Lots of developments in these episodes: Love relationships are built and broken. We go round-for-round in a game of meet the parents. And the true (not-so-nice) nature of some of our characters is coming to the fore. If I thought the stakes got raised last week, hoo boy, are they getting high now.
EPISODES 9-10 WEECAP
Let’s just get it out of the way: they’re at different doors! We all knew it, but something inside me still wanted it not to be true. Instead of a secret meeting between our leads, we have Sang-soo at the hotel to meet Mi-kyung and her group of uber-rich friends, and Soo-young in a room alone — trying to get a break from Jong-hyun.
The relationship between Soo-young and Jong-hyun this week takes some topsy-turvy turns, and as their actions say they’re getting closer, they’re emotions say they’re living far apart. We get
Jong-hyun is melancholy and depressed, unable to accept Soo-young paying for everything and changing her life around for him. Soo-young keeps giving and giving — going so far as to get rid of her piano and plants (the things that reminded her of her brother) to make more space in the apartment. The more she gives, the more he loathes himself for being “useless.”
As troubled as they are, they keep trying to connect. One night, after a disagreement, Jong-hyun comes into Soo-young’s room and sits on the bed with her. He apologizes and says that the reason he’s living with her is because he likes her a lot (he’s not just there so she’ll pay the bills). He leans toward her and they kiss, looking like things are about to heat up. When we see Soo-young exit the room later (Jong-hyun shirtless in the bed), she looks contemplative, but not happy.
On the other side, Sang-soo and Mi-kyung are no longer swimming along pretending to be happy either. When the drama opens this week, we see a future with the two married and bored, as Sang-soo looks out the floor-to-ceiling windows of their apartment. We then cut to Sang-soo in the present, at the wedding we ended with last week. (Is he thinking back to this moment from that future window? Or imagining his future from the current wedding?)
At the wedding, Mi-kyung catches the bouquet and starts talking about marriage. She then invites herself over to Sang-soo’s place for ramyun (leaving him looking shocked). But when they get there, and he actually starts to cook for her (in his suit! Yesss!), she suddenly says she has to leave. We later learn that she snooped through a notebook on his desk and saw a scribble about Soo-young.
From there, Mi-kyung fills in all the blanks and realizes that Sang-soo has had strong feelings for Soo-young for a long time. She then turns into a total crazy person. She cancels plans with Sang-soo and calls Soo-young instead to covertly interrogate her. Soo-young understands what’s happening and confidently says she doesn’t know if Sang-soo had a crush or flirtation with anyone in the past. Mi-kyung pivots, saying it’s not important, since he’s with her now, and she’s the one he likes (and she looks legit psycho when she says it).
To counterbalance this, Sang-soo finds out that Mi-kyung’s college boyfriend, SO KYUNG-PIL (Moon Tae-yoo), was his friend and colleague. We’ve seen Kyung-pil making strange remarks to Mi-kyung at the bank, and now we know why. Since the three of them work together, Sang-soo is taken aback that he didn’t know about their relationship. But, in contrast to Mi-kyung, he doesn’t show any signs that he really cares (which bothers Mi-kyung).
Every week I try to find space to introduce the moms in this show and now it can’t be delayed anymore. Sang-soo’s mom, HAN JUNG-IM (Seo Jung-yeon), and Mi-kyung’s mom, YOON MI-SUN (Yoon Yoo-sun) (played amazingly by both actresses) have become “friends” despite their social statuses.
Jung-im operates a spa where Mi-sun is a VIP client. Mi-sun got it in her head that the two could be friends (since she has no one to talk to) and keeps showing up at the spa to take over the reception so Jung-im can have a break. (It sounds nice but there’s a lot of one-sidedness in their interactions.)
One day, Sang-soo surprises Mi-kyung by taking her to his mother’s shop (where Mi-kyung is also a client). Mi-kyung’s mother is working the desk and thinks Sang-soo (whom she’s already met) is bringing her daughter there for a couples’ treatment. Sang-soo shocks Mi-kyung and her mother when he introduces Jung-im as his mom.
After they part ways, we see Mi-sun disapprove of Sang-soo. It’s one thing for Mi-sun to hang out with Jung-im, but she can’t have her daughter dating the son of a shopkeeper — especially when her friend owns the building the shop is in! (Good grief.)
Sang-soo’s mom, though, thinks her son is just as good as Mi-kyung. She guesses that Sang-soo must really like Mi-kyung to have introduced the two of them and asks why he likes her. Sang-soo lists a bunch of reasons (that do not include love or like) and his mother says it sounds like he’s complimenting a colleague, not a girlfriend. (My take on the introduction is that Sang-soo did it to try to scare Mi-kyung away, or have her parents cut off the relationship.)
If my hunch is correct, it backfired. Mi-kyung calls Sang-soo later and says she was touched by meeting his mother. She took it as a sign of his sincerity. On the other end of the phone, Sang-soo has an “oh, shit” look on his face. When Mi-kyung asks to come over, he says, no, he’ll see her tomorrow (and it’s like he can’t hide his lack of interest).
