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Forecasting Love and Weather: Episodes 5-6 Open Thread

Despite being happy together and pretty darn compatible, our couple soon learns that their all-too-recent relationship wounds might come back to haunt them anew. But as we dig more into our leads and their pasts, what seemed to draw a line between them just might unite them even more.

 
EPISODES 5-6 WEECAP

Our couple is looking way too comfortable on Ha-kyung’s sumptuous sofa — pretty soon they wake up, though, and Ha-kung realizes they’ll be late for work. As we’ve inferred, she’s 10/10 for conscientiousness (as a major personality trait), and so she has no issues kneeing Shi-woo in the gut as she jumps up to get ready for work lol.

Whenever these two are together in her apartment, I’m all for their relationship and watching where it goes. It’s at work where things get complicated — what with their boss/employee relationship, and the not-so-secret tête-à-têtes with their exes. But there’s another layer that complicates things this week, and it starts out by way of an angry phone call of Shi-woo’s, which Ha-kyung overhears.

One mystery phone call doesn’t seem like a big deal, but what’s big about it is Shi-woo’s unwillingness to be honest about it. It’s the tiniest moment, but it’s the first of several triggers for Ha-kyung — triggers that make her realize she’s still got some baggage from her terrible breakup with Ki-joon, and rightly so. Ha-kyung jumped into her next relationship in a way that seemed abrupt and unlike her, so it’s refreshingly realistic to see her dealing with her breakup aftermath now. And points for her — I give her an A for emotional intelligence: she knows what she’s feeling, why, and also what to do about it.

Before Ha-kyung gets there, though, there’s a bit more to happen. The phone call that acted as the first trigger is echoed later when Shi-woo has a private conversation with Yoo-jin and is equally tight-lipped about it. Then, this growing discomfort on Ha-kyung’s side of things comes to a climax when she sees Shi-woo leaving a motel late one night. And not only is he leaving, but the owner treats him a little too comfortably.

Granted, Ha-kyung couldn’t see Shi-woo at a midnight motel if she wasn’t there herself: she’s actually dropping off homeless and drunken Dong-han, whom she’s taken pity on (you and me both, girl). Ha-kyung tries to clear up her reasons for being there, but Shi-woo is again unwilling to clarify. In voiceover, Ha-kyung says that old wounds she thought had healed were actually infected. The unseasonably heavy summer rain that’s been plaguing the city pours down. Things ain’t looking so good.

This is where things come to a head for Ha-kyung. After a run, she meets with Shi-woo and tells him they need to “rethink” their relationship. Shi-woo does his best to come clean, but I love what Ha-kyung says here: I know you’re telling me the truth, but I can’t trust you. Rather than dump her issues on Shi-woo, she’s woman enough to know that she has to deal with her own emotional baggage.

To be fair to Shi-woo, he was only holding back the truth from Ha-kyung because he’s got a heck of a terrible father (cameo by Jeon Bae-Soo). He’s a shameless gambler who has no qualms about taking money from his hard-working son — or begging for it from his son’s ex-girlfriend — or finding out about Ha-kyung and practically blackmailing her at her own workplace. The drama is quite clear: he sucks, he’s terrible to his son and has been for a long time, and Shi-woo needs to stop giving him money, as the cycle seems to know no end.

While Ha-kyung is dealing with Shi-woo’s father, Shi-woo answers Ha-kyung’s phone back in the situation room and learns that her mother’s been rushed to the ER. Ha-kyung thought her mother and sister were just crying wolf to get her back home, but her sister insists their mother is dying.

Though Ha-kyung is distraught, she insists on staying to finish their overnight shift… until Dong-han hands her her purse, and Shi-woo puts it in her hand, and they tell her the weather will be stable overnight and she needs to go. I know I said she was 10/10 for conscientiousness, but this is taking it a bit far.

Shi-woo is understandably ashamed and trying to keep the truth about his father from Ha-kyung, even at the risk of the wall that’s growing between them. But when he finds out that his father approached her for money, he nearly loses it. It’s the push he needed to be honest with her, though, and — yay Ha-kyung — she shares her vulnerability with Shi-woo. They swap father stories, and we learn that Ha-kyung’s committed suicide when deeply in debt, and that she was the one who found him as a child.

