One More Happy Ending: Episode 4

by LollyPip

It doesn’t take much for a person’s emotions to get tangled up until they don’t know what they’re feeling in the first place, especially when they haven’t dated in over a decade. And on the flip side, flitting from one relationship to another can get you just as twisted up, if you never take a break to figure out if your feelings are real. Either way, nobody is approaching relationships in a healthy way, so how could they possibly understand when love is right in front of them?

EPISODE 4 RECAP

Backstage, just before an elementary school production of Romeo and Juliet. A girl buys an apple from a fellow student that’s supposedly coated with a substance that will make whoever eats it very sick. The girl vows that with this apple, she won’t have to see “him” kiss “her,” and that she’ll soon be playing the role of Juliet.

Something creepy and dark crosses the girl’s face as she approaches little Soo-hyuk, and tells him that this apple grants wishes to the person who eats it. He sniffs at that, but takes a bite when she shoves it in his mouth. So of course, when Romeo goes to kiss his Juliet, his stomach grumbles and he runs offstage to throw up, leaving Mi-mo alone onstage and humiliated.

Soo-hyuk trails Mi-mo home guiltily after school, but she’s not interested in his apology. She yells at him not to follow her, because kids are always teasing her that he’s going to throw up on her. Later Soo-hyuk tries to bring her flowers, but he sees her walking to school with another boy, and it breaks his little heart.

Now it’s happening all over again, and Soo-hyuk watches in disbelief as his best friend tells Mi-mo that he wants to date her. She’s confused, reminding him that he said she wasn’t attractive enough to get into a love triangle with his best friend, but Hae-joon just counters that it won’t be a love triangle, so… no problem. He teases her a bit for not understanding what he’s saying, and when she asks him to pinch her, he instead pulls her into a hug.

Moments too late, Soo-hyuk doesn’t stay to watch, and shuffles away dejectedly. He drives home in a daze, remembering how he stupidly told Hae-joon that he wasn’t interested in Mi-mo. His frustration turns to anger at himself, and he slams the steering wheel with his hand over and over.

Mi-mo asks Hae-joon when he fell for her, but he just says it’s a secret. He thinks back to his high school days, when a friend had begged him to go to the Angels’ comeback performance. He’d been dragged there against his will, but one look at the adorable Mi-mo and it was all over.

The next morning Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo find themselves in the same elevator, and Soo-hyuk gets all petulant when Mi-mo acts like it’s no big deal to see him. She notes his annoyance, and he grumbles that he’s just balancing out her overly-good mood, heh. He criticizes her heavy-handed makeup, and succeeds in getting her to fight with him.

Mi-mo refrains from smacking him, since he did her a favor last night, but she declines to elaborate. She flounces off to her car, but Soo-hyuk isn’t finished being petty and jumps in with her. He demands she do him a favor in return, and bums a lift to work.

He’s really in an awful mood, and everything Mi-mo does ticks him off. He says that he’s just realized he has a very cranky side to himself, and that he’s no different from other men. Even if he doesn’t want something, he doesn’t want anyone else to have it.

Mi-mo agrees that that’s the worst kind of man, because they end up hurting women. She advises him to let the whoever-she-is go if he doesn’t want her. HA, Soo-hyuk looks like fire is about to shoot from his eyeballs and incinerate her head. He snaps that “she” isn’t hurt at all.

He’s literally grinding his teeth in fury, but he adorably perks up like an eager puppy when Mi-mo says she has something to tell him. Mi-mo enjoys withholding whatever it is, which obviously tortures him. It makes Soo-hyuk yell, distracts her enough that she nearly hits a pedestrian, and now they’re both yelling.

Soo-hyuk finally blows, asking if she’s already forgotten what she was doing two nights ago and then last night, calling her a pervert. But Mi-mo has managed to justify her actions of the past few days to herself, convincing herself that the only sincere thing she’s done was her confession to Hae-joon.

Soo-hyuk ends up ranting to himself about Mi-mo, and his photographer Hyun-gi sits with him. He’s exhausted with the new baby, and Soo-hyuk says it wasn’t up to him when to have one, it’s up to someone else (meaning the mother). He asks if he looks old enough to be the father of a thirteen-year-old, and Hyun-gi is all, Yep, you look awful. Ha.

Dong-mi fishes for a response from the sexy oven-seller by messaging him that there’s no manual, with no luck. She’s so fixated on coupling up that she’s even jealous of her elementary school students and their cute little boyfriends, and makes the whole class arrange their seats by gender.

