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Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food: Episodes 13-14

It’s become clear that the greatest obstacle to this couple’s happiness may end up being their own problems communicating with each other. There’s a lot of crying and a lot of confrontations in these episodes, but I don’t know that anyone ends up on the same page, despite how hard they try. Meanwhile, things at Jin-ah’s work are starting to take a sinister turn.

EPISODES 13-14

Joon-hee ignores Mr. Seo and angrily tells Jin-ah to come away, but she replies that he’s being childish; he tells her she doesn’t understand and storms away. Joon-hee turns off his phone and drinks himself into a stupor, and Kyung-sun puts him to bed, wondering if he’s broken up with Jin-ah.

The next day he takes off from work and goes to visit his mom’s grave, leaving Jin-ah, Kyung-sun and Seung-ho wondering where he is.

Kyung-sun meets Jin-ah, who confesses her actions, and admits that she made a mistake. No kidding, sister. She passes along the gifts Mr. Seo gave her for the siblings.

At the Coffee Bay office, Director Nam and Manager Gong have been doing damage control, cornering the younger women and singling Jin-ah out as the problem, telling them it’ll be bad for them to get involved, which a worried Manager Geum relays to VP Jung. Meanwhile, Mr. Seo calls Jin-ah’s dad and they meet for drinks. Something tells me none of this is going to end well.

Jin-ah silently takes Joon-hee to the roof when he returns to work, and angrily asks him if he had to make such a big deal out of her meeting his dad. Wait, what?

Joon-hee asks how she expects him to react when she met a person he’s cut out of his life, trying to force Joon-hee to acknowledge him as a father, without even mentioning it to him first—she’ll probably say she didn’t want him to worry, since that’s the excuse she always uses when she lies to him. Dang, son. Also, word.

Jin-ah retorts that he lied too, but he points out that it would have only been painful for them both if he’d exposed the wretchedness of her mom hitting him and telling him to get lost. He doesn’t know anything about parents, he tells her, but he was unafraid to face her family as long as she was with him. But he can’t accept this man showing up and acting like his father in front of the woman he loves, and then her calling him childish for being angry about that.

Jin-ah gets offended, tells him sarcastically she’s sorry for acting like she’s the mature one, and storms off. After a moment he chases after her, but doesn’t find her.

Joon-hee meets Kyung-sun, telling her where he’s been, and she tells him not to be so upset—she hates the man too, but he’s their only living parent. Just then, Jin-ah’s mom calls Kyung-sun to come pick up Mr. Seo (he’s passed out drunk in their living room after fighting with Jin-ah’s dad).

The Seo siblings rush to get him, but as soon as they come in, Jin-ah’s mom begins to harangue them, saying horrible things until Jin-ah bursts out that she won’t meet him anymore. She turns to Joon-hee and says they should break up, and then locks herself in her room. WHAT.

Joon-hee stands there stunned for a minute, then knocks on her door, but she won’t open it. He tells her he’s okay, so she shouldn’t cry (which only makes her cry more), and the Seos leave.

Joon-hee wanders the streets and makes his way home in a daze, and Kyung-sun takes her dad back to the hotel. Mr. Seo tells her that she and Joon-hee shouldn’t waste their lives hating him, and Kyung-sun cries as she watches him leave. Mr. Seo sobs to himself once he’s alone.

Jin-ah shows up at Joon-hee’s door much later, tells him she’s sorry, and then keeps deflecting and making light of things until he gets mad and tells her she shouldn’t have broken up with him, even in anger.

She confesses that she doesn’t know how to apologize without making things worse, and promises not to do it again. She cries, they embrace, and he forgives her.

The next morning, at Jin-ah’s prompting, they take Mr. Seo to the airport, and Jin-ah leaves the two men alone, giving Mr. Seo a chance to apologize, and thank him. The two men embrace awkwardly as Mr. Seo makes his farewells.

Joon-hee tells Kyung-sun about it, but she asks if she’s supposed to be grateful, saying she can’t support the relationship after the way Jin-ah’s family treated them last night. Joon-hee asks her to tolerate it for his sake, but she points out that it’s for his sake that this whole situation is tearing her heart to shreds. By the end of the conversation they’re both in tears. Oh, my heart.

Jin-ah’s mom hears from Seung-ho that the couple didn’t break up after all, and she gives Jin-ah the money she’s been saving on her behalf and tells her to get out.

