From a murder mystery to library dates, plenty of things happen this week as our protagonists confess their feelings and deepen their relationship. However, happiness has always been short-lived for these two, and this time is no different. As the pains of the past rear their ugly heads, our heroes realize that love does not, in fact, fix all.
EPISODES 7-8
Jung-woo’s first failure happened in elementary school when his kidney bean never sprouted, and then in high school when Ha-neul pushed him to second place — an utter travesty, according to his mom — our hero learned that some things are simply out of his control. However, one thing that stayed true in his life was that misfortune, unlike happiness, always made its presence known. All he longed for was a family who cared, a person who believed in him, yet these wishes never came to him… until now.
After losing his stalker, Jung-woo reports the incident to the police, and a while later, Ha-neul shows up with the spy camera pen she found in his room. It seems the stalker may have planted the pen during the break-in, but no one knows why they did. Unfortunately, the pen is ruined, and the data inside is unrecoverable. While Jung-woo is distracted by these turn of events, Ha-neul notices his injury from the chase and takes him to the hospital.
Jung-woo reassures Ha-neul that his wound was minor, but she starts tearing up, more worried about his emotional scars than his physical ones. She asks how he endured all of this alone, but even in the midst of her sobs, she remembers to comfort Jung-woo and pats him on the back. Her actions don’t go unnoticed by Jung-woo who lets her cry into his shirt and comforts her back.
The third day of Jung-woo’s trial arrives, and in the morning, Ha-neul steals her mom’s iron and side dishes to help him get ready. Despite his protests, Ha-neul plans to accompany him in case the stalker shows up again, but when she comes outside to meet him, she finds his phone on the ground. She gets to the courthouse by herself, but like her, no one knows where he is. Right then, the doors burst open, and Jung-woo walks in with new evidence.
The reason he disappeared this morning was because he saw the anesthesiologist parked outside the house, and in a surprising twist, the doctor wanted to help Jung-woo clear his name. As it turns out, the anesthesiologist was a scapegoat for a medical accident at his previous workplace and developed a habit of planting hidden cameras. Thus, he had footage of the OR, and the police come in to arrest the true culprit: the victim’s uncle.
In most dramas, this would be the start of our hero’s happily ever after, but the show illustrates, once again, that life isn’t so simple. After proving his innocence, the futility of his situation hits Jung-woo, and he holes up in his room as his phone blows up with empty well-wishes and bold-faced claims of “I trusted you all along.” Even though his situation was resolved, all it left behind was pain.
Ha-neul gives Jung-woo some space to process his emotions, but after three days, she starts to miss him. She heads to the rooftop to check on him, but to her surprise, she finds her entire family grilling meat, trying to entice Jung-woo to come out. In the end, her brother’s direct approach wins, and before Jung-woo can comprehend the situation, he has a glass of ginseng wine in his hand and a lettuce wrap in his mouth. Heh.
Though Mom dislikes Jung-woo for rejecting Ha-neul, her actions say otherwise as she badgers him to eat and runs to his defense when his phone rings with more two-faced callers. Of those callers, though, is Dae-young who ran into Hong-ran after work, and with her encouragement, finally decided to call Jung-woo. Alas, Mom answers in Jung-woo’s stead and curses poor Dae-young out for being a leech.
As the party dissolves into a drunken mess, Ha-neul escapes with Jung-woo, and they find somewhere quiet to be alone. With no one else to hear him besides her, Jung-woo tells Ha-neul that he lost a lot because of this case but also gained something special: her. Intoxicated, he confesses his feelings to Ha-neul who gets flustered the first time, but by the third and fourth, it’s less cute. (I lied, it’s adorable, and Ha-neul thinks so, too, despite her exasperation.)
