Everyone is feeling things, from confusion to attraction to anger to despair, and everyone is trying to avoid those feelings. Our protagonists in particular are trying to avoid saying their feelings out loud, but their actions speak volumes.
EPISODE 8: “House + Love = Home”
The office is abuzz thanks to Young-won and an anonymous gift sent to her by a male fan. Gyeom explains that a man claiming to be a fan of Young-won’s asked him to deliver the designer handbag from the bazaar auction as a gift. Eui-joo thinks the fan must have feelings for Young-won, why else would he send her such an expensive gift? She tries to ask Gyeom his opinion, but Ja-sung asks why they’re making a big deal of it and to get back to work.
Young-won sighs, and Eui-joo correctly guesses that she’s uncomfortable with receiving such an expensive gift. As Eui-joo looks over the bag, she finds a note for Young-won tucked inside. In the bathroom, Young-won compares it to Dragon’s messages and the wording is pretty similar. She messages Dragon, asking if he actually went to the bazaar and gave her the gift. In his office, Ja-sung scoffs before reminding her that he said he couldn’t go. He grumbles about her goofing off during work hours.
In Gyeom’s studio, Eui-joo and Gyeom go over the pictures he took at the bazaar. Eui-joo realizes that Gyeom must have taken a picture of the man who bought the bag. They scroll through, but Sang-soon is in the way in every shot. Eui-joo is just about to leave when Chan interrupts—didn’t Gyeom have other pictures? He takes over and sure enough, there’s a clear shot of Young-won’s fan. Eui-joo is excited, but Gyeom’s vaguely panicked reaction doesn’t go unnoticed by Chan.
Editor Choi and Eui-joo fuss over the photo, asking Young-won if she thinks he’s handsome, but she’s completely uninterested. Editor Choi sees Ja-sung coming and starts dramatically scolding Young-won for looking at pictures during work hours. When Ja-sung asks what’s wrong, Editor Choi says he was scolding her as part of work training. Ja-sung wipes the smile off his face by pointing to the clock. It’s officially lunch time. Oops. Ja-sung says if Young-won does her job, she can do whatever she wants and her personal life is nobody’s business, least of all his.
At a coffee shop, Chan smugly (and correctly) guesses that Gyeom was the one who gifted the bag to Young-won. Gyeom admits it and says he got help buying the bag from someone he met at the bazaar to cover his tracks. Chan thinks it’s only a matter of time before Gyeom gets busted.
Sang-soon’s dance routine for the apartment subscription is completely ignored by the staff— they’re over it all. He won’t tell anyone what his psychic told him to do except Editor Choi and whatever it is, Editor Choi is scandalized, telling Eui-joo it’s better not to know.
Ja-sung’s hot-and-cold behavior continue to bother and confuse Young-won as they drive to the next house. He scolds her for being lost in thought, repeating his latest mantra: Separate work and private life matters.
In a discussion with the homeowner, Young-won says a home is a place that feels comfortable even after one day. Even that gets her a scolding and Ja-sung tells her to stick to talking about work when she’s on the job. He sends her out to the car to grab a copy of their magazine for the homeowner. While he’s alone he takes a call from his apartment management office, and gives permission for Young-won to come in and out without alarm…which is when the homeowner comes in. Slightly flustered, Ja-sung tells him she’s just a tenant of his who had nowhere to go while repairs were being done to her apartment, but the owner clearly doesn’t believe him.
As Young-won and Ja-sung leave the house, Secretary Hwang calls him about an urgent sale in their area. Young-won says not to worry about her and she’ll stay in the car but Ja-sung cuts her off. He chides her about wasting time and orders her back to the office so she can do her job. She gets out of the car, walks around to the driver’s window, and demands his company card. After all, work and private matters must be separate; why should she use her own money for a work matter? He gives her the card without much protest but she’s clearly upset as she walks away.
As he stews in his jealousy, Young-won comes into his office with the first draft of the promo article. She goes to leave so Ja-sung tries to delay her with more work, but she’s already completed everything he throws at her. He sarcastically remarks that if he knew that taking a taxi, he would have sent her on a plane. She cheerfully, announces, “Okay, I’ll take a plane next time,” and leaves. He tries to tell himself that it doesn’t matter if she does her job, but he sees something in the draft that makes him furious.
He yells for Young-won, saying her draft was sloppy and she made a fatal mistake. The confused editors don’t see a mistake until he points it out: she didn’t print on scrap paper. When he sees their looks of disbelief, he says the mistake reflects her state of mind. She’s never made this sort of mistake before but now she’s engrossed with her fan and if they start dating she’ll mess up the promo articles. But Eui-joo says he doesn’t have to worry.
