you’re beautiful parodies :)

”You’re Beautiful” Go Mi Nam & Jeremy left messages on official site :D

”You’re Beautiful” Gominam & Jeremy left messages on official site

Gominam = Park Shin Hye; Jeremy = Hongki (so cute!)

2009.10.07 09:29:26

Hello. I’m Park Shinhye playing both Go Minam and Go Minyeo in ‘You’re Beautiful’. Wow.. It seems like just a few days ago since filming began last August and in 17 hours…the first episode will go ion air. I’m really nervous so the moment I reached home after filming I came here (T/N: to the official homepage) to greet everyone. >_< I wanted to boast about ‘You’re Beautiful’! Speaking of ‘You’re Beautiful’…

It’s a drama that we shot with difficulty and sweating buckets under the extremely hot weather. It wasn’t just me but all the staffs and the actors had to do lots of moving around. We’ve got really interesting episodes and hope that we’ll bring laughter to everyone. Also, there are many scenes showing each character’s charms~ Hwang Taekyung’s aloofness ,Shiwoo’s chic, Jeremy’s cuteness, Go Minam’s strangeness, Uhey’s haughtiness, etc. Anyway, the more you watch this drama, the more charming it gets~~ >_
Because we were working so hard shooting this drama as one team! Stay tuned to ‘You’re Beautiful’ every Wednesday and Thursday, 9:55PM on SBS!! If you dare switch channels, Minam might appear can be a public nuisance with her 3-step combo hehe!~ As the difference in temperature between morning and night is big, please be careful not to catch a cold!! I hope that you will fall in love with A.N Jell.. ^^

Thank you! This was Minam Shinhye!!

2009.10.07 09:30:12

Hello, this is Jeremy Lee Hongki. I’m writing this now after filming. Kekeke

All the staffs have been working hard without sleep. As today is the first broadcast, I was really nervous and couldn’t really sleep because of that so I’m real tired now. Keke. I hope you’ll watch ‘You’re Beautiful’ which goes on air in 17 hours. Kekekeke. I’ll definitely be watching it with my members so I hope you’ll watch it too and cheer us on. Keke. I’m really tired so I don’t even know what to write. T T Anyways, I’m going off to dreamland now~~~~~ Please try to catch it live. If not you’ll regret it. Keke. I’ll try to write more often next time.

Cr: SBS + Translated by: Sparkskey@omona

Jang Geun Suk leaves message on ‘You’re Beautiful’ homepage

Jang Geun Suk leaves message on ‘You’re Beautiful’ homepage

“I always check our rankings on various portal sites”? That’s hilarious! He sounds like his character who always want attention XD

[태경♡] 황태경입니다!  2009.10.29 10:47:11

Hello viewers of ‘You’re Beautiful’. This is Jang Geun Suk, currently taking on the role of Hwang Taekyung in ‘You’re Beautiful’. I actually planned to write something here before the series began but because of filming and my tight schedule…

I was really late this time ^^

It has already been a month since ‘You’re Beautiful’ started airing. We don’t have many finished scenes; we just shoot right before the episode goes on air. Therefore, both the actors and the staff are feeling the strain. Maybe it’s because we’ve got great teamwork on the set of’ You’re Beautiful’ or maybe it’s cause of the young actors, but this has to the most fun and enjoyable drama I’ve ever filmed.
I suppose most of you know this but we finally hit the 2 figure mark last week (for viewership ratings). Although there might be people who doubt that we could do well since we’re a group of really young actors, or people who might be more interested in other dramas that are currently airing, there are now more people who will go ‘Ah~’ when the drama’s title is mentioned and more people who remember this drama. We might not have the resources and support to make this drama a magnificent one, but through our passion and great teamwork, we, the actors and the staffs are working hard to show everyone that this is a good drama. And the lovely words and interest that everyone has shown us has been a great source of strength to us.

(I always check our search rankings on various portal sites ^^)

Truthfully, as the leader of AN Jell, I feel sorry to my dongsaengs. We wanted to show this drama to more people but the viewership ratings were lower than we expected. I started to wonder if it was because I didn’t manage to bring across the Hwang Taekyung character well or if it’s because of Jang Geun Suk that people cannot accept this drama….many such thoughts crossed my mind..

(Cause I’m an A blood type, you know) (T/N: Type A’s are known to be perfectionists)

But I don’t think that way now. I won’t dwell on just viewership ratings. Looking at the other younger actors striving so hard to embrace their characters makes me realize that I should be the one learning from them. I’ve thought of giving up because it was too tough. I didn’t expect it to be so satisfying leading this group of inexperienced young actors holding their scripts, joking on set and researching how to express a particular scene. ^^

This week’s episodes will be the half point mark for this drama. Recently, not just me but also all my co-workers have just been shooting continuously.

We’ll do our best all the way to the very end. Till then, please give us your love and opinions ^^

Jang Geun Suk as…..Taekyung preparing to shoot the 19th scene of episode 8 at SBS Ilsan Tanhyun G-Studio.

Cr: bestiz + translated by: Sparkskey@lj

[RECAP] Doremifasolatido

Cast:

Yoon Jungwon – lead girl (Cha Ye Ryun)
Shin Eungyu – lead boy (Jang Geun Suk)
Yoon Jaewang – Jungwon’s bro
Shin Sohyun – Eungyu’s sis
Kang Heewon – An Asshat
Yoona – Jungwon’s friend
Nari – Keyboardist and backup singer
Seohyun – Drummer
Pupu – A Cat

Doremifasolatido, A Recap:

There is an amusement park! (Pause for my moment of nausea.)

Jungwon, dressed in a dragon suit, is obviously new at this. She falls down while dancing on stage, is chased by kids with pitchforks (symbol? lol), and then someone turns her giant head, so she falls.

She stomps around looking for the culprits and bumps into a gang of loud guys. They pick on her some more. Eungyu is there, doing his disinterested thing, but she is so angry she empties another customer’s soda on him. (The girl she took the soda from looks positively startled.)

The guys are amused (and some of them are wearing furry ears, no points for taste) but Eungyu is pissed.

Jungwon is dragged away by a distraught coworker.

Cut to dojo, a shaved bear man beckons at Jaewang – who’s quite cute, and he’s all like, nooo, but Jungwon looks away innocently at his beseeching look. So Jaewang is thrown into the wall for a demo.

That night, at dinner, he runs away from the table. Jungwon comes up to the patio roof to discover him smoking. She headlocks him and threatens to turn him in. The resulting tussle pitches her into the clothesline and she meets the new neighbours with underwear on her head.

After the awkward introductory conversation, she scans the other balcony and sees the boy from the amusement park, laughing at her underwear headgear. Jungwon is angry and does destructive things to the underwear in her hands. (Btw, JGS’s smile is sooooo cute and his skin – 2 years ago – is either flawless or very nearly so.) Jaewang also takes a closer look at the neighbors and is struck by cupid rather forcibly. (Err, that came out wrong. He’s not in love with Eungyu.) Eungyu has a gorgeous sister who is apparently a vampire of the Stephenie Meyer variety even at night.

Jungwon is slightly miffed that he didn’t recognize her. The next day, she runs home but has to deliver a plate back to the neighbours. She sneaks in and no one’s there, but then she hears Eungyu playing something.

(Ahaha, he’s singing ‘I hate amusement parks’!)

Eungyu’s room is composed of three walls of CDs and books, one desk, one bed, and… it is large, I say. Large! (The city dweller in me is envious. Nice furniture, and is that a Linkin Park poster I see?)

He pauses in strumming his guitar to write it down, looks up and sees Jungwon there. He calls her underwear girl, and invites her in. She is amazed at his CD collection, mostly donated by other fangirls but he’s not interested in them. Or anything besides music, really.

He asks her to listen to a song he wrote: (Dragon Boy Song)

“It wasn’t water, no, and it wasn’t juice,
it was coca cola from the spout of a crazed whale.
Don’t like amusement parks.
Don’t like dragon heads.”

Jungwon almost breaks one of his figurines, so he stops. She restrains herself from getting too angry and slyly gets the back story from him. He’s all traumatized from the attack, lols. He also doesn’t want to see the person who did that even in dreams, ha, we’ll see.

Later that night, Jungwon sneaks out of the house – on the balcony, basically, and he raises a ruckus. She tells him to shush, but he instead shouts for her dad. She has no choice but to listen to his request for her to escort him to school for a week. As a reward, he’ll let her hold his hand. Jungwon is naturally enraged. She encourages him to get her dad – he won’t believe him anyway.

Eungyu gets out a recorder. (Ha for forward planning!)

So now she has to be his porter as well as holding down this job. As she climbs down the fire escape, he introduces himself as Shin Eungyu.

At the store, a poor bag of chips takes Jungwon’s frustration.

The next day, after school, Jungwon waits for Eungyu at the gates of his high school. A bunch of really vulgar girls (oh come on, spitting on the ground was so last millennium) push her around. Jungwon gets hit and punches back. Shaved bear #2 makes an appearance and it turns out the person Jungwon punched was his girlfriend.

The big dude lifts Jungwon off the ground and threatens her, but Eungyu comes to the rescue! Apparently he beat this colossus up before. (And he clarifies that Jungwon’s not his girlfriend lol.)

He won’t even let her take his guitar because he says her neck must hurt. She think he wants to date her.

SEG: Are you serious? Do you know how high my standards are?
YJW: Then have you thought about lowering those standards?

(Her little hop thing is very cute.)

The studio’s kind of run down. He invites her in, she refuses but goes in anyway. Once in, she sees Heewon sitting on the couch. He’s shocked, she’s even more so. She runs out.

Eungyu wonders what’s up with her now.

The band (comprising of Seohyun unni for drums, Nari for keyboard, Eungyu for vocals+guitar and Heewon for bass guitar) start practicing – it’s Full of Sunshine. (The JGS version is sooooo nice, I want it now!!! His voice isn’t too bad, actually, for someone who’s untrained.)

The playing is very fake, but hey.

As shown in movie:

Today is another sunny day
Your smile fills up my day
Even if the day makes me worried
You can relax all of me right now
You’re the only one to relieve me of a day’s burdens
My love is always by my side
As long as you are there
I can do anything
Even if sometimes you are difficult
Even if you may get hurt
But I will never let go
I will be always by your side

(Btw, the slashy in me grins at Heewon and Eungyu interacting while playing.)

The song continues to play, Jungwon is shown getting off the bus. The music fades out as she gets home. Jaewang is clearly dead gone for Eungyu’s sister Sohyun and wants to know if pretty girls like cats, etc. He is chased out with a headlock.

Jungwon goes to meet Heewon at this seedy stall place (looks like she knows where to find him). Heewon warns her to stay away, not even letting her ask after how he’s been. He says that Eungyu was a friend who stayed by him even when everything hit rock bottom.

Surprisingly (and differently from the book), Jungwon hits back, saying that he was an asshat who let a friend of 10 years get completely beaten up by a random gang. She says she won’t take any more crap from him. Heewon came prepared, however, and has three ‘friends’ lined up.

Heewon leaves after telling her to never appear in front of him again.

It begins to storm. Jungwon walks home in the rain. (In passing, she is wearing white. I am slightly worried for her.)

She is nearly home but is blocked by a really large umbrella, which lifts itself to reveal Eungyu. Awww. He was waiting for her.

She wonders why he won’t ask her about her running out.

SEG: You were crying. Asking you would make you hurt more, no?
YJW: Me? Cry? It’d be harder than getting a cockroach to cry!
SEG: So what if I were to make you cry?
YJW: What if I don’t cry?
SEG: Then you get one wish.

He hands the umbrella to her and goes home singing. He slips on the ground and recovers in time. Jungwon laughs at his antics.

The next day, Jungwon visits Eungyu’s school but gets her tag taken (she may be a champion at punching bratty girls, but stealthy she is not). Eungyu gives her the guitar and tells her to give it up – the monitor won’t give it back. She, in return, wrestles him into taking couple pictures with her. (Lol, so violent.)

She says in passing that she’s never been to the beach because of work and thus he has to cooperate with her for pictures.

While walking to the studio, Eungyu annoys her with another song. (But he reveals that she is the source of his inspiration!)

At the studio door, they are accosted by Jaewang, who wants to know Sohyun’s phone number. Eungyu tells him that she likes surprises so he should go straight to the house.

Jaewang spots a cat and chases after it.

Heewon comes, Jungwon is awkward. Eungyu is clueless.

Jungwon refuses to go in, throws a fit and leaves. Eungyu is mystified. Heewon runs back out, fully wanting to catch her, but he doesn’t, and watches a blue bus drive away in regret.

Back home, Jaewang introduces Pupu, the new family cat (who is, incidentally, a Salem look-alike). Jaewang promises to reform his playboy ways with Sohyun.

Jungwon shops with Yoona and is tripped upon exiting a store by the three toughs who hang around Heewon. They threaten to kill her if she doesn’t listen to Heewon.

Heewon, meanwhile, gazes longingly at this green electric guitar.

At night, Jungwon makes an infuriated entrance. Eungyu looks like he’s practicing, but really he just stayed there to wait for her – like Jaewang with Sohyun, actually.

Eungyu wants to know why she’s beat up around the face and she wants to know why he’s got a split lip and black eyes. They both lie about the real reason. Eungyu hands her the name tag she lost. She gets all teary. He’s like, I win!

He agrees to be her boyfriend, but tells her not to show up at his school because she has ‘pimples’.

(I wonder though… their houses are pretty far apart. How can they talk like that to each other without the entire neighbourhood hearing them? And really nice houses, but hey.)

Jaewang is concerned because he thinks Heewon is going after Jungwon again. She refuses to talk to him because she wants to savour being Eungyu’s girlfriend. Jungwon sadly looks at old photo album pictures of Heewon and her while Jaewang bangs on her door.

Jungwon comes to the studio the next day, surprising everyone. She acts all mushy in front of him to piss him off though Eungyu just thinks she’s got water on the brain. it’s really embarrassing, actually, to see her act all lovey dovey.

Heewon turns into a raging thundercloud in his corner of the sofa.

Eungyu sees that her cheek actually is wounded, and not pimply. He drags her out. She won’t tell him, and Eungyu gives her some space. They go to the beach together (thus wrecking all hopes of practice), and while there, Eungyu gives her a necklace made by his fans, for his girlfriend (bet they were hoping they’d wear it themselves).

We cut to Jungwon running hell for leather out of her classroom. Jaewang left her a message, saying, “Come watch me beat up Heewon.”

There is fighting. Heewon’s just taking it.

When Jungwon tells her brother to stop, we see Heewon smile a little. She goes on to say that if anyone were to kill Heewon, it would be her, and the smile disappears.

They do their little angst routine about how she, as a friend, destroyed his father and his family. (But it was a hit and run that killed a child – there is some degree of responsibility in that.)

As Heewon gets up, he staggers. Jungwon is all concerned but he shakes her off, and warns her away from Eungyu again. He doesn’t want to see her smile.

ANGST.

(He just wants her for himself, really.)

As he goes home, the gangsta guys come, and he tells them that if they do stupid stuff on their own like that again he’ll really light into them. Awww, Heewon is sitting in the same bench he shared with Jungwon in the photo… but not feeling sorry for him. I don’t ever feel sorry for guys who expect you to just read their angsty little minds.

Jungwon drags her brother to Heewon’s, the next day, to apologize. His apartment is small and dim and greyyyyy. (Feel the angst, people) The only bit of colour is the family portrait and that’s not making anyone happy.

Heewon says that an apology is no use, that he wants them to disappear, but before Jaewang makes real on his threats to beat Heewon again, Eungyu shows up. Apparently there was a meeting scheduled.

Eungyu is like, huh, you know each other. Explain, please.

Jungwon tries to lie for Heewon, that Jaewang got in a fight with Heewon. Eungyu lectures her on how to take control of her brother, how to treat friends properly etc. Jaewang gets angry, and blurts everything out. Jungwon looks like she wishes she were 25971239 miles away.

Eungyu is disbelieving, then he drags Jungwon out.

He apologizes, saying that he had no idea. Jungwon explains further to him that it was her fault because she reported his father and now he’s in jail and his mother is in hospital. She takes off the necklace and tells him to take good care of Heewon. She leaves.

Eungyu is le frustrated, by the look on his face.

Heewon and Eungyu have a good all-out fight, by the looks, and settle down for a chat in prone positions. Heewon is just annoyed that Jungwon is with Eungyu. But he does admit at last that he doesn’t hate her anymore.

At night, Jungwon is walking home alone. Eungyu is perched at her doorstep. He says that Heewon has forgiven her, that there was music before Heewon, but not without her. He likes Heewon and will continue to be his friend, but he’s working on how to keep the three of them in equilibrium.

He asks Jungwon for a hand up and they end up hugging. (Jungwon, the so-called no tears girl, is a veritable fountain.)

The angst cycle begins again as Heewon visits his mother and father. His mom’s not talking and dad’s depressed. Heewon won’t answer the door when Eungyu knocks again either.

Eungyu has lunch with Jungwon. There’s a big festival coming up that Eungyu takes part in, and he can’t be with her for a while, she’s okay with it – and Eungyu has a cute soda-induced burp moment. (The lack of bass doesn’t seem to worry the band for the moment.)

Meanwhile, Pupu goes missing and Jaewang resolves to not come home while he is missing.

Jungwon goes to the studio, and Heewon intercepts her. Awkward conversation on bench ensues.

Heewon wants to recover what he’s lost, and Jungwon would prefer for him to leave her alone if this is a new ploy to torture her. Heewon is sincere, though, and promptly falls asleep on her shoulder.

Later, Jungwon is in her bed while overlaying music plays. Flashback of her at Doremifasolatido’s practice.

(Waiting for the Time plays)

I should have quietly let you go
As I stood at that place again
Looking at you walking slowly away
Silently crying
In such a cold season
Even if you return once more

They stop playing because they’re refining their pieces for the competition. Nari complains at the lack of a good bass player, but Jungwon steps in to defend Heewon (a bit too vehemently, as it turns out). Jungwon gets a phone call, and says that it’s Yoona. (But Eungyu can tell it was Heewon and is slightly worried.)

Jungwon uses her marathon sprinting skills and runs to where Heewon is living. It looks like he’s perched on the roof. Return of the emo boy as he gets up and stands on the edge of a tall building. He feels useless to his mother, angsts about his family’s fate, bla bla bla. Jungwon tries being optimist about his mother, but Heewon persists in angst and wanting to commit suicide.

(Hon, if he really wanted to, he wouldn’t have called you. Trust me.)

Heewon: No one understands my pain. I’m all alooooooooooooooooooooooone. (Second sentence is mine.)

(Sevenses: Hands him a guitar and a razor blade just to shut him up.)

Jungwon promises to stay by his side and make him happy, if only he would give her a chance! (And a week to break up with Eungyu. There is much wtf-ing in Sevensesland.)

The next day, Jungwon skips school to drag Eungyu out of music practice. Nari objects, but Seohyun tells Eungyu to go. They go to a magic show, and Eungyu shows off his skills. (So cute! They have such fun that I quaver to think of the angst ahead. Again.)

Among other things, he gets her a rose, dances with her, wows at the cosplay fest (in which he is particularly fascinated by people dressed up as Princess Abdulla and a shiny teapot – this will be significant later) and teases her for being a dragon.

The next day Jungwon wants Eungyu to go out again but he’s got the festival to prepare for and loses patience. (Someone’s not winning the model girlfriend award.) Heewon calls in the middle of a very awkward argument, and she goes.

She’s supposed to pick out clothes to meet Heewon’s sick mom. But Jaewang drives by, sees them, and there is dodging, weaving, running like the wind!

Jungwon makes an excuse and leaves after they catch their breath.

As she comes home, Jaewang and Eungyu are waiting. Eungyu is all nice about her little outburst, and she wants to know if he would forgive her for leaving him – but she doesn’t really say anything, just alludes to it, and Eungyu only asks that if Heewon has a request that she take him with her.

She still looks really worried so Eungyu kisses her. (D’aww.)

Heewon calls her and asks her to go to his place next Wednesday, which is the day of Eungyu’s big concert. Heewon walks by the guitar place and his favoruite one is no longer there. Eungyu practices, Jungwon angsts.

At the concert, Doremifasolatido starts with Waiting for the Time. Eungyu’s searching the audience for Jungwon.

Quietly closing my eyes, I see in front of me
What I once tried so hard to forget
Yours and mine, the song

At this point he sees Jungwon up on the staircase of the venue, and he breaks into the biggest smile possible while still singing (Sevenses: *wibbles*) and once again we use lyrics to express what the characters are feeling (because the actors can’t emote properly). He throws himself into the song.

(JGS is really enthusiastic, but his posing leaves something to be desired.)

Do you still remember
What we experienced together?
Those happy times?
I can only wait
I can say nothing
Watching your tears flow
We can only love each other
Compared with the pain of regretting you
This is easier
Can you not return to my side?

Jungwon cries as she walks away. Eungyu finishes his emo lines and opens his eyes, but he can’t find Jungwon. He goes back to singing but is muchos distracted.

I should have quietly let you go
As I stood at that place again…

And it fades off as we see Jungwon going to Heewon’s place. (Poor Eungyu.) There is a lonely lonely cake with some candles. Jungwon tries to tell Heewon to stop the nonsense, but he vows to erase Eungyu from her mind. (The distant thump is my head hitting the computer desk.)

Heewon lights the candles on the cake and the camera pans out.

We see Eungyu staring disbelievingly at the words Jungwon’s put up on her laundry line : Let’s break up.

Cut to some time later. Jungwon is happily (fake happy) doing class cleaning with her friends. Nari demands to meet with her, and cannot believe she’s like this. Turns out Eungyu wanted the prize money so they could go to the beach together.

Heewon and Jungwon go visit his mother, who is unconscious. Heewon apologizes for troubling her (so let her go you idiot), but remarks that she’s stopped smiling. (More thumping from here.)

Heewon mentions the concert Eungyu’s putting on for his fans. He wants to attend – selfishness aside, wtf? He also goes to visit Eungyu with Jungwon.

(Sidenote: You know that cute kitty Jaewang’s frantic over? Sohyun has it. Sneaky.)

Eungyu is staring out his window, doesn’t even move when Heewon announces himself and only turns around when Heewon tells him Jungwon is here too. Heewon gets out the food he brought and goes in search of cups.

