She Was Pretty: Episode 10

by LollyPip

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Sung-joon to hide his feelings — the question is, what is he going to do about it, because it’s beginning to mess with his head. And he’s not the only one who can’t hide his feelings anymore, as everyone in our little love-square realizes that the lying and hiding has to stop. Unfortunately, telling the truth will be a lot harder than they think.

EPISODE 10 RECAP

Hye-jin accidentally takes Ah-reum’s broken-down car to her interview, which breaks down on her. It begins to rain and she looks for a sign of where she is so she can call for help, and comes upon an accident in which the driver was badly hurt.

Sung-joon rushes to find Hye-jin when he reads of the accident, scared she was the one injured, and not even the rainy conditions frighten him as badly as the thought of her being hurt. Hye-jin sees Sung-joon yelling at the first responders and calls out to him, and his expression of relief is heart-wrenching. He runs to her and enfolds her in a desperate hug.

Sung-joon yells a little about Hye-jin’s carelessness, but she’s more concerned that he drove in the rain. Aww, she’s every bit as scared for him as he was for her. Sung-joon just stares at her, and says dazedly, “I didn’t know it was raining.”

Shin-hyuk watches from across the street, having also rushed to find Hye-jin, but he’s too late. He sees how utterly absorbed Sung-joon and Hye-jin are in each other, and he leaves without saying anything. He’s limping, and we see that he crashed his motorcycle in his hurry to find Hye-jin.

Safe in Sung-joon’s car, Hye-jin checks in with work while Sung-joon shoots her tiny nervous glances. He gives her a blanket (overriding her protests that he needs it more), and the drive back to town is filled with an awkward, hyper-aware silence.

Hye-jin turns on the radio but can’t find a station that isn’t playing a song about holding someone, so she turns it right back off. Sung-joon doesn’t seem to want to let her out of the car at her place, but all he can think of to say is that he’ll see her tomorrow.

She thinks about all the times when he seemed to care about her, and thinks to herself that when we want to tell the truth, we can hesitate from lack of courage. And in that moment of hesitation, it can become impossible to tell the truth. She comes to a decision and turns back, but he’s already driving away.

She takes a cab to his hotel, and sees him in the lobby. He calls out “Hye-jin-ah” — but he’s not looking at Hye-jin. She watches in shock as he approaches Ha-ri, calling her by Hye-jin’s name. In voiceover, she says that even if we muster up the courage to reveal the truth, some truths make us feel worse than the lies.

Hye-jin stares as her best friend pretends to be her, and Sung-joon apologizes for not keeping his promise again. He asks if he can beg off their date and rest, and Ha-ri agrees, but doesn’t give him her letter tonight, either.

Sung-joon watches her leave, and apologizes to her silently — he’d vowed not to do things to make her worry, but he thinks he may not be able to keep that promise.

Feeling betrayed, Hye-jin realizes how strange Ha-ri has been acting every time her new boyfriend is mentioned. She walks right into traffic, unaware of her surroundings, and rides the bus in a daze until it’s last stop.

Shin-hyuk calls her, and picks her up at the bus depot, having left the hospital where he was being treated for his accident injuries. He asks what she plans to do now — fight with her friend? Or tell Sung-joon the truth first?

Hye-jin sighs that she’ll wait for Ha-ri to talk to her, since she asked for time. She figures her friend must have a reason for lying to Sung-joon, just as she did back in the beginning. Shin-hyuk says he’s jealous of Ha-ri, enacting a hilarious bitch-fight like most women would do, saying that he wishes he had a friend like Hye-jin.

But Hye-jin just says that this is her friend, and Shin-hyuk offers her a ride. She notices he’s not on his bike, but he deflects her questions and takes her home. She thanks him, glad to have a friend like him at times like this.

He kids like usual, but does turn a bit serious as he asks if she plans to go to Sung-joon when this is all straightened out. She admits for the first time that she likes Sung-joon, sure that he feels the same about her, and that she’d like to be with him. This stings, but Shin-hyuk accepts it and throws her a little fistbump and a “Fighting!”

Hye-jin goes inside to find Ha-ri gluing the soles back on her damaged shoes, but they fall apart anyway so she offers to buy Hye-jin new ones. Hye-jin accepts her offer, which is unusual, but she just tells Ha-ri that of course — she’s her friend.