The two of them sit on a bench so Jung-woo can sober up, and he prays to the moon to make Ha-neul happy. He then confesses to her again and calls her his kidney bean because he is looking forward to what she will sprout. He asks if he can hold her hand, and Ha-neul says that he can. As soon as he grabs it, he slides next to her and confesses his feelings repeatedly. While Ha-neul smiles back at him, a part of her heart breaks because every confession sounds like an admission of his loneliness.
In the morning, Ha-neul wonders if last night’s event means they are dating now and asks around the house for advice. Her family quickly catches on to her dilemma, and her brother takes it upon himself to resolve her problem. He marches up to the rooftop to confront Jung-woo, but unbeknownst to little bro, Ha-neul is already there to ask him in person.
Jung-woo stares in confusion as Ha-neul hides in his bathroom, and then her brother waltzes in and asks him to date his sister. Putting the clues together, he realizes the misunderstanding and loudly announces that he and Ha-neul started going out since yesterday. She jumps in shock at his answer and accidentally turns on the shower head. Hearing the commotion, Jung-woo pushes her brother out and finds Ha-neul drenched and dazed on the floor.
Ha-neul asks if they are really dating, and Jung-woo acts appalled, asking if she was toying with him. Dropping the jokes, he admits to no longer wanting to be just her friend, and Ha-neul shares the sentiment. To commemorate this occasion, Jung-woo presents a bouquet of flowers he prepared beforehand and pulls Ha-neul into a hug. Without wasting any time, they get ready for their first official date, but to their (and my) dismay, Dae-young arrives unannounced.
Having heard about Jung-woo’s situation from Hong-ran, Dae-young tossed aside all his past resentments and came to show his full support. Despite Jung-woo’s protests, Dae-young literally blocks his path with a hug, and Ha-neul leaves them alone since their date can wait. Though Jung-woo is grateful for Dae-young coming to cheer him up, he ends the meal swiftly since he needs to see his girlfriend.
Unfortunately, getting rid of one hyung means another one is right around the corner to replace him, and Ha-neul tells Jung-woo that she does not mind waiting again. As she turns to leave, Jung-woo stops her and reschedules with Kyung-min since he has something more important to do: go on a sweet date that Ha-neul planned!
Ha-neul’s dream date is going to the library and discussing research papers followed by a study café where they write a research paper and then a pop quiz to really spice things up. Though not opposed to her idea, Jung-woo promises to fulfill her wish next time, but for their first date, he wants to watch a movie with her since she mentioned it before. Touched by his attentiveness, she happily changes her plans, and they enjoy their date, feeding each other popcorn, playing in the arcade, and taking silly pictures.
As they split their photos, Ha-neul lets him have the better ones, but Jung-woo wishes she would stop yielding to others and express her feelings more openly. On that note, he asks if something else happened to cause her resignation and depression, but Ha-neul simply tells him that she was tired. However, when they arrive home, Jung-woo finds a wedding invitation Kyung-min left behind, and Ha-neul pales at the news. Excusing herself, she hides from his view before collapsing on the stairs from her escalating emotions.
The next day, Ha-neul seeks help from her therapist and bursts into tears when he asks if something happened. As she reflects on her feelings, she recalls a perfect day she had in high school that ended with a miss call from her dad and then his passing. Ever since that moment, she felt anxious whenever anything good happened because happiness never lasted. However, these conflicting emotions may have been why she easily opened up to her senior who took advantage of her and stole her work.
While Ha-neul cries during her session, Jung-woo happens to be at the clinic for his own consultation and sees her there. Her expression worries him, so he follows her from a distance to make sure she is all right before heading off to do his own tasks. The first thing Jung-woo does is meet Dae-young and turn down his offer to work together because right now, he wants to stay at his girlfriend’s side to support her. Then, on his way home, Ha-neul’s family intercepts him, and once inside, he discovers something interesting: a photo of Ha-neul with Kyung-min.
The senior who took credit for Ha-neul’s research paper was Kyung-min, and thanks to her work, he got the assistant professor position over her. Rubbing salt into the wound, Kyung-min is quitting the hospital to work for his in-law’s company, and for his position, he is recommending a different junior. The jerk hyung was not just a bad mentor to Jung-woo but to Ha-neul as well.