Eungyu turns around, and, woah, he looks awful. Jungwon takes a step nearer, but he stops her when he says, “I was trying to find the best way of sending you away. It might take a while.” He asks her if she can live without him. Jungwon shakes her head, but Eungyu just tells her to go the concert no matter what.

Heewon comes back, and Eungyu gets out a brand new guitar case. It’s the green one he wanted. (Audience would like permission to hit Heewon.) Heewon takes it and goes off to practise like nothing’s wrong. Apparently Eungyu has a record deal, after the concert, but he’s still not sure if he’ll go, and he looks at Jungwon when he says this. (Audience: He can’t sing without her!)

At the concert, fans chant the name of band, then just of Eungyu. Eungyu sees Jungwon, Heewon sees Jungwon, there have been more cheerful funerals.

Eungyu: We promise to send everyone home crying today!

The opening song’s about a trip to the sea. (Episode 1 – and this time the JGS version is nicer.)

Then they play Waiting for the Time, then Full of Sunshine, then Doremifasolatido (The rapping part is about Pupu! Lol, it’s along the lines of: lost my cat, frantically waiting for you night and day, etc.)

JGS’s ballad part:

Slowly think back, please remember me
Even if it’s only once
I love you
Forever and ever
For me

I want to go to the blue blue sea
I want to fulfill all my promises to you
I promise from this day forward
To only protect you

Eungyu stops singing because he is crying. He apologizes for losing his voice, gets off stage, and goes to talk to Jungwon. He says that everything depends on her answer. Then he whispers in her ear, “I’m sorry I love you.” She tells him to not love anymore.

Eungyu takes off his necklace, gives it to Jungwon.

“This is Jungwon, you have Eungyu. Make sure they are together and happy all the time because they cannot be separated. Take them to the beach together, because I wanted to go to the beach with you.”

Eungyu leaves, slowly. Jungwon starts to go after him, but Heewon stops her. (Audience would like permission to throw him into piranha tank.) Seohyun tells Heewon to let her go because he’s only being selfish now, but he says he will let her go when he feels he can live without her.

We see poor Eungyu staggering toward the lonely, dimly lit door of SAD.

Flash forward to some time later, Jungwon is feeding Heewon’s mom in hospital, she is better. Heewon attempts to get closer to Jungwon, but she’s maintaining a strict distance. She also misses Eungyu something fierce.

Heewon meets with Seohyun, hears the bad news about Eungyu. Heewon debates with himself, but lets Jungwon hear it. So Eungyu was in a car accident, shortly after leaving Seoul. Just to add to everyone’s guilt, he left so Heewon and Jungwon would be happier. There is mentions of brain damage. Jungwon goes to get him.

At a short pit stop on the beach, Jungwon remembers him saying, the saddest thing would be for a loved one to not see each other again, so he won’t die, because he can’t think of her anymore. Jungwon sobs her heart out.

Some time later, we see Eungyu running away from 3 kids, holding a shiny teapot. He calls himself a prince and is purportedly looking for princess Shalala. Jungwon is trying, but he doesn’t recognize her at all. 3 weeks, no progress.

There are quick flashes of therapy that she’s tried, from going to the amusement park, hypnotism and outright reminders, we see that the more significant something is, the more pain Eungyu’s in. He just refuses to remember. The psychiatrist suggests that nothing short of a miracle will bring back the memories.

So Jungwon asks the band members to help with restaging that last concert. Nari objects on the basis of Eungyu’s happiness. Nonetheless, Jungwon plows onward with the help of her brother and friend Yoona. They gather all the people from Eungyu’s old high school.

Heewon’s special little task is to learning the lead singing parts. (Heewon v. 2.0, with empathy and x2 angst.) Nari agrees to help and there is female bonding of the crying variety.

At the actual concert, Eungyu starts getting nervous and shaky, making motions to run away. Junwon and Sohyun hold him back. Onstage, Heewon looks remorseful for turning his friends into this.

During the songs, Eungyu goes a little more crazy, then as Heewon repeats what he did that day, stopping in the middle of the song, Eungyu falls and blanks out.

Heewon does the ‘Sorry I love you’ scene and Eungyu starts to remember, which sends him into a painful screaming fit. Sohyun begs for her to stop, but Jungwon goes on. He repeats the handing over of doll action and Eungyu goes into more paroxysms.

Heewon walks away. To everyone’s surprise, Eungyu shouts for him to stop.

He stands up and does his spiel of pain – “I was sad, desperate, hoping that the next step you would stop me, except you never did. Do you know how that felt, stepping in place and hoping you would come for me?”

Jungwon calls his name. Eungyu comes back to himself. They hug. Heewon looks away.

The ending credits show Jaewang finding out Pupu was kidnapped because Sohyun was jealous, on the roof, Jungwon and Eungyu are having some long-awaited couple time.

[RECAP] Baby And I

What do teenager boys do?

Eat ramen noodles and…

check out hot mamas on the street?

No, not he.

This, this, this, and this…

… are not his cup of tea. He wants, this:

a REAL mama.

So Joon-soo approaches her, holds her hands in his, looks her in the eye, and begs, “Please, give me some breast milk.”

Joo-soo may not be the best student at school, but he is no pervert. He’s doing it because of…

this little picky trouble maker.

It all began a week ago when Joo-soo took down a dozen guys single-handed to save his two best friends’ rear.

Of course, behind the short-lived glory is a beating from dad and a reproach from mom. “I wish you have a kid just like you so you know how hard it is to be a parent.” is the curse his mom resentfully cast on him before leaving him to be.

Life starts to change. When he returns home one day, both his parents are gone like a puff of smoke, leaving only a tape and a letter on the desk. He pops the tape in TV and sits back to watch the soap:

The sitcom video is silent, narrated by the large cue card mom is holding listlessly. Ever since the recent gang fight, both dad and mom have lost all faith in Joon-soo. They decided to leave until Joon-soo magically clicks and turns good. (Oh, did I roll my eyes too loud?) Before leaving, they have taken away Joon-soo’s credit card, but they did remember to leave him some money to survive.

What?! Mom and dad, not at home? That means… time to… PARTAY! He calls up his friends to tell them about the party he’s ready to host and drops by the supermarket to pick up some liquor.

Joon-soo stands in front of a rack of wine, contemplating what to buy for the party. When he finally decides and turns to put the bottle in the cart, he nearly jumps in surprise — a baby has fallen from the sky and landed in his shopping cart.

Attached is a letter addressed to Joon-soo himself, telling him that the baby cannot live without his father and he must take care of little Woo-ram.

Getting over the initial shock, Joon-soo sets off to look for the kid’s mother the following morning.

And he gets slapped by all eight of the potential mothers, though only four are shown here. But, ouch!

Joon-soo’s day is not over yet. Little Woo-ram is crying and throwing a tantrum because one, he does NOT like powdered milk and two, sitting on poop-filled diaper does not feel good. Thank goodness, there is always Kim Byeol to offer a hand with the baby. Who’s Byeol? Ahh, she’s the quirky, mushroom-haired girl who always walks around in a white chicken costume — the one with 8 siblings.

The first time Joon-soo and Byeol met, Byeol was standing in front of the school like a piece of marble mascot. Joon-soo nearly drove into her.

When Joon-soo took off his helmet to yell at the girl he almost killed, he immediately dazzled Byeol into deciding to attend the same school. And so, begun the Byeol-permeated days.

Her presence is so pervasive that whenever Joon-soo attempts to smoke or drink or anything with his friends, Byeol will pop out of the blue and recite to him, rapidly and incessantly, a research result of some sort to dissuade him from doing x y z. Often times, he gives up on x y z just to get her off his back. It works and they manage to co-exist in their strange ways.

Byeol may provide a partial solution to the baby problem, but once she’s gone, Joon-soo is back to his OMG-I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-the-baby, someone-get-him-out-of-here-!!! craze.

hmm, pink bed sheets!

After enduring a whole night of wailing, Joon-soo decides to abandon the baby. He puts on a cap to disguise himself and sneaks out in the dark with the baby. Waiting until nobody is around, Joon-soo brings the baby to the trash pile by the pole. He whispers sorry softly and looks around for signs of human — throwing away a baby is not something you want other people to see you do. The tiny baby twinkles his large eyes at his young father. As Joon-soo lowers Woo-ram slowly to the ground, Woo-ram pouts his mouths to cry. But before the baby makes a sound, another voice beats him to it, “Hey you with the cap,” Joon-soo freezes instantly and looks around nervously. And then he sees it, a security camera angled right at him. The voice continues, “Special trash needs to be thrown elsewhere, please abide by the regulations.” Embarrassed now, Joon-soo makes up a lame excuse of trying to find reusable products thrown away by lavish people and runs away hastily with the baby and a rusted pot for shield.

When trashcanning the baby is rendered impossible, Joon-soo turns to the orphanage. Before he can put down the baby, Joon-soo bumps into another man trying to do the same. He ends up buying the other man beer and listens in silence to the man recounting his tragic life story with a handful of tears. Baby throw-away is officially off.

A new problem soon surfaces: Joon-soo is still a high school student, how can he attend school with his baby son hanging in front of him? But Miss Cho, his teacher, has called and threatened for him to show up at school. Her words are the holy decrees that no one dares to defy. Although unwillingly, (times that by 100,) Joon-soo eventually shows up at school with little Woo-ram. Of course, with a baby as cute as Woo-ram, there is quite a stir in the classrooms.

One day when Joon-soo is at the hospital (for God-knows-what reason), he overhearing one of his best pals’ urgent discussion with the doctor regarding his mother’s illness. Joon-soo sells his motorcycle and gathers some money to help his friend out.

Without a viable means of transportation, Joon-soo resorts to taking the subway. Leaning back on the subway seat and bouncing rhythmically with the motion of the viehical, Joon-soo soon falls asleep… …

When the subway comes to a sudden halt, Joon-soo’s eyes snap open and still disoriented, he hops off the subway and walks away. Then, it suddenly hits him…

Baby Woo-ram is still on the subway! But hey, this is the PERFECT chance to get rid of the baby for-everrrr. He decides.

Except when he gets home, all around him are the living reminders of Woo-ram. (Oh gosh, baby shoes, baby clothes, baby-anything is cute! On a second thought, not baby feces.)

Finally, when guilt, responsibility, and the dormant feeling for the baby nags long enough, Joon-soo finds himself in the subway station, reclaiming the baby (with much exaggeration).

Once Joon-soo tastes the flavor of losing the baby, he starts to appreciate Woo-ram’s existence. From then on, Joon-soo runs around during his free time, knocking on doors, begging for breast milk. At night, he works as a waiter and a flyer boy to earn a few extra bucks to cover the living expenses — well, it couldn’t have been easy raising a baby on your own. Besides, the allowance dad and mom left has been exhausted to the last dime by now.

Time elapses likes this for quite awhile, soon it’s finals time. The school coordinators decide that the presence of a baby will disrupt the students’ ability to concentrate on the exam, therefore Joon-soo must be suspended from school.

Joon-soo doesn’t like the idea too much, but what can he do? Oh, right, he can have a drink, get drunk, and embarrass himself in front of his baby kid.

After lash out some of his frustration, Joon-soo returns home and meets Byeol’s dad. The dad thanks Joon-soo for being such a good friend to his daughter and for inspiring her to return to school. He reveals Byeol’s past…

… Byeol has always been a little, er, different. As early as elementary, her insatiable hunger for knowledge has stood her out from the rest of the kids in class. By middle school, she became the most feared student on campus. Teachers fled from her, classmates berated her for being an (ass-kicking) stuck up. Finally, she’s fed up. She handed in a letter to the principle and excused herself from school all together…

When Joon-soo returns home to his bag and a post-it of encouragement on the door, his impression of Byeol takes a spiral turn. (Umm, I smell hints of romance.)

He enters and stops short at the family portrait. He is suspended, penniless, burdened with the responsibility of raising a child, and he misses his parents terribly. Life is hard.

Watching daddy feeling blue, the baby is infected with a knowing sadness. He begins to cry. And so, the father and son shed tears of loneliness together in the empty family corridor.

Since mom and dad left Joon-soo to live on his own, they have been spending all their time at the spa. On this particular day, both Joon-soo and Byeol’s parents happen to be at the same place. A cat fight between the ajummas brings the two families together. As they sit at a tatami, filling each other in on their lives, Byeol’s dad reveals that his oldest daughter is helping her high school guy friend babysitting his motherless baby boy. “WHAT?” Joon-soo’s father passionately pounds the wooden table, “A junior in high school, already a father? And he doesn’t even know who the mother is?!” Distantly, a man jumped and spits out a mouthful of noodles he’s happily eating. Oh sweet, sweet irony.

After meeting with Byeol’s family and seeing their 8 children, Mama Han slips back home to see her son. Instead, she sees Byeol holding an angelic baby and immediately reaches the supposition that papa Han has impregnated another woman behind her back. The result of her hasty conclusion –

Meanwhile, Joon-soo is having a rough day. He tries to find himself a job but none will have him so long as the baby is with him. At the end of the day, he’s exhausted, unhappy, and hungry. With the little of what’s left of his estate, he buys himself a carton of white milk. (He can’t afford chocolate milk.)

He sits down and drinks away. Then he looks down and sees the baby staring at him — at the carton of milk — while sucking vigorously on his pacifier. A little embarrassed at just remembering that the baby has starved all day with him (and magically not crying, although the kiddo is frowning a little — but then again, when Moon Mason isn’t crying or smiling, he’s frowning. In the movie that is.), Joon-soo dips his pinkie into the carton of milk and feeds his little boy.

But luck is just not on daddy’s side today. Joon-soo shifts around to find a better position to feed the tiny baby but tips over the milk instead, causing its content to spill everywhere. Joon-soo picks the carton up and curses under his breath.

His curse is echoed by a drunkard. The drunkard throws his arms in the air, swearing to live better without the woman that broke his fragile heart and falls onto the footsteps, unconscious. Joon-soo looks at the starving baby then at the man’s protruding wallet. To hell with it. He snatches the wallet from the drunkard’s back pocket. Holding onto the baby, ready to sneak away. The unconscious drunkard suddenly comes to life and grabs onto his pant leg. Joon-soo gives a yell of surprise and runs away as if caught on fire. The man chases after him just as frantically, yelling and moaning, “Why did you take my wallet? Why did you take my wallet?” (This is hilarious in a sardonic way and I can’t stop laughing.)

Amidst the tumbling and escaping, Joon-soo halts a cab and without looking, he jumps into it and hollers for the drivers to get on. The cops in the front seats turn to look at him, one of them throws back a meaningful glance and says, “Let’s go.”

Whenever something comes up, Joon-soo always calls Miss Cho. Last time it’s the subway station, this time, the police station. And each time, she’s mistaken as the mother of the child; each time whispers and stealthy glances were tossed at her for rearing a child with a man half her age. It drove her nuts. This time, she’s had enough. After trying to clarify for the nth that she is NOT the baby’s mother, or the teenager’s lover for that matter, she gives up all attempts at explaining and screams for all she’s worth. (If she had her stick with her, she would definitely chop that cop in half right there and then.)

After bailing Joon-soo out, Miss Cho gives him some money and leaves with a sigh. Holding money, Joon-soo buys two cans of powered milk for the baby and asks the cashier for a pack of cigarettes. Then on a second thought, he asks the cashier to replace the cigarettes with another can of powered milk. (The baby smiles at his change of heart.)

By the time he returns him, mom and dad are already waiting in the living room. With a handful of tears (and snot), Joon-soo confesses the origin of the child as well as his attachment to the baby.

The next day, papa Han brings his son to school to reenlist him; mama Han stays at home to look after the baby. Unfortunately, mama Han caught the flu and infects the baby with it. When Joon-soo hears the news, his concern for the baby overrides his appreciation for his mother’s effort to take care the baby despite her age. He yells at her and storms out of the room. Later at night, his father preaches explains to him that when a child is sick, parents are the ones hurting the most. They are tormented with the guilt of not have taken better care of the child and they wish desperately that the pain could be transferred to them.

Considering his lack of gratitude, Joon-soo enters his parents’ room and digs out his mother’s diary that chronicles the events from his birth to development. Reading it and recalling his recent experience as a father, Joon-soo realizes how difficult it is to be a parent, a tear of understanding trickles down his cheek.

That night, the friend whom Joon-soo sold his motorcycle to help calls him out and reveals to him that the baby Joon-soo is calling his own is in fact, his. His girlfriend left the baby at his doorstep with a brief note saying that raising a kid on her own is too much for her and flew back to America. The want for his child to grow up in a rich family plus the pressing poverty causes he to force feed the child to Joon-soo. (What a bastard! But then again, I wouldn’t mind it if the baby is that cute.)

Furious at being tricked (which I still find funny), Joon-soo gives his friend a beating. And then, life resorts to the way it was, before the baby arrived from nowhere. Except, it feels like someone has punctured a hole in Joon-soo’s life — something is missing.

Denial, anger, silence, nothing can hide Joon-soo’s inner desire to see Woo-ram. Yet nothing can break his infuriatingly dogmatic insistence that Woo-ram is not his son, and therefore he has nothing to do with that child — until he hears the news that Woo-ram will be sent out of the country for adoption.

He secretly goes to see Woo-ram but he still doesn’t have the courage to admit his love for the baby.

So the day for Woo-ram to leave arrives.

aww the baby doesn’t want to go.

Joon-soo finally realizes that he doesn’t want to lose the baby and speeds to the airport. After a wild airport breach, the baby stays.

And now, lucky Woo-ram has two fathers to fight over him.

And did you know, when Joon-soo’s father was a junior in high school, Joon-soo’s mother left baby Joon-soo at his father’s door as well? (A little overused, but I don’t mind too much.)

[RECAP] Boys Over Flower

EPISODE 1 RECAP

In this world, Shinhwa Group (”shinhwa” meaning “legend”) is the most powerful corporation in Korea, perhaps best compared to real-life Samsung, only bigger and more powerful. Shinhwa makes cars, owns department stores, and is virtually everywhere — its empire even includes an elite school. At the beautiful Shinhwa campus, pampered students flaunt their wealth and band together in cliques.

Unfortunately, just being rich isn’t enough to survive the teen tyranny at Shinhwa — outsiders or loners are often marked as targets by the bored uber-clique F4. Once a student is delivered F4’s “red card,” it signals the rest of the school to go all out in harassment and bullying.

This guy, having just received the dreaded red card, is immediately chased by students and beaten. He’s cornered into a bathroom, puts up a good fight, and manages to escape.

Geum Jan-di (actress Gu Hye-sun) arrives at the school bearing a dry-cleaning delivery, amazed at all the splendor. Students talk excitedly about the newest F4 victim, joking that they’d known he wouldn’t last long. Recognizing the boy’s name, Jan-di follows the crowd outside, where they all look up at the rooftop, where the battered guy stands poised to jump off the building.

The guy shouts to his audience, “This what you want, isn’t it? Fine, I’ll give you what you want.” He starts to step off the ledge — but Jan-di bursts on the scene, yelling to get his attention. She’s got his dry-cleaning! That’ll be $30, please!

Jan-di isn’t too quick on the uptake, because she doesn’t grasp the severity of the moment until the boy tells her to get the money from his family after he dies. At this, Jan-di gasps in horror: “Are you about to die? Why? You go to such a nice school.” He tells her, “This isn’t school, it’s hell.” Jan-di corrects him, saying, “Excuse me, but the real hell is outside.”

He asks if she knows what F4 is (she doesn’t), and explains that their red card makes you a hunted man. Finally realizing that this mysterious F4 is why he’s all bloody and ready to jump off a building, Jan-di indignantly asks, “And you’re going to let them get away with that?” If this was her school, she’d show them who was boss. The guy tells her that her friends are lucky to have a friend like her — and then jumps.

Everyone gasps — Jan-di lurches forward — and grabs him on his way over the ledge. Saved!

Photos are uploaded, news spreads quickly, and pretty soon, Jan-di is hailed as a hero in the media, a sort of Wonder Woman for the working class. As this occurred on a Shinhwa campus — and worse, a Shinhwa heir is involved (albeit indirectly as F4’s leader) — citizens denounce the Shinhwa Group. Housewives agree to boycott Shinhwa stores, candlelight vigils are held, people demonstrate.

Jan-di’s best friend Ga-eul and her boss cheer her on (the girls work after school at a neighborhood restaurant). Ga-eul wistfully wonders if the F4 boys are as cute as they say, but Jan-di is not at all impressed. She calls them Fly Four instead — dung flies.

Naturally, the outcry is a pain in the neck for Shinhwa Group’s CEO, Kang Hee-joo, who happens to be mother to F4 leader Gu Jun-pyo. She vents her ire on her secretary, Mr. Jung (perfectly cast, by the way): “You know why public opinion is frightening? Because they’re ignorant!”

What, then, can be done for damage control? Offer the commoner a scholarship to Shinhwa High School, of course!

Jan-di’s family is thrilled. Jan-di is not.

She refuses to go to the school, preferring her life as it is. Her parents, on the other hand, think it’s foolish for her to pass up a free education that even the rich and powerful would kill for. Plus, they wheedle, the school has a swimming pool… and remember how much she liked swimming? Jan-di is not so easily bought, but still, the end result is a foregone conclusion. The next day, she arrives at her new school.

Predictably, she is a complete fish out of water in this place where students flash luxury vehicles (Jun-pyo arrives by helicopter) and designer clothing.

Jan-di wanders around, searching for the swimming pool, when she hears the strains of a violin. Curious, she follows the sound and comes to its source: It’s Yoon Ji-hoo, dressed all in white, playing his violin out in the woods. As we all do.

When he sees her, she asks in a flustered tone for the pool, and he points her in the right direction. She runs off in mortification, but also impressed at Ji-hoo’s skills sensitivity pretty face.

Now for the Grand Entrance:

F4’s appearance sends all the girls squealing and everyone rushing to the entrance to welcome their overlords. No seriously, you practically expect somebody to genuflect at their feet. As it is, F4 arrives in a blaze of glory and glamour-shot backlighting.

Jun-pyo looks over at one of the bystanders, who immediately quivers in fear. In a supremely bored but authoritative voice, Jun-pyo asks Woo-bin for the rest of his juice, then pours it all over the hapless student.

(The guy had been bragging earlier about wearing a shirt only he and Jun-pyo owned, and Jun-pyo is not pleased to be caught similarly dressed.)

Afterward, Jan-di sputters at Jun-pyo’s assiness. She calls him a crazy bastard, then wonders if everyone else is also crazy, watching his reign of terror without saying anything.

