yoohoo.. the last part.. omooo, i dont want dalpo hyung to be a jerk and bad guy here like in Taiwan version. oh writernim, please change the character, haha.. i cant see him as a jerk, oh noooo.. :P

thanks for the recap :D

Thanks for the recap! "Easy airhead" is grating on my nerves! Who goes around attaching herself to a guy in such a shameless manner?

Mark Darcy moment, anyone?

One thing I love about this drama is how it's really centered around these two characters. Practically every scene has one or the other or both, and I don't mind it at all. Drama is letting me get to know these characters and not involving them in silly sideplots or whatever.

I do see So-eun being more manipulative as we go on, which is a shame because I was hoping we would divulge from the typical second lead. I guess she's not that typical (no yelling or aggression or slapping or meanness), but she's not the naive, kind of dense but sweet character I hoped she would be.

My favorite thing about this whole show is just the interactions between Hana and Won:
The hotel scene = cute, cute, cute (that Venus pose!).
The conversation on the bed = ermahgerd!
The jjangjangmyeon scene = sweetness overload
The library scenes = a little heartbreaking

Thanks, Heads, for recapping this show! This was my most-anticipated drama this year, so thank you, thank you, for letting me indulge in it!

Yawn! Something about this show seems to really drag.... Any thoughts on why?

I read some interesting takes on So Eun’s character on the previous thread, so will share (re-post) my two cents here as I feel I missed out on the convo, ha!

Normally, with a character like that, I’d say an argument can be made both ways – you either love her, or hate her. But I can see why that might be a tad bit difficult in this version, where for some reason, she’s made to come across as being more manipulative as opposed to naive. That wasn’t the case in the original…

In the original, her character highlighted an age gap which Ha Na had to contend with, the older she got. Her youthful nature and naive optimism served as a great contrast to Ha na’s years of experience and general outlook on life, which changes according to generation.

And whilst the young can be annoying and lack perspective on life due to inexperience or naivety, you can’t blame them for taking advantage of opportunities laid out in front of them. That is the case with both SE and SJ, who take advantage of their youth to take bold steps. It’s one of the things I really enjoyed about the original – the essence of time, and how that translated into all the various characters, be it young or older, and the decisions they are forced to make as a result.

Yes, So Eun may be a little manipulative, but she’s also young, and her perspective on life is made to stand out vastly from both Ha na and Won’s (who belong to the same generation). If anything, her character showcases just how in sync Hana and Won are when it comes to life, and how their shared experiences doesn’t allow for a third party to enter so easily. In that sense, So Eun also comes across as slightly more pathetic if not sympathetic, as she’s of the naive mindset that her ideal vision of love can overcome a friendship of 17 or more years.

It may be frustrating, but she sure ain’t fooling anyone. Mind you, I think that's also a key problem - she was presented as being a lot younger than Won and Ha-na in the orig, making her antics a lot more believable, in that it made you think she’s young and naive, despite being annoying. Here, her character looks older – so her actions don’t quite match up, making her appear a lot more manipulative in the negative sense.

Won may be too nice a guy to decline her advances, but he sure isn’t innocent. Mi Hyang actually gave him very sound advice in not starting something he’s not committed to – so he entered this relationship knowingly. And him providing false hope is a lot more blameworthy than So Eun’s forthright nature. Doesn’t mean I like Won any less, it’s just that, it shows he’s not perfect – exactly how the Taiwanese version depicts him.

"Hana believes love is about compromise and sacrifice, but Won believes it’s about loving the other person just the way they are."
Hana-ah! Wonnie can't be any more revealing!

“The only person who likes me for who I am is you, but you don’t see me as a woman,” Hana confessed. “You’re the one who doesn’t see me as a man,” Won had countered.

My heart ached for Won!!!
I'm not sure if he said anything else to her, but the look he gave her spoke volumes!!! Filled with longing and love. Won-ah!!! My heart goes out to you!

Btw, the bed scene and the Wonnie pillow had me squealing with delight! I want a pillow too! Pun intended.

A very worthy two cents! I had a good feeling about her in the first episode, but now that we're in the fourth episode, I do find her naivete and initial sweetness a bit off. I get that she's optimistic, but I don't know if that bright, sunny optimism is coming across the way it should.