Home alone with his thoughts, Sung-joon says to a photo of his mother that this is the first time that he’s driven in the rain and not thought about the day she died. Hye-jin is also feeling contemplative as she sits in bed, pondering her puzzle piece.

The next morning, there’s an awkward moment when they run into each other outside the coffee shop and wonder what to say. Sung-joon takes the direct route and offers to buy her coffee, and doesn’t accept her no for an answer. He’s a lot calmer than she is, especially when he admits that he couldn’t sleep because of what happened last night.

Hye-jin spots Shin-hyuk on his way to work and claims to need to speak to him, rushing out of there like her butt’s on fire. She wails to Shin-hyuk that Sung-joon wants to talk but she feels like she’s going nuts, so he pretends to be talking with her as Sung-joon watches them suspiciously. They’re not fooling him one bit.

Of course, Hye-jin still has to work with Sung-joon, and she balks when she finds him in the meeting room when she needs to go in. She hides behind her coworkers when they head in for the meeting, terrified to be alone with Sung-joon even for a moment.

During today’s meeting, Sung-joon’s gaze bores holes in Hye-jin’s head, while she tries (and fails) to pretend she doesn’t notice. After the meeting he tells her to bring the minutes to him as soon as possible, and as soon as she does, his hug from the night before plays through her mind in romantic slow motion. Several times, ha.

She tries to scoot out of there but he tells her to stay until he’s done reading, and when her chair sits too low, he comes around to raise it for her. Of course, this requires him leaning in very close and touching her shoulder, and Hye-jin shakes so hard she looks like she’s going to explode. HAHA, he raises it all the way, so that she’s sitting higher than him.

Sung-joon starts to bring up last night, but Hye-jin jumps up, claiming that Shin-hyuk needs something from her. She tries to escape and is foiled by the door, and Sung-joon has to help her again — by opening the other door. How embarrassing. But when she leaves, Sung-joon heaves a sigh like he’s experiencing the same nerves Hye-jin is having. So cute.

Chief Editor Kim comes to remind Sung-joon about a dinner meeting tonight with a designer, giving him a particular suit of theirs to wear. HAHA, she tries to make the meeting sound like a date between them, but Sung-joon just gives her his “I don’t think so” face.

The mysterious novelist Ten posts a message that they’ll be meeting with fans in three weeks, to coincide with the release of their new book. Ten’s publisher wants Most to review the new book, titled “Memory,” which is Shin-hyuk’s wheelhouse. He complains, saying that Ten is too famous, and it’s no fun reviewing famous writers’ work.

Chief Editor Kim swans through the room speaking French on her phone, and the Most team discuss how she’s actually a lot smarter and more capable than they originally thought. They wonder about her true identity, but I don’t think she’s nearly as deep as they think, hee.

Everyone heads out for lunch, but Shin-hyuk is missing so Hye-jin hangs back to wait for him. But when she calls him, a woman answers and refers to him as “the patient,” and Hye-jin finds him outside heading back from a follow-up at the hospital. She pesters Shin-hyuk to tell her how he got hurt, but he just wants to go eat.

Sung-joon gets a call from Hye-jin’s younger sister Hye-rin, and he treats her to lunch indulgently. He laughs at her ordering like a tiny little adult, and marvels over her resemblance to her sister at her age. Hye-rin is offended, insisting that she’s much prettier than her sister, though she allows that Hye-jin is strong and has a good personality.

HA, Shin-hyuk whines and moans over his hurt arm at lunch, demanding that Hye-jin feed him. He still won’t tell her how he was injured, but he’s so adorable begging to be fed that she can’t stay angry at him.

After lunch, Shin-hyuk finally admitsthat he crashed his motorcycle. Hye-jin demands he hand over the keys, declaring it too dangerous and forbidding him to ride it again, but he just laughs at her. He half-jokes that she shouldn’t ask that if she has no intention of dating him, because it gets his hopes up. Aww, his mouth is smiling but his eyes are so sad.

Ha-ri helps a foreign hotel guest find a new tie after spilling coffee on his, and he mentions how touched he was to her boss. She’s told to expect a reward for going above and beyond to make the guest happy.

Sung-joon goes home for the weekend, leaving the suit Chief Editor Kim told him to wear behind at the office. She enlists Hye-jin to take it to him at home, so she tries to drop it off at the desk of his hotel, but he sees her and blows her cover.

