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Nice Guy: Episode 7

Huge game changers this episode, delivering new thrills and chills to the warped love story and the equally warped family story. Eun-ki and Jae-hee reach some pretty pivotal turning points in their relationship with Maru, and while one decides to make his fifth vertebrae into his sixth, the other decides to lay it all out on the line and hope for the best. I’m sure you can guess who does what.

The love for Nice Guy just keeps growing, and deservedly so. Ratings shot up over a point from last week, landing us at 17.3%.

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Vast – “Flames” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 7 RECAP

We jump back a bit to see Jae-hee get that frightening call from her brother, as well as Maru’s reaction to finding out. Of course, Jae-gil tells him not to get involved, yet in the same breath says: “It looked like he was going to kill Jae-hee Noona if he got his hands on her.”

Sure, Jae-gil. That’s just the thing to say to get Maru to stay out of it.

He blames Choco for opening her mouth, but she passes it off as being a heat of the moment thing, since she was only thinking about how Jae-gil got hurt. Jae-gil takes this opportunity to sit her down and discuss her feelings for him – and how, if she keeps it up, he’ll have to shave his head and join a monastery. Ha.

She acts surprisingly mature considering it’s, well, her, and tells Jae-gil that she’s fine settling for a one-way love and that she won’t burden him with it.

When she’s gone, Jae-gil sighs, “Why am I so handsome?” Haha.

After seeing the disaster Jae-hee’s brother Jae-sik made of his house, Maru takes Jae-gil’s phone to call his own. Jae-sik picks up, and Maru agrees to tell him where Jae-hee is when they meet.

Now we’re back where we left off last episode, with Eun-ki seeing a photo of Maru and Jae-hee together. Secretary Jo was responsible for planting the photo, but a text reveals that this was all orchestrated by Min-young, even though the endgame isn’t clear. It doesn’t seem like Jae-hee was in on it, either.

Speaking of, Jae-hee looks distant and worried as she sits through an interview about her upcoming wedding.

Maru ends up seeing Eun-ki on his way out, and she hides the photo and swallows down her emotions to maintain a calm facade. She’s barely responsive as he tells her he’s got someone to meet, but he stops himself from heading off to check on her, noting that she doesn’t look good.

Eun-ki’s eyes are strangely unfocused as Maru checks her forehead for a fever, and his gentle touch reminds her of the first time all three of them (Jae-hee, Maru, and herself) had been in a room. And how he’d lied about only knowing Jae-hee from her television days.

Now, in the present, Eun-ki stares back at him with a fierce look. You just know she’s weighing every interaction in her mind to figure out exactly how much he’s lied to her. The worst part of it is, even if she counted up every lie she knew of, that’d just be the tip of the iceberg o’ betrayal.

Maru has no idea what’s going on, and just thinks she’s sick from her drinking extravaganza. Now Jae-hee’s words from the spa, “You’ll be the one to get hurt!” come crashing down on her.

She musters up the strength to wish him off, and even adds, “Come back quickly.”

However, the second he’s out of sight, Eun-ki’s knees go weak. She stares at the photo and takes it all in, her mind reeling to connect the dots, until she remembers Joon-ha’s envelope and all but tears it open. Inside is the indictment she’d filed against Maru when the whole blackmail debacle happened, only now realizing that they’re the same person.

Back in the only coffee shop in all of Seoul, Joon-ha tells Eun-ki what he knows: Maru was the one who saved her in the airplane, he and Jae-hee go back nineteen years, and that the money Jae-hee gave him was meant to keep him quiet about their relationship.

Joon-ha: “In any case, that friend, Kang Maru, approached you with an ulterior motive.” Eun-ki listens as she keeps adding more and more sugar to her coffee. (Anyone remember this same thing happening in A Love To Kill?)

Maru meets with Jae-sik at a bar, and lies to him that Jae-hee died six years ago. Jae-sik’s not buying it since he got her number off Maru’s cell, but there’s a more interesting turn when he talks about Maru’s supposed murder before he adds, “Jae-hee killed him, right? Jae-hee killed him and you took the blame, right?”

They go way back, and Jae-sik knows Maru well enough to make that assumption. “I don’t know about Jae-hee, though.” When her own brother says that… well, it says a lot.

Joon-ha tells Eun-ki about Maru’s murder charge and sentence, citing that as the reason why he was kicked out of medical school. Eun-ki then asks “What else?”, as though she’s not impressed or frightened yet.

Joon-ha blinks at her, before stressing that Maru and Jae-hee have been close for a long time (Eun-ki: “You said that before.”), and that Maru approached Eun-ki with ulterior motives. Eun-ki: “Are you dense? You already said that too.”

He tries getting through to her, but she continues to shrug him off. Maru’s list of crimes is nothing special to her. (Or so she tries to convince herself.) When he suggests legal action, Eun-ki turns on him fast, “Don’t you touch him. Don’t you dare touch a single hair on his body.”

So while Eun-ki protects Maru, Maru protects Jae-hee against the threat of her brother. We know by this point that first impressions are deceiving; Jae-sik is no model citizen, but he claims to be on Maru’s side against his self-described satanic sister.

Jae-sik: “I will take revenge for you. She’s a terrible girl who used you. I can’t explain everything to you, but there is no comparing me with that bitch.” He claims that he’ll take care of Maru’s revenge, his mom’s revenge, and his own revenge against Jae-hee.

This sets Maru off, and he kicks Jae-sik down before pouncing on him, shoving his face into the seat cushion as he grates out, “Don’t you even lurk anywhere near Jae-hee. If you do, I’ll kill you with my bare hands!” He makes sure to drive the point home that he did kill someone before, and he can do it again.

Joon-ha asks Chairman Seo to reinstate Eun-ki now that she did as he asked and blocked the strike.

When Chairman Seo protests against honoring the deal, Joon-ha smartly uses his resignation as a bargaining chip. However, their conversation takes an even darker when Joon-ha tells him that if he doesn’t get Eun-ki back now, she may never return, especially since she may have found something more important outside of her Dad’s cutthroat world.

Dad asks for some clarification, so Joon-ha spells it out, meaning every word: “Chairman, it seems Eun-ki has gone crazy.”

Meanwhile, Eun-ki meanders through Maru’s neighborhood and thinks of their first serious talk in the car, when he’d asked her what she would do if he wanted her to give him something much more valuable than a watch. Now she understands the deeper meaning to those words.

Jae-hee musters up the courage to give Maru a call, and thinks he’s behind her brother’s sudden reappearance in her life. “How far will you go? You and I, how far are we going to go? Let’s go till the end.” He doesn’t correct her.

She finds Chairman Seo unwell and knocking back some serious pills, but agrees when he orders her to bring Eun-ki back. He hands over Maru’s name and address, and wonders why Jae-hee hasn’t taken care of him yet.

Money won’t work on Maru and she tells him as much, but before leaving, comes up with an idea. Chairman Seo knows some people in low places, ones that could beat the tar out of Maru.

But then she has the nerve to ask if there won’t be any bad consequences from using that kind of force. So, basically, she’s fine with breaking every bone in his body as long as he doesn’t die.

Eun-ki catches Maru on his way home, and takes him to a pretty vista overlooking Seoul for a drink. She knows, we know, he doesn’t know that she knows, but it’s still cute when he drinks some of her beer for her so she’ll drink less, considering her epic drinking contest from the night before.

She points out all the lights, and says that among those lights are Maru’s future wife and her future husband. She turns to him, cool as a cucumber, and says that he’ll have to send her an invitation when he gets married.

Ah, this is a breakup. It hits Maru at the same time, and Eun-ki notes his kicked puppy expression: “Could it be… you thought of me as a potential marriage partner?” And basically tells him that she was way out of his league from the start.

Here’s the Eun-ki from the first few episodes, but by now we know this tough facade is a tried and true defense mechanism. She explains herself as having decided to fall for him and see how long it lasted, but, “My feelings lasted longer than I expected. That’s a compliment.”

We see her vulnerability begin to peek through as she explains what she thinks (hopes) he’s feeling – enraged, maybe even struggling to accept the harsh reality of being without her.

