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Falling for Innocence: Episode 2

Our hapless heroine is blamed when a revenge plan goes awry, but lest we start worrying, there’s plenty of misplaced blame for everyone in an episode that does remarkably well in setting up its central premise so we can dive right into the heart of the story next week. It’s certainly got all the makings of a modern melodrama, but there’s definitely an intangible quality to the show that keeps it from being an emotional drag that’s only after our tears. The balance strikes a happy medium for now, and I like that.

SONG OF THE DAY

Navi ft. Jaebum – “Damaged Heart” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 2 RECAP

Wide-eyed and worried when Min-ho suddenly falls into her arms, Soon-jung helps him to lie on the ground before hurriedly dialing the hotel’s front desk. Only Min-ho’s weak grasp on her wrist stops her as he murmurs, “Don’t.”

So she helps him into a taxi instead, where he has enough energy to direct the cab driver to the hospital he wants to go to. Once there, she can only follow his gurney as far as the VIP section, where she’s turned away by both doctors and security guards.

While Dong-wook can’t stop thinking about Soon-jung’s mysterious taxi ride from the night before, Soon-jung calls work from the hospital and lies that she needs to take a sick day rather than informing them of Min-ho’s condition.

After hearing the doctor’s grim prognosis concerning Min-ho’s future, Secretary OH WOO-SHIK (Lee Shi-un) finds Min-ho getting dressed in preparation for the big meeting.

Even though it’d be much better for him to stay in the hospital, Min-ho knows how little time he has left and asks Secretary Oh to get enough pain medication from the doctor to last him twelve hours. Oh, sad. He knows he can’t ask for any more time than that.

Joon-hee finds himself feeling downtrodden after a meeting with Chairman Kang ends with him getting piles of dirty work to take care of in order to grease the wheels for the future legal showdown between Hermia Group and Gold Partners.

What’s worse is that everyone in the legal circle knows that Joon-hee is basically Chairman Kang’s glorified hunting dog, which can’t be of much help to his self-esteem.

Dong-wook arranges a coffee shop meeting with Joon-hee to ask what he knows about Soon-jung—she’s been acting strange lately, and Dong-wook knows she wouldn’t let him in on her secrets so as not to worry him.

Joon-hee decides to be honest when he tells Dong-wook that the man he got into a scuffle with the day before was actually the son of the late chairman of Gold Partners, who Soon-jung’s father used to work for and allegedly betrayed in order to side with Min-ho’s uncle.

As if that wasn’t already a point of contention between Min-ho and Soon-jung, Joon-hee explains, now the whole assault case Dong-wook started has given the contentious Min-ho another reason to give Soon-jung grief.

Dong-wook thinks the solution should be simple—they know the man who disappeared after tampering with one of Hermia Cosmetics’ products, and even though they suspect Min-ho was the one pulling the strings, he thinks that finding their friend would fix the issue.

Joon-hee isn’t so sure, and warns Dong-wook that the amount of power Min-ho possesses is truly beyond his realm of comprehension. It’s better that Dong-wook just stay out of it.

After a night of nodding off in the hospital waiting area, Soon-jung is taken up to Min-ho’s room for an interrogation session she wasn’t expecting—though she stayed the night out of the goodness of her heart, Min-ho accuses her of having other, more nefarious purposes she no doubt learned from her turncoat of a father.

However, Min-ho announces the terms of the settlement for Dong-wook’s act of violence: he wants her to work with him, but in secrecy. “If you say anything to anyone, I will destroy you,” he adds darkly. She shoots back, however politely, that she was about to say the same thing to him. Ha.

Makeover time! It’s a bit surprising to find one here, since Soon-jung seems to dress pretty competently already, but Min-ho wants her wearing only the finest brands while she’s in his secret employ.

He sits by coolly as he orders her to just go along with it, to which she sighs exasperatingly that this better be over quickly. After a period of waiting, Soon-jung steps out of the dressing room looking like a million bucks, and Min-ho’s demeanor visibly changes as he gives her the once-over. Be careful what you wish for.

Afterward, she asks him why she needs such a getup, only for him to reply that she should consider it armor, since they’re going off to battle. It’s a fight she wouldn’t have had a chance in had she been wearing plebeian clothes, which sets off a lightbulb over her head—is he thinking of using her for (gasp) male entertainment?

Min-ho laughs. “It could be similar to that. You have to meet with five men at once today.” Her eyes go as wide as dinner plates as she sputters in shock. He must know what she’s thinking, but he’s having way too much fun messing with her.

