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Plus Nine Boys: Episode 6

Memory is a funny thing, and it’s fascinating how two people can remember the same situation in two completely different ways. This episode is a good lesson in why communication is important, because when you make assumptions about what your partner is feeling in order to make yourself feel better, you can ruin everything if your assumption is wrong. Hopefully it’s not too late for our boys and their ladyloves to learn that lesson, and start talking to each other.

Track 6: “We love aliens”

The morning after texting Se-young his apology, Jin-gu stares forlornly at his still-unanswered messages as he heads in to work. When he gets to his desk, he finds that she’s erected a fortress of books and tissue boxes on top of their cubicle divider, so that they can no longer see each other. Se-young tells him that he needs to print out their pictures from the trip, her voice all business.

Jin-gu sighs to himself that the figurative wall between them is sturdier than the Great Wall of China. Se-young snubs Jin-gu all day, leaving the room whenever he enters and refusing to sit next to him at lunch.

Kwang-soo’s boss yells at him for phoning in his duties at Sponge, complaining that the ratings are down, and Kwang-soo promises halfheartedly to do better next week. It turns out that his main writer has disappeared, and Young-hoon jokes about how all the women run away from him.

Kwang-soo grumbles that she just disappeared without a word, but Young-hoon insists that there must have been signs that he didn’t see, because there are always signs, and guesses it was the same with Da-in. He says that his wife told him a woman’s words always mean many different things, and Kwang-soo says that women should just say what they mean. Young-hoon advises him to learn to understand women when they speak if he ever wants to get married.

Kwang-soo thinks back on conversations with Da-in where she had seemed disappointed and on the verge of saying something. He could tell something was wrong by her expression but no matter how often he urged her to tell him, she always said it was fine and said nothing more, so he took her words at face value. He thinks to himself now that women’s language has always baffled him.

Min-gu’s friends give him bad advice on how to figure out if Su-ah likes him, but he insists he doesn’t have to play those games because she’s his destiny. After posting another self-indulgent selca online, he waits for Su-ah outside her tutoring academy to give her another milk and coo a cheesy “I love you” pun in English at her. Gag. She goes in without a word and he calls after her that they’ve been dating ten days now, which just earns him an eyeroll.

Su-ah cringes to her friends over Min-gu’s behavior, and one of them laughs along with her while the other defends him for at least being cute. Su-ah whines that even his cuteness can’t make up for following her everywhere, always acting like he’s in a drama. She won’t dump him though — she has a plan to make him leave on his own.

Jin-gu is raked over the coals by his boss, who’s angry that the TV dating show that their dating vacation package was based on got canceled due to scandal. He blames Jin-gu for putting the package together based on the show, though Jin-gu respectfully reminds Director Jo that he’s the one who instructed him to do it.

This goes over about as well as you’d imagine, and Jo just yells at him to fix it then turns on Se-young next for having already printed the pamphlets. Is he actually mad at her for not procrastinating for once? He starts to get personal about how she’s always slow at meals and in the bathroom, and Jin-gu cuts in to defend her.

He raises his voice and insists they couldn’t predict a scandal, and Jo gets back in his face about his attitude. Jin-gu tells Jo that he’s responsible for everything, just like he said, and that Se-young had nothing to do with it. Jo mocks them for being all lovey-dovey on the trip and not working, just taking couple photos (you mean like they were instructed to do?), and orders the two of them to work late and fix the situation.

Dong-gu acts out a romantic scene in class with Baek-ji, and he’s so bad that even Baek-ji cringes. The teacher brings in Min-joon who totally nails the scene, earning himself a pint-sized admirer in the process.

Min-gu intercepts Su-ah again after her class, and she asks when he’s going to stop all this. He says this is forever because it’s destiny, and she asks how he knows that. He says he just feels it, and she counters that she’ll believe it when he can prove it, and asks if he’s seen the movie Serendipity.

Min-gu watches the movie later with his friends, focusing on the scene where the lead characters test if they’re meant to be together by getting in two elevators, and seeing if they choose the same floor. His buddies argue that it makes no sense since it’s just probability, not destiny.

One of his friends correctly guesses that this is just a ploy to get rid of him, and guesses she’ll choose the first floor to throw him off. Min-gu admits that if he fails the test he’ll stop following Su-ah around, but then ruins the one respectful thing he’s said by assuring his friends that he won’t fail. Because it’s destiny dontchaknow.

Kwang-soo and Young-hoon go out for drinks and wonder what happened to Kwang-soo’s head writer, and Young-hoon repeats that it’s futile to try to understand women. He advises Kwang-soo to just go apologize, but Kwang-soo says he didn’t do anything wrong, and she’s the one who disappeared like that. Young-hoon says Da-in must have also run away because of this attitude of Kwang-soo’s.

Se-young and Go-eun meet with Da-in at her cafe, where Go-eun dreamily sighs over how Jin-gu came to Se-young’s defense against Director Jo. She says he’s hard-working which is hot, and Da-in counters that hard-working men may be hot but it’s hard on their girlfriends. She says she once dated a TV producer who was very busy all the time.

She remembers going on date after date with Kwang-soo where he yawned and nodded off constantly, and says that at first she felt sorry for him but after a while she became disappointed in him. Then there was a time when he was supposed to meet her friends and he was late, and when he finally showed, he was sweaty and unkempt. She was glad he came, but upset that he hadn’t made an effort for her friends.

Go-eun takes Da-in’s side, saying the guy should have tried harder, but Se-young defends the boyfriend. Perhaps he’d come straight from work, and anyway at least he didn’t dress up and flirt with her friends. Da-in says she tried to be understanding, but that she had said “It’s okay” so many times, he started to think it really was okay.

Now a few shots in, Kwang-soo argues with Young-hoon and insists that he did his best for Da-in, pulling all-nighters and drinking energy drinks nonstop. We see the same dates from his perspective, where Da-in smiled at his sleepiness and laughed, which made him feel energized. The time when he met her friends, he had to skip work and run through traffic to get there, and nearly got fired for it.

Da-in tells Go-eun and Se-young that all she wanted was a text or call now and then to reassure her, and again Go-eun eggs her on while Se-young says at least that’s better than a guy who gets texts from other girls constantly. Da-in says they broke up because of “that day.”

Young-hoon is still trying to figure out why Da-in broke up with Kwang-soo, but Kwang-soo insists there was no reason for it and storms out. But as he walks down the street, he wonders if there really were signs that he missed.

At acting school, Dong-gu overhears Min-joon asking Baek-ji to be his girlfriend. He promises to play with her, and ride bikes, and buy her things. She agrees and they walk off hand-in-hand, as Dong-gu reels in shock and thinks how he spent a third of his life with Baek-ji. So cute.

At the end of the work day Jae-bum offers to help Se-young finish the work Director Jo ordered, and Jin-gu scowls at them even though she declines. They’re both hard at work hours later, having not said a single word to each other over the Great Wall of Tissue. Finally Jin-gu asks if she wants to eat but she curtly says she’s not hungry, though he catches her scarfing down a bowl of ramyun when he comes back in the office.

They get kicked out of the office when the cleaning woman comes to clean, and stand in the hall in uncomfortable silence. Later Se-young calls tech support rather than just asking Jin-gu for help, and he silently fixes the problem for her and goes back to his desk unthanked.

At breakfast the next day, all three brothers let Mom drag the recycling to the door, and she orders Kwang-soo to take it out. Dong-gu sadly asks if he can go to a different acting school, but she reminds him that all the famous child actors went there and that he can see Baek-ji there. Wrong thing to say, Mom.

Kwang-soo takes out the recycling, still in his underwear, and his ears perk up when he hears Da-in’s voice. Luckily Jin-gu sees her first, knowing her from her cafe, and they talk while Kwang-soo tries to figure out how to disappear. Jin-gu spots Kwang-soo trying to slink away and calls after him, forcing him to stop, and physically drags him over to “meet” Da-in.