After hearing about Kyung-min’s farewell party, Ha-neul crashes it. She throws a glass of beer into his face and silences him with a single threat: does he want everyone to know what he did? She leaves with her head held high, but her revenge leaves her disheartened rather than empowered. As she drowns her sorrows in alcohol, her night gets worse when Hong-ran calls and informs her that Jung-woo rejected Dae-young’s offer because of her.
Jung-woo comes out with an umbrella to pick up Ha-neul and finds her walking in the rain, completely soaked. He wonders what is wrong, and she stares up at him with tears in her eyes and asks why is he embarrassing her. She breaks up with him, saying that she is not ready for a relationship and cannot even tell if she is resting or falling apart.
As Ha-neul walks away, Jung-woo places the umbrella over her and asks if he can carry her burdens with her. She says that would make her feel worse, but Jung-woo refuses to let her suffer alone. Even if she breaks up with him and stops liking him, he wants her to have the umbrella and places it in her hands before trudging back home in the rain.
The whirlwind of emotions from the bliss of a first date to the heartache of a breakup all happened in one episode and, for our characters, in back-to-back days. While the sudden change does feel fast, the jarring shift also feels deliberate. Like Ha-neul and Jung-woo, the audience is swept up in their romance and momentarily forgets the underlying issues of the main characters. However, even during their first date, the cracks were shown. Because of the happiness Ha-neul felt with Jung-woo, she got scared and pushed him away because the pain that follows “perfect days” is always the worst. It makes sense that Ha-neul ended the relationship because she is experiencing so many new emotions all at once without resolving the old ones that have been festering, so as a result, she became overwhelmed and decided to cut off the newest addition to her life.
Though this breakup does signal a step back in their relationship, the show makes it clear that it isn’t the end for Ha-neul and Jung-woo. The last scene with the umbrella acted as a visual representation of their inner turmoil with Ha-neul wanting to be the only one getting wet (i.e., suffering from her depression) and refusing to share Jung-woo’s umbrella (i.e., his offer to shoulder her burden). However, he chooses to hand over his umbrella so she no longer gets wet, and as a result, he is now in the rain instead of her, demonstrating that he is willing to be uncomfortable on her behalf. It might take Ha-neul a while to see it, but just as she was able to support Jung-woo without viewing his burdens as a hassle, Jung-woo is also capable of supporting her during these uncertain times. While they both might be wet from the rain right now, there’s hope that they can heal and end up under an umbrella together.
The other major development this week was Jung-woo’s case, and any hesitations I held about this plot line disappeared with the way the show handled it. Unlike other rom-coms with murder mysteries, this case wasn’t about putting the characters in danger to increase the tension in the latter half, but rather, it was used to portray its character’s personal struggles and depict how unexpected tragedies can lead to mental illnesses. This experience not only hurt Jung-woo financially, but it also hurt him emotionally which turned out to be the bigger problem for our hero. Even after he cleared his name, Jung-woo felt distraught because this experience taught him again that so many things out of his control bring him misfortune. Just as Ha-neul developed a habit to avoid happiness because she feared the pain that followed, Jung-woo never learned to embrace happiness because misfortune always felt more oppressive and out of his control.
As we learn more about our protagonists, it comes as no surprise that these top students grew into adults who succeeded in their careers but are emotionally stunted because they never got to enjoy their youth. Even Jung-woo who seems like he got to experience fun stuff (at least compared to Ha-neul) wasn’t allowed to be a kid because neither of his parents were there for him. His dad is always absent — clearly valuing his career over his son — and his mom called him a failure for getting second place and never shows him love. As a result, I adore how silly Ha-neul and Jung-woo are together because I see these two put-together adults healing their childhood selves with each other, and it feels like the show is saying that it’s okay to act ridiculous from time to time and be happy.