Fox Bride Star: Episodes 15-16

by LollyPip

Our adorable not-yet-a-couple continues to grow closer, and they’re even learning to work together better. For once, instead of making a work situation worse, they’re able to help out a fellow employee. But as cute as they are, neither Soo-yeon nor Yeo-reum are invincible, and eventually their good luck could run out.

EPISODE 15: “Thinking everything is someone else’s fault”

Yeo-reum is shocked to learn that Soo-yeon knows her father. He says that he went to her dad’s restaurant often, thinking at first that he was simply a restaurant owner. It was later that he discovered that her dad was an author who had been writing a children’s story for his daughter, whom he hadn’t seen since she was young.

She asks when Soo-yeon knew that that man was her father, and why he didn’t tell her sooner. He says he’s known since he met her, and he wonders how to tell her that it wasn’t a coincidence.

In flashback, we see Yeo-reum’s dad and a younger Soo-yeon, still in his wheelchair, at the Fox Bride Star bar. Dad had shown Soo-yeon a picture of his daughter, and later, when she’d shown up at the bar, Soo-yeon had recognized her immediately. He thinks, “There must have been some kind of gravitational energy, and that energy pulled us toward each other. But I wonder how much of that you’ll believe.”

Out loud, he tells Yeo-reum that he didn’t want to act like he knew her because he wasn’t planning on working at the airport for long. He adds that he wasn’t sure she would want to hear about her dad, because she hadn’t seen him since her parents divorced.

But Yeo-reum shows him the compass she wears every day, which her father gave her on her ninth birthday. She tells Soo-yeon how she always got lost, so her dad gave it to her so that she could always find her way. She asks how any daughter could hate a father like that, and Soo-yeon smiles and tells her that her dad would be happy to hear that.

Yeo-reum asks Soo-yeon to tell her more about her father, and he promises he will when they have more time. He tells her to go home for now, and although she’s reluctant, she finally makes her way to her new apartment and awkwardly introduces herself to her new roommate… Young-joo. This is going to be the best.

Yeo-reum escapes to her new bedroom as quickly as possible, and she gets a call from Soo-yeon, who asks if she got home safely. Argh, he’s entirely too cute.

The next morning, Yeo-reum wakes with a start, having slept fully-clothed without even unpacking. In the kitchen, she finds that Young-joo has claimed half of the kitchen for her groceries, and she forbids Yeo-reum to borrow her food or drinks, snapping that being roommates doesn’t mean they’re friends.

Yeo-reum loudly complains about Young-joo’s bad attitude as she and Soo-yeon walk to work. Adorably, he carefully steers her out of the way of other pedestrians, then shakes his hands nervously after having touched her.

Eun-seob overhears Yeo-reum and wants to know who’s being so mean to her, admitting that he waited for her to make sure she got moved in okay. Introducing himself to Soo-yeon, Eun-seob makes sure to say that he’s not only friends with Yeo-reum, he’s her best friend. Soo-yeon hesitates to shake hands, but he eventually raises his hand to Eun-seob’s, only to get left hanging when the bus arrives. OMG, how is he so cuuute?

Team Leader Choi looks concerned when someone discovers the door handle that Soo-yeon accidentally pulled right off of the door when he was trying to find Yeo-reum. Dae-ki reports that there’s a man refusing to go through the security check before his flight, claiming to be in pain and claustrophobic. Strangely, there appear to be several shady-looking men following him, and the security guard notices that the man’s shirt is bulging oddly.

Eun-seob gets off the bus at the airport at Yeo-reum’s stop, saying that he’s working the afternoon shift so he has time to kill. Yeo-reum notes that he’s acting strange, but Eun-seob insists that nothing at all is up.

The other security guards urge Young-joo to have a housewarming party, but she says it will never happen. Famous last words.

Heading to the office, Yeo-reum wonders why Soo-yeon isn’t right behind her, since they were on the same bus. She passes Young-joo in the hall and they exchange awkward nods, making Yeo-reum cringe. Young-joo comes back to ask if Yeo-reum is planning a housewarming party, saying that she hates them and doesn’t want one. Bossy thing, ain’t she?

A grouchy Manager Gong takes offense to Yeo-reum’s innocent “good morning,” then turns right around to complain when Soo-yeon doesn’t greet him. Soo-yeon just deadpans that he heard Manager Gong say he didn’t want to be greeted, making everyone else snicker.

Seo-koon tells the team that security is a nightmare – an elderly lady attacks a guard with a handful of kimchi when he says she can’t carry it on the plane, a young couple settles in to finish their drinks before boarding, and another man pours water over a guard’s head when told that he can’t carry it into the terminal.