They try to pretend they don’t know each other (and that Kwang-soo isn’t obviously standing there in his underwear in front of her again) while Jin-gu obliviously plays matchmaker. Jin-gu heads to work and Kwang-soo tries again to talk to her, but Da-in simply says he’s looking good and runs off, leaving Kwang-soo to mutter to himself about the fact that he’s in shorts. Awww.

Later at work, Young-hoon dissects Da-in’s comment that Kwang-soo looks good, while Kwang-soo is still stuck on the fact that he was caught in his shorts. Young-hoon has decided that Kwang-soo got dumped because he publicly surprised Da-in with the proposal without preparing her for it, but Kwang-soo still doesn’t think that’s it.

Min-gu’s friends have come up with a plan to give his destiny a little boost, which involves bribing the guard and monitoring the elevator CCTVs to see which floor Su-ah chooses. Min-gu decides that you make your own destiny, and this is just his way of assuring Su-ah that she belongs with him. Yeah, this can’t possibly go wrong.

Upset, Se-young makes another cheesecake run to Da-in’s cafe at lunchtime. She hotly denies that she’s angry and uncomfortable with Jin-gu, insisting that he’s just a colleague and there’s nothing to discuss with him. Go-eun joins them and asks Da-in for the end of her story, and she tells them how she and her boyfriend never took a trip together because he was so busy.

They’d planned a trip to Jeju Island and he had run late, then finally called to say he couldn’t make it. Da-in again told him it was okay, but this time she’d cried all the way home. She decided it must have been a one-sided love, because the more she loved him, the lonelier she felt.

She’d meant to talk to him about the issue, but that was the night he’d taken her to the TV show and publicly proposed. She’d tried to get his attention but he wasn’t listening, so by the time he proposed, she was just done, and ran away. She says that he was always sorry but he still never listened to her, and she thought she’d always be lonely if she stayed with him.

Min-gu waits for Su-ah, massaging his hand to calm his stomach, while his friends wait in the guard room to text him which floor Su-ah chooses. Su-ah is all business when she arrives, reminding him of the rules, and confirms that if they get off on the same floor that means they’re officially dating but if they don’t, he won’t bother her again.

They get in their elevators and Su-ah chooses the ninth floor (of course), and Min-gu’s buddies text him so that he chooses it, too. Despite how ridiculous this all is, the beat where Min-gu and Su-ah both check their hair in the mirror is hilarious — it leads me to believe that despite all the silly dramatics, they actually are pretty well-suited for each other.

Everything is great until Min-gu’s elevator stops on the seventh floor for the water delivery guy, who takes his sweet time despite Min-gu’s urging him to hurry. So when Min-gu gets to the ninth floor, Su-ah isn’t there, and his friends find him to tell him she went back down. Disappointed, Min-gu wonders why girls need confirmation of love, and can’t just love first and confirm it later.

As Da-in drives her daughter home from school, she remembers the day when Kwang-soo had pounded on her door, frantic to apologize, asking over and over what he did wrong. She had stayed inside, crying as his pleas grew more desperate until he was literally screaming for her to talk to him. At the same time as she’s driving, Kwang-soo sits in his room listening to music, and the bleak expressions on both of their faces are eerily similar.

Working late again, Jin-gu tries to talk to Se-young about work and gets only the curtest of answers. He asks how long she’s going to keep this up and she only talks about the project, and accidentally knocks over her Tissue Box of Protection. She takes great care setting it back up (even fluffing the tissue to hide her face, haha) and Jin-gu bursts out that she’s being childish.

He says he wants to talk and gets ignored, and he says she’s making things even worse by acting this way. Se-young says that he always does whatever he wants, so why can’t she do what she wants? Jin-gu asks what about all the time they spent together, and whether it means anything to her, but she just answers that he made things this way and she leaves.

Se-young holds it together until she gets to the elevator, where she breaks enough to drop her stony expression and her eyes well up. It’s raining hard and she has no umbrella, so she starts to walk to the bus stop in the pouring rain. Suddenly there’s an umbrella being held over her head and we see that it’s Jin-gu, protecting her from the elements while he stands in the rain getting soaking wet. That is so sweet and sad.

Se-young doesn’t speak when Jin-gu tells her to take the umbrella, but she just starts walking again and he follows, still holding the umbrella over her and letting himself get drenched. He finally calls out, “I’m sorry!” and she stops, and Jin-gu says he knows he should have said that first. He was so sorry that he just kept making excuses, and he admits that everything she said was right.

Jin-gu says to a still-silent Se-young that he doesn’t want to lose a friend because of his greed, and that people say they just go together like related search words: Ma Se-young and Kang Jin-gu. He agrees with them, and declares that he can’t do without her. He says hesitantly that he’d like to go back to being friends like before, and that’s as far as he’ll take it. He tells her not to build that wall anymore starting tomorrow, and leaves her holding the umbrella.

On the bus home, Jin-gu thinks to himself that this might be the right distance to keep between them. Se-young keeps her eyes looking out the window while Jin-gu steals small sad glances in her direction, but then we see that this time they’re not riding the same bus, and Jin-gu is only imagining her there. That is so sad.

All the way home, Jin-gu remembers their fun rides when he’d pretended to live in her neighborhood just to ride the bus with her, and Se-young looks sadly at the umbrella he gave to her. At the same time, Kwang-soo remembers Da-in hitting him with the flowers after his proposal and says in voiceover that the reason men and women have always fought is because they speak different languages.

We see each of our boys at their lowest moments — Kwang-soo begging at Da-in’s door, Min-gu exiting his elevator to an empty hallway, and Jin-gu alone on his bus looking forlornly at the spot where Se-young isn’t. Min-gu tells us that in order to be a good guy, he must catch every word and facial expression she makes. Jin-gu sums it all up: “We’re all in love with aliens.”

COMMENTS

So now we know all the secrets from the past, and I find myself sympathizing pretty strongly with some while really, really not buying it from others. Knowing what we know now about what Jin-gu did to Se-young in the past, I can fully understand her strong reaction to his kissing her again, because on the surface he doesn’t seem to have changed all that much. From Se-young’s perspective, Jin-gu is still a flirt and a player who chases girls for fun, and I don’t blame her for being strongly opposed to letting him hurt her again. She came pretty far by forgiving him enough to be friends, but it’s obvious that she still has feelings for him. If she didn’t, she would have just laughed the kiss off like she does when he flirts with her, but her extreme negative reaction shows that her feelings for Jin-gu back in college haven’t been buried all that far under the surface.

And it’s not like Jin-gu has spent the last two years trying to show Se-young that he’s changed. I think it’s his defense mechanism against being hurt, to keep things light and flirty and not seem too serious. But he’s gone too far in that direction by still being flirtatious with other girls, so I can’t blame Se-young for not believing his words when he says he’s different. She’s with him every day and she hasn’t seen it, and he’s known for being good with words. Poor Jin-gu is going to have to do a lot more than just say some nice words in order to have Se-young trust him again, much less trust that his feelings are sincere.

As for Kwang-soo and Da-in and their history, I’ll admit that I’m finding it difficult to feel much sympathy for Da-in if this is her whole story. I agree that having a boyfriend who puts work above your relationship, who is always canceling plans, and who shows up late and unprepared (if at all) is absolutely worth being upset about, and maybe even breaking up over. I just can’t agree with her tactics. It’s simply unfair to tell him over and over, every single time, that it’s fine and you’re not upset, then just dump him with no explanation and no closure.

It’s all about communication, or more specifically, lack of communication. As long as Da-in was telling Kwang-soo that she wasn’t upset when he canceled plans, he had no reason to believe otherwise. He even asked over and over if she was sure, if she was really really sure, and she assured him that she was totally okay. And it’s not exactly fair to say that he never listened to her, when she never tried to actually talk to him about it — and when she finally did, he only didn’t notice because he was so excited to be proposing. So to suddenly snap and just disappear, without even the courtesy of an explanation, was wrong of her. She was hurting too, I’ll give her that. But in my opinion, the way she handled the situation, like letting him cry and beg and scream outside her door and refusing to talk to him, was deliberately hurtful. I can’t see her behavior at the end of their relationship as anything but cruel.

