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People with Flaws: Episodes 29-30

I just love this show for being sweet and simple, and enough of both to pull of an entire episode that basically revolves around a set of frilly lingerie. Our adorable — and very innocent — couple still have a few hurdles to jump on their way to a relationship, and it’s so fun to watch them fumble and make mistakes yet still find their way to each other eventually.

 
EPISODE 29

Knowing what Kang-woo will expect, Seo-yeon goes to his place and tells him that she plans to stay with him. He says he won’t hold back and pulls her into the house, but once inside, he loses his confidence and just stands there like a (very nervous) lump.

Seo-yeon runs off to the bathroom, and when she emerges, Kang-woo has lit some candles and put on romantic music. Then he worries that it’s too much and awkwardly admits that he has no idea what to do. Seo-yeon pretends that she knows exactly what to do, and she glomps onto him in the weirdest, most aggressive hug ever… then just stands there. LOL.

Meanwhile, Won-jae discovers that Seo-yeon managed to sneak out of the house to go to Kang-woo’s place. He calls Mi-kyung for help, and she drags Hyun-soo along to catch Kang-woo and Seo-yeon in the act. When they arrive, Kang-woo and Seo-yeon are dancing and drinking wine, in a (bit too) desperate attempt to shatter the weird atmosphere.

Won-jae talks to Kang-woo in private, where Kang-woo admits that he knows about their parents’ accident and apologizes for selfishly falling for Seo-yeon anyway. This reassures Won-jae enough that he decides Kang-woo is acceptable, so he just grunts, “Okay,” and leaves, giving Kang-woo tacit permission to date his sister.

At home though, Won-jae has to deal with a very irritated Seo-yeon, who snaps that she’ll spend the night with the guy she loves whether he likes it or not. But when she gets to her room, she breathes a sigh of relief, secretly glad to have been saved from the horrible awkwardness.

The next day, Mi-kyung gives Seo-yeon some feedback that she didn’t look prepared for sexy times at all the precious night, especially since she was just wearing her everyday underwear. Kang-woo (who I’m guessing wouldn’t have even noticed what Seo-yeon was wearing, much less minded) has apparently been up all night, and he runs on his treadmill until he passes out, hee.

When Seo-yeon visits the infirmary for some bandages and loses the note she was going to leave for Min-hyuk. He finds it stuck to her back and she whirls around, and they end up very close. For a minute it looks like Min-hyuk might try to kiss her, but he backs away, and after she leaves, he calls himself pathetic for not grabbing the opportunity when he had it.

Kang-woo’s mom is distracted at dinner, musing over Seo-yeon. Dad freaks out when Mom says she visited Seo-yeon at school, and when he mentions Min-hyuk, Chairwoman Han kicks him under the table, HA. Mom admits that Seo-yeon seems nice and well-liked by the students, and she blames Kang-hee’s delay in getting married for her preoccupation with Kang-woo getting married.

While on a date, Kang-hee calls Won-jae her boyfriend for the first time and he completely melts. He shows her a picture of his siblings, and she notes that Seo-yeon is asleep in the photo, so Won-jae explains that she doesn’t like taking pictures with her brothers because she thinks they don’t resemble each other. Kang-hee sees how much he loves Seo-yeon, and she mutters that this makes things even more complicated.

She goes to Kang-woo’s place and orders him unceremoniously to break up with Seo-yeon. Kang-woo states firmly that he’ll die without Seo-yeon and won’t break up, because he loves her and that’s that.

At school, Seung-joon dislocates his shoulder while showing off his dance moves, so Seo-yeon accompanies him to the emergency room while Min-hyuk drives. Seung-joon cries and whines like a big ol’ baby, even when Min-hyuk promises him, as a doctor, that his shoulder will be fine and he can still be an idol.

Min-hyuk offers to wait while Seung-joon gets an x-ray, and being in a hospital again brings back some old memories. He recalls the woman who had begged him to speak to her, and as the flashback goes on, it becomes clear that Min-hyuk knew that his superior had made a mistake that resulted in the death of the woman’s daughter.

She’d known that Min-hyuk knew the truth, and had pleaded with him to speak up, but his superior had glowered at him, shaking his head “no.” Later Min-hyuk’s superior had told him that a lot of people’s livelihoods relied on his silence and had threatened Min-hyuk into keeping quiet.

While they wait, Seo-yeon asks why Min-hyuk can’t tell a lie. He politely declines to tell her the reason, but he does say, “In life, when you tell a really big lie, you can no longer lie after that.” Seo-yeon says that he seems to be going through something, but Min-hyuk just replies that when she worries about him, it makes his heart flutter.