And agree about Won. As much as I love him, I think he should have the awareness as the older, more experienced person in this "relationship" to either reject or accept her affection and not lead her on. He keeps assuring (or lying to) her that Hana is just a friend, like family, which only convinces her even more that he likes her.

I think it's interesting how many conversations we are having on this board about So-eun either way. However we think of her, she's definitely not uninteresting.

"Naturally, she asks if he’d drop everything and go to her if she were to call him in the middle of the night like that."

Won takes a moment before he explains that Hana is like family to him. “So you’re saying that Hana Unni is a friend who’s like family, and I’m your girlfriend, right?” When Won doesn’t respond, she adds onto the manipulation by saying she’ll think positively, since that’s a trait he likes about her. Grah, she’s annoying."

I CANNOT AGREE WITH YOU MORE!

Furthermore, she's illogical. Just because Hana is like a family friend doesn't mean that she is his girlfriend! How can she go from A to D, by ignoring B and C?

I'm teaching my students Cause and Effect now, and this is a very good example of what is NOT cause and effect! Think I'm going use it in class!

But all that said, Won, why didn't you say no? Do you think she's just teasing you?

Thanks Heads!!

I'm still enjoying the ride and I like the exploration into whether men and women can be friends or go back to being friends after falling in love/breaking up. My personal take on this is that it really depends on individuals and on each couple. I believe that the better the communication between the couple, the more likely they are able to regain something of if not most of their friendship before being romantically involved. (I have heard from a divorcee so at least there is one case??) Whether it can be the same is less likely, since people do not remain exactly the same.

WRT to this show. I'm glad that Ha Na has literally woken up and seen Won with new eyes. Now that she realizes that he is the one she likes, all the obstacles are just going to come raining on them LOL! I loved the funny... the 'bedroom scenes', the meta ref to Gil Ra Im and froth-covered lips ... scenes included to lighten the mood as our OTP start getting more seriously thoughtful about where they are. It was also good that we are given enough to understand what gives Ha Na pause through her friends' Na Young's and Jeong Mi's experiences. At least viewers are not left in the dark to guess only.

WRT to Won, it is more of a puzzle. What would cause him to fight because he likes Ha Na and what outside influence would stop him? This show does not have a birth secret, right? right?? However his nightmare of being punched if he kissed Ha Na is revealing and saddening. Taken together with some unknown other reason, it might be compelling and understandable that Won's fears outweigh the rewards of taking the risk.

And Yoon Kyun Sang - so good to see him again... is he going to be a troublesome second lead? Romantic but irritating, behaving like he's entitled and putting Won down? Probably... but still seeing him again is a bit of a drool-ish experience. LOL!

A number of people have had problems with seeing HJW being aegyo and girly, partly because of her previous roles. Girly or not, I feel that Hana is just as tough as her other characters. She may not be literally kicking and fighting, but she's still kicking ass only in a different way because her battles are different.

1) It takes A LOT of courage and toughness to attend the wedding of a person who 2-timed you and ended up marrying the other person, who happens to be richer and younger...and they happen to be your colleagues as well. To top it off, you're the object of pity and scorn from your colleagues.

2) Then, at the wedding, your friend, with good intentions, messes up things more, and now the wedding guests are upset with you. You have to go back to work with the same people and hold your head up high. That's tough. But Hana did with pose and dignity. When everyone thought that she would resign, Hana stuck to her guns.

3) She's tough too in that she's professional. I liked the way she handled the difficult shoe customer with her knowledge of shoes. That's so admirable - rather than putting the lady down in a 'clever' way. I believe that in the original version, the female lead handled it in an aggressive way. I feel that Hana's way is much better and more professional. She had to humble herself - take the lady's foot in her hand, use her wits and knowledge to speak to the lady nicely when it would have been easier to just diss the customer.

4) The way she handled Sung Jae's betrayal. WOW! Daebak! I'm reminded about what a beloved Principal whom I've had the privilege of working with, taught me. One of the teachers in the school was dissing her behind her back, even up to the authorities. But that year, he got a promotion. I was very puzzled and asked her about it. Her reply was "I must separate the man from his work." Although the teacher was giving her a hard time, he was actually a good teacher and did his work well. It was just his relationship with the P that was not good. But she saw beyond the personal differences to the work he was doing. And that's what Hana did. She could have used her authority to not get him a job, but she didn't. I'm proud of her! And that takes guts!