That’s why it throws her for a loop and takes some serious wind out of her sails when Maru simply replies: “It’s not hard. I understand.” And the way she’s like, “You… understand?” just breaks my heart.

It’s even sadder when she wistfully says what a bother it would have been if he’d hung on to her, which reads to me as: Hang on to me, please.

But he doesn’t, and she stumbles home alone while she fights back tears. Maru is as unreadable as ever as he keeps drinking where she left him.

Eun-ki looks more than unwell, and we can literally hear the sound of her world crashing down as her vision begins to blur. Jae-hee slowly filters into view, having come to bring her back, but is promptly shocked when Eun-ki just faints on the spot.

Maru finally gathers himself up to go home, only to have a mysterious attacker brutally smash a piece of wood over his skull. Eeeek.

In an interesting turn, we see the end of Jae-hee’s conversation with Chairman Seo as she drives an unconscious Eun-ki home. At the mention of hiring thugs, Chairman Seo had actually said no. So Jae-hee orchestrated the attack all on her own.

Two thugs beat Maru until he’s bloody and wheezing, and hold the phone to his ear once he’s knocked down with Jae-hee on the line.

She coldly refers to him as “Mr. Kang,” and tells him that all he has to do is sign a few documents promising to never step near her “daughter” again, and in return, he’ll get a lavish estate in California and a speedy plane ticket.

Jae-hee mentions that Choco will be cared for too, however, “If you decline it this time, next time, your most loved one will get hurt.” Eun-ki stirs awake at different points during this conversation, but it’s not clear how much she actually hears.

Maru has no choice but to listen silently when he probably can’t feel his face, but oh man, if looks could kill. (And he’s only got one good eye at his disposal, too!)

Jae-gil leaves Maru a voicemail a short while later, having done as he asked by temporarily hiding Choco away with him at an island retreat. She doesn’t know anything about Maru getting beaten, and Jae-gil promises that he’ll take care of her until Maru’s well again.

Choco knows enough to be suspicious, but is too distracted by the thought of jumping Jae-gil’s bones to worry too much. He finds the thought hilarious, and reiterates the point that they’re not a man and a woman, but a brother and younger sister. Choco doesn’t help her case by throwing a childlike tantrum.

We find Eun-ki undergoing IV treatment at home and under Jae-hee’s care. Joon-ha comes for a visit with a tonic delivery, and I love how he is clearly not buying anything Jae-hee is selling and makes his dislike of her clear. (As if I needed any more reason to like him.)

He’s come at Chairman Seo’s call, and it looks like he’s just found the CCTV tape of Jae-hee kissing Min-young. Crap. Joon-ha cringes: “You knew about it?” Which isn’t the choice pick of words for Chairman Seo, who then grits out, “So you already knew about this? Why didn’t you say something? Are you in this together with them?”

Joon-ha says that he and Eun-ki thought the shock would be too much, and Dad’s even more upset to realize that everyone knew but him. Still, he warns Joon-ha against letting anyone know, even Eun-ki, that he knows.

With fire in his eyes, Chairman Seo tells Joon-ha to use every power under the law to bring Jae-hee and Min-young down. And when the law isn’t enough, he suggests doing anything and everything necessary, even framing the innocent, to make sure Jae-hee and Min-young rot in prison for thirty years.

Oh, it’s on. He finishes his calculating tirade by adding that only then can he die in peace, and will entrust Eun-ki to Joon-ha’s care once he’s gone.

As for Min-young, having a spy in Secretary Jo proves belatedly useful as he finds out that Chairman Seo already saw the damning tape, along with Joon-ha. He rages uselessly.

The neighborhood ajumma brings some soup to Maru’s house, but no one comes to the door. A pair of shoes at the entrance seems to indicate Maru is inside, though.

Eun-ki finally regains consciousness, and stares wistfully at a packet of medicine Maru gave her. Flash back to when he gave it to her at the end of their breakup conversation, where Eun-ki had been moved by the gesture and asked hopefully, “Is there more? Do you have anything else to say?”

Maru didn’t, and back in the present, Eun-ki crumples up his parting gift.
Choco is ready to head back to Seoul the next day, although her sneaking attempts are quickly foiled when she can’t help but edge closer to Jae-gil as he sleeps. He wakes up with a start, cue another round of bickering, only he has to physically hold Choco back under the lie that Maru is off gallivanting with a girl.

She knows that can’t be true when Maru leaves his phone on all the time in case she faints, and Jae-gil’s quick to point out that he’s always the one who runs to her in times like that anyway.

And that’s what she uses that to make her case: “See? You’re doing all these cool things for me. If I received some love from you and then you tell me not to love you, what am I supposed to do?” Jae-gil faux-comforts her by assuring her that he won’t run to her in the future even if she dies.

She gets her revenge by telling him she kissed him multiple times when she carried him home drunk. He gives her another hit on the head, but grows concerned about Maru and tries calling again. We only see the dark house and the same set of shoes outside.

Jae-hee stops Eun-ki from trying to go to work in her weakened state, explaining that her Dad has made it so that she can’t take one step outside.

Eun-ki isn’t fazed, and calls Jae-hee out on sending thugs to beat Maru: “You knew that I was listening.” Jae-hee shrugs as she owns up to it, but Eun-ki gets the last laugh when she adds that Maru didn’t give in. “I really chose my man very well.”

Jae-hee just leaves, and makes sure to lock Eun-ki inside her room. No amount of pushing or pulling gets her out.

A call from Jae-sik puts Jae-hee on edge, but her brother just commends her on raising a loyal dog like Maru. “He threatened to tear me apart if I came anywhere near you,” Jae-sik explains, which hits Jae-hee like a sucker punch to the ladyparts. After all, she had Maru beaten because she thought he was working with her brother, not because of Eun-ki.

So now she knows she’s done (even more) wrong, and barely listens as her brother asks to meet her like old times. She hangs up the phone, and he breaks his own in frustration.

Later that night, Eun-ki holds her Barbie as she remembers how Maru risked himself to save it, how he gave her strength when she fought for her mom’s resort, how he kissed her in Japan, and how he’d warned her to run away from him with all her might.

At the memory of that specific conversation, Eun-ki gathers her resolve and again tries to leave, but the door is locked. She notices that the outside guard is missing due to the storm, and rips off her curtains to use as a rope to make it down to ground level.

During this time, Jae-hee prepares a meal in to-go boxes while Chairman Seo is asleep, and my guess is that she’s planning to take them to Maru. Hah. What’s she gonna say? Sorry I had you beaten mercilessly over a misunderstanding, here’s some bulgogi?

Eun-ki drives to Maru’s neighborhood and starts the climb up shoeless, all while getting soaked to the bone. No one answers at his gate and she rails against it, calling his name.

Just when she’s about to give up, the gate creaks open, and Maru all but crawls out. His poor face is a disaster, and Eun-ki registers the shock in tears. What she says next is confessed with all the feeling in the world, and made somehow more meaningful (and eerie) by Maru just staring at her with his one wide-open eye.

Eun-ki: “That was my first kiss. The one that we had by Hirosaki Castle. From someone… it was also the first time I told someone ‘I love you’ with all my heart. It was the first time in my twenty-nine years of life. ‘I love you, Seo Eun-ki.’ I heard that kind of heart-thumping confession for the first time because of you. Because of the guy named Kang Maru, waking up, breathing, living… those things felt wondrous for the very first time.”

Maru inches up to her, and wipes her tears away with his thumb. (Yeah, it’s raining, just roll with it.) She continues:

“So… My only wish now is to be able to see you every day, to say ‘I love you’ every day, to hear you tell me you love me every day, to dream the same dream, to give birth to children, to raise them, and to grow old with you. Is that possible?”

And the way she stares at him, scared out of her mind now that she’s laid everything out, just makes her seem so vulnerable. So it’s like a sigh of relief when he finally wraps her up in his arms, but then his eyes focus on something over her shoulder – Jae-hee.

She’s standing with an umbrella and a disbelieving, and Maru just holds Eun-ki tighter, and sends her a silent warning in a glare: This is mine.