She tries to draw a line in the sand about what she will and will not do, even though Min-ho to tell her it won’t be so bad—all the men she’ll be meeting with are extremely wealthy.

But she’s in for quite a surprise when he leads her into the meeting room of a lavish mansion… only to find her boss, Chairman Kang, among the group. Oh Min-ho, you devious snake.

Min-ho is essentially crashing what was supposed to be a secret meeting, and proves how tough his skin is when the men gathered—all former associates of his father who turned their backs on him—take potshots at him for being the rebellious nephew to their godly chairman.

They wonder how Min-ho even found out about the meeting and jump to blame Soon-jung as a turncoat, but Chairman Kang comes to her defense as he tells them that even she didn’t know about it.

By saying that, he’s undermining what he thinks was Min-ho’s plan in bringing her here, since he undoubtedly wanted to make the board members sweat that their secrets could be exposed by Soon-jung’s alleged defection.

Unfortunately, Chairman Kang doesn’t care about Soon-jung as much as she might’ve thought, since he casually mentions that he can get another secretary—but he can’t replace the bondholders present here. Their bond of twenty-five years is unbreakable.

Min-ho decides to test that bond with a proposition: he’ll buy their bonds at the lowest possible price. But, that offer is only available to the bondholder who breaks down and calls him first. “Let’s see how much those twenty-five years are worth,” Min-ho dares Chairman Kang.

While Dong-wook tries tracking down their missing friend who tampered with Hermia’s products, Soon-jung throws her fine fur coat in Min-ho’s face after they leave the meeting room, calling him a piece of garbage through her teeth.

He calls her out on being impolite for a secretary, to which she fires back, “Only those who deserve respect get respect. Even curse words are too good for you right now.”

Min-ho is unfazed, as usual, and tells her that if it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have gotten to see the true face of the man she calls her boss. He was ready to drop her like used underwear, so shouldn’t she be grateful to Min-ho for showing her that?

Short answer? No. She asks if her being a spy was what he wanted as part of the settlement agreement all along, to which Min-ho chuckles and adds, “That was just the beginning.” It’s enough to set Soon-jung’s temper flaring as she demands to know what exactly he does want.

Min-ho makes it simple: He wants her to come work for him permanently. He’ll give her a high position, and besides, it’ll offer her protection against his uncle/her former boss now that she’s been seen accompanying him. It’s not like she can go back, after all.

Even though she knows that as well as he does, she still won’t take his offer, claiming that only people who’ve given up their humanity could work as his secretary. She’s not about to work for garbage like him.

As she returns home, she can’t help but think of Min-ho’s last words to her: “You have two choices. Become my ally and live, or become my enemy and die.” Luckily she’s shaken out of her thoughts by Dong-wook, who’s been waiting for her.

He pulls her into an embrace while his phone plays the same song he sung while proposing to her and says comfortingly, “It’s okay, Soon-jung. Like I’ve always told you, happiness passes, but so does sadness. Plus, I’m here by your side. Right?”

Her eyes fill with tears as she nods with a small smile. That’s when he breaks the news that there’s another man who’s been waiting to see her—his dad, MA TAE-SUK (Ahn Suk-hwan).

Papa Ma has prepared dinner to thank her for getting his son out of the sticky situation with the police, and the three share a happy meal together. But, Papa Ma adds that he can’t bless their marriage until they visit the graves of her parents to ask their permission first. Aww.

Not only did Min-ho’s plan to break up Chairman Kang’s twenty-five year bond with his bondholders work, it worked too well—all four of the men at the meeting have called him about taking his deal. So much for loyalty.

Secretary Oh is less impressed with this most recent accomplishment when Min-ho can’t even sleep lying down because of his heart, and frustratingly grits that his millions are worth nothing when he has to sleep sitting up.

Min-ho takes this all with a sense of rueful irony, even going so far as to joke, “I guess I have to die in order to lie down properly.” But he won’t let go of his vendetta against Chairman Kang just because he’s dying—since, as he so wisely mentions, everyone dies anyway.

“What is revenge to you?” Secretary Oh asks, exasperated. “Do you want to live this way when they said you only have one month left?” Min-ho: “No. I want to die this way.”

While Chairman Kang works to try and stop Min-ho’s plan in its tracks, he’s given some potentially damning information—they have pictures of Min-ho making frequent visits to Doctor Jo, who Kang is familiar with. Uh oh.

Soon-jung has her resignation letter in hand when she meets with Chairman Kang, sure that it’s the only way to make up for the whole Min-ho debacle. But Chairman Kang won’t accept it, knowing that she must’ve been blindsided, otherwise she would have avoided the meeting at any cost.