"Not to mention the fact I don’t think Lee Jin-wook and Ha Ji-won have anywhere near as good a rapport as Arial Lin and Chen Bo Lin had."

Ah, that's being a little harsh don't you think? I admit, it did seem a little rocky to begin with, but I think they've grown a lot more comfortable in their roles since then. Now, I find them oozing with chemistry, perhaps not in the same way as Bolin and Ariel, but certainly not worse or any less for that matter.

I have to agree with some of the changes you picked up on though, like Maggie's character for instance!! She was a lot more likeable (despite being annoying) in the Taiwanese version. And her presence proved a point in relation to age and experience.

However, Mi-hyang, I don't mind so much. Though I much preferred Da-ren (Won) being stuck in a house with women who had considerable impact on his life whilst growing up - his mother, his sister, and his best friend. It really served a narrative purpose.

This episode left me with the following questions:

Is there a possibility Won can't like Hana because of the pianist?

Are the pianist and Won related?

Thank you for the recap?

I don't understand why so many more people are criticizing Won because he's in a romantic relationship with So-eun when he still has feelings for Hana. Hana's done the same thing at least three times! (She was with the terrible guy that got married, the person mentioned in the drunk conversation and Sung-jae.) Hana's just as guilty as Won.

I think it's different for Hana. Won has made it clear to her that he will never love her that way. She probably accepted it, and instead of moping around for a guy she thinks she can not be with, she pursued relationships with sincerity.

Won, on the other hand, seems detached from So-eun, and it's obvious he never put those feelings for Hana away.

I expect that the melo axe will fall on us soon enough but right now I'm enjoying the humour in the show in places where we can get them. HN's mum and dad are a hoot as they throw in one scheme after the next to orchestrate moments for the OTP to have one-on-one time in the dark.

I have no strong feelings about the 2FL one way or the other. She's there to serve a purpose and she does it adequately. She may be manipulative but she's so baldly manipulative that I can't really see any malevolence in it especially when Won doesn't exactly go out of his way to discourage her from latching on to him either. Like his predecessor, he's using her to experiment as much she's pushing herself onto him. I'm sure he's not that naive or dumb not to understand what she's up to.

There were four scenes here that I loved: The post-drinking bed scene, the pre-drinking sofa scene, light-bulb scene and the jjajeongmyeon and jjampong eating scene.

So far it's hitting all the right notes for me. I love In Time with You but I never feel the need to compare the two. This one follows the template but they're both different creatures to me.

I didn't watch the original, I'm a little bit confused how they are supposed to squeeze 16 episodes out of this.

My main problem with the show right now is a personal one, something I cannot blame the show for: I'm pro-friendship. For me, friendships are the most important parts of life. You can decide to fall in love or out of love with a person -- and that usually takes a day or two to do so -- but you cannot produce friendship in the same way. Friendship is usually the combination of being lucky and a lot of hard work. And that's why it's so precious to me.

The show is basically the antithesis to that, and it's nothing else. I can imagine that my religious fundamentalist sister-in-law had similar feelings in her biology lectures in high school.

For some reason I thought Won was getting hit by his school mates because, he is the reason they lost the match, when he saved Hana from falling during the games,making the girls the winners.

Heads ~

Thanks for the recap !

naked from the waist up (multiple times!) without feeling a thing. Na-young says maybe she felt nothing, but would Won feel differently if the tables were turned?

LOL. Yikes. That would be hard to ignore. Makes for some good fan fiction.

Won, Won, Won ! Go ahead and kiss the girl.

Hasn't he seen The Little Mermaid ?

Kiss The Girl

Oh God. I've been watching these episodes half-cringing and half laughing my ass off because...I've been there.

I've also have been bffs with a dude since we were in grade school, we were in the same grade, and were so tight our classmates figured we were dating.

We talk all day at school and then email long letters when we got home just talking about things. We can talk on the phone for hours about nothing at all or about serious stuff like our beliefs, our dreams.

When we parted at college, we still email each other long letters every day without fail.

