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Clean With Passion for Now: Episode 1

How many sinks in a single room is too many sinks? It seems that we may approach the limit in Clean with Passion for Now, as its germaphobe protagonist attempts to navigate a world teeming with bacteria and the people carrying it, on their bodies and in their souls. And too many sinks is only the beginning of the zaniness that this show is embracing from the start, though I’m glad to report that the goofy is grounded in the big emotions of its characters.

 
EPISODE 1: “His and Her Stories”

A well-dressed young boy stalks up to a little girl on a playground and asks to play with her. But when she turns around, the boy discovers her dirt-covered finger jammed far up her nose. He opens his mouth wide to scream in horror, and that’s when she flicks the booger in his direction, a perfect arc heading right for his mouth…

Just in time, that young boy, now grown man JANG SEON-GYEOL (Yoon Kyung-sang), wakes up from the nightmare, the noise of his dutiful robot vacuum roaring through his room. He greets the vacuum, named Geum-ja, and begins his morning ritual.

He washes his hands at the sink, throws his towel into the laundry basket and then… moves on to the next sink, right next to the first, to begin his ritual again. He does this a third time at a third sink before he finally gets into the shower.

At breakfast, he notes a small smudge on his butter knife, and there’s a spot on the mirror in his closet as well as he gets dressed. Before he leaves, he makes a note of all of the less-than-pristine things he noticed and leaves it on the mirror for the housekeeper.

While Seon-gyeol makes his way to his appointment in his pristine car, our rumpled heroine, GIL OH-SOL (Kim Yoo-jung) slouches at the bus stop. She just barely crams herself in to the crowded bus and stands among the other passengers, all while Seon-gyeol narrates his concerns with the world.

“This huge world we’re living in is full of many different kinds of people… as well as bacteria and viruses that cause diseases.”

In his car, Seon-gyeol nods along with all the signs on the street warning about pollution and spreading diseases, and he clucks his tongue at all the people walking around not wearing face masks. He stops at a light, and his eyes trail over to the bus stopped next to him. He spots Oh-sol pressed against the window, her hair a mess and her mouth open in a giant yawn. He grimaces and drives away as soon as the light changes.

His narration continues on, and it turns out his words are part of a Ted Talk-style presentation that Seon-gyeol is giving to an audience. Meanwhile, sloppy Oh-sol splits her time between studying and doing the bare minimum at her job at a study room for students and recent graduates.

On her lunch break, Oh-sol finds it hard to concentrate on her studies while others in the study room dining room cuddle and coo over one another. Another pair of girls watch a live broadcast of Seon-gyeol’s talk. Oh-sol can’t help but look down at her own study guide as Seon-gyeol encourages listeners to abandon studying for civil servant exams and job search self-help books, since he declares that it won’t make them truly happy. He refers to his own success as an example—he’s a young CEO of a cleaning company.

And that cleaning company? It’s made up of nothing but beautiful boys. The enchanting cleaning fairies stride down a neighborhood street, vacuum slung over one guy’s shoulders. The entire street is captivated by them, including Oh-sol’s best friend, MIN JOO-YEON (Min Do-hee).

Oh-sol spots her friend lingering outside and interrupts the drooling to say hi. While Joo-yeon gazes at the retreating cleaning fairies, Oh-sol has her sights on someone else—sunbae Do-jin. Joo-yeon would prefer if Oh-sol changed into some clean clothes rather than continuing her long-held secret crush, while Oh-sol sighs that she’ll confess her feelings as soon as she’s found a job. Speaking of jobs, Joo-yeon shares that she heard that Do-jin accepted a job with the home shopping network.

Seon-gyeol finishes his talk and his assistant Secretary Kwon briefs him as he leaves. She asks how the new housekeeper is (Seon-gyeol says he only had to leave one post-it, so not so bad), and then she tells him she hopes his lunch date goes well later.

At said lunch date, Seon-gyeol busies himself by thoroughly wiping down the cafe table, chairs, and himself, all while the cafe workers watch in growing amazement. His date arrives, a popular news anchor who helped him prepare for his talk. He can’t help but note how well groomed she looks. But then, she brushes her hair back from her ear to reveal… a big hunk of earwax.

Seon-gyeol spits out his coffee and then makes a hasty exit with barely an excuse to his date. But it isn’t long before his mother hears about his sudden exit, who barges into his apartment later, accompanied by her assistant Secretary Kim, to interrogate him.

Secretary Kim is almost on his side when he hears about the earwax, while Seon-gyeol’s mother insists that there are all sorts of studies that show that it’s better to not remove earwax. All the while, Secretary Kim has been nudging the intrepid vacuum Geum-ja out of the way, and eventually, it trails out the door that Seon-gyeol’s mother left open.