Oof, that’s harsh, Show. There might have been a lighter way to illustrate Ha-kyung’s issues, but we’ll have to take what they give us — and it does fit. Ha-kyung is scared of being in the same position a third time: with a man who keeps her in the dark, and then leaves her. This has a lot of emotional resonance, and really fits with what we know of Ha-kyung.

She’s softened towards Shi-woo again, as one does when in the presence of a wounded puppy, and she asks him to make a promise – basically that if something is wrong or he doesn’t love her anymore, that he will tell her first and be honest with her. With the promise made, Ha-kyung asks him to move in with her, and our episode comes to a close.

I kinda expected this, since Shi-woo is getting kicked out of his dorm housing, and since Ha-kyung has this gorgeous meant-for-a-couple apartment that needs living in. But also, there are future hijinks on the horizon, because no one has realized yet that someone else on their team lives in the same building a floor beneath Ha-kyung.

Speaking of the team and workplace, even though we have a relationship-centric pair of episodes this week, we do see more of the office conflicts. From Dong-han leaving home, to OH MYUNG -JOO (Yoon Sa-bong) struggling as a working mom and seeing her husband humiliated at work — gosh, these tertiary characters make me feel things!

But you know who doesn’t make me feel things? Ki-joon and Yoo-jin. While Yoo-jin is wavering as the pair are set to register their marriage, Ki-joon just proves again that he’s a feckless and immature man that can’t really do anything without Ha-kyung. He’s in for a rude awakening at some point, but right now he’s just played for the love-to-hate antagonist jerk.

Finally, Forecasting also did what I asked of it last week and leaned into Ha-kyung’s struggles as a leader. She gets defensive and ornery, and her staff takes the brunt of it often. It’s the exact opposite of Dong-han, who takes ownership of any mistakes the team made — even when that means possibly having lost lives on his conscience. I like Dong-han more and more as we go (he’s definitely my favorite character), and I hope his leadership skills start to rub off on Ha-kyung. Methinks they will.

 
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i really love this show. it makes me feel things but not to the pit of despair'

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Once again, @missvictrix, you’ve expressed how I feel. Episode 6 may well have been a turning point for me with respect to the two leads. I’m still not convinced it’s “true love” yet, but their connection seems more plausible.

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I was on the fence, unable to really understand the two leads, but episode 6 did it for me too. All the sudden, when they showed that horrible shadow in the glass door, I understood her, and everything that she did before - meeting the horrible dad, the distance she keeps between her and her mother and sister - made sense. I feel for her, what she has been able to become, and those things that continue to trip her up. For example, I could never figure out why she stuck with that loser for ten years, someone she was fond of but did not really love. But now I see she was after stability, and here was someone she thought was safe and predictable, someone she thought she knew. At least, she thought she did---aaargh, the baggage. She's leapt in again, still looking for that forever thing.

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Thank you @missvictrix for the great recap. I've liked this show from the beginning (including the "weather" character, who turns out to be a drama queen). One of its great strengths (for me) is the care that is taken to develop the supporting-character stories. Like Dong-han--his attempt to become part of his family again is pretty heartbreaking. And now we have the fussy bachelor living one floor above Ha-kyung (I smell romance in the air!). Show gave us a rollercoaster ride for ep 6, but luckily we had a soft landing :)

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What I couldn't warap my head around was the actions of the Forecaster Um's family. He was away for a long time (14 solid years), and only dropped by and left in the morning each time he showed up. And of course, he needs to he punished for that, rightly.
But, he's here now and the family is not letting him off the hook but also treating him like an outsider. That's too far. And then he packs his bags and the best you ask is ' Do you really have to do this?'. What exactly should he do, live like he doesn't exist amongst his family? While I really understood the point of view of the family from last week's installment, they should at least let him feel welcome.

The rich 'wearing a serious face' bachelor sipping a glass of wine is.... the trope never gets old. Romance had better be in the hair cause that hairstyle Forecaster Shin Seok-hu wears cannot go to waste.

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I know it's a complicated situation and Forecaster Um's family has a right to feel resentful, but I find myself siding with him. He may not have tried as hard as he could have for 14 years, but he's trying now. His family is not. Fair enough, but if they aren't willing to try, then the wife needs to ask for a divorce.