Manager Gong volun-tells Soo-yeon and Yeo-reum to go handle all the unruly passengers. In-woo watches as Soo-yeon and Yeo-reum leave together before he’s called into Manager Kwon’s office. He asks if Manager Kwon has heard from Team Leader Choi regarding Soo-yeon’s prosthetic, and learns that Team Leader Choi asked for a week to handle things.

In-woo hands Manager Kwon a proposal for a stake sale (where a company sells its equity to another company). He tells Manager Kwon that it will yield positive results and may even get him a big promotion.

Team Leader Choi shows up with Dae-ki and Young-joo to investigate the passenger with the bulging shirt, and the mule grows even more nervous while the shady man in line glowers. Dae-ki and Young-joo recognize him… oh, this is the guy they previously suspected of hiring that family to smuggle gold bars.

The mule tells Team Leader Choi that he injured his ribs in an accident. When alerted to the other man’s presence, Team Leader Choi tells his people to call Customs and the police, and leads the mule away. The smuggler calls someone to report that their mule got caught, just before Dae-ki pulls him aside as well.

Soo-yeon asks Yeo-reum about a housewarming party, but she says she’s not planning one. He asks if she’s afraid he’ll make the guests uncomfortable, and Yeo-reum bristles at him, insisting that she’s not the kind of person who would invite some people but not others. Soo-yeon just replies that a party would be fun, but remembering Young-joo’s objections, Yeo-reum shakes off the idea.

As they’re being led to Customs, the smuggler nods to two of his men nearby, who immediately cause a disturbance. The smuggler makes a run for it while Dae-ki and Young-joo are distracted, and the mule decides to run, too. Unfortunately, he heads right towards Yeo-reum — at the last second, Soo-yeon grabs her and pulls her to his chest, while at the same time he sticks his leg out to trip the mule.

The mule is caught, but neither Soo-yeon or Yeo-reum notice, too affected by their sudden closeness. They break apart when Team Leader Choi runs over, and Soo-yeon swears that tripping the mule was unintended. Team Leader Choi obviously doesn’t believe him, and he asks Soo-yeon when he’s going to show him (what his prosthetics can do). Soo-yeon just reminds him that he has a week to decide.

Noticing that something seems to be happening, Eun-seob sees his seatmate, Je-in, staring at the video feed of the passenger who got angry about his bottled water. He’s now grappling with two guards while his wife videos the confrontation, and one of the guards he’s fighting with is Je-in’s husband.

On the scene now, Soo-yeon intervenes, grabbing the younger, more aggressive guard and telling him to stop because they’re drawing a crowd. The angry passenger threatens to upload his wife’s video to the internet, demanding a refund for his the entire cost of his ruined vacation. From the crowd, Yeo-reum notices that another passenger has also recorded the fight, and is still recording.

Je-in is heavily pregnant, and she seems in some distress after watching her husband in danger. But she tells Eun-seob that she’s fine and walks away from her desk.

Dae-ki and Young-joo catch up to the smuggler in a parking garage, and he nearly makes it to his getaway car before he’s tackled by Young-joo. She almost manages to get him handcuffed, but his men kick her off him and they escape.

When Dae-ki catches up, Young-joo tells him to go after the smuggler, but he’s too concerned with whether she’s been hurt to care about the other guy. Young-joo is angry, yelling that she’s a judo champion and knows how to take care of herself, and she accuses Dae-ki of coddling her just because she’s a woman. Awww, guard puppy looks crushed.

EPISODE 16 RECAP

Although they lost the smuggler, Dae-ki got the license plate of the getaway car. He tells Team Leader Choi that Young-joo was hurt but she won’t say how badly, and this time he’s snapped at for not properly taking care of his teammate. Dang, he can’t win either way.

The passenger with the water is still insisting on enough compensation to pay for his vacation, which lands all the team leaders in Manager Kwon’s office. He’s claiming that the younger security officer was violent first, but the younger officer insists it’s not true. In-woo tells the guards to apologize until the passenger forgives them, or else the money for his compensation will come out of their paychecks.

Team Leader Choi is in Customs dealing with the mule, who demands a lawyer and refuses to expose what’s under his shirt. But they cut open the bandages anyway, revealing several packages of white powder (Team Leader Choi: “You really should call a lawyer.” Hee.).

In-woo takes the guards to talk to the angry passenger, and though Je-in’s husband reluctantly apologizes, the younger guard protests that he was just doing his job in disallowing food and drinks to go through the checkpoint. In-woo growls that he’s not paid to argue, and his cold tone reminds Yeo-reum of her own humiliating lecture at his hands.