Not too far away, Oh-sol walks home and tries to compose a text to her sunbae, and she spots Seon-gyeol’s wayward vacuum lodged against a trash can. She’s not about to waste the opportunity, and puts the abandoned vacuum in her backpack.

Seon-gyeol is already outside looking for Geum-ja though, and he calls out to Oh-sol when he spots her in the alley. But then he gets a whiff of her in her several days old clothes, and he retreats just as quickly without hearing her response.

On her way home, Oh-sol spots her little brother, GIL OH-DOL, leaning in close to a girl. Oh-sol butts in between them, telling her brother he’s trying too hard, ha.

Inside, Oh-sol turns to greet her father, and is surprised instead by a half-naked stranger (Song Jae-rim), who emerges from her bathroom. She chases the man out of the house, until they run into Oh-sol’s father, GIL GONG-TAE. As he tries to fend off his daughter, Oh-sol’s dad pulls something in his back and requires help getting back inside.

While they apply pain patches to her father’s back, Dad explains that the man in the towel is the new occupant of their rooftop apartment, MR. CHOI. Both men note the vacuum that Oh-sol pulls out of her bag, and they’re quick to plug it in and see if it works. Oh-sol hopes they can sell it for a few extra dollars.

Meanwhile, Seon-gyeol checks with building security to retrieve CCTV footage from the alley where Geum-ja escaped. When he sees a figure pick up his vacuum, he’s hoping for some zooming or enhancing of the image, but all the guard can offer is a fuzzy black and white image.

Even so, Seon-gyeol is determined to find Geum-ja, and he sends some of his two of his cleaning fairy crew, Lee Dong-hyun and Hwang Jae-min, out to post missing vacuum flyers. Dong-hyun, the clear favorite cleaning fairy, is disinterested in the attention he gets from passersby. Only moments after the flyer is hung, Oh-dol spots it and recognizes his sister’s new acquisition.

Oh-sol checks in on her latest job application at a cafe (one of her part-time jobs) with Joo-yeon, but it’s another rejection. Joo-yeon gives her friend some tough love and tells Oh-sol that she’s too boring and she needs to be sexy to impress potential employers. Oh-sol pivots by trying to convince her friend to buy the robot vacuum she now has, and they agree on $90. Their conversation is interrupted by a call from Oh-sol’s dad, who is in the hospital.

Oh-sol heads to the hospital, and Dad asks her to cover his job while he’s in the hospital for his injured back. He says it’s her fault, after all, since her overreaction to their new resident caused his injury. Oh-sol counters that it was the pervy guy’s fault for being creepy.

When she returns home, Oh-sol spots a woman leaving Mr. Choi’s apartment. Oh-sol quips that there’s a reason that Mr. Choi is unemployed, and he responds simply that he’s not unemployed, and then asks how her dad is doing. She continues that he can date all that he wants as long as he doesn’t cause any problems, and Mr. Choi just gives her a confused look.

Oh-sol takes on her dad’s job and hops on a garbage truck, the wind blowing in her hair. Meanwhile, Oh-dol and his friends call Seon-gyeol and ask him to meet them at a nearby karaoke room with the reward money.

While Oh-sol is picking up garbage in an alley off a busy street, a couple of drunks accidentally knock her in the head with an empty can. When no proper apology comes, Oh-sol whirls on them in anger.

But just then, her sunbae Do-jin shows up and tries to apologize on behalf of his friends. Oh-sol doesn’t want him to recognize her, so she reaches into the trash and dons an abandoned horse mask. Disguised the best she can, Oh-sol runs with her garbage cart, the horse head still on.

Do-jin is persistent, so he and his friends give chase. The crowd can’t resist a running horse, and soon there’s a whole crowd running after Oh-sol, even her little brother and his friends. There’s even a band there, the members also all wearing horse masks, and Oh-sol circles the stage until she manages to duck away. She’s still wearing the mask when a group of mothers and their children spot her, and they all wave at the horse, ha.

Not able to see in the mask very well, Oh-sol barely takes two steps out of the alley before she smashes right into Seon-gyeol’s car, he’s in the area searching for the karaoke place. Garbage coats the car’s windshield, and Oh-sol is knocked to the ground.

To his credit, Seon-gyeol checks to make sure the fallen horse is okay before he even takes note of the garbage strewn across his car. Oh-sol tosses as many bags as she can back into her cart and tries to flee without a word, but Seon-gyeol stops her.

She doesn’t want to speak, as the crowd, Do-jin included, is still gathered, so she desperately writes out her phone number for him. But he wants a real apology, and eventually just puts on a latex glove and yanks the mask off.

Oh-sol stands mortified in front of the crowd and Do-jin. She finally gives Seon-gyeol the apology he expected and asks him to call her to make arrangements. As she trudges off with her cart, the band sings a song for her retreat, their own horse masks removed, while Oh-dol snaps at everyone in the crowd to delete their photos and videos. Oh-sol climbs directly into bed when she gets home. Oh-dol isn’t far behind, concern in his eyes, but he doesn’t approach her.


