Woohoo Waikiki 2: Episode 6

by LollyPip

This episode is all about feelings, and how they affect both the person feeling them and the people around them. The best intentions sometimes go wrong when people aren’t honest with each other, and the housemates are learning that it’s kinder in the long run to just tell the truth.

 
EPISODE 6: The Nice Guy Never Seen Anywhere in the World/Guy Friend

Woo-shik works as a voice teacher, and he gets so picky and irritated at one student that he makes the poor guy cry. His sunbae (cameo by singer Kim Yeon-woo) tells him that his students call him evil, but Woo-shik argues that he can’t stand insincere singing.

While he’s there, Sunbae asks Woo-shik to check his singing because his voice has been unstable lately. He sings like an angel, but Woo-shik screams at him that he’s terrible and has no passion (LOL, it’s Kim Yeon-woo). Woo-shik throws a tantrum, yelling that awful Sunbae gets to sing while he’s still teaching kids.

While cleaning, Soo-yeon finds their high school yearbook. Jung-eun asks if she has a crush on anyone back then, and Soo-yeon confesses that her first love was Woo-shik because he was so nice. Jung-eun has a hard time believing that, ha.

Woo-shik stomps in bellowing about a broken broom, and Yu-ri shushes him, having just overheard Soo-yeon’s confession. She tells him that nice guys are Soo-yeon’s ideal type, which is why Soo-yeon liked him back in school. He doesn’t get her point, so she has to spell it out — if he’s nice, she might like him again.

He makes an attempt at being nice, cooking dinner for the housemates and serving it with a (gotta be honest, kinda terrifying) smile. Ki-bong knocks a glass of cold water into Woo-shik’s lap, followed by a bowl of hot soup, but Woo-shik stifles his kneejerk rage reaction and instead flashes another smile.

Joon-ki takes Jung-eun to the set of the movie he’s filming, having talked the director into giving her a small part. He plays a possessed man, and Jung-eun is a nun. When it’s time for Jung-eun to say her one line, she sounds stiff and robotic, and it doesn’t get better no matter how many takes they do.

Joon-ki tells the assistant director that she’s just nervous, but it’s too late — she’s being replaced, and Joon-ki is told to break the news to her. Jung-eun says that she knows she made a lot of mistakes, but she adds that she was also really happy and thanks Joon-ki for helping her get back into acting, and he chickens out.

After dinner, Yu-ri tells Woo-shiks that she was impressed by how well he held in his temper at dinner, but he says it’s too difficult to keep it up. Still, when Soo-yeon comes home from work, he plasters on his smile.

Soo-yeon is feeling down because she got yelled at for being a bad singer at work. Yu-ri volunteers Woo-shik to coach her, so Soo-yeon perks up and goes to her room to get ready for a lesson. Woo-shik asks Yu-ri why she did that, and she says that they’ll be in a room alone together, which could naturally lead to talking, then kissing, then marriage.

Woo-shik acts like that’s ridiculous, but he goes upstairs to spray his cologne around the piano, ha. Soo-yeon says she likes IU songs because she has a similar voice, but when she starts singing, it’s less “IU” and more “screeching vulture.” Woo-shik is stunned, but he manages to calmly and kindly critique her without sounding mean.

He demonstrates the first line, and Soo-yeon excitedly tries again… but she sounds exactly the same. Woo-shik slips a bit, snapping that she sounds no different, and Soo-yeon asks why he’s mad. He belatedly remembers to be nice, but he starts to lose it again when she still hasn’t learned anything the third time through.

Finally he can’t stand it anymore, and he lets loose with an angry tirade about how bad Soo-yeon’s voice is and how delusional she is to think she sounds like IU. Thankfully, he’s just imagining it, and Soo-yeon snaps him out of it by asking why he’s glaring at her.

He fools Soo-yeon into thinking that he’s a kind teacher, though by the end of the lesson, the poor guy looks exhausted. He tells Yu-ri that Soo-yeon is the most tone-deaf person he’s ever met, and that she’s so bad that he almost started to hate her. Yu-ri warns him to remain patient with her.

Joon-ki has a similar problem with Jung-eun, who recites her line to him three times, exactly the same way, and asks which version he likes best. Joon-ki says in self-defense that they were all good, and Jung-eun chirps that staying up all night practicing really helped.

Joon-ki starts to tell Jung-eun that she’s been fired, but her phone rings. It’s her dad, and she tells him that the movie is going well and she won’t let him down this time. Jung-eun and her dad both start crying, which sets Joon-ki off crying, and of course he can’t tell Jung-eun that she’s been replaced.

During another voice lesson, Soo-yeon chooses a different song by IU, and Woo-shik braces himself as she sings. He says gently that her vocal range is a bit limited for such high notes, so she tries again, holding one long, tuneless note as she gestures that (she thinks) she’s changing keys.