This attracts the attention of the school’s three queen bees, who introduce themselves as Ginger (the leader), Sunny, and Miranda (or Shinhwa’s “jin, sun, and mi” — a way of saying they’re the most beautiful). Ginger’s affectation is to make horrified exclamations in English (e.g., “Oh. My. God.”), while Sunny’s my favorite because she seems vaguely dim. They stick up for F4 and tell Jan-di to watch what she says.

Deciding to acquaint herself with the members of F4, Jan-di and her brother surf the internet for their bios:

Song Woo-bin (actor Kim Joon) is heir to a construction enterprise; his father is a real estate magnate.

So Yi-jung (Kim Bum) is a pottery genius who comes from an artistic lineage; his grandfather also owns a famous art museum.

Yoon Ji-hoo (actor-singer Kim Hyun-joong) is the grandson of a former president, and the sole surviving descendant, as his parents died in car crash when he was five. His family owns a variety of rich-people toys, like an art center, a European soccer team, and a major league baseball team.

And then there’s Gu Jun-pyo (Lee Min-ho). The others are famous among rich society, but Jun-pyo, as the heir to Shinhwa Group, is known to practically the entire country.

Finding out how privileged F4 is sends Jan-di into a rage — life’s too unfair. She takes particular umbrage at Jun-pyo for being such an asshole, because if he was born so lucky, he should be thankful and act kindly to others.

Too late, Jan-di looks down the staircase and spots a set of legs — someone’s taking a nap on the landing below. It’s Ji-hoo, who saunters up to her, telling her in his soft-spoken way that she’s disrupted his sleep. He heard the whole tirade, such as her calling them flies, and tells her the guy’s name is Jun-pyo, not Jung-pyo — if she’s going to rail against him, she ought to at least get the name right.

Lunchtime. The Bimbo Trio make it a point to hover and comment on Jan-di’s poor-person lunch. The cafeteria serves gourmet offerings, but Jan-di ignores them in favor of her plain lunchbox (rice, egg, Spam), which they now ridicule.

Unexpectedly, Jan-di receives a friendly overture from another new girl, Oh Min-ji, who is sweet, pretty, and recently transferred from Germany.

Ga-eul expresses relief that Jan-di made a friend; she was afraid she’d wind up an outsider. Jan-di replies glumly, “I am an outsider.” Still, she figures she can lie low until graduation, which prompts Ga-eul to ask what happened to the fearless protector who used to always stand up for her in elementary school.

But Jan-di figures she’ll have to stick it out. Her father’s absurdly proud of her fancy uniform (as a dry-cleaner, he can appreciate quality), while her mother pushes her to work on her looks so she can snag a rich boy. (Nobody ever said kdramas were feminist.)

Jan-di’s patience is tried the next day, when F4 struts in looking cool, as usual, and a shy student presents Jun-pyo with a homemade cake and hopes that he’ll “accept her feelings.” Jun-pyo stares at her in his blank, haughty way, and takes the cake, as though accepting — to the girl’s excitement and the Bimbo Trio’s horror — until he then smashes the cake into her face.

Jun-pyo walks off, only to find Jan-di in his path, trying to do her best to tamp down her fury. She unleashes a diatribe:

Jan-di: “You! Don’t you even have the barest human courtesy? I don’t bother hoping you’d have any humility for your riches. But if you didn’t want to eat it, you could have politely refused. Or, couldn’t you think of the feelings of the person who made the cake and accepted?”

Unfortunately, Jan-di’s tirade is only in her head. When it comes time to say it, she backs down and mutters, “Never mind.” As Ji-hoo passes, though, he gives her a smile, as if knowing what’s running through her mind.

The next encounter isn’t so easily dismissed. Min-ji and Jan-di eat ice cream cones and chat cheerfully, when Min-ji slips and falls at Jun-pyo’s feet, getting ice cream all over his shoe. Immediately scared and apologetic, Min-ji tries to offer to pay for new shoes, then offers to do “whatever I can” to rectify the situation. When he tells her to lick the ice cream off his shoe, Jan-di steps in, saying he should accept the apology — it’s not like Min-ji fell on purpose. So Jun-pyo turns his derision onto Jan-di instead:

Jun-pyo: “Is it your thing to be obtuse and interfering? Why butt into someone else’s business?”
Jan-di: “She’s not just anyone, she’s a friend. But I guess they don’t include words like ‘friend’ or ‘friendship’ in rich people’s dictionaries.”
Jun-pyo: “Friend? Let’s see some of that great friendship in action. You lick it.”
Jan-di: “What?”
Jun-pyo: “If you do it for her, I’ll let this go.”

Resignedly, Jan-di starts to bend over as Jun-pyo waits expectantly, but stops mid-bow. Instead, she shoves her ice cream cone in Jun-pyo’s face, causing him to fall over.

Jan-di scoffs, “So what, did you earn all that money yourself?” And no, her “thing” isn’t to interfere, it’s to stand up to the behavior of rich punks who rely on their rich parents.

Furthermore, she takes out a couple of bills (equivalent to a dollar) and throws three at him, referring to his stained clothing: “Our business charges 2,500 won, but I calculated using Kangnam [rich neighborhood] standards. If it still won’t clean, bring it by.”

That night, Jun-pyo remains in a dark mood, trying to figure out how to get back at Jan-di. I’ll admit I burst out laughing when the song “Never Say Goodbye” came on, since it’s one of the main themes of PD Jeon’s previous series, My Girl, and he likes giving little nods to his previous works. [ Download ]

As the rest of the guys aren’t taking this seriously, they find Jun-pyo unusually fixated. Yi-jung suggests that Jun-pyo act in their “usual way,” and Jun-pyo’s gleeful reaction gives us our first glimpse of his, uh, not-quite-bright tendencies.

The next day, Jan-di gets the red card, but it doesn’t really mean much to her and she just tosses it away.

She finds out what the effects of red-carding are when she walks into class and her desk is gone. One of her notebooks is lying on the ground, graffiti’d with hate words, and when she bends down to pick it up, it jumps out of reach — someone’s tied a string to it.

Jan-di follows the leaping notebook out into the hallway, where her equally defaced desk is parked. Students start pelting her with eggs — and then a bucket of flour is dumped over her from above.

It’s the despoiling of her uniform that gets to her — she remembers how her father so proudly ironed it — and Jan-di shouts at them defiantly, “Go on! Keep going!”

When she looks to the crowd around her, Min-ji rushes off, too scared to show her support.

Meanwhile, F4 watches the proceedings on a television in their lounge. The other two (Yi-jung, Woo-bin) figure that’s the end of story, but Jun-pyo corrects them — it’s over when Jan-di comes begging on her knees.

I admit this is the scene when I totally fell for Lee Min-ho’s dunderheaded charms, because he’s absolutely convinced Jan-di will come through the door any minute now. He counts down, and his consternation when she doesn’t is hilarious.

Jan-di retreats to her shouty stairwell (”Do you think because my name is Jan-di [grass], you can trample all over me?!”). Again, she’s interrupted by Ji-hoo, who’s relaxing on the landing below.

Oddly, he asks, “Do you know how to make pancakes?” Confused, Jan-di lists the ingredients. Taking in her appearance, Ji-hoo peers at her closely, then wipes the flour from her face and uniform with a handkerchief. Surprised and touched, she promises to return it later; he answers that he won’t be coming back, since the stairwell’s gotten a lot noisier recently.

Jan-di’s mood lifts when she goes back to the now-empty classroom and finds a set of gym clothing and a stuffed animal on her desk. The toy has a voice-recorded message from Min-ji, which tells her, “I’m sorry. Forgive me for being a coward.”

When she goes for a swim, Jan-di finds the pool littered with trash — it’s Jun-pyo’s next phase in the Jan-di Tormenting Regimen.

In fact, Jun-pyo’s so into his plans to ruin Jan-di’s life that even his friends are surprised he’s still so fixated on them, a week later. Yi-jung muses, “Isn’t she the first to really stand up to F4?”

(Ji-hoo isn’t with them because he’s off sleeping in a new location, although how anyone can sleep with legs crossed like that is a wonder. Way to flaunt that masculinity, Ji-hoo.)

All the while, Jan-di cleans out the pool, picking out all the empty bottles and soda cans. By the time she’s dressed in the locker room, she’s visited by more of Jun-pyo’s minions, who grab her, ignoring her screams, and start to carry her off.

EPISODE 2 RECAP

Jan-di fights off her trio of attackers, who grab her from the girls’ locker room and hold her down.

They stop at the arrival of Ji-hoo, who asks what they’re doing in his languid, casual manner. His presence flusters the guys, because they’re acting on Jun-pyo’s orders, and Ji-hoo is obviously Jun-pyo’s friend. As though oblivious to the scene going on in front of him, Ji-hoo peers down at Jan-di and asks if she’d left something out of her pancake recipe from before. Something went wrong when he tried it. Still held down by her attackers, bewildered at the non sequitur, Jan-di mentions baking powder. Rather an awkward way to discuss cooking techniques.

Ji-hoo addresses the three minions: “Why are you still here?” Faced with disobeying Ji-hoo to his face or Jun-pyo behind his back, they skedaddle.

Ji-hoo covers her in a towel, and as he turns to leave, Jan-di tells him, “Thank you.” In his even tone, he answers, “I wasn’t helping. These things just annoy me.”

In his mansion, Jun-pyo hears of Ji-hoo’s interference. To show us that Jun-pyo isn’t completely heartless, he criticizes his minions for their extreme measures — he’d merely instructed that they scare her (to show her a “bitter taste”).

Ji-hoo’s kindness lingers in Jan-di’s mind for the rest of the day. She happens to come across him when she bicycles past him fondling a poster of a famous model at a bus stop. Not so sure you want to be getting that intimate with anything at a bus stop, buddy.

Jan-di says as much, telling him that a bus stop poster is bound to blacken his hands with dirt. Still, she admires the poster of Min Seo-hyun, who is not only famous for her beauty but also for her charity donations and her brains; she recently passed the law exam in France. Ji-hoo asks, “Do you know her?” Jan-di answers, “Of course. She’s my idol.”

Ji-hoo enjoys her reaction, smiling at Jan-di’s wide-eyed adulation. But his smile fades when she says that Seo-hyun, who is bound for great things, could marry royalty, or a president, or something of that sort to become a “world’s princess” like Princess Di. At that, Ji-hoo says, “She’s just a model.”

Jan-di sticks to her fantasy of a foreign prince falling for her idol. Mood killed, Ji-hoo turns to leave with the parting shot, “What do you know?”

At home, Jan-di’s computer-obsessed brother finds scandalous news online about one of the students at Shinhwa High School, a second-year who’s supposedly pregnant. Identified merely as Miss “K,” the family tries to guess who it could be, like a Miss Kim or Kwon (or Keum — which I wrote as “geum” since it’s closer to the phonetic reading).

The next day, Jan-di notices the stares of the other students, but is busy wondering which of them is the notorious Miss K.

Jun-pyo is in a good mood, and when Yi-jung asks what’s up with “2,500 Won” (Jan-di) today, he says, “Just wait. She’ll come here soon.” (It’s too cute to see that this — her coming to see him — is his obvious goal, although he convinces himself that it’s all because Jan-di needs to be humbled.) Ji-hoo wonders, “What prank have you pulled this time?” Jun-pyo: “Why, so you can save her again?”

Yi-jung and Woo-bin wonder what that means, while Ji-hoo says that picking on one girl like this “is ridiculous and childish.” Jun-pyo retorts, “Do you see her as a girl?” because to him, she’s like a horse, or a dog. After all, she dared defy the Great Jun-pyo-nim (using the “nim” suffix on himself is, as one might guess, exceedingly arrogant).

Jan-di’s classmates identify her as the notorious Miss K, and news spreads fast. In class, both chalkboards have been covered in slurs like “filthy,” “get lost,” “who’s the daddy?” “crazy bitch,” etc.

The Tarty Trio leave a pile of dirty rags on her desk and taunt her. Pushed too far, Jan-di fumes, “I can’t take this anymore!” Ginger mocks, “So what are you going to do about it?”

Jan-di’s arrival at the F4 lounge brings Jun-pyo much satisfaction, but he covers it with disdain: “If you came to apologize, you’re too late.” She throws the dirty rags in his face and warns him that she won’t sit back and take his abuse anymore.

Jun-pyo’s arrogance turns to confusion when Jan-di clenches her fists and assumes a fighting stance. Puzzled, he asks what she’s doing, and she repeats: “I told you, I won’t sit back and take it anymore.” With a shriek, Jan-di jumps in the air, and whirls into a rather impressive spinning back kick — catching Jun-pyo right in the face.

The other F4 members look on in amazement as Jan-di clomps over to the fallen Jun-pyo, demanding, “Did you see me sleeping around with a man? Did you even see me holding hands? How dare you say all that about a chaste and pure girl who hasn’t even had her first kiss yet!”

She warns one last time, “If you keep up these filthy tricks, I’ll really kill you then!”

One might think that this show of defiance would piss off the Almighty Jun-pyo, but later that night, he sits alone, chuckling to himself. Woo-bin asks why he’s so amused. Jun-pyo: “Haven’t you guys caught on yet?”

With supreme satisfaction, he announces, “That chick’s totally into me.” That makes no sense to the other guys, but Jun-pyo elaborates:

Jun-pyo: “Think about it. She didn’t want the guy she likes to misunderstand, so she came herself to insist she was pure and innocent.”
Yi-jung: “Following that logic –”
Woo-bin: “– saying she hadn’t had her first kiss –”
Jun-pyo: “– is her way of saying she’s waiting for her first kiss from me.”
Yi-jung, clapping: “Bravo. Impressive, Gu Jun-pyo. You’re my friend, but that’s really something.”

Relieved at this gratifying revelation, Jun-pyo attributes Jan-di’s extreme hate of him to “thinking she could fool me by acting mad.” It is HILARIOUS, and Lee Min-ho is adorable.

The next day at school, Jan-di lies low, wanting to avoid more encounters with the Almighty Jun-pyo. Men in suits approach and ask her to accompany them, but won’t identify their boss.

She declines, and hides (in a painfully exaggerated sequence) as she sneaks her way across campus, only to be accosted at the last minute. She’s shoved into a waiting vehicle, then drugged.

She awakens on a massage table in a luxurious room, and is subjected to all sorts of painful beautifying processes like waxing.

Here, I wish they’d employed a bit more logic, because Jan-di goes along with the makeup, hair, and dressing sessions — confused, but not really protesting. Never mind that she still doesn’t know whose home she is in, or why she is there. Then again, I suppose if someone were lavishing clothes, jewels, and spa treatments on me, my guard would be down too.

The attendant (butler?) tells her that this is the first time that “the young master” has brought home a girl, although I suppose that requires a pretty loose definition of “bringing home.”

The butler can’t tell her why she’s here, because he doesn’t know, either. He deposits her at a door where someone is waiting for her; Jan-di enters cautiously and sees a tall figure standing at the window, and guesses, “Ji-hoo?”

Disappointedly realizing she’s at Jun-pyo’s family estate, Jan-di is immediately suspicious, and puts up her dukes: “What are you going to do this time?”

Jun-pyo turns her toward a mirror and tells her to look: “See, money can turn even an ugly duckling into a heron.” Jan-di: “Don’t you mean swan?”

Indignant, Jan-di retorts that she didn’t ask him for this, but he’s wrapped up in his own smug misconception, and tells her, “If you like me, just say so.” When she doesn’t respond, he recalls, “Right, you like to talk in opposites, don’t you?” (O, delusion, he is King of it.)

Jan-di accuses him of illegally kidnapping her. Jun-pyo assures her, “Nobody’s around, so you can be open about liking me here. From now on, I’ll be willing to make an exception and recognize you outside of school.”

Jan-di is completely speechless. He continues: “If you just do as I say, when nobody’s around I can treat you as the Almighty Jun-pyo’s girlfriend.”

Jan-di wonders if his brain has been addled by too much greasy food, and turns to leave.

Showing the first sign of anxiety, Jun-pyo blocks her from leaving. He tells her that she’s currently wearing 100 million won’s worth ($77,000), “But that’s nothing. If you’re with me, you can enjoy more than that every day. Are you saying you don’t want it? Are you crazy?”

Jan-di bristles: “The moment I see your face, it feels like bugs are crawling all over my body.” She takes off her jewelry and throws it on the ground, then reaches to unzip her dress (before remembering Jun-pyo’s watching — rather intently, I might add — and insists he return her uniform).

Jan-di: “You don’t seem to know this, but you can’t buy friends with money. Friends bond through feelings.” Jun-pyo replies, “There’s nothing you can’t buy,” and tells her to contradict him if she can. She can’t think of anything.

After Jan-di leaves, Jun-pyo rages against his employees, stomping on the discarded dress and telling his butler to throw away the dress and fire everyone who worked on Jan-di today.

Jan-di remembers too late that she’s still wearing the borrowed high heels, takes them off, and throws them over the gate — just as Ji-hoo finds her outside and wonders what she’s doing. He laughs: “You’re always in a dramatic situation.”

Jan-di asks Ji-hoo, “Is there anything in the world you can’t buy?” Dejected, she figures there isn’t, but perks up when Ji-hoo answers after a moment of thinking, “Air.”

Amused at her happy reaction to finding one unbuyable thing, Ji-hoo ruffles her hair and calls her “a really fun kid.” As he gets up to leave, he tosses her his sneakers, since she’s now barefoot. Jan-di watches him zoom off on his motorcycle with a smile.

She tries to return the shoes the next day by visiting the F4 lounge, but Yi-jung and Woo-bin inform her that Jun-pyo isn’t around. She grumbles that she doesn’t care about him, and asks them to give the shoes to Ji-hoo.

The guys know they owe their recent entertainment to Jan-di, and invite her to have some tea while she fills them in on her latest encounter with Jun-pyo. Seeing a commercial of Min Seo-hyun on TV, the guys mention that Ji-hoo ought to be happy that Seo-hyun is coming back to Korea soon.

She asks if Ji-hoo is acquainted with Seo-hyun, and learns that after his parents’ death, he’d retreated into autism (I remember hearing it was Asperger’s, which is a mild form of autism). Seo-hyun was the only one able to draw him out of himself, and became something of “a first love, girlfriend, and mother.” This information drags Jan-di into a funk, so much so that she even cuts dinner short, feeling inadequate next to the glamorous model.

In fact, she’s so distracted that in gym class, she fails to react swiftly when Ginger hurls a ball at her (in a game of dodgeball), and gets hit in the face. She leaves the group of laughing mean girls while the F4 guys watch, and Jun-pyo finds her washing up in the bathroom.

He tries to helpfully wipe the blood from her face, but Jan-di, fighting tears, doesn’t want his help. It’s clear (to us) that he wants to make her feel better but is woefully ill-equipped with the social skills; not knowing what to say, he chides her for being absent-minded enough to get hit in the face, and tells her not to cry. Jan-di counters, “Do I have to get your permission to cry now? And weren’t you the person who was happiest to see me crying and hurting?”

Jun-pyo: “Is that all you can say to the person who came to help?”
Jan-di: “Who asked for your help? If everyone died and you were the last person on earth, I still wouldn’t accept your help.”

It’s a bit cute — and sad — when Jun-pyo stops her from leaving and demands to know, uncertainly, “W-what is it you hate so much about me? I’m good-looking. I’m tall, I’m smart, I’m rich. How — how can you hate Gu Jun-pyo? Are you stupid?”

Jan-di shoots back that she dislikes the way he looks, the way he walks, his curly hair — “and picking on weak kids for fun with your red cards or whatever with your thoughtlessness — that’s the worst!”

Jun-pyo stutters in disbelief, but Jan-di’s not quite finished: “In short, I hate everything about you! Everything!”

Is the obligatory shower scene supposed to be moving? I don’t know; it was just so obvious that I had to laugh.

But shameless half-naked water shots aside, Lee Min-ho does a good job of showing Jun-pyo’s frustration, first as he engages in a particularly rough game of rugby, then as he stares in the mirror in self-loathing.

It’s only when Jun-pyo spies the notice for a class trip that he cheers up. All second- and third-years will have the chance to go on a month-long school trip to Europe.

It doesn’t even occur to Jun-pyo that 20 million won ($15,500) is a bit rich for a commoner like Jan-di. Thus on class trip day, he spends the whole time at the airport pacing anxiously, wondering where Jan-di is. Ji-hoo is similarly distracted, but for a different reason — today marks Min Seo-hyun’s return to Korea. Seo-hyun (Han Chae-young, looking gorgeous) greets Ji-hoo warmly.

With Jan-di nowhere to be seen, Jun-pyo is a fidgety ball of nerves until he receives a call, (ostensibly) informing him where Jan-di is.

Jan-di cannot afford to go on the trip, and to make things worse, her father has run afoul of some gambling debts (ah, it wouldn’t be a kdrama without gambling debts!).

Therefore, she and her friend Ga-eul decide to make this a working vacation, so they can enjoy themselves while earning some money. Through Ga-eul, they find a job on a fishing boat. They’re enjoying the experience, until one loud, obnoxious voice cuts in on their sleepytime.

To her shock, the entire class looks down on her from a Shinhwa cruiseliner, with Jun-pyo manning a loudspeaker. Now that he’s found her, he’s happily back to taunting her (like a little boy tormenting a little girl he likes, not knowing that chocolate and flowers FIX EVERYTHING. Oh, yeah, and also a little basic kindness.).

Jan-di can’t believe her vacation is to be ruined thusly. She asks why they aren’t on their class trip, and he replies that he’s been there before and wanted a new, interesting place. He’s here on “someone’s” recommendation: “What a total coincidence, huh? I had no idea you’d be here, Dry Cleaner.”

I don’t care if you think this is corny, it is TOO CUTE.

When Jan-di and Ga-eul dock for the night, they note with dismay that Jan-di’s classmates have arrived and seem to be waiting to check into a hotel (or something).

Jan-di’s spirits further sink when Ji-hoo arrives with the radiant Min Seo-hyun on his arm.

Jun-pyo addresses Jan-di, saying, “Dry Cleaner, be honest, aren’t you happy to run into me at a place like this?” Jan-di retorts that she was having a grand time before he came along.

Jun-pyo invites her (in his careless way) to join the rest of the class. While she’s quick to turn him down flat, she has an entirely different reception for Ji-hoo. Jun-pyo looks on in displeasure when Ji-hoo breezes past him, invites Jan-di to a welcome party for Seo-hyun, and sees Jan-di’s immediate acceptance: “Yes, I’ll go, absolutely.”

