This drama just keeps getting better and better, the writing, the acting, the music – just everything! Each week, I wait for and kind of expect some drama cliché to work itself into the script and each week, I’m delighted that the writer has managed to avoid cliché stuff. I am literally on the edge of my seat with every episode. This drama is excellent, I highly recommend!
This week begins with Yoo Jung in the hospital and Min Hyuk sitting beside her bed, wiping the sweat from her face and telling her to wake up. It seems she was over-fatigued and not eating properly. When her eyes flutter open, he quickly shifts the tissue so she won’t see him. She falls back asleep and he leaves. In the car, he says to himself that he doesn’t want to see a woman die because of him and cutely snaps at his assistant, Gwang Soo (Choi Woong) that he doesn’t want a reply from him.
Do Hoon gets dressed while we hear his mother outside berating his father for being “too generous” to family. Do Hoon takes down photos of himself with Yoo Jung and hides them in a drawer. He storms out and asks his mother if he should marry a rich woman who will set him up since he doesn’t make much as a prosecutor? Mom gets all excited but Dad tells her to shut up and turns to Do Hoon to ask if he wants to do trashy work for rich people?
Do Hoon turns it back on his Dad, asking why he gave up? The dream his Dad couldn’t fulfill, he wanted to accomplish in his place. He then screams at his Dad: does he know what he’s done to keep that dream? That’s right, you loser – blame all the horrible decisions you’ve made on your parents. I can see it now, Do Hoon will never accept responsibility for anything he’s done.
Se Yeon asks Min Hyuk’s father to give her shares in a K-group hotel he’s selling. She wants to prove she has worth beyond just painting pretty pictures. As she leaves, she passes Min Hyuk. He mentions the hotel shares and she snarks that she should get something out of this “business” marriage. She tells him his obsession with that dead woman is just that: a meaningless obsession. Whoa.
She continues, does he think Ji Hee would be grateful if he brings that weak woman who killer her to her knees? He yells at her to stop and shoves her against the wall which seems to make her happy. She shoves a book against his chest, telling him to read about revenge and love. The book is Wuthering Heights. Yea, this chick needs to apply those words to herself. I’m fairly certain he told her she was his one and only friend but she’s refusing to hear that.
Yoo Jung leaves the hospital after being told some man took care of the bill. She goes to see her ex-enemy cell mate from prison, who looks happy to see her. Awww, I’m so glad this woman is helping her out. She goes to see Min Hyuk, who sees her and turn the other way. He then also sees Se Yeon and tries to hide from her too. (LMAO at Gwang Soo being dragged along)
Yoo Jung confronts him about her debt being transferred to him and wants to know why. Se Yeon walks up as Min Hyuk tells Yoo Jung he suffered a loss because of her and the bakery. Se Yeon tries to remind Min Hyuk about an appointment they have (after she looks at Yoo Jung like she’s a bug) but Yoo Jung steps in front of Min Hyuk again and tells him she will pay him back no matter what. She gives him her contact information, assuring him she won’t run away and asks about the bakery.
He coldly tells asks her if that bakery is a precious place to her? She answers yes and he tells her that’s the reason he bought it – so he can have it bulldozed. He crumbles up her contact information. Se Yeon steps in to confront Yoo Jung about coming to see Min Hyuk again. When Min Hyuk tells her it’s not her business, she angrily states she is the person who is about to marry him. LOL at Se Yeon trying to prove her own importance – get over yourself.
Se Yeon then proceeds to call Yoo Jung shameless and orders Gwang Soo to drag her out, immediately. Min Hyuk just watches as Yoo Jung repeatedly calls out to him. Se Yeon meets Do Hoon at a gallery and tells him she heard he quit his job. He sadly explains when he was working, he didn’t have time to see paintings. (Excuse me whilst I vomit) Oh, and the painting he’s drooling over just happens to be Se Yeon’s. I can’t even…
Yoo Jung sees her ex-cell mate Hye Jin, on the street (the one who was supposed to watch San) but loses her. She helps an ahjumma with her bike. As the cops show up, ahjumma disappears and it turns out she was passing out illegal fliers for an adult nightclub – Yoo Jung is blamed and taken to the police station. The cop recognizes her as the woman from the hit & run case and wonders when she got out. Does she have someone who can vouch for her?