Secretary Kwon is quick to make arrangements to clean Seon-gyeol’s car, but he asks her to just buy a whole new one. She asks if he’d also like her to look for a new housekeeper, and he says that he’ll stick with the current one for now. Secretary Kwon asks him why he doesn’t just buy a new vacuum instead of this search, and Seon-gyeol says that his vacuum was custom built.

Once Seon-gyeol is alone on the couch with a beer, he recalls the real Geum-ja, who seems to be his former housekeeper. She’s the one who gave him the vacuum once she fell ill and could no longer clean for him. In his memory, Seon-gyeol recalls visiting her at the hospital. He tells human Geum-ja that his house just doesn’t feel clean without her, and she reaches out to touch his hand gently.

As Seon-gyeol sits with his beer, he pulls out the fuzzy security camera image, and now he recognizes Oh-sol.

The next day at the study room, even Joo-yeon makes fun of Oh-sol for the video of her horse and cart race through the street. Oh-sol is mostly hung up on the fact that Do-jin witnessed it. When Joo-yeon asks why she likes such an average guy, Oh-sol explains that that is exactly what she likes about him.

Oh-sol flashes back to her freshman orientation party where she first met Do-jin. Not yet so sloppy, Oh-sol gets a head ruffle from Do-jin as they drink, and later gets a teasing note and coffee from him when he catches her watching him in class instead of paying attention to the lecture.

Joo-yeon is not impressed with the story, and warns her friend that she’s probably just one of many women Do-jin is leading on. Joo-yeon changes the subject then and moves on to ask about the man from the garbage cart accident.

Segue to Oh-sol’s meeting with Seon-gyeol to apologize. Seon-gyeol can’t help but take stock of all the ways she is likely covered in germs and spritzes the both of them down with his santizer. After Oh-sol apologizes, Seon-gyeol slides over a bill for the damages that comes to a total of $3,500. Oh-sol throws on a sweet smile and asks about a discount, stating that she’s just a student. But then she contradicts herself by saying that she’s searching for a job, and Seon-gyeol starts to doubt her.

He also suggests that Oh-sol sent someone to claim the reward money for his vacuum, and shows her the reward flyer as well as a text from Oh-sol’s brother regarding the vacuum. Oh-sol tries to explain that it’s just a misunderstanding and that she’ll return it right away, but then asks if she can get a discount equal to the amount of the reward.

Once she returns home, Oh-sol tackles her brother as punishment for not telling her about the reward money. As she grapples with him, she gets a call from Joo-yeon. There’s a party for Do-jin to congratulate him on the new job, and she wants Oh-sol to accompany her.

Even though she refuses at first, Oh-sol eventually cleans herself up and joins Joon-yeon at the party, and even claims a seat next to Do-jin. When the horse head video comes up in conversation, Joo-yeon is quick to quiet everyone, and Oh-sol gets a hair ruffle from Do-jin.

Later, Do-jin finds Oh-sol sitting alone outside the restaurant. Do-jin says that Joo-yeon told him Oh-sol was filling in for her dad the day before, and Do-jin says that most girls wouldn’t do something so nice. He asks her to come back in with him, and tells her that he’s been waiting for her. Do-jin heads in first, giving Oh-sol time to roll around in her feelings of glee. When Joo-yeon finds her like this, she offers to call an ambulance, ha.

After the party, Oh-sol composes a text to Do-jin and finally sends this one. She receives a response right away, and Do-jin offers to buy her lunch if she drops by his new job. She notes the quote in his messenger app profile, which are lyrics from the song that played during her walk of horse mask shame.

The next day, Joo-yeon takes Oh-sol out to pick up a present for Do-jin. And the obvious choice for just starting to date? Underwear, of course (seriously, this can’t end well…). Oh-sol is surprised at how costly a single pair of underwear is, and she can’t help but imagine Seon-gyeol’s face everywhere in the store, demanding his $3,500. Even so, she goes ahead with the purchase.

Do-jin’s late for their lunch date, and he’s frazzled when he finally turns up. He’s having a hard day at work, since the models for the show he’s working on have canceled. Oh-sol offers to come by later, but instead Do-jin asks if she can do him a favor.

At the Clean With Passion offices, Seon-gyeol’s frustration with Oh-sol is further fueled when he spots her on an episode of the home shopping channel, eating food really intensely, and definitely not at school being a student. The cleaning fairies hanging out in the office marvel at the way she digs in to the food. Ah, so this must be the favor Do-jin asked of her.

Back at home, Oh-sol ignores the barrage of messages and missed calls from Seon-gyeol. But when Do-jin sends a late night text goodnight, she responds immediately, and is rewarded with a warm “you’re the only one I can count on” response from sunbae. This guy is totally going to be bad news, right?