The Tarty Trio, however, seize the opportunity to have a little fun, and give Jan-di some “advice” for the dress code. It’s not too hard to predict that this goes awry, and that they must have told her it’s a costume party. The instant she walks in, she realizes she’s been tricked, and berates herself for falling for the lie.

Embarrassed, she tries to leave, but is forced to enter the room to escape Jun-pyo (who, by the way, spends all his time looking around for her). When the Mean Girls find her, they taunt her and try to pull her coat off her. The result is inevitable but still humiliating: They grab Jan-di’s jacket, she tries to escape, falls into a tray of hors d’oeuvres, and lands with a loud crash.

The girls laugh gleefully, calling her delusional — perhaps she started believing the hype that she truly was Wonder Woman? Others snort in amusement, but Jun-pyo looks angry (on her behalf). He’s about to move toward her, but once again is one-upped by Ji-hoo, who arrives at Jan-di’s side with Seo-hyun.

Seo-hyun sizes up the situation immediately, and faces the Mean Girls with disgust: “I know why you did this. But do you know that this proves how low you are, not her?”

With Ji-hoo and Seo-hyun by her side, Jan-di is ushered up to Seo-hyun’s room to clean up.

Seo-hyun takes an immediate liking to Jan-di as she dresses her up and helps her with her makeup, saying that any friend of Ji-hoo’s is a friend of hers.

Jan-di brushes off the compliments, saying Ji-hoo was just being nice, but Seo-hyun knows him better and assures her that he’s not that type. This is the first time she’s seen him step in to help someone else.

Jan-di doesn’t want to give herself too much credit, and answers, “But Ji-hoo’s just attentive by nature.” To Seo-hyun, this is just proof of the opposite, that Jan-di is an exception to the rule.

She also has heard of Jan-di’s vow not to let Jun-pyo beat her down. She voices her support and wishes Jan-di victory, but explains, “It’s because he’s lonely.” Being the child of a parents who are fixated solely on their business empire has made him lonely, and his outer demeanor is just a cover-up for it.

Seo-hyun finishes the look with a pair of shoes, telling her, “Good shoes take you to good places.”

When Jan-di is ushered back to the party, people look on in surprise, but no one’s more shocked than Jun-pyo — who drops his plate in his astonishment at the purty, purty girl.

And yet, he is beaten to the punch once more, because Seo-hyun pushes Ji-hoo toward Jan-di, saying that a gentleman doesn’t ignore such a beautiful lady. So Ji-hoo walks over to Jan-di and offers his arm.

EPISODE 3 RECAP

At Seo-hyun’s prodding, Ji-hoo asks Jan-di to dance. Jan-di gets swept up in the romanticism of the moment, dancing with her pretty-boy crush, while he’s less enthused (she’s dancing on his feet). I suppose the entire sequence is supposed to be magical and dream-like, but when everyone on the dance floor is bumbling around in a stiff, bobbing box-step, it does kind of suck the elegance out of the moment.

Not keen to watch Jan-di dancing with his best friend, Jun-pyo leaves the ballroom and ends up by the pool, where he takes out his frustration on the poolside furniture. At least they can’t fight back. His anger turns to wussy-boy fear when he sees a bug, and freaks out when it flies toward him. He makes wild swatting motions and tries to ward off the bug, jerking around in a panic.

After her dance, Jan-di sits out and watches Ji-hoo dance next with Seo-hyun. I’m guessing she is supposed to feel wistful that Ji-hoo dances so much more wonderfully with Seo-hyun, but as that’s just not true, I’m making a guess here. Not keen to watch her crush dancing around with his lady-love, Jan-di wanders outside and hears a loud splash.

The next thing we know, a student bursts into the ballroom to announce that Jun-pyo has fallen into the pool. Dude, I’m sure announcing his humiliation is ever so much more helpful than actually, yunno, helping. Yi-jung notes that Jun-pyo cannot swim, and everyone stampedes outside.

When they arrive outside, Jan-di is dripping wet, having dragged Jun-pyo out of the pool, and shouts at him worriedly to wake up. He lies there, unmoving, so she starts performing CPR, pushing down on his chest and breathing into his mouth.

Only, well, he doesn’t exactly need the CPR. Not that he’s going to tell her that, of course. Why ruin a good thing?

Jan-di sees that that his eyes have opened and stops immediately — but he grabs her shoulder, puckers up, and tries to pull her back down toward him for a kiss. It’s hilarious, because it doesn’t work, and Jan-di punches him in the face, disgusted, thinking he was faking the entire thing. (I’m not sure how much he was faking, but I’m sure the part about him not being able to swim was real. So at least she did save him on that score.)

She storms off in a huff, but Jun-pyo is still exceedingly pleased with his one stolen “kiss.”

He remains in a fabulous mood the next morning, even surprising his butler with his eagerness to get to school early. Jun-pyo mangles the “early bird” adage by saying knowingly that there’s a proverb about “the early bug gets dead first.”

He’s feeling so cheerful that when a maid spills his tea — a previously fire-able offense — he barely notices. When his butler assures him that the maid will be fired, Jun-pyo tells him magnanimously that the household is run too strictly — loosen up!

He grins and walks off, announcing, “What great weather!” just as thunder rumbles in the distance.

Because, y’see, Jun-pyo has great things planned for today! He plays more practical jokes on Jan-di, first smearing the locker room door with what appears to be Vaseline, then filling the pool with ducks. He watches her irate reaction on his lounge television, chuckling to himself all the while. Yi-jung and Woo-bin marvel that this is the hardest they’ve ever seen him work at anything.

(In his mangled reasoning, Jun-pyo feels this is his way of expressing his “gratitude.” Well, I suppose if throwing trash in the pool is his way of tormenting her, then tossing cute live animals is a step up. Never mind the fact that she can’t swim in either scenario.)

Ji-hoo has been particularly withdrawn recently, spending more time than usual away from F4. Instead, he chooses to play his violin outside in the snow. (Who doesn’t love that?)

Jan-di comes upon him as his string breaks, cutting his finger. She senses he doesn’t want her there, so she tells him she’ll just attend to his hand, then go. She takes the handkerchief that Ji-hoo had previously lent her and wraps it around his finger, then takes out an umbrella and places it over the violin to protect it from the snow.

Little does she know that they’re being watched and taped on Ginger’s phone. Although her encounter with Ji-hoo isn’t very warm or friendly — mostly prolonged silence — it looks more suggestive from a distance, and the Bimbos Three are determined to bring Jan-di down.

Jun-pyo’s great mood lasts while he basks in the pool, anticipating Jan-di’s arrival.

When he hears someone approach, he automatically assumes it’s her, and starts to chide her for her late arrival and lax training (his equivalent to a little boy pulling a girl’s hair, or perhaps calling her “Carrots”).

But instead of Jan-di, it’s the mean girls, who eagerly show Jun-pyo the video clip. As his mood darkens, they fan the flames, adding that it looked like Ji-hoo and Jan-di have been dating for a while, calling her a gold-digger.

Coldly, he tells them to shut up, then throws the phone to the ground, breaking it. He stalks out.

Jun-pyo surprises Jan-di outside, where she has returned in hopes of talking to Ji-hoo (who has already left). Pride and feelings hurt, he lashes out mockingly: “Are you disappointed I’m not who you were hoping for?”

She starts to walk away, so he grabs her arm and demands to know, “Where are you going?” She retorts, “I have nothing to say to you so I’m going home.” Well, he has something to say to her, and sneers that she was playing around with him. He was going to make allowances for her and treat her nicely, but now he feels ridiculed.

Jun-pyo grabs her tightly and tries to force a kiss on her. Alarmed, Jan-di struggles against him, shaking her head back and forth so he can’t kiss her. She yells in a panicked voice, “No! I don’t want to! No!”

That stops him, and Jun-pyo slowly lets her go. He asks her, this time without anger, “Do you hate it that much?” He walks off.

This is easily the best scene of the episode. What could have been unintentionally funny or cheesy comes off instead with a lot of tension, a lot of conflicting emotions, great chemistry, and (for once!) a nice piece of score. Now, if only the rest of the series could be like this.

As a result, the next morning, Jan-di is mortified and refuses to go to school. Her parents are ready to force her to go anyway, but are distracted by the arrival of a fancy invitation: it’s for Seo-hyun’s birthday party.

Jan-di’s parents are immediately excited at this proof of their daughter’s social success, and look into “borrowing” a formal dress for the occasion. From their dry-cleaning service. I’m sure this is completely against their own rules, but it doesn’t matter because all the dresses suck.

Plot contrivance to the rescue! A special package saves the day: a lovely formal dress sent from Seo-hyun. (I suppose they do get points for making up reasons, however obvious, for dressing up the poor girl in rich clothes, instead of just glossing over that point as is so often the case.)

Jan-di arrives alone at the party, and is soon whisked off to the F4 table by Yi-jung, who uses her as an excuse to get away from a group of women he’d promised to call but never did.

She and Jun-pyo look at each other warily, a bit uncomfortable after their last encounter but managing to resume their bickering dynamic. To Jun-pyo’s surprise, Yi-jung and Woo-bin lavish praise on Jan-di, calling her “really pretty” and “the cutest in the room” (Jun-pyo scoffs his disagreement).

Seo-hyun arrives on the arm of Ji-hoo, and a cake is brought out. Seo-hyun thanks everyone for coming, then makes a startling announcement — she’s planning on leaving for Paris, for good. She wants to succeed on her own terms, without inheriting her parents’ law firm — she has goals for bigger and brighter things.

The F4 guys suddenly realize why Ji-hoo’s been so down lately, and Jan-di’s eyes fill in tears in empathy for his pain. She watches Ji-hoo leave the party early. Seo-hyun finishes her speech, then follows him up to a hotel room.

Ji-hoo fiddles with an old toy, a puppet she’d given to him when they were kids. “That was when you stopped calling me ‘noona,’” she reminds him (which was an indication that he had started to harbor feelings for her).

Ji-hoo angrily throws the toy in the trash and says, “I feel like I’m being abandoned.” Seo-hyun tries to tell him gently, “If there’s anything here I can’t leave, it’s you.”

Ji-hoo tells her not to lie; she responds that if it was a lie, she wouldn’t have been so bothered to see him looking at somebody else: Jan-di. She admits, “When you went running to her, I found my heart falling with a thump. Isn’t that funny?”

Ji-hoo accuses her of treating him as a toy, and argues that he’d spent the past fifteen years looking only at her, “And that’s not enough? I’m a man too.” Seo-hyun hugs him, and apologizes.

As they pull apart, Ji-hoo kisses her. (And Han Chae-young again proves she can’t kiss worth a damn onscreen. Oy, this scene is painfully awkward at points. If the earlier Jun-pyo & Jan-di argument was an example of great, intense chemistry, here we have an example of… well, uncomfortable non-chemistry.)

Jan-di arrives at the doorway to see the kiss. She retreats, closing the door quietly, then starts to beat her head into the wall. Jun-pyo calls from behind her, “If you collapse here, it’ll be really embarrassing.”

Hearing the others moving inside the room, Jan-di hurries away from the door, but not quickly enough to escape being seen. She pretends she just arrived to spare everyone the embarrassment of mentioning the kiss.

Seo-hyun mentions that she and Ji-hoo are on their way out for a drive, and invites Jan-di along. Not wanting to be the third wheel, Jan-di stutters no thanks, and Jun-pyo answers smoothly, “We’re on our way somewhere too.”

Relieved to be given an exit strategy, Jan-di jumps to agree. To make the “act” more convincing, Jun-pyo puts his arm around her, which Ji-hoo notices with… interest?

When they’re out of earshot, Jun-pyo tells Jan-di that this act of kindness makes them even; he has now paid her back for saving him from the pool. Jan-di protests that they are in no way comparable acts, and concedes that this is worth perhaps 10% of a payback. Jun-pyo: “Fifty percent.” Jan-di: “Twenty-five.”

Jun-pyo takes Jan-di to a fancy bar, which is empty of patrons because he bought the place for the night. It’s a romantic gesture, but Jun-pyo tells her in his typical (unsentimental) way that she can shout or cry or do whatever she wants.

Jan-di wonders why she would do any of that, and Jun-pyo reminds her of the kiss she witnessed. Morosely, Jan-di says she is no competition against Seo-hyun: “I’m not pretty, I’m not smart, my family is poor…” “Your figure’s not that great either,” Jun-pyo adds, “and your temper’s bad too.”

She retorts, “Fine. How can such a worthless person like me be jealous of her? I don’t even have a right to feel jealous.”

Jun-pyo says matter-of-factly that she’s right about not being that special, “But you’re not worthless. You have a right.” He continues, saying that if Ji-hoo had met her before Seo-hyun, he’d have liked her. Sure, her looks and her family circumstances suck, “But you’re the first girl the Almighty Jun-pyo has acknowledged.”

A heartbeat starts pounding loudly. It’s unclear whose it is, but I think it could be either of them — or, more probably, both. Suddenly feeling overheated, Jun-pyo excuses himself to the men’s room, where he fans his face. Outside, Jan-di does the same, then reaches for a class of clear liquid and gulps it down.

By the time Jun-pyo comes back, she’s totally wasted, her head lolling around like it’s too heavy for her neck. Impatiently, he prods her: “Hey, come on, woman!”

That word (woman) gets Jan-di’s attention, and she slurs back, “Yeah, I’m a woman. Can’t a commoner be a woman too? My family, my looks, and my brain suck, I know. Even if you didn’t point it out so clearly, I already know, got it, punk?”

Now Jun-pyo’s amused. Jan-di continues rambling about her woes — her family, money. Suddenly, she jerks up and starts laughing ruefully, saying, “I’m sad today.” She pats his face (slaps it, more like) affectionately, and concedes, “All right, let’s say you’ve paid me back fifty percent.”

She continues, “Thanks, Gu Jun-pyo, for saving me today. I can’t do anything for you, but instead…”

And she learns forward… grabs him by the lapels… and smacks her lips together.

Jun-pyo waits to see what she’ll do, and she smiles at him… and vomits all over his suit.

Jan-di awakens in the morning in a strange bed in a strange room.

Upon seeing Jun-pyo sitting nearby, she immediately jumps to conclusions and demands to know why she’s here. He reminds her of the night’s events, and the details start to flash back to her. He brought her home after the bar, and called her parents to let them know. She hangs her head, embarrassed, and mumbles her thanks.

Jan-di would leave if she could, but Jun-pyo is alerted to his mother’s return home. We get the sense that this is an unusual occurrence. Today, she’s here to host a charity auction that evening. Anticipating Jun-pyo’s reaction, Mom has ordered her men to watch over him to keep him from leaving the house — which now means that Jan-di can’t leave without being seen, either.

Jun-pyo panics and immediately calls F4 for help. The friends join Jan-di and Jun-pyo to try to brainstorm a way out of this, knowing that Mom’s reaction will be fearful to behold if she were to somehow find out the truth — not only is there a strange girl with Jun-pyo, but she’s a poor, nameless, insignificant commoner to boot.

Jan-di is dressed up in one of the fancy dresses to be auctioned off that night, and the F4 friends do their best to pass her off as a new friend. Naturally she’s from a rich and prestigious family.

Mom is coolly polite, and inquires about her family background, prompting the F4 guys to jump in and fill in the details, describing Jan-di’s father as a businessman in the fashion industry. Ji-hoo puts his arm on her shoulder and says Jan-di’s like their “F4 mascot.” (Yeah, I dare anybody to use that on a parent and see how well that works. “Mascot,” indeed!)

Thankfully, the questioning is kept short. Just as Mom seems ready to sharpen her interrogation, she is called away, and tells everyone to join her downstairs for the auction.

The first item for auction is a pair of Olympic gold medalist Park Tae-hwan’s goggles. Jan-di’s mouth drops open as the bidding climbs up from an opening bid of 500,000 won (approximately $365) and skyrockets into the millions. Jun-pyo notices her reaction as a phone bid wins the goggles for 10 million won ($7,500).

The auction continues. Jun-pyo models his suit, followed by Jan-di modeling her dress (albeit reluctantly).

Mom eyes her with suspicion and asks her secretary, Mr. Jung, if he recognizes the girl. The man does remember her as the “Wonder Woman” who was given the Shinhwa scholarship. But unlike Mom, he’s got a heart and chooses, for now, to lie and say that all he knows is that she’s supposedly a student at Shinhwa High School. She orders him to look into the girl’s background.

After the auction, Jan-di thanks Jun-pyo again, somewhat grudgingly. Jun-pyo pretends not to hear, and forces her to repeat it twice.

It’s rather cute, actually, how he calls her “Jan-di baht,” which means “grassy lawn.” He tosses her a package and says, “Don’t drink when I’m not around.” (No doubt he wants to keep her from kissing other guys under the influence.)

After he leaves, Jan-di opens the bag to find the auctioned swimming goggles in the bag.

At home, her family oohs and ahhs over the acquisition, and urges her to sell them online since they’re worth a lot. Jan-di’s unwilling to part with them, though, and fumbles around for an excuse, saying that the goggles are worth “so much more than money” and shouldn’t be sold. She also distracts her parents so she can grab back the goggles, then runs off hoarding her prize.

Alone in her room, Jan-di opens her desk drawer. As though to show us how much this means, the space formerly used to hold Ji-hoo’s handkerchief is now given to the goggles. (Oh! The! Symbolism! Let me hit you with it.)

The next day, Jan-di has a visitor: It’s Seo-hyun (wearing a fur bib), here to say her last goodbyes, since she’s leaving the next day. Stunned to hear how suddenly she’s moving away, Jan-di tries to express her thanks.

Seo-hyun tells her, “I knew from the first time I saw you that you were the girl Ji-hoo always talked about with a smile.”

Speaking of whom, Ji-hoo spots Seo-hyun’s car outside and heads toward the pool, just in time to see Jan-di fall to her knees in front of Seo-hyun.

Jan-di explains that she’d been her fan for a long time, and understands her decision. “But let me ask a favor. Please don’t leave.”

Jan-di: “I know I don’t have a right to ask such a favor of you, but if I don’t ask…”
Seo-hyun: “Is it because of Ji-hoo?”
Jan-di: “I don’t know anything about him. But I know how special you are to him. He looks so sad to me, but there are times when he smiles, warmly enough to melt the heart of anyone who sees. You’re the only one who can make him smile. If you leave like this, he may not smile again.”

Seo-hyun explains that her decision is “like buying something in a foreign country. If you don’t buy it right then, there’s no next chance. I know too well how cruel that regret can be. Ji-hoo is dear to me, and I believe I am to him. That’s why I think he wouldn’t want me to face that regret.”

Subdued, Jan-di apologizes. Seo-hyun assures her, “No, I’m glad to hear you talk like that. Thank you.” She takes out a strappy set of heels and gives them to Jan-di: “I hope these shoes will take you to good places. I have something to ask you, too. Please make Ji-hoo smile again.”

When Jan-di walks out, Ji-hoo confronts her, asking angrily, “Who do you think you are to do that? Who asked you to make that kind of favor? It’s not even a favor, it’s begging. Don’t you have any pride?”

Jan-di: “It’s not because I have no pride. It’s because you looked so pained, like you’d die of sadness.”
Ji-hoo: “What is that to you? It has nothing to do with you. Get lost.”

EPISODE 4 RECAP

After Ji-hoo yells at Jan-di for interfering, she walks off with tears in her eyes. He looks upset with himself, but the next day, when everyone gathers at the airport to send Seo-hyun off, Ji-hoo is conspicuously absent.

Jan-di is in a mopey mood, thinking of Ji-hoo. She asks Jun-pyo in a dejected voice, “Can I ask you something?” Jun-pyo responds, “If I said no, are you going to not ask?” Referring to her (formerly assertive) attitude, he tells her, “Just act like you did before. This doesn’t suit you.” For what it’s worth, Jun-pyo has said this a couple times before, which I think is telling — he might complain about how she always talks back but that’s obviously why he likes her. He’s got no use for weak, defeated girls.

Jan-di asks if it’s a good idea to “push down your feelings and not show any emotion” when you like somebody a lot. He tells her that’s crap; it’s the same as ignoring them. If the earth caved in the next day, wouldn’t she die of regret?

A little surprised, Jan-di responds, “You know, you may not be an idiot in everything.” He acts as though that’s a compliment, and says he’d rather regret doing something than regret not doing something.

Seo-hyun says her goodbyes to F4 (I suppose it’s F3 right now), and it’s nice to see them acting like longtime friends. She hugs Jan-di and asks her to remember her request (to make Ji-hoo smile again).

As she walks to her gate, she looks around, hoping to see Ji-hoo and disappointed when he doesn’t appear.

Just as the guys sigh that Ji-hoo’s acting pretty cold by not coming, he appears. He’s actually been here for hours.

Jan-di thinks Ji-hoo’s being a coward, and takes him to task: “What are you doing? Is this all you can do? Follow her!”

At that, Ji-hoo produces his ticket and passport: “I’m taking the next flight.” Woo-bin wonders what made him change his mind; Ji-hoo says that Jan-di did.

Before leaving, Ji-hoo turns to Jan-di: “Thank you. It’s because of you that I realized I’d have to be honest. You taught me that sometimes you need the courage to hang on. I’m glad I got to know a girl like you.”

He leans forward and kisses her on the forehead — Jun-pyo watches, bothered — then leaves.

Afterward, Jun-pyo and Jan-di stand outside his car, watching airplanes take off. He breaks the silence by facing her, leaning over her to say something. Unlike the last time he tried (and failed) to kiss her, this time her heart starts pounding.

Jun-pyo: “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.” She nods nervously, and he continues: “Geum Jan-di, ___ with me.”

And just when he says that bit, a plane flies above and drowns out his words. BWAHAHA. (I think he says, “Go out with me,” but we can’t be sure.)

Jan-di blinks uncomprehendingly, not having heard those crucial words. But Jun-pyo straightens and smiles in satisfaction to himself.

So while it’s no surprise to us, it is to her when Jun-pyo walks up to her in the lunchroom and says, without preamble: “Saturday, 4 pm, in front of Namsan Tower.”

He starts to leave, then turns back: “If you’re even one minute late, you’re dead.”

Jan-di looks after him, a little confused but mostly unimpressed with his high-handedness. She doesn’t notice that Min-ji is looking on with a stricken expression on her face.