At work, Jin-ah’s hoobaes have started openly avoiding her, and Managers Geum and Kang fight publicly, the former accusing the latter of selling out and abandoning Jin-ah. VP Jung tells Jin-ah she doesn’t have to go through with testifying, and warns her that things will be much worse than she imagines. Jin-ah says she’ll do it—but she wants the hearing to be public, and the perpetrators punished. VP Jung can only promise that she won’t let Jin-ah go down alone.

Jin-ah tells her parents she’s moving out, and is going to be independent. She warns them to stay away from the Seo siblings from now on—they’ve been hurt enough. The next day, after they fruitlessly search for a place to live that’s both decent and within her budget, Joon-hee tells her to live with him, but Jin-ah refuses.

At work, the CEO who has seemed so sympathetic seems to be changing his tune, and despite the ugliness of the evidence shown to him by VP Jung, tells Director Nam and Manager Choi to do wrap things up quietly—and they begin a dedicated campaign of cajolery and intimidation on the female employees, with Manager Kang assisting. Oh no.

Joon-hee shows up drunk and despairing again outside Jin-ah’s house, and they embrace silently in the dark. She tells him he’s all she needs. The next day, Joon-hee asks his boss to send him to the U.S. for as long as possible: he’s going to take his girlfriend with him. Meanwhile, Jin-ah has found an apartment she likes, and tells her real estate agent she’ll take it.

COMMENTS

Hoo boy. These two have a lot to deal with already with their complicated family situations, but the real threat to their relationship is the fact that they are terrible at communicating with each other. They seemed to have a healthy rapport in the honeymoon phase, but as sweet and poignant as their silent embraces and make-up teasing are, they’re no substitute for actually talking out their issues. Now that each of them has taken a major step in opposite directions, I see an explosion on the horizon—especially since they haven’t even truly addressed what happened this week. We just had another repeat of Jin-ah apologizing for her terrible decisions, Joon-hee forgiving her because he’s so in love with her and can’t bear to see her cry, and little to no self-reflection on her part about what she did wrong.

As Saya mentioned in her comments last week, Jin-ah has a disturbing tendency to do whatever she wants, and learn nothing from the negative consequences that inevitably arise when she ignores other people’s feelings. I was aghast at the way she got mad at Joon-hee for “making a big deal” out of her going behind his back and meeting his estranged father. IT IS a big deal! And she didn’t seem to get what she did wrong, or feel genuinely apologetic about it, even when he explained why he was upset. It’s the same with how easily she brought up breaking up, and how willing she was to just gloss that over with an apology.

I really liked Jin-ah when this drama began, flaws and all, but she’s beginning to seem self-involved and with no ability to reflect on her mistakes, and thus without the potential for character growth. At this point I’m even growing frustrated with Joon-hee for continuously forgiving her. I don’t doubt that she loves him, and that she suffers too when they fight, but it’s also clear that he’s willing to sacrifice his own happiness for hers at the drop of an umbrella, and she’s constantly (perhaps unconsciously) taking advantage of that fact. Neither of them should have lied to the other, but it’s very telling that when he did it, it was to protect her feelings, and when she did it, it was to protect herself from judgment. And when he pointed out how hurt he was by her actions, her reaction was not to feel bad for how she made him feel, but to get self-righteously angry for being blamed. I think the writing is purposely setting up this dynamic, too, considering that when he asked her to stay with him forever, her answer was, “First, do what I ask you.” I guess we’ll find out next week whether that’s going to go somewhere interesting and meaningful.

To be honest, the one character I was in complete sympathy with this week was Kyung-sun—her pain at seeing Joon-hee treated so terribly by Jin-ah and her family, her conflicted emotions toward her father, her frustrated love for Joon-hee that has her unwilling to see him keep suppressing his own emotions for the sake of others. In my mind she’s the heroine of this story, and she’s always been its heart.

And while she labored alone to protect her little brother and do what’s best for everyone, all three of the parental figures were highly disappointing this week. Mr. Seo’s efforts at reconciliation were too little, too late, and I don’t know what Jin-ah’s dad was even thinking bringing Mr. Seo home (he needs to stop drinking, because it clearly leads him to make terrible decisions). Omma was at least predictably horrible, but it was heartbreaking to see Joon-hee and Kyung-sun have to politely endure her abuse, and then for Jin-ah to compound that by breaking up with Joon-hee right there. Can these two lovely siblings just move to America together instead?