The next morning, Oh-sol agrees to meet Seon-gyeol in the afternoon to return the vacuum. She places Geum-ja in a bag, and then answers a call from Do-jin. Do-jin asks to meet Oh-sol again, right now. It’s last minute, but Oh-sol isn’t willing to give up a chance at a second date and rushes off to get ready.

But when she arrives at the station, it’s another employee, not Do-jin, who greets her. The woman insists that Oh-sol follow her and get changed, and won’t listen to her protests that she’s there to meet Do-jin for a date. The woman thrusts a bag into Oh-sol’s arms and tells her to go get changed. Do-jin arrives at last, but when Oh-sol asks him to explain that there’s been a mix up, instead he just tells Oh-sol to hurry up and get changed.

It seems that Oh-sol is being roped into another ad, and this time it’s not food they’re selling, but waist cinchers. It’s at that moment that Seon-gyeol passes through the TV station with Secretary Kwon, and he stops as he spots the confused look on Oh-sol’s face.

When Do-jin returns, his coworker complains about her non-compliant model, whom she hoped to use for her Youtube stardom to drive sales. Do-jin intimately sidles up to his coworker and calls her honey, promising to take care of everything before they go on air.

Oh-sol understands now that she’s been used this whole time, and she lets Do-jin know she sees that he’s been using her crush against her. She whirls to escape the confrontation, only to find herself face to face with Seon-gyeol. She darts out of his path to the dressing room and leaves him stammering. Once alone in the dressing room, Oh-sol finally lets the tears fall.

A few moments later, Oh-sol composes herself and finds Seon-gyeol still lingering in the hallway. She hands over the bag with the vacuum in it, her eyes on the ground, and promises to be in contact once she’s saved up the money that she owes him.

After filming the segment for Seon-gyeol’s cleaning company, he and Secretary Kwon find themselves in the elevator with Do-jin. Do-jin’s on the phone, cooing to a woman on the phone. Then he calls a different woman, and gives her the same lines. Seon-gyeol feels the creep of “bacteria,” and starts to hose down the entire elevator with his sanitizer. One bottle isn’t enough, and he asks Secretary Kwon for his backup can while Do-jin hacks and coughs in the corner.

Once outside the elevator, Secretary Kwon can’t help but point out that Seon-gyeol is usually cautious about showing his issues with other people around. Seon-gyeol says that he doesn’t recall any other humans in the elevator, and Secretary Kwon smiles knowingly.

While Seon-gyeol sanitizes his frustrations, Oh-sol goes the more traditional route and soaks her sorrows in soju with Joo-yeon at her side. Oh-sol compares her crush to a horse race, where she had her blinders on and charged forward just because of a feeling, without an actual goal.

When she returns home, Seon-gyeol finds her father asleep on the couch. As she pulls the covers up around him, she notes that his boxers have a tear along the seam, and this drives home the wasted money on those new underwear for Do-jin. Speaking of the underwear, Oh-sol gasps as she realizes that she left the gift box in the bag that she handed over to Seon-gyeol. Bwahaha.

On his couch, Seon-gyeol lifts Geum-ja out of the bag, safe at last. And then he finds the gift box, and winces at the over-the-top sweetness of the note attached. And then he lifts the box lid… and finds a pair of pink briefs, complete with googly eyes, literally staring back at him. He yelps and tosses the box away, unable to unsee it.

 
COMMENTS

Best accidental gift ever! But what happened to the classy Calvin Kleins we saw Oh-sol pick up? Have those been lost somewhere else even more unfortunate? And where did these elephant undies come from? There’s no way Oh-sol changed her mind and went with these as a gift, right?

The shape of this episode is interesting (though perhaps 15 minutes too long, if I’m honest). I definitely get the web comic vibes and structure, especially at the end of the episode as each of our leads dealt with the consequences and annoyances of a long series of days. There are so many pops of color throughout, and it gives the show an energy that I’d love to see it maintain.

I’m totally on board for this trend in dramas of supposedly cold, closed-off men who are anything but that. The moment I knew our lead was a picky CEO, I automatically assumed that Seon-gyeol would be a cold case who required warming, but he’s nowhere near there, and instead is a super big softie from the start.

From Seon-gyeol’s touching moment with his former housekeeper to his concern for poor horsey Oh-sol instead of his garbage-drenched car, Seon-gyeol prioritizes humans, even as he struggles with what appears to be a case of OCD that controls a significant part of his life. It’s also interesting that his presentation at the beginning of the episode was about encouraging others to follow their dreams, however unconventional they may be. I think it’s a fun way to introduce this side of his character, as well as hint at his own unconventional path to success. Yoon Kyun-sang is off to a good start, doing a good job of balancing the wacky with Seon-gyeol’s nurturing side. Seon-gyeol trying to disinfect skeezy Do-jin was amazing.