 
COMMENTS

Be still, my heart! I’ve tried to keep such a cool head about this show (even worrying for a while that my love for it was just at a clinical level), but Eun-ki going all in was the straw that broke the I-don’t-know-about-this-Maru-fellow’s back. I’m going down with this ship, even though it’ll probably sink way lower than I can imagine, and even with the pretty decent chance that everyone will end up unhappy, or dead. With this kind of drama, who knows where we’ll end up?

So far Maru’s been a pretty passive/reactive character, with the whole “I’m going to get my revenge on you sometime maybe somehow later” thing going on, and this episode wasn’t too different. I felt pity for him when he got beat up for something he didn’t do, even after being mildly miffed that he’s still ready to do anything it takes to protect Jae-hee. No surprise there, since living for Jae-hee is just who Maru is and what he does.

That seemed like a fact of life that just wasn’t going to change, but this episode marked the first time where I found myself hoping that it would. In short, I’m tentatively invested in Maru’s personal journey, now that there might be a tiny light at the end of the long angst tunnel. Most of that is based on what could be a completely misguided interpretation of that look he shot to Jae-hee at the end. That’s one thing Nice Guy has been pretty consistent at – giving us little moments to interpret how we will. I think that’s why it’s been so fun so far.

There’ve been some points raised about Eun-ki’s character being inconsistent from what we were presented with in the first few episodes, and while my opinion is always evolving, Eun-ki seems surprisingly well drawn-out to me, with very realistic (if not sometimes infuriating) character traits and serious flaws that make her human. This is hugely helped by a good writing hand and Moon Chae-won’s performance, since she’s able to make Eun-ki as vulnerable as she is strong.

No woman is tough twenty-four hours of the day, and I think it’s especially telling that Maru is her first true love. She’s got a good head on her shoulders but she’s still incredibly subject to her own impulses, which is a trait that Dad seems to want to squeeze right out of her. It is a flaw, both in personal business and business business, especially since her most recent bouts of problem solving have cost Dad money instead of making him any.

But to her credit, it doesn’t seem like Dad ever wanted her completely out of his reach, and could just be putting her through hell to toughen her up so she can take over once he’s dead. They certainly have a strange relationship, but the same can be said of pretty much every relationship as far as this drama is concerned.

As far as Eun-ki’s big confession, though, I’m just sold. She knows his past is shady, knows he’s not necessarily in this for her, and knows she might get hurt – but she’s in it to win it, and it’s in keeping with her character to just bare her soul to the only person who’s ever told her he loves her. It leaves her extra vulnerable and ripe for Maru’s machinations, and if nothing else I hope he realizes that Eun-ki is not the type of girl to let this all fade like some terrible nightmare.

So congratulations to Maru, since he now has a female version of himself who’ll probably go to the same ends of the earth he did for love. My only hope is that he doesn’t become to Eun-ki what Jae-hee became to him.

 
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Yay... It's here. Thank you Heads.

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I was crying with you Eun Ki during your confession. That took a lot of courage and strength. Oh my! You really fell hard for Maru.
There will be more pain Eun Ki (as we are only episode 7) but be brave. There might be hope for Maru... I really hope.

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I second this! Have courage, Eun Ki, you beautiful person!

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Yea it was a beautiful confession!

Question: Didn't Eun Gi have a first love before? The guy who she took the fall for, for drug possession?

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That or she fantasizes memories and calls up random people from her past to freak them out.

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yeah, but she never told him that she loved him :)

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She also never kissed him? That does seem odd.

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Yes she did , when she called him on the phone she told him that she didn't take the drug charge for money or to save her fathers company she did it because she loved him.

I'm guessing since she is so in love with Maru that she realizes what she felt then was nothing.

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@Annie-
If EG is like Maru, her love was all encompassing and not reciprocated.
I don't think JH and MR kissed until the night of the murder, and I don't think either of them actually confessed love.

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@Ibelis: That was a past-tense confession though. And wasn't it implied that she hadn't told him that before? At least, I got the sense it was news to him.

Which actually -- considering how different the two of them were (he was involved enough in drugs to have had a bit of a history, and she was obviously not involved at all), I kind of wonder if they were a managed pair? Like Eun-gi was the girl he was supposed to be dating to make his family happy? And maybe she took it more seriously than he did and was also more innocent (she was a student at this point, right?) so didn't really question that they weren't physical. Like, thinking that would come later down the road when they got engaged or something.

Or maybe I've watched too many k-dramas. ;)

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im first! wehee!

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oke.not =.=...haha thanks Heads

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omgomg. haaaiiiii heads. :3

Alright. I think the best thing that ever came out of this episode was when dad told joon-ha to use his sexy powers to send lawyer ahn and jae-hee to rot in prison for 30 years.

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Also, despite us all wanting eun-gi to be more cautious with maru and knowing the whole truth -- i think it's kind of obvious now that she just fell hard for maru. He's her first kiss?! Despite her past bfs?! No wonder the girl went head over heels with nothin' to care about.
Like you said Heads, although she knows his shady past, she's still in it to win it. Which makes me respect/appreciaite eun-gi much more.

--One of eun-gi's many fangirls. ha

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I was also surprised that he was her first kiss! Despite how beautiful and touching that rain scene was, I had to pause and say "REALLY, EUN-GI?! Remember druggie bf??" I wonder if Eun-gi is just the type of person to fall head over heels for (or just crush really hard on) people without thinking about what sketchballs they are. Or maybe missing her mom and remembering her mom's wish for her before she left Eun-gi makes her more inclined to hop into a relationship.

She probably crushed on druggie bf. He probably gave her a pat on the head. And then boom! relationship! So sad. I sort of wish she would bring druggie bf up with Maru. Then Maru can be like "I've been there! Done that!" And Eun-gi can be like "Yeah. Glad I'm not the only person out there who's done that for a significant other!"

I'm also glad that she's in it to win it! Eun-gi's a bit of a risktaker from observing her work life and her motorbiking hobby.

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You know that song by Edith Piaf, Je Ne Regrette Rien, where she basically says everything that has preceded this love of her life means nothing to her? That's what I'm taking Eun Ki's rain confession as. She's renouncing the past and making a new beginning with Ma Ru. So for me she doesn't mean first kiss literally, she means first kiss as in this is the one that meant something because this is the first one of this relationship. If that makes sense? I don't know, I'm still trying to gather my thoughts after this week's episodes. But that word beginning...Like, she was talking about starting a family with him. Remember that thing rearwindow mentioned about Ma Ru and Jae Hee having different dreams (way back on the episode 3 recap, I think)? Well, Eun Ki and Ma Ru have the same dreams, and I think they can build a life together, and that's what she was asking him.

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That definitely makes sense! Especially when I think abt the passionate way that Maru kissed her in Aomori! I can see it as the first kiss that really felt like a kiss -like if she thought she had been kissed before that time...well the Aomori kiss is first kiss that showed her what a real kiss is like?

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Ooh! i didn't interpret it that way, but i think yours makes alot more sense!

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She and Maru both seem deeply attracted to dysfunctional types. Good thing they found each other before they got into relationships with even worse people.

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i don't think her 'ex bf' (danny ahn's character) is really her ex. its more like a one sided love, that eun gi loves him but they are not an item. remember what the 'ex' said when he was begging her to take the fall for him 'there are rumors about us dating anyway..', so it clearly shows that they are not dating..the guy is only trying to make a deal with her that if she takes the fall for his crime, he would ask his dad to help settle her dad's company's financial issue and the police would believe that the drug was her possession since she's his rumored gf, but he wasn't aware that eun gi loves him until eun gi made a phone call to him to reveal the truth that she loved him back then (in episode 2)

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You have no idea how many times I refreshed this.

And I gotta say, I was grinning like an idiot when Jae Hee realized she sent those guys after Maru after he stopped her brother. I was all 'take that BITCH!' But I still feel super bad for Eun Gi; I thought Maru was hugging her for realz this time only for Jae Hee to be frickin' STANDING RIGHT BEHIND THEM!!!

but off to read, thanks for the recap Heads! :)

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In my head, maru didn't see jae-hee until AFTER he hugged eun-gi. I noticed his facial expressions went from sadness to anger.