Since Jun-pyo doesn’t give Jan-di any chance to respond, she dismisses it from her mind, going shopping with her mother instead on a bargain-sale hunt. And I do mean hunt. They grapple with other thrift-loving ajummas for the massive discounts, and by the time they leave, it’s evening. It’s also snowing.

Feeling guilty pangs for ignoring Jun-pyo, Jan-di asks her mother if anyone would wait in the snow for four hours for a promise that was never made. Her mom says that’s crazy, but Jan-di isn’t reassured. Making a sudden decision, she tells her mother she has to go somewhere and runs off, heading toward Namsan Tower.

Jan-di looks almost disappointed to find the courtyard empty, until she spots Jun-pyo huddled on the side, shivering in the cold.

She holds her umbrella over his head; he asks where the hell she’s been: “Didn’t I tell you not to be late?” He isn’t outright angry — irritated might be a better word. Jan-di returns, “When did I say I would come?” He replies, “You’re here.”

She protests, because she wasn’t intending to come. He persists, “But you did.”

Feeling bad, she offers to buy him a hot drink and helps him up. He staggers to his feet and leans heavily into her. Misinterpreting his intentions, she kicks him to get him off.

Indoors, she buys him coffee from a vending machine and calls it “thirty thousand won coffee” (about twenty bucks). By way of explanation, she tells him to follow along.

On top of the building, they look at the cityscape from the observation deck — this is just like watching from the expensive Sky Lounge.

She marvels at all the stars. Jun-pyo laughs at her, “Those aren’t stars, those are satellites, you stupid girl!” Jan-di retorts, “Aren’t you the idiot? You think there are that many satellites?”

The watchman comes up to the doors to lock up for the night. He only gives the deck a cursory look and is distracted by a phone call, so he misses the two of them.

The lights shut off, alerting Jan-di and Jun-pyo, and they hurry to the doors. The handles have been chained together, and there’s no way to get out.

Jun-pyo doesn’t panic, since they can always call for help. Unfortunately, he left his phone behind, and Jan-di doesn’t own one.

Now worried, he blames her; she says it’s his fault for waiting foolishly for hours. He protests, “This is the first time I’ve ever waited for anyone.”

They wander into an enclosed area, which offers a little shelter but is still freezing cold. Jan-di tries to keep her distance while Jun-pyo starts to cough, and says, “Sorry.” When she asks where his driver is, Jun-pyo answers that he sent him home — he wanted to try things commoner-style.

Shivering, Jun-pyo asks, “Can I be honest?” She eyes him warily as Jun-pyo leans in her direction, then collapses on top of her.

Thinking he’s trying to get fresh, Jan-di shoves him aside, then realizes he’s burning up with fever.

She takes out some of her new purchases — a woman’s scarf and shawl — and wraps him with them. They fall asleep like that until morning, when they are let out.

Fearing her parents’ reaction, Jan-di declines Jun-pyo’s offer of a ride home; she’ll use the bus ride to think of an excuse to tell her mother.

Jun-pyo moves closer to tell her the excuse he’d make: “Since we spent the night together, I’ll take responsibility.” (That phrase, used in that context, is misleading and suggests that something actually DID happen between them. Jan-di kicks him in response.)

Unbeknownst to them, they are seen, and photos are taken.

When she gets home, Jan-di falls on her knees and begs forgiveness, but her family is in fantastic spirits. The guy she saved is the heir to Shinhwa Group! Of all the people to help!

Furthermore, they’ve received a whole slew of gifts in gratitude. Jan-di is bewildered — how did they know? Where did this come from?

Her parents rave about Jun-pyo, who dropped by — taking advantage of her slow bus ride home, no doubt — to ask them not to scold Jan-di because she’d been helping him all night.

News spreads quickly, labeling Jan-di as Jun-pyo’s new girlfriend. Suddenly, everyone is eager to befriend Jan-di (except the mean girls, that is), and the unexplained attention creeps her out.

Jan-di discovers the reason when she comes to the TV screen in the lobby. Displayed onscreen are the pictures of her and Jun-pyo that morning, making them look a lot chummier than they are. When the F4 guys arrive, Yi-jung asks Jun-pyo if the rumors are true.

Jan-di hurriedly insists, “No, it’s not! It’s not what you think at all!”

Jun-pyo ruins that by interrupting, “Yes, it’s true.” Everyone gasps in amazement, and Jun-pyo slings an arm around her shoulders and steers her (unwillingly) down the hall. The students gossip in excitement, with one notable exception: Min-ji, who watches tearily.

Min-ji goes home early that day, so Jan-di drops by with the same consolatory stuffed sheep that Min-ji had previously given her. Withdrawn and depressed, Min-ji asks cautiously if the gossip is true.

Jan-di hesitates, then answers that it’s all a coincidence and an accident. Min-ji says, “But it looked like he liked you.” Jan-di says no way — even the idea is absurd. Jun-pyo was just playing around. At the denial, Min-ji laughs in relief, suddenly much cheerier. She hops out of bed and announces that she’s all better now. She wants to go out and have some fun.

While Jan-di waits for Min-ji to get ready, she looks around and spots a Shinhwa Kindergarten yearbook. Curious, she pulls it from the shelf just as Min-ji walks in. Panicking, she grabs it from Jan-di, yelling at her not to go through other people’s things.

Taken aback to see this side of the normally demure Min-ji, Jan-di apologizes. Min-ji recovers, saying more calmly that she’d written weird comments in the book, so she doesn’t want anyone to read them. She apologizes.

Whereas Woo-bin and Yi-jung took a lot of amusement in Jun-pyo’s clashes with Jan-di, now they ask more seriously if he’s “for real” about her. Yi-jung reminds him that where they’re concerned, their parents have final say in their relationships.

Jun-pyo scoffs, as this is a bit weak coming from two supposed players:

Jun-pyo: “Were you just calling yourselves men in name? Were you acting all cocky without being real men?”
Yi-jung: “What’s a real man to you?”
Jun-pyo: “A man takes responsibility from the beginning to the end.”
Woo-bin: “To the end?”
Jun-pyo: “Yeah. To the end.”

Min-ji takes Jan-di to a club featuring live performers and suggests they dance. Jan-di declines, so she sits out while Min-ji goes out on the floor. When Min-ji looks back, she sees Jan-di wandering around, and is bumped by another woman.

Unexpectedly, Min-ji slaps the girl. Suddenly she’s no longer sweet and shy, but a stone-cold bitch. She sneers, “If you’re ugly, you should at least dance well.”

Worried about Jun-pyo’s latest comments, Yi-jung drops by the restaurant looking for Jan-di. Ga-eul tells him Jan-di’s not working today, so he asks if she’s her friend, and how long they’ve known each other.

At her answer (”Since kindergarten”), he smiles and figures that’s good enough: “So you’re best friends. Then let’s go.”

At his pottery studio, Yi-jung explains that he’s afraid that Jan-di will get hurt, and asks Ga-eul to advise her friend. Initially dazzled by the tall, handsome, rich guy, Ga-eul’s opinion drops once she gets his drift: “What kind of advice? That she can’t climb that tree, so don’t bother trying?”

Yi-jung ups the charisma, smiling at her and saying that cute girls like her are scary when angry. She sees through the charm and tells him that he must have thought he could fool everyone with his pretty face, but he misjudged her. She’ll pretend this conversation never happened.

Ga-eul gets up to leave, but stops and comes back for one last word, temper flaring. After all, Jun-pyo’s the one who likes Jan-di, not the other way around: “Jan-di doesn’t care to climb that tree.”

As she’s exiting, she runs into Woo-bin, who wonders what that’s all about. Yi-jung says it’s nothing, and that she’s exactly the type of girl he dislikes (backwards and unfashionable). And yet, his eyes say otherwise…

Jan-di roams the club, feeling bored and out of place. She encounters one of the performers, who senses her discomfort and suggests they head outside, where he plays her a song on his guitar. (I don’t think she really cares for the stranger, but appreciates the reprieve from the club.)

Seeing that her water bottle is empty, the guy hands her his. She sips the water, her vision goes blurry, and she blacks out.

In the morning, Jan-di awakens in an unfamiliar hotel room with no recollection of the night before. On the mirror, written in lipstick are the words, “Thanks for last night.”

She frets all morning about those words, trying to convince herself that nothing happened, wondering why she can’t remember anything.

Of course, this is also the day that Jun-pyo decides to make a little change in his appearance. He remembers Jan-di’s rant against him, when she said she hated “everything about him” from his curly hair to the fact that F4 always dresses in normal clothes when the rest of them are required to wear uniforms.

So that morning, he takes an extra two hours to get ready, wearing his uniform for once and having his hair straightened.

Jan-di is accosted by students, but whereas her reception the day before was sycophantic, today the Bimbo Threesome are furious at her for insulting Jun-pyo and therefore, by extension, everyone at the school.

Jan-di is totally baffled at their attitude until they drag her to the television. On it, photos are splashed of herself and the strange guy from the night before — in bed, half-clothed.

F4 arrives to see Jan-di surrounded by hostile faces, and Jun-pyo steps forward to defend her. Ginger tells him, “Don’t be fooled! Look at this and come to your senses!” And she points at the TV.

Jun-pyo glances over. Jan-di jumps in front of the screen, trying to block it and insist that it’s all a misunderstanding. He pushes her away and stares grimly at the photos, then turns to her: “What kind of mistake could lead to these pictures?”

Jan-di shakes her head, confused, and says, “I think someone set up a trap for me.” In a hard voice, he asks, “Was this all you were?”

Hurt that he’s so quick to condemn her, Jan-di fires back with tears in her eyes, “I don’t care whether you believe me or not. I don’t even know why I have to explain such an absurd situation to you. But this isn’t the truth.”

Jun-pyo grabs her shirt and clenches his jaw. He says in a low voice, “I’ll just ask one thing. Is the girl in that picture you?” Jan-di can’t say no, and a tear falls.

He shoves her back and glowers, “You said you didn’t care whether I believe you or not. You’re right. Geum Jan-di, from here on, I don’t know who you are.”

After he leaves, the mob descends on Jan-di, but you get the sense she doesn’t really care — the damage has been done with Jun-pyo’s dismissal of her.

Jun-pyo’s fury is so extreme that his friends worry about him, never having seen him so upset about anything before. They decide that they’d better get to the bottom of this before someone winds up seriously hurt, and head over to solve the mystery.

Woo-bin, Yi-jung, Ga-eul, and Jan-di look closely at the photos and ask if Jan-di can remember anything odd about the night before. Jan-di recalls the message scrawled in lipstick, which is odd, since it wasn’t hers. Why would a guy be carrying lipstick around?

Furthermore, the way the pictures are shot requires a third person to have taken them, which means there was somebody else involved. The guys take note of the mystery man’s tattoo, and use a combination of their brains and lots of money to get information.

The music club owner isn’t as helpful as they’d like, so the guys use a form of polite blackmail. If they aren’t pleased with the guy’s cooperation, they might as well run him out of business. Yi-jung: “Two weeks should do it.” Woo-bin: “We’ve got our reputation. We’ll have to make it a week.”

Woo-bin owns the neighboring building, which would make a nice venue to set up a competitor to drive this guy bankrupt.

What follows is some of the most ridiculous tomfoolery I ever did saw. To prove their point, Yi-jung displays some of his saxophone skills (to prove they’d be willing and able to make good on their threat). So now the pottery genius is also Kenny G? Look, I ignored the atrocity that is Ji-hoo’s violin-playing, but here I cannot remain silent. THAT’S NOT EVEN THE RIGHT KIND OF SAXOPHONE.

Woo-bin does his part by dancing… is that the Charleston? To cha-cha music?

Naturally, the two guys are successful. (Oh, the power of elevator jazz and ballroom dance!) They track down the guy in no time.

On the other hand, Jun-pyo is still working out his aggression. First it was guns, now it’s a sword.

Min-ji shows up unannounced to hand him a hotel key, which leads him to the room where Jan-di’s photos were taken.

The photos are piled in the center of the bed. Jun-pyo recognizes the familiar setting in the pictures, and his temper erupts. He throws things around the room — pillows, bedcovers, sheets — and after his tantrum, Min-ji steps into the room and tells him, “Please don’t be hurt. It’s ridiculous for you to be like this over a bitch like her.”

Min-ji appeals to Jun-pyo to calm down, saying this is too unfair for him to be so hurt over Jan-di.

Glaring at her with contempt, Jun-pyo grabs her and asks, “Weren’t you her friend? Can a friend talk like that?”

Min-ji whispers, “She stole you from me.”

Jun-pyo shoves her to the ground and heads to the door. Min-ji grabs him from behind and begs him not to go. He breaks free of her grasp and she cries, “Why her, but not me?”

He walks away, remembering Jan-di’s insistence that she was set up and that this is all a misunderstanding.

At school, it’s a free-for-all as Jan-di is knocked from her bike and jeered at. It’s like she’s come full circle, back to how she was tormented as a result of the red card, only this time the harassment is more malicious because she dared make a fool of the Great Jun-pyo.

Jan-di yells back at them, “Is this all you can do? Do more! Go on!” So they do, pelting her with water balloons shooting a fire hydrant at her, till she collapses on the ground.

EPISODE 5 RECAP

Jan-di’s bike is set on fire, while she is assaulted with water balloons and blasted with a fire extinguisher. Seriously, are these Shinhwa kids all sociopaths? Regular bullying and taunting is bad enough, but they seem to be particularly malicious — like in Episode 1, when everyone watched the guy about to commit suicide and found it entertaining.

After being spurned by Jun-pyo and abused by her classmates, Jan-di tries to maintain a fierce exterior but is near her breaking point. She thinks to herself, “Please stop. Help me.” That plea is directed at Ji-hoo, since he’d come to her rescue several times in the past. She knows he can’t save her now, but pleads internally, “Nobody’s coming. But still… please…”

But she is not alone, because she has Jun-pyo! He bursts in on the scene, furiously shoving her tormenters away and beating them up (rather violently, I might add).

Jun-pyo kneels and takes Jan-di into his arms, saying, “I’m sorry.” Picking her up, he walks away from the now-subdued crowd.

Jan-di, thinking of the hotel pictures, tells him, “I didn’t do it, really.” He tells her, “It doesn’t matter. So keep your mouth shut.” She mumbles, “You still don’t believe me, do you?” Jun-pyo, looking upset with himself, says, “I do, I believe you!”

(I’m a little annoyed at how they took this potentially great scene and totally ruined it with ridiculous cheesy music. It’s so tragic and heartbroken, you’d think they both found out they had cancer or something. With 90 days left to live. And are also siblings.)

Back at his mansion, Jun-pyo insists on tending to her wounds himself. When she tries to take over, he asks, “Wanna sit still, or wanna be tied up?” (Why Jun-pyo, you say that like it’s a bad thing.)

Now that she’s safe, they can get back to their mating dance bickering: he reproaches her for not learning from the past and letting herself be bullied, saying she must have the learning ability of an orangutan. They argue some more until he takes a towel to wipe Jan-di’s face, and his heart starts pounding.

Rattled, Jun-pyo shoves the towel in her face and tells her to do it, then walks outside, where he clutches his heart and takes a deep breath. (So. Sweet.)

After tracing the guy in the photos to Oh Min-ji (who masterminded the plan), Yi-jung and Woo-bin now deliver Min-ji to Jun-pyo, along with her kindergarten yearbook. Inside, Min-ji’s picture has been scratched out, which takes them to a kindergarten flashback to explain why Min-ji would have done such a thing:

Cute Little Ji-hoo — wearing all white, of course! — is playing the violin, and faking it just as badly as Grown-up Ji-hoo. Little Yi-jung is playing with clay, and Little Woo-bin is counting his fake money with the board game Life. HA.

But they don’t have anything on Little Jun-pyo, who is OMG so adorable. And also afraid of bugs. Attacked by a buzzing insect, he tries to shoo it away, when Min-ji joins in and swats at the bug with her sketchbook. She assures Jun-pyo that the bug is gone now and looks at him hopefully. He catches a glimpse of the page she’d been drawing, which shows a couple labeled with their names. (She’s supposed to be ugly, which they’ve enhanced with makeup and freckles.)

Offended, Little Jun-pyo throws the sketchbook down and stomps on it. He demands, “How dare an ugly thing like you consider me for a husband?” It’s kind of weird hearing such harsh words come out of the mouth of babes, but I suppose that’s the point; he tells her to get lost, that he will never like her.

Min-ji recounts how that after that day, she was ashamed to be seen. She ended up going to Germany and underwent multiple surgeries and intense pain: “Do you know how I put up with it? That look on your face. The look when you ran away from me like I was some bug or a monster. I haven’t forgotten a moment.”

Jun-pyo has been eyeing Min-ji with cold contempt, but at this, he says, “I don’t remember, but I’m sorry for it.” Min-ji protests, “No! That’s not it. The words I want to hear from you aren’t that you’re sorry!”

Crying now, she approaches Jun-pyo: “Look at me. Aren’t I pretty? I’ve become so pretty. Don’t you want me? I came back for you. This is the moment I’ve been dreaming of. Tell me you want me!”

Coolly, Jun-pyo responds, “I feel sorry for you. Do you know why? You’re still a monster, like you were then. No — you’re worse now. The kid back then still had a good heart.”

(GREAT SCENE. Lee Shi-young as Min-ji is very good, showing how she’s been twisted as a result of the trauma without being over-the-top eeeevil, and the whole exchange is well-played. For those of us who’ve started thinking Jun-pyo is all warm and fuzzy, this is a great reminder that even if he’s not wrong, he can still be so cold as to be cruel. I suppose this means that it’s not as though Jun-pyo is exceptionally cruel to Min-ji when he’s normally so warm; it’s the reverse — he’s exceptionally warm with Jan-di when he’s normally so cold-hearted.)

Jan-di’s been put in a spare room and wears his pajamas. Jun-pyo has taken the liberty of calling her parents (if she went home in her condition, they’d freak out) and throwing away her clothes. She shouts at him for getting rid of perfectly mendable clothing, at which he claps a hand over her mouth and says, “It sounds like you ate the heart of a train.” She corrects his misspoken adage: “It’s a train smokestack!” (He laughs that she’s wrong — you can’t eat a smokestack!)

There’s a moment when he leans over Jan-di, freaking her out, but it turns out he’s not making a pass but grabbing the first aid kit. Again, he tends to her injuries.

By the time he’s done patching her up, Jan-di has fallen asleep. He tucks her in, then leans down and presses a kiss to her forehead.

After he leaves, Jan-di opens her eyes.

In the morning, Jan-di awakens to find the staff at her disposal. Jun-pyo has ordered his butler to find exact replicas of everything that had been thrown away, with the exception of one thing: her bicycle.

Unable to find the exact same model, the butler parades a whole roomful of bicycles out for her appraisal. She tries them out with excitement, but then sees the price tag: 18 million won ($13,000). Her bike was much, much cheaper and very ordinary.

To encourage her to accept the expensive gift, the butler diplomatically asks her to be tolerant of the difference (like it’s doing HIM a favor) because they couldn’t find the exact match.

While Jan-di eats (a lavish, gourmet) breakfast, Jun-pyo pays a visit to Jan-di’s place.

The family is thrilled (and flustered) to receive him, and serve him a very plain breakfast. The foods are common, everyday dishes, but the Almighty Jun-pyo has never eaten anything like it, and he tries them cautiously after inspecting each one quizzically.

At school, the fickle crowd embraces Jan-di again, since (1) Jun-pyo came to her rescue and (2) there’s a new target to gang up on: Min-ji. The Catty Trio (Hateful Threesome? Evil Troika? Wicked Wenches? Vicious Bishes?) crowd Jan-di, faking concern over how much Min-ji hurt her. They rip on Min-ji for her surgeries, saying, “If I looked like her, I would’ve killed myself already.”

Not amused, Jan-di turns to them and points out, “You guys buy whatever you want, but beauty doesn’t count? You’ve all done plastic surgery too, but you mock Min-ji for it? It’s okay for pretty girls to use it to be prettier, but not for an ugly person?”

Jan-di turns to leave as Min-ji steps up quietly, eyes lowered: “I won’t ask you to forgive me.” Jan-di slaps her.

Min-ji adds, “I can’t say I’m sorry either.” Jan-di slaps her again and says she shouldn’t expect to be forgiven.

But when Jan-di comes to her desk, she finds the stuffed sheep there bearing a new message: “Jan-di, thanks. Let’s meet again.” Min-ji sings the song Jan-di once sang to make her feel better, which brings a smile to Jan-di’s face.

Jun-pyo has an announcement to make: Jan-di is now officially his girlfriend. The Gin-Sun-Mi trio collapses in disbelief and Jan-di protests, but she’s ignored while the rest of the students clap and hoot.

Jun-pyo adds, “From now on, I’ll take anything you say or do to Jan-di as an act against me, so don’t mess around.”

And then, Ji-hoo makes his reappearance.

Though everyone’s glad to have him back, this puts Jan-di into a gloomy mood. Ga-eul wonders if she’s over Ji-hoo now that Jun-pyo’s in the picture, which Jan-di denies is the reason for her distress. She worries that something feels different about Ji-hoo.

At home, the entire apartment has been crammed full of new appliances and furniture — courtesy of Jun-pyo. The whole family is ecstatic — they even had to turn some of it away because it wouldn’t fit through their doors — but Jan-di finds this wildly inappropriate.

Too enamored of the extravagance, her parents try to justify it through excuses (i.e., returning it looks bad for Jun-pyo, it would be rude), but she’s not having it.

Jan-di storms into the F4 recreation room, which has a few extra female guests today. She yells at Jun-pyo for ordering new things for her family without even telling her, and he completely misses the point by asking, “Was there something you didn’t like? Tell me and I’ll switch it.” After all, he’s her boyfriend.

She retorts, “Are you like that with all your girlfriends? Did you buy them clothes and cars and swap out all their furniture? In a little while you’ll be getting me a new house too, I bet.”

He says thoughtfully, “Actually, I was going to start with the new house, but Mr. Jung stopped me and told me to do it later since it’s attached to the dry cleaner’s.”

Jan-di reminds him, “I told you that you can’t buy friends, that you bond through your feelings. I don’t know how you were with all your previous girlfriends, but stuff like this pisses me off!”

He answers, “I don’t have any previous girlfriends.” At that, Jan-di’s ire deflates, and she says she can let it go this time — but he’d better watch it!