Alas though, Yoon Kyun-sang is going to have to work hard to keep up with Kim Yoo-jung, because she is, unsurprisingly, already killing it. Oh-sol is a difficult character composed of many contradictions, so I can see how it might be a struggle to settle into the character. But Kim Yoo-jung makes everything look easy; her face emotes so much in each scene that I think she could stay silent and still carry each scene that she’s in. No one has ever looked that beautiful riding on the back of a garbage truck.

I’d planned to tackle the romance and that elephant in the room, the significant age gap between our two leads, but I don’t think we’ve had enough screen time with the two of them together to get a feel for whether or not they’re going to pull this off or completely gross me out. From a character perspective, I’d like to examine the chemistry before officially passing judgment, as well as see how the potential unequal power dynamics of him being her boss play out.

While we’re not too far into the romance yet, I do like the other relationships with side characters that the show is establishing the foundations for, like Seon-gyeol and his faithful Secretary Kwon, or Oh-sol’s sympathetic little brother Oh-dol. There are a few characters though that I’m not too sure how they fit in. I sure hope they know what they’re doing with Song Jae-rim, because I have no idea so far. Is he a love interest? Unlikely source of wisdom? Designated half-naked distraction?

Scenes have this heightened sense of reality, and I really enjoy how it feels like it’s the emotions of the two main characters who punch it up to the zany extremes. Oh-sol’s embarrassment leads her to an epic horse and cart chase, while Seon-gyeol’s sense of loss for his former housekeeper sends him into a frantic search for his vacuum. I like that if things are going to get goofy, the goof seems to be grounded in something very real to the characters. It feels like their worst thoughts have a little surreal playground in reality.

Overall, I think the show is still trying to settle into the balance it wants to strike between that surrealism and the heart that drives it. A few scenes felt stretched a little too thinly, like they went on just a beat too long to stay funny. I’m not sure there was really a reason to take this episode to 75 minutes, and I’m hoping that the future episodes pull back.

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Great first episode. Yoojung is great at portraying different emotions.

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Thanks for the recap, @abirdword! The giant elephant in the room I thought you would like to tackle was that giant elephant hot pink underwear Seon-gyeol found in the box 😂

Is the elephant trunk meant for upholstering human appendage? If yes, I don't know if the design is sheer genius or delightfully disturbing.

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I was shocked that this kind of underwear was featured in a kdrama! 😱
As my toddlers are now in the Winnie the Pooh and Heffalump's movie phase, there are pictures I can't not see 😂😂

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Haha, nah, I'm leaving that elephant for Teriyaki when she recaps episode 2

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*imagines you and Teriyaki throwing the elephant trunks at each other*

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*imagines abirdword and teriyaki shuffling Yoon Kyung-sang back and forth in that elephant trunks*

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*imagines myself yanking him out from between the two and disappearing without a trace*

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@hotcocoagirl OY, you forgot the trunks!

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@mary thanks, it would have been disastrous to leave they behind 😉

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Ahhhhhh @hotcocoagirl thanks for the clarification. When you said "yanking" I thought it was done to the elephant trunk.

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Ahem, @kimbapnoona a lady wouldn't dare do such an improper thing... in public...

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i'm not sure i'm liking Yoon Kyun Sang's selection in this role... i mean, i know he's this Gentle Giant, but... the whole overboard "handsome" and stuff he's supposed to be conveying...

i guess maybe the whole mismatch is the thing? hmmm....

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Yes I am feeling the same. But anyways can't help it now.
Kim yoo jung is so pretty shabby oh sol.

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She is supposed to be a slob and shrubby but even when her friend asked her when was the last time she cleaned her clothes she still looked spotless to me. The clothes looked brand new as well.
I don't feel the chemistry and the age difference is obvious. Pity the first choice for the lead actor did not work out.

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haters spotted

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Not a hater. Just an observation

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I cries twice. When her horse mask was taken out and when she found out that he is a jerk. Overall is ok but yoojung really knows how to make the scene emotional.

Im still wonder why they cast two way older leads for yoojung and YKS is no where near the visual and acting yoojung is.

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Yay! Thank you for recapping! I'm liking this a lot so far.

I wonder if flower boy house cleaners are a real thing in Korea. They showed up in House Helper and now here.

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Where are US people watching this?

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I want to know too. I was looking forward to this and I'm so disppointed that I can't watch it 😭

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I did not find it on a legal site in the US.

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😭

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There are other sources but they're not officially licensed on those sites.

Sites like https://dramafire.info/ or https://www5.ondramanice.co/

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Where indian people are watching this? On viki it says not available in your region

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Hey fellow countryBean (waves!!) try myasiantv.se or ondramanice

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I like the first episode. KYJ is really shining in this drama : her acting, her energy, her beauty. She looks convincing as a young adult.