Because despite what Da-in thought should have been obvious, Kwang-soo really did have no idea why she just up and left him without a word. He believed her and trusted her when she said she was okay, and he was running himself ragged to give her everything he had left after long days at work. It’s interesting that he remembers her on their dates as being happy and teasing and smiling, while she only remembers feeling miserable. I have no doubt that the truth is somewhere in between and they’re remembering their feelings, and not what actually happened. But regardless of what actually happened, when you’re in a serious relationship with someone and you decide for whatever reason that you’re done, you handle it in an adult fashion and you treat the other person with respect. People deserve at least that much. So in this case, I hope the show doesn’t gloss over Da-in’s behavior as, “Oh he wasn’t attentive enough to me,” and give her a pass on how she broke up with him. Because what she did was Not Okay, and I want to see her acknowledge that.

 
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I just marathoned all episodes of this drama and love it. Looking forward to 29's romance.

Thanks for the recap LollyPip.

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"...Min-joon asking Baek-ji to be his girlfriend. He promises to play with her, and ride bikes, and buy her things."

I want a boyfriend like this.

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Uncle only paid attn to his job back then. He was working long hours and was too tired to notice anything, including how his non-presence had been affecting his GF. She was right to walk away from a guy who wasn't available. Instead of telling him that he was in no condition to date at that pt in his life, she exploded w frustration on camera. Quite a serious blow to him. On the other hand, he might not have noticed otherwise.

Eldest son was a douche-bag in 2012. What reason does anyone have to believe that he has totally changed in 2 short years? Sb who kissed and 'shoosh-ed' around the office, isn't exactly promising material as a one-woman man.

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But we aren't shown him paying attention only to his job. He went AWOL from a production shoot to meet her friends. So, on the contrary, he was very hyperaware of her and never rested, slept, etc..just to make her happy. He did the best he could with a very stressful job. Who can date when he has a tough job?

Yeah, eldest son was a douchebag. Who goes around kissing three women and telling them all to be quiet cause "it's a secret." How cruel!

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I don't know -- eldest son seems like he's a guy being a guy before he's learned how to be a man. It ain't pretty, but it's not that unusual either even in someone in his late 20s. What I like about this show is that the girl didn't try to win him over or reform him or stick around for more hurt because she liked him. She just reset the parameters of the relationship so they worked for her.

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Wow! Is that how guys are nowadays? I feel so old. I guess it's also connected to the new idea of "dating" in Korea. Cause there was the soe gae ting where folks knew what was expected. Dating was new (from what i hear) and the parameters not exactly defined. I still think that most guys don't do that kind of thing though.

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I'm probably older than you. Guys haven't changed much over the millennia and across cultures. I don't think boys behaving badly is anything new ... this kind of thing went on in the ancient world, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the 1950s, and today. I don't find it shocking, and I think women are wiser to expect it and address it and make it clear how they want to be treated and what they won't put up with. Which is why I like our heroine.

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29 is screwed.. Se Young has basically pegged him as a cheater waiting to happen and he has no way of proving to her that he is not like that anymore. Plus, he doesn't seem too considerate towards women. I thought that was kind of a douche move to bail out on that woman who was waiting for him outside the club. I would have at least talked to her and let her down easy instead of just doing a no show.

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It was pretty douchey to leave the girl at the cllub but wow, can't the woman take a hint? He said as plainly as he could that he wanted nothing to do with her and she kept forcing herself on him. Not that I'm defending him (or maybe i am) but the "in-love" folks in this drama don't know how to "hear" do they?

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I have to agree with AJ here. Very few people are able to NOT take advantage of their situations in life. People (not all of course) behave badly coz they have been allowed to behave badly. I think most men are like jin gu IF they can be. I dont think it is a 20's thing either. Men in their 40's , now stable with good income relate how difficult it is to not misbehave coz women just dont care that they arent available and are throwing themselves at the older men for what they can get from them.

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I don't like the eldest son's story. I skip it when I watch this show.

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Aww, he starts off douchebaggy, but he gets better! Which is the point? I say this having gone into the show despite the actor who plays him.

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ya know---i actually tried dating 2 guys at once and i dam near went CRAY-CRAY with paranoia, guilt and giddiness.

so--whenever i see people multi-dating--i automatically think CRAY CRAY.

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While I agree that Kwang Soo should have paid more attention to Da In, and not put his work first, his attitude is typical of a hardworking man, especially a Korean one. He needs to learn that he needs to show her, in her own way, that she's important to him. Often, a man, especially an Asian man, thinks that by working hard and providing for the girl, he's showing her love, but often that's not enough.

Da In, on the other hand, should have told him how she really felt - that it's NOT okay with her... In this, I totally agree with LollyPip's assessment of her. How can you expect anyone, much less a guy, to know how you really feel if you don't tell him? Ha, to be honest, even if you do, they still don't get it sometimes, (I'm saying this with 25 yrs of marriage behind me) but at least in her defence, she can really say that he doesn't understand.

I find her, "It's okay" too placating and what she did at his proposal was mean and uncalled for... what she could have done was accept the proposal graciously (it's not like he cheated on her and her violent rejection would make people think that), and then tell him what she felt and perhaps tell him that if things don't change, then she'll have to break up with him. He did afterall go through a lot of trouble to get Sung Shi Kyung's (that writer must really like him to mention him twice) CD and autograph and set up the whole proposal thing. I also think that she was very selfish not to tell him how she felt, especially after he went to her place to apologise and beg her. While she may have felt that it was a one-sided love from her perspective, I think that she didn't love him enough. She though she did by saying it's okay and continually accepting his apologises, but she's not being sincere or honest.

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If there was a like button, I would like your comment. Totally agree about Da In. I hope he doesn't end up with her and finds someone else.

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What happened to the like button? :(

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As a man, I really hate Da In and women like her. Okay, so you feel neglected.. SPEAK UP WOMAN! We don't have ESP! And if you say that we suppose to know these things already then you don't know anything about the male psyche. lol

Dumping a guy because he works too much does not compute to me and dumping a guy without even telling him why was totally uncalled for. If he cheated on her or abused her then I can totally understand it.. but this??

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I totally agree. If you aren't going to at least attempt to communicate, to make a full and honest disclosure of what the issues are in a relationship from your perspective, then you can't claim that it was all the other person's fault.

Despite the best intentions, all relationships will fail without communication. She might have helped build something, but by not talking she guaranteed that they would get nowhere. And I have no sympathy for people that deliberately - through stubbornness or magical thinking or the desire to be the injured party - create failure to prove a point.

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What irks me also is that she STILL thinks that she did was ok. The way she related her story to Se-young and the other girl showed that there was no regret or remorse for what she did! It's as if she believed she did the right thing! She even had the cheek to 'help' look for a girlfriend for him! She looks so sweet and gentle and this behaviour seems so that odds with her looks.

I actually felt sorry for her and was rooting for them to get together again - but now, I'm not so sure. Poor Kwang Soo, no one deserves such humiliation and angst for working hard! Now I wish that he'll fall in love with someone else... or hope that the writer/s will make Da In realise that her actions were not right.

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It's kinda funny how they left out the part where she explains to her friends how she humiliated him in public like that. I think the writer has painted him/herself in a corner and could not write that scene without making Da In look like a total douche to her friends (especially Se Young who was actually analyzing her story objectively and giving Kwang Soo the benefit of the doubt),

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aigoooo

great comment. but imma take it one step further...and say i dislike people who do not speak their minds and mince their words.

i think women tend to overshare leaving men more likely to shut down and not speak up....

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Oh! I'm confused about something. Didn't the first kiss between Jin-gu and Se-young happen in 2012, only 2 years ago? That would make him 27 and her 24 so they must have been working at the company rather than be in college right? What am I missing here?