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Okay, that makes more sense. Only, it seemed like he always has some sort of emotion on his face before he hugs her, and then that emotion just vanishes to soulless eyes. But this time it's anger so maybe you're right :)

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It's not only in your head. I believe it was on screen too! At first, he looked sad and sorry before hugging her and his hands were a bit uncertain - it was all almost sort of awkward. His eyes also shifted to the left for a second before it found a new presence. Noticing Jae-hee, his movements looked more sure and smooth.

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Yes. I agree with this. SJK made sure it looked that way. haha. Ma Ru was looking down when he hugged her. and then he shifted his eyes to the right because he noticed someone was standing across them. And yes the emotions in his eyes was sadness at first then upon recognizing Jae Hee, it turned to anger.

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ayyyyiiieeeee!

recap is here, finally! been waiting for this.

thank you so much Heads. :D

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Thanks for the recap... just one pet peeve, the singular of vertebrae is vertebra. Loved the joke though!

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Jae-hee reached a new low for me, and i thought that wasn't possible.
No matter what, you don't send thugs to beat up/threaten a guy that always protected you. actually, still protects you. -_-
It makes no sense to me. Her actions conflict with her feelings.

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I feel like she's a person who does things as it goes, and doesn't think about the consequences until afterward. She's manipulative, and always tries to be one step ahead of the other. She believes (thinks?) Maru is trying to get revenge on her somehow, and is using her brother to get back at her. She seems really, legitimately afraid of her brother, so she did what she thought could protect her...i guess. But yeah, most of the time I don't get her.

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Lols, if you think Ep 7 was a new low for JH, you should watch Ep 8.

Great job Heads. Don't worry even if the ship sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic, you should comforted to know there's a bunch going down with you. Lols.

Also, don't be so sure about the ending. Writer Lee may just have something different this time around. :)

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THANKS FOR THE RECAP !!

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SO MUCH TO SAY!

Okay, so I love the way Eun ki and Maru play off each other. I think they're two sides of the same coin. They both are willing to love people in this incredibly fierce way, and their life experiences have toughened both of them. BUT! The real difference between is that Eun ki loved, was betrayed, moved on, but in the end was able to find a new person to love, Maru on the other hand, loved, was betrayed, cannot move on, and cannot let himself love a new person.

I'm hoping Eun ki can change that about him.

I'm also hoping this will be different from other revenge kdramas I've seen. In all the revenge based kdramas I can think of, one of the main morals of the story is that getting revenge always results in hurting yourself/people you care about more. I'm really worried that in the process of trying to get revenge he's going to fall for Eun ki... only to lose her because of his obsessions. It seems like a very kdrama-y thing to do.

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There's a HUGE difference between a wealthy person with a troubled past and a poor person with a record. There's no getting past for the latter when the world will not let you get past that record. Eunki's past was buried under some rug with some very expensive brush, but Maru's felony seriously limits his options.

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Agreed, Eunki's life wasn't ruined like Maru's was. She still had opportunities left. So, since Maru lost more, of course it'd be harder for him to move on from (financially and emotionally). Maybe that's a good point the drama is trying to make about the wealthy and privileged with the two characters.

I just know emotionally it's better for him to be able to let it go T_T. I want Eunki and Maru to have a happy ending. They both deserve to have someone love them like they have in the past!

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And Maru knew Jae-hee for 19 years before she stabbed him in the back. And a murder charge is more serious than a drug charge. But it does suck how Jae-hee's like a rich madam and Eun-gi's guy is now some sort of great dad with a loving family.

I can still see what Julia is saying. Eun-gi and Maru are the self-sacrificial type and they take love and relationships more seriously and deeply than they realize.

Jae-hee capacity for a romantic relationship or even friendships is limited by her fear (some of it real, some of it groundless). She is incapable of trusting anyone. She thinks everyone is capable of betraying her at the drop of a hat. Look at how she jumped at the conclusion that Maru was working with her brother to bring her down. Even if she loves Maru, she's always going to be holding back.

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The way everyone delves into the depths of plot and character is pretty awesome.

Jae Hee thinks everyone is out to get her because she's got the "Hit'em first," attitude. That kind of thinking is either from a natural psychopath or born manipulator. Was her running to Kang Maru as a child part of her manipulation? She's from the neighborhood. She knows already what kind of person he is.

I'm also wondering just exactly what she did to her mother and brother to build that kind of hatred. There's no way that they just wanted to "sell her for money." While that may be true.... there's more to that story we haven't heard yet.

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I think its a stretch to say she ran to Maru as a child on purpose.

Are you actually trying to justify what the mum and bro did to her? Really?

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I think the narrative of this drama is about Ma Ru's journey away from his obsessive, unhealthy love for Jae Hee and towards a new, better way to love? Like, he has to unlearn everything he's come to know about romantic love because what he's gone through with Jae Hee has just been so toxic.

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I agree with you question.

EG'a love will be "used" to make him realize where he went wrong with JH, but it will only propel MR to exact his revenge on JH in the manner that is most healthiest for her...for their relationship in the end. He will no longer be Mr. Nice Guy to her and she will fall...in love with him for real because she will come to understand it's meaning after he removes all of her man-made walls one by one.

He's coming for her alright.

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Is it just me or are the characters in this drama really have a different accent,especially Eun-ki??

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Oooooh, I'm on vacation so I haven't been able to watch this, but it looks AMAZING!

Cannot cannot cannot wait to watch and hypothesize and fangirl and debate and SQUEE!

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Heartie,

Hope you have lots of fun on your vacation(so jelly, im in school) and come back and join us in our discussions!

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Have fun!

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Enjoy your vay-cay! :) I'l look forward to your comments.

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i'm so invested in this drama. i feel for eun gi, her character is the best.

n that choco girl, i thought she's like 15 when i first saw her, still can't believe she's 22, lol.

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WHAT?!! Choco is older than me. WOAH!!!

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I will be on that ship with you Heads.

I really dont think this a drama where we can color any of the characters black or white. Everyone is grey. Like in real life. Which makes for a difficult drama because people like things more cut and dry in fantasy.

I dont think Maru is beyond all hope. There has been glimpses of the old Maru here and there in response to Eun Ki.

The only character I actively dislike is Jaehee but thats because she is a brand of minpulative that just drives up the wall and I just have no sympathy. I get why she is why that she is, I just dont care.

So I guess I am just stockpiling tissues for all the heartbreak I know this show is going to cause me.

AND I STILL BELIEVE SJK IS MADE UP OF PUPPIES AND SUNSHINE *Sobs*

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Definitely agree with you on the characters being grey! I love how we can't ever exactly tell what our characters are acting/thinking. For me, maru is the character with a big ?. I'm still trying to figure him out. ugh. maybe i should just sit back let the writer do her job.

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Yea...Proally letting writer do their job is the wisest course. After the Great Vampire Prosecutor Fake Out of 2012 , I have kinda lost my ability to speculate so I am just going to stock up on tissue and booze and await the pain.

I pretty much get why the characters are all doing what they are doing...I just have no idea where we are ended or where we will end up....Which is a little scary for me since I am not used to it lol

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I can never guess Maru...seriously...I'm all "he's gonna do this" or "awww he's probably this or that" but then all my guesses are shiz hahaha

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"AND I STILL BELIEVE SJK IS MADE UP OF PUPPIES AND SUNSHINE *Sobs*"

Why are you sobbing? SJK is made up of puppies and sunshine. And rainbows and cherubs.....

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...And everything that's good and right in the world.

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So, here's a spoiler that isn't a spoiler. In Episode 8, Maru cries a bit. I can't tell you how my brain couldn't compute that. Witnessing SJK cry is akin to watching... I can't even write it out. It's something that just ought not to happen. It's like watching cherubs be killed violently.

What is it about SJK?

I take great dramatic pleasure in watching almost every other k-drama actor cry, but SJK?

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Seeing SJK cry is like witnessing someone telling a kid that Santa Claus isnt real...ITS JUST WRONG!