Dropping off Seo-yeon and Seung-joon at home, Min-hyuk admits to Seung-joon that he likes his big sister. Seung-joon blurts out that Seo-yeon is dating someone else and almost spent the night with him, so Seo-yeon chases him inside. Min-hyuk acts like he didn’t hear anything, but he drives straight to Kang-woo’s house to ask why it had to be him of all people.

He says that if it were anyone else in his way, he could have just killed him at the beginning. This worries Kang-woo so he asks if Min-hyuk is okay, and Min-hyuk says he’s not. Kang-woo sincerely apologizes for not being a better hyung to Min-hyuk.

Kang-woo is still thinking about what it means to be brothers at his next session with Doctor Kim. He says that Min-hyuk is smarter and more talented than he is, so he always thought Min-hyuk didn’t need him, but he’d never intended to abandon Min-hyuk completely like he did.

He looks up to see Doctor Kim in tears, and Doctor Kim sobs that he didn’t mean to do what he did, either: “They said he died!… I’m sorry, Dong-gu-yah! You must have resented me so much!” Kang-woo is confused, since the name “Kim Dong-gu” is on all of Doctor Kim’s diplomas. Doctor Kim wails that his name is actually Kim Bang-gu, then he realizes what he just said and takes it back, insisting that of course he’s Dong-gu, and that his older brother is Bang-gu.

EPISODE 30

Mi-kyung buys Seo-yeon some very flimsy undies to wear for Kang-woo (Seo-yeon: “This has zero function as underwear…”). Seo-yeon refuses to wear them, but Mi-kyung points out that Kang-woo hasn’t called her since that night and she grumpily takes the lingerie back, hee.

Mi-kyung is still worried about Jang-mi, why she seems to know so much about Seo-yeon and the way she tries to look and act like Seo-yeon. Seo-yeon blows off Mi-kyung’s concerns… until she finds Jang-mi huddled in her bedroom closet. Mi-kyung makes Jang-mi bring out her bag to prove that it’s carrying money, but now it’s full of Seo-yeon’s belongings that she’s thrown out.

The items have no value, so Jang-mi pouts that she only wanted to be like Seo-yeon. Seo-yeon says she’s nobody, but Jang-mi counters that to her, Seo-yeon is like an entire family. She says that while staying with Seo-yeon, she felt like she could be of help to someone for the first time in her life.

She offers to move out now, so Seo-yeon and Mi-kyung follow her out to the street. Jang-mi walks away slowly, looking back at them like an abandoned puppy. But she only goes a few steps before she gets to the building that she says she bought, since she’s too lazy to pay rent, ha.

Finally, Kang-woo calls Seo-yeon to ask her on a date. Mi-kyung urges Seo-yeon to wear the lingerie, but Seo-yeon says she thinks she should hold off on that since she promised Kang-woo’s mom she would break up with him. Mi-kyung argues that if they break up later, she may as well do as she likes now, but Seo-yeon holds firm.

Dinner is kind of awkward, since Seo-yeon is still feeling nervous while Kang-woo obviously has one thing on his mind. He gets caught staring at Seo-yeon by Won-jae, who’s there for a date with Kang-hee, and he proudly offers to introduce her to Seo-yeon when she arrives. Won-jae and Kang-woo somehow get into a contest over who’s richer, Kang-woo or Won-jae’s girlfriend, hee.

Kang-hee calls Won-jae as she’s entering the restaurant, but she turns tail when she spots Kang-woo and tells Won-jae to meet her outside. She says that she’s being reckless and asks if he wants to marry her. She tells Won-jae to think about it but not for too long, since they don’t have much time, and later, Won-jae wonders if her hasty proposal is because her family doesn’t approve of him.

That night, Won-seok waits for Ho-dol and is surprised to see him wearing a mask. Ho-dol fibs that he has a cold, but when Won-seok takes off the mask, he reveals a split lip. Ho-dol says with a forced smile that his father punched him when he told him the truth about being gay.

Won-seok doesn’t smile back — instead he says he wants to do something for Ho-dol, but he can’t think of anything. Ho-dol says it’s not necessary, but Won-seok reaches up to gently touch Ho-dol’s lip and repeats that he wants to do something for him (a kiss would be a start…).

After dinner, Seo-yeon is disappointed when Kang-woo drops her off at home instead of taking her to his place. It turns out that she’d gone back for the fancy undies, and now she whines that it was a waste, ha. Little does she know, it nearly killed Kang-woo to control himself, and he almost gets into an accident while driving home.

Min-hyuk sits at the coffee shop, eating lollypops and practicing a few sentences over and over: “It’s not what you think. You’ve got the wrong idea. I’ll try my best not to like you from now on.” Awww, is he practicing so that he can lie to Seo-yeon?