I thought they all knew each other from college and all girls had a crush on Jin-gu but nothing happened between them until 2 years ago. After the kiss, feeling extremely sorry and guilty Jin-gu kept thinking about Se-young and fell in love with her in about 7 months, which would make his one-sided crush 1,5 years long.

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Hmm good point. Episodes' 5 recap did say that JG kissed her when they stayed late in class to work on a project. I guess they were still in college...

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i was a bit confused too. The setting where the kiss happened looked like a classroom, but (according to the Viki subs), Jin Gu was telling his many ladies to keep their kisses secret because workplace romances were frowned on.

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Yes the kiss in 2012 was definitely when they were working. They may have gone to college together, but the kiss happened when they were working on a project for their jobs. You can see they are wearing the card passes for their work in that scene.

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They were working together when he kissed her. Notice the blue lanyard around his neck is the same one he wears today with his employee badge. He shushed the ladies to keep it a secret from their coworkers. I don't think they went to college with each other because she had to tell him she majored in Literature.

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Jin-gu is so pitiful! But he deserves it, Se Young fighting!

I understand Da In walking on KS, but really half of the problem lies in her. She kept saying 'it's ok' every time KS messed up so it's no surprise he'd continue taking her almost for granted. But OMG how come Kwang Soo was this slow?! Dude the world is not revolving around your work, you have a girlfriend!
Either way DI owes KS an explanation, I hope they'll get to talk soon.

Min-gu cracks me up. This whole destiny thing is ridiculous, but oh he is too cute. This better not be the last time we see Su-ah!

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Well I don't see how it's Kwang Soo's fault. He didn't not care, he noted the pained expression and asked about it. Lack of communication is probably one of most common idiot reasons to break up relationships since the dawn of time. He doesn't acknowledge your emotions? Tell him, woman!

Even without the benefit of hindsight, Da In messed it all up on her own. If you can't be sincere and honest to your partner, don't even get into a relationship. Serious waste of time.

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It's funny -- your comment reminded me of something I haven't thought about for years and years . . . the old priest who did the pre-marital training my Catholic Church required before my husband and I got married. Lots of parishes have multiple sessions, but he only asked for an hour -- and took about twenty minutes. Because what he had to say was (1) Husbands ... never hit her, and (2) wives, you're going to have to tell him the problem because he will never figure it out on his own. True story.

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Not sure it's fair to blame Kwang-soo for being slow (even if he was) - man had a lot going on and she didn't even try to see it from his perspective (although given, he also doesn't see hers - but he tries! He ASKS and that counts, especially when she doesn't tell - you can't say, 'he wouldn't have listened even if I told him' if you've never told him).

I just really really dislike the line of thinking where someone expects the other person to telepathically know what they want and what they're thinking all the time, especially when those things aren't even consistent. You have to be clear - not just with men, but with anyone: say what you mean, don't play mindgames and don't play coy. Just talk like a normal human being. That's why I find it difficult to sympathise with, or even much like, Da-in.

Agreed about the hilarity of Min-gu! Su-ah's definitely coming back, too much fun to mine there to let her go!

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I was expecting a big reveal about why Da ni dumped Kwang-soo so cruely and publicly, but it turned out to be a more commonly seen problem. I completely agree with Lollypip on this one,Kwang-soo did ask her over and over again,and she kept replying the same thing that she was okay.And then suddenly one day she completely lost it and then disappeared.I get that she was hurting,but she should have atleast talked to him once after the rejection,why she was dumping him instead of just disappearing.The entire relationship Da ni seems to have kept quite about her feelings about what aspects of the relationship was bothering her and even till the very end she never said anything and never once gave him an honest closure.

And Jin Gu even if he has Se Youngs heart he has a long way to go before winning over her trust.You can't build a relationship solely on love.Trust and mutual respect plays and important part too.He has to realize it before their relation can go anywhere.

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Thanks for the recap, LollyPip!

I just got around to marathoning it this weekend as well...I have to say that despite my reservations about Kim Young-kwang (and this show's problematic treatment of body size), he is nailing it and I'm most invested in his happy ending. (Also now mooore excited about Pinocchio!)

Da-in's self-righteous stance is getting to me, too - like LollyPip's pointed out, you can't keep saying 'it's okay' and then get angry and upset your words are taken at face value. Or you can, but then you also have to accept partial responsibility and forfeiting the high-ground.

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yes... that's the perfect word for it: "self-righteousness." And i sooooo hope the writers don't mean her to be the stand-in identifier for the audience. Or else, they just won't let her grow up. The whole "we love aliens" thing seems untrue to me on a very deep level. Lack of the ability to communicate has very little to do with gender. There are people of the same gender in friendships who have problems communicating with each other. I have female friends I'm always saying "yes" to because I try to please them. It's a personality thing.

So if this is going to be an easy "men and women are from different planets and speak different languages" thing"...then I'll be rolling my eyes at that too easy trope. (Small example: Mingu trying to tell Donggu that his acting is crappy and Donggu totallly not "hearing" what he is saying. Other examples: some of the workplace conversations that take place.)

There are just different ways of communication period.

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I actually feel like the show is making a more general point about everyone being aliens to each other, not necessarily along a gender divide, you know? I might be reading into it because I like that idea, but like you say, it would be 'too easy' to just call it a Venus/Mars thing (also agh that terminology). The bottom line being, for people to work together and have a healthy, reciprocal relationship, they need to speak the specific - perhaps unique - 'language' that both of them tune into.

So basically: figure out how to communicate with the person they're with.

(PS, hi Carole!)

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Oh, i hope you're right. I feared it was doing the great war of the sexes divide though. Will see.

PPS. Hi there! Long time no chat.

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Carole!!!!!

sooooo happy to see you commenting.

missed you.

/hugs

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I agree with this whole-heartedly -- we all love aliens, to some extent, whether they are our boyfriends, husbands, parent, kids, friends, whatever.

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I still wonder why a nine year old has to suffer the pangs of love's labor lost? Its like, all the "plus nine boys" have the SAME problems (like lack of communication).
But with Dong-goo, it seemed like a parody of "adult's love" and I did not take it seriously. However, lately the similarities to adulthood has been a bit too much. Its awkward and steals the fun out of childhood romance.

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I really feel for Donggu though. There are so many rejections going on in his life. In addition, he has taken a fall from a great heights. The parody is there, yes, but there is heartache. Not sure if Manin is watching this but from what I've seen from her snippets of "toddler drama" in China...kids do fall in love or have crushes. So I'm glad this drama is showing that 9 year olds have heart issues to deal with.

Right now, I'm just wanting him to not feel so cast aside and rejected. He's been a child star and now he's normal...this is a dangerous time for his ego. Hoping the show handles it well.

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I agree with LollyPip and you other commenters that the resolve of 39s past (should it be the whole resolve) was disappointing. I was waiting for some weird, but understandable reason why DaIn suddenly treated him like shit, but instead we got an insight into the underlying issue, but no real reason why it was fair of her to make him suffer for 10 years. Poor dude.
Also, I still do think that he is going to lose his job soon, so that could be a starter to get things going between the exes, though they are in desperate need of a talk.

29 is painful to watch right now, with trust being broken and SeYoung distancing herself from him again. Thing is, he already said it all, so if the wall is still up, there is nothing left to convince her with. Poor dude.

19. Hahaha. Destiny is a bitch, huh? But I do agree with @Chandler (was it?) that it is endearing how he takes destiny into his own hands instead of waiting for things to happen. No way is SooAh out of the picture, though, because the previews seem to be hinting at her being drawn back to him. Could it really be fate? Anyways, in that case the tables will be turned and he will have the upper hand! I really don't know who I'd rather see win.

And the 9s, oh, the 9s. Their miniature drama keeps the show somewhat light, so I am enjoying their little moments.