Mi-mo is ridiculously happy to tell Da-jung that the ER doctor asked her out, bragging that she can always find a new man quickly. Da-jung agrees that she’s not normal, ha. They make plans to get a cervical cancer screening the following day, and plan to take Dong-mi along with them.

Mi-mo has another interveiw with a potential client, this time an older man who wants badly to have a child. When she suggests marrying a woman who already has a child he gets huffy, insisting that he must have a son with his DNA to be a man. Wow, how about no. Mi-mo thinks that many older, divorced men are like this, desperate to leave their legacy in the world.

When the ladies go for their checkup, Mi-mo can’t help but notice all the pregnant couples in the waiting room. She covers up by claiming how happy she is to see that “Married” has been added as an option on the health forms. They get their checkups, and a doctor asks Da-jung if she’s ever noticed lumps in her breasts. Uh-oh.

After their appointments, the friends sneak a peek at Hae-joon while he’s working, and someone notices them staring — it’s the student who wrote Hae-joon the flowery poetry. She boldly announces that she plans to marry him in two years when she’s an adult, and Mi-mo gets into an argument with the girl over whether it’s even possible.

Ever the supportive friend, Dong-mi muses that Mi-mo probably can’t compete with that girl — she’s younger, could bear children easily, and has a generous figure. But Mi-mo bolsters herself with the knowledge that the girl won’t be an adult for two more years, so she has two years to get Hae-joon locked down.

The girl works her magic on Hae-joon at her appointment — well, at least she tries, but he’s completely disinterested. He even tells her that all women under 25 feel like little sisters to him, making her wail that her migraine is back.

Ae-ran reveals her pregnancy to Da-jung and asks her advice, and the pragmatic Da-jung tells her that how she feels about marrying Dong-bae doesn’t really matter anymore. She’s carrying his child, which means she’s been sleeping with him. Da-jung admits that she’s feeling judgmental about Ae-ran, which is at least honest, I guess.

She tells Ae-ran that since she wasn’t careful, now she has to be responsible for the baby. If she came here looking for help finding a doctor to do an abortion, she’s come to the wrong place. Ae-ran says that she’d at least hoped Da-jung would feel sympathy for her.

It turns out that Da-jung had a lot of trouble getting pregnant, which is why she’s so unsympathetic to Ae-ran’s accidental pregnancy. From her point of view life is a blessing, and she says matter-of-factly that if Ae-ran makes the “wrong” decision, they can’t be friends anymore.

Something makes Da-jung go home and take a pregnancy test of her own, but it comes out negative. She sinks with disappointment then bursts into tears, and has a small but loud tantrum that has Geun-hak knocking on the door in worry.

Mi-mo narrates that Da-jung was the first of the friends to get married, and that her husband’s family was so well-off that he never had to work. But they pressured her to give him a son, and she grew more and more anxious as years went by with no baby. They finally went to a doctor, and were told it would be very difficult to conceive.

They’d tried drastic medical intervention for nearly two years, and finally Da-jung gave up and asked for a divorce. Geun-hak had fought against the idea, saying that he was happy with just her, but Da-jung said she was miserable with the pressure from his family. She’d even been willing to let him have a baby with someone else, but of course he wouldn’t hear of it.

So they gave up trying, and the very next month, a miracle happened. Now they have a young son, Tae-yong, who is the light of Da-jung’s life. But something isn’t right, and the boy seems deeply miserable about something.

Dong-mi sends another text to the hottie who sold her the oven, claiming it’s not working right, and this time he answers. He even offers to buy her dinner to apologize, and she does the Happy Dance of Joy right there at her desk.

Mi-mo shops for something to cook for Hae-joon, and when she gets home, she sees Soo-hyuk’s son Min-woo locked out of their apartment. She’s never met him before and is surprised to learn that he lives here, but she gives him money to buy a new battery for the door lock.

He mentions his dad, and Mi-mo notices that he talks just like Soo-hyuk. He’s wicked smart and wonders why she’s asking so many questions about his father, and hilariously refuses to call her “noona” when asked. Mi-mo is annoyed, and is even more embarrassed when Soo-hyuk’s colleague (the one who likes him) arrives and Min-woo chirps a happy, “Noona!” at her.

She’s the same reporter who interviewed Mi-mo previously, Ah-ni, and the two exchange pleasant small talk. But when Mi-mo is alone she grouches that she’s about the same age as Ah-ni, so why is Ah-ni “noona” and she’s “ajumma?”