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Quite true especially being that the marriage consists of two and the effort as well...If she doesn't want this marriage anymore she should just part or is it for the people eyes and the monetary that she still sticks to it?
I still can't understand why in this age didn't the wife move close to her husband workplace or visited him with the child if not for her but for her daughter...

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This show still has my heart 100%, not only for the main couple but also all the supporting characters, and the end of ep. 4 even made me a tiny bit sorry for Ki Joon (very very very very very tinyyyyyyyyyy though).

What I appreciate about this drama is that the main couple getting together is not the ending, instead it is the start of their journey to build a healthier relationship out of the ashes of their horrible old ones. Most dramas opt for capping their story the moment the OTP got together with varying degrees of fan services to tie the bow. I think this maybe one of the rare case of drama focusing on the ups and down of the main couple relationship and I am loving every minute of it.

Another thing that I appreciate about this drama is its unpredictability, just like the weather looming large in these characters' life. Whenever I expected the drama to go in one direction, the drama surprises me by taking a different turn. I was expecting a long protracted moping after the whole "motel" situation, but it got turned around quite quickly with one of my favorite heartfelt moments between the OTP the next episode after. I just love the pacing of this drama and all of these little surprises that made even a little jaded drama watcher like me content.

Please continue be good drama!! Take good care of my heart carefully!!

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After wasting 10 years with a coward jerk, no wonder Hakyung will live for the moment. Does whatever she likes, logic and commonsense be damned.
However, the approach doesn’t sit well with me. Why so serious? It’s been only months since the wedding was off, the attractive male is a kid her junior. It will be more sensible, for me, if Hakyung behaves like no strings attached. Lets live together, have fun, great s*x. She doesn’t have to look so mellow with doe eyes. But yeah, maybe that’s just the inner wild inside me speaking...
And the cheater couple is so pathetic. They think they are still important people for their exes but turned out nothing but forgettable past. Kijoon is one heck of a character but Yoojin is not so far above.

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I think that because of the serious trauma she suffered as a child, she is 'risk-averse.' She chose a stable civil-service career, a stable boyfriend - shoot, she is even trying to classify and somehow control the weather. She wants safe, instead she got another kick in the gut. If I am surprised about her new relationship, it is not that she is taking it so seriously - she takes everything seriously - it is that she is taking that leap of faith at all, after what has happened in her life.

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I'm kinda disapointed by this drama. There is no follow up between the episodes. What Ha-Kyoung wrote about the fog? How did she explain why Korea doesn't use alarm system? How the research going back 10 years will help with the unstable rain?

I found Ha-Kyoung disapointing in her job too. She mixed her professionnal and private life. She called her employee in the middle of the night several times, either she did alone the article, either she made a list of her questions to Shi-Woo and waited for the morning. She's not sure about her own decisions and it causes issues in her team, her way to hide her relationship with Shi-Woon at work causes misunderstandings in the team too.

I don't believe in their relationship neither. It's too sudden. I was surprised to see a scene of both of them as a flashback, they didn't spend so much time together...

I don't like Dong-han's wife. She was as responsible as him in this situation. She could leave Seoul to go with him. She could visit him there, etc. She hide what happened to her daughter, making the father leaving because of the rain season... It's not fair.

Ki-joon has a wife who is journalist and he doesn't think to ask her for help? It doesn't seem he respects her as a journalist... She lied to him about Shi-Woo, he sees her as a pretty plant... Nice couple.

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I agree about Ha-Kyoung acting unprofessional and letting her personal life get in the way. Ditto regarding Dong-Han’s wife. She’s way too harsh. And yes, why didn’t Ki-joon ask his journalist wife for help?

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How did she explain why Korea doesn't use alarm system?

Ha Kyung told Chae Yoo Jin that it was difficult to predict localized fogs because of
1. Limited budget
2. The complex korean landscape which is a peninsula having mountain ranges.

You can read this article for a thorough explanation.

How the research going back 10 years will help with the unstable rain?

Shin Seok Ho explained this to Si woo. It was shown as a flashback. The long term analysis will help in collecting info on the amount of rainfall varying by region rather than just the possibility of occurence. For example, 80mm in Yeoksam is not a big deal but in Gangam it will lead to a flood, so as a weather forecastor Ha Kyung did not only try to predict weather but wanted it to be customer friendly.