Looking around, Jan-di seems perturbed to see Ji-hoo flirting with a group of girls, although Yi-jung and Jun-pyo think it’s good to see him acting like a person instead of just sleeping all the time.

Sensing that things with Seo-hyun may have not gone well in Paris, Jan-di asks him when he’s going back. He has no plans to.

Asking whether she’s really dating Jun-pyo, Ji-hoo muses, “Was I too late? I was going to ask you to date me.” Jan-di’s shocked, but he smiles and tells her it was a joke. He suggests, “Then what about dating behind Jun-pyo’s back?” which she again takes for real. He laughs that she’s the same as ever, then says, “I missed you” as he leaves.

Jun-pyo sneaks up on Jan-di on her way to her job, laughing to see how excited she is to find a coin on the ground (which he dropped).

Armed with a mysterious mission, Jun-pyo grabs Jan-di and drags her along on an errand, which doesn’t turn out to be an errand so much as it’s a shopping spree. (To ensure that they have the run of the department store, Jun-pyo sets off a fire alarm, which sends everyone running to evacuate and leaves them alone.) He entrusts the next part of his plan to Yi-jung.

I love how seriously Yi-jung bursts in on the restaurant to get Ga-eul. He tells her to hurry; it’s an emergency. Ga-eul guesses, “Has something happened to Jan-di?” She frets over the possibility of an accident, to which Yi-jung tells her grimly, “If we’re late, you might not get to see her. Hurry!”

So when Jan-di and Ga-eul are driven onto the tarmac of a private runway and deposited at a private jet — where F4 awaits — they’re completely baffled. Jun-pyo announces, “We’re going on a trip.”

Jan-di sputters, no way! But what about her parents? How can she leave so suddenly?

Jun-pyo replies, proud of himself, that he’s already gotten her parents’ permission, and to keep them from worrying, he brought along her best friend, too. (He’s even made allowances for her job, providing a staff of modelesque waitresses to replace the girls, who bring in a wave of new customers.)

Jan-di can’t believe he wouldn’t even ask her first, or find out when she can make time for a trip. Jun-pyo responds, “I wanted to go someplace nice together, all the preparations were made, and it’s not like Korea will be in trouble without you. What’s the problem?”

And then, they’re in New Caledonia. It really is gorgeous.

After arriving at the Shinhwa private resort, the group goes sight-seeing and browsing.

Outside one particular shop, Jan-di spies Ji-hoo taking a look at a potted flower. After he leaves, Jan-di takes a closer look, so the flower girl gives it to her with the instructions: “Give it to your lover.” (The scene is kind of random, but I mention it because I suspect it will come into play later…)

The girls wander by a fortune-teller who is purported to be extremely accurate, and have Jan-di’s palm read. The woman foretells, “I see a man. Your future husband.” Not only that, but he’s here with her: “A soulmate.”

Ga-eul thinks that’s great — that means Jan-di will marry her soulmate. But the woman contradicts her, saying, “Two different men” — Jan-di’s soulmate and husband are not the same man.

The woman finishes with one last bit: “You’re losing something important, as a woman.” The girls wonder what that means, then shriek, their minds jumping to (probably) sex.

And then, Jan-di wakes up. It was all a dream!

Still, it’s creepy and realistic, and with the woman’s last words on her mind, Jan-di panics when Jun-pyo takes her away, jumping to the conclusion that he’s just trying to get her alone to make some moves. Jun-pyo asks Yi-jung to watch after Ga-eul, which is how Yi-jung gets reluctantly stuck with her.

Following their initial encounter, I think Yi-jung has convinced himself he dislikes Ga-eul. He sees her posing goofily and disdains that she’s acting like a corny tourist. Undaunted, Ga-eul suggests taking a hike to the top of a hill, which does not interest Yi-jung in the least.

Ga-eul goes off anyway but shortly thereafter lets out a scream. Yi-jung runs after her, looking around worriedly, when Ga-eul appears and asks, “Aren’t you glad you came up here?”

Ga-eul tells Yi-jung that it’s his punishment for lying and tricking them into coming on the trip, to which Yi-jung says that it wasn’t a complete lie. “It seems like it’s just a matter of time before the two of them get into trouble.” (His wording can mean any kind of trouble, but hints at the, er, hormonally driven variety.)

Ga-eul is immediately concerned: “No!” He laughs at her wild imagination.

Meanwhile, Jun-pyo takes Jan-di along a stretch of deserted beach. During the walk, Jan-di imagines all sorts of wild possibilities and warns Jun-pyo not to indulge in any dark, ulterior motives. Thus she is shocked to see him bringing her to a simple, lovely table set for two.

Jun-pyo tells her she acts tough but is pretty shocked at little things. Jan-di: “This is a little thing?” She marvels that it’s like magic: “Are you a genie?” Jun-pyo’s jealousy flares: “Who the hell is he? Is he better than me?” Jan-di clarifies that she meant the genie from Aladdin, who could do almost everything save three things: He couldn’t kill, raise people from the dead, or make someone fall in love against their will.

The last part seems to get through to Jun-pyo, although he’d previously insisted that people could be bought (and his actions all episode long have been proof of that).

Jun-pyo puts in a phone call to Jan-di’s family, who urge her to have a fun time and not worry about them. Afterward, Jun-pyo sees her subdued reaction and wonders, “Did I do something wrong?” It looks like she’s about to cry.

Jan-di answers, “It’s because it’s so nice here. I wondered when my parents would have a chance to come to a place like this. My family would love to see it.” Jun-pyo: “Let’s come with them. We can come back with your family.”

And then, Jun-pyo walks toward the water, unbuttoning his shirt, and announces it’s time to get down to business.

EPISODE 6 RECAP

Jun-pyo undresses. Jan-di nervously tells him to cut it out. Laughing at her reaction, Jun-pyo calls her a dummy and heads toward the water in his swim trunks.

Jan-di gets back at him by telling him there’s a snake by his feet, then laughs as Jun-pyo dashes off fearfully, believing her joke.

There’s a really clumsy transition as everyone lazes on the beach. Ga-eul looks out at the water and senses something amiss; she grows more concerned as she shouts Jan-di’s name, which rouses Jun-pyo from his nap.

Jan-di is struggling to remain afloat (in, like, FOUR FEET of water), suffering a muscle cramp. Jun-pyo tries to go after her, but his feet won’t budge in the shallow water. A brief flashback of a body struggling in the water tells us that there’s something traumatic in Jun-pyo’s past that explains why he can’t swim.

Instead, Ji-hoo darts past and swims out to rescue Jan-di. (Based on how far Ji-hoo swims, I think she’s supposed to be out in deeper waters, but the effect is totally ruined when the camera shows the ocean floor, and Jan-di is clearly tall enough to stand above the waterline.)

Ji-hoo brings Jan-di in, and now that she’s safe, Jun-pyo keeps at a distance, upset with himself for not being able to do anything.

Back in Korea, Jun-pyo’s mother asks Mr. Jung what Jun-pyo is up to. (Her name is Kang Hee-soo, but it seems disrespectful to call a Korean mom by her first name — so I’ll be referring to her as Madam Kang, unless someone has a better suggestion.) Feeling sympathetic toward Jun-pyo, Mr. Jung tells her of the weekend trip with F4, leaving the girls out of it.

Awash in self-loathing, Jun-pyo takes to the hot tub alone, and as he slides underwater, a flashback shows Little Jun-pyo flailing in water and crying out for help.

Woo-bin and Yi-jung explain to Jan-di that when Jun-pyo was six, he’d been kidnapped. The car was chased and went into the river — with Jun-pyo in it. Yeah, I think that would do it for me too.

Perhaps compensating for his inability to save Jan-di, Jun-pyo takes extra care with elaborate dinner preparations. He particularly fusses over Jan-di, saying that her muscles cramped because she’s not eating properly; he fills her plate and instructs her to eat up.

Quieter than usual, Ji-hoo leaves the table without eating. Concerned, Jan-di follows him out to the pier, watching as the flower girl from the village hands him a potted flower and tells him to give it to his girlfriend.

At dinner, Yi-jung teases Ga-eul, under the mistaken impression that she likes Jun-pyo. Confused, Ga-eul tells him that’s ridiculous. Referring to their hilltop conversation, Yi-jung asks why she cares so much whether Jan-di and Jun-pyo get into trouble, then. Ga-eul blurts, “That’s because there’s someone else Jan-di li…”

She cuts herself off, but it’s enough for Yi-jung to guess what she was about to say.

More horrible music (are we even surprised anymore?) as the group enjoys the party, until Jun-pyo draws their attention to his specially planned fireworks display. He sneaks a look at Jan-di, then looks away quickly when she glances at him.

Jan-di smiles in appreciation, her good mood lasting until she comes out of her bathroom later that evening to see Jun-pyo unexpectedly in her room. Immediately nervous, she backs away and remembers the psychic’s prediction that she’ll be losing “something important, as a woman.”

But Jun-pyo surprises her by kneeling at her feet and fastening an anklet on her leg. It’s a cheap trinket from the marketplace, but he warns, “It may be cheap but if you lose it, you’re dead.” His tactics may lack a certain finesse, but Jan-di looks touched at the gesture.

Jan-di heads next door to Ga-eul’s room, but when her knock goes unanswered, she wanders the pier. Spotting Ji-hoo alone on the beach, she heads down to talk to him.

Ji-hoo shows her the flower and explains that it means the recipient will be happy, which is why you’re supposed to give it to someone you love. She wonders what happened with Seo-hyun, and he answers, “I realized how pathetic I was. There was nothing for me to do but wait all day in an empty apartment.” Bitterly, he adds: “Do you know what it’s like being nothing but a burden to the woman you love? You called them pathetic fools who can’t do anything on their own.”

Those are the words she flung at him at the airport; he says she was right, and other than loving one woman (”like a habit”), “I don’t know how to do anything. I’m pathetic.”

Ji-hoo offers the flower to Jan-di. Knowing what that symbolizes, she declines it. She says it’s meant for Seo-hyun, but I think part of her is thinking of Jun-pyo, and she turns to leave.

Ji-hoo grabs her arm and whirls her around in a hug. “It’s so cold, I can’t take it.”

After a moment, Jan-di draws back and walks away, flustered.

She hurries back to her room, outside which Jun-pyo is waiting, worried that something happened to her. As soon as he sees her, he scolds her for going off without notice.

Feeling guilty, Jan-di tells him, “I’m sorry.” Jun-pyo tells her not to swim or go off on walks alone, and leaves Jan-di to brood about her encounter with Ji-hoo.

Back on the beach, Ji-hoo picks up her anklet from the sand (which Jan-di doesn’t realize is missing until morning).

Jun-pyo, however, sees it on Ji-hoo’s wrist at breakfast. He grabs his arm to take a closer look, but covers up his alarm and doesn’t elaborate.

Trying not to jump to conclusions, Jun-pyo notices Jan-di isn’t wearing her anklet and asks where it went. Nervously, Jan-di lies that she left it in her room, since he’d give her hell if she lost it. He doesn’t really believe her but tries to let it go

Later, however, when the guys are having fun in an energetic game of volleyball, Jun-pyo asks Ji-hoo what’s up with the bracelet. Ji-hoo hands it over and tells him, “It’s Jan-di’s. She must have dropped it last night. Return it to her.”

At this proof that Jan-di met Ji-hoo last night — and worse, she lied — Jun-pyo is shaken so badly that he loses all concentration in the game.

Completely distracted as he puts together her lies, Jun-pyo doesn’t react when the ball hurtles toward him. It hits him in the face, bloodying his nose. He mumbles that he’s fine and stumbles away drunkenly, walking into the net before managing to head off to wash up.

(I suppose this is to show us how shocked he is, but come on — he’s heartbroken, not drug-addled.)

As he takes in the situation, Jun-pyo’s dazed reaction turns dark, and he sets off to find Ji-hoo, who is paddling calmly out to sea in a kayak. Jun-pyo grabs another one and paddles madly to catch up.

When he reaches him, for a moment it’s uncertain how he’ll act, but Jun-pyo passes him like this is some kind of heated race with no finish line. Maybe it is. Perhaps Ji-hoo figures it’s better to avoid provoking a confrontation, but I think it’s pretty wimpy for him to turn around silently and head back to shore.

When Jun-pyo turns around to see Ji-hoo paddling away, he throws his paddle in frustration.

I guess all that exertion wears out his anger, because the next thing we know they’re both back on the shore and nobody’s beaten to a pulp. While Jun-pyo sleeps, Jan-di finds Ji-hoo preparing a sailboat to head out for some fishing. He invites her along and (ignoring my repeated exclamations of “DON’T GO YOU IDIOT”) she goes.

Ga-eul is starting to find Yi-jung’s persistent attention aggravating (which I’m sure none of us understands, eh?), so when he finds her on the beach, she hurries away. To a TWO-PERSON BOAT. Good intention, but maybe you oughtta work on unmixing those messages.

Yi-jung hops aboard and brings up Ga-eul’s comment last night, asking about the guy Jan-di likes. He doesn’t seem too worried about it, since he’s fairly certain Jan-di’s type leans toward bad boys: namely, Jun-pyo.

Ga-eul retorts that the guy Jan-di likes might turn out to be her soulmate (then cringes at blurting out more info inadvertently).

Yi-jung doesn’t make an issue of that, though, asking instead whether Ga-eul actually believes in soulmates. She answers, “Of course. Playboys like you can’t understand, but there is such a thing as a true love who stays with you all your life.”

Yi-jung: “Have you met your soulmate?”
Ga-eul: “Not yet. But when he shows up, I won’t let go, because I’d regret losing someone like that for the rest of my life.”

Whatever anger Jun-pyo felt earlier, he seems to work it out, because he takes Jan-di along in a helicopter ride to show her something. In the air, he points out a field that’s shaped like a heart: “I’d decided that when I found a girl I liked, I’d bring her here.”

She registers the meaning of those words as Jun-pyo smiles, asking, “Can you see my heart?” He seems very pleased with everything, but Jan-di looks away uneasily.

That night, Woo-bin and Yi-jung announce a Ji-hoo emergency: They’ve learned that Seo-hyun is engaged.

This explains why Ji-hoo has changed, but Jan-di feels awful: “Ji-hoo’s going to hate me.” By that, Jan-di means her wish that Seo-hyun marry a famous foreign husband, which she’d told Ji-hoo before knowing of their relationship.

She’s lost in her distress when Jun-pyo finds her, and asks if she’s accepted his feelings.

He leans in closer as though to kiss her, but she pulls away. Disappointed, he stops, then tells her, “Don’t make me wait too long.”

Feeling bad for Ji-hoo, Jan-di heads down to the beach to find him. She asks with tears in her eyes if the rumors of Seo-hyun’s engagement are true, and tells him she’s sorry.

He sounds so defeated as he tells her he can’t compare to Seo-hyun’s fiancé that Jan-di insists he’s wrong. Seeing how much his pain affects her, Ji-hoo gathers her in a hug.

She entreats, “Please be happy… because if you’re unhappy, I am too.”

Wondering, “How could I not like a girl like you?,” Ji-hoo leans in and kisses her.

The kiss lasts for a few seconds, but when Ji-hoo pulls back, Jun-pyo stands there. Gulp.

Jun-pyo asks: “Is that what was going on?” He approaches slowly, then suddenly punches Ji-hoo. Jan-di pleads with him, but he turns to her in a cold fury. “I wanted to believe you.” He’d tried his best because he didn’t want to regret not trusting her.

Jun-pyo: “I showed you my true self. But this was your answer?”
Jan-di: “That’s not it. It’s not…”
Jun-pyo: “It’s really over now. Geum Jan-di, don’t act like you know me anymore.”

Ji-hoo tries to call him back. Jun-pyo yells at him to shut up: “If you say one more word, I’ll kill you.”

The next morning, Jun-pyo is gone. The others wonder what could have prompted him to ditch them all, and Woo-bin asks Jan-di if she has any guesses. Uncomfortable, she says nothing.

On the boat later, Ga-eul takes out a bracelet like the one Jan-di lost, which she’d bought it in the marketplace. Apparently it’s supposed to be given to the person you want to spend your life with, and Ga-eul wonders, “Maybe it’s like asking them not to run away.”

At home, Jan-di puts her anklet away in her drawer, which reminds her of the auctioned swimming goggles lying there that Jun-pyo had given her. That sends her down memory lane: she recalls the night they were locked in the cold together, how he saved her from the bullies, how he took her up in the helicopter to tell her he liked her… Sorrowfully, she says, “I’m sorry, Gu Jun-pyo.”

At school, Jan-di apologizes to Ji-hoo for the incident on the beach; she shouldn’t have gone looking for him. Ji-hoo says he should be the one to apologize. She replies, “I’m the one who hurt Jun-pyo.” I’m pretty sure they’re both guilty on that score, but I suppose she has a point.

Picking up a piece of chalk from the ground, Ji-hoo doodles a picture of Jun-pyo on the wall. Jan-di takes over, adding an angrier scowl and curlier hair. She laughs at first, but the smile fades and she fights tears.

During lunchtime, Jun-pyo strolls into the cafeteria with Woo-bin and Yi-jung and rings the bell to command everyone’s attention. He has an official F4 announcement to make: “Yoon Ji-hoo is no longer part of F4.”

Everyone gasps, and even Woo-bin and Yi-jung are shocked. Jun-pyo continues coldly, “In one week, Yoon Ji-hoo and Geum Jan-di will be expelled from this school.”

The mean girls assume this is Jan-di’s doing and blame her for messing everything up — it’s all her fault that F4 has been disrupted and Ji-hoo kicked out of the group. She must take responsibility!

Ji-hoo interrupts: “I’ll take responsibility.” He denounces the girls for ganging up on Jan-di, to which Ginger protests, “If you act like this, we can’t take your side.” He shoots back, “Who asked you to?”

So now both Ji-hoo and Jan-di are in the same persona non grata boat. Jan-di figures that Jun-pyo won’t go through with his threat — she may be expellable, but surely not Ji-hoo. Ji-hoo reminds her whose school this is.

She wonders if there’s a way out of the mess, and he responds, “I’ll have to find one, because now I have a reason not to sit back and concede quietly.”

Ji-hoo says that last bit with a meaningful smile at Jan-di, which she takes to mean that he wants to reconcile with F4. Ji-hoo laughs and calls her dumb, because that’s not what he was referring to: “I don’t care about that.”

I love this next scene: Yi-jung drops by to tell Ji-hoo in a hard tone that he’d always understood what Ji-hoo did, and even thought Jun-pyo was sometimes hard to take. That’s why he never expected to be saying these things now.

Yi-jung: “Why did you do it?”
Ji-hoo: “I just felt like it.”
Yi-jung: “Jun-pyo liked Jan-di—”
Ji-hoo: “—and I knew it.”

That angers Yi-jung: “I can’t tolerate you messing with a friend’s girl.” Ji-hoo says he is sorry to Jun-pyo, but he can’t let him kick Jan-di out of school.

Yi-jung: “So? What are you going to do?”
Ji-hoo: “I have to do something.”
Yi-jung: “You’re not going to have anyone on your side this time.”

Meanwhile, Woo-bin appeals to Jun-pyo, saying he understands his anger but that he’s going too far. He reminds Jun-pyo that Ji-hoo’s not himself right now, and that he’s acting out because of what happened with Seo-hyun.

Jun-pyo answers, “That jerk didn’t do that because he really likes Jan-di. He was just using her because of Seo-hyun. That’s more unforgivable.” When Woo-bin tries again, Jun-pyo snaps, “Don’t defend that jerk anymore. One more word and you’re out too.”

EPISODE 7 RECAP

Following their fallout, Jan-di tries to find Jun-pyo at school, and finally comes upon him as he exits school; he spots her and pauses for a moment. She gives him a tentative smile — but he turns away and leaves in his chauffeured car.

Jan-di chases, calling for him to stop, then grabs her bicycle to pedal furiously to his mansion.

She’s so fast (and superhuman?) that Jan-di arrives at the mansion just as Jun-pyo’s car does. He tries to push past her, but she insists on saying her piece, even if he doesn’t want to hear it.

Jan-di blocks his way inside, prompting him to run the other way. She ends up chasing him around his front yard, which is pretty cute.

Jun-pyo manages to slip into the driver’s seat of the car and drive off, leaving Jan-di shouting after him. (He can’t be SO mad if he can still find satisfaction in sticking out his tongue at her, methinks.)

Just then, a sleek white sports car pulls up, the window rolls down, and a glamorous woman (the gorgeous Kim Hyun-joo) tells her, “Get in.” Dumbfounded, Jan-di gapes, but the woman tells her to hurry: “You’re trying to catch that guy, right?”

Jan-di rides shotgun as the white car weaves in and out of traffic, tailing Jun-pyo. He tries to shake off his pursuer, but she maneuvers her car with smooth control and forces her way in front.

Finally, she cuts Jun-pyo off, making him pull over suddenly and stop.

Jun-pyo emerges from his car, ready to give the woman hell, but she grabs a wooden kendo sword (because we all carry those around?) and starts toward him purposefully. And because PD Jeon cannot leave a perfectly good moment as it is, he ruins this by having her leap into a CARTWHEEL AND BACKFLIP before she uses the wooden sword to hit Jun-pyo, taking him to task for his rudeness: “Who taught you to treat women like that?”

Jun-pyo protests, “Sis, you don’t even know what you’re talking about,” but he does quiet down and defer to her and her big wooden stick. This is Gu Jun-hee, just arrived from America, who takes an immediate liking to Jan-di.

Jun-hee apologizes to Jan-di on behalf of her rude younger brother, then tells Jun-pyo to drive safely and meet them back at home, ignoring his insistence that Jan-di is banned from their house.

Jun-pyo refuses to join everyone for dinner (which he later regrets when he’s dying of hunger), leaving F2 and Jan-di to fill Jun-hee in on news.

Jun-hee asks if the other two agree with Jun-pyo’s intent to kick Ji-hoo out of F4. Woo-bin doesn’t, and Yi-jung starts to qualify his answer (he’s a little more sympathetic to Jun-pyo), but Jun-hee cuts him off, figuring that it’s clear that Jun-pyo’s the only one pushing the breakup of F4. She urges Jan-di to eat up to prepare her strength “to fight that idiot.” (FYI, Jun-hee does beat up on her brother several times, but she does it with some affection — and exasperation — so it doesn’t come off mean-spirited.)