His only advice for her going forward is to not make the same mistake again, which she promises not to do. Now that she’s back under his employ, he gives her a package to hand deliver to one of their investors. Why does this seem suspicious?

Dong-wook has been on the trail of the product tamperer, watching as he makes an exchange with someone in a black car before it speeds off. He tries desperately to keep it within eyesight so as not to lose its trajectory, and eventually catches a fleeting glimpse of the man in the driver’s seat…

…And it’s Joon-hee. Oh no. That can’t be good.

Soon-jung is in for a very unwelcome surprise when she goes to the address Chairman Kang gave her with the package in hand, only to be led into a meeting room with Min-ho and a few of his people. Yikes.

Dong-wook tracks down his product tampering hyungnim to confront him over his ties with Joon-hee, since he knows Joon-hee’s been hiding him all this time. That also means that Joon-hee has been secretly working for Gold Partners and Min-ho.

After some coaxing, the hyungnim spills everything—Joon-hee was behind the product tampering, and used him to do it. As for what Gold Partners promised Joon-hee in exchange, he doesn’t know, only that Joon-hee mentioned that the company owner would be changing soon.

Joon-hee looks very unhappy when he finds out that Dong-wook now knows everything—which might be why he tried to warn him away from interfering. Too late.

Min-ho barely gets a chance to ask Soon-jung what she’s doing there when Chairman Kang and his entourage burst in uninvited as well. Ah ha, so Kang is using her to pull the same trick on Min-ho that he pulled on him.

Since the bondholders were previously beholden to Chairman Kang, it’s a bit of an awkward situation for them now that they’ve been caught in the act.

But Chairman Kang quickly gets the upper hand when he reveals in front of everyone that Min-ho has the same heart condition his father died of, which means that any of the promises he may have made to try and buy their bonds are moot. He won’t be able to follow through with them when he’s dead in a month.

Chairman Kang effectively gets the bondholders to bail on Min-ho, all while acting like he’s just concerned for his nephew, being such a good uncle as he is. Min-ho’s all but shaking in rage, but is powerless to stop him.

Joon-hee gets in an argument with his dad, who’s choosing to live simply even though he’s been giving him money to live a better life and quit his lowly job as a security guard. His dad acts more like the son getting scolded in their relationship, which makes the fight doubly frustrating on Joon-hee’s part.

Dong-wook drops by then, and Joon-hee instantly realizes that his father knew he’d be stopping by. Dong-wook innocently claims he’s there for Joon-hee’s mother’s memorial and acts like nothing’s amiss, though the tension between the two men is all but palpable.

Once Chairman Kang and all the bondholders are gone, it’s just Soon-jung left with Min-ho’s seething rage. He pins all the blame for the botched meeting on her, and begins throwing things in an absolute fit as he shouts that she’s ruined everything he’s worked for.

He even goes so far as to grab her roughly by the lapels as he growls in her face: “What kind of ill-fated relationship do you and your father share with me? After making my father into a laughingstock, are you trying to make me into one too?” Then he pushes her down on the ground. Dude. Not cool.

She’s visibly shaken, and tries yet again to explain herself. But Min-ho makes it clear that further violence is imminent when he throws and shatters a glass against the wall as he yells at her to get lost.

Soon-jung has no choice except to go, but before she’s even cleared the hallway she hears a terrible crash from within. Min-ho has lost consciousness.

Joon-hee and Dong-wook finally have their confrontation (where did they find that abandoned warehouse?), with Dong-wook asking his old friend why he partnered with people who can’t even be considered human at Gold Partners.

“Because I wanted to be treated like a human being,” Joon-hee replies emphatically. He explains how everyone knows he’s Chairman Kang’s dog who takes care of the dirty work, and not the director of legal affairs like his job title claims.

Joon-hee continues, “You don’t know the kind of cheap life I’ve led.” He used to operate under the assumption that all his hard work and dedication would be recognized someday, but not anymore. “You can’t get anything if you’re not crazy enough, because the world isn’t fair.”

Even with Dong-wook calling him crazy to his face, Joon-hee doesn’t stop trying to argue the point: Why wouldn’t he go to Gold Partners for help in taking down someone as big as Chairman Kang when he’s no more than a security guard’s son?

That’s fine, Dong-wook claims, but what about the factory workers who’ll end up paying for his ambition? He’s known those people for twenty years and they’ve been like a family, so will he feed them to the dogs just like that?

Short answer: Yes. Joon-hee is in this to win this, and firmly believes Hermia Group is too corrupted to go on the way it is. He’s sure that he’s doing the right thing.