Gyeom has a bouquet ready as he wait for Young-won in a cafe. But he gets an email from Young-won. She’s grateful, but she can’t accept such an expensive gift and she’s returning it to him. His note of encouragement was gift enough. Gyeom rushes out, but he’s missed her.
She notices a frame that needs adjusting on one of the shelves in the living room and climbs up a ladder to fix it. Ja-sung comes back with the plant, and just then, she loses her footing and falls backwards. He runs to catch her and she full-on clings to him like a monkey. There’s a moment of tension and they pull back and stare at each other before Young-won jumps off of him. They have a charged moment before Young-won escapes to the bathroom.
Editor Choi, Sang-soon, and Eui-joo meet up at a little jokbal (pigs’ feet) restaurant in Editor Choi’s neighborhood. Sang-soon offers to buy since he won the subscription and tells them there will be wedding bells soon. Strangely his phone rings constantly, but he ignores the calls.
Back at the restaurant, the newest lunchmate is one of Editor Choi’s former neighbors. He moved to Gangnam back in the day but he’s back to pick up some jokbal and to throw a few insulting comments Editor Choi’s way. With each comment, Editor Choi’s anger build and he finally threatens to leave. The man pretends to pacify him and leave first, but keeps needling Editor Choi.
Editor Choi’s patience runs out when his former neighbor says the apartment building should never be reconstructed so as to preserve the restaurant. In a fury, Editor Choi grabs a giant bone, and throws it at the man. It soars and hits Sang-soon square in the face. His nose starts bleeding and he passes out.
Gyeom keeps calling Ja-sung but there’s no answer. Chan asks where the camping heater and sleeping bag are, and it turns out Gyeom’s given them to Mi-ra. She’s been sleeping in the office and Gyeom gave them to her to keep warm. She texts a thank you for taking care of her and for keeping her secret.
At the restaurant, Editor Choi apologizes for throwing the bone. His phone rings; his wife needs him to come home now and fix the Wi-Fi router so his kids can attend their online classes. But he’s very drunk and can’t walk, so Sang-soon walks him home. Sang-soon left his phone behind and when Eui-joo takes a peek at his phone, she’s shocked.
When Sang-soon returns Eui-joo confronts him about the dozens of missed calls. They’re all from his girlfriend. It turns out that Sang-soon had gone to propose the day he won the housing subscription. He’d waited outside her hagwon to surprise her but he’d seen her walking away, hand-in-hand with another man.
Eui-joo asks if he’s going to break up with her, but Sang-soon says he’s just going to pretend he didn’t see. It must have been hard for her to wait so long. When she knows about the apartment, she’ll change her mind. Why ignore her calls? “In case she wants to break up,” he replies. He starts crying there in the restaurant, saying there’s no point in an apartment he can’t share with her. Aw, no.
Ja-sung wakes up from his nap and is shocked that he, Dragon Ja-sung, took a nap, hehe. He’s covered in a blanket, but Young-won has disappeared. She’s just outside the apartment building, upset at misunderstanding him again. She ignores his calls and starts crying.
Ja-sung finds her, very worried, and tries to fuss over her. She yells at him to stop being nice to her; she’s foolish and will keep misunderstanding him. She tries to walk away from him, but he says she didn’t misunderstand. He remembered what he said to her that night, and even though he’s tried to push her away, he likes her.
COMMENTS
Finally! The confession! I find it interesting that, while both Young-won and Ja-sung have been asked if they like each other, they’ve both hotly denied it and haven’t really acknowledged their own feelings even to themselves. They may not have said it in so many words, but they’ve shown their feelings from very early on; Young-won and Ja-sung’s emotional reactions have been very telling. That excitement when they see each other, the power of compliments to each other, and the strength of their reactions when they were angry at each other were all signs that they were going to end up this way.
To be honest, while I am happy the couple got together, some of my favorite parts of the episode were when Young-won, used Ja-sung’s his logic to reclaim some agency and express what she’s feeling. For example, when Ja-sung told her to go back to work, she did–on his company card. When he berated her in the office, she didn’t get angry or rise to the bait. Finally, and most importantly, when she was receiving mixed messages from Ja-sung, she left and told him to stop being nice to her. She defended her boundaries better than she has in this entire series. And I appreciated that not only because she was protecting herself and evening out the power dynamic, but because it forces Ja-sung to finally confront his own feelings.
Ja-sung’s feelings have always been pretty clear, even if he never has a kind word to say and finds expressing his emotions difficult. His actions and compulsions lead him back to Young-won, finding ways to treat her kindly and spending more time with her. Even his negative reactions, like jealousy, are overreactions from not understanding his positive feelings toward her. And when she finally demanded different behavior from him, Ja-sung was quick to declare his feelings honestly and without reservation. Hopefully, now that both sides are on more equal footing outside of the work space, they can progress to a healthier relationship with themselves and each other.