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Although I'm rooting for Jin Gu and Seyoung (love them to bits), I personally think that even in his love for Se-young, Jin Gu is still rather selfish. Even though he went all the way to confess his love for her, it was still all about him. About how difficult it was for him to tell her... at the expense of their friendship; about long he despaired. etc... he didn't see how painful it was for her to see him kissing another girl and being betrayed. (I like the way in which they each saw the betrayal car kiss differently - Jin Gu's reaction when he realised he was caught showed some concern and regret; while what Se-young saw in his expression was nonchalance and indifference.) So I was glad that she didn't give him an easy time and that he finally apologised and realised that her friendship and presence was more important than his pride.

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At the nine year old, I just laughed. I must not be a good person.

At the 19 year old, I just shook my head. Teenagers...

At the 29 year old, I just want to smack him upside the head. Even after the apology. Dude, what are you apologising for? For confessing? For being "greedy"? You ass. What about the sincere apology that she deserved for that lie-kiss?

At the 39 year old, I can only sigh. I don't care how upset she was, what she did was unbelievable. If that's all to her story, I'm not sympathising with her at all. She had so many chances to blow up at him. She held it in so many times when it was just the two of them but when it was in front of so many, she basically ripped him apart. After that smack down, she had so many chances to explain to him. He was literally begging to see her, to talk to her. But no. She sits in her room alone and cries at his wails. If she expected him to know about how she feels with nothing more than the air he breathes, then shouldn't the reverse hold true, that she should know how much he was working for her, that he cannot delve and recognise her real feelings well, be super sensitive to her every action because he's operating on negative sleep credits? If she had told him what her problem was, and he was still MIA, then yes, walk away. But if that was the entirety of her story, I cannot side with her at all. I just can.not. Kwang Soo didn't make her lonely. She made herself lonely.

Mom continues to crack me up with her extreme superstitious believes.

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Mom's superstitiousness is not considered extreme in asia!! It is very real!

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9 and mom: so many issues, but the most important one is that he is being babied by the mom... mom is not telling him that his acting sucks and therefore helping him to improve, everyone else sees it but as long as his mom is there covering for him and telling him that things are okay when they arent, then things will keep going downhill for him. Also mom needs to toughen up, i feel like she spends so much time focusig on her kids and their bad luck and her superstitions that she isnt taking the time for herself....this may end up backfiring on her...

19: boy needs to wake up n smell the roses...also hormones!

29: ugh Jin-gu, my heart feels for u but m on se young's side...u did her dirty and even though u guys became friends u never apologozed. i think ther Jin-gu apologizing is the first step towards them being together, the next step is that office chick...i think her feelings towards Jin-gu make make se young realize that her feelings are still there and that pretending that they arent really isnt helping anyone especially poor Jae bum who likes her.... plus that last scene broke my heart! UGH! but i wonder what Jin Gu is gonna do now that they are back to being "friends"...

39: both parties are at fault, more on Da-In...communication is key...u cant break up with a guy and then expect him to know the reason why u did when u didnt even speak to him or give him any clues as to what u were feeling!

Cant wait to see what happens in future episodes...the preview looks interesting!!

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yeah, 9 and 19 are both in severe need of a reality check or at least an ego deflation lol.

I would personally like to see the brothers (and uncle) spend more time together, they have a really nice rapport and chemistry that they don't always have with their female leads.

As for 29.....I would love his story to death if it was a novel (friends falling in love is a trope bias of mine) but somehow I'm not feeling any actual sparks between the actors? They have a really nice chemistry as friends, but for a romance, I get very little, especially from her end (him, I have no complaints about as an actor even if I don't like the type of characters he plays)

39: totally agree with you there. He took her for granted, and she expected him to read her mind. Hopefully they find a way to work past that.

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Thanks for the recap. Totally with you on the whole Da-In response. Although I do think that men can be jerks at times..well, generally, I don't like the idea of men always being blamed for "not understanding" women. I take the "we love aliens" title to mean we "men and women" love aliens (the other) and not just that women are so preciously different and fragile. If there is "fault" to be found and not just an "oh well, we communicate differently" then that should mean that the women are also "at fault" for not trying to understand.

I understand that the fortuneteller could be wrong or there could be some kind of verbal trick about only one of these guys getting true love in their 9th year so I'm holding out for at least two of our heroes getting love.
I'm totally on board with Min Gu although he is so desperately in love/delusion about her that he is into annoying stalker/crush territory. Am thinking the Da In think is old and over...all they need is to hash out the past then move on without each other. He needs to know so he can move on with a clear plate.

Same for our 29 year old. I'm being a bit cold here but just once, just once, I'd like to see the third female lead or someone totally seen from the corner of one's eye get the hero..a sudden surprise to both the audience, the hero, and the heroine. Not heroine, not the pushy second lead girl but someone else we hadn't thought of. I hate all these closed love circles/triangles.

Poor little Dong-gu looked so devastated. He has to drop his mom as a teacher. That's the relationship that needs repairing or some kind of tweaking. Mom'll be a bit hurt when she realizes what she's doing to his career. He is not Little Cutie anymore. She can't encase his youth or babyhood in cement. She has to let him grow up and stop infantilizing him. Aigoo!

Thanks for the recap.

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I felt very angry at Da In. I understand what she was feeling and get why she snapped but at that moment when he bawled outside her door and begged her to tell him what he did wrong....She should have opened the door or call or text or email. How can she disregard the feelings of someone she claimed to love so coldly? I agree with you Lollypip, she wasn't communicating either and every girl knows that unless you clearly tell a man something he just won't get it. I was incredibly frustrated and disappointed after hearing her side. And after meeting him again, I think she should be the one to apologize. I wish he wouldn't even look at her again.

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Agree with everyone else on Da In...I'm completely unsympathetic

I like the idea of a third party in the Seyoung and Jin Gu situation. He did mess up (though I'm like...it was a kiss and they weren't dating but okay) and they are going back to friends so he should make the effort to move on and meet someone awesome. She clearly still has feelings for him but nothing will happen until some external catalyst comes into play.

Mingu and the girl...a player and a delusional destiny kid...see what happens LOL

The 9 Year Olds...a new acting school would be good

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I personally am happy that we finally found out why Da-in and Kwang-soo split, and frankly I'm happy with the reason. I was expecting something big and unrealistic instead we get the truth, women and men communicate differently. Does that excuse Da-in's cold and frankly cruel behavior, other than the fact I believe all my fellow males who propose publicly should be beaten, not really. We live in a global society where men are praised for being tough, emotionally distant, surface oriented and berated for being anything else. So to think that Kwang-soo could see through her words was honestly kind of dumb on Da-in's part she should have just spoken up.

The preview implied that Su-ah misses her dopey stalker when he's not there and that makes me sad.

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I really don't know if men and women communicate that differently. Da In was an extreme of silent suffering. Se Young obviously was not. And although it's unclear if Se Young went silent or uncommunicative with our 29 year old, he obviously understood her back then. So what's the big deal about that?

We have two instances... in one we have a man kneeling an saying sorry and in another we have a man who doesn't say sorry.

In one instance we have a girl playing with a guy...and the guy is clueless but his friends are not clueless at all. They know she's trying to get away from our 19 year old.

As for Baek Ji and Donggu, it's clear that Min Joo is saying what our little starlet wants to hear...and that Min Joo doesn't have the big "I'm a celebrity" ego that Donggu has. (At least not yet.)

So I don't buy the "men and women speak different languages." People simply hear what they want to hear.

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<men and women communicate that differently

I don't buy it either. It's pop-psychology. For airport bookshop bestsellers. x_x

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LOL! Yep...had to laugh out loud there. I always love your cynicism. And true... it does feel like deeply-shallow psychology.

I will try to bend over backwards sometimes. Maybe women of Da In's era in Korea are more trained to give in to their men and to hide their feelings yadda yadda. But we weren't even shown why she is such a personality-hider. And let us not forget that there is a possibility that she and her husband grew apart for the same reason that she and Kwang Soo broke up. We're dealing with a silent sufferer who never speaks up. What husband -- even one with good will-- could endure having to be a mind-reader for so long? This trait of hers might very well be at fault in the breakup of her marriage. If she realizes this, there might be some realization of her fault in messing up her relationships.