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It's not about the informations, but about the characters. How Chae Yoo-Jin learned about the reason why, how Kim Su-Jin stopped whining because her boss could explain her the need of these informations, etc. We didn't have a conversation between Kim Su-Jin and Ha-Kyung. Her employee cried in the middle of the job...

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Thanks again, @missvictrix for a very insightful (and fast) weecap. Glad to see you are enjoying the show a little more?
Must admit, from a ethical standpoint, I really wish the ML was not a direct subordinate of the FL. If he could be magically transferred to Team 1, I'd be much more onboard for this relationship. I think this fundamental plot point will serve to render the drama unwatchable in a few years.
However I am enjoying the workplace bonding between the Team 2 leaders. Imagine having a job where a moment's inattention or oversight could result, not only in economic loss, but loss of life. That'd keep me awake at night.
Oh dear, that poem made me laugh out loud but the closeup of the admixing of hot coffee and cold milk earned a big thumbs up. Reminds me of a demo I'd do in class every year called "cloud-in-a-jar". It's very simple but hugely impressive and I'm certain there are a few y-tube videos of it out there.

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You just made me curious about this "cloud-in-a-jar" thing. 🙂

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I just love Park Min Young and while I’m not as familiar with Song Kang I think he’s doing great! I like noona romances because they seem interested in women’s lives and atypical relationships, and this one is no exception. It is moving surprisingly fast and I like to be surprised but do want the relationship to have room to breathe: a few flashes of—for instance—Shi Woo realising the connection between him and Ha Kyung via the exes, and that Ha Kyung is the one with the integrity he wants, would not go amiss! I would love Ha Kyung to get an unequivocal professional WIN. And I think episode 5 was the weakest so far for me, followed by ep 1. But there are plenty of reasons for me to like it and stick with it.

An unusual workplace done with care, not as a backdrop. Climate change does add potential drama to this place which they’re exploring. And I really appreciate how they’re spending time on each member of the team and their personalities and struggles. It’s so well fleshed out. I love getting invested in other people’s jobs and learning something. I’m so mad for the team member whose promotions never happened because of kids! Bitterly realistic.

And I think their pasts provide them with a lot of psychologically realistic hang-ups. I love to hate both exes but Ki Joon is my particular bugbear because unfortunately I find him SO realistic (ymmv). He’s like this because he has always got away with it before. Got his hooks in a more competent woman when she was too young to know better - the detail they got together in uni makes so much sense. Because she let him get away with things (out of love, I don’t blame her, I blame him for being a taker) he came to genuinely believe he was entitled to everything she provided including the apartment. Plus an admiring young thing on the side! As soon as we saw a minute of This Guy struggling with his work I was like, of course she did it for him! It’s so, so realistic and it’s happened to me—you do everything for someone, thinking that means they’ll appreciate you and you’ll be a loving team, and instead they don’t value your everything at all and resent you for not doing more and for ever wanting acknowledgement or having needs. What an escape for Ha Kyung! She could have lived her whole life that way.

Her offer to have Shi Woo move in seems to me really typical of her - she’s used to being the giver in a romantic relationship, she’s been carrying Ki Joon for years. She knows Shi Woo is hard up and needs a place to live and she knows why, so she offers him sympathy, understanding and her place in a very short timeframe. (It says Shi Woo is only allowed to be in the training centre a month, do not let your man move in in a month, girl!) But I assume Shi Woo will say no because he’s NOT a taker, showing us this one is a winner. Seeing two givers finding each other is lovely. He goes to the hospital not for points, but because he wants to be assured of her wellness. Shi Woo is too nice to both his...

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Shi Woo is too nice to both his awful dad and his ex—having a dad like that means being forcibly moulded into a giver as Ha Kyung was traumatised into early responsibility—but he wasn’t ground down by ten years of a taking relationship. (And he’s not a woman, so there’s no social pressure to shore up his partner’s image.) He is also the one with the gift for swift clarity in relationships as with weather - if his ex chose Ki Joon, she’s not what he thought she was and he doesn’t want to be what she wants, case closed. Neither of them are used to being appreciated, hence my loving details like her fondness for his sky pictures.

I think I just really like the concept for this relationship- two people in an unjust environment (who can control the weather) blown together almost by chance, with the signals ahead (rebound, drunk fling, boss/subordinate, age gap, financial disparity) auguring disaster, but with hidden factors—who these people really are—meaning the forecast is them finding the steadiness, sincerity and mutual care they’ve both been wanting all along.