The workplace harassment plotline has taken a distressing but sadly pretty realistic turn, and it’s depressing to see that the men and even some of the women have decided to make Jin-ah into the scapegoat in order to save their own skins. With all of this brewing at work, and the conflict that’s clearly coming for Jin-ah and Joon-hee, I can only hope that they both find the maturity and wisdom to face all of this together, with trust and open conversation. I do love how much they love each other, so I’m rooting for them to address their issues head-on and come to a true resolution. (At the very least, can Jin-ah please start listening to Manager Geum’s advice?)

It’s unusual for me to be going into the finale week of a romance drama feeling this ambivalent about the main couple—or this unsure whether they’ll have a happy ending—so I do give the drama props for that. Please bring back the cuteness and the love, Pretty Noona!

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Thank you sooooo much, @laica, for your recap and insights about a show that has disappointed some of us badly. 😖😖😖😖
All what you said is right, and even though some issues or reactions feel very realistic, there is a lot, a lot of nonsense as well. Which makes me second guess the writer, I mean... is it on purpose? Will the writing suddenly give a coherent solution for their communication problems and the acceptance of the family, etc? Or will they just elope to US, couple of years passed by, they come back already married with a baby and everybody has sobber up and get used to the new situation?? 😂😀😂🙄
I must confess I have imagined it that way, for I don't see much of a solution, but kdrama rule state that you just do NOT go to another country to live happy in a new world, because you need the histrionics from the other characters!!!😂😂😂
Plus, if they just go away (which mean avoiding confrontation, what would they have learned?)... Jin ah is always avoiding confrontation and that is one reason why she is also always taking poor decisions, she has never learned to distinguish right from wrong, and for a lead to be like that... It makes me feel uneasy about the story in general.🙄

I also liked her more at the beginning, when they were dating in secret. Once they are open (confrontation), she doesn't know how to behave. Another huge Con is the horrible horrible Mother! What a way to waste precious screen time 😠

I don't really know if this is bad writing, bad characterization or if the writing has an idea what to do with it. In two episodes more... I wonder if we will get some consistency, or if it will be washy washy like her dad, or if it will be cute but nonsensical, or it will promt to even be absurd.
I can honestly say I don't have big expectations.
But, of course, I am still in love with Jung Hae in!!!😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

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Once again I am in the minority when it comes to a show because I don't think Jin-ah is that bad. Yes, she avoids confrontation because she's spent her entire life trying to work around an abusive and domineering parent. And her constant attempts to negotiate, compromise and endure have left her miserable.

But that's not being selfish or uncaring or not knowing right from wrong. That's being a perpetual peacemaker with small moments of cathartic rebellion.

Jin-ah is the most every woman I've seen on TV. Ever.

Told her job is to compromise, to keep the peace, to slide through without conflict. Basically raised to be this way and then simultaneously judged for being this way. Forced to be a participant, essentially, in her own mistreatment.

In that respect, this is one of the most feminist pieces of television I've ever seen. Jin-ah will only be happy and the people around her will only be happy if Jin-ah stops trying to make everyone happy .

It's playing out in her personal and professional life in precisely the same way and it's the lived experience of a good chunk of the world's female population.

We've already seen the positive impact of her choosing for the first time to fight for her own happiness, especially in the office. But you don't get over 35 years of submissiveness overnight.

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This is a really interesting take. I guess as usual, I'm holding out until the finale to see if the drama is going to go all the way with the writing, or ultimately drop the ball. ;)

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I'm not up to date with Noona yet but it's very rare to see a drama where the female lead is the one in need of personal development. She's usually the bringer of change, not the recipient. I think the hate JA gets just goes to show how a truly relatable protagonist makes people feel. This is what happens when you write characters that say something ugly about the audience, not empty vessels for wish fulfillment.
(I'm not trying to say everyone who dislikes JA just has the same personality flaws, I just think it's something to think about.)

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We had a brief discussion about this during INAR about why we can handle an unlikeable male protagonist but not an unlikeable female one and what that says about us as (mostly female) viewers. Not that Jin-ah is that unlikeable, but she's certainly not a wish-fulfilment heroine (despite bagging a giant walking puppy for a boyfriend).

