Tugging at our heartstrings and setting the melo mood, MBC has come out with new promos for Motel California, showcasing our reunited lovers Lee Se-young (What Comes After Love) and Na In-woo (Marry My Husband).
With sweetie pie Oh Eun-seo (Family by Choice) playing the heroine’s child counterpart for the nth time, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been hoodwinked by her cuteness, trapped inside the matrix of her dramaland multiverse. But I, uh, digress.
In any case, we begin the teaser in a wintry flashback, with the little versions of our happy leads munching on ice cream and falling snow. In voiceover, we hear Ji Kang-hee (Oh Eun-seo, later Lee Se-young) explain that, “There’s a saying that if you eat the first snow ten times, your first love will come true.” And the two cutely promise to marry each other.
We then fast forward to their high school era with Kang-hee and Chun Yeon-soo (Na In-woo) continuing their pinky promise over more yummy ice cream, followed by smiles and snuggles on the bus. However, this is also when we get that dreaded separation as Kang-hee had a tough time living in their hometown and ultimately chooses to leave.
Time jump again to their long-awaited reunion in present day, 12 years later. Yeon-soo hopefully asks, “Didn’t you miss me?” But Kang-hee is upset to see that he looks different. Although the sequence shows us that our stalwart hero’s heart has remained true, Kang-hee believes that he has changed and I suspect that she’s projecting out of fear, as it’s likely that Yeon-soo was her only safe space in their hometown.
But of course our Yeon-soo is a one-and-only-one woman man and he runs after our angsty heroine in the final scene. Hugging her tight, the teaser closes with his reassurance that, “My first is you. And so, I’m going to wait.”
Broadcasting on weekends starting January 10, production for MBC’s webnovel adaptation Motel California has PD Kim Hyung-min and PD Lee Jae-jin co-directing with scripts by Lee Seo-yoon (365 – Repeat the Year).