But before she can speak up, Soo-yeon says that they aren’t paid to do nothing either, and that he’s not willing to stand here and listen to In-woo say such things. In-woo coldly offers to just fire the guard, and just as it looks like the boy might crack, Je-in’s husband gets on his knees instead, offers the passenger a heartfelt apology, and promises to compensate him somehow.

Triumphant, In-woo tells those watching to make a note that this is how you behave when you work here. Team Leader Choi walks into the situation, sees his employee on the floor, and tells him to get up. He introduces himself to the passenger, then asks if he’s the one who violated the Aviation Security Law by refusing to obey a security officer’s orders.

The man yells that it was just water, but Team Leader Choi says you can make a bomb with liquid, and that despite the man’s insistence that he’s a good citizen, they don’t know that for sure. The man says that his wife has video proof that the younger officer grabbed him first.

Yeo-reum raises her hand and plays another video, which shows the passenger pouring his water over the officer’s head then hitting him in the face with the bottle before grabbing his jacket.

The passenger backs down in the face of video proof that he assaulted the guard first, and Team Leader Choi asks politely if he’d like to catch his plane or stay and face charges. As Yeo-reum leads them to their plane, even Manager Gong admits that sometimes, Yeo-reum does something very right.

Team Leader Choi tells In-woo not to get involved in his department’s concerns again. In-woo counters that a sentimental leader may be popular, but is a detriment to the company, referencing what he sees as Team Leader Choi’s wishy-washy handling of Soo-yeon.

His voice gets louder and louder as he tells Team Leader Choi to do his job, insisting on an answer within a week or he’ll go over his head. Soo-yeon witnesses their whole conversation, and when Team Leader Choi sees him watching, he sighs heavily.

Je-in goes to see her husband, and when he chides her for rushing to him in her condition, she says that she’s just here to take him to lunch. Awww, sweet.

When Dae-ki finds Young-joo leaving work early, he offers to take her to the hospital if she’s badly hurt. He gets upset when she repeats that she’s not weak and can take care of herself, and he informs her that he would be this concerned for any member of their team.

Young-joo asks if that includes letting a criminal go, and Dae-ki snaps that he’s not a cop, so her safety is more important to him. Young-joo disagrees, but Dae-ki says that that doesn’t mean she’s right.

He tells her to stop distinguishing between men and women, hoobaes and sunbaes, because those things don’t exist on their team. He says that if he hears her talk about gender discrimination again, they won’t be able to remain on the same team.

Yeo-reum, who accidentally witnessed the entire conversation, scurries to hide when Young-joo turns to leave. After she’s gone, Yeo-reum approaches Dae-ki, but we don’t hear what she has to say.

That night, Yeo-reum tells a still-cranky Young-joo that she has some guests. Awww, it’s her work friends (including a very grumpy Dae-ki), who decided to throw a housewarming party for her. Yeo-reum excuses herself and Young-joo submits to the party, though she gives Dae-ki a pointed look, and he can barely meet her eyes. Dae-ki tells the party that he invited Team Leader Choi, but he’s running late.

On the other side of the house, Soo-yeon hears what sounds like a raucous party, but when he goes outside to escape the noise, he finds Yeo-reum sitting alone. She tells him that it’s Young-joo’s party and asks cheekily if he thought she threw one without inviting him, and his sheepish nod proves that that’s exactly what he thought.

Soo-yeon invites Yeo-reum to go for a walk, since they’re both out. While they walk, he takes sweet little glances at her and slowly reaches out to hold her hand. But she startles him by asking if her father’s cooking was good, since she’d heard his business didn’t do well. Soo-yeon says it was delicious to him, recalling how he and In-woo used to eat there together.

Yeo-reum tells him that she never saw her father after she was nine years old, only talking to him on the phone occasionally. She admits that it’s happy yet strange to hear about him from Soo-yeon, and this time he boldly takes her hand, making her turn to him in surprise.

He asks if this also makes her feel happy but strange, and she gives him this amazing look, as if she’s feeling exactly that and is blown away that he knows. With his other hand, Soo-yeon brushes her hair off her face, then slowly steps closer, watching Yeo-reum carefully. When she closes her eyes and tips her face up to his, he leans in to kiss her.

A sound stops the kiss before it happens (gah, they’re killing me!), and Soo-yeon realizes that it’s the sound of someone being beaten. He tells Yeo-reum to call the police, then run as far away as she can. She’s worried for him, so he gives her a smile and a quick kiss that promises he’ll be okay, then he goes to intervene in the still-ongoing attack.