The next day he has lunch with Chairwoman Han, who asks if he likes Seo-yeon. She says that if he does, she’ll do what she can to help him. He meets with Seo-yeon later and apologizes in advance for something she may hate him for, but we don’t hear what it is. When she gets back to her office, she gets a call from Chairwoman Han – oh no, please tell me he didn’t.

The video that Jung-ho took of Seung-joon talking to Joo-hee outside the karaoke bar goes viral with the claim that he’s a trainee living with an escort. Seung-joon’s contract with Hyun-soo Entertainment is terminated, effective immediately. His manager asks who the girl in the video is, offering to help him repair his reputation if possible, but Seung-joon refuses to ruin Joo-hee’s life to save himself. When he gets home, Joo-hee is upset, and she insists that she’s not an escort, and never has been.

At work, Won-jae recalls what Kang-hee said about the showroom cars being jealous of the cars allowed to drive on the highways. He calls Kang-hee and accepts her marriage proposal, adding, “I want to be the person you come to take a breather when you feel suffocated.”

Seo-yeon walks down the street, dazed after her phone conversation with Chairwoman Han. She runs into Min-hyuk, who takes her to the coffee shop. He repeats that he can’t lie, and tells her to ask him if he can stop liking her so that he can tell her the truth. She asks, and he answers with great difficulty, “I’ll try my best not to like you from now on.”

He gets up to leave, but Seo-yeon stops him and asks if she can give him a hug. He allows it and she hugs him, then he says that he may not survive the day… and runs for his life, with Kang-woo hot on his heels, lol.

Kang-woo and Seo-yeon ends up at his place, Seo-yeon trying to calm him down after he saw her hugging Min-hyuk. She tells him that his grandmother called her, which worries him, but actually she called to say that she’s giving them her support.

In flashback, we see that Min-hyuk was practicing to tell his grandmother that he doesn’t like Seo-yeon. Awww. He’d even asked Chairwoman Han to support Kang-woo and Seo-yeon, though it had nearly killed him to do it.

Kang-woo and Seo-yeon are both excited, now that there won’t be any objections about their relationship from his family. Something changes in Kang-woo’s expression, and he moves closer to Seo-yeon and kisses her hand, his intention clear. Seo-yeon yelps that she has to go home first, sheepishly admitting that she’s not wearing the right underwear for this, hee.

Kang-woo stops her and says he doesn’t care about that: “I’m pretty much blind – all I see is you.” He gently picks her up, and carries her to the bedroom.

 
COMMENTS

Oh thank goodness, they finally figured it out, because I get that they’re both a little old to be virgins, but they should still know the basics when it comes to sex. Kang-woo and Seo-yeon are both so terribly awkward that I was starting to worry they’d never get on the same page, but biology will figure out a way eventually. I think that seeing Seo-yeon so insecure about something as sweet as whether he’d like to see her in in pretty lingerie finally made Kang-woo realize that she wants to please him as much as he wants to please her, and that swept away the last of his nerves. That’s one of the things I love about him — he’s able to get over his own fears when Seo-yeon really needs him to be strong, so even if there’s some flailing along the way, Kang-woo eventually mans up and is fully capable of taking care of whatever needs taking care of.

I’ll admit, I don’t really understand why Kang-hee became so worried about the possibility of Kang-woo wanting to marry Won-jae’s sister. Maybe it’s a cultural nuance I’m not privy to, but there shouldn’t be a problem with siblings marrying siblings (particularly since Seo-yeon isn’t biologically related to Won-jae), unless they’re just worried about how people will view their family. And I worry that Kang-hee’s reflexive proposal to Won-jae could ruin a good thing — they’re so good for each other and I’d hate to see that fall apart. As some Beanies correctly noted, Won-jae is the steady, dependable rock that Kang-hee will need after she takes over the company, someone she can come home to and let him handle everything so that she can rest. I’m scared that rushing things is going to cause problems.

I’m proud of Min-hyuk for doing the right thing, even though it was obviously very difficult for him. He finally realized that Seo-yeon loves Kang-woo, and he even taught himself how to lie so that his grandmother would give them her approval. I know I was hard on him for a while there, but looking back, Min-hyuk was never a bad guy… I think he wanted to be, and that if he could have made himself be that guy who steals his best friend’s girl, he would have. But ultimately he’s exactly as nice as Seo-yeon has always said he is, and his inner feelings of resentment and jealousy towards Kang-woo aren’t enough to actually turn him into a villain. Sadly, that’s real love — Min-hyuk loves both Kang-woo and Seo-yeon enough that he let go so they could be together freely. And for that, he’s earned his way back into my good graces and Second Lead Syndrome status.