Se Yeon invites Do Hoon to have drinks with her and then implies to her friends that she’s cheating on Min Hyuk with Do Hoon. She asks them to spread that rumor around. (You’re wasting your time) Over drinks, her friends drill Do Hoon and he talks about the first time he met Se Yeon. *more vomit coming up* Se Yeon seems surprised that he remembers everything in such detail.
Min Hyuk is also drinking with an old buddy and gets angry when the slime ball says if he doesn’t want Se Yeon, he’ll take her. Min Hyuk tells him not to lay a finger on his friend. See? There! He said it again – his friend. (LOL) He finds Yoo Jung’s crumpled up contact info in his pocket and starts to burn it but changes him mind and quickly blows it out – telling himself he needs to collect on the debt. Yeaaaa…rightttttt. He writes the name “Substitute Driver” and her number in his phone. *kekeke*
Do Hoon whines to Se Yeon about a woman he wanted to rescue but couldn’t because it was too late. *major barf coming up* He says Se Yeon reminds him of that woman but Se Yeon doesn’t like it that he sees her as someone who needs help. I don’t like either of you. Yoo Jung calls Do Hoon from the police station as the person who can vouch for her. He chews her out for not accepting his help. (What? What help?) He gives a business card for a company that helps ex-cons and tells her since she’s the one who broke up, not to call him again. *explodes in fury*
Min Hyuk calls Yoo Jung, he’s drunk. He continues to call her “Substitute driver” and wants her to drive him home. She tells him her license got cancelled so he then wants to know why she came? They fight over the keys until he falls forward onto her shoulder, she then falls on top of him into the car. She calls another driver and takes him to her home. In the car, he keeps falling on her shoulder and finally just lays down on her lap.
When he wakes up, he’s shirtless and doesn’t know where he is. (LMAO) She reminds him he was drunk and didn’t answer when she asked where he lived. He grabs his shirt off a drying rack and puts it on then proceeds to stuff his face with the food she cooked. She shows him a contract she made to pay her debt but he suddenly looks at her like he’s about to throw up…and asks for water. She pours him water but laughs when he grabs the bottle. He tells her not to laugh in front of him. OMG, this reminds me of the scene with Ji Hee. Very sad but also kind of cute?
He grabs the contract and leaves, stopping on the street to tuck his shirt in. She catches up to him and it totally looks like he’s about to pee outside. Ahahaha. She holds out his wallet which he angrily snatches out of her hand. He tells her he’s taking this off her debt.
Do Hoon goes to see Min Hyuk’s father, Chairman Jo (Lee Deok-Hwa) to ask for another chance at the job they offered him before. The Chairman’s assistant walks him out and warns him that he can only be a trained dog – he should never hope for a higher position than Min Hyuk’s. He also lets Do Hoon know he doesn’t trust him at all. Min Hyuk overhears all of this and smiles. Hmmm…
During a company meeting, Min Hyuk is playing with his phone until Se Yeon glares at him. He puts his phone down but it calls Yoo Jung. Her voice rings out over the speakers (LOL) and Min Hyuk quickly fumbles to hang up. He joins Se Yeon and Do Hoon to “celebrate” Do Hoon’s new job. Do Hoon then proceeds to lecture Min Hyuk about the way he treats Se Yeon. What the…are you kidding? *sputters some more* I’m shocked at the nerve of this ass.
Min Hyuk goes to see Yoo Jung and tells her to ask her boyfriend for the money. When she doesn’t answer, he asks if she got dumped? Of course she did, what man would want an ex-con who’s also in debt. She snaps at him, explaining her boyfriend is not that kind of person. Her boyfriend even took her to the hospital and paid the bill. Min Hyuk doesn’t correct her.