“Once I become the chairman, I’ll make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” Joon-hee stresses. Uh oh. Someone’s really lost it.

Dong-wook isn’t buying his line of reasoning in the least, and urges his friend to snap out of the delusion he’s in. Even if Joon-hee disowns him, he swears to reveal the truth. Joon-hee has one day—either he confesses, or Dong-wook will arrest him.

While walking home, Dong-wook gets hit by a car. It is what it is.

As Min-ho is rushed to the hospital, Dong-wook lies abandoned and bloody on the street. His phone rings and he tries to reach for it, knowing it’s Soon-jung, but he just can’t hold onto consciousness. His last thought: “Soon-jung, I miss you. Soon-jung…”

A hand reaches down to pick up his phone. Dong-wook sees who it is but we don’t, and he’s left there to die. Not by accident, a couple of extras end up seeing an old white car speeding away. Is that the car that hit Dong-wook?

It’s Soon-jung to Min-ho’s rescue again, as she accompanies his ambulance to the hospital, completely unaware that her fiancé is also being carted into a hospital in pretty bad shape.

Until she gets a call, that is. She drops her purse in shock, her butterfly pin Dong-wook gave her spilling out, before she drops to her knees. The world blurs around her as she thinks of all the loving things Dong-wook said to her.

We fade to white on Dong-wook and come back to Min-ho after some time has passed. He’s just regaining consciousness in the hospital, and his doctor explains that he got insanely lucky when they found a donor heart that matched the specifications he needed.

The transplant was successful, and Secretary Oh can’t help but gush about the sheer luck Min-ho had in the donation—he had less than a one percent chance, after all.

But something strange happens when a little girl’s rubber ball ends up stopping at Min-ho’s feet. Picking it up curiously, he offers it back to the girl who lost it before a happy and uncharacteristic smile tugs at the corners of his mouth.

He reaches out to tap her nose affectionately and smiles even wider, an uncanny picture of how Dong-wook would act with Soon-jung.

 
COMMENTS

I wonder where they’re going to take this heart transplant storyline from here, because I actually kind of liked Min-ho as we’ve so briefly come to know him, and don’t want him to have received a brand new personality along with his brand new heart. Obviously that’s part of the premise, but I’m hoping for a gradual change rather than an overnight one, since it’d be a shame to lose everything Min-ho was in these past two episodes.

Granted, what he was (or still might be, who knows) wasn’t a hero to write home about, since he was cold, ruthless, revenge-oriented, and way too unpredictable for comfort when he was angry. At the same time, those weren’t his only qualities, and we saw shades of his emotional and social shortcomings in moments where he seemed to be sincere—he just really, really didn’t know how to go about expressing it. Like most/every chaebol/hero.

No one would argue that he was being anything less than a terrible person when he used a bewildered Soon-jung against her own boss, but the moment that really caught my attention was his earnestness in claiming to have shown Soon-jung what kind of man Chairman Kang really was after the whole bondholder brouhaha. And, if it makes it any better, at least he wasn’t planning to use her and toss her away jobless and alone—he had a plan for how she could stay gainfully employed after the situation played out, even if he presented it poorly.

What I like about Soon-jung, even if she could use a bit of spine reinforcement, is her inherent kindness that doesn’t discriminate against douches like Min-ho. By all means she had no reason to walk back into the room where he had just threatened to kill her, but she’s not the kind of person who could just walk away, either. It leaves perhaps too much room for her to get stepped on and taken advantage of, but this kind of character quirk is a hard one to suss out this early in the game. If you root for a naively kind character to become more jaded and thick-skinned, then you sound like the worst kind of pessimist. If you root for them to stay the course even if it’s to their own detriment, you sound like a lofty idealist. There’s a middle ground to be found, and though I don’t know what it is quite yet, I hope she finds it over the course of this series. A newly Frankenstein’d Min-ho should provide no shortage of opportunities, that’s for sure.

I had my doubts about Joon-hee when he was so insistent that Dong-wook not get involved in anything regarding the Hermia Cosmetics tampering case, but man does it suck to be right sometimes. The mystery regarding his involvement was being carried over pretty well until Joon-hee’s tell-all interview with Dong-wook, which was admittedly enlightening regarding his motivations, but concerning in that he spelled out everything that makes him who he is in a matter of minutes. I’m all about about transparency, and knowing what drives a character is fundamental to understanding them, but that was an info dump if there ever was one. Maybe it’ll end up coming in handy, but for right now it feels like we saw all Joon-hee’s cards before the game even started—and frighteningly, even shades of psychosis in his ardent devotion to his selfishly ambitious goals.