The first person I would want to tell a good joke or speak to when I have a bad day or have awesome news would be him.

There is a kind of intimacy that I have with him that I don't have with other people. I'm open with him more than I'm open with my own family or my girl friends, I was confident that I can say anything to him, confess anything to him and he won't reject me or dismiss me. I don't have that with other people. Only him. There was actually a time where my own family forgot my birthday and he was the only one who remembered it, he actually (on his very limited budget) called me from his dorm room at Malaysia, where he had to climb to the room in order to get a signal for his cellphone. The call lasted seconds where the only thing he said was, "Happy birthday. I love you." And it meant a lot to me.

I don't have a lot of people whose love I can truthfully, honestly believe without a doubt, sure 100 %.

People often don't understand that kind of relationship and we've experience what CW and HN experienced, people wanting to dissect our relationship, pushing it into a stereotype, or into a logical shape that they can understand, people pressuring us to get together, people telling us that that's not normal...

It's hard keeping that kind of relationship without it getting weird, and hard not to let other people's opinions get in the way of a friendship like that.

When you're that close, when you're that entwined, you do get confused over the relationship, especially after you get bombarded with your other people's opinion. And you do get afraid of losing such a relationship. The fear is kind of mind-boggling.

It's just a mess. We were a mess.

He fell in love with me but he knew that I didn't have any feelings for him in that way, so he purposely drifted away from me for two years until an earthquake happened in my province (I'm totally serious) and he emailed me by the 100s asking me if I was okay. After I slapped him with an angry email (because he really did disappear on me, without explanation) we made up.

Surprisingly, we can still have 5 hours of conversations without stopping, we still have that bond. Both of us are trying to make our dreams come true (him with his music, me with writing) and his album and my book actually came out on the same month.

He has a family now, and I'm still happily single and we...

I feel like Won himself is not convinced about So-eun. He's never fully shown that he likes her, he just kinda goes with the flow that So-eun pushes him to. But I think part of it might stem from that bet with Hana to see who gets married first. I suspect he's never had a girlfriend, and feels the need to prove himself, to answer that taunt about whether his prickly personality can be loved. Other than the museum date, he hasn't really been proactively seeking out So-eun. It's like he's got some form of determination that he ought to try. And also give So-eun a chance.

I would have totally bought the thing about estranged parents making Won so anxious about romance. But this high school thing throws a spanner in the works. His anger seems more like a 'why are you guys stopping me?' (although there could be yet another third party, except he takes it out on the guys) than a rhetorical 'why can't I love her?' Bah, there goes all my theories again.

I'm glad Hana took the high road with Sung-jae, but damn, he's gone too soon. Would've been cool to have him around as a platonic sidekick after things got kinda cleaned up.

This episode felt a little disjointed compared to the rest though. Sung-jae's neat exit. The way Hana changed her mind suddenly about her friendship with Won (maybe 2min more brooding would smoothen it).

Hyung!!!!! You finally show up. Love you!! I haven't watch the original version, so i skipped all the comment related to his role in original ver. I hope he will bring the extra dynamic with current otp. Why chakka-nim write So-eun character like this. I didn't have enough simpathy for her. I hope she'll show better character. I hate to watch the second lead get typical second lead bits.

@LeeDaHae
Yes, it is possible that Won does consider So Eun more like a little sister, and he definitely does not consider her at all close to him in the same way as Ha Na... so he does not treat them the same way... but So Eun is continually giving Won clear indication that she does not consider herself a 'sister' but a 'girlfriend'.

He cannot misunderstand what So Eun wants. Although he does not like So Eun romantically, he may be trying out a bit with her (since he is not supposed to be in love with Ha Na) to see how it goes... after all they have that $5,000 bet and he may be salvaging his pride to show that he can have a gf if he wants. But he is not 'dating' So Eun because he likes her in the right way.

What he is allowing So Eun to 'do to him' in agreeing to go out with her, although is understandable, is not wise. I feel we should not start something unless we are really committed into seeing it through all the way properly. Won should have nipped it in the bud the moment So Eun called herself his girlfriend. Now, she has the right to be 'officially' hurt, because she considers herself his gf. And she can then call for support from Mi Hyang to be on her side.