He invites her in for tea but she declines, and he asks if he makes her uncomfortable. She doesn’t want to admit it, so she’s roped into having tea before she goes. She gulps down the hot tea (ouch!) and gasps, but she just wants out of there badly.

Sung-joon has something to say, but Hye-jin tries to write last night off as him just being worried for a colleague. He says blandly that he wouldn’t do that — he came running because it was her. Okay, awwww.

He softly tells her that at first he was annoyed by her, but at some point, he began to like spending time with her. But caring about her made him feel like a bad person, so he tried to dislike her. But after last night, he can’t deny it anymore, and acknowledges that something about her shakes him up. With trembling hands, Hye-jin proceeds to pour tea all over herself, so Sung-joon brings her a sweatshirt to change into.

She puts on the sweatshirt (which hilariously says COURAGE) but then she’s too nervous to go back out there. Sung-joon calls her out, and they both seem to realize the intensely intimate fact of her wearing his clothing. He grabs her wrist when she tries to walk past him, but only so that he can roll up the long sleeves for her. Sweet.

He apologizes for making her uncomfortable, and says that he didn’t admit his feelings so that they could do something about it. He just wanted her to know. He says that she reminds him of something that he’s known a long time. Somehow, when he’s with her, he becomes honest to a fault.

He tells Hye-jin that she makes him want to show his true self, and talk about himself, but he stops when he notices her eyes welling up with tears. She tells him that he didn’t say anything wrong, and he offers her a ride home. But when he goes to get his keys, she slips out.

When Shin-hyuk finds out that Hye-jin was sent to Sung-joon’s place on an errand, he shows up at Sung-joon’s with a giant smile, looking for her. He grabs a beer that he left in Sung-joon’s fridge, but Sung-joon smacks it out of his hand and demands to know why he’s following Hye-jin around.

Shin-hyuk says he’s sort of her guardian oppa, and turns the same question on Sung-joon. Is he her black knight who rides through the rain to save her? Sung-joon counters that at least he doesn’t make his feelings into a joke like a coward, and Shin-hyuk takes his leave. But in the hall, he drops the smile and his eyes go hard.

Joon-woo and Seul go to dinner, though she internally complains about always going to the same hole-in-the-wall restaurant. He notices her struggle with the spicy food and says he’ll have to come with someone else from now on, but she insists she loves it.

He cleans up food she’d spit out while she protests that it’s dirty, but he just says it’s not dirty, because it was hers. She asks if he likes her, and he’s all Yeah, you didn’t know? When he confirms that they’re officially dating, she wants a kiss, so he tosses her a little peck. HA. These two are adorable.

Shin-hyuk and Ha-ri talk over a beer at their convenience store, where he asks her if he can meddle in her life one more time. He tells her that Hye-jin knows everything, and that she’s waiting for Ha-ri to tell her the truth first. Ha-ri goes home, but she’s too ashamed to go inside, where she knows she’ll have to face Hye-jin.

When she finally goes inside, Hye-jin is there, looking at the shoes Ha-ri tried to fix for her. Ha-ri tells her friend that tomorrow, she’ll go back to where she belongs, asking for just one more day. She thanks Hye-jin for waiting for her, and for letting her tell her herself.

Hye-jin finally interviews the children’s book author, who notices that she knows a lot about fairy tales. Hye-jin admits that when she was young she wanted to write children’s books, too. The author encourages her not to give up and gives her a copy of her book as a gift.

Hye-jin reads the book, and as she walks, she sees that there’s a Renoir exhibit nearby. She stops in and finds “Dance in the Country,” smiling at the little hidden girl. Suddenly she’s joined by Sung-joon, and they both smile to see the other here.

Some schoolchildren come by and one comments that Sung-joon is wearing the same scarf they wear with their uniform, and he takes it off, embarrassed. But Hye-jin champions him and says that he’s very stylish, and he puts it back on with a smile. The kids tease that she must loooove that ajusshi, making both of them look around nervously.

A couple asks Hye-jin to take their picture posing as the dancing couple, and offer to take one of her and Sung-joon in return. Hye-jin waves them off but Sung-joon whips out his phone, HA.

