Our final week spins us around in circles and just when we think we’re done, it spins us around some more. Between our publisher and his writer, the “show don’t tell” rule might work in books, but real life works with a separate set of rules. And for a happily ever after, something has to give.
EPISODES 13-14
We have finally come to the end of the breakup show, and trust me when I say I’m happy to send it off without any fanfare. As consolation, though, it could have been worse. I mean, Bora could have ended up with Ju-wan again — which is basically the horror Episode 13 subjected us to.
To celebrate Deborah’s return to radio as a breakup icon, Ju-wan calls in on the show and blabs about wanting to get back together with his ex. Yunno, since his self-awareness meter is broken and he doesn’t know a thing about boundaries. But when he shows up at the station after her segment is over and asks to start over again, Bora hesitates. She lets herself be dragged away and as usual, Soo-hyuk is a witness to this moment.
“You seem like a different person these days. Give me a chance to get to know you better,” Ju-wan tells Bora over coffee, and I think the coffee would have looked better on his face rather than in the mug. But you do you, Bora.
To show how committed Ju-wan is to getting back together, he shows up at Bora’s meeting with Soo-hyuk acting all boyfriendly, and I just want to put him in a rocket and launch him into space! Isn’t Elon Musk his role model? He should go open a Mom’s Chicken outlet on Mars or something. Ugh! I don’t expect anything less from Ju-wan, but I expected more from Bora here, and I was disappointed that she didn’t put her foot down immediately and tell Ju-wan where to go. Between Hell and Mars, there’s plenty of locations I can suggest.
Instead, Ju-wan sticks around long enough to accuse Soo-hyuk of taking advantage of Bora’s post-breakup vulnerability to sway her heart. And it’s really Ju-wan’s audacity for me. But in typical Soo-hyuk fashion, he keeps mum about his feelings for Bora — which is all the ammunition Ju-wan needs to cast doubts in Bora’s mind. Because how can she be swayed by someone who doesn’t feel anything for her? It doesn’t help that Soo-hyuk congratulates her on returning to radio and on her “new relationship,” and I want to scream! Assumptions will be the end of this publisher-writer duo.
Done with the assumptions, Bora decides to clear the air once and for all with Soo-hyuk, and good for her because they need to put a definite tag to whatever it is going on between them. Bora pushes and prods, but Soo-hyuk stays true to love character, and he doesn’t break. And this is where Bora delivers one of my favorite quotes in the show, “If you can’t verbalize your feelings, don’t show them in the first place. [Because] it only makes the one who’s misled a fool!” This right here is the TRUTH! And it encapsulates the totality of my frustration with Soo-hyuk.
Over the course of the drama, we’ve seen that Soo-hyuk is a man of actions over words. Acts of service seem more of his love language unlike Bora who’s partial to words of affirmation. But when it comes to making a relationship work or even getting it off the ground to begin with, there has to be a compromise. You don’t automatically assume that people will know how you feel — you need to man up and let them know. And to do that, you need to speak the language they understand because for people to feel loved, they need to be loved in their own language. And that’s what Soo-hyuk still hasn’t gotten. He made the mistake with Yu-ri, and he’s doing it again with Bora.
For someone who was worried that all Bora feels for him is gratitude, Soo-hyuk still couldn’t get those affirming words out even after Bora put her pride aside and told him she liked him. Soo-hyuk is all, “I can’t just put my emotions first,” when Bora says she doesn’t want a man who prefers to use flowery euphemisms instead of directly saying the words. And mind you, this was 40 minutes into the final episode of what is supposed to be a rom-com. Tsk.
I think Soo-hyuk would be a perfect fit as a second male lead in another drama. He has it all: being there for the female lead in her times of need, bad luck with timing, inability to confess his feelings, sadly watching her from afar with the “love of her life,” and drunken confessions that he will not take responsibility for. Because it’s one thing to tell her not to get back with Ju-wan when drunk, and it’s another thing to maintain that same energy when sober.
Anyway, people come to a point of realization in different ways, and for Soo-hyuk, his tipping point is reading Bora’s manuscript. She pours out all her feelings for him in there and it’s nothing she hasn’t said to him before. She wanted reassurance from him because she didn’t want to be hurt. But now she knows she doesn’t need reassurance from someone else for the choices she makes. Whether it’s a happy ending or a sad one, she will write her own ending. And to ensure that he’s a part of Bora’s ending, Soo-hyuk takes off to meet her.
But Bora is currently being briefed about the latest happenings in chicken town on a dinner date with Ju-wan. And really, some things never change. Ju-wan even displays Mom’s Chicken’s newest takeout pack — but this pack comes with a ring! It’s the proposal Bora had always wanted from him, but it’s coming a few months too late. In a dramatic twist, the girl Ju-wan cheated with shows up at the restaurant having bugged his car — which is a joke Bora made the day she caught them kissing. Lol. And to take the twist game higher, Soo-hyuk shows up, too, and he escorts Bora out of the restaurant.
Finally, Bora gets the confession she wants from Soo-hyuk — even though she had to practically draw the “I have tried not to, but I just cannot resist. Whatever you do, nothing can make me stop liking you,” out of him. See, Soo-hyuk, was that so hard? But then, he looked like he might actually faint if those words left his mouth, so yeah. Lol. They kiss, and it’s the beginning of their cringey and cheesy romance (less than 10 minutes to the end of the drama). Pfft.
Checking in on the other couples in the drama, Bomi and Jin-ho are pregnant! Yes, the drama really went there. They’re cute and all, but cuteness won’t raise kids, and I think these two are too young and too financially handicapped for the responsibility that comes with having a child. As for Yoo-jung and Jin-woo, she discovers his basement hideout, but these two are in it for the long haul. And like I said last week, I’m so over their marriage, so best of luck to both of them.
Finally, Woo-ri was rewarded with a boyfriend in Sang-jin, and I just can’t with this show. For someone whose favorite book is Daddy Long Legs, I can see why Woo-ri has a creepy crush on Sang-jin. But what does he even see in her? And don’t give me that “We don’t need qualifications to love” nonsense. The dynamics of power aside, this relationship is just weird. I thought Woo-ri’s addition to the show was going to bring some bubbly Gen Z energy into the office. Alas!
As expected, Bora’s book is a success — and she did not have to get back together with Ju-wan for that to happen! No one shipped those two better than Sang-jin, and you’ve just gotta love capitalism because it was all about the publicity and book sales for him. *Rolls eyes*
Our final scene is a Christmas gathering/impromptu wedding of Bomi and Jin-ho, and Bora casually gets a ring from Soo-hyuk. We end with a narration from Bora about how their love is neither a perfect happy ending nor a sad one: it’s an open ending. Promises will be broken, love will change in the course of time, but there will be no regrets because they are true to love. And maybe that’s the story the drama wanted to tell: a story of love and the different ways people find meaning to, and express the feeling.
I could have done with more scenes of Bora and Soo-hyuk flirting and having meaningful conversations — as those were the best parts of the drama. But no, we just had to get all those unnecessarily dragged out scenes of them being miserable and mourning their exes. Agreed, getting over a breakup isn’t easy, but if I wanted “reality,” I’d have opted for a slice-of-life show instead. For a 14-episode rom-com, we should have more romance between the lead couple than what we got. But I have come to terms with the fact that I am probably not the target audience of this drama, so this is where I respectfully bow out.