The writers have basically inverted - and therefore subverted - the standard kdrama storytelling structure. Men are the main characters (even when the main character is supposedly a woman!), while woman are mere ciphers for the man's emotional growth. This drama has upended that.

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Her character is realistic that she probably doesn't fit the kind of heroine that we'd love to root for in dramas.
I think we do judge her severely because we are women and we are so hard on ourselves.

She is 35 but progressing like a teen towards independent.
She has been the filial daughter all her life, pleasing everyone by doing what she is told.
She hasn't had much of a chance to do anything she wants or make decisions with her own happiness.

I like the parallel between her home life and work. It's consistent. How she is dealing with authoritative parent and bosses.
She is learning how and where to draw the line with both.

I find her character the more interesting and realistic than Joon Hee.

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She is quite realistic indeed. She does what she wants and when she wants and then lies about it. Then she loses her temper and says things she doesn’t mean and hurts the people that care about her the most. If that doesn’t sound like a real person, then I don’t know what does. We lauded praise on this drama at the beginning for showing a realistic take on an adult relationship and it still does, even for how messy it is. I’ll pick it back up after next week when I can actually watch it without going to jail! Probably with a heavy FF thumb on the remote, but I do think that I’ll be analyzing Jin-ah’s motivations and actions a bit more objectively than if I was doing a live-watch after reading these recaps and comments.

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I think this is the rarest drama where the female lead needs growth but does not get even a mm of it.
I can tell you a number of such dramas where we see beautiful character growth for a female characters: The one leading it up is My Ahjussi. (Every female character learnt and grew so much with passing episodes).

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Interesting your perspective. I haven't thought about it that way. And also, like @vivanesca says, it is rare to have a heroine who needs to grow, to really have to put up with her. It makes me feel I need to exercise more patience, and also it tells something about ourselves too, as female viewers. I will have to think about it more.

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I don’t think JA is that bad either. As much as I wish she would stand her ground, I can understand her getting caught up in the 1 step forward, 2 steps back cycle. She’s a woman who’s never been given a chance to grow up so it’s only natural for her to constantly make bad choices. She’s as flawed as they come but to me she’s also relatable because I can see aspects of her character in real life eg. the crowd pleaser, the ‘yes’ person, the one who always second guess themselves etc.

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I like your comment and @vivanesca soap and I will wait to see what's your take at the ending and what things did JA ever learn and somebody should also comment about Joon-Hee, remind me why does he love her?

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*liquidsoap

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I am with you. I like Jin-ah. She is not perfect but she is very human. And although, I might not agree with all her decisions, I understand where she is coming from. She is a little hot-headed, but I think people don't like that because she is female. What if a male behaved like that? I don't think the reaction would be as severe.

I don't see her avoiding confrontation. I think the show portrays the two talking it out, in a somewhat realistic fashion. Like the two lovebirds they are.

Further, I think Joon-hee is pretty paternalistic to her. The decision to go to US without even discussing with Jin-ah is the most extreme example. He seem to do that...make decisions for her and assume she will just go along.

The one twist I am waiting for is how her family will react to her office fight against the sexual harassment. Seems like her family might react poorly, especially her mom, and not be supportive. Wonder if the show will get into this.

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I'm just watching to finish what I've started, sith a lot of fast forward. Most of the characters are frustratingly written, and it's just the mom who is annoying. Can't believe Jin Ah is getting super on my nerves, how can she go behind his back to meet the father. The mother is hopeless as a mother I feel embarrassed and a fellow mother myself. Your kids are individuals, let them live their lives, she is a large source of their misery which is atrocious.

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Sorry I meant to write it is Not just the mom who is annoying.

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why do i feel like there are very few of us left waiting for the last 2 episodes to be subbed...

i will wait for the subs before stating an opinion... so confused and frustrated i am......

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@spazmo I fancy that it's true that many, like myself, have more or less dropped the show or are fast forwarding. I thought of watching at least Ep 14 after skipping several in between episodes, but after reading the recap and the reviews, I no longer want to spend my time watching.

It looks like an exercise in being annoyed by the characters that I should have found engaging, that I should have been rooting for after having enough depth in them and with the spark to improve. Since this is not quite evident, I'm not watching.

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Wow. I'm now no longer likely to continue this drama after hitting the pause button at ep 10.5.