In a parallel event, Sang-soo (and some of the other bank employees) find out that Soo-young’s mother is the owner of the oyster place where they all go for lunch sometimes. When they see the shop owner fall in the street, barely avoiding an oncoming car, everyone is shocked when Soo-young yells, “Mom!” Sang-soo takes Soo-young’s mother to the hospital, and it’s one of a series of events that shows the growing bond between him and Soo-young.
The two leads get closer this week in a way that feels organic and, also, like they’re really getting to know each other as people (not just distant crushes). First, an important bank client dies and Sang-soo and Soo-young have to go out of town to the funeral. There, they each reveal the impactful deaths in their own lives (Soo-young’s brother and Sang-soo’s father) and connect over these early losses.
On the train ride home, they decide to get off at the beach and spend the afternoon. Sang-soo notes that when they went to Jeju together for business before, they didn’t actually get to see the water. Soo-young responds, “Did you want to go to the beach? You should have told me.” He looks at her: “I should have made myself clear.” (Oh my heart! We’re not talking about beaches anymore!)
When they finally make it to the train station, it’s nighttime. While waiting, Sang-soo asks Soo-young if she’s happy. She had mentioned earlier that she was trying her best to be happy — so, is she? Her eyes fill with tears: “Should I break up with Jong-hyun?” Sang-soo stares, I stop breathing, and the train pulls in to take them back to reality.
As Sang-soo and Soo-young get closer, Mi-kyung’s desperation spirals out of control. When she thinks the two are together (and, well, they are) she packs up a bunch of her unworn clothes with the tags still on and brings them to Soo-young’s house. She’s waiting outside when Soo-young gets home and basically pushes her way inside, telling Soo-young she wants her to have the clothes now that they don’t need to wear uniforms at work (grrr! Good job, show, you wanted me to hate her, and now I do).
She wields her money-power against Sang-soo as well, buying him a car as a surprise. He yells that it’s too much. She says, “Not in comparison to how I feel about you” — and he literally rolls his eyes (lol). She keeps trying to force the car on him and, sometime later, she stops by his apartment and gives him the keys, telling him to keep it or throw it away. Either way, she can’t look at it anymore because it feels like a rejection.
We end this week like a badminton match, our emotions getting thwacked back and forth. It starts when Mi-kyung’s dad and Sang-soo go to play golf (as banker and client) and Dad sort of gives his approval for the relationship by saying he can make up for anything Mi-kyung’s boyfriend lacks. But then his words take on a threatening tone when he says, “I’ll give her anything and everything she wants” (like, if she wants Sang-soo, he’ll make sure she has him).
Dad invites Sang-soo for dinner with him and Mi-kyung. We know Sang-soo already has plans with Soo-young that night. We don’t see Sang-soo’s response (and it seems like he’s going to cancel with Soo-young). But then, we see Sang-soo waiting at the same restaurant of their ill-fated last date — the one where he hesitated to go inside.
This time, Soo-young is the one who falters in the street, looking up at him in the restaurant. She sees him smiling, waiting for her — and turns around and leaves (nooooo!). From the bus stop, she calls him and says she has plans with Jong-hyun so she has to cancel. But Sang-soo already saw her walking away from the restaurant and followed her to the bus stop. She hangs up the phone and turns to see him standing there.
He’s caught her in a lie but doesn’t say anything about it. Instead, he invites her to the rink where he plays ice hockey, asking her for help cleaning the ice. (It’s the same rink where he “taught” Mi-kyung how to skate when she pretended not to know how). Soo-young really isn’t a good skater, so Sang-soo says he’ll teach her (one trick pony, this guy) and challenges her to a race. She asks for a head start, but when the race begins, he never moves from his spot.
Soo-young reaches the wall and Sang-soo says, “I lost,” as his eyes go red and fill with tears. She replies, “You didn’t even try.” (Oh, the subtext.) She skates back toward him, almost falling when she reaches him, and they grab onto each other. They stand and stare. Finally, he says, “I don’t think I can do this anymore” — and kisses her. (Ahhhhhh!) Then they kiss and kiss and kiss and it is one for the rewind button.
Holy squee! I can’t even. I am so in love with the leads right now, even if they are a couple of cheating scoundrels. When Sang-soo appeared at the restaurant (meaning he told Mi-kyung’s dad no), I just fell in love with him. He finally took a risk to move toward Soo-young (not just to defend her). So, when Soo-young started to leave, after he took that risk, I was ready to go berserk. But, she said yes to the ice rink, and so, she’s redeemed for me.
The leads are (and have always been) a better pairing than they are with the other two. Not only do they have more in common personality-wise, they’re closer in their social spheres. Both Sang-soo and Soo-young are hiding parts of themselves and their pasts in order to achieve social mobility (that’s their common ground).
Of course, this is exactly the problem for Sang-soo: he wants to be with someone like Mi-kyung so he can live a “normal” (according to him) life and be stable, which he thinks will bring him happiness. Since the drama dwelled on themes of happiness this week — while putting our characters in particularly unhappy circumstances — I’m hoping Sang-soo is ready to fight against his ideas about what will make him happy, so we can have our OTP.