That Joongki is still my adorable puppyface no matter what sort of moral ambigous characters he plays.

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I KNOW. I was immediately like, "Noooo! Poor baby, don't cry!"

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I'm sorry, but I really think we have to add a little sex appeal to the puppies and sunshine! He's just amazing in every way!

Thanks, HeadsNo2 for the recaps! They really help me get a better understanding of the story.

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haha. agree with you. especially with the character he's playing.
I like to completely immerse myself in a character's role and try really hard not to think of the actor/actresses rep. It's so hard!

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SJK=<3

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So much love.

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SJK is ever the more amazing and wonderful for giving us such an interesting character. I want to squeeze his cute ass face.... :P

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I really love Moon Chae-Won, she is so much fun to watch.

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This drama. This. Freaking. Drama. Like--

I can't even write anything that would even approach coherence right now, so I'll just say thanks, HeadsNo2, for another great recap, and i can't wait to read what everyone's got to say.

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Aaaaawwww man! Our imagination and all the discussions and speculations we had were far more interesting than where this drama is going. Nice Guy, even though the ending in this episode was beautiful, unfortunately I have to break up with you and here are the reasons why:

1. Simple and one-dimensional written female villain: In dramaland, male characters are far more appealing and complex (i.e. Joo-wal in Marang, Kang-to/Shunji in Gaksital). I had such high hopes for this one. More characters like Rie please.

2. Predictable revenge plot with no valid and compelling motivation whatsoever.

3. My heart breaks for the story in flashback rather than the one in the present.

ㅠㅠ

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1. IS Jaehee that one-dimensional? I think maybe one could be mad at her, because when the chips are down, she chooses saving her own skin over others.

But I wouldn't call her 1-dimensional. She's lived so many lives already: abused kid on the wrong side of the tracks, a girl who's found hope by falling in love with a good guy, an ambitious jr. reported motivated to go far in her career, a trophy wife, a mother, a not-evil-til-she's-threatened stepmother.

I think people can dislike her choices, since they're almost always on the wrong side of the tracks, but I think that she's so conflicted about them keeps her from being 1-dimensional. (Plus she's not screechy and she doesn't go around to make everyone's lives miserable. Every footfall is either a retaliation or a bigger picture game plan for herself. At the end of the day, she wants safety. Safety from abuse, poverty, shame.)

Let's look at all the villains: the dad (who has a surprisingly soft spot for EunGi and a weirdass way of expressing love and vulnerability), Lawyer MinYoung (who wasn't a villain to begin with and was generally an honorable guy before JaeHee poisoned him with a kiss) and Maru. Yes, even Maru is a villain. And he's so interesting, isn't he, as the villain/anti-hero?

Not to say everyone's in 3D. We can def argue that Jaehee's brother's kind of a dip sh*t and the women he carouses with are stock characters. That Joo guy who plants evidence like a good minion. But they're not main characters, so they don't bother me so much.

2. I must be super dense then, because really, the plot kept me guessing those first 5 or 6 episodes. Whaaaat, EunGi really had no idea Maru was using her? Whaaaat, Maru is still in love with JaeHee? Whaaaat, the Chairman found out that JaeHee's been cheating on him and that revelation didn't wait til episode 10?

I didn't guess that Maru was going to spring on Jaehee and take a picture of their snogging at the bar to show her just how crazy he was about going all-in. I couldn't guess that the Joo minion would reveal to EunGi that Maru and JaeHee were a couple. I didn't guess that the Chairman was now going to give everything to EunGi, especially after the way he threw her out -- I thought that he'd at the very least give his son something, which would be something JaeHee would have something to leverage with upon the Chairman's death to take over Tae San.

I also didn't guess that EunGi was going to confess to Maru after finding out EVERYTHING he'd done, knowing that he probably had ulterior motives in romancing her. I thought she'd go a little revengey on Maru before they ended up mutually infatuated with one another.

But, eh. That's just me. And I'm otay with all that, since it allows me to enjoy the show all the more.

3. It's nice to feel things, whether or not it's the present or the flashback. Also I'm so curious about what compels us to resonate with one drama over another. You mentioned complex villains like JooWal in Arang, but I actually didn't find him all that complex. He wasn't a flat character, but I just never felt any emotion in regards to his well-being.

addendum: For me, the show isn't all that predictable and the characters are hooded and full of emotional secrets. I also love that all the main characters are a bit screwy in one area or the other, which makes their actions all the more unpredictable -- though, admittedly, we can all very well predict that JaeHee will always save her own hide first above all others. And Minyoung Lawyer. Will he become her loyal knight, or will he later be consumed by revenge once he's realized that she'll never let him have her after he's given up everything to serve her? How will JaeHee steal from EunGi after the Chairman leaves her everything? How will Maru be utilized, a guy who never finished med school, a bartender, a player, a convict, in the overall scheme of things? How will Maru's name be cleared, or will it ever be cleared? What's going on with Choco and how will her character develop and what role will she later play? I feel like JaeGil's chaebol connections will somehow come to Maru and EunGi's aid, but I'm not quite sure how yet.

It might be fun for you to predict the answers to these questions and we can see if your predictions come true by episode 16!

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I think in the context of kdrama FEMALE villains, she's pretty 3-dimensional. Of course compared to kdrama MALE villains, she may come off a bit flat.

I don't mind if this show ends up being predictable. I feel like the drama is an exploration of characters, emotions, and motivations and their personal journeys from hells mostly of their own making to peace....rather than plot. This prevents it from falling into the corporate shenanigans kdrama subplot, where half the characters are stuffy, middle-aged men in suits -and it would take up a quarter of the drama.

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I respectfully disagree with your first two points. I think Jae hee is a complex character. A one-dimensional villian would just be all evil all the time, with obvious motivations like greed or jealousy. Sure we see Jae Hee manipulating people, but there are lots of points where we also see flashes of humanity or her questioning her own actions, usually in regards to Maru (and sometimes with Eun gi, though with Eun Gi, we are not sure if she sometimes does care or not, which also makes her a mystery). And we haven't gotten much into her story about how she got to the point where she is (in terms of how she got involved with the rich dad). Jae Hee, she was good at first, then she became what she is today. Just like Shunji was at first good then be became evil (after his brother was killed) with sparks of humanity in him (usually in regards to Mok Dan) and Kangto was evil at first then became good. We know she came from a very bad background, then was doing well with Maru for awhile - we don't know what happened in-between to get to her this point. I think she is far from simple.

As for the revenge plot with no valid or compelling motivation, if you're talking about Maru's revenge plot against Jae Hee, there is plenty of motivation. He took the rap for her for the murder, and then she abandoned him. Then when he was going to talk it out with her, she falsely accused him of extorting her. I would think Maru has a very valid reason to want to get back at Jae hee.

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I agree with you, la dee dah. I think Jae Hee, who was obviously abused as a child, is always in survival mode. She is rash, impulsive, and desperate to keep herself out of the slums she grew up in. She does have some kind of feelings for Maru but her self-protection keeps kicking in. While I kind of despise her character, she reminds me of a captured animal, who going after food finds himself trapped.

And no valid or compelling motivation? I keep going back to the fact that Maru spent 6 YEARS in jail for a crime he didn't do. JaeHee was his whole world and then she dropped him while he was in there. Then upon seeing her again after all those years, she blatantly betrays him again TO HIS FACE. 6 years is a long time to sit and stew about things. His whole life was ruined....completely....by being in jail. I feel his motivation would be pretty strong!

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I guess it's a legitimate point that killing a person inevitably changed her, just as Shunji changed after the shock of seeing his brother get killed...

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Oh, that makes me sad. I loved getting your point of view on the characters -- especially Jea-hee. Because of your comments I realized I was being too harsh on Jea-hee, hating her too easily while giving Maru too much of a pass. (The SJK is strong with this one.)

So I've actually had a lot of sympathy for Jea-hee these past episodes -- cringing at some of her decisions but seeing why she's making them. (I get the feeling Maru is her only true love, so I'm still really interested in what made her give up on him. Also, she's a mom -- a loving mom -- and that colors her decisions too.)

But, it is just a show so I totally understand moving on from what you're not enjoying watching.