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My cynicism then makes me asks if she broke up with her husband for the same reason, why is she is 99% more likely to have be otp-ed (yes, I just made that into a verb) with her ex of 10 years rather than her ex-husband with whom she even has a kid?

Well, whatever it is... I hope they realise the mistakes they (possibly repeatedly) make in relationships and move on. Yes, move on.

But if she's a silent sufferer, wouldn't she be a silent sufferer in friendships / family situations too? I mean, if that's truly it, I would expect it to affect more than just intimate relationships she had with men. (I'm just thinking aloud now.)

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cross out the "have" before "be opt-ed".... O_O

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Omo!!! Omo!!! Great minds think alike! I was thinking this as well. She feared loneliness with him but she is the one who makes herself lonely.

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I'm waiting to see how she deals with her friends. She might just do this kind of thing with men. Right now we have all these female characters in a vacuum. With no parents around to see how they ended up as they are. I know it's a drama and we don't need to know what these folks' family backgrounds were but if they're not gonna show family backgrounds and if they ARE going to go with "we all communicate differently and we have to learn how to communicate" they better show some reason why people develop different communication styles. Give me a flashback right now.

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I have a tendency to type and post things before I fully think things through. Certainly leads to communication problems. Anyways upon further thought it's not so much men and women communicate differently but everyone does. Two people of either sex can be standing or sitting around having a conversation about what they think is the same thing but really they're all talking about different things. So no one ever has a clue what anyone else is talking about. At least that's how I choose to view the world, it explains so much.

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Couldn't stand watching the last two episodes and read the recaps instead, and now I'm steering clear of the series all together. Jeesh what a load of bull!

And here I thought there had been something particularly tragic or hurtful in the past of the two older leads, but it turned out to be a lot of fluff. Are these people really so fragile?

Da-In is the most unforgivable, after pretending everything is a-ok and never speaking her mind, she just goes all out and humiliates him at his most vulnerable moment in public? Kwangsoo should loathe her for it and would be justified to do so. I have no sympathy for this whole "men and women speak in different languages' bullshit. There's no reason why women can't be forthright about their feelings, and no earthly way they'd be understood otherwise. I'm guessing it comes from a cultural baggage of women always needing to be silent and self-effacing and needing to put their men's feelings first, that these bizarre gender roles get assigned, but they should be challenged and broken in the 21st century, not further nurtured by justifying the crap that individuals suffer because of it.

As for Se-Young, jeez that woman, as her friend mentions, has her head in the clouds how can you be so hung up over one kiss from the past and why so serious about dating as to cold-shoulder a best friend? Either say yes or no clearly and continue with your lives why all this drama and tragedy over absolutely nothing. Are these people prepubescents who've learnt about love from shoujo manga? If she wants to be alone and not be with either of the guys, it's fine and she can say so and continue as ever and they'll deal with their feelings too in time. If she's interested then go ahead. Why all this torture of self and others it's not like her life-partner cheated on her or anything #__#

And the worst is probably the horrific miniature adults the kids are portrayed to be. I don't find it cute at all. I find it scary. If little kids are made to be so poised and self-conscious in that society it's no wonder the adults are a dishonest mess.

Man the whole show makes me claustrophobic... despite how much I liked the premise I can't continue with this drama for my own sanity =.=

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It does have me wondering where silence becomes spite. The writers seem to be saying that Da In's woundedness was a good thing and she herself was wounded when she wounded our 39 year old but either the actress is not playing the role well or the character is too self-pitying/self-righteous. Women should not expect men to be mind readers. Friends of whatver sex should not expect each other to be mindreaders.

And you're so right about the angst. But in drama, love goes on foreeeeeeeeeeeever. I think in real life, we can have a crush for maybe 10 years. So I'm willing to go with it. But even then... the angst is a bit much.

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<Couldn’t stand watching the last two episodes and read the recaps instead, and now I’m steering clear of the series all together. Jeesh what a load of bull!

<And here I thought there had been something particularly tragic or hurtful in the past of the two older leads, but it turned out to be a lot of fluff. Are these people really so fragile?

No, not so fragile but they just don't communicate. Or they get hurt by a total-jerk-move and still become besties with that person and half-flirt with them, rather keeping a distance from the player. Few want to date a player, so rejection is understandable, but why develop a close, ambiguous friendship after having being hurt? And then get upset when he kisses you again? Cut him out of your life (and not in a childish I'm-building-a-wall-with-tissue-boxes manner) or acknowledge you like him despite being flirtatious with other girls. (My sympathy lies with neither Se-young or Jin-gu I'm afraid. I agree with Carole, this is where it would be nice if completely different people ended up with what we know to be the not-so-true OTP.)

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Yeah, it is a bit iffy to have a flirty relationship. I understand she's thinking it's best to imagine him as flirty but the extreme reaction means that she's been liking him all along. So if she has been liking him and has been hiding her feelings, what the heck was he supposed to do to show he liked her? Maybe something other than kiss her?

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Honestly, I don't understand either one of them.

I think she sends the wrong signals and then gets mad, if I were in her situation I would have not become a close friend after such a jerk-ass move. Mainly because as much as I wouldn't want a player-boyfriend, I also wouldn't want a player-close-friend because that's just not a quality I admire in anyone! I could handle acquaintance level with polite interaction, but talking on the phone all the time? Going home on the bus together? Eating together? Cracking an egg on his head (which was purely to tease him = flirting)?

But she likes him. What does she actually want? I have no clue. I'm sure if he suddenly disappeared, she'd be wallowing in misery. But if he reappeared she'd ignore him or shout "I hate guys like you".

What should he do? I would say, cut your losses, move on, grow up and start your next relationship with a clean slate. Since he's going to stick to her... well, if he were mature, he'd stop all his flirting. He'd have a serious talk with her and apologise and maybe ask her what he would need to do to prove his sincere feelings (is that realistic? not really). I have no clue what he should do either, since I have no clue what she would want (in that sense she's sort of like Da-in, because although she says what she wants, she doesn't actually say what she really wants). Whatever the scenario, forcing a kiss on her is not a good idea.

Are they really 29? (Her a bit younger I guess.) I feel like it's a teenage relationship they have got, the sort that never works out in the end.

I don't know. X_X

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IT's funny...when the fortuneteller said only one guy would get his girl, I felt this terrible sorrow..like "NO!!!!!! Let them all get their love!" Because I'm a wuss like that. But as the drama progresses I'm really questioning the stupid premise that just because you love someone you HAVE to get them. Heck, even I need to get a good shake to have that romantic part of me knocked out. If the universe/destiny/normal life splits up these couples, I've grown enough to think... "ah well, too bad." But I don't think I'll be as sad as I thought I would be. Feelings of bittersweetness, perhaps. But not sadness. Sometimes it's only the unrequired love lasts forever...and maybe that's what one or two of these guys will have to deal with. And I'm good with that.

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yes, Carol, dramas seem to have spoiled us in that effect :D we want love to come through, however sadistic or abusive the guy was in the beginning or however dumb the girls is by the end. ... Drama-happy-ends are a weird affair.

At first I was certain that the drama would find a way around the premise, so that everyone would be happy by the end. Now I want everyone to be happy, but not necessarily with each other.
The only pairing I will accept for the LOLs is 19/SooAh, because it would be pure irony and I like stuff like that.
The others just need to learn and MOVE ON (I'm looking at you, 39!)