He finds the smugglers beating Team Leader Choi to a pulp, and he ignores their warnings to mind his own business. The lackeys attack him, but Soo-yeon calmly sidesteps one and starts to crush the other’s fist with his unnaturally strong right hand. The lead smuggler swings a 2×4 at Soo-yeon’s legs, but his right leg takes the bulk of the force, and Soo-yeon barely even moves.

Team Leader Choi watches and as Soo-yeon tosses the two lackeys around the alley. Soo-yeon doesn’t realize who he’s saved until he offers to help Team Leader Choi to his feet, and when he freezes in surprise, it gives the lead smuggler an opening to sneak up behind him and get him in the neck with a taser.

Knocked unconscious, Soo-yeon slumps to the ground, his prosthetic arm smoking from the electric jolt. As the smuggler gets away, Team Leader Choi tries in vain to revive Soo-yeon, then he notices that Soo-yeon’s cuff has been singed off by the prosthetic, revealing some of the strange metal.

Soo-yeon seems to revive a bit, though he’s still terribly hurt. He doesn’t seem entirely conscious, though images of holding Yeo-reum’s hand and kissing her race through his mind as a single tear falls. A short distance away, Yeo-reum wait for the police, and she hears Team Leader Choi’s voice scream, “Lee Soo-yeon. Lee Soo-yeon!!”

COMMENTS

Dammit, I knew that Soo-yeon’s hero complex was going to get him hurt one of these days. He may be fifty percent bionic, but the other half of him is still human, and even his apparently superhuman prosthetics aren’t indestructible. Don’t get me wrong — I admire Soo-yeon for his willingness to step in and protect those who need protection, and I honestly don’t see how he could do any different when he knows he has the ability to help, especially when he himself was abandoned when he needed help the most (and I can’t help but wonder if he would have recovered more naturally if In-woo hadn’t left him to die, almost certainly delaying critical medical intervention). But it was only a matter of time before he was overmatched, and this time, Soo-yeon just couldn’t be enough of a hero to save himself.

I’m just thankful, for once, for the pre-emption last week, because I don’t think I could have stood it if this had been the cliffhanger for the week. I know Soo-yeon will be okay eventually, but I’m scared for what that taser did to his prosthetics, and how it will affect his job once Team Leader Choi learns the truth. On the other hand, I’m ready to learn the truth — there’s clearly something not-normal about Soo-yeon’s prosthetics based on how everyone responds to it, not to mention the superhuman strength they give him and how fiercely he protects any knowledge of them.

But on to lighter things… you guys, I don’t know if I can handle the weapons-grade levels of cute that Soo-yeon is aiming at Yeo-reum these days. Even his teeny little smiles are so freaking adorable that it makes my stomach hurt. And I feel a little bad about that, because I’ve always respected Lee Je-hoon as a Serious Actor™, but dammit, he’s being so precious that I can’t even help it, I just want to squish him all the time. Soo-yeon’s crush is my very favorite thing these days, because he doesn’t even try to hide it from Yeo-reum or anyone else. He’s respectful of her boundaries while also being willing to go for the moment when it presents itself, taking her hand and kissing her despite his inherent shyness. I love having a hero who is just openly and confidently in love, and doesn’t care who knows it.

Speaking of cute, I have to mention Dae-ki and his big honking crush on Young-joo. I don’t think Dae-ki even realizes it yet, but he goes from big bad security guard to confused little boy whenever she’s curt with him, and his worry over her possible injuries in this episode just proved how much he’s grown to care for her. He’s just completely helpless when it comes to Young-joo, so much that I could honestly watch an entire drama just about their romance. I’m glad that they get a relatively hefty amount of screen time. In fact, I think that’s one of the things I love most about Fox Bride Star — that the men are just giant marshmallows when it comes to the objects of their affection. They aren’t pushovers… they definitely stand up for themselves when it’s in regards to work matters, and they’re not even afraid to show it when they’re disappointed in the ladies, but they’re pretty defenseless in the face of love.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I also love how honest Soo-yeon and Yeo-reum are with each other, about everything from work issues, to personal matters, to their feelings for each other. There’s no coy posturing, no denial of feelings, and no walls between them at all. Even down to the little things, like how Yeo-reum tipped her face up to meet Soo-yeon in the middle for their first kiss instead of waiting for him to come to her — it’s all so beautifully open and real, and it’s the reason they will probably end up one of my favorite drama couples by the end of the show.

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