It’s a good day to keep secrets! Whether it be dog-related secrets or the really mysterious ones, our characters work overtime to keep the lid on these aspects of their lives that are not public knowledge. But sometimes, being in the know of a person’s secrets is a surefire way of getting closer to them. And I, for one, am all about that closeness between our adorable leads.
EPISODE 3
What’s worse than transforming into a dog in front of your student and spending the night at his house? It’s waking up in your human form the next morning, and getting caught in the room by your student’s uncle — who’s also your colleague at work! Yep. This is the crazy I-can-totally-explain-this and it’s-not-what-you-think kind of situation that Hae-na starts off this week’s episode with.
But if you think that’s funny, you should see teacher Seo-won sitting both Hae-na and Yul down like students to demand an explanation for what went down under his roof the previous night. Heh. Hae-na throws Yul under the bus by informing Seo-won that everything started when she went to fetch him from the police station. And Yul gets his lick back by claiming that Hae-na spent the night because was drunk and fell asleep on the way home. Lol. I mean, Seo-won already thinks that Hae-na is in love with the bottle, so what’s one more drinking excuse? Besides, better that than revealing Hae-na’s transformation into a dog.
Seo-won is slightly hurt to hear that Yul called Hae-na to the police station instead of him, but Yul says he didn’t call because he didn’t want to worry his uncle. And this whole exchange served to highlight the genuine affection existing between the uncle-nephew duo. Awwww. I love them already.
Monday morning comes, and we are treated to Seo-won cooking up a storm for his nephew. Yep, our “math and face genius” (in @missvictrix’s words), is also a cooking genius. We’re also treated to the sight of Yul acting like a puppy — which his dog-loving self can’t keep at home because of his uncle’s fear of dogs. That totally explains why he’s now buying treats for Hae-na, and he’s eager to see her transform again. Lol.
Speaking of which, the vice principal has to pet-sit his daughter’s dog — and the dog ends up in the staff room of all places! Cue: A startled Seo-won opon entering the room. Hae-na — who already knows about his phobia — spends the day going all out to prevent Seo-won and the dog from coming in contact with each other. She claims a sudden allergy to dog fur to get the dog to stay in a cage. When that doesn’t work, she literally shoves Seo-won out of the dog’s sight, and fakes a phone conversation to alert him that the dog went home and the staff room has been cleared for his return.
But is it really a K-drama if Seo-won doesn’t end up face to face with the dog? LMAO! That shot of man and dog staring at each other under his desk had me in stitches for several minutes! Other teachers walk in on Seo-won being all terrified on his desk, but thankfully, Hae-na arrives in time to pick up the dog, and come up with an excuse for him. She also critiques their colleagues’ backward thinking that adults aren’t supposed to be afraid of dogs. Seo-won’s eyes soften as he stares at her in adoration, and through a flashback to their first day as teachers in the school, we see that he fell for Hae-na at first sight. Awwww.
Later on, Seo-won thanks Hae-na for her not-so-subtle attempts to help him cover up the fact that he’s afraid of dogs. To her credit, she doesn’t push further into the backstory behind his phobia. And like she did earlier at work, she disagrees with his self-deprecating assessment that being afraid of dogs as a grown man is embarrassing.
Truly, Hae-na would know this since embarrassing situations are an all-too-familiar concept to her — from drunk-kissing Seo-won, to pulling his hair at the escape room. There’s also the part where she slept at her student’s house while “drunk,” and turns into a dog every night since the kiss! Okay, that last part is a secret for now. Still, she tops Seo-won in the embarrassment department.
Hae-na’s point in all of this is that Seo-won never avoided her or thought that she was weird despite her antics, and she feels the same way about his fear of dogs. “We are not weird. It’s just the way we are,” she says, and you can tell that he just fell for her all over again. Hae-na gives Seo-won a dog keychain to “help him build up an immunity against dogs,” and with that, their eventful day comes to a lovely end.
Bonded by their secrets, Seo-won and Hae-na naturally grow closer. And instead of setting Hae-na up with Bo-gyeom like he promised last week, Seo-won ends up roping himself into spending more time with her. Lol. They go shopping to pick out a gift for their colleagues’ wedding — totally giving off shopping for their newlywed home vibes — and if we didn’t already know this from the dining hall scene last week, we see that Seo-won has quick reflexes. So, he’s a reflex genius as well. Nice!
Seo-won and Hae-na also make arrangements to attend the wedding together, and he shows up at their meet-up spot looking like the groom. As if that isn’t enough to get our hearts racing, one of the other teachers — who desperately wants to be a third wheel on Seo-won and Hae-na’s “date” — approaches. Cue: Seo-won’s Yellow Umbrella of Swoon to shade him and Hae-na from Ms. Third Wheel’s prying eyes. *Blushes* And this is where the drama wraps up for the week.
Ms. Third Wheel is none other than YOON CHAE-AH (Lee Seo-el) — the monitoring spirit teacher with a big-time interest in Seo-won. Chae-ah stalked Seo-won’s movements long enough to spot Hae-na leaving his house the other day, and this led to her giving the “Back off of Seo-won” speech to Hae-na at work. Possessive much? Hae-na, of course, claims to not have any romantic interest in Seo-won. But you know how famous last words work, right?
Chae-ah also appears to have a secret of her own — and no, I’m not talking about the symmetry of her butt. (Why did we even need to know that? Is it because this is a dog show?) I’m referring to her seemingly super-rich status, because there’s no way she could afford all those luxury items on a high school teacher’s paycheck.
We can’t end the week of secrets without talking about The Suspicious Mr. Lee. Bo-gyeom who definitely knows more than he lets on — and he’s almost impossible to read. One minute, he’s releasing the vice principal’s dog to go after Seo-won, and the next minute, he’s setting up Seo-won and Hae-na for more interactions with each other. He also prefers to brood around in his camping spot, and says cryptic things like “I don’t know what I was in my past life, but I just love to be around nature.” Sir, who are you?
For now, we are nowhere close to unravelling the mystery that is Bo-gyeom. We are just left with more questions — like why he has a secret basement hideout that contains antiques and a suspicious wooden chest. And why he has flashbacks of a long-haired man wrapping a scarf around a woman’s neck in a Joseon-like setting. We also get a brief scene of the woman being chased in the woods, before returning back to the present where Bo-gyeom longingly gazes at the same scarf in the wooden chest. Hmmm.
In the meantime, the drama continues to be fun, and elicits tons of giggles from me. It’s obvious that the show doesn’t take itself too seriously — and we clearly need that light-hearted tone to balance out what I think will be the dark spots as we go on. Dark spots being: the origin of Hae-na’s family curse, the reason behind Seo-won’s dog phobia, and what seems to be a rather unnerving backstory that has been set up for Bo-gyeom.