Ah-ni is here to talk to Min-woo, who’s been up to his old matchmaking tricks — apparently dinner the previous night was his idea. They wonder why their little plan didn’t work, and Min-woo advises Ah-ni to just give his dad more time to realize that she’s always there for him.

Soo-hyuk and Hyun-gi are on a stakeout, but all Soo-hyuk can think of is Hae-joon hugging Mi-mo. Hyun-gi has a new respect for Soo-hyuk as a single father, since he hates going home these days — his wife and baby are always crying, and it makes him cry, ha.

Soo-hyuk is surprised to learn that Hyun-gi’s wife confessed to him first, and that he initially rejected her. But it made him notice her, and Hyun-gi says that people who date successfully just put their feelings out there, and with luck it turns into a relationship. This is good advice, Soo-hyuk, listen to the man!

He realizes that it’s exactly how Mi-mo got Hae-joon’s attention — she confessed fearlessly, and it made Hae-joon notice her. He knocks on Mi-mo’s door to find her cooking, but she’s not interested in talking with him unless he’s here to apologize for insulting her that morning.

Soo-hyuk gasps at the amount of food she’s making, and grumbles to see that she went to several different stores for the best ingredients. Irritated, Soo-hyuk tells her that this isn’t special, because Hae-joon receives things from women all the time. That seems to hurt Mi-mo’s feelings, but she says that this is who she is — when she likes someone, she doesn’t hide her feelings.

She says that she used to think that being the one in a relationship who loved more was losing, but now she knows it’s winning. When you love more, you have no regrets when the relationship ends. She says it in this sad voice, like she half-expects things will end with Hae-joon, too.

Soo-hyuk looks sorry he lashed out, but then Mi-mo invites him to stay and taste her cooking. He snaps at her that he’s not Hae-joon’s royal taster, and actually flings some of the food around then stomps out in a huff.

Ah-ni is still with Min-woo when Soo-hyuk comes home, and she says she came to have dinner with Min-woo. She stays, and it’s painfully awkward when Ah-ni asks again if she has no chance with Soo-hyuk. He admits that there’s something there, but it’s so tiny, he doesn’t want to give her false hope. Even if they tried to date, he’d meet someone he felt stronger about, and leave her.

It’s such a quietly touching and honest moment, so when Ah-ni suddenly asks if Soo-hyuk likes men, he does a spit-take. He admits that he’s been single for thirteen years because he’s waiting for someone good enough to help him get rid of the guilt he still feels.

Mi-mo, Dong-mi, and Da-jung meet up to all read their checkup test results together. One of the tests tells them the “age” of their uterus based on health, and Mi-mo crows that hers is only twenty-nine. Poor Dong-mi, hers is thirty-five, which seems massively unfair.

Da-jung declines to share her test results, but something in them has her back at the hospital. She runs into Ae-ran, who tells her that she got checked out and she’s not actually pregnant.

She has other news too — she’s decided to marry Dong-bae. She realizes that she’s been selfish, taking a good man for granted and giving her “heart’s passion” too much importance. She’s going to try being married for a year, as Dong-bae suggested.

Da-jung had been at the hospital to meet with Hae-joon’s colleague Yeon-soo, to discuss treatment for a lump they found in her breast. Yeon-soo hadn’t been hopeful, saying the lump is in a bad place and she may need a total mastectomy.

Soo-hyuk visits the grave of a woman named Soon-soo, and oh no, if she died then this explains a lot about why he still feels too guilty to date. We see him as a new father to a baby, writing to Hae-joon that he’s coming back to Korea from abroad, to raise his son.

Hae-joon had read his letter and smiled at the picture he sent, and his friend (the same one who dragged him to the Angels concert) had opened a bread package and complained that he keeps getting Mi-mo stickers when he wants Seul-ah. When he’d left, Hae-joon had surreptitiously picked up the sticker, happy to have one of Mi-mo.

Hae-joon is surprised when Mi-mo brings him the lunch box she made, and smiles when she asks for another hug in return. She tells him that she’s still able to have children, which makes him choke on his food — I don’t blame him, that’s a bit of a jump ahead.

He doesn’t respond, which makes her babble even more, which makes him highly amused. He says that even if something is impossible it can still happen, but even possible things sometimes don’t happen. Mi-mo blinks at how even his deep thoughts are sexy.

Dong-mi waits for her dinner date, and though he texts that he’s on the way, he never shows. His phone is off when she calls (after several hours of waiting), and Dong-mi seethes.

