought of her as family, and it looks like our heroine is on her way to being healed.
With her newfound self-love, Jae-rim is ready to stand up for herself at work the next time a customer pushes her around. But just as she’s taking out her aggression, Do-hong arrives and confesses his feelings for her in front of everyone in the VIP lounge. Cha-min gets sulky and leaves, but Jae-rim runs after him. She says she doesn’t like Do-hong, but leaves the rest unsaid, which is that she likes Cha-min.
But our hero is haunted by the words of his father, telling him that any woman who likes him is just pretending. And so, in a very realistic turnaround, he gets defensive and asks Jae-rim if she’s using Do-hong. That is, rather than thinking her insincerity with Do-hong is situational, he acts like it’s a character flaw. Obviously Jae-rim feels insulted. And Cha-min walks away, but feels bad immediately after. So bad, in fact, that he punches Do-hong in the face the next time he sees him.
Okay, and then we meet Cha-min’s mom. For some reason, she’s a sunbae of Do-hong and is at his studio at the same time that Jae-rim is there. Mom reveals her identity and asks Jae-rim to stay by Cha-min’s side. And then we get the full scoop: because she was a “Cinderella,” she was looked down on by the people in Cha-min’s father’s world. Her mother-in-law accused her of cheating — which Chamin’s dad believed — and she was kicked out of the house and not allowed to see her son. And yet, Cha-min thinks she abandoned him.
This information makes Jae-rim understand Cha-min a lot better, and she sets up a meeting for mother and son to be reunited. At the meeting, though, Cha-min doesn’t believe a word his mother says. He cries at the table, then storms out to find Jae-rim and tell her she crossed the line by getting them together.
Jae-rim counters that Mom is not lying and speaks this great line: “Don’t doubt her love for you. It’s only hurting you.” Cha-min says that love doesn’t exist and Jae-rim steps forward and hugs him. “Love can’t be put into words,” and so, she wants him to just feel it. Cha-min cries more, feeling like the hurt little boy he used to be is finally being cared for. And then he symbolically drops the umbrella he always carries around to protect himself.
I continue to like this show, and even though these episodes might be my least favorite, I love how there was a focus on self-esteem for both leads. They’re “saving” each other by building up each other’s confidence and self-love, more than just proclaiming that being loved by someone else is going to solve their problems. That’s a nice message. And the fact that Jae-rim realizes that her step-mom wanted to include her in the family, but her own self-doubt kept her on the outside, was actually pretty profound for this slight drama.
The dynamic between the leads is what continues to draw me to this story each week, and I like how it relies on their personalities to connect them. The fact that they’re from such different backgrounds hardly seems to matter because they’re just a perfect fit. I’m actually really excited to see where this goes now that we’ve gotten through the personal growth part. And I’m looking forward to seeing what fairy tale twists are still in store.