After a mess of couple-y cuteness in the countryside, our lovestruck male lead is tested when he has the chance to get everything he wants — but doesn’t want it anymore. Plus, all of our leads are in a tough spot when the troublesome truths they’ve each been hiding come tumbling out to threaten their triangle.
EPISODES 9-10
I’m feeling like this drama is dragging out, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the glut of dating tropes that Episode 9 packed in. After we were sent off with a lovely lip-lock last week, we jump back in to some after-kiss awkwardness as Ah-jung and Ji-han walk home.
They circle around what just happened until Ji-han asks about her feelings. Ah-jung finally admits she feels the same way he does — and then they have to contend with what to do next. The first thing they can come up with is to get away for a while, hopping on the next bus to the furthest destination.
It’s when they land at the seaside just before daybreak that the dating delights begin, and our smitten leads are thrown into a storm of adorable situations. They decide that since no one knows them there, they can just make up an identity — which gives them the freedom to be who they really are.
With an altered name and the proclamation that he fell in love at first sight, Ji-han takes Ah-jung’s hand and they make their way around town. They buy countryside clothes (but still find each other cute), stroll the local market (dorky headbands included), and ride bikes in slo-mo until we’re about to be sick from the sweetness.
Ji-han is more confident than he’s been before, but also more of a baby (Ah-jung’s words, not mine) and when he cuts his finger, he needs her to blow on it to make it better. She protests, like she always does, but she’s having as good of a time as he is. His actions say how much he likes her, and she wonders to herself how she was so blind before.
The salient point — meaning the thing that’s about to tear them apart — comes along when Ji-han says, “Let’s not hide our feelings and put on an act ever again.” Great idea. If only Ah-jung wasn’t hiding the fact that her engagement to his brother is a phony.
But, from Ah-jung’s perspective, she thinks that if she just breaks it off with Do-han now, she and Ji-han can be together. No harm, no foul. When the two lovebirds get back to the city, they decide that Ji-han will be the one to talk to Do-han first, since they still haven’t made up after their fistfight.
Do-han has bigger things to worry about, though. The reporter that’s been snooping around his life and gathering dirt on him has just gone to see his ex, Dae-hyun, to ask questions. To Dae-hyun’s credit, he draws the line at telling the sleezy reporter anything about Do-han and Ah-jung. But, the close call increases Do-han’s anxiety a ton — and it’s totally not the right time to drop the bomb that his little brother loves his fake fiancée.
In the interim, Ji-han is put to the test when Grandpa acknowledges him as his grandson, right in front of a bunch of company staff. Ji-han wants to be ecstatic — this is what he’s been waiting for! — but something feels off. He tells Ah-jung that things are falling into place: Do-han will inherit the company soon and Grandpa is validating him, and yet, he doesn’t feel happy. He wants to give up all he’s been working for and choose her. It sounds like he’s already made up his mind and he asks her if she’s prepared for all he might lose when he does.
It’s just about this time when Do-han gets his hands on photos of Ji-han and Ah-jung in their dating bliss (thanks to the meddling Choi sister) and is shocked into action. Ah-jung goes over to his studio to talk and wants to know if they can just tell Ji-han about their fake marriage. Do-han is pissed: “Why? Because you like Ji-han?”
Do-han asks if they started seeing each other after Ji-han found out that he likes men. Ah-jung, of course, didn’t know that Ji-han knew. So, Do-han is even more irate. They started dating before his brother even knew the marriage is a fake?! Oh, the betrayal.
And while this conversation is happening, Ji-han walks in to hear that he’s also been lied to. He thought Ah-jung had no idea about Do-han’s secret. And our three leads stand around looking angry at each other, with disbelief on all sides.
But it’s Ji-han that really takes it personally because now he feels like Ah-jung is untrustworthy. Like, didn’t he just say he wanted to stop lying to each other?! Ah-jung, for her part, is terribly shaken, and Jeon Jong-seo has done a great job in these last few episodes conveying visceral vulnerability — when her voice cracks, the pain runs through her whole body.
Do-han also takes it really hard given how afraid he is of being found out. If Ah-jung is still his friend, she should do what she agreed to do for him. The two old buddies go for a ride and have a very tense conversation where she tells him she can’t do it. She likes Ji-han too much. Do-han is desperate and can’t believe she’s doing this to him. But she says she’ll make it up to him somehow and gets out of the car, holding her ground.
So, we’re in forced separation territory with Ji-han ignoring all of Ah-jung’s calls and Ah-jung succumbing to a desperate sadness. It doesn’t last uber-long, though, because he finally picks up her call one night when she’s drunk and decides she’s in need of a piggyback chaperone.
As he carries her home, she explains that she didn’t want to deceive him, but she had to protect Do-han. The night when all the secrets came out, she was there to break off the marriage contract, so she could be with Ji-han. Ji-han is totally moved by this and forgives her right away (which, thank God — these two together is the only saving grace in a story that otherwise needs to wrap up).
With our leads back on the same side again, they decide they’ll risk whatever consequences might come in order to be together. For one, Ji-han will stop insisting that Do-han should inherit the company. In fact, he and Do-han will walk away and leave it to the Choi siblings — he only asks that the compromising photos of Ah-jung with her “brother-in-law” not be released.
This tactic might have worked if it didn’t become obvious that Grandpa has no intention of leaving anything to the Choi children, no matter what. So, screw it, the scandal is released since the “legitimate” heirs have nothing to lose. Ah-jung’s identity is revealed, putting her in an impossible spot with her acting career, her would-be relationship, and even her own family (see uncomfortable scene where her mom freakin’ flips and smacks her).
But our leads are a diligent bunch and, in the end, each of them tries to take the responsibility onto themselves in order to protect the other two (there’s a lot of love here, all around). Ah-jung refuses to tell the swarming reporters the truth about Do-han, and lets the public think whatever they want about her. Do-han intends to come clean and stop running away. And Ji-han holds a press conference (beating Do-han to the punch, I think), where he confesses his feelings for Ah-jung, but swears she’s innocent.
We end by learning that Grandpa actually already knew Do-han’s secret — and it’s the reason he’s been handling things the way he has with the company. But it doesn’t sound like he’s too supportive when he asks Do-han why he needs to tell the world about “the kind of person he’s always been.”
It’s a really strange place to end and doesn’t have me super excited for the finale. Rather than a true cliffhanger, I feel like we were cut off in the middle of a not very interesting sentence. It’s got a chintzy, daily soap vibe — and I guess that’s why the characters keep commenting that they feel like they’re living through the plot of a trashy drama. Touché, but I didn’t get that from this drama’s first half and it feels like a bit a cop-out now.
The thing that keeps me going is Ah-jung. She started out a no-nonsense heroine with a lot of lip, and we watched her open up into a vulnerable mess who still stays true to her fundamental character. She’s honest when it counts, protective to the core, and willing to pick her battles. I like Ji-han well enough, but “winning” him isn’t really the point. The bigger prize is to see Ah-jung create a little crack in her outer shell — not to break her down — but so that she has a place to keep growing.