We still have a lot of ground to cover in the finale, and a lot of loose ends to tie up. I love that, because it means that the last episode won’t just be filler, and I can’t wait to finish this up and go watch. I have a lot to say about People with Flaws that I’m saving for the final recap, so I’ll see you guys at the end!

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Thanks for the recap and the comments.

It was a relief that KangWoo and SeoYeon figured out how to be together, I confess it was really tiring and a or so funny seeing them acting weirdly about being together. SeoYeon had been in a relationship with another guy for three years (in episode 1 she thought he was going to propose), so I don’t know why she was acting all the time as if she had never been kissed before...

Best thing for me was WonSeok confessing. The honesty in his eyes when he was telling HoDol was so sweet. And I also missed the kiss, although I imagine that it would be too much according to Korean standards. It was really refreshing having a love line of a gay couple and so natural (as it only can be, as love is natural).

I also don’t get what’s the problem with KangHee and WonJae being together just as their brother and sister are, but I’ve read some beanies comments that is has something to do with cultural tradition. I don’t get it, but it would be so unfair for these two not to end together. For me they are the most natural couple in this show, they absolutely belong together.

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The traditional and moral issue is very real in Korea- and has been a plot dilemma in other shows- like FIVE CHILDREN. See my post below.

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Family dramas obviously like this plotline! I remember from Wonderful Days that they said that marrying in-laws was no longer illegal (after a fairly recent law change) but still frowned upon.

That said, in Unasked Family (which I'm watching at the moment) there's a similar plotline but the angst isn't about him being her brother-in-law but because he fancies someone else. So maybe this is slowly changing.

(But then again, all my Korean cultural knowledge is based on what I see in dramas, so what do I know XD)

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Lollypip there is indeed a cultural reason for Kang-hee to worry about the fact that her little brother is in love with Won-jae’s little sister. A double marriage between two families was and continues to be very highly discouraged in Korean tradition- because it reduces linkages to other families. Part of the reason why Korea may be the oldest continuing civilization in the world (predating the Chinese by centuries) is because the culture was not simply centered on cities, but also had a de-centralized organization into clans (just like Scottish Highlanders). Korean family names are also clan names. The more intermarriage between families the less the likelihood of conflict and the greater the likelihood of cooperation- this principle has kept Korean civilization remarkably stable for 5000 years. Indeed marrying someone from another family was so important that until only about 5 years ago it was illegal in Korea to marry someone with the same family name.

The stabilizing influence created by interfamily marriage has been one reason for the survival of Korean culture over a very long time- and the value to the family of maximizing interfamily ties has been so great that an effective moral rule against marrying someone from your brother-in-law’s (or sister-in-law’s) developed as a logical corollary to that simple truth. So there is actually about five thousand years of experience behind the rule that has Kang-hee worried.

So you can see why Kang-hee has been tempted to steal a march on her younger brother. If she marries first then the moral issue becomes her brother's problem. The question is this: Are she and Won-jae selfish enough to go through with it?

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Thanks so much for the info. Didn’t know about this,

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That was already a problem for first leads' brother / sister in 18 vs 29.

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I knew the answer without seeing the next episode. To me, the character of KH and WJ drawn well enough for only one possible answer.

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I would like to have seen more Mi Kyung and Hyun Soo! Their relationship as teacher-slob and CEO is as equally interesting as the main leads, I believe.

That raunchy dance convo! Hahaha! Still can't believe there are people who are clueless about these things, but okay. I'll buy it. Hahaha!

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The thing that weirded me out most this episode wasn't the OTP's lack of knowledge about sex. After the weird hug they had moved on to dancing and alcohol, which seemed a step in the right direction.

No, what I thought was really weird was that Won-jae, Mi-kyun and Hyun-soo WENT INTO HIS HOUSE. Without ringing the doorbell. Just used the entry code to open the door. Who does that??? So that ... what? Won-jae could catch grown-up sister have smoochies with her boyfriend?

It was probably done for laughs here, but there have been too many kdrama scenes of parents going into their children's apartments (or friends or siblings) to make me think that I would never ever want a lock with only an entry code.

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Thanks for the recaps LollyPip!

After Mi-Kyung received Won-Jae’s call, I had a good laugh when Hyun-Soo nonchalantly pulled out something from under the table.

I was also wondering why Min-Hyuk, as a school doctor, didn’t immobilise Seung-Joon’s shoulder before bringing him to the ER. That car ride looked a little funny because Min-Hyuk was handling the steering wheel a little too much, plus Seung-Joon was leaning his injured shoulder against Seo-yoon while crying that it hurts 🤪

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