I also recommend changing the soundtrack to BTS' Fake Love. It's rather more fitting than Stand By Your Man.

Love you so bad, love you so bad
Mold a pretty lie for you
Love it's so mad. love it's so mad
Try to erase myself and make me your doll

Other soundtrack recs, if any, are welcome. ^^

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I nominate If You Don’t Know Me By Now.

If you don't know me by now
You will never never never know me

Both halves of our couple lie to one another or make major decisions on their own and then spring it on the other half unexpectedly. I find this odd, as these two grew up like siblings, but now they can’t speak open and honestly ? 🤔

The writer is all over the place

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I should leave a link. Here’s Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, featuring Teddy Pendergrass.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nbaSh8i5eyE
I thought Standby Your Man was an odd choice of a song , as it always seemed rather melancholy .

If things don’t work out between them I suggest this song.

The Manhattans, Kiss and Say Goodbye

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wtjro7_R3-4

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Perhaps Joon-hee and Jin-ah should install hacker apps on each others phone. That way each will know what the other is really thinking.

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HAHAHA this whole comment (in three parts) is hilarious!

I love your choice of song. 🤣🤣 Also the singer is convinced his way is the right way of doing things. It does seem to describe their relationship perfectly.

But Kiss & Goodbye is even better! BWAHAHAHAHA I recommend a scene with those groovy dance moves, if it does come to it. *I've bookmarked it for self*

Stand by your man is also a controversial choice of song - as it clearly aims to set back feminism by a few decades.

I suppose hacker apps are a great idea. But from what I can see, I think they will only lead to Kiss & Say Goodbye with groovy dance moves. :D

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i second your nomination of If You Don't Know Me By Now!
: [

well, i'm going to torture myself and watch the last episode if it's subbed... watched 15 last night...

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Another song that fits the drama.
No Doubt - Don’t Speak
You and me
We used to be together
Everyday together always
I really feel
That I'm losing my best friend
I can't believe
This could be the end

It looks as though you're letting go
And if it's real
Well I don't want to know

Don't speak
I know just what you're saying
So please stop explaining
Don't tell me cause it hurts
Don't speak
I know what you're thinking
I don't need your reasons
Don't tell me cause it hurts

Our memories
Well, they can be inviting
But some are altogether
Mighty frightening

As we die, both you and I
With my head in my hands
I sit and cry

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JA is behaving like someone that has never been in a relationship based on trust and where she is free to voice her opinions. That is maybe why she is always keeping so much from JH.
She has been following her parents advice, her bosses and her previous BFs that she is unable to be open. JH is supporting her a lot but asking to be transferred to the US and planning to take her with him makes no sense and shows how little he knows her. She would never leave her parents even if they are behaving like bullies. She comes from a traditional family and she is the firstborn daughter that will have to take care of them when they are old. He cannot really expect that she would leave.
Plus she is planning to be independent, for the first time in her life, and I think that is quite important to her.
Wonder how she cannot have enough money to get a nice place...she was living at home and mom gave her back all the rent money. did she never save any money in all these years???

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Agree with everything except I don't think Jin-ah is expected to take care of her parents when they get old. That's the whole reason sons get preferential treatment over daughters -- your son will take care of you when you are old, your daughter will take care of someone else's parents (her husband's).

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I'm already feeling bad for the poor daughter in law.

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Joon Hee was probably the first boyfriend that Jin-ah ever dated on her own.
Everyone else were probably arranged by mom.

I think she gave more than half of her paycheck to her parents and then asked her mom to save some of it for her.
If the translation is correct, her mom said "This is the money that you have asked me to save for you."

She has a lot to learn to do on her own. Managing finance which she is really bad at. Buying things she can't really afford.
She seems to know that well and that's why she asked her mom to do it for her.
She said that hasn't really cook anything on her own etc.

It's good to see her try to manage her life for the first time. Bad habits are hard to break so it should be hard and might take a long time.