But you can’t help but feel for a guy who’s smarter than the game he’s playing and gets no credit for it, so as far as character empathy is concerned, he earned a fair amount of goodwill. Of course, I’m saying that based on the assumption that it wasn’t him behind the wheel of the car that killed Dong-wook, not because I want to like him more—my love of villains should be well known by now, the badder the better—but because that’d just be too obvious. And I want Joon-hee to be better than that. Or worse. Yoon Hyun-min is the kind of actor who can get away with murder, so really, being picky with him is like calling out a filet mignon for being lacking in beef. (Note to self: Do not attempt metaphors when hungry. Or at all.)

 
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I want to watch this for KSY...but I don't want to sign myself up for Melo unless its worth it ><

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I totally had my reservations about this, esp the male lead looks kind of ill. Then it made sense. Love this! It's worth it so far.... KSY knows how to pick her dramas :-)

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I am still skeptical about this. This episode was better, character-wise. Joon-hee obviously got a lot more interesting. Soon Jung is still pretty boring though, sadly. Although, I agree with HeadsNo2's assessment about her non-discriminatory kindness, which is something I was not really thinking of so it was nice to have that pointed out to me and it's made me somewhat reevaluate my appreciation of he. Thank you!! I am still hoping she'll get some meatier development as we go. It really would be such a waste of Kim So Yeon if this character remains as milquetoast as we've seen her so far.

Agreed about Min Ho, especially because he is really the only character I like so far and the only one who interests me. Complete personality transplant is not really fun, especially as I quite enjoy the Min Ho we've already got.

I'm still on board for now.

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I don't have any boring for Soonjung. She is just simple woman contrast with Min Ho who extremely arrogant and sometimes it's quite annoying. That's too early to judge this role waste of talent for KSY.

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I actually don't find her boring at all. I feel like there's a lot more going on under the surface than we've seen so far. Though that might be due more to KSY's performance than the writing. I guess we'll find out.

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lo0ve this drama! must watch!

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Soon Jung looks a bit too mature (old seems like too bad a word) for Min Ho. I know KSY is a great actress but JKH still has this boyish mischief in him that makes him look too young for KSY. Dong Wook definitely suits her more and I like him too, arghh such an awful feeling knowing he is going to die soon!

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what I like about Minho is that although he is (was) a manipulative cold-hearted asshole, he can also be really silly, kinf of child like for a moment, and that's just fun to watch

I don't think he'll turn into Mr Nice over night, the preview definitely had some asshole moments of his in the future, after being all sweet to that little girl I expect him to "wake up" and be really confused about his sudden fit of niceness

although this drama uses quite a bunch of old drama tropes, I'm really looking forward to the next episode :D

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I like Minho... as much you can like someone like him. I also hope they don't just switch personalities overnight.

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I think this drama is firmly in the realm of drama I don't watch while airing but read the re-caps and maybe go back and watch once it's finished.

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Usually melo is not my cup of tea, but this drama has something that differentiate itself from the common melodrama. I don't even know what it is but for the first two episodes it really managed to hook me and left me wanting to watch the next episode already. And I also love Minho the asshole but how can you not love him when JKH is playing him T_T and his smile at the end is just asdfghjkl xD fangirling aside I'm sure the asshole traits won't go away any time soon, at least not as easy as the drama makes us think it would. As long as the story doesn't go down the drain, I'm in for a long haul.

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The only reason i am going to give this a try is that it is going to be 16 episodes and the cast.
So i am not bothered that it is melodrama.

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I like Mino pre-heart transplant so I hope they change him too fast. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

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I love Kim so yeon and her dramas. Thanks for your recap

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I got distracted by Jung Kyung-ho's roots.

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So did I. LOL.

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:D Now I'll be paying more attention to his hair in the next episodes.

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Plot-factual question here: Why exactly did Min-ho try to buy the corporate bonds? I still don't understand what that was all about ...

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Isn't to take them away from his uncle?

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But why would his uncle want to have bonds of his own company?

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Maybe they are referring to corporate stock and it's a translation glitch. The person with controlling interest in the stock has the controlling interest in the company. You'd want to have enough of your own stock to prevent things like a hostile takeover.

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My complete understanding of money things is this:
Whatever he did and was going to do would drive down the value of the company - if he sold them cheap?
That's all I got.

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Well, the bonds don't belong the company. It doesn't matter to the company at all whether they are sold cheap or not, especially if that is over-the-counter.
It's especially harmful for the bondholders (not the company) if they sell their bonds cheap.