Da-jung and Dong-mi both show up at Ae-ran’s place, where Mi-mo has brought all of her animal onesies for a pajama party. That’s the best idea ever. They drink while Dong-mi calls her failed date every name in the book, completely inconsolable.

Hae-joon and Soo-hyuk go out for drinks, and Soo-hyuk complains that everyone is dating lately. Hae-joon says that at least he’s noticing people dating, which means he may start dating soon, himself. But Soo-hyuk is pessimistic, saying that dating is too hard for him.

Hae-joon counters that it’s hard for everyone, but they just get up their courage and go for it. That’s the third time Soo-hyuk has heard this advice today, so maybe it’s sinking in?

Mi-mo gets home to find Soo-hyuk drunk in the hallway, and she wakes him up to send him inside. He stares at her for a moment, then calls her a promiscious goldfish, hee. She argues that kissing and hugging is far from promiscuous, and she tries to pull him up but ends up sitting on his lap.

She starts to get up, but Soo-hyuk grabs her arms to stop her, then takes her face in his hands. He whispers that he gets upset whenever he sees her, and Mi-mo (purposely?) misunderstands, saying that it’s just that she’s too close. Soo-hyuk growls that no woman has upset him in thirteen years, until now.

“I really can’t stand you,” he says, barely audible, and leans in to kiss Mi-mo.

COMMENTS

Okay, now we’re talking. I’ve been waiting for the real romance to kick in, and I guess with most dramas, four episodes of setup wouldn’t be unexpected before we saw some real emotional advancement with the main couple. But when you give us hot kisses and marry your leads to each other in the very first episode, your audience is bound to get antsy for more! I hope this means that Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo are about to get a whole lot closer.

Initially, I was hoping for more oops-we’re-married silliness, and was a bit disappointed when we found out so quickly that Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo never actually tied the knot. But I have to admit, seeing them at odds and bickering like kids is pretty entertaining too, especially since Petty Childish Soo-hyuk is so freaking adorable. He’s fun to watch, the way he gets grumpy just to see Mi-mo in a good mood, and pokes her for no other reason than to pop her happy balloon. It’s hilariously grade-school of him, and reminds us of how long they’ve known each other.

In this case, I don’t even mind the childhood-crush trope (much), because it informs how they interact with each other now as adults in a fun way. But I’m starting to get genuinely frustrated at the lack of scenes with Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo together, and we can’t see any of this happen without that. I appreciate that we need to give other characters their time, and allow everyone’s backstory to be filled in, but the show hasn’t been as cute and funny as it was in the first week. I’m not exactly complaining, because I like the show this way too — but I would like to see more of Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo together, being fun and ridiculous like they were in the first two episodes.

Soo-hyuk is a very well-balanced character, because as much as I love seeing him all frustrated and immature, when he really lets himself feel the loss of what he could have had, it tugs at my heartstrings. I just want to hug him and tell him it will be okay. I enjoy that he’s not fooling himself and pretending he doesn’t actually have feelings for Mi-mo, when he so obviously does — it always frustrates me when a protagonist denies their own feelings. I’d much rather see Soo-hyuk admit it, even if only to himself, and watch him struggle with how to handle the situation when he’s so woefully out of practice. He can be uproariously funny and hapless, but he’s also a mature and thoughtful man. When he does talk about his feelings, he’s refreshingly honest, even if it’s difficult to say.

He’s not the only one who’s got a lot of work to do on himself, because Mi-mo is even more of a mess than Soo-hyuk. Even though she just admitted that she probably is a goldfish, flitting from one thing to the next without stopping to analyze what happened and how to avoid it in the future, she still rushes headlong into the next crush without even taking a breath. The moment a handsome man shows interest she’s all aflutter again, and she doesn’t do any self-reflection, so nothing ever changes. She just keeps repeating the same shallow relationship and making the same mistakes, over and over.

It’s interesting how Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo are each at the extreme end of the spectrum, one of them afraid to date at all and the other who never stops dating (and how much do I love that for once, it’s the woman who dates a lot). They could learn a lot from each other, if they met in the middle and tempered each other’s habits. Mi-mo could certainly stand to benefit from Soo-hyuk’s ability to think through a situation and make absolutely sure it’s what he wants. And Soo-hyuk needs to learn how to jump in fearlessly when he feels something real, the way Mi-mo does. They just need to learn not to take it too far, and then they’d have a chance to find something lasting.

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