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@alua:

I don't know, I think in this way, Se-young isn't really atypical in how she behaves: because her feelings are complicated and conflicting she has a hard time being consistent. On the one hand, she really likes him, on the other, she doesn't trust him or believe he can be sincere. But because she can't handle her own feelings, she's trying to find a middle way that answers all her problems: how to keep him in her life but also protect herself from being hurt? It's a little like the line Jin-gu repeats, about this being 'the right distance'. In her mind, she found the right distance by keeping him close as a friend, but shutting the door on anything more...and as for the mixed signals, I think that's when she just can't help herself. But she tells herself it's nothing. So does he, to be fair: at this point, they're both harbouring a one-sided love for each other at the same time.

But then you wrote this, and nailed it:
"I feel like it’s a teenage relationship they have got, the sort that never works out in the end."
(except of course it will work out!)

I don't think that kiss counts as forced, btw - unexpected, but it was clear he was going for it long enough for her to nix it, but she didn't.

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Oh, I don't think her behaviour is necessarily atypical. She's just behaving in a way that I can't blame anyone getting confused because she's confusing! "I hate you! You're the worst kind of guy" + "Come here! Come closer! Closer! *crack an egg on his head*" = ?#$#^%

<In her mind, she found the right distance by keeping him close as a friend, but shutting the door on anything more…

I don't think so. Because she's still conflicted, she was already conflicted before he confessed. She hasn't figured out what the right distance is at all. And she isn't shutting the door. If he's a serious flirt (and player), then you don't lead that kind of person on. At all. Well, I don't, because serious flirts and players get into your space and I personally find that threatening/creepy. So I remove myself from such situations long before it gets to that point.

<and as for the mixed signals, I think that’s when she just can’t help herself. But she tells herself it’s nothing.

Well, I think people can help those things, occasional slip ups allowed of course. She might tell herself it's nothing, but she doesn't act like it's nothing. She needs to be honest with her herself, and then she needs act upon that by giving a relationship with him a sincere shot or by moving on and distancing herself properly. You can't have everything. Or take for granted that people will exactly understand what you want if you send mixed signals or do exactly what you want.

<I don’t think that kiss counts as forced, btw

Okay, "trying to kiss her" then. Not a good idea in this scenario when they need to clear up some things first.

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> She hasn't figured out what the right distance is at all.
Oops, I meant she thinks she's figured it out, but of course it's not right at all, given that it isn't actually working.

> If he's a serious flirt (and player), then you don't lead that kind of person on.
In a sense, she doesn't, because whenever he makes overt advances (in 'jest'), she cuts him off. It's just that the rest of the time, she doesn't seem to keep her guard up, which I suppose is what allows the close friendship to begin with, maybe because she makes the switches in her head (from 'player' to 'friend') in an outwardly arbitrary way, which keeps everybody confused.

I know it's not how you should do things in real-life terms, but that's not necessarily what I'm expecting from dramaland. It's more about looking at what characters do and dissecting their actions into motives that make sense: like, 'is there a way to explain this?' That's all I'm doing here! If there's a way it can make sense, however much I like or dislike it, I can go along with it. If dramas looked like real life, they would be...I don't even know. More boring? More sensible? More insane but with less amnesia? Who knows!

> She needs to be honest with her herself, and then she needs act upon that by giving a relationship with him a sincere shot or by moving on and distancing herself properly.
Exactly, this. This is the heart of the matter, really, isn't it? It's too early for it to have happened already, but I would say this is the endgame for Se-young's character evolution.

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Well, it seems like she is just torturing herself. Clearly she wants him and yet she knows he's bad for her so she doesn't want him. She's an addict and he's her drug. She should have quit cold turkey instead of letting him hang around her social circle. lol

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oooh, Aigoooo, cold but true. Of course love and addiction are often synonymous in dramas and in real life

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Thanks for the recap!

I really really want to see Park Chorong going all wacko on 19..The whole hilarity of her 360 turn- it'd been so much better had the show kept the momentum..

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that's it. i'm only going to be reading girlfriday's recaps of this and none of the comments anymore-__-
the way that some people are blaming seyoung or da-in is pissing me off. what i like about the series is that it presents each side of the story equally, so you can see it from their point of view without siding on one or the other. for me, se young and jin gu's views are equally understandable, and da-in and kwang-soo's pain as well.
they were college students. that doesn't automatically absolve them, but da-in may not have had extensive dating experience prior to her relationship to him, or was simply introverted and reserved with her feelings, even around him. she understood that she was busy, and she didn't want to be selfish, so she kept it inside. but like she told seyoung, she felt that she was going to be lonely if she was with that person. she even referenced briefly her young age at that time, if i remember correctly. she bottled it in inside until she finally burst, because how could she marry someone who made her feel like this? she was too tired, couldn't handle it anymore so she just shut him out as a defense mechanism. i understand kwang-soo's pain and inability to move on, because he never had closure, and i really love his character...but i also sympathize with da-in, and i think all this hate towards her is unwarranted.

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They were young and inexperienced and in that sense I can certainly see them making mistakes like that. But what I find much harder to relate to is that 10 years on neither seems to have really moved on nor have an inkling about what on their part might have led to them breaking up. I think Da-in was right not to want to marry someone that didn't "get" her the way she needed, but did she ever ask herself "Was there anything I did that might, just might, have contributed to this?" Kwang-soo seems to be just as clueless, like 10 years of life experience taught him nothing, allowed him not to mature one bit (in that case, Da-in – run! run!).

I don't understand the inability to move on after 10 years. You don't need someone else to give you closure, you make the decision to move on. You struggle, it's difficult for some months, maybe even a year or two but it gets better, little by little. If you're still stuck on someone after years of no-contact, I think you are making a choice to wallow in your misery.

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I think he was traumatized by it and has spent the past years doubting himself. So it's not really wallowing. He wasn't thinking of her on a conscious level but the PTSD was there..he was greatly affected by what seemed like sudden cruelty. And even now, it never occurs to him to say, "What the heck? Maybe Da In was the screwed up one!!!!" He has spent all this time thinking he was to blame. And she -- of course-- has spent all this time moving on and thinking of herself as the one who suffered.

I am seriously looking forward to some kind of twist and enlightenment slapping Da In and Kwang Soo hard in the face.

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It's TEN years. If he's traumatised for TEN years because someone dumped him (even in public, even in such a forceful manner), I feel like he has some serious issues (the kind that even if he finally found out "the reason" would not be resolved because they would be so deeply ingrained in him).

Is there nothing else in his life for ten years? Does he not have friends that say to him "You did wrong?" or "Da-in's the one that screwed up"?

What if he had never run into her again in his life?

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I need to add that obviously I need to stop approaching dramas in such a real-life manner because in the drama world of course it would never happen that he wouldn't run into the-one-that-traumatised-him again.

And I need to stop watching and reading the recaps of this particular drama, because it's just going to drive me insane. I still think it has an interesting premise, but the execution just messes with my head too much.

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Maybe "traumatised" is the wrong word. But let's just say ..this incident is always at the back of his head and it makes him very wary.

Am not sure when the other women popped up in his life? Did he love his other exes before or after Da In? Or was she just the great-might-have-been?

He hadn't been thinking of her (i think) until the fortuneteller put that in his mind that (this year?) the only possibility was one of his exes.

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Yes, It's TEN years! And people have suffered longer for less. Da In was the love of his life, the woman he was finally prepared to marry - it wasn't that she just turned him down - she humiliated him publicly when he was at his most vulnerable and when he was the most expectant. And she didn't just say "No I can't marry you" - she hit him over the head with the bouquet of flowers that he had bought for her in front of hundreds of people. Then when he apologised, begged and pleaded with her, she ignored him completely. Whenever, male or female, that's A LOT of emotional and psychological damage. He doesn't even know what he did wrong and for ten years he thinks that it's his fault. Not only that, you can see that even his friends aren't sympathetic - they are merely curious. And what about the people who were at the public proposal? What would they think of him? Probably. like many of us - that he had messed up big time and betrayed her for her to have such a reaction. How can he have another relationship?