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I have so many issues with these 2 episodes that I don't know where to start. I suppose these are my main grouses:
1) Jin Ah's mother hit a new low this week. I was utterly appalled at her callous words thrown at Joon Hee and Kyung Sun. There's no turning back after this. I'm sad that their relationship will never be the same again.
2) After the meltdown and break- up, it took Jin Ah a split second to revert her decision and appear at Joon Hee's door like nothing happened. Not to mention having the gall to act cutesy to get his forgiveness.
3) Joon Hee saying he wants to spend the rest of his life with Jin Ah (if the subs are accurate) and her response to that was forcing him to send off the father he loathes in her so-called attempt to make them reconcile
4) Joon Hee making the huge decision to move to the States again without first consulting Jin Ah.
Having not watched the last 2 episodes, I'm not sure what kind of happy ending (if any) we can expect. In the end I think the person that stands to lose the most is Kyung Sun.

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5) Jin Ah making the decision to rent the apartment without talking it over with Joon Hee.

There were so many things that I liked about this drama. I liked the head-over-heels love affair, the playful scenes in the rain, the strong relationship between Jin An and Kyung Sun. I thought the filming was very well done. I liked the tone of the music even if the words didn't fit a lot of the scenes. But the writer seems to have lost control of the plot and the characters. Jin Ah has turned out to be self-centered and manipulative, and worse than that, blind to her own faults. Her bad decisions are always made for her own sake. She knows how having a man like Joon Hee love her has changed her life, but she isn't willing to give him that whole-hearted selfless love in return. It wouldn't be bad for her to live on her own if it was to grow up more before spending her life with him, but she doesn't even have the grace to say that's what she needs to do and to work it out with him, she just does it behind his back. I really want to like this drama. I really want the romance to work out, but I honestly don't think she deserves him. And she doesn't deserve Kyung Sun either.

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@laica, scream it for the writers to hear you. It started off so well, but has turned into mehness, ah well. I'm going to finish it and hope for communication. I'll always have My Ahjusshi, to comfort me in this corrent batch of dramas that have ended.

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Lacia , thank you for the recap. Are there no wise souls in this drama ? 😝 Whew, the writer isn’t ready for prime time. Last two episodes are coming up and the show is still a mess. I liked the premise, a Noona romance and the uproar surrounding it . Check. A side plot of sexual harrassment at work. A worthy topic, so far so good. So we start out with solid ideas but we have a mess in the implementation.

I still think writer should have married them off early in the show.

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Thanks @Laica for your succinct recap and review. It has enabled me to decide that this show is not quite for me. 😖 I stopped somewhere at Ep 8, I think, and have felt no desire to watch more. This is pretty rare for me, but getting more frequent, I'm sad to say. 😞

Anyway, as you and @Saya continue watching, 😘 😘 ... Fighting! Thanks for doing these wee caps that really help people like me 😊 'save some time' watching what will probably annoy us no end. I'll come by to read you again! 😆

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This drama started out so good but has just continually gone down hill. I'm finding Jin-ah and her actions so unpleasant that I'm no longer even invested in her romance as Joon-hee deserves so much better then her. I'm also disappointed in how the company is handling the sexual harassment issue. Hard to believe that the issue issues with the romance or the sexual harassment problem can be dealt with satisfactory in the final 2 episodes.

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I think the writer painted themselves into a corner. With the time remaining, there is no way possible to resolve either the romance or the work issue in a sensible manner

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What writer was that, by the way??? I mean, I want to know so that I never watch any of his works again 😅😅😅

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The writer is listed as Kim Eun. Did not see anything else credited to them. The director, Ahn Pan Suk, directed Heard It Through The Grapevine and Secret Love Affair, I expected better execution.

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It was the same case with Temperature of Love. I'm feeling the same fatigue and disappointment here, but at least this one is 16 episodes instead of 20.

Same flawed and increasingly dislikable female lead while the male lead is, for the most part, blameless and forgiving.

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Is he? I mean, let's ignore the flowers incident for a moment and talk about him arranging for her to uproot her life and move to the US without asking her first .

@laica is right about this - they have a serious communication problem. Part of this is her fault because she'll do anything to avoid conflict. But part of that is his fault for being a little paternalistic. He didn't talk to her about the flowers, he didn't talk to her about her mother's behaviour and he's not talking to her about this. And why? Because she "needs to be protected".

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Jinah hasn't shown us that she doesn't need that protection. You're absolutely right in pegging Joonhee as paternalistic, but his behavior and attitude is in reaction and relative to the other person in the relationship.

Your comments about unlikable heroines and your defense of how Jinah is written are really interesting and you've given many of us a lot to think about. Maybe if we applied this perspective to Temperature of Love, I'd feel less bitter about it.