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LOL, I guess I should've been more detailed/specific as my comments are stirring all sorts of STRONG emotions and not necessarily related to what I meant! Oh well, as I've mentioned before, it's not important whether we agree or disagree, it's the diversity of opinions that matter. I know it's great when we agree and nod our heads in approval (don't get me wrong, I love finding like-minded souls), but it's both surprising AND great when we are open-minded, offer/share different opinions and learn or not learn from them. Even if we disagree 'til the very end, at least let's keep the respect intact.

With the exception of Betsy HP, whom I had a conversation with in the Episode 6 forum, the rest of you may not realize from my comment #1 that JH was my favorite character and some of the reasons I found her interesting are similar to what all of you have mentioned above, which yes, it did make her 3-D to me; she was fully fleshed with a range of emotions, and b/c her life story was tragic, her motivations made sense regardless of whether I sympathized with her or not or thought her actions/decisions were justifiable. I just didn't think any of that truly carried over to episodes 7 and 8. Her fear of poverty and abuse, which drove her to be ruthless, were palpable before but lost its steam and dissipated in episodes 7 and 8 for me. Her schemes were typical and her actions turned to plain selfishness and that as a plot device makes her character lack the layering I saw in previous episodes. Fear as motivation to survive is compelling and convincing, but selfishness as motivation is simplistic. It's boring to hate her just because she's selfish.

I was totally feeling what you said, Betsy HP, in your 2nd paragraph. The key words are "...seeing why she's making them" and "what made her give up on [MR]". B/c of episodes 7 and 8 and the cliched scheming that was going on, I have no confidence we'll get these questions answered, but I would love to be wrong! Only, I fear that even if we get these questions answered later, it would've already lost its punch.

As you said la dee dah, there was a gradual process in how they (Kang-to, Shunji, Joo-wal, etc) changed, and what motivated them to change made sense within the context of the story. Yes, Kang-to was more complex, intense and interesting before he became Gaksital, but at least I understood WHY he changed. I'm not understanding the changes in JH in the last two episodes and I feel like if ‘the point of no return’ was an actual scene and executed properly, the transition of her character would make more sense to me. Her journey to the dark side shouldn't be like a light bulb switch; I don’t need to be spoon fed but this specific scene, I want to see, feel and understand, otherwise I'm just left in the dust.

For example, why would she assume MR and her brother were plotting together? Yes, the bar scene, yes her brother used MR's phone, but really? Knowing MR for 19 or so years, that's what JH deduces? Even her brother knows MR better than her. And her cheap scheme to win MR over in episode 8? I've seen that played out in so many dramas, no originality there. Epic disappointments. If the writer wants a female villain, at least start with the basics by making her smart.

As for #2 and #3, I was also referring to JH since, aside from great acting from both SJK and MCW, I'm not that invested in MR and EK as others are. JH as the villain and why she changed were far more interesting to me. Her character was truly in the grey range whereas (just my personal opinion and it doesn't mean that I don't find them interesting) MR and EK are black & white; they are basically good people behaving badly cuz life sucks big time and has unfortunately done them wrong. But JH...she just breaks my heart, especially seeing her as her previous self, showered with love and happiness, which just leaves me wondering why/how she could've given up such an epic love that only exists in fairy tales. *Sigh*

Oh well, thanks for understanding my heart Betsy Hp.

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it's scary to be this in love with characters so tragically flawed. must be how eungi feels.

gahhhh...

no one knows when to stop or how to holler uncle once their hearts are set on something.

like 3 different trains heading to a same destination, if they keep going at the same speed, they're all going to come to a head. multiple deaths. nobody wins.

but if somebody wins, he/she wins BIG.

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it’s scary to be this in love with characters so tragically flawed.

THIS.THIS.THIS. hahaha it scares me too! Sinking with my Eunki-Maru ship tbh.

And I agree with everything you just said...If they win, they win really big. I'm just hoping this doesn't end up like Money Wars.

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thank you ^^

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Tbh, i stay away from melodramas because they really play with my emotions in the worse way. The just really make me cry and depressed the whole day.

this is the only melodrama i've ever enjoyed. Like ever.

Joongki, so good and yet so bad.

MCW my queeeeeen!

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All about this drama was really2 daebak...too perfect.
truthfully i still didn't watch ep 1-6 because i want to marathon it after this drama ends..because i can't endure to wait for each episode every week..i have a final exam in a few week from now,But.,because of this drama becoming more huge.,plot becoming more intense.,the character becoming more complex.,comment and spoiler in blog.,forum and other becoming more interesting and pace of story really make me crazy...So just a moment i try to watch eP 7..but not watching it at all but only EunMa scene...
What can i have to say...,
the last scene 'Rain Confession' really make me cry..
The acting and MCW voice was so amazing..
NG has been set as a Classic Melodrama..
and i think Rain Confession scene can be include as a classic scene of this Episode..Why?? just reading and hear the line of confession be penned by LKH...
that what we call classic..I hope next week NG will break 20% rating because they more than deserve it..NG is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I really want to know about what the bro is saying about revenging for maru's mom as well. (didn't watch ep 3, is the answer in there?)

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I was watching this on the train yesterday and literally when Maru was going back into his house after the breakup. I jumped a bit when he got hit. I was expecting him to get beaten up by the thugs, but man that still caught me off guard. xD Loving Eun-Ki so much. Hope this drama hits 20% or goes over next week

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I jumped at that scene too like WTF just happened.
Ha.

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I rarely go for melos, but this one totally has my number.

Thanks for yet another superb recap, Heads. Love the hauntingly beautiful Song of the Day, too.

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Joon ha is my favorite character at least I know that he can be trusted and is a good guy. The others surrounding Eun Ki are just too hard to read. It's amazing, this drama makes me anxious just like Gaksital refreshing this site continously.

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I swear, he's the ONLY normal character in this show.
everyone else is so screwed up.

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Thanks for the recap, HeadsNo2! I notice you've just recapped Oh La la Spouses too! Do you sleep?!

I was p.o.ed at Jae-hee in the beginning, but now I just think she's pitiful. She has enough of a conscience that she will never ever feel completely at ease. And she only has that creepy Ahn Min Young on her side (uggh the hair!!) And once Eun-gi's dad kicks her to the curb like she so richly deserves, she'll have nowhere to go and may end up in prostitution like her mother (which is sad because I do like to see prostitutes having children who break the cycle of crime and poverty)..

And love love love Eun-gi's confession in the rain. Despite the rain, messy hair, and casual clothes, I've never seen Moon Chae Won/Eun-gi look so beautiful when delivering those lines about her feelings and her hopes and dreams.

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Omg. I love crying rain scenes because it takes alot to emote through the raindrops falling down on you.
But that top main screencap of eun-gi in the rain -- she killed it!
And I found it a bite silly when maru wiped away her tears in the rain -- so sweet. ha

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So finally Maru opening his heart for otger woman.Congratzs but it will be tough ti be in live..And again love without difficulties isnt interesting .
Thanks for recap

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I'm feeling very disappointed with the ending. This drama is turning into another crappy romeo and Juliet story. I was expecting a dark drama with dark and strong characters. I expected the leads to use each other knowingly or unknowingly of the other's intention. A cat and mouse game. It was so pathetic to run out of the house in the rain, without shoes and confess all those things to someone who you just found out has been lying to you. So what if she found out Jae Hee send people to beat him up? It doesn't suit her character at all. I hate when writers change a character we started with and a good and interesting one at that to a predictable gimmicky one. I hope she was just temporarily insane and her original personality will come back.

Maru has been wishy-washy from the beginning, he likes the new girl but still obsessed with noona. The only constant about him is he is self-destructive. I see this going the cliche drama route where he abandons his plans because he has fallen for the new girl. I don't mind this conclusion and I know it's bound to happen since it's kdrama but I was hoping the story that leads to that point will be more interesting. I'm tired of the weak girl line, I was expecting some fire from Eun-ki.

It's only ep.7 so I hope the writers bring back the interesting plot.