When Jun-hee drops Jan-di off at home, Jan-di wonders why Big Sis is being so nice to her. Jun-hee replies that their mother always said that people like them had no use for friends. With such an upbringing, the fact that Jun-pyo was even able to find friends in F4 was nothing short of a “miracle.” This reminder at their broken friendship makes Jan-di apologize for causing the rift.

Jun-hee isn’t too worried, though, and thanks Jan-di: “You opened the door to turning that kid more into a human being.” After all, friendship will help get him there, but love is even more essential.

At Ji-hoo’s request, Jun-pyo meets him in what I suppose is Ji-hoo’s private movie theater, where he’s watching The Three Musketeers. By way of conversation, Ji-hoo asks, “Do you remember how many times we’ve seen this movie together? Must be at least ten times.”

Jun-pyo seems to relax a tiny bit when Ji-hoo says, “I’m sorry. I don’t expect you to stop being angry just because of an apology. But…”

Jun-pyo: “But?” Ji-hoo: “Leave Jan-di alone.”

Jun-pyo seems like he may have wanted to reconcile (given the right approach), but mentioning Jan-di is exactly the wrong thing to say. Jun-pyo hardens: “And if I don’t?” Ji-hoo: “I’ll protect her.”

At that, Jun-pyo angrily gets up to leave, clenching his fist. Without looking at Ji-hoo, he says, “It’s eleven times. If you’d remembered we were friends who’d seen that movie together eleven times, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” (Oh, snap.)

So Jun-pyo’s plan to evict his best friend remains intact: He’s in the middle of intimidating the school headmaster into expelling Jan-di and Ji-hoo when Jun-hee bursts in. If he fires the teacher, after all, she can hire the next.

Grabbing Jun-pyo by the ear, she forces him out of the room, then tells him, the F4 guys, and Jan-di to follow.

Back at home, Jun-hee makes her proposal: Jun-pyo and Ji-hoo can work out their spat through an organized athletic competition. (Because sporting wins heal wounded hearts?) This way, they’ll both have to acknowledge the winner and abide by the outcome, putting a clear end to the fight. If Jun-pyo wins, he gets to expel Ji-hoo and Jan-di. Ji-hoo, then, is fighting to keep them both in school (and himself in F4).

To make it fair, they will choose randomly from ten possible sporting categories, some in which the guys are trained and some in which they are not. Best of three wins, and participants must agree to respect the outcome.

(As a plot device, I don’t mind the competition, but who else thinks it’s hilarious that they’d agree to settle a love triangle via sports? It’s almost as ridiculous as deciding a faux monarchy via sports — I’m lookin’ at you, Goong S.)

Jun-pyo protests, but he’s outnumbered by everyone else (who have been convinced by Jun-hee ahead of time). Jan-di, Ji-hoo, and Jun-pyo each pick a different ball from the lottery-style machine, and the first test is revealed (Jun-pyo’s pick): Horseback riding.

This is Ji-hoo’s area of expertise, and he is heavily favored to win. Knowing he’s at a disadvantage, Jun-pyo pushes himself to train for the event in the two days preceding the competition. Ji-hoo, meanwhile, picks out his horse but doesn’t train. (Reluctant, or just confident?)

On the day of the race, everyone heads out — Jun-hee, Jan-di, F4, and their Shinhwa classmates — to the equestrian center. The race starts inside the arena, then heads outdoors.

After a lap indoors, Ji-hoo is leading as they approach a forking of the trail, one side marked safe and the other indicating danger. As he cannot catch up to Ji-hoo on the safe trail, Jun-pyo heads off on the other one, urging his horse up steep, hilly ground even when the horse balks, and ignores his trainer’s warning not to push too hard.

Back inside the arena, everyone waits for the racers, fully expecting to see Ji-hoo leading. Unexpectedly, Jun-pyo gallops in first.

Ji-hoo takes the loss gracefully enough, treating Jan-di with calm good humor when she comes up to him afterward. She pets his horse — which is named Rui — and feeds it a treat affectionately. Ji-hoo offers to take Jan-di on a ride, and leads her on the horse outdoors.

I know it’s supposed to be sweet/fun that Ji-hoo’s horse is named Rui, but that just opens up a whole world of inappropriate double entendres, yunnowhatimean? Maybe I should’ve kept that to myself.

On the other hand, Jun-pyo may have won, but his horse has suffered for it. Hearing that his horse won’t ever race again, he’s overwhelmed with guilt for being so aggressive with the animal.

Jun-hee tells him, “You may have won this game, but you lost the battle, little bro. I really hope you learned something from today” — because if he didn’t, the horse will have suffered for nothing.

The second competition tilts the advantage the other way, because now Jun-pyo is the clear favorite: racecars.

It’s not merely that Jun-pyo is a good racer, but Ji-hoo struggles even to drive, haunted by memories of the car crash that killed his parents. He suffers nightmares of that night and has difficulty just getting behind the wheel.

Knowing that victory is nearly within reach puts Jun-pyo in a fantastic mood. Yi-jung and Woo-bin feel uneasy about the obvious imbalance of skills, but Jun-pyo doesn’t even feel this is unfair, since Ji-hoo picked this challenge. Plus, Jun-hee stipulated that they must abide by the contest parameters no matter what the tasks turn out to be.

Jan-di learns of Ji-hoo’s disadvantage from the Jin-Sun-Mi trio, who tell her to pack her bags because there’s no way Ji-hoo will win this battle. Jan-di assures them that it ain’t over till it’s over: “I have faith in Ji-hoo.” (At this point, I wonder if the drama has slipped up in achieving the right balance, because I have to side with Miranda — and siding with a Mean Girl can’t be right — who calls her out for lacking principles. She reminds Jan-di that not long ago, she was talking to Jun-pyo about trust and faith (regarding the hotel photos), and now she’s blabbering about believing in Ji-hoo. Girl does seem fickle.)

Fearing for Ji-hoo’s safety, Jan-di drops by the racetrack where Ji-hoo is watching Jun-pyo zoom around the course below. Hesitantly, she asks how he got his driver’s license, and he explains that Seo-hyun had taught him. He’d hated it, but embarrassment over failing pushed him to learn how to drive enough to get a license.

Jan-di cautiously suggests that Ji-hoo not participate in the race — it’s not like she wanted to go to that school in the first place. Ji-hoo says firmly, “I don’t know if I can win, but I’m going to do my best.”

Seeing that Jan-di has brought him some rice porridge from the restaurant, he asks to try it. Down below, Jun-pyo glances up to see Jan-di and Ji-hoo looking chummy together and suddenly swerves, his car spinning out of control. At the sound of screeching tires, they look over in alarm — but I dunno, there’s something about Ji-hoo’s smirk as he continues calmly eating his porridge that makes me want to smack him.

Afterward, Jun-pyo fumes. He kicks one racing coach/crew member, hits another, and throws his helmet at a third, saying, “What the hell’s wrong with the car?” (I guess they’re too scared to answer, “The driver.”)

The day of the race, Woo-bin tries one last time to persuade Jun-pyo to give up, while Yi-jung does the same with Ji-hoo. Both are unsuccessful, so the best they can do is tell the competitors to be careful.

Ga-eul worriedly asks Ji-hoo if he’s going to be all right, hoping he has some kind of secret weapon up his sleeve. At that moment, Jun-pyo walks in, and the two shoot daggers at each other. Ji-hoo tells Ga-eul that he does, in fact, have a secret weapon — and then bends down affectionately to embrace Jan-di.

Jan-di resists a little at his unexpected hug, but he tells her to play along — this may be a cheap tactic but it’s all he’s got. Jun-pyo watches incredulously as Ji-hoo places a kiss on Jan-di’s forehead.

Ji-hoo walks off, thinking, “Jun-pyo, I’m sorry. I want to protect her, even if it’s like this.”

With that scene playing in his head, Jun-pyo takes to the track, trailing Ji-hoo at first. Amazing at how Ji-hoo’s debilitating fear of driving is miraculously cured! He’s even leading for the first half of the race.

But Jun-pyo’s mind involuntarily flashes back to the kiss, and in that second of distraction, he veers off course and skids, allowing Ji-hoo to zoom ahead to the finish line.

If Jun-pyo lost the first test of sportsmanship, surely Ji-hoo loses this round?

Now, the third test. A bit expectedly (for us), Jan-di’s selection turns out to be swimming — which practically guarantees a Ji-hoo win. Flustered and panicked, Jun-pyo refuses to participate. Unfortunately, Jun-hee reminds him, if he forfeits, Ji-hoo wins.

Yi-jung speaks up — if this issue is decided because of a forfeit, nobody will feel satisfied. Therefore, he’d like to offer himself to take Jun-pyo’s place in the last challenge, if everyone consents. Yi-jung finds it difficult to forgive Ji-hoo’s actions, too, and this is his way of making the last game fairer. Jun-hee accepts his proposal, saying that she’s okay with it if everyone else is. Jun-pyo immediately agrees, as does Woo-bin.

But Jan-di speaks up too — if Yi-jung gets to take Jun-pyo’s place, then she wants to take Ji-hoo’s. Jun-hee warns that she’ll be given no handicap going against a guy and Jun-pyo argues that she should stay out of it, but Jan-di says this involves her life too. She feels she should participate in determining her own fate.

Jun-hee agrees to the suggestion — then they can make it two-on-two: Yi-jung against Jan-di, Woo-bin against Ji-hoo.

So, they start training.

When their kooky restaurant boss (who’s always babbling about spirits and aliens) has a dream about the race, Jan-di and Ga-eul eagerly ask about the outcome, grasping at straws for good news. He describes: “Approaching the finish line, you’re almost neck in neck. Then, at the moment when a hand is reaching out… everything went dark.” (This may be a throwaway bit, or it may mean something, it’s hard to say just yet.)

Ga-eul proposes that they resort to underhanded methods — desperate times, and all — like feeding Yi-jung diarrhea medication secretly, or running him over with a bicycle (which, frankly, is a scene I’d like to see. The bike, I mean, not the diarrhea). Their boss puts his foot down and insists she not do anything dishonorable.

That doesn’t prevent her from dropping by to talk to Yi-jung, however. Yi-jung guesses that Ga-eul came to ask him to throw the race — she argues that the outcome doesn’t affect Yi-jung at all , while Jan-di may be expelled — but he has no intention of doing so. He isn’t going to kill himself over this competition, but he’s not going to purposely lose it, either.

He reminds her that she doesn’t exactly have a right to be so upset at his position: “I warned you that it would be a good idea to stop her.”

Jan-di’s family is appalled to hear that she cheated on Jun-pyo with Ji-hoo and now faces expulsion. She tries to explain her actions, but they’re disappointed in her when she confirms the story.

Her father figures she must take after her mother (who tries to shush him) and that based on his experience, when a man has been hurt by a woman two-timing him, the curious thing is, it always helps when the woman apologizes and says she was wrong. They urge her to apologize to Jun-pyo, and for once, they don’t seem so ridiculously out of line.

As Jan-di walks outside that night, Jun-pyo pulls up in his car. Hearing that she’s on her way to train, he asks, “Do you want to win that badly?”

Jan-di sighs, “We don’t have much of a choice.” Jun-pyo reacts to her phrasing: “We?”

Frustrated, he asks, “Why did it have to be Ji-hoo? If only it wasn’t him…”

Jan-di says his name reproachfully, but he suddenly pulls her to him in a hug. Earnestly, he says:

Jun-pyo: “It’s not too late. It would only take one word, if you said that you like me…”

EPISODE 8 RECAP

After a moment, Jan-di pushes away from Jun-pyo’s hug and says, dully, “I’m sorry.” Jun-pyo takes a moment to let this sink in, then: “Do you understand what I’m doing? The Almighty Gu Jun-pyo is pleading with you.”

Jan-di answers that she can’t help it. He wonders, “How did I come to like someone like you?” as though wishing he didn’t. He tells her she just threw away her last chance, because from tomorrow on, she won’t get any more. Jan-di returns, “That’s what I want.”

He leaves. Jan-di repeats to herself, not very convincingly, “I won’t regret it. I won’t ever regret it.”

Race day. Schoolmates gather poolside to spectate, mostly betting on (and cheering for) a Jun-pyo victory. The Tarty Trio, naturally, solidify their Mean Girl image by dressing as vapid cheerleaders. Well, I suppose the vapid part is already built-in.

The swimmers take their positions and the relay begins; Ji-hoo takes an immediate lead over Woo-bin. Thus when Jan-di begins her lap, she’s got a head start over Yi-jung, and at the turn, she’s leading by a full body length.

But Yi-jung starts closing the distance, and in the final stretch, her lead has been narrowed so they’re almost even. (Hey Jan-di, if you volunteered to take Ji-hoo’s place, shouldn’t you have been, uh, better than him?) Ga-eul urges Jan-di to hang in there, and Jun-pyo watches the tightening race as tension mounts.

The situation starts to mirror the scenario described in the restaurant ajusshi’s hazy dream (so he’s not just kooky, but also psychic!) — Jan-di and Yi-jung are neck and neck as their hands reach out toward the wall… and everything goes dark. The lights have been switched off. When they flicker back on, everyone looks around in confusion and wonders who won, but nobody was able to see the crucial final moment.

Glancing around, Jun-hee spies Jun-pyo walking away, and smiles knowingly.

Right before the lights went out, our last glimpse of the swimmers had shown Jan-di ahead by just a hair, but given that Yi-jung was gaining on her, this suggests that Jun-pyo turns off the lights not because he is afraid of losing, but because he realizes he doesn’t actually want to win.

The reason I believe that’s the case (rather than Jun-pyo doing it because he didn’t want to lose) is because of what follows: It is decided that Ji-hoo and Jan-di get to stay, thus winning the competition.

Jun-hee announces the results to everyone minus Jun-pyo (who has left on his own), and thanks Jan-di: “My stupid brother seems to be growing up nicely because of you.”

Yi-jung congratulates Jan-di on a good race, then punches Ji-hoo in the stomach. But as he does so with a smile, it’s like saying, “You kinda sucked there for a while but we’re still friends.” Ji-hoo seems to accept this good-naturedly as his due.

After the others leave, Jan-di and Ji-hoo both speak up at the same time, intending to thank the other.

They laugh and try saying their thanks again, and then, somewhat out of the blue, Ji-hoo asks, “Do you want to go on a date with me?”

When F2 drops by, Jun-pyo is contemplating a toy robot and musing aloud, “Gu Jun-pyo, you sure are paying back your debt.” By way of explanation, Jun-pyo brings up a wooden robot Ji-hoo had once had as a kid, which Little Jun-pyo wanted to play with. Little Ji-hoo didn’t want to give it away, but he’d grabbed it anyway, then tripped on the ground. The robot clattered to the pavement, and an incoming car flattened it with its tires.

As Little Ji-hoo cried, Mr. Jung had told Little Jun-pyo that it had been a gift from Ji-hoo’s deceased father.

Jun-pyo explains that ever since that day, he’d felt that he had an outstanding debt with Ji-hoo. This is his way of paying it back — letting Ji-hoo and Jan-di win the competition and dropping the grudge.

Jun-pyo: “After all, I can’t destroy Jan-di just to prevent anyone from having her, like I did back then.”

Yi-jung and Woo-bin are impressed — and relieved — at this display of newfound maturity. Listening at the door, Jun-hee smiles, too — looks like a certain idiot brother learned his lesson with the ill-fated horse.

In the morning, Yi-jung and Woo-bin try to wrangle a resistant Jun-pyo out of bed. Not in the mood to go out, he refuses, stubbornly remaining under the covers. The guys look at each other knowingly and mention the one thing sure to rouse Jun-pyo’s interest: Ji-hoo’s date with Jan-di.

They oh-so-innocently speculate over what will happen during the date: “Maybe they’ll take in the sunlight and nap together?” “And she’ll sleep on his arm?”

It’s not an accurate prediction, but it does the trick in spurring Jun-pyo to action. Meanwhile, the actual date starts off nicely with a ride on Ji-hoo’s horse, which is followed by walking and conversation. Jan-di’s rather enjoying herself — until Ji-hoo steers them to Namsan Tower.

Suddenly assailed with memories of the day she spent here with Jun-pyo, Jan-di glances over to the spot where Jun-pyo had waited for her in the snow, her mood subduing.

She remains quiet as they head inside and, at Ji-hoo’s suggestion, take the cable car. Ji-hoo enjoys the view, but Jan-di doesn’t even look outside, distracted with memories of the night spent in the cold car with Jun-pyo. Something catches her eye, and we finally see what it is that Jun-pyo had written on the wall with Jan-di’s pen:

Gu Jun-pyo ♥ Geum Jan-di
“Our first night!”

Meanwhile, Jun-pyo has followed the couple to Namsan Tower, watching unhappily from his car. (Ji-hoo notices that they’re being trailed and finds Jun-pyo’s behavior humorous, though Jan-di remains oblivious.)

When the couple heads to Ji-hoo’s house, Jun-pyo can’t quite decide what to do with himself — interrupt them? Go home? Instead, he paces outside indecisively, trying to tamp down his frustration. (Again, Ji-hoo notices Jun-pyo on the security monitor, and finds it amusing.)

Jan-di looks around at the luxurious house, noting pictures of Ji-hoo with Seo-hyun as children. When asked why nobody’s around, Ji-hoo explains that he prefers his staff to be gone when he’s home: “But it’s strange, I’m not uncomfortable around you. For some reason, I find you comfortable and fun. Something about you is warm.”

The flattery flusters Jan-di, her uneasiness growing when Ji-hoo looks at her meaningfully to say, “I think I understand why Jun-pyo likes you.” He leans in to kiss her.

Jan-di shrinks back, then pretends to be distracted, leaving him hanging. Rather than being upset at her reaction, Ji-hoo finds it telling.

He admits that the guys may have been right in thinking that if not for Seo-hyun, his relationship with Jan-di might not have developed this way. It turns out Seo-hyun isn’t marrying her French fiancé after all, but still, “That doesn’t change anything. I think it’s time for me to let her go.” He thanks Jan-di: “Because of you, I could let go of my first love.”

By way of consolation, Jan-di tells him, “They say that there’s a kind of fate where people may break up multiple times, but they end up meeting again in the end. You’ll meet her again. Because… the two of you…”

Jan-di trails off just as Ji-hoo’s head lands on her shoulder — he’s fallen asleep. But that makes it easier for Jan-di to finish her thought honestly; relieved, she relaxes a bit and says, “Thanks to Seo-hyun unni, I think I’ll be able to let go of my first love, too.”

While Ji-hoo sleeps, Jan-di leaves the house, turning back to murmur, “Goodbye, Ji-hoo.” After she’s gone, Ji-hoo addresses his poster of Seo-hyun on the wall: “I may regret it, but I should let her go, shouldn’t I?”

Jun-pyo, however, misses seeing Jan-di leave, because he gives up just moments before she emerges from the house and drives off in disappointment. Assuming the date is going swimmingly, Jun-pyo is therefore in a dark mood when he, Yi-jung, and Woo-bin get the same text message from Ji-hoo, suggesting a friendly game of ice hockey.

(I think this drama has decided to give us as many different uniforms and costumes as humanly possible. What’s next, folks? Scuba gear, circus acts, floofy tutus? Bring it on! I say this drama isn’t complete until I’ve seen all these boys cross-dressing at some point.)

When F4 is gathered on the rink, Jun-pyo says in a challenging tone, “Thought this was date night for you. Why’d you call us out?”

Coolly, Ji-hoo answers that he’d planned on a nice date night, but things got boring: “I don’t care for easy girls.” Jun-pyo’s hackles raise at this insult toward Jan-di and the other two warn Ji-hoo to cut it out, but Ji-hoo continues carelessly, painting Jan-di as eager and clinging. Because of Seo-hyun, he’d almost been tempted to take her up on the offer — “But she wasn’t good for anything other than passing the time.”

This, my friends, is what we call a death wish. Having deliberately pushed Jun-pyo’s buttons, Ji-hoo takes to the ice and the four begin their “game,” only it’s not really much of a game so much as it is Ji-hoo taunting Jun-pyo with the puck. Hampered by his anger and a singular goal to body-check Ji-hoo at every opportunity, Jun-pyo’s fury trips him up (literally) and Ji-hoo out-skates him. When he finally does slam into Ji-hoo, Jun-pyo flings off his helmet and starts pounding him.

(Btw, who else finds it hilariously inappropriate whenever they use the song “Paradise” in entirely un-paradise-like conditions? Like, say, to score a bloody fight on an ice rink?)

Ji-hoo points out, “She doesn’t matter to you now.” Jun-pyo: “She does! Even if she doesn’t, it matters!”

Woo-bin and Yi-jung hold Jun-pyo back as he bites out, “If you hurt Jan-di, I’ll kill you!” Ji-hoo sighs, “You should have just said that from the start.”

At that, the guys all stare. Ji-hoo continues, “See? You can’t give her up. You should’ve been honest so I didn’t have to do all this.” Far from appeased, Jun-pyo glares at him, calls him a crazy bastard, and storms off.

On the other hand, the other two are somewhat relieved that Ji-hoo isn’t entirely crazy and/or a horrible friend, although they do think he used rather extreme methods. Woo-bin wonders why he hadn’t said anything before, and Ji-hoo replies, “He owed me a debt. That punk broke my robot.” You just don’t get between a boy and his toys.

That night, Jan-di is lost in thoughts of Jun-pyo when she gets a call from his phone. In an effort to (over)compensate for nerves, Jan-di is about to launch into their customary bickering, but stops short to hear Yi-jung on the line.

Jan-di rushes to the hospital, so frazzled she’s wearing mismatched shoes, panicked about Yi-jung’s news. Arriving at a private hospital room bearing Jun-pyo’s name, Jan-di starts to tear up. Preparing herself for the sight, she enters, and Yi-jung greets her with a solemn look.

Woo-bin sits bedside by an unconscious Jun-pyo, begging him to wake up. Ji-hoo’s there as well.

Making her way to his bedside, Jan-di holds Jun-pyo’s hand and cries, cautiously at first, then growing in intensity:

Jan-di: “Wake up. Why won’t you wake up? I have so much to say to you, to fight with you about, to explain to you. What’s wrong?”

They explain that Jun-pyo had been depressed all day. The accident occurred after he rushed out saying he had to apologize to Jan-di. Starting to sob in earnest, Jan-di pleads:

Jan-di: “I’m the one who should apologize. Gu Jun-pyo, I wronged you. I lied to you. When you left after asking me to say those words, I regretted it. Gu Jun-pyo, wake up! Now I think I can tell you those words you wanted to hear, but how can I when you’re like this? Wake up!”