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I remember him coming into the meeting and saying, "Hey, you guys lost me money with this bad ingredient thing." So the value of the stocks was down. The folks the Chairman brought in were the creditors, or bond holders.
"But if the company runs into financial difficulties, it still has a legal obligation to make timely payments of interest and principal." If MH owns all the bonds he becomes the biggest Creditor of the company, and he can force the Chairman's hand.

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No he cannot. Even if he owns all the bonds, he still has zero power within the company, as long as the company doesn't declare bankruptcy. (And even then he has no power other than trying to get some of his money back.)

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I am learning way more than I had expected about bonds. :) Could it be either a translation issue, or different in SK?

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But if MH owned the majority of the bonds wouldn't he have power to force Uncle to declare bankruptcy? No scratch that.
But MH could get shareholders behind him and dethrone Uncle(just like what he did to his brother)? MH is no stranger to the company after all.
I'm lost on this subject to be honest, let's see what the next episode tells us.

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A bond is like a loan. So, and this is just a guess, if he decides to collect, they'd need to pay him. If the company doesnt have the money, they'd need to declare bankruptcy. None of the shareholders would want that , so its quite likely they'll ask the chairman to resign.

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He probably just want them to go bankrupt that's all.

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I find it hard to believe that Joon Hee killed his best friend just because he found out his game, but that is what the plot wants us to believe right now. Maybe there'll be more twists in the future. I have high hopes for this drama. Something about it reminds me of Heartless City, which is my all time favorite, and I'm not refering to the fact that the two male leads and the cable network producing the drama are the same.

The character Dong wook is too simple, too idealistic, and short sighted. He seems to see things in just black and white terms. No grays. And that's what makes Min Ho, with his layers, an infinitely more complex and more fascinating character. I'm hoping that Min Ho does not have an overnight personality transplant, because that would be too boring and predictable. I would like him to retain the essence of Min Ho and just go softer around the edges, chaning gradually instead of immediately.

His uncle is a douche and I am rooting for Min Ho to complete his revenge, and not turn into one big old fuzzy bear.

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I don't think Min-ho is going to change much either. Dong wook's main good treat is his kindness and his love for Sung-joon. MH acts with his head, not his heart, surely he can't change that overnight? I'm just glad that this is a melo, our hero's chances to becoming a bighearted fool won't happen too soon...RIGHT.

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"I’m hoping that Min Ho does not have an overnight personality transplant, because that would be too boring and predictable. I would like him to retain the essence of Min Ho and just go softer around the edges, changing gradually instead of immediately."

+1 to you and others on this issue.

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I really like and agree with your comments.

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Noooooo, my Dong-wook dies in the second episode already. So fast!

Totally predictable on the murdering suspect. It's definitely Joon-hee; don't kid yourself. And, he used a traitor's white wagon as the weapon for vehicular manslaughter to frame his own (traitoring ally) tampermonkey hyungnim at that. Joon-hee is a desperate slug who will use crazy as his alibi to run people down and frame unwitty hyungnims for all his mastermind schemes. Boy needs to GO DOWN! Too smart for your own good, Joon-hee. Yeah, I said it, want to silence me too? Find me, hunt me down, I'll be waiting for you. =p

Loving this show soooo badddd. Heads, you in this baby too! ♥ U too for recapping this stellar show.

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Pretty sure it was Joon Hee's dad that ran him down. Looked like Someone's head outside the broken window during the outside looking in shot. Possibly it was Joon Hee that took the phone and decided to not call for help, but I dint think he was driving the car. That's the theory I'm going with for now anyway!

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We all knew Dong wook had to die. I didn't find Min ho quite so rotten anyway. I can't blame him for wanting to take the old man down. Girlfriend comes off a bit dumb to be the man's secretary. How could you work that closely with him and not figure out he's breaking rules all the time. Oh well, it's Korean drama. When are any of them air tight enough not to pick apart in the first two episodes? never.

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Can't wait ep 3!!

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Oooh I am soo thrilled to the point of being creepy, at Joon-hee's badturn! For an hour there I thought this guy is in a bad place in a lovesquare with zero chances in character development. PHEW so relieved here, JH is just the right baddie. BUT I have this feeling that JH coming clean to DW about his plans isn't everything, and there's more to him.

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I watched both episodes in a haze after midnight, so I have to get this straight... So Joon-hee is fighting both Min-ho and his uncle?

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I guess Joon-hee will realize the ghost of his friend Dong Wook is when Min-ho adjusts his tie and call him handsome! I saw that gesture so many times in the first 2 episodes that I am sure it is going to re-appear in the future!