Woo-shik suffers another fit of anger in which he cruelly mocks Soo-yeon’s singing, but again, it’s all in his mind. In reality, he makes every effort to stay cheerful and encouraging, and has to sit through more of Soo-yeon’s awful singing. This continues until the poor guy can’t eat, starts having nightmares, and suffers panic attacks every time he sees IU on television.

Joon-ki is depressed on the next day of the movie shoot, since he still hasn’t told Jung-eun that she was fired. She’s very excited to go back to the set, and Joon-ki whines to Ki-bong that he can’t tell her when she’s this happy. Ki-bong says to tell her the movie was canceled, so Joon-ki does, fibbing that the investors pulled their funding.

Jung-eun looks so disappointed, and Joon-ki is alarmed when she says she’s going to visit the movie set, because she won’t feel like it’s real unless she sees it herself. He blames Ki-bong, who just says that maybe he shouldn’t have lied to Jung-eun, ha.

Joon-ki tries to talk Jung-eun out of going to the set, but she insists. He begs her to have a drink with him instead, even though she always falls asleep when she drinks.

For Soo-yeon’s next singing lesson, Yu-ri decides to sit in, and this time Soo-yeon adds dancing to her performance. She goes through a whole repertoire of songs, each worse than the last. Both Woo-shik and Yu-ri watch silently until they can’t stand it anymore, and they share a fantasy of telling her exactly what they think.

They manage to say nice things to Soo-yeon’s face, but after she’s gone, Yu-ri asks Woo-shik how he’s stood it for so long. He croaks that he’s not sure, because sometimes when he thinks about Soo-yeon’s singing, he can’t even breathe. Just thinking about it causes him to collapse.

Yu-ri takes Woo-shik to the doctor, who says that he’s suffering from the same kind of anger that middle-aged women get from dealing with their husbands for years. But Woo-shik wheezes that he has to keep teaching Soo-yeon because it’s his chance to get closer to her.

Joon-ki takes Jung-eun out, planning to get her to drink and fall asleep so he can go to the movie set. But she notices that he’s not drinking, and she doesn’t want to drink alone, so to keep her from going to the set, Joon-ki is forced to drink with her.

When Soo-yeon gets home from work that night, she’s upset because she was told she’s a bad singer again. She tells Woo-shik that she wants to stop taking lessons from him and enroll in a vocal academy to learn from a more talented teacher. Woo-shik is stunned that she thinks he’s the one with no talent, ha.

She complains that he only compliments her and never gives criticism, so she’s not improving. She even says he’s too nice so he’s got no charisma, and Woo-shik explodes. He screams that she’s the worst singer ever, and that he got sick from holding in his anger while teaching her.

He even grabs her lips and threatens to rip them off, but Ki-bong and Yu-ri step in and beg him to stop. Unfortunately, this one isn’t in his imagination, and when he realizes it, he recoils in horror. He makes it worse by admitting that it was always in his head until today, and Soo-yeon is hurt that he’s been having these thoughts all along.

It’s almost time for Joon-ki’s shoot, and he’s getting pretty tipsy, but Jung-eun is valiantly staying awake for once. So he pours two huge glasses of soju and they chug them down, and Jung-eun finally passes out on the table. Joon-ki calls Ki-bong to come pick up Jung-eun so he can go to work, but he drops something and the clatter wakes Jung-eun.

She falls asleep again, and this time she stays asleep. Joon-ki slurs to the restaurant ajumma not to wake her up and his friend will come for her.

He heads to the set, and luckily his blurry eyes and creaky voice work for his possessed character. The scene is filmed again, and it goes perfectly. The director loves Joon-ki’s performance so much that he offers him the lead in his next movie on the spot.

Joon-ki freezes when he sees Ki-bong and the restaurant ajumma standing by the bed, but Ki-bong says he asked him to come. Joon-ki tells them to wait while he shows the director his acting again, and as he screams and writhes, we see that he’s not on the movie set — he’s still in the restaurant, HA.

Back at the guesthouse, Ki-bong asks Woo-shik if he’s apologized to Soo-yeon yet, but Woo-shik says she still won’t talk to him. Ki-bong asks why he humiliated Soo-yeon for something she has no control over, and he and Joon-ki conclude that Woo-shik has hated Soo-yeon ever since she came to the house.

Woo-shik finally gets the chance to apologize, but Soo-yeon says he’s not the reason she’s upset. Woo-shik yells at her to just tell him the problem, so she snaps that she got fired and bursts into tears.

Joon-ki is still mad at Woo-shik for making Soo-yeon cry, and he orders him to apologize again. Woo-shik notices Yu-ri on the computer, and she says it’s time she started working again. She’s a chef, but she doesn’t plan to go back to her old job in a hotel kitchen… instead, she says she’s going to open her own restaurant.