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I agree with you that mystery-wise there was a lot of potential which probably won't be fulfilled now. But I still like this development, just because watching Moon Chae Won and Song Joong Ki acting these emotionally scarred characters who open up to each other is fabulous.

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Agreed with everything you stated.

When I saw the balcony scene with Juliet escaping and crying out for Romeo in the rain at his gate, I thought the writer has either lost her steam or her mind. Either way I was not impressed.

I may have to quit this after the EG returns to a child episode via head trauma and come back for the finale to see that I did not miss a thing from this writer. I know the cast can pull off anything but the writing is looking more and more unfortunate.

I'm not a MCW fan even though this is my second time watching her work. Arrow was the first and I she is a good actress but I could care less for Snow's plight.

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You should check out TPM if you're still not a fan of her -- that's where i fell knee deep for her.

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Nah. I came for SJK!

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I am not a fan of MCW either. I liked the real princess in TPM much better.

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So I saw Eun-gi's confession as this massive show of strength on her part and I was trying to figure out why we both read that scene so differently and... I think for me it's because she didn't confess to someone she'd just found out had been lying to her. It took a coupe of days.

Which might seem like I'm arguing technicalities, but it meant a lot to me that she put a lot of thought into her confession. Her first emotional instinct was to protect herself, turn away, break up with him and leave. But after thinking about it, she realized she actually did love him and it was something worth going all in on. She knew what she was risking instead of relying on pure gut emotion. And to my mind, that takes balls of steel because she knows she could get hurt. If that makes sense.

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This episode made me laugh, because the plot is beginning to get ridiculous.

Jae Hee hires some low lifes to beat the beejeezus out of Maru. Love her expression when she discovers, OOPS! I made a mistake! Then she nonchalantly cooks some delicious dishes and some banchan dishes ( made me hungry looking at it ), puts them into some bento carryout containers as if she was packing to go on a picnic. Break a couple of bones and mash up your face, and your here's some bulgogi comment was right on. She must be delusional if she thinks Maru will her accept food as her apology.

Still don't trust Maru, because he always has the cold, cunning look in his eyes after hugging or kissing Eun Ki.

Jae Hee still can wrap Maru around her finger after all these years. I'm beginning to wonder if Jae Hee has been making up stories and situations to Maru all along.

I think Jae Hee is the most fascinating, twisted character of this drama, and Park Shi Yeon is perfect in her role!

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MR's always got a soft spot for JH. I think the bulgogi would have worked if Eun-gi hadn't shown up at his house first, giving him a taste of what true sincerity feels like and hearing about her dreams, dreams that he probably once had pre-incarceration. What a contrast that speech was to JH's confusing, often contradictory words and the world she is trying to fit into. Loved it when he walked by the food.

Park Shi Yeon is definitely perfect for this role. She has improved by leaps and bounds. Hard to believe she's the same actress who played the second lead in My Girl!

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To me it appears that MR and JH are the main love interests.

Her brother is a loser.

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@news: regarding The fmale villain character in Nice guy, I must disagree with u that JH has turn into one dimensional villain territory yet.... being complex character doesn't mean they have to make us sympathy for them. I agree completely for what alice said.
Regarding male character, yess it's a shame it's always male character who has more interesting / complex / delicious character that makes an actor has more alot of work compare to actress.
sorry OOT
But IMO Kang To's char is not complex and interesting anymore after he has become gaksital. That complexity faded away by each episode. One of the main element I didn't enjoyed watching gaksital.

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@missjb -- me TOO!

I think after the switch I enjoyed the rest of the show through dramabeans recaps. I just couldn't invest myself into it after that turn because it didn't stimulate my brain too much, despite all the pretty and Shunji's fascinating, albeit jarring, descent into madness.

It's hard, though. Once the writers decide to make a character become a symbol, they sometimes forget to keep the conflicts and nuances of the soul present. Not that it matters to everybody -- I mean it scored pretty big in the ratings game despite all that.

Also commenting on Men Vs. Women. While I agree that leading male villains are given plenty of opportunities to sink their teeth into a potentially juicy role, I don't think women are relegated to playing 1-D villains.

This really speaks to the talent of the actresses to play bad well.

I think we can all agree that mediocre roles can turn compelling when they come in contact with the right actor.

Roles that come to mind:
* Rie in Gaksital -- though she was a turncoat in the end, when she was the enemy, she was still very much infinitely interesting.

* The step mom/mom in Cinderella's Sister -- who IS that fantastic woman? Even when she's nasty, scheming, manipulative and intense, you admire her the way you would Scarlett O'Hara. I think she delivered a fine performance as well as the "baddie" in Thousand Day's Promise.

* The older and younger versions of Soomi in Equator Man. (Is it no surprise that Princess Noguk in Faith is the only character I find worth watching?)

* The deliciously evil Mishil in Queen Seonduk (again, hats off to the actress.)

*Arguably Shin In Jung in 49 Days. Arguably. Because I can see how people hated her, but to me, she felt plenty conflicted once what she wished for started to come true in ways that weighed too heavily upon her soul.

* Hi Jin in Samsoon -- okay, more of a love rival than villain, but I could never really hate her. This I give credit to the actress, because it could have very easily gone into 1-dimensional territory.

* To a lesser extent, Choco's mom in this drama(okay, not official villainness, but it's easy to categorize her in the 'bad mom' category)-- you can just see how pained she is in handing her daughter off to Maru the way that she did, how wounded she was when she walked away from the scene.

******************************************

Honestly, I don't think women HAVE to portray villains as shrill, flat and unintelligent ALL at the same time. And I think the more talented actresses, when matched with the right role, have proven that to many viewers.

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Love what you say about symbols vs fully fleshed characters. The problem I had with Gaksital was that right from the start Mok Dan was a symbol. She was never allowed to live up to her potential, and she was more a vehicle for Kang To's morality and emotional journey than an active agent in her own right. I loved Rie, though. And here I find Jae Hee fascinating. I just started WISFC and the mother there is pretty complex so far, too. Maybe Lee Kyung Hee has a knack for writing antagonist women characters that can be easily dismissed but are actually more than they first appear?

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@ladida -- I totally agree!

Also, I hope for the actress's sake (Jin Se Young, I think?) she'll take a break in between projects.

I'm watching 5 Fingers right now and it's Mok Dan all over again. A little bit of the same spunk, but she's more reactive than complex, just like in Gaksital. I can't knock the actress, though, she really didn't have time to really sink her teeth into the character with the whole T-Ara casting debacle. Like in Gaksital, the same acress's character is more of a tool for the leading man's further character development than becoming a fully fleshed individual herself.

WISFC (what great casting!)-- ahhhhh, I love that's when I got my first taste of Song Joon Ki! "What a nice boy! He's got such a nice boy face!" I remember swooning. I love how years later, his "nice boy" face and persona are being exploited to subvert and circumvent and almost mindfrak with audience expectations. I love it!

I also agree that, yes, absolutely -- a lot of the grey areas in terms of the choices that the characters make speak volumes of the writer's talent.

And the more I watch dramas, the more I realize how much a talented writer can do, as opposed to a talented actor and a talented director.

Nice Guy def showcases the strengths of all 3 departments coming together.

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Oh my! I'm crazily addicted to this drama! I'm counting Wednesdays and Thursdays.

This drama is so so good!

Now that I think about it, about halfway there, at least enough time for Maru to find his one true love...Eun Gi!

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I just want to say this. Moon ChaWon is amazing!! I just love her so much!!(and I'm a girl)

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Okay, so I was on the Nice Guy page on dramawiki and I enlarged the character chart. The arrows are pointing one way for Eun Gi while the arrows are pointing both ways for Jae Hee and Maru.

Don't tell me that this is one of those dramas where the girl (in this case, Eun Gi) who we thought was suppose to be the main girl was actually the other girl the entire time. So this is giving me a really bad headache because Jae Hee might actually be our not-so-nice-misleading main leading girl. Just saying.

But anyone else have a guess on this?

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They released that chart before they released the very first trailer of Nice Guy. And of course, such charts will only present a couple of information to us just like character backgrounds. They won't divulge the whole story to us. Part of the revelation and play in the narrative is whether Maru will fall in love with Eun Gi or not or he'll just continue using her. So, to make things interesting for us, they won't tell us anything on that matter.