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Temperature of Love was a pale bloodless love story. You grew to not care what happened to the characters because the characters didn't seem to care, themselves. That's not a flaw this series possess.

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I can't believe a month ago I was so excited for May 26th because Netflix would finally release Pretty Noona in my region. After reading the recaps, I am not sure I will even pick it up.

What the hell, Pretty Noona?

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I don't think Netflux realizes that if they release a show after it has completed airing, the people who cared abut it will have either found another way to watch, heard how it ended and decided not to watch, or forgotten that they even wanted to watch in the first place.

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"Jin-ah has a disturbing tendency to do whatever she wants, and learn nothing from the negative consequences that inevitably arise when she ignores other people’s feelings."

Wow. She sounds just like the mother she's rebelling against.

But this is late in the game how can a character have any growth then.

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I think this is part of the problem for me - I'm not against a heroine with flaws, or who needs to grow, but I wish these issues had been exposed in like, episode 8. There's not enough time left now for a realistic character progression for her. I don't know how they can pull it off.

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I agree with you @laica. I wish she was given more time to work it out.
The writing is all over the place and the initial theme is lost somewhere together with the music selection.

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Good lord tell me about it, if I never hear "Stand By Your Man" again it will be too soon. I've found myself humming the tune at random moments and it makes me want to tear my hair out!

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Sounds like you've got a rigid formula in your head that characters and story lines *MUST* follow. Perhaps the problem isn't with the drama, its with your expectations of what the drama should be,

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I don't think I care anymore how this ends....It's just to frustrating to watch

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JA the character is a degraded unpleasant representation of what a woman should’t be. How could I like her when she isnt likeable as a woman. That’s why she’s lucky JH loves her. Despite all her flaws a man like JH loves her. Another one is Umma. She’s a hateful character as well. Mothers are not violent and mean. An insult to all mothers. And the 2 Appa, weaklings and useless. On the outside, the story is beautiful. But if you start layering the characters character the ugliness divulge itself. A romance drama. The much younger man meets the 35 year old woman he known since 20 years ago. Mutual attraction started. They started dating. Encountered dating issues from JA side. Ex’s assault and kidnapping. Umma’s extreme violent reaction to them dating. JA’s meddling with JH dad issues. JA harassment at work. All about JA extra baggage. Yep it’s a romance drama specific to dating and issues the pair faces. Additional reaction to scenes i find incredulous ::where JA’s didn’t do a thing about ex’s assaulting her saying it’s she don’t want to aggravate the ex more. And then After going thru the assault, she hop into his car like the assault didn’t happen at all got kidnapped and could have died if its a worst accident. While trying to settle work harass complaint, she stayed at work and even accept the promotion only to quit. And they broken up after her 36th bday. JH ask her to go with him. She chose to stay saying she want to be independent and only want to date JH And then get mad at JH for leaving her 3 years after the breakup. Howling like an aggrieved one. So JH being the fool in love that he is felt bad and say sorry when he got nothing he should apologize about. They only dated not married. The way she faulted him for leaving is like the’re married couple. And she forgets she’s the one who don’t want to take their relationship to the next level. They got back together......I got blindsided at the start of the story. Then after awhile stressful to watch. I like the cinematography. The OTP scenes. The OST. The poster and BTS. JH got played by pretty noona. I don’t want a part 2. It’s JH and KS that i only like among the characters.

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No spoilers please, Noona!

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I'm not watching this drama, and am not sure what prompted me to read this recap. As always, @Laica writes eloquently about character development (or lack thereof). She and @Saya are great recappers, and I hope to catch another show for which they write up the play-by-play. ;-)

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You will note they directly addressed Jin-ah personality flaws by directly calling her out on them. The show is actually two steps ahead of the viewers, who either want an idealized fantasy heroine or one whose flaws fit within narrow acceptable parameters for K-drama heroines. I think Jin-ah was miscast. The actress is too strong. They should have cast someone more apparently needy and pathetic like that ditzy actress character in My Ajusshi. That way the viewer would have expected less out of her and accepted her flaws.

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I started watching it because the story is realistic. But I can't watch it anymore. As they started overcoming all the obstacles the distance between them started growing. They lied to each other. Jin ah acts like a kid and joon hee treats her like a kid. Not telling her wrongdoings. It makes me feel frustrated at times.

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