He offers her a ride home on his way to his meeting, but she’s headed back to the office to work on her article. She says she’ll see him tomorrow, but it’s Sunday — “But even so, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

On the drive to his meeting, Ha-ri calls Sung-joon to ask him to meet tonight. He says his meeting will run late and starts to offer to see her tomorrow, but he stops and agrees, even if it’s late. He also has something to talk to her about.

Hye-jin sees Shin-hyuk in the elevator when she gets back to the office, but only Poong-ho is in the office when she goes upstairs. He mentions that Shin-hyuk went after her when her car broke down, which is news to her. She realizes that this must have been when he crashed his motorcycle, and runs out to find him.

She catches him outside and asks if he came to find her and had his accident, and he just gives her the saddest look. It’s a struggle to paste on his trademark grin, but he does, and admits that that’s what happened. He asks if she feels burdened, and says good, she should feel sorry towards him. He wants her to be worried about him, too. Dammit, he’s breaking my heart right now.

He plays her promise to grant him three requests, and decides to call in his third favor. He grabs her in a hug and tells her, serious this time, that he doesn’t think of her as a friend. He doesn’t ever want to be friends.

Sung-joon wraps up his meeting and calls Ha-ri, but she’s gone to work for a bit and offers to meet him later. She finishes up her work and starts to call Sung-joon, but he’s already there, right behind her. And he’s just heard her boss call her by her real name.

In voiceover, Hye-jin repeats that when we’re about to tell the truth, we can end up hesitating. And sometimes, that hesitation costs you the chance to tell the truth.

Sung-joon walks up to Ha-ri looking stricken, and says her name, “Min Ha-ri. Who are you?”

COMMENTS

Well, I can’t say that I feel bad for Ha-ri exactly, because it’s true that this is a situation of her own making. I think even she understands that. But Hye-jin’s words are so true, that her hesitation when she decided to tell the truth resulted in her being caught and not given the chance to come clean on her own. It’s going to make the fallout that much worse, because you can say all day that you meant to tell the truth, but it rings false when you’re caught out while still perpetuating a lie. She’s had several opportunities to give him that letter and at least come out of this holding her head up that she did the right thing eventually, but now, I don’t think she’s going to get out of this so easily.

As for Hye-jin, it’s so like her to find out that Ha-ri has been lying to Sung-joon and to her, and to trust her enough to come to her in her own time. As outsiders looking in, it’s hard to understand that kind of trust… but knowing Ha-ri and Hye-jin’s lifelong relationship, I can understand why Hye-jin is willing to give Ha-ri that chance. She knows her better than anyone — she knows that Ha-ri wouldn’t do something like this lightly, and she also knows that she won’t be able to sustain it. She trusts their friendship, and that Ha-ri loves her enough to come to her when she’s ready to confess. And she was right, though it’s a shame that Ha-ri waited a little too long.

I’m glad Sung-joon finally knows for real, at least as much as that Ha-ri isn’t his Hye-jin. It was difficult to watch him feeling like he was betraying his first love, by falling for someone else. Of course we know he’s falling for his real first love all over again, but he doesn’t know that, and the guilt he feels seems so painful that he can’t even enjoy the fact that he truly is falling in love. He’s been so attached to the idea that he was going to find Hye-jin and be with her, which really hasn’t been a healthy thing for Sung-joon emotionally. But I can’t help but look forward to the moment when he discovers that he’s actually gotten what he’s wanted his whole life — to make his first love, his last love.

But in the meantime, I adore how he treats Hye-jin now that he’s confessed that he has feelings for her. Just the simple act of rolling up her sleeves was so sweet and tender, and somehow vulnerable. For a closed-up guy like Sung-joon to not only admit feelings for a woman that even he’s surprised affects him so much, but perform even that tiny service for her, is a very moving thing. I appreciate that he’s admitted that the way he treated her before was wrong, and I’m happy to be seeing some personal growth on his part. Nobody is perfect, and Sung-joon is under tremendous pressure from multiple sources, so I can forgive him now that he’s genuinely apologized. It’s interesting that the woman he thinks is his first love makes him even more closed-up… but without even knowing the truth, it’s the woman who truly is his old friend who makes him soften, and want to be better. So for Sung-joon’s emotional health, I’m happy that he now knows that Ha-ri is not his old friend, and he can move forward with Hye-jin without guilt.

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