Our intrepid businesswomen continue their uphill battle to convert their ajumma neighbors into customers. Despite their best efforts to stay upbeat, the constant rejection and judgment from everyone around them isn’t easy to bear. But our ladies are the defiant type, so the more resistance they face, the more ready they are to put up a fight. Getting a taste of how lucrative the business can be doesn’t hurt their motivation either.
EPISODES 3-4
These judgy neighborhood ajummas can really wear a person down. Jung-sook can’t catch a break – not only is everyone hating on her for her choice in business, but rumors of her husband leaving her are swirling around. Of course, everyone blames her for that, too.
At the very least, you’d think her mother would be on her side. Instead, her mom barely shows an ounce of sympathy after hearing Sung-soo cheated on her daughter and goes as far as to tell Jung-sook she won’t look after Min-ho, her own grandchild, if Jung-sook continues to sell “vulgar” products. Jung-sook can handle the rejection from her neighbors, but hearing that from her own mother is devastating.
Only the more worldly Do-hyun seems genuinely on Jung-sook’s side and doesn’t pass judgment. He readily offers to investigate the vandalism of her home and even helps her clean up the graffiti so her son won’t see it. When Do-hyun catches the culprit, a local shop owner Jung-sook knows, she agrees not to press charges but only if the man apologizes. She may be kind and timid, but Jung-sook is no pushover.
If you think the neighbors will now target the vandal with their judgment, think again. Nope, this too is all Jung-sook’s fault. Her vulgar choices pushed a nice man toward crime because God forbid the man be responsible for his own actions.
As if Jung-sook doesn’t have enough to deal with, she ends up reluctantly doing a home party for her cheating friend MI-HWA as a birthday surprise at the behest of her friend’s clueless, sweet husband IN-TAE. It’s just as awkward as it sounds, but at least Jung-sook gets to make money off Mi-hwa’s extreme discomfort and guilt.
To top it off, during the party, Min-ho goes missing while In-tae is watching him. Jung-sook spends the night frantically searching for him with Mi-hwa, In-tae, and Do-hyun. Her mom also joins the search, and once again, berates Jung-sook rather than comforts her. She even slaps Jung-sook hard enough to cut her cheek when Jung-sook accuses her mom of not being there for her.
Luckily, they find little Min-ho unharmed outside his dad’s old workplace. He shivers as he waits for the factory to open so he can ask the boss to rehire his dad, which he thinks will bring his dad home. (Min-ho thinks his dad left because he needed to find work in another town.) Jung-sook is heartbroken but, as always, smiles and does her best to help her son adjust.
In these episodes, there’s a clear theme of the sacrifices mothers make in silence while putting up a strong front for their kids. We see it most explicitly with both Jung-sook and her mother who also left her horrible cheating husband and raised her kids alone. Although it’s clear the mother’s misdirected anger at Jung-sook comes from a place of fear and not wanting her daughter to share her fate, her reaction to Jung-sook’s situation has been terrible. Fear is no excuse to treat your child like crap and fail to support her. While she doesn’t directly apologize to Jung-sook, they do have a heart-to-heart that softens her mother. Maybe now she’ll look after Min-ho again and stop judging Jung-sook for doing all she can to provide for her child.
A quick aside while we’re talking about kids: Ju-ri’s son Dong-woo kills me. He listens to tea ceremony radio programs to feel classy as he drinks his hot chocolate, regularly spouts wisdom he’s gained from reading the salon’s ladies’ magazines, and looks adorably serious with his glasses and suspenders. I love this child. He and Min-ho are classmates and become friends, and Dong-woo is like the long-suffering mentor to Min-ho despite being the same age.
Little Dong-woo sees his mom stressing about money and sagely suggests she needs a side hustle. Realizing he’s not wrong, Ju-ri officially joins the ranks of Fantasy Lingerie saleswomen. With a few successful parties, Young-bok and Jung-sook bring in more money than they ever expected to make. Not only can they pay their rent, but they have extra to spend on their kids. They’re just as happy as if they’d won the lottery.
The brains of their operation (Jung-sook) comes up with the idea of a survey as a means of gathering data on their potential customers to refine their sales. That goes about as well as you’d expect. The only person she manages to convince to respond is Do-hyun who can’t resist her sad puppy eyes. He’s not exactly their demographic, but he gamely answers questions about his familiarity with adult products and his… desires. He’s embarrassed but also highly amused as she plows through the questions without hesitation.
Jung-sook proves her mettle and, rather than giving up despite the odds stacked against her, is more determined than ever to succeed. For round two, the women set up a booth with free gifts for survey respondents. Everyone still hesitates, so Jung-sook addresses the issue head on. Why should she be ashamed of working to put food on the table? All she’s trying to do is survive like everyone else.
A few of the women are sufficiently shamed and cave. Before you know it, that opens the door for other women to come over and do the survey. Even a couple men join in for the freebies. It’s a smashing success.
Meanwhile, Do-hyun surreptitiously conducts his private investigation. We learn he’s looking into a fire in the neighborhood that occurred 30 years ago. Unsurprisingly, there’s few leads. Amidst that, he still finds time to constantly run into Jung-sook and help her wherever he can. The soft smile that lights his face whenever he watches her leaves no doubt that his interest in her is turning into a full-blown crush.
In the epilogue, Do-hyun has a nightmare of a raging fire. A baby cries, trapped in the burning room. Someone, a woman, saves him and hands him off to a nun at a church. The woman’s face is blurred. Do-hyun wakes up gasping.
Assuming Do-hyun was the baby, it looks like he’s trying to find the culprit of the fire but maybe also the woman who saved him. Was it a kind stranger, friendly neighbor, or perhaps his mother? We know literally nothing about him at this point, except that he likes Jung-sook, so there’s very little to go off of. I’m glad it’s not some run-of-the-mill crime but instead something that emotionally ties him to the town and might offer some interesting relationship dynamics in the weeks to come.