Do Hoon tries to make me more disgusted with him by presenting himself as the perfect son, giving his parents money to open a store. Min Hyuk’s step-mother and sister go shopping and mom offers to buy her spoiled daughter the bag she wants. She calls in the ex-con roommates who are now selling knock-off name brands. Yoo Joon goes with them and step-mom recognizes her as the woman who stole the ring. As she’s telling Yoo Joon off, Min Hyuk arrives.
Step-mom calls Yoo Jung a gold-digger and snaps at Min Hyuk as he grabs Yoo Jung’s hand, asking what he’s doing? He tells her she only looked at his Dad’s money and waited for his mom to die so she has no right to say such things. *fist pump and a tiny squeal* As he drags Yoo Jung out, Do Hoon shows up. He tells Do Hoon he can’t meet with him and (waving his hand tightly clasped around Yoo Jung’s hand) says he has things to discuss with her. *hee*
Do Hoon watches them walk out holding hands. Min Hyuk asks if she knows Attorney Ahn? He tells her Do Hoon is no longer a prosecutor, he’s now working for K-group – did she know that? He tells her he is friends with Do Hoon. As she leaves, Do Hoon is waiting outside and pulls her away. He asks if she knows who that man is? She does. He LIES that working at K-group wasn’t all his doing, implying that Min Hyuk is blackmailing him or something because of HER?
She mentions her debt but Do Hoon tells he they already paid their debt. Wait, I must have missed him suffering for 4 years. He tells her to stay away from Min Hyuk. Yoo Jung sees Hye Jin in the street again (the ex-con who possibly beat up San) and chases her down. She smacks her over and over but finally collapses, saying San is dead. Hye Jin is shocked – she confesses she was asked to make sure Yoo Jung didn’t pass parole, that’s all. Yoo Jung remembers back to everything Min Hyuk said to her about losing the most precious people.
At home, Do Hoon gets a box with a picture of himself and Yoo Jung inside. Yoo Jung arrives home to see Min Hyuk outside. He asks where she’s been and who she met? She replies that she knows she owes him but that doesn’t mean she has to inform him of every little thing in her life. Do Hoon rushes to the police station to ask if there were any other eye-witness’ that night. He learns Min Hyuk also showed up asking questions and throws a little tantrum outside.
He bribes an ex-coworker to let him look through the official records in the prosecutor’s office. He looks through all the traffic videos from that night. Just as he’s about to leave, another ex-co-worker comes in. He pretends he was waiting to see this guy to trade information so the prosecutors would back off K-group. After he leaves, the other guy notices the computer Do Hoon was on.
When Do Hoon arrives at his new office the next morning, Min Hyuk is sitting in his chair. *snicker* He tells Min Hyuk he doesn’t have time to talk but Min Hyuk asks if he liked his gift? AHAHAHA! So Do Hoon knows Min Hyuk sent the photo and knows about his relationship with Yoo Jung. Min Hyuk warns him to stay away from Se Yeon – men who can’t take care of their own woman always covet other women. (You can see a twitch on Do Hoon’s face when he hears this)
Se Yeon and Min Hyuk arrive for a meeting just as Yoo Jung drops something off at the front desk for Min Hyuk. He walks back to the front desk (does he have YJ radar?) and discovers she left him all her earnings from prison plus all the condolence money from her father’s funeral. He chases after her, yelling “Substitute driver!” but she hides from him. Se Yeon watches him from a window.
Yoo Jung ignores Min Hyuk’s calls at home but finally relents and picks up. He tells her to come to his hotel tomorrow but she insists she has something very important to do and can’t, hanging up on him. He yells at Gwang Soo to find out what Yoo Jung’s schedule is for tomorrow. (Poor Gwang Soo) He watches her the next day as she tries to sell fish at Ji Hee’s mother’s shop and discovers she’s been to visit Ji Hee’s mom several times since being released from prison. Awww… he then flicks Gwang Soo on the forehead for not telling him sooner. Ahahaha.