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Hmmm.. I dunno what his dating track record was post Da In but it seems like he was a dating machine pre Da In so, yeah, I think he's been traumatized a bit. I wouldn't blame him for developing "serious issues" though. He got mind-f****d hard. lol

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@alua He only started thinking of it seriously when she reappeared. If you recall, he was ready to move on again but seeing her again reopened an old wound so it's not like he spent the entire time bowling over her. I actually like that it's not a case of him shedding tears 'kdrama style' but rather the curiosity is killing him and he just wants to knooooow. I wish I could go through the screen and tell him.

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Lol ok bye.

Jkjk.

I tried understanding da in but shes really someone id avoid in real life. Even as a friend. Even as an introvert id appreciate it more if she just dumped him if shes not comfortable with it. She doesnt have to hit him with a bouquet. Just walk away from the scene, it would be humiliating enough. I feel like shes one of those annoying people (no gender spec) that want the world to understand her without trying to understand others perspective. Her saying ok all the time i dont see it as understanding. I see it as giving up on the relationship.

While for seyoung. I lub her. And 29 doesnt deserve her as of now. Guy needs to suffer first.

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I love Se Young too -- and the best part of Jin Goo right now is that he loves her too -- instead of someone like club bimbo. Now he just has do some real work to win her.

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I am totally convinced that Da In did this with her marriage as well. At least I hope this is where the writers go. She is very stand-off-ish perfect self-righteous...and that can really get in the way. It's not just about communication styles. It's about seeing yourself as such a patient person dutifully, nobly, putting up with another person. It's a kind of noble toleration of another and if the other person notices or notices they're wrong either way. So anyone in a relationship with Da In is either going to be clueless that she is hurt or annoyed as heck that she is thinking of herself as some selfless patient tolerator of their wrongs. I for one refuse to be tolerated by someone like that. Honestly, if you don't speak your mind..who will? And I think she wrongly puts people in the position of reading her mind while she actively deceives them about what she actually thinks.

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Right now, I'm finding 9 and 19's stories incredibly amusing.

And Dong-gu's love triangle......I wonder if the writers of this drama have been stalking Manin on the Open Thread, because this is pretty much Kdrama: Toddler Style in an actual kdrama lol

(Lee Chae-mi is such a charming and natural child actress though, she's captured my heart ever since Two Weeks, the kid is ADORABLE)

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LOL! Totally agree with everything you said. That is one precious little girl! And yes, the writers have definitely been stalking Manin's posts.

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Id've had trouble believing it without Manin's weekly toddler-regalings! Then again, I remember being 9 as extremely complicated, and my then-best-friend getting upset about people interfering in her love-life -- the first time I ever heard that phrase (and I thought it was a joke totally made up by her drama-queen-ness).

The actor for Dong-gu isn't really working for me - he makes it hard to buy in that his acting feels stilted and awkward. The Do Min-joon kid is easier, and of course Lee Chae-mi outshines them all because she is awesome.

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I don't get the whole "bad acting" angle. I understand that he is older now and they see him as not being cute anymore but what the heck did he do back then when he was still in demand? Was he never asked to act at all and just showed up and be cute? I think it would have worked better if they just concentrated more on him being an extreme little diva and people getting fed up with it rather than convincing us that he is a bad actor.

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Yeah, the "bad actor" angle I find questionable as well because he's so atrociously bad that I can't buy that he ever got a role in the past either (yet supposedly he had roles in important projects), regardless of how cute he looked. That kind of acting just doesn't ever fly!

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Me too, it's way overdone without a good explanation (like, he quit acting because he started getting stage fright). Why did he quit for a while, anyway?
And another thing - isn't a 9 in Korea/8 in the West-yr old awfully old to be without his front teeth? The show seems a bit confused about math: the 39 yr olds broke up 10 yrs ago but look like they just got out of college. The 29 yr olds had their "incident" 2 yrs ago but, again, seemed like they were in college. I dunno.

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9 yrs old in Korea is actually 8. And being a mother of 4 children, I'll testify that you can lose your front teeth at 8. Some children lose them earlier between 5 - 6, others later, between 7 - 8.

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I think he never needed to actually act before - he could just smile and look cute and maybe wave. The show's made it clear that he isn't 'cute' because of losing his front teeth, so he can't rely on his face anymore, therefore to maintain his celeb status quo, he needs to start earning it.

But the way it's being done is just making me wonder if his character a) has reading problems, b) is really so oblivious that he can't tell the difference between his horrible renditions and the other kids', and c) who's going to break it to him that he can't act and his attitude sucks?

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I'm with Saya, probably all he had to do when he was younger, was smile and wave - the speech part appears to be what is tripping him up. (reading problems? Doesn't look like it)

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he seemed to have majored in "baby talk" but now that he's older...he has to move away from that and start communicating as a 9 year old.

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Ever wonder if this is Na PD's story?
Kwangsoo = Na PD
He took over variety shows for tvN, wouldn't be surprised if he has a hand in this show too.

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awesome~~! Thanks Lollypip for the recap. Hope you are feeling better..

I think it is the same throughout all the ages, and the saying is always true - men are from mars and women are from venus. just like the last sentence:

“We’re all in love with aliens.”

why? because we are different, and we need to spend the time with each other to know and understand each other, but unless there is the communication or openness then there is really no understanding.

I can understand the women sitting back and not communicating why they are upset.. but when you tell someone you are not upset and you really are that just compounds the issue.

I know in the past whenever I have done something wrong, the response is always go figure out for yourself what I have done wrong.. which causes me more headache - thinking too much..

the good thing about this approach is that it makes me consider things from their perspective. if I was simply told the reason why I was wrong then it would be in one ear and out the other (typical male.. LOL).. but if I thought about it myself then I would appreciate what the other person was feeling.. and I wouldn't be called selfish.. downside as I said is the headaches.. and the frustration of trying to think why I was wrong.

actually there is no right or wrong answer.. everybody is different.. and every relationship is unique.. there should always be a little bit of give or take from both parties. and the more time you spend with each other the more you understand..

but holding someone at ransom because of their past deeds isn't always the best solution.. time changes people.. and guys tend to mature over a long long long time.. like a good bottle of whiskey.

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Unrequited confessions, without fail, ruin friendships. I weep for the friendship they once had. Even though after learning what he did to her, he is (momentarily) dead to me, but the Great Wall of China pains me nonetheless. Things will never be same between them. He has lost his best friend for good. The umbrella is the sweetest, most saddest thing ever. Please just quit this god-awful job. His boss makes my blood boil. Perhaps if he quits, absence would make the heart grow fonder.

Kwang Soo seriously has the worst luck out of all the boys. Again caught in his boxers in front of the girl he can't get over. With Da In letting the girls in on her story, I suspect Se Young will unintentionally tell Jin Gu who will intentionally tell his uncle. Then in return, Da In will tell Jin Gu that Se Young likes him.

When Min Gu's friends guessed Su Ah would choose the first floor, that is exactly what I would choose. It's not destiny when your friends are helping you cheat. The 9-year-olds' story line is getting ridiculous, but their Lovers in Paris spoof made me laugh.

Thanks for the recap, LollyPip!

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I feel like the reason for Da In's reaction is more than what is shown. Am I the only one thinking that the reason she left him like that is because she found out she was pregnant and didn't want to hinder his work life? I'm not too sure about this theory though because the daughter looks younger than ten.

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I think it was made clear in the previous episode that the girl can't be his daughter, she is only four. Thank God for that...

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If this was all it was for Da In to go crazy on Kwang soo, then i want to him to reach a point when he moves past her and doesnt even need to know what happened to what they once had. It's too much to not verbalise and then humiliate the boyfriend but worse of all, to not allow him any closure by communicating at least the reason for it. That was just too cruel. I hope he ends up with the main scriptwriter coz i thought perhaps, that was where they were headed.

As for jin gu, am glad he decided on wanting the friendship and found a way to express that. I was wondering how that was going to be resolved seeing that se young was so closed off to him after the confession.

Still pretty great drama and really looking forward to the next epsiodes. Love love!!

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I meant i thought that was where the writers might be heading later.

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