It’s our penultimate week, so the drama is either tying up loose ends or dragging its feet — I can’t really tell. Nevertheless, our OTP hits their stride after some bumps in the road of their dating era, and we finally have some squee-worthy progress with our secondary couple, too.
EPISODES 13-14
As this week opens, our kiddos have their morning after… and they’re not wearing sweaters! *Shocked faces* This show loves the shenanigans, though, so they’re interrupted by both sets of their parents coming home from their trip and everyone winds up at the breakfast table. The discussion is how the moms agreed to marry off their kids this year. Of course, for some reason it never occurs to them to marry them off to each other, but no fear, our OTP is keeping their dating era top secret.
In said dating era we have some cute moments, but also the usual bout of misunderstandings. Seok-ryu takes her exam and gets her culinary certificate, but she’s shattered when her classmates get job offers and she hasn’t gotten any bites yet. I get that she’s used to being the first and best at everything, but don’t think I wasn’t talking to her through my screen telling her that’s what the job search is like in the real world. Anyway, Seok-ryu is mentally pursuing the idea of going to the CIA in New York like Hyun-joon suggested, Seung-hyo is rightfully upset when he finds out. But this first millionth spat of theirs ends when Seung-hyo gets injured on a construction site, and Seok-ryu realizes how much he means to her.
Meanwhile, annoying younger brother gets his mini redemption arc — and by that I mean the camera turns to him for more than two minutes and we see his inferiority complex in ye olde family of complexes. Turns out his get-rich protein powder was a scam and he winds up on the receiving end of his family’s ire.
After a heart-to-heart convo with Seok-ryu and some contemplation, he decides to go back to the gym and work towards becoming a trainer. And with that the Dong-jin mini arc is concluded. Well, except we have to circle back next week to his wanna-be-a-love-line with LEE NA-YOON (Shim So-young) — aka everyone’s favorite Gen Z office worker at Atelier In. She’s been a gem in this entire show with her mixture of snark and wisdom, and she does not fail this week either. Well-played, girl, I was never sorry when you turned up on my screen, and I can’t say that for many of these characters.
While Seok-ryu and Seung-hyo are dating blissfully, we finally spend a bit more time with our secondary couple. The story moves at lightning speed in these two episodes, and I got so much enjoyment out of these characters and their story that I wish they had had far more screen time all along. As it is, we get a lot of plot movement that goes from Dan-ho continuing to ignore/avoid Mo-eum after her camping confession, to a lot of accidental meet-ups.
One meet-up is a super important one, because we (and Mo-eum) learn that Dan-ho isn’t actually Yeon-du’s dad. SAY WHAT! The show conveniently shows us the flashback we saw previously of Dan-ho identifying what we were led to believe was his wife’s body. But no, upon a fuller view of the scene, it’s his sister-in-law. And his hyung. And his mother. And his father. What the everlovin’ family vacation makjang is going on here?! Well, we can’t change it, and Dan-ho experienced this awful tragedy and then put on the dad hat for Yeon-du. It makes them even more precious to me as a duo, but really I don’t think the story needed this at all. What’s to gain from it? To make him a more “socially acceptable” future husband? About that…
During one of their many meet-ups, Dan-ho runs into a very drunk Mo-eum and kindly escorts her home. But when he drops her off at her doorstep and Mo-eum’s mother apologizes, it’s like the dam in his heart burst. Out of his mouth comes a swoony confession. “I think you raised her very well. I’d like to take Mo-eum. I knew you would be worried, so I tried to cut all ties with her, but I don’t think I can anymore.” Mo-eum is drunk but still flustered and touched, while Mom goes ice cold. (These mothers!)
We are tortured for a bit — along with Dan-ho and Mo-eum — while they try to figure out what to do with the situation. The girls commiserate about the men they love who their mothers will never approve of, and similarly, Seung-hyo and Dan-ho do this little dance of not being sure how close they should be (awkward banmal included). The best part of this is that Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu stage an oh-so-accidental meetup so that Mo-eum and Dan-ho can talk. Mo-eum might be “forbidden” to date him, but she’s pretty good at doing what she wants, and as for Dan-ho, he kisses her and then they hug happily and cutely.
Luckily, Mo-eum’s mom seems the most reasonable of these ladies, and between Yeon-du’s sweetness, and hearing Mo-eum’s heart towards Dan-ho and Yeon-du, she relents. And gosh, the four of them make the sweetest family ever. I love that Dan-ho has a family now most of all, after everything he’s shouldered.
Back to our main couple, though, they seem to be on two different tracks. Seung-hyo is on Mission: Imma Get Married and Seok-ryu is on Mission: I Need a Job. Seung-hyo is as supportive as ever of Seok-ryu and he encourages her to make her cooking videos like she did when she was in the States. She makes a video for her broccoli and chicken risotto recipe which — thanks to Seung-hyo entering it — won a contest. But Seok-ryu is annoyed over getting third place, and then annoyed that her video isn’t getting a lot of views… until a comment on her YouTube NerTube page comes in. It’s a woman thanking her for the recipe. Her mother was struggling to eat during chemo but ate the whole serving of Seok-ryu’s recipe. Seok-ryu cries. I cry. This is the first time I actually feel touched by this show.
However, it’s not a great day for Seung-hyo. He’s planned out his whole proposal, but during their date it was thwarted at every stage. We’re talking a burned shirt, his car being rear-ended, and him carrying the “will you marry me?” cake and then slipping and having it smashed before Seok-ryu can read it. That kind of day. By the time the two make it to the office kitchen where Seok-ryu sees the NerTube comment, Seung-hyo is determined to make his proposal happen. And it’s such a sweet and touching moment that he goes for it, and out of his pocket pulls a… giant bracelet? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but okay. Either way, Seok-ryu turns him right down because we have two more episodes and the scene cuts.
Seung-hyo is barely functional the next day at work, and Seok-ryu is also moping. Then, when Seok-ryu later gets a call, Seung-hyo is wasted and needs her to pick him up. Is this story coming full circle or is this story just getting redundant? Either way, the scene cuts strangely while we wait for Seung-hyo to sober up, and when he does, the two have a heart-to-heart conversation.
Seok-ryu bluffs that “everything’s fine” with their relationship now and why would they want to change it? But Seung-hyo wants to marry because he wants them to “become stronger and closer.” I mean, I just swooned. And faster than you might think, Seok-ryu admits she does want to marry him, but she’s worried about getting sick again. I hate to hear this, but I’m glad the show circled back to it, since it was her reasoning around turning down Hyun-joon as well. At least Seung-hyo helps her see that’s a bad reason — life is fleeting, you never know how long you have, you should be with the one you love, etc. They embrace and agree to marry… and that’s when both their sets of parents walk over.
Yep, our show loves to do this, so I guess it’s only right that it continues to happen right up to our finale. Currently, both moms are in a huge heated fight at present and the dads have been trying to get things back to normal between them. Will this big reveal create a disaster for us to sort out in our finale week, or will it be the balm of happiness that settles on everyone’s insecurity and/or loneliness as we get our happy ending? Oh, and I’m just calling it now: Seok-ryu is obviously going to take over dad’s snack shop and make it into a success, and really this is the plot line that’s taking me into our finale week. Well, that and some more found family cuteness between Dan-ho and Mo-eum.