But as we all know, MCW and SJK are the top bills of NG. They are the prime drawer of audience. Soooo....

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I came to the conclusion early on that the chart is accurate.

MR looks good with any woman.

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I saw screw the chart and eun-gi runs away with lawyer joon-ha, yes?

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Well, atty Park is now taking orders from dad to destroy them for 30 years. Why 30? LOL

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Agree as well. I find Eun Gi consistent and well-written so far.

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Such a beautiful recap. <3 I'm crying!^^ Thank you!^^ <3

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isn't EunKi supposed to lose her memory? when's that gonna happen?

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I honestly hope writer lee kyung hee forgot about that tiny detail and doesn't add it in.
I don't think amnesia at this point would do any good for us or the story.

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I think the writer originally wanted Maru to be more dastardly so they had him use an amnesiac Eun-gi (dude, so wrong to use a sick person like that!), but I think the writer may have changed her mind.

I think if they were to pull the amnesia storyline now, it would ruin the momentum of the drama.

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When I picked up this drama for mainly Moon Chae Won I knew I was in for some heartbreak and lots of angst considering it is a melodrama. But WHYYYYYYY Eun Gi has just fell so hard for Maru and shes gonna be a complete wreck throughout the series

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Did anybody else think that the brother was hinting that Jae Hee set both of them up? Like she intentionally sent Maru and her brother to jail (to get them out of her life so she could mary this rich guy she knew.)

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I think Jae-hee's intentions towards Maru were always sincere until he went to jail. He was the one thing preventing her from falling into darkness. When he was taken away, she lost her haven.

I do think Jae-hee had set her brother up. But can't blame her considering he's a horrible human being. Probably is the one decent thing she's done in those 6 years.

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Great episode! I LOL'd at the end when EK drove to KM house to confess her feelings. I was like, how in the world did she remember to bring her car keys, but she forgot to wear shoes?

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She didn't forget to wear shoes but she got out of her bedroom by bedroom's window and run bare foot since then.

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She didn't use car keys 'cause her car is one of those fancy new ones where you press a start button to start the engine instead of a key.

Her being shoeless is something that was done on purpose. There's been a focus on shoes since the very beginning of the show: Jae Hee and her heels that break, Eun Ki and her combat boots, Ma Ru and his Converse high tops. In this episode Ma Ru doesn't come out of his home for days, and all we are shown to represent him is a pair of his boots outside his door. So when Eun Ki walks over to him barefoot it's supposed to show how "naked," how utterly vulnerable she's chosen to be before him. (Remember on her date with him she wore those pretty heels, another divergence from her boots and business lady heels?) Now, I don't know if they actually pull it off (sometimes I love that she's barefoot and other times I'm disgusted 'cause, hello, disease) but I definitely appreciate the visual story.

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Great analysis!

(I'm mystified what disease you think Eun Ki will catch by walking barefoot...)

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I'm like really paranoid about being barefoot and getting a cut and getting some mystery illness that even House couldn't cure. I mean it was raining! That's when all those worms come out and stuff! *Shivers*

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EPISODE 8!!! That is all. :)

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Worms.....

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Ladida, once again i always love your thoughts/analysis/metaphors.
Now that you point out the focus on shoes, i noticed writer lee kyung hee has quite the fixation on feet! I remember in will it snow for christmas there were quite a few shoe scenes, where guy gave up his shoes for the girl and walked barefoot.

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Uh-oh...have we stumbled upon Lee Kyung Hee's ~preferences~? Lol.

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I had this bad feelings that lawyer Park might not be as good. He's too perfect for this kind of story cuz there's no such thing as a nice guy TT_TT

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I know. He does seems too perfect.

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He's butterflies and rainbows amidst a dark storm.

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WOAH!!!!!! great show,love it sooooooooooo much,can't wait for next week, i hope it'll have a good 'n happy ending,not like bad guy ;) thank you sooooo much headsno2 for the greatest recaps ever for this show :* :*

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You are awesome HeadsNo2!

Simply. Awesome.

Thank you!

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Thanks for the recap HN2.

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I watched Song Joo Ki in Sunkyunwang Scandal and Penny Pincher, but I didn't found him as cool as he is in Nice guy. It helps that he is gorgeous to start with, add with the tragic character Maru is and all those wicked -yet cool-smile, I'm a fan girl now!

And yeah...the picture where he punched jae hee's brother, I can't help but starring at his b**k. Hahahha.

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Its official, i love Eunki!! She brought me to tears with that confession. My heart is just breaking for her, Maru pls wake up and dont let her go or you'll regret everything~~

Thank u for the recap!!!

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Count me addicted. This show is so awesome, my emotions are totally running raw after watching episode 8. If only next week would come faster!

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I think you've swayed me a little, HeadsNo2! Maybe it wasn't all that inconsistent for Eungi to fall head first for Maru and it was all just a very human thing for her to do. This episode has me back on the Nice Guy wagon for now lol.

JaeHee on the other hand is sociopathic. She made him food after she beat him up??? What the actual fuck.

Can't wait for next week!

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I was sure the cctv secret would be found out much later but now it looks like some major shit's gonna go down! No way JH and scary lawyer r going down this early on...oh Lord am so scared!!!

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Thanks for the recap.
Keep the twists coming show, even though it gives me a stomach ache sometimes to see these people do mean things to other people. I feel stress watching them, I can't imagine not having major anxiety being them!

SJK is made out of the magic of days off from work, hot fudge sundaes with no calories, that feeling you get when annoying relatives decide NOT to come stay for two weeks, finding a parking spot RIGHT UP FRONT, wearing smaller clothes now that you did three months ago, seeing the sweater you wanted to buy yesterday ON SALE today, getting a present in the mail, finding out the deadline for the report you thought was late is early, and realizing you never cashed that birthday check your mother sent you!!!!

He has made the world more beautiful by being alive.
That's all for now!!

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He is awesome.

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This made me LOL

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Dang, I'd forgotten how much I loved bitter bad boys with chips on their shoulders. Or how much I love a good revenge story. On the one hand I'd like Ma Ru to just take love and leave -- not that I think Jee Hee's gonna allow him to do that. But on the other hand, I definitely want to see JH-sshi taken down a peg or two or to the lowest depths of the deep.

When I first started this drama, I thought there would only be one set of machinations and one general schemer (Ma Ru) But nooooooooo. Lawyer Ahn will be scheming as well. So lots of schems, point-counterpoint, plotting, assumptions, gamesmanships....and I totally think Joon Ha is gonna totally pwn the scheme when all is said and done. I'm thinking he will be the dark horse who triumphs in the end over Lawyer Ahn...through intricately-wrought legal scheming.

Of course Joon Ha might become bad and might be the other "innocent man" who is really working his own issue here, but I'm thinking he'll be a symbol of pure goodness and loyalty. Will see.

Gotta say I keep fearing the whole amnesia thing which all the bloggers keep assuring me will happen. Darn! No amnesia, please. That said, like you I will be going down with this ship as well. I'm too hooked now. So even if it gets silly with a lot of annoying inorganic plotting and cliches and amnesias and flaky wills and convenient coincidences, I cannot tear myself away.

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To me, MR and JH are a force of nature.

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definitely!

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That darned amnesia thing... is it really gonna happen? Does it REALLY have to happen? But why?????

I can't help but assume and preempt that maybe, just maybe, that would be what would bring out the caring and tender side of Maru... of which Eun Ki could be the recipient?

Or something like that.

Anyway, if that amnesia's sure to happen, it would definitely be a catalyst for something powerful. Or so I hope.

I've seen episode 8 already, and darn it, whenever I see Eun Ki's car racing forward, my heart stops for a millisecond, waiting for it to crash, which would then bring about the amnesia.

Crazy, I know. Especially when I saw the preview after episode 8 and her car's just racing under that tunnel...

Aigoo! Can't wait for next week's episodes!

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buh... I think I'M having momentary amnesia. It's Friday!!

Who got amnesia and when and about what issue?? O__o

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