I was very surprised by the choice of YKS. He doesn't really have the webtoon vibe physically and he's older than her. But at the end, I think he's good with the comedy part and I didn't feel any discomfort to watch them together. He's a big teddy bear :p

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Originally, Ahn Hyo Seop was cast as the main lead but since Yoo Jung had to be hospitalized in the middle, the production got pushed back and his schedule didn't match anymore since he had to work on "30 by 17"

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"30 But* 17"

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Yes, I know but if I found him pretty cute in 30 but 17, I don't see him as lead. In Top Management, I find him pretty bland.

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I would have loved to see him as the lead. Also the age gap would have been less prominent

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Yeah I think visually they would've have worked better, but I don't think Ahn Hyo Seop's acting skills would be on par with YKS's.

YKS wasn't one of my choices, especially with the age gap, but thankfully his acting chops can match up to Yoojung's so I don't really focus too much on the ages and visuals.

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Yes with teddy bear, and after watching Knowing Bros with both leads it's similar to his character, KYJ is really natural in limelight and outgoing and YKS tag along and look up to her for hints, lol. They had really good rapport so I'm less bothered with this pairing and on screen they seems to match well, YKS don't look his age fortunately.

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Yoo Jung and Kyun Sang in Knowing Brother was such a treat ! 😄 So many nice surprises, good team work, sweet hyung-dongsaeng relationship 😁

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He wasn’t originally cast. Like the other person said. YKS was added in the middle.

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Is Min Do-hee now the official best friend of all rom-com female leads?

And are other actors beginning to get a bit crabby that Kim Won-hae is in all the dramas?

Also, do vacuum companies have bidding wars to appear in dramas?

Oh, and is she really a secretary if her name is Secretary Kwon, and not Secretary Kim?

That elephant underwear........if only one could unsee things.

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How many times did she appear as a bestfriend? 3 times? Sung Na Jeong, Mirae, and Oh Sol? Did I skip the other?

At least the secretary name started with the letter K, it still gets Secretary Kim's vibe 😉

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"And are other actors beginning to get a bit crabby that Kim Won-hae is in all the dramas?"

I don't know about the actors but I detest this guy. Sometimes he is in 3 at the same time.

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He is so over exposed and it's not in a good way. I can't stand his acting.

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I have a love-hate r/ship with him as an actor, but yes he over-exposed now. If he wants a steady income for the whole year, appearing in a weekend / long drama is a better option. Appearing everywhere won't helping much as an actor, we will get tired of him easily.

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What I like about Kim Won-hae -- even though I recognize his face, I don't get the feeling that I've seen this character/performance before.

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"....is surprised instead by a half-naked stranger (Song Jae-rim), who emerges from her bathroom."

I'm quite sure this comes straight from mary's dream....

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Why can't my dad rent out our rooftop room to Song Jae-rim?

What do you mean you need to have a rooftop room to do that?

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Also, are we gonna refer to him as Half-naked Stranger now until the show gives him a name?

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That's true I just realized show still has not given him a name, and apparently nobody has really bothered to ask him.

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Maybe he’s like Sunny. “My face is my business card.” Or in his case, the applebutt.

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

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No no, the show didn't introduce him yet. :(

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@mary,

Sorry about that, chief. I normally look up the cast just so I can keep track of characters. Half-naked Stranger it is, until further notice. ;-)

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And I went and used my meta-knowledge to introduce him in the recap so I had something to call him, but I'm happy to backpedal to Half Naked Stranger.

Or perhaps "Half Naked Stranger (Song Jae-rim)" at each reference, to really convey the meaning

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@pakalanapikake ohnoes, sorry you had to delete it! It wasn't spoilery. I just wanted an excuse to make up names for Oppa. Aaaand I just realized that the Dad did call him Choi Gun in the first episode. Sorry :(

@abirdword sorry I didn't notice you named him later on in the recap. I think I got overexcited at HNS that my brain rejected reading Choi Gun. >___<

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@mary November 29, 2018 at 7:32 AM

Not to worry. I seem to have completely missed Dad's calling the lodger by his name.

If SJR keeps traipsing around in a bath towel, I'll refer to him as Lavalava Boy. ;-)

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@abirdword November 29, 2018 at 7:14 AM

"Half Naked Stranger (Song Jae-rim)" -- ROFLMAO. Because we'd never, ever want to confuse him with any of the other Half-Naked Strangers running around Kdramaland. I'm thinking of you, Choi Siwon, in SHE WAS PRETTY. ;-)

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@abirdword and @mary,
My subconscious proposes a hybrid nickname for Jae-rim-ssi....how about "Half-naked Applebutt"?
It is meta and speaks directly to the fan base.

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@kimbapnoona how does that work though? Half as in one cheek? Or half as in half of both cheeks?

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@kimbapnoona, @mary Perhaps Nearly Nude Applebutt would work?

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@egads and @mary,
I love Nearly-nude Applebutt (why wouldn't I? It guarantees more exposure than half cheek.)