You can totally see Ji Hee’s mother is softening towards her too, she cuts up some fish and tells her to take it. I teared up a lot watching this scene, it’s really touching. I think he followed her home – he arrives at the place she shares with the ex-con and they offer him some of the fish stew she made. He just stares at Yoo Jung while she stares right back at him. (I can’t get over the way he stares at her sometimes!) The other women offer him a bite, which he accepts. (LOL)
She leaves, he follows her to ask how could she sell fish if she hates the smell? He calls her shameless, how could she think to go there? She looks at the jar of sand that represents San to her and asks if he knew she had a child? She goes on to say her child was taken from her in prison and while he was dying, she couldn’t even see him. It hurt very much losing her child after only a few months with him so how would Ji Hee’s mom hurt? *sniff* I’m tearing up again.
She tells him the money she owes is too much but he coldly says then she shouldn’t have owed money to begin with. He then walks away and stomps on some trash on the street. (LOL) He grabs Gwang Soo and asks why it hurts even more when he sees her? Maybe because in his heart, he’s learning there is no way this warm, caring lovely woman would have left someone in the road to die.
Do Hoon goes through all the video files at the offices of K-group. He finds a video showing himself when he got out of the white car to check the wiper blades that night and deletes the file. Grrrrrr. I’m praying they have back-up files or surveillance video that will show him deleting it! He runs into Min Hyuk in the parking garage and they snark at each other some more.
Min Hyuk implies to Do Hoon that he knows everything while Do Hoon (who must be feeling cocky) implies Min Hyuk is nothing without his father. He, Do Hoon had to work hard and crawl his way to this position but Min Hyuk got to his position because of …(and he laughs) marriage? Is that why he’s using Se Yeon? He tells Min Hyuk not to do that to a friend. I can’t wait to see this bug squashed.
Do Hoon goes to Se Yeon’s to get information about some paintings that Chairman Jo is buying. (Uh huh) He says if anything happens with these painting deals, he wont’ let her be hurt no matter what. UGH, he is such a worm! He falls asleep and Se Yeon covers him up. He wakes up and grabs her hand. UGH! *throws stuff* She pulls her hand away and leaves.
At Do Hoon’s parents restaurant, they get all excited to see Do Hoon on TV, holding a press conference to announce K-group is clean in its dealings with Shin La Gallery. His Dad overhears customers talking about Do Hoon being good at lying and working for rich jerks. Yoo Jung sees the same press conference. She meets her ex-con friends at TGIF (LOL) and gets hired to work there. Min Hyuk gets a text announcing she’s deposited more money into his account. We see she’s made several small deposits – $160, $144, $184 – which is heartbreaking.
The next day, Min Hyuk meets with a prosecutor who brings the case files from the hit & run. He asks if they’re sure the assailant left after seeing Ji Hee’s body? The guy confirms there were footprints around the body so yes, but they can’t confirm those footprints were Yoo Jung’s. However, she admitted guilt so case closed as far as they’re concerned. YES – Min Hyuk! Follow the evidence! Jehbahl! He learns Do Hoon came to look over the files.
Do Hoon meets with Chairman Jo and tells him the most dangerous thing to K-group is Min Hyuk, the board of directors are less than happy with Min Hyuk. (Yea, go ahead and badmouth Min Hyuk – you slime ball) He talks about how wonderful Se Yeon’s contributions are and tries to flatter the Chairman. The Chairman tells him to talk some sense into Min Hyuk. Ha, this should be good.
Do Hoon is taken to wait for Min Hyuk in his office and he snoops through a file on the desk. He sees photos of Yoo Jung with San in prison and of himself with Yoo Jung. The camera pans and we see Min Hyuk standing there watching him. HA! Do Hoon starts asking questions about K-group and Min Hyuk says that why he hired him – to handle all those things. Min Hyuk asks who he is to lecture him? (I’m dying laughing here) Do Hoon warns him not to treat Yoo Jung carelessly. Min Hyuk asks what bothered him so much about the hit & run that he reviewed all the records again? A look of total fear crosses Do Hoon’s face before he leaves.
