The adorable absurdity continues as King the Land kicks up the chemistry, delivering swoony stares, flustered fiascos, and even more suits for a certain lovestruck lead. While our heroine excels at her job, our inexperienced heir is more concerned with what he lacks in the dating department than in the hotel business. These episodes are just tried-and-true romantic fun that’ll have you smiling from ear to ear — without ever having to utter “Hermès.” *shudders*
EPISODES 3-4
The drama pulls off a lovely feat this week, creating a genuine connection between our leads. When we left them last time, they were headed into a live interview where Won’s sister was set to sabotage him with planted questions. Hwa-ran succeeds somewhat when Won hears the questions are about his mother and he walks off set while they’re filming. But Sa-rang saves the day by filling the air time with memories of her own mother until Won mellows out and returns.
Although it’s not her fault, Won is angry at Sa-rang for needling his sore spot and, once the shoot is over, she asks him if she did something wrong. He wonders how a “mere employee” can question him, and she retorts that a mere employee like her could get fired for the stunt he just pulled. And then she comes out with this beauty: “You might work at daddy’s company as a hobby, but some people work hard just to make ends meet.” Zing!
Last week I had my reservations about Sa-rang. We got to know what moves Won pretty well, but Sa-rang lacked some personality. From here on out, my concerns are calmed. Our heroine is sassy, smart-talking, and grounded in her own principles, and she’s not afraid to teach our male lead a thing or two about how the other half lives. In fact, his interest in trying to understand her perspective is part of her draw — and he listens when she drops little truth bombs about his privilege.
The first time we see these two get close, it’s after another full day of photoshoots on Jeju (with service to the fans as Junho pretends he can’t figure out how to make hearts with his hands. Just bite that circle!). After some improbable events involving a stalled boat, a photoshopped fish, and a scamming old couple who run a one-room hotel, our leads are finally alone, stranded for the night, and drinking far too much.
This is a delicious scene in many ways but it starts out with a battle to be equals, with Won and Sa-rang going bowl for bowl with the liquor. What’s great about it is that Won never dismisses Sa-rang as someone so far beneath him that she’s not even worth competing with. No way. Our hero treats her like a worthy adversary who might just be able to keep up with him — and, spoiler alert, she is.
As we quickly see, we’re not just talking about drinking either. Our girl Sa-rang can put Won in his place at the drop of a hat. Totally drunk, she smacks him in the head, and he complains that he’s not someone who can be mistreated like that. But she counters that people are equal: no one should be mistreated, not just him. This leads to them getting to know each other better, and while they keep it light and teasing (her calling him a snob and him calling her a phony), Won is developing anything but a light crush. He watches her smile her real smile and the man is a goner. And, frankly, so am I — watching Junho falling in love is just gah!
After some date-worthy scenes of the two on a bike the next morning, it’s not long before they’re back at the hotel and Sa-rang is being promoted. Her outstanding composure during the live broadcast has caught the attention of Won’s dad, King Group Chairman, GU IL-HOON (Sohn Byung-ho). Starting tomorrow, he wants Sa-rang to work in the obscenely expensive and highly rated VIP lounge, named “King the Land,” which constitutes an entire floor of the hotel. (I think the name is possibly meant to convey “King’s Land” — as in a place where you’re treated like a king.)
While Sa-rang is actually working, Won spends his time back at the office looking at pictures of Sa-rang and trying to discern how he feels. He thinks about her when she’s not around, and smiles when he sees her smile — it must be love! So, he buys her a gift and bravely marches out to tell her how he feels, only to see some guy run up and hug her as she’s leaving the hotel.
The guy is her boyfriend, GONG YOO-NAM (Ahn Woo-yeon), whom she’s already tried breaking up with, but he hasn’t taken the hint. Seeing the hug, Won is hurt and turns to leave, and so he’s not there when Sa-rang puts the kibosh on her relationship for good.
Independent of whether or not he thinks she’s dating someone else, the rest of our story this week is mainly a series of attempts by Won to try to get Sa-rang alone again. After their brief moment of connection that night on Jeju, it seems he’s going crazy trying to recreate that feeling. (Or is it just me going crazy wishing they would recreate that feeling?) Since he’s in charge of King the Land, he organizes a staff meeting where Sa-rang will also attend. There, while sneaking glances at the object of his affection, he also approves a plan to increase revenue at the lounge. His dad has tasked him with this while he and Hwa-ran compete for their inheritance (because, yeah, that’s still going on).
Won’s next attempt at seeing Sa-rang backfires when she doesn’t reply to his text or calls. He stares at his screen, distracts himself with push-ups (hello), and is generally baffled at the rebuff, until he falls asleep in his dress clothes and wakes determined to see her. He learns that she ignored his call because she didn’t know who it was, but she’s surprised he has her number at all. He writes it off, saying he got it from her personnel file, and then acts surprised because she doesn’t have his number. “I don’t have access to your personnel file,” she says, and I can’t get enough of these little jabs.
The outcome of this conversation is that he asks her to dinner, she turns it down, and he starts scheming a way to have dinner with her anyway. He tells Sang-shik to put together a celebratory dinner for her new position, thinking it’ll just be the two of them. But Sang-shik plans a proper welcome party with the entire staff, lol. Seeing Won repeatedly distressed is most of the fun of these episodes — but not having to see our female lead made uncomfortable with a forced dinner is even better. I love the drama’s MO, always undercutting our heir’s power.
We saw last week that Won and Sa-rang both go to the same lookout spot when they’re feeling blue. This week, when Won is upset while searching for the truth about his mother (it seems she was a hotel employee but her records have disappeared) and Sa-rang is distraught after a run-in with her ex, our leads end up in the same spot on the same night. It’s raining, he holds an umbrella over her head, and it’s lovely, until he says this is his spot and she starts to leave. But we end our episodes with a classic: Sa-rang stumbles and starts to fall — and Won catches her, holds tight, and they stare at each other under the umbrella for maximum heart flutters.
Oof. I didn’t know how badly I needed this show. Now that we’re in the groove, I’m loving it. The comedy duo of our leads grew on me this week, watching them play a time-honored routine where one is overly emotional and the other is straight-faced. But they go back and forth. Sometimes she’s over-the-top upbeat and he’s somber, and sometimes he’s completely exasperated and she’s serious. The more serious the straight-man, the funnier the other one becomes.
One thing I love is that not only is the show not backing down on its exposé of the service industry — it appears to be inherent to the story. This week we saw Pyung-hwa being weighed on the job as a means to save the company’s money, and then sexually harassed by a colleague (was that guy a pilot?). Sa-rang starts her new position at King the Land and there’s already a rumor that she got the job by getting too close to the chairman (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). And Da-eul gets home from work only to start her second shift, taking care of the house, groceries, kid, in-laws, etc. I might think all this was jammed in unrelatedly if not for the fact that our female lead is teaching our hero about how it feels to live her life — and he seems pretty interested to know about it.
This is the most unexpected and gratifying part of the drama for me. They’ve given our leads an actual reason to be attracted to each other, and I can see what we might be building towards. Sure, our OTP are technically boss and employee, but they already operate emotionally like equals. He tries to go on little power trips and she just shuts him down. And he’s interested and thinking about whatever she tells him. Won has his heart in the right place (and might even feel like a bit of an underdog himself within his family), and I’m looking forward to seeing him learn from her.
Episode 3 did a great job creating a connection between our leads, and I cannot wait to see more of it. These two have an obvious rapport and I think part of why this works is that we don’t believe even for a second that they don’t like each other. And so, it’s all the more fun waiting for them to catch up with us, realize they do, and give us the well-deserved happy ending we’ve been waiting all year for.