I was thinking more in the direction of "Thinly-veiled Applebutt", but I might just be speaking out of fear for the outcome of this drama.

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Re: @mary November 29, 2018 at 3:57 PM

@kimbapnoona how does that work though? Half as in one cheek? Or half as in half of both cheeks?

It depends on SJR's profile and how the shot is blocked. All he has to do is "turn the other cheek." ;-)

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Just to clear up misunderstandings, I was the girl who left Song Jae-rim's rooftop that day. But we're just friends.

Our agencies decline to comment further.

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I thought the girl was related to his job (a client he advices).

I offer you my sincere apologies!

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Ah ha. So she wasn't his sister. ;-)

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You were just dropping off oppa's many tracksuits for this show, right?

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Yep. We have to do uhm... fittings and stuff. Tracksuits require a lot of custom design and measuring.

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Custom design a la Kim Joo Won and sequins???

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Kim You Jung is BAAAACK!!!!!

... And may we please get more of half-nekkid Song Jae Rim???? I’m sure many would agree with this, especially @mary 😁😁😏😏😏🤪

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I might be in minority here, but I really liked Yoon Kyun Sang in this episode. I also like how consequent and detailed this show is with his OCD character.

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I'm commending Yoon Kyungsang because my god, it must be physically taxing to play a character with OCD with such detail and kudos to the writer for giving a believable representation of the illness.

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My only gripe with his character are his ill fitted suits. Is this because of his weight or height but vents stick out weirdly on his butt.

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Make his jackets longer and he'll look a lot better.

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Thank you for noticing that. I thought it was just me who found it a bit distracting.
Surely there is a tailor in the crew that can make him a jacket that fits him...

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Maybe they're too cheap to do it. Kidding! (Not really!) I remember the behind the scenes clips of Lovers in Paris where they showed that Lee Dong-gun and Park Shin-yang shared some suits and I was like ????? they're so different in size. Plus it's a Kim Eun-sook show. You'd think they can manage to snag money for clothes. But nope. They still had to share.

Maybe Yoon Kyun-sang is using stock jacket sizes here. :(

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just now saw episode 1 😍😍😍😍😍😍
Kim yoo jung is no more child actress now. What a transformation as actress. I wish she could work with park ji eun and kim eun sook in future. Kim yoo jung is totally slaying 🎉

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Thanks for the recap @abirdword 😄

Congrats Kim Yoo Jung for her perfect portrayal as a 20 years old Gil Oh Sol 😃 She is so charming and lovely..

And Yoon Kyun Sang, aah.. I know it might be bias, but I love him in this role.. Even after watching him in almost all of his dramas, he still gives me lots of surprise with his acting style 😊

I also like the other relationships in this show, especially interaction between Jang Sun Kyul and Secretary Kwon, it's a comfortable relationship where Sun Kyul can finally relax and even joking around her. And the way his secretary looks and then smiles at him, as if she already knew what's on his mind.. A good and capable secretary indeed 😉

Looking forward to the rest of the casts to have more screen time in the future episodes..

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Thanks for recapping, @abirdword. It just occurred to me that we may have witnessed the most over-the-top PPL for plumbing since Pretty Oh Hae-young gratuitously demonstrated her garbage disposal. Come to think of it, TOP STAR YOO-BAEK and VOICE took the cake with their bathtub demos by Kim Ji-suk and Kim Jae-wook, respectively. Har! But this time, I felt as if I'd stumbled into a Kohler showroom. Yoon Kyun-sang was in DOCTORS a couple of years back. At least those aren't OR scrub sinks in his drive-thru bathroom. ;-)

Oh-sol looked like she was competing in the Roman chariot races in BEN HUR as she circled the bandstand hauling her trash "sulky." Or was she an escapee from the fifth race at the Meadowlands Racetrack? ;-)

ARE YOU HUMAN TOO may have started a trend with Nam Shin III's little Roomba buddy, Chingu, complete with Internet Of Things mind meld. Now we have Seon-gyeol and the errant robotic vacuum named in memory of his beloved housekeeper, Geum-ja. She not only had it custom-made for him, but seems to have had a close and comforting relationship with him since he was little. While Geum-ja was alive, he neither wore gloves around her, nor cringed when she touched him. Her passing has left more than one vacuum in his life. It will be interesting to see how his compulsive cleanliness is addressed as the story unfolds.

Truth to tell, I was grossed out when Oh-sol rolled around on the stoop outside the party for slimeball sunbae Do-jin. Ewww. And when she dragged herself home from her garbage collection shift and jumped straight into bed -- without even changing out of her street clothes. Sheesh.