Happy to oblige, he does. His eyes pop open and he asks, grinning, “For real?”

As I am sure many of you guessed ahead of time (I was HOWLING with laughter throughout this scene), this was an elaborate ruse to get Jan-di to admit her feelings. Ji-hoo apologizes for his part, but they’re both so stubborn that extreme measures were required.

Jan-di blinks in bewilderment as the guys marvel at Jan-di’s proof of devotion. Jun-pyo leans toward her eagerly, wanting to hear her make good on her promise: “Say those words you just promised you’d say.” Jun-pyo thoroughly enjoys the moment, and Jan-di beats him up in retaliation.

I think if Jan-di had been seriously upset with them for manipulating her, I would have been behind her in thinking this was kinda mean. But she seems to take it well, after the initial surprise. At least, she doesn’t protest his attentions anymore.

Case in point: Jun-pyo takes her away for their own date day. First, he teaches her how to play golf (she is not good). (Also, can I say: I understand the desire to dress the lead actress in cute outfits without contradicting her poor character, but I would prefer they stop with the whole rich-guy-buys-his-girl-clothing thing. It seems proprietary.)

Then, he takes her out to eat some really awesome-looking sashimi, appreciating the sight of Jan-di stuffing herself silly. When dinner is over, Jan-di gazes longingly at the huge spread still left uneaten.

Feeling it would be a waste to leave all that behind, as they’re leaving, Jan-di tells Jun-pyo to go on ahead, then sneaks back inside to get the rest wrapped to go.

On her way out, Jan-di bumps into someone, who turns out to be part of a group date including the Three Musketeerettes (Amigas? Furies? Witches of Eastwick?). Jan-di’s boxed leftovers spill out onto the ground, and seeing that she’s alone, the girls waste no time mocking her for taking people’s leftovers. They’re caught up in laughter when Jun-pyo enters, sees the food on the ground, and takes stock of the situation.

The guys are vaguely acquainted with him and josh him for his new (read: plebeian) taste in women. As with all Jan-di-related insults, this is precisely the wrong thing to say; Jun-pyo threatens, “Want to shut up nicely, or would you like to read the news tomorrow morning about your company going under?”

If only we could all wield such power over our enemies. The guy hurries to apologize to Jan-di, and Jun-pyo leads her away.

Next, they watch a movie in the car at Jun-pyo’s private drive-in theater, where the pressure of being alone starts getting to both of them. Neither can look at the other; Jan-di squirms in embarrassment, while Jun-pyo tries to muster up the courage to make the first move. Their internal monologues are pretty hilarious, particularly with the normally-so-authoritative Jun-pyo trying to psych himself up:

Jun-pyo: “Gu Jun-pyo. Now’s the moment. Turn to her.”
Jan-di: “No! Don’t look at me. Gu Jun-pyo, if you turn toward me, you’re so dead.”
Jun-pyo: “Damn, I can’t do it! I’ll just have some popcorn.”

Their hands accidentally meet as they both reach for popcorn, and Jun-pyo takes that as his signal to make his move. He leans in closer, their hearts start to race, Jan-di closes her eyes in anticipation…

…and then her phone rings. Immediately, Jun-pyo retreats and the moment is broken.

Turns out her family is calling to exult over the latest extravagance: When Jan-di arrives home that night, they’re eating a lavish spread just like the one she had for dinner, sent courtesy of Jun-pyo.

She gets a text message from Jun-pyo that night, which he has sent to offset her reaction to sending all the food: “I’m saying this in case you get mad again, but that wasn’t for you. So don’t eat any of it.” Funny how his grand gestures often get her riled up, but a little thing like this (which shows he’s getting to know her enough to predict her reaction) makes her smile.

On the other hand, now she’s completely embarrassed by the almost-kiss and doesn’t know how to act around Jun-pyo. When he calls, she fakes static noises and rattles off a litany of lame excuses before hanging up on him. Oh, young love. Silly, stupid, young love.

Ji-hoo finds her swimming at school, and wonders why she’s there when they’re on break. When she replies that swimming makes her feel better, he asks if something’s bothering her (which she avoids answering).

Ji-hoo takes a phone call from Jun-pyo, but when he assumes she’ll want to talk to him, Jan-di hurriedly motions for him not to mention her presence. Jun-pyo is on his way over, so Jan-di invents an excuse to rush off, leaving Ji-hoo puzzled at her behavior.

Thus she reacts with alarm to Jun-pyo’s unannounced arrival at home that night. Her family welcomes him enthusiastically, completely won over when Jun-pyo addresses her parents as “Father” and “Mother.”

She protests when Jun-pyo makes the rather unorthodox request that they put him up for the night, but she’s outnumbered: everyone else jumps to accommodate him.

It’s a little silly to show the five of them all settling in for the night in the same room, although I suppose they kind of explain it when Jan-di’s brother offers to share his room with Jun-pyo and his mother balks at that. (Perhaps they all want a piece of the Jun-pyo love? Can’t say I don’t understand.)

Although this is a far cry from Jun-pyo’s palatial estate — he laughs that his bathrooms are bigger than their bedroom — Jun-pyo is oddly enjoying himself.

While everyone else sleeps, he tells Jan-di, “I came without really planning anything, but this is a ton of fun.” He jokes about the sleeping arrangement, but muses, “Still, with everyone sleeping under the same blanket, doesn’t it seem like a family?”

In order to avoid continuing the conversation, Jan-di pretends to have fallen asleep — leaving Jun-pyo to fend for himself against her snoring, mumbling, crowding father and brother.

EPISODE 9 RECAP

The morning after, Jun-pyo rises to a large (by Geum family standards) spread, and Jan-di’s parents urge him to eat up. Mom takes particular care in attending to him, but to the fastidious Jun-pyo, it’s a bit hard to swallow (literally) when she uses her hands to tear up his meat before serving it to him. Commoner-style living has some unforeseen drawbacks.

What’s cute is that they call him “son-in-law,” and while it’s not that unusual to use the term with a daughter’s (serious) boyfriend, it’s a bit early for that. Still, cute.

Breakfast is an entirely different affair at Jun-pyo’s estate, where Mom (Madam Kang) joins Jun-hee for a rare meal together and wonders where Jun-pyo is. (”Do you know how rarely I have breakfast with you two?” Jun-hee: “Is that our fault?”)

Jun-hee covers for her brother, saying he’s still asleep, having been out late with his F4 friends last night. Madam Kang grumbles that he’s outgrown those childish friends, reminding her, “Even if the Shinhwa Group successor has friends, he doesn’t need them.” His position, after all, “requires him to be so cool-headed that he is capable of even cutting off his family.”

Mom heads to Jun-pyo’s room to fetch him personally, looking around in annoyance to see that he’s not there. The butler gulps nervously, hesitating when she demands to know his whereabouts.

At the Geum household, Jun-pyo watches in fascinated curiosity while Jan-di’s family prepares a massive batch of cabbage to be made into kimchi.

He stays on the sidelines at first, but seeing how much fun they’re having together, Jun-pyo soon joins in.

At school, Ji-hoo visits the empty pool, probably expecting to see Jan-di there and disappointed that she isn’t. With a rueful (?) expression, he remembers their boat ride together during their trip to New Caledonia. He floats a paper boat into the pool, then walks away with a sigh.

I think this scene is supposed to be… sad?

(It’s just that it’s so hard to read Ji-hoo’s face. An expressive actor can let you know how the character is feeling without words, but I find Ji-hoo always requires explanation to understand.)

Jun-pyo joins the Geum men at the public bath, and participates in that grand exercise of male bonding: scrubbing dead skin from each other’s backs.

(Having never had his back scrubbed before, Jun-pyo is particularly sensitive to the abrasive scrubbing rag. The expression on Lee Min-ho’s face cracks me up — even the veins in his chest are protruding.)

They emerge from the bath and beeline for some fish-cake skewers from a street vending cart, which Jun-pyo tastes for the first time. He likes them so much that soon, a mound of little skewers sits in front of him.

Reliving the moments of his family outing later makes Jun-pyo chuckle to himself. And just in case we’ve forgotten what happened a mere five minutes ago, a whole series of flashbacks fills us in on his memories.

Yi-jung and Woo-bin wonder what has him so happy, to which Jun-pyo asks whether they’ve ever made kimchi, or had their backs scrubbed at a public bath, or eaten fish sticks from a street cart. Loftily, he tsk-tsks that they’re missing out: “What do you know about life?”

Yi-jung quips, “I liked him better when he was messing up proverbs.”

Ji-hoo finds Jan-di after her swim, figuring that she must have a lot on her mind to be swimming so much. After the last time they met when she ran off to avoid Jun-pyo, he guesses that’s the issue. He notices her wet hair and gives her his hat, followed by a spot of advice: “Don’t avoid him. Someone once told me that avoidance is cowardly. Don’t avoid him, and give him a chance.”

Jan-di admits, “To be honest, being dragged along into Gu Jun-pyo’s world is uncomfortable.” Ji-hoo responds, “There’s no such thing as Jun-pyo’s world or Jan-di’s world. We’re in the same world right now. If Jun-pyo’s world is too much for you, go along at your pace.”

Because Jan-di has been feeling uncomfortable, she’s been keeping her distance, which drives Jun-pyo crazy. He’s determined to wait for her to make the first move, and paces in agitation. Woo-bin, ever the voice of reason, tells him to call her, but Yi-jung reminds him of the player’s code. Relationships require a certain give and take and it’s better if he waits.

Thus when Jan-di does finally call, Jun-pyo tries to calm his reaction before answering the phone. I admit, I cried tears of laughter at Jun-pyo’s abysmal attempt to play it cool. First, he feigns disinterest: “Geum Jan-di? Who’s that?”

The guys sigh that he’s overdoing it, so he corrects himself, saying, “Ah right, I remember now.” But in an effort to pretend he hasn’t noticed her absence, he assures her, “I’ve been SO busy, I haven’t been able to recall that you haven’t called in three days and thirteen hours.” Yi-jung grimaces, “It’s embarrassing calling him friend.”

Jan-di makes a suggestion which Jun-pyo finds disagreeable, and he balks, “Why would I want to go there?” and hangs up. And then crows to his buddies, “Did you see how I hung up first?” LOL.

Asked what he found so unpleasant, Jun-pyo answers that Jan-di had suggested a double date with her friend. (Yi-jung plays it off, but he says with some coolness, “Ga-eul? Good for her.”) Since Jun-pyo finds the double date distasteful, Yi-jung offers half-jokingly, “Want me to go instead?” (His reasoning being that it would be interesting to observe how common folk date.)

The next day, Jan-di tries to pretend she’s not disappointed that he turned down the invitation. When Jun-pyo makes his appearance, he pulls the old “I was just in the neighborhood” excuse and offers to stay as a favor to keep her from being a third wheel. Seriously, between the two of them, they’ve got enough pride to make a third person.

Ga-eul’s boyfriend, Su-pyo, makes a bad impression right off the bat, arriving a half-hour late and mocking Jun-pyo with what he probably thinks is good-natured charm. But his careless remarks come off rude and when he makes fun of Jun-pyo’s hair and tells him to call him hyung, the girls trade uneasy glances.

Sensing Jun-pyo’s aggravation, Jan-di says they can leave, but Jun-pyo grits his teeth and is committed to seeing this commoner date through to the end.

Things only get worse when the foursome go out to eat, and Su-pyo taunts Jun-pyo for his uneasiness at the food (it’s gopchang, or cow intestines). Goaded by Su-pyo’s patronizing remarks, Jun-pyo forces himself to eat with difficulty. He misstates another proverb in an attempt to warn Su-pyo to check himself (before he wrecks himself), but the mistake causes Su-pyo to laugh harder.

Things improve when the couples split up to skate on an outdoor rink. Jan-di admires the pretty lights, having never come to a place like this before, which she describes as fairy-tale-like.

Seeing Jan-di’s bare hands, Jun-pyo gives her one of his gloves, then tucks her uncovered hand into his pocket. Perhaps thinking of the display of lights, he suggests, “Let’s go someday.” She asks, “Where?” Jun-pyo: “Champs-Elysées.”

At Su-pyo’s suggestion, Jun-pyo reluctantly joins him to grab some hot drinks. As they head off together, Su-pyo answers a phone call while the girls chat.

Ga-eul apologizes for her boyfriend’s rudeness, but admits that she was touched to see Jun-pyo trying so hard to accommodate everyone. It was touching, really.

Wondering where the guys went, the girls look for their dates. They find them almost immediately: A crowd has gathered to watch Jun-pyo pummeling Ga-eul’s boyfriend.

Jan-di is appalled — she knows he was struggling to remain calm but beating up the guy is unforgivable — and grows angrier when he addresses Ga-eul: “If you’re going to date, pick a decent boyfriend.” Jan-di insists that he apologize, warning, “if you leave like this, we’re over.” Jun-pyo stalks off angrily.

In the following days, a dejected Ga-eul can’t get in touch with her boyfriend despite leaving numerous messages. Jan-di feels responsible for her unhappiness, deploring Jun-pyo’s rash temper. But Ga-eul reasons, “I don’t think Jun-pyo sunbae would do that without a reason.”

Vowing to extract an apology, Jan-di drops by the F4 hangout. The other guys, having heard none of the story from Jun-pyo, are alarmed at their chilly exchange, sensing that whatever happened was serious.

Jan-di: “Please tell him that this is my last warning. Thanks to his fists, my friend is crying. If he doesn’t apologize, we’re really over.”

Jun-pyo: “Why would I apologize when she can’t be thankful that I got rid of that trash for her?”

At his unpenitent response, Jan-di retorts that this attitude is typical of him — it was clearly beyond him to adjust to suit someone else. But now Ga-eul has to suffer for his actions. She shocks the others with the severity of her words when she says, “Don’t act like you know me anymore.”

The next time Ji-hoo finds Jan-di at the pool, she’s on the verge of a cold from all the swimming (and walking around with wet hair). Jan-di cautions, “If this is about Gu Jun-pyo, I’m not going to talk,” then proceeds to complain all about him. Because this involves her friend, “This time, I really can’t forgive him.”

Ji-hoo hands her some cold medicine — he’d anticipated that she would need it — and leaves her with one last bit of advice:

“Guys don’t do things for no reason in front of the girl they like. There’s always a reason. I’m speaking from experience, so you can trust me.”

Su-pyo continues to ignore Ga-eul’s calls, so Jan-di proposes seeking him out rather than waiting for him to call. Arriving near the club where he works, they spot him walking with a pretty, older girl. From a distance, the girls overhear as he complains about his ridiculous double-date fiasco.

Su-pyo makes himself out to be the martyr, then proceeds to trash both Ga-eul and Jan-di, calling them unfashionable and dumpy. He’d suggested to Jun-pyo that they ditch the girls and offered to introduce him to some club babes — which is when Jun-pyo had attacked, saying, “If you call my girlfriend names, you won’t be able to eat gopchang anymore with that mouth!”

At that point, Su-pyo glances over and notices the girls. Jan-di asks, “Is that true?” Ga-eul is hurt at Su-pyo’s dismissal — he tells her to stop bugging him, like some kind of stalker — which enrages Jan-di.

With a howl, Jan-di hops a fence, leaps at Su-pyo, and delivers her trademark spinning back kick to his face. Stomping on his chest, she yells, “One was for Ga-eul, and one was for my boyfriend!”

(Honestly, she and Jun-pyo really are two of a kind, aren’t they?)

Afterward, Ga-eul attempts to look on the bright side: “I’m glad. At least we found out that Jun-pyo sunbae isn’t a bad person.”

Though in a glum mood, Ga-eul urges Jan-di to apologize and make up with Jun-pyo, assuring her friend she’ll be fine on her own.

And now, Yi-jung gets his own storyline! He receives a hysterical call from a woman threatening suicide because of his father — who is also a ceramic artist and professor, who takes advantage of his position to have numerous affairs, presumably with his students. Yi-jung witnesses his father romancing yet another woman, and turns away in disgust.

In the lobby, he intercepts the woman as she’s leaving, attracting her attention by speaking flirtatiously. But then his voice hardens and he tells her she’s just one in a string of his father’s girlfriends — she’s too beautiful for that kind of treatment.

We can see where he gets his playboy tendencies, although I suppose Yi-jung isn’t so far gone as his father, because he still has a conscience.

Afterward, Yi-jung happens to be driving by as a depressed Ga-eul trudges along the busy sidewalk, then sits on the ground and starts to cry. Yi-jung tries to ignore her, then decides somewhat unenthusiastically to approach.

He teases Ga-eul for crying on the street, telling her, “Sometimes girls think they look pretty when they cry, but they’re wrong.” Unfortunately, his words push her over the edge, and her soft cries turn into loud sobs. Hilariously, Yi-jung uneasily pleads with her to stop, while insisting to curious passers-by that he’s not the one who made her cry.

At F4 headquarters, Ji-hoo asks if Jun-pyo has made up with Jan-di yet. Not noticing Jan-di’s silent arrival behind him, Jun-pyo vows that he wouldn’t make up with Jan-di even if she begged and insists on his innocence in the matter.

Amused, Woo-bin addresses Jan-di: “I guess you’ll have to go home then.” Jun-pyo looks up, startled, to see her standing there with a contrite expression.

Jan-di says, “I didn’t know you were so angry. I was just thinking of myself. I’m sorry, I’ll go.” Jun-pyo leaps over the couch to stop her.

Working up her nerve, Jan-di says haltingly, “Gu Jun-pyo… accept my apology!” and holds out an apple. (The word for apology and apple are pronounced the same.) Jun-pyo’s obviously pleased, but he’s got his pride to think of, so he keeps a straight face. He wants three wishes before accepting her apology. Jan-di reluctantly relents — but he has to name his wishes within one minute. Go!

Jun-pyo sputters that that’s not fair, all the while Jan-di counts steadily. Flustered, he instructs her to sit, then stand — which Jan-di counts as two wishes. With five seconds left, Jun-pyo blurts out his wish — she has to apologize while calling him “oppa.” In a baby voice. (Akin to saying, “Oppa, I’m sowwy.”)

Cringing, she tries to muster the words… then exclaims, “I can’t! Take the apology or leave it!” Woo-bin says wisely, “You should have accepted the apology when she offered.” Ji-hoo takes a bite of the apology apple, which Jun-pyo grabs back possessively.

Yi-jung takes Ga-eul to his pottery studio for some tea and sympathy. He startles her by dropping a ceramic bowl to the ground, but instead of breaking, it remains intact. “It’s stronger than it looks,” he says. Using a pottery metaphor, he asks if she knows how long it took for the bowl to get so strong, and explains the process for shaping it, then baking it in fire. But if, at the end of all that, it still isn’t right, “You have to let it go, cleanly, like this.” With that, he takes the bowl, wraps it in a towel, and smashes it with a hammer.

Yi-jung: “What I mean is, there are things we have to go through in order to become stronger, and to find our true selves. Like what you went through today.” Ga-eul answers, “I think I know what you’re saying. Thank you.”

He suggests going out to have some fun, since he had a bad day too. After taking her out for a makeover — which is frankly a little ridiculous since she’s so pretty to begin with — Yi-jung takes Ga-eul to a club.

But it seems Yi-jung has something more up his sleeve than mere flirtation, because her ex-boyfriend Su-pyo is there (which suggests this is the club where he works).

Yi-jung leaves Ga-eul by the bar and heads to the front of the club, where he makes a splash with a grand entrance. Even Su-pyo’s new girlfriend is impressed, recognizing Yi-jung. Thus she’s flattered when he addresses her, and asks if he can take the liberty of performing.

And then he busts out the saxophone.

It’s not often that I find an Yi-jung scene unwatchable, and yet here we are for the second time. Yi-jung makes the ladies’ hearts flutter by announcing, “There’s a person here who’s stolen my heart. I’ll perform this on her behalf.”

(To Kim Bum’s credit, he delivers this admirably with nary a grimace or smirk.)

Jun-pyo calls Jan-di out, and she grumbles all the way, still chafing at his treatment of her apology. She walks past the darkened park, looking up in wonder when an extravagant display of lights suddenly flickers on.

Jun-pyo stands in the middle of the playground, which he’s decorated with yet more lights: This is his version of Champs-Elysées. He asks, “Do you like it?” Happily, Jan-di nods, “It’s pretty. It’s like Christmas.”

(Okay, I get that this is a romantic gesture. But PD Jeon, ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? He has used this exact same scenario not once, but TWICE in prior dramas. (Clicky here for comparisons.) Seriously, the man must be in a creative slump, or maybe he just can’t work without the Hong sisters. COME ON. Way to ruin a perfectly nice romantic moment. I guess we should be glad Jun-pyo didn’t present Jan-di with a random cake, apropos of nothing.)

But back to the scene: Jun-pyo wonders what’s so great about Christmas, and she responds that it’s a happy day. Jun-pyo answers, “I’ve never had a happy memory of it.”

A flashback shows us a lonely Little Jun-pyo, being entertained by maids and his butler, delivered impersonal gifts from his parents.

Jun-pyo asks about the kimchi he helped make, and says, “I’d like to eat some.” Also, he enjoyed her mother’s cooking and the vending-cart fish sticks her father bought him.

Jun-pyo: “You know, I didn’t know what family was, but looking at your family, I think I have an idea. Can I drop by again?”
Jan-di: “Did you ever ask permission before coming?”
Jun-pyo: “I’m not joking.”

Jun-pyo rises from his swing and kneels in front of Jan-di: “I want to go. I want to, every day.”

source :www.dramabeans.com

Hello World! finally i got my 2nd blog

oct 25, 2009 the second blog of jereca213

since this is my 2nd i blog.

the things that i would diffidently up to date here  is the korean movie or series that i’ve been watch or currently watching.
i hope there is someone will going to recommend me a good movie or series.

what type of movie or series i want?

i’ll prefer more to romantic comedy coz i can easily relate
i like most when it is about high school life or about GOD

Who is the male artist you want in the movie of series?

actually, i like those  artist who keep on smiling yet charismatic
like joo ji hoo, lee min hoo, bi rain and jang guen suk

Who is the female artist you want in the movie of series?

i’ve been watching there movies and series, they seem to cute of their role and i freakin love it
eun yoo hye, Koo Hye Sun,park shin hye and Song Hye Kyo