The problem is that she doesn’t have any money to start a business, so she asks Woo-shik to invest, but he snaps that he doesn’t have any money to spare. Yu-ri wonders if she can find a really rich, really dumb guy, and when she learns that Ki-bong left his phone at home, she decides to take it to him.

At practice, Ki-bong’s coach tells him that the scout was impressed with his power but said his pitches are too simple, so he suggests that Ki-bong learn to throw a forkball. Ki-bong begs his teammate, Byung-chul (cameo by Shim Hyung-tak), to teach him, but Byung-chul keeps laughing at Ki-bong for not knowing how to throw one already and refusing to help — until Yu-ri shows up with Ki-bong’s phone.

LOL, Yu-ri demands payment for phone delivery, threatening to tell everyone that she was his first kiss if he doesn’t pay up. He does, and after she leaves, Byung-chul says he’ll teach Ki-bong the forkball if he sets him up on a blind date with Yu-ri. Yu-ri doesn’t want to date Byung-chul, being too busy planning her restaurant, so Ki-bong pays her to go.

Joon-ki arrives home with a cake for Soo-yeon, who’s been holed up in her room all day, depressed about getting fired. She admits that she feels like a loser because she used to think she was competent and smart, but she can’t do housework and keeps getting fired from jobs, so now she feels like an idiot.

From the hallway, Woo-shik listens as Soo-yeon says that she’s lonely and stressed, so the guys have a meeting to discuss whether there’s anything they can do to cheer her up. Joon-ki says he’s going to become her boyfriend, which should make her feel better, but the other guys think that’s a stupid idea.

Woo-shik asks warily if Joon-ki has feelings for Soo-yeon, but Joon-ki says he’ll develop some. Woo-shik forbids it, claiming that Joon-ki is just much too handsome, loyal, and sexy for her. Ki-bong disagrees, and he’s worried that doing anything hasty could make Soo-yeon feel worse, so Joon-ki scraps the boyfriend plan.

Yu-ri shows up for her blind date with Byung-chul, and she’s impressed by his good looks. She’s on her best giggly, girly date behavior until she hears Byung-chul’s ridiculous, squealing laugh, at which point she starts looking for the exit.

She’s furious with Ki-bong when she gets home for not warning her about Byung-chul’s laugh. She declares that she’s not going out with him again, but Ki-bong begs on his knees until she reluctantly gives in — for more money, of course.

When Woo-shik asks about Joon-ki, Ki-bong says casually that he took Soo-yeon on a date and plans to confess to her, sending Woo-shik into instant panic mode. Joon-ki has taken Soo-yeon to a wine bar, and she asks why he’s acting kinda weird today, so he launches into his confession.

Suddenly, Woo-shik comes screaming into the bar and says breathlessly that he came to officially apologize to Soo-yeon for yelling at her. He says “I’m sorry” in several languages, dragging things out as long as possible.

Back at home, Woo-shik gets a talking-to from Joon-ki and Ki-bong about how he blocked Joon-ki’s confession. Joon-ki thinks he’s acting suspicious and asks Woo-shik if he likes Soo-yeon, but Ki-bong says there’s no way because Woo-shik is always picking on her.

Later, Joon-ki accidentally overhears Woo-shik and Yu-ri talking about Soo-yeon. Yu-ri says that liking someone isn’t a sin, but Woo-shik is worried that it will ruin their friendship. Yu-ri says that Joon-ki will find out eventually, so he may as well confess the love that’s been in his heart since high school.

Naturally, Joon-ki assumes that Woo-shik is in love with him, and he tells Ki-bong that Woo-shik has been crushing on him since high school. They remember how flattering and handsy Woo-shik was yesterday, calling Joon-ki sexy, and since they “know” that Woo-shik hates Soo-yeon, then obviously it’s Joon-ki he’s in love with. Joon-ki jumps ten feet when Woo-shik comes in and says he needs to talk to him. He orders Woo-shik not to say a word and runs screaming from the room.

On her second date with Byung-chul, Yu-ri insists on sitting in the corner because she’s embarrassed of his laugh. He starts telling dumb dad jokes and squeal-laughing, and when she sees other diners giggling at them, she snaps at Byung-chul to stop laughing. He admits that he has an unusual laugh, and promises to hold it in as much as possible. (Aww, he’s such a sweetie, I’ll date him!)

Woo-shik tries to tell Joon-ki again about his feelings for Soo-yeon, but when he touches Joon-ki’s hand and asks him to go for a drink, Joon-ki declares that he’s given up drinking, and also talking, ha. Woo-shik keeps trying, but Joon-ki freaks out and they tumble together over the back of the couch.

