From handholding and kisses to pet names and cuddles, our touchy-feely OTP just can’t get enough of each other. But in dramaland, as in life, with all that happiness must come a little heartache. After weeks of spoiling us with carefree fun, the snag we’ve been expecting has finally arrived, giving us a brutal cliffhanger and leaving our lovebirds in a rough situation.
EPISODES 11-12
Oh, these episodes. The highs are so high and the final blow is so low. I knew a major upset was coming, but I preferred to cling to the fairy tale and hope we’d make it to Episode 16 with only minor scrapes and bruises. But, alas, no such luck — because my heart is on the floor.
We start with our Thailand team coming back to Korea following their mini-vacation. Before long, Won and Sa-rang are at a bus stop near the hotel, recharging their batteries with kisses. Sa-rang looks around each time she pecks Won’s cheek, worried that someone will catch them. The whole sequence is happiness in a can, but Won delivers this ominous line: “No secrets are forever.” And then, true to those words, the drama proceeds to start bringing the secrets to light — some in cuter ways than others.
Let’s start with the cute. Sa-rang invites Won over to her house one night when Pyung-hwa won’t be home and they can have the place to themselves. Won is quick to grasp the subtext and responds without hesitation that he’ll be there. He arrives with a bright bouquet and a sunny smile and we’re off to the races on squee-inducing moments.
Sa-rang has prepared a homecooked meal, which Won compliments like crazy before calling her jagiya. Eeeee! (Oh my poor neighbors with all the feet-stomping excitement this elicited from me.) After feeding each other at the table and flinging pet names back and forth, they find a cozy corner and cuddle up with some beers. When it’s time for a refill, they amorously argue about who gets to go to the kitchen, until Won lifts Sa-rang off the ground and says let’s go together.
As he carries and kisses her at the same time (A+ on multi-tasking), they decide to forego the beers in favor of some funny business in the living room. But before anything can happen, Pyung-hwa, Da-eul, Sang-shik, and Ro-woon walk in the door — leading to screams of bloody murder and Sang-shik fainting. Why it’s so shocking, I have no idea, but for cutting it off, I can’t forgive them.
They’re all there to reunite the “Bangkok crew” and they’ve been trying to reach Won and Sa-rang all evening to invite them (but, you know, our leads were busy). Now that the secret is out about their dating, all the friends are feeling a little betrayed for being kept in the dark. Ro-woon is the only voice of reason, saying they should congratulate them instead of getting mad (I knew this kid was a keeper). Finally, the second secret comes out when Won reveals his true identity as the chairman’s son, and the jig is up for him and Sang-shik.
Besides the action between Sa-rang and Won, there’s also dramatic action this week, revolving around the hotel’s 100th anniversary. Won is in charge of planning a big celebration event and he wants to focus the attention on the hotel’s staff, giving thanks where thanks is due. He rounds up the oldest employees — some who have worked there for more than 30 years — and hands them the stage to recount their stories about the hotel. Most everyone in attendance is very touched by the whole thing, including Won’s dad, who seems genuinely proud of his son.
Hwa-ran, however, is not moved by this display and can’t stand the fact that Won is in charge of anything, let alone that he might be succeeding. She gets involved where she’s not supposed to by inviting a rich and powerful assemblyman to the celebration, telling him he’s the guest of honor. Won hasn’t made room in the schedule for this assemblyman’s speech, and so, the guy storms out in the middle and Hwa-ran blames Won for making them lose an important investor.
Later, the press praises the event, noting how classy King Hotel is for shining a light on their employees. But Hwa-ran is convinced that good press isn’t enough to keep the business stable in these uncertain times, when other hotels are tightening their belts. At a board meeting, where she’s threatened all the members into backing her, Won is the only person who contests Hwa-ran’s approach to the future of the business. Rather than taking a side, Chairman Gu tells both his children to prepare a report laying out the pros and cons of their distinct ideologies.
Hwa-ran really comes into her own as a villain this week with a couple of diabolical schemes. First, in an effort to regain the assemblyman’s investment, she invites him to lunch at the hotel, where Sa-rang is their server. Anger and abuse are just personality traits for this guy and he yells at Sa-rang for no reason and then complains that she’s undertrained and demands she be fired. Hwa-ran — showing her short-sightedness when it comes to business — tells the manager to retrain the employees and dismiss Sa-rang.
But before the firing goes any further, Won walks in and puts the a-hole assemblyman in his place, which causes the guy to storm out yet again. Hwa-ran screams at Won and then questions his relationship to Sa-rang. Is she really just a valued employee or something more? She glances at Sa-rang with a knowing look and it seems their secret is about to be revealed again.
The last villainy thing Hwa-ran does is to enlist Sang-shik as a spy against Won. Sang-shik appears to have agreed when he asks how far up he can go if he helps her. Whether this is real or a fake-out, I had just been thinking that for someone who cares so much about his employees, Won should treat Sang-shik better. I hope all his mean-boss antics don’t come back to bite him.
After Sa-rang is almost fired, her colleagues take her out for drinks and finally make her feel like part of the team, which is what she’s been wanting. Afterward, Won shows up with an umbrella to rescue Sa-rang from the pouring rain, but they wind up soaked anyway and go back to her house to dry off.
Due to K-drama circumstances, Won comes to the living room in bare feet and an open dress shirt and it’s the moment I’ve they’ve been waiting for. Seeing Won half-dressed, Sa-rang gets uncharacteristically shy and Won finds her unbearably cute. He makes his move, telling her to take responsibility (yowza), and even though the scene cuts away, we can safely say they finished what their friends interrupted earlier.
Two others secrets come out this week that still need development but are worth a mention anyway. One is about Won’s mom, who we learn was a good friend of one of the older employees at the hotel. The friend might have some useful info for Won in his search for his mother. The other is that Pyung-hwa is divorced, and it seems that the pilot who’s been harassing her is actually her ex-boyfriend, who she accidentally married (it’s too ridiculous to get into). But this gives us more information about why she’s so hesitant with Ro-woon — and why she tells him this week that she’s not into him. Boooo!
Okay, and now for the final secret and the brutal cliffhanger. Sa-rang is selected to work at a catered event at the chairman’s house with a “Dream Team” that’s known for never making a mistake on the job — everything must be perfect. When Sa-rang and her team carry dishes into the chairman’s dining room, she finds Won seated at the table beside Yu-ri, along with both of their fathers. Sa-rang does her best to keep her composure, but as she lifts a plate, she hears the chairman tell Won to marry Yu-ri within the year. She drops the plate, which smashes on the floor, and glares at Won with hurt and anger.
I’m literally in tears. Poor Sa-rang. Our heroine has held her own, never worrying about the status difference between her and Won — even when she has to serve him and his family at the hotel — but I can’t imagine how low she must be feeling in that dining room. Without anyone meaning to do it, she’s just been put in her place by having to serve Won and the woman his father deems good enough for him to marry (while wearing an outdated maid’s uniform no less). The whole situation is so ugly, my heart shattered on the floor right along with that plate.
The other thing is, when I saw Won and Yu-ri sitting there, all I could think was: what other secrets has he been hiding from Sa-rang? We know he’s not into Yu-ri, but this encounter made me lose trust in him, and I can easily see how Sa-rang’s trust would falter too. She’s just told her friends that she likes Won because he doesn’t make her feel anxious or disappoint her, but that must be exactly how she’s feeling now. All I know is, I’ll be biting my nails until next week, hoping the resolution to this quagmire is good, honest, open communication — and then more kisses.