Our penultimate week comes with a slice of makjang, as our characters get some very unexpected replies to their confessions, and their variety show is hit with a plot twist that none of them saw coming.
EPISODES 7-8
We resume from where we paused last week with Chae-dong’s love confession, and Young-shim’s slip into his arms. From afar, they give off the impression of a couple in a cozy hug, and that’s exactly how Kyung-tae misinterprets the scene. And with an episode titled “Jealousy is my strength,” there is enough jealousy to go round among our characters. Starting from Kyung-tae who heaps blankets on Chae-dong during the night, leaving poor Chae-dong with nightmares about being strangled. Tsk.
Wol-sook is the next on the jealousy queue, and her radar goes up when she notices the tension between Kyung-tae and Young-shim as the temple stay shoot begins. Wanting to get closer to Kyung-tae, Wol-sook asks Young-shim for some help. But first, she wants to know if Young-shim also likes him. Young-shim denies it, but it’s obvious that the lady doth protest too much.
For a variety show shoot, Love Mark is incredibly boring (even more boring than this drama is turning out to be), and the crew has a hard time getting exciting footage between their guests — the guy with the unrequited love for his colleague, and the colleague in question. For some skinship, the crew arrange a couple’s yoga session, and interestingly, Chae-dong chooses to pair up with Wol-sook rather than with Young-shim. Unfortunately for the crew, couples yoga doesn’t go well, either, as Mr. Unrequited Love gets a muscle cramp. And I can’t tell which scenario is worse in front of your crush: getting a cramp, or having your heart rate spike and setting off the alarm on your smartwatch — as is the case with Kyung-tae. Lol.
As a last resort, Wol-sook suggests Operation Jealousy to set things off between the show’s guests, and for the first time since the shoot began, Ms. Colleague seems to be affected. She tells Mr. Unrequited Love that she wants to speak with him beside the wishing rock, and the crew wait in anticipation for what they expect to be the climax of the shoot. Yunno, when she finally accepts his feelings.
At the wishing rock, Mr. Unrequited Love is all pumped up and ready to confess his feelings, but Ms. Colleague asks to go first. And this is where things take an interesting turn. Ms. Colleague confesses that she knows how Mr. Unrequited Love feels about her, but the only reason she came on the show was to make good memories with him for the last time. Why? Apparently, she has already decided to walk the road of asceticism, and she’s leaving for Tibet soon. What!? Now it makes sense as to why she’s into Buddhist activities.
This is definitely not the story Love Mark intended to tell, and the entire crew is perplexed. But no one is more upset about the plot twist than Mr. Unrequited Love, and he vehemently refuses to broadcast his embarrassing story to the country. Despite Young-shim’s plea, he insists that the footage be erased, and when she doesn’t bulge, he grabs her laptop, hops into the crew’s van and speeds off — with Young-shim barely making it into the vehicle as he drives away. Okay, what in the makjang is going on here?
Young-shim manages to send an SOS message to Soon-shim before her phone goes off (no surprises here), and Soon-shim rushes to inform Kyung-tae and Chae-dong — who are in the middle of a childish brawl — about Young-shim’s “abduction.” Luckily, Young-shim is with Kyung-tae’s smartwatch, and the guys — who get into another round of arguments before kicking off Operation Save Young-shim — track her location.
Mr. Unrequited Love is about to throw Young-shim’s laptop into the river when Kyung-tae and Chae-dong arrive, and Young-shim passes out in the ensuing struggle for the laptop. Kyung-tae and Chae-dong take turns in trying to diffuse the laptop hostage situation, and Chae-dong turns on the waterworks. Apparently, Mr. Unrequited Love wasn’t the only one who got dumped, as a flashback reveals that Young-shim had turned down Chae-dong’s confession.
Things escalate into a battle of who has it worse: private dumping versus public dumping, and having to face his crush everyday at work versus not getting to see his crush when she moves to Tibet. *Sob, sob* Both guys end up in a consolatory hug, and Chae-dong uses the opportunity to rescue the laptop. So dramatic!
Kyung-tae drives Young-shim and the laptop back to the broadcasting station, and Young-shim gets an apology text from her abductor. In an all’s well that ends well situation, Young-shim spots a comment under Mr. Unrequited Love’s public entry to the show that states that his steadfast commitment to his crush is what she (commenter) looks out for in a guy, and to contact her if his crush rejects him. Young-shim reaches out to arrange a blind date between Commenter and Mr. Unrequited Love, and things end on a happy note for him.
While editing Love Mark’s pilot episode, a happy Young-shim comes across footage of Kyung-tae at the wishing rock. And we see that he made a wish for Young-shim, but we won’t get to hear the rest of the wish until next week.
Outside of Love Mark, it appears that Kingvely is in a bit of legal trouble, and I wonder what that side plot is all about. Hopefully, the finale wraps up all loose ends like it did with the love triangle — which wasn’t even a triangle in the real sense of it — because as much as I like him, Chae-dong never stood a chance with Young-shim. I was upset that the show made him join forces with Wol-sook last week, but thankfully he made a U-turn this week by respecting Young-shim’s feelings and giving up on her. “You don’t own her heart. It’s up to her to decide what to do with her feelings.” Preach to your fellow second male leads in dramaland, Chae-dong, preach!