Alas, I cannot unsee that underwear. Eyebleach, please. ;-)

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I think I’m Not A Robot might have started the Roomba as Friend trend. Out with Dyson, in with Roomba! 😀

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I didn't see that show. I was wondering if ARE YOU HUMAN TOO was really the first with a robot having a robotic "pet." There's a lot to be said for self-propelled housekeeping bots. ;-)

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I'm glad Sun Kyul is not a heartless human, he got bittersweet backstory and feelings for others 😊 I was surprised with that scene, I thought he wouldn't let anyone to touch him directly without a glove or washing their hands for 5 times before..

I think he is already a kind man at heart, Oh Sol will help him to become a better person than he is now..

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LOL @ drive-thru bathroom.

Too bad in real life, a Roomba doesn't work quite as advertised.

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Seon-gyeol's bathroom looks bigger than my living room and dining room combined. Only in Kdrama houses...

As for vacuuming, this has been my mantra for 30+ years:

''The day I worry about cleaning my house is the day Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner.'' -- Roseanne Barr

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-09-25-8603110775-story.html

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Words of wisdom of Roseanne Barr!

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Just finished this epi and surprisingly I enjoyed it. Kim Yoo Jung is great as usual and Yun Kyun Sang is also doing great! Their expressions are so meme-worthy and they are charming in their own ways. They are the only reason I'm checking this show. I'm quite grateful Ahn Hyo Seop bowed out from this show, since I really liked him in 30 but 17 but I don't think he is a lead material yet and I don't want to end up getting annoyed with his acting again like in the past (sadly it's happening now with Top Management, but it's quite forgiven because everyone literally is on the same level and it's just a webdrama).

So far this drama, neither good nor bad, but fun to watch. I will be watching for now and hopefully until the end.

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Thank you so much for the recap @abirdword!

I have a love/hate relationship with this type of rom.com. Wacky, over the top, mismatch OTP, big age difference etc. This is so typical from webtoon writers. More fantasy and less on reality. Regular Joe and regular Jane can't be in the drama. One has to be a much older CEO or a yangban.
I get annoyed easily but if there is a good balance between the fun and heart warming then it might be something I'll enjoy.

I'm more than glad to see Yoo-jung back! It's a difficult transition period for our young child actors from the early 2000s. I would've preferred a remake of CLUELESS or something based on a college slice of life drama to carry them over to their 20s.

I've only seen episode 1 and it's pretty brainless and fun as expected. Maybe I'm a closet OCD because the mess and the amount of garbage in this show makes me understand how the leading man is feeling. Ear wax, messy room, garbage everywhere.
So I guess it has to be totally gross before it's clean with passion.

Off to watch episode 2.

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Yun Kyun Sang's role would have been better as a successful normal young man from an average background with average look. I love him so far in this but I'm not that convinced about how they make him sound so good looking. This is just another romcom with rich man vs poor woman as the premise, only good execution can make this drama enjoyable to watch.

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I agree with you, but those who say the problem is the leading actor do not know what they say. The problem is the starting webton, full of sensuality that has turned into a rom comic in which sensuality has become vulgarity

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Sooo I haven't laughed-out-loud at a comedy drama in a while, so the horse chase seen was a welcome surprise... But I haven't decided if I can withstand the cringe yet.

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I get annoyed easily but if there is a good balance between the fun and heart warming then it might be something I'll enjoy

The drama is funny, but I also got reality check from their heartwarming scenes, especially the scene when Oh Sol realized she hasn't done much for her father when she almost sacrificed anything for her crush. It makes me asking the same question to myself, what have I done for my parents/family?

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Oops, it should be a replied to @kiara 😁

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Korean rom-coms are my drama crack. Where can I watch this one? Neither Viki or KOCOWA are offering this right now. Can’t find it on Netflix either. Help!

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I watched on Dramago but only 1 episode uploaded

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I'm struggling to see this drama par love of Kim Yoo Jung, a young, beautiful and talented actress, but I don't spend a minute without asking me who this crazy guy is who made her sign this contract. Suzy or Shin Hye would not do it. It's not just a problem of actors, but a screenplay, of useless scenes with frankly ugly half-naked men, lingerie with an elephant's shape, etc.

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I like kim yoo jung

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I hadn't originally planned to watch this show, but after reading the recap and some of the comments I decided to give it a try. I found this episode a great introduction to our leads. The walk of shame after the horse head running scene and the reveal of the real Geum-ja legit made me teary-eyed. I've decided to continue watching this show, but I'm not sure if I'll finish it. I've noticed how a lot of kdramas start off strong, but are all over the place or just plain feel like a completely different show towards the end. Or, maybe my expectations are too high? I'm loving the zany and wacky aspects of the show, so I'm hoping there are still elements of it towards the end.

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In the very first scene, I was in the same appalled silent scream that changed to audible when I realized that booger was going to fly into his mouth!

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Does anyone know the name of the song sung by the band with horse masks?

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Why the episode 14 supposed to be shown in public, the show, why it’s been hold for viewing.

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