Min Hyuk orders Gwang Soo to look into the accident again. He visits Yoo Jung at her job and demands to know if she really saw Ji Hee’s body and left? She LIES that she did and asks hasn’t he punished her enough now? He angrily drags her to a shop and throws a dress at her. In the dressing room, the attendants scream when they see the scar on her shoulder. Min Hyuk opens the curtains, sees the scar and picks out a different dress that will cover it.
Min Hyuk arrives at the party (which is at TGIF – LMAO!) with Yoo Jung. A friend of his asks Se Yeon if they’re changing partners since she’s with Do Hoon and Min Hyuk arrived with Yoo Jung? Se Yeon and Do Hoon both stare in shock. Do Hoon tells the guy she’s just some girl who will do anything for Min Hyuk to repay her debt. *another burst of fury*
Min Hyuk watches Do Hoon’s reaction closely but then sees Se Yeon. (He didn’t expect to see her there?) It’s clear Se Yeon is hurt, Min Hyuk follows her while Do Hoon grabs Yoo Jung. Se Yeon slaps Min Hyuk. But wait, didn’t she come with Do Hoon? Do Hoon asks Yoo Jung what she’s doing, if Min Hyuk asked her to sell her body, would she? (Slap him!) She runs into Min Hyuk’s friend as she’s leaving who asks her how much money she charges. She slaps him away as he tries to get close which angers him so he attacks her, pulling at her dress which exposes her shoulder. She falls.
Min Hyuk throws his jacket over her shoulder (he’s the MAN) as the other guy throws money at her, calling her cheap. Min Hyuk says she does do everything she’s told to do but only for him. He then proceeds to beat the crap outta the guy. Do Hoon looks at Yoo Jung on the floor and with tears steaming down his face, starts to laugh. Min Hyuk is pulled off of the guy, who makes threats as he leaves. Right then Gwang Soo calls Min Hyuk to let him know Do Hoon proposed to Yoo Jung and they were together the day of Ji Hee’s accident.
An emergency meeting of the board of K-group takes place to discuss Min Hyuk’s dismissal. Se Yeon shows up since she now has enough shares to attend the meeting. Chairman Jo finds out and immediately calls all the board members but they don’t answer. She votes yay to fire Min Hyuk.
Do Hoon tries to take Yoo Jung out but stops when Min Hyuk comes back in the room. Yoo Jung quickly pulls her hand away from Do Hoon – is she still trying to protect him? ARRGGG! She starts backing away from Min Hyuk, who walks right past Do Hoon and grabs her by the shoulder. He yells at her asking what the hell she did?
Thoughts:
OH MY GOD, this drama is fascinating! I’m completely blown away by how each episode builds onto the next but manages to keep the tension extremely high and keep me guessing about what’s really going on. The acting is stellar, Bae Soo Bin is amazing. They’re all doing a brilliant job, they all have chemistry – the tension between Do Hoon and Min Hyuk is palatable in every single scene.
So Min Hyuk now knows Yoo Jung was with Do Hoon when the accident occurred. And Do Hoon probably knows that he knows, which scares me since I think it puts Yoo Jung in more danger. Min Hyuk has been dragging Yoo Jung around a lot of people she could be in danger from – his family, his co-workers, Se Yeon and Do Hoon. I’m more worried for her than ever before.
I knew Se Yeon was jealous but didn’t realize she’s also extremely vindictive. I’m not calling her a beotch yet because I don’t know what her plan is. I know she’s trying to force Min Hyuk to love her but is she now going to use money to control him? She knows the only reason he returned to his father’s side was because of money so maybe she thinks that’s the key.
I’m thankful Yoo Jung does have a few friends on her side but since they’re all ex-cons, I’m not positive they can be much help. And we still don’t have any concrete information about what happened to San. From the words Hye Jin used, it could easily have been Do Hoon who planned that whole thing to make sure Yoo Jung was denied parole.
I’m completely absorbed. And no preview! Thump on the head to PD Nim.