Enjoying the show despite the 'melodrama'. A different take of the cellular memory thingy in 'My Spring Days'.

Love the cast. My spinach is bad in here - where did my adorable baby go??

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Yes. That will happen.

I like your phrasing that it is the "ghost" of his friend haunting and changing the donor recipient, rather than the theory of the cellular memory.

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@jomo

Yes, I also love the "ghost' analogy from @dfwkimchi , but mostly because I want to see how conflicted Kang Min-ho will become. Will this ghost take over his body completely, or will somehow they (Ma Dong-wook and Kang Min-ho) mitigate their circumstances?

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Haha, will we get a kind of split/multiple personality thing happening again, then?

Yes, the possibilities of Evil Spinach ... me likey :)

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Thanks for recapping the episode.

After settling with muted colors in most of his scenes of Ep 1, the final frames with Min-ho in this episode are more brightly colored. On the other hand, while Dong-wook's scenes are shot in bright colors in Ep 1, his death scene is shot in a very dimly lit background.

It's also interesting that Joon-hee and Dong-wook's showdown scene is shot in a dark, shadowy setting. It's a brilliant parallel to how their friendship finally ends in the darkness and in the shadow of Joon-hee's ultimate betrayal.

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Thanks for the recap!

So funny about the abandoned warehouse. I rewound and checked it a couple times to try to orient myself. To make sense of it, I decided they were outside his house and forgot about it till your recap.

I think this is one of those shows I will have to watch brain off to enjoy it, which I am doing. Just go with the emotions and not try to pretend these are real life folks.

I do want MH to stay dark for as long as possible and I don't want SJ to fall for him because he eats suckers, gets a haircut and taps her nose. LOL
But my money is that JH didn't kill his friend. I agreed with most of his complaints about Hermia until he didn't care about the factory workers and went all "If I were King..."

But there is no way he would even consider romancing the woman of the man he killed in cold blood, right? Nobody would be in his side. Second leads have to make me love them before their hearts get crushed. I think he will be proven innocent. I hope.

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I don't like what I saw in the preview as the change in him is too big. It feels more like being brainwashed/possessed than anything else. For the same reason it will be hard to support any romance between the leads of the show.

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Nobody wants Min Ho to change... me neither he is so entertaining like that ! And he has got Bonza chemistry with KSY one of rare korean actress who looks like an actual woman and not a doll

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This is exactly the reason why I wish I liked her better. She does look real and interesting. But I just have never made it all the way through a single one of her dramas. Not her fault, but some of those scripts. Ugh.

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Curious if the obvious choice Joon-hee is the one who killed Dong wook or maybe his Dad followed and heard,both men had formal clothes,still the car was most likely the one the killer used and there were some witness to it...the upcoming episodes will be quite fun and more light moments with Minho new persona,he even cut his hair like Dong wook with lollipop included...still hope the old personality won't be erased completly because i won't like it at all nor it would be fair for Minho and Soo Jung

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I'm liking and watching, I'm liking what I'm watching. I hope he doesn't change completely because that would be boring and I see nothing wrong with the female lead 's character, those around her are the ones that are messed up. Even if your enemy collapses you have to get them to the hospital otherwise what does that make you.

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Thanks for the recap HeadsNo2. Looking forward to episodes 3 & 4.

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Thanks for recapping!

I agree with your comments, Heads, except I didn't find Soon-jung lacking in spine, just very decent, despite the way others treat her. She has her own standard of what she feels is the proper way to act, regardless of how others do. We saw this in episode one when she stood up to Minho and told him to get lost if he didn't have an appointment, and again in this one both times when he collapsed and she didn't leave him alone, even if he kind of deserved it. I actually found her cursing him out and calling him trash pretty satisfying.

This aspect of her character does make me wonder why she's working at Hermia though - she can't be so stupid that she doesn't know how shady Chairman Kang's business practices are? Unless only Joon-hee knows and he hasn't shared that with her. Otherwise she seems to have a strange amount of respect for him considering what seem to be pretty strong moral values. But maybe for her work is just work?

I also agree with others hoping for more of a "haunting" than a complete personality transplant. Because Dong-wook was adorable, but he was boring. Plus I'd love to see Min-ho face a true conflict between head and heart.

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Can't believe I am watching two melos and enjoying them (the other being Angry Mom).

Agree with Laica, I didn't find Soon-jung lacking in spine either (ep 1). Her character is inherently altruistic and pure. She probably wouldn't hurt a fly. I also question why she is working for Chairman Kang. In this case I will give the writer the benefit of a doubt that there is a good sub-plot coming.