They land with Woo-shik on top of Joon-ki, and LOL, Joon-ki actually looks like he’s considering it for a second before tossing Woo-shik to the floor. He tells Woo-shik that he’s just his friend, nothing more, and that he knows Woo-shik is in love with him. Woo-shik explains that it’s Soo-yeon he likes, to Joon-ki’s great relief, and Joon-ki happily swears to keep the secret.

Yu-ri is feeling much happier now that Byung-chul is toning down the laughter, so she agrees to go to a movie with him. They run into Byung-chul’s entire family on their way out and sit to talk, and his parents and sister seem really nice. But then his father tells a dad joke, and oh noooo, his family all have terrible laughs.

Yu-ri heads to Ki-bong’s practice, intending to inform him that she won’t see Byung-chul again for all the money in the world. He’s throwing some practice pitches, and the sight of him struggling to throw a forkball gives her pause. Her phone rings with a call from Byung-chul, and when she answers, she says she’s looking forward to their movie tomorrow.

After hanging up, she storms over to Ki-bong and kicks him square in the butt. She tells him angrily that if he doesn’t make it to the major leagues, she’ll kill him in the face.

Jung-eun comes home from an audition and tells Joon-ki that she ran into the assistant director of the movie, who told her that it wasn’t canceled. She asks why he lied to her, and he confesses that he didn’t want to hurt her in case she gave up again. Jung-eun snaps that she’ll never give up, and that she feels bad that he lost his part because he didn’t show up, but he says it’s okay because they’re a team (then refuses to share his ramyun, hee).

Soo-yeon goes out looking for another job, but she’s told she doesn’t have enough experience. Woo-shik surprises her in Rebecca and drives her to the beach, saying that he just suddenly wanted to see the ocean and pretending to be shocked that she feels the same way. He mentions how she’s been feeling stupid lately, but he tells her that being bad at housework and getting fired are only because she’s new at them.

He says that’s not stupidity, it’s trial and error, which everyone goes through before they get good at something. He tells Soo-yeon that even if her dad isn’t around, she has the housemates, so whenever she feels stressed she can lean on them.

They get ready to head home, but Woo-shik can’t find Rebecca’s keys. Frustrated, Soo-yeon calls him an idiot, and he calls her a dimwit, and soon they’re trading insults like only old friends who know there will be no hard feelings can do.

 
COMMENTS

Awww, Woo-shik can be really sweet when he wants to! I can see why Soo-yeon liked him in high school, if this is how he was with her. Sometimes, Woo-shik’s characterization can feel a lot like Dong-gu from the first season, with his grumpy alpha-male bossiness and general attitude of superiority to his housemates. But I’m starting to appreciate that the show is handling the character type much differently this season. Dong-gu was sort of accepted as “this is just the way he is,” though he did change some as he fell in love. But we’re told that Woo-shik wasn’t always like this, that he used to be really sweet and that he smiled a lot, so something must have happened to change him. I’m sure it started with his perceived rejection by Soo-yeon, and that after so many years, his bad temper has become a habit that’s not so easy to change, even now that he knows that Soo-yeon did like him.

So I like how he’s being told now, in no uncertain terms, that the way he’s been treating people isn’t okay anymore, and especially not to Soo-yeon who hasn’t done anything wrong. Unlike the way the housemates worked around Dong-gu, this set of friends isn’t willing to accept Woo-shik targeting them for his anger tantrums, and care about him enough to tell him so. They’re not telling him to change his personality, just to think about how he affects people. Woo-shik is on notice now that he’s going to be held to a higher standard — he may not be the sweet teenager he once was, but he can at least not verbally abuse them when he thinks they’ve done something wrong. And from that last scene, I think he’s more than capable of becoming more like he used to be.

Yu-ri is getting a lot nicer too, and the only reason I can think why the guys were all so terrified of her at first is that she was apparently a mean noona to them growing up. But now that she lives with them, she’s very different — she’s sincerely supporting and helping Woo-shik with his crush on Soo-yeon, and now she’s sacrificing her own comfort so that Ki-bong can get something he wants. I had an episode or two where I thought she’d gone boring, but seeing her helping people and actually meaning it is turning me around. She’s still manipulative and looks for the easy way out, but she’s not cruel and she doesn’t hurt anyone on purpose.

It seems pretty clear at this point how the relationships are going to shake out. Woo-shik is devoted to Soo-yeon, it’s been noted that Joon-ki seems to care deeply about Jung-eun’s feelings, and Yu-ri is even doing nice things for Ki-bong (and noticing his hot bod). Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic, but would it be too much to ask, this time around, for everyone to end up dating each other? They’d all make such cute couples, and I particularly want to see Yu-ri and Ki-bong together, especially since she’s his first kiss. All this, of course, assuming that this isn’t an option…

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