I agree with most comments here that I kind of like Min-ho so far, albeit a bit of a jerk. He can tone that down a bit but certainly don't want a 360 degree change in his personality. He is after all, a sad character, a young boy who lost both his parents to a greedy uncle and seemingly betrayed but a loyal family friend and before now, had a premature date with death.

Overall, an intriguing two episodes and I am enjoying it!

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I may have seen wrong but I thought I saw the back of someone's head outside the window while Joon Hee was arguing with Dong Wook. My theory is that Oh Woo-Shik (Min Ho's Secretary) was the one watching them argue and then ran over Dong Wook with his car. Then Joon Hee arrived later, saw his friend near death, could have saved him, but instead picked up his phone and left him to die.

The actress playing Soon-Jung seems to have a pretty stiff face. There's not a lot of movement in it. I found out she was in Prosecutor Princess and I don't remember her but I remember the male lead. Maybe she's one of those actresses that are better as blank canvases to better show off the colorful male leads.

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Why is Jin Goo not the main lead? I think he's such a good actor.

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And DANG, there's a lot of bashing Kim Soyeon on here. People who thinks she's a bad actress must be new to dramaland because she is on hell if an actress. Better than Kim Taehee in IRIS and sure as hell made a lasting impression in All About Eve!

As for Prosecutor Princess, that was her showing her funny side and she did it with flying colors.

I'm an appreciator of good actresses over beauty and Kim Soyeon is one great actress.

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Hi there! Maybe one of you can help me out. What is the song that played at the very end of the episode (and played over the preview for the next episode)? Thanks in advance.

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It's called "Paradise" by Davink.

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Thanks so much gammiron!!!! :D

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This episode was much better than the first one. I hope Min Ho doesn't go through a drastic change.

I wonder if Min Ho is going to react negatively to Joon Hee now that he has a part of Dong Wook inside him.

I don't think Joon Hee is the killer..... He's the obvious choice. He seemed to have had feelings for Soon Jung while she was dating Dong Wook.

And now that DW has passed away, I wonder how long SJ will mourn him and what the whole process would be like... I can't imagine her falling for Min Ho so soon.

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Considering unexpectedly living would already be a good inducement to personality change, since suddenly having Decades ahead of you instead of months would make for a very different lifestyle and thinking. So I hope they moderate the influence of his donor heart to feature, memories, and that sort of thing, not actual personality. Also, there is a lot of space for them to revise his character's past. The summary of his business exploits came from his inside man who wanted to scare the board. Half truths could abound. Not gonna be shocked if we find out all those businesses he targeted were corrupt or that somehow the ordinary employees were taken care of. A plan along the lines of what he dis to the chick (now that you are ruined, here is a new job offer). Just saying, its been pretty carefully constructed for flexibility and I can see it moving in a lot of directions.

I also like how Min Ho is right on the edge and emotional. He's calculating, but he's not cold. And I can even understand his manhandling her a bit and sending her away from him before he sis more. He believes she just dismantled what he's worked years on, the only thing that's kept him alive, seconds before he would have achieved his goal and been able to die happy. Knowing he's going to die with that smarmy uncle gloating over his grave...I'd completely flip my lid and destroy everything in sight too.

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OMG, I shouldn't make comments from my phone. So many typos and I'm bad at fixing them! Gestures, not features. Did, not sis. Oh boy.

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I've never seen any of their dramas but both leads are impressing me here. I like the premise so I started watching, and very hooked immediately after episode 1. Too bad subbed episodes are released quite slow on usual sites. Can't wait for ep 3 and 4 to be subbed and see the gradual change in MinHo. Lollipop is annoying me though. He's going to ruin that pretty smirk soon. A shame he had to change his hairdo.

Thanks for recap, HeadsNo2!

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I enjoy watching this drama so much...
jin goo plays wel, but he dies in episode 2..how sad!!
The story line of episode 1 & 2 is very good.
kim so yeon plays very well here. She plays here better than in i need romance..
i have never watched KJH's drama before. But here, he's so sexy...and i like him.
i can' t wait episode 3 & 4..fighting

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I love this recap. There's a very intelligent voice to it. :)

I've read enough recaps on dramabeans to see that often I translation I get is different from the one that the recappers had. I mention it here because I am certain that when I watched this episode last night, Uncle Kang told Min-Ho that it was Soon-jung who gave him the information about Min-Ho's myocardia. With that, Min-Ho's explosion later is a bit more justified.

It's safe to assume that Uncle Kang made the connection when he learned about the Doctor, but how did he find out that Min-Ho's last visit revealed that he had less than a month to live? Are we not to trust the Doctor now?

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