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Having been in a "secret" relationship with a colleague, I can relate to this office romance as well. My speculation on Ha-kyung's offer to Shi-woo to move in and live with her is that she realized when she was extorted by Shi-woo's dad that keeping the relationship a secret will make them more vulnerable to such actions in the future. They'll probably experience some turbulence with going public, but much better than always being fearful of being found-out and extorted. Just my guess because I expect a flashback where more details will be unveiled in that meeting with the dad.

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I have been enjoying FL&W since episode one but the nosiness in that office (probably typical of office environments) is so annoying I say to the TV: “go back to work!”
On a more serious level, because of the seriousness of their work with the weather and being science based (as much as possible), I can understand colleagues voicing opinions contrary to a superior and I like the way Director Ko Bong-chan asks for various opinions at the morning conference, however, to me sometimes it comes of as disrespectful and in some cases insubordinate (as in whining, ‘why do we have to to this or that”. Do your job!

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In my opinion, this show doesn’t shine through it's premise about weather, but through our main characters having open and honest conversations. Let's hope it stays like that. Fingers crossed!

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We really like this show. It is not your standard romcom. Instead of taking sixteen episodes to put the OTP together this show started with a simple question: What happens next?

Our love square is definitely more fleshed out now and we have the other outside forces acting on our OTP as well.

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I like it for that reason, as well. So many times I will watch a romance and as the final credits roll I assess how long I think they will stay together based on all of the issues the drama characters never managed to resolve (or perhaps even identify). This drama starts at that point, and we can see how they manage to deal with the very real issues, past and present, that stand between them.

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ITA. I appreciate that we got right into the relationship between the leads. To me, it doesn't feel like a rebound, or standard noona romance fare at all. It's a drama, sure, so it wouldn't say it's realistic or anything like that, but its world and the people in it feel believable and interesting to me.

I also didn't find the one night stand to be that crazy--many relationships start that way, and it seemed completely plausible to me that after two months of getting over their broken hearts and resentment, they would give in to mutual attraction, even the kind that springs up suddenly when you've had too much to drink. I loved that morning after conversation, too.

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It's only been 6 episodes and the show keeps tossing one overused storyline after another. The dad blackmailing the girlfriend - didn't we see this exact storyline in Sunbae..., albeit with the cheating ex? And of course our FL can't just have a parent that passed away. There has to be deep trauma behind it. For a show trying to show everyday working lives, there sure is a lot of drama in everyone's past.

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Hm, I've actually thought the issues were pretty realistic. I have known someone with the same sort of past as the FL, and while I have never known of a gambler-leech relative I have heard of similar scenarios. And the people at work: from the whiner who won't do her job to the quiet and competent older woman who NEEDS the job to the guy wedded to the job to the completely brash, slobberingly weak incompetent--I swear I've worked with all of them at previous jobs.

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I started this show a bit late as I wanted to wait and see if it was worth the time. And . . . it is.

I'm really enjoying the tone and pace, and the storytelling, although not revolutionary for the genre, feels fresh and fun. This is the most I've enjoyed Song Kang and the relationship between the leads makes sense to me. It reminds me of real-life workplace hook-ups that the rest of us never saw coming, but then, when they lead to longterm commitment we're all like "Yeah, that somehow makes perfect sense." These are just two compatible people who like each other. They have down-to-earth conversations, support and challenge each other, and have fun. It's nice to watch.

I've also realized that PMY's presence in a drama immediately elevates it for me. She's my comfort watch personified.

I'm not sure where the show is going with the second leads. I was frankly shocked they actually got married when they're constantly lying to each other and aside from physical attraction I'm not sure what's there between them. But I'm curious to see how these characters evolve over time.

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With how the drama din't drag their relationship reassessment, I am expecting myself to be surprised by the second leads because there is no reason for Yoon Park to pick this drama just to play a comedian. They could have had any new actor for it.

Also, I was bored by episode 5 because nothing much happened ,but I again started enjoying it in episode 6. I am okay with even the exes despite their horrible cheating,but I am getting annoyed by Su Jin. She is playing the entitled junior who whines about doing tasks mentioned outside their job description.

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Although my initial qualms about this drama have't faded I find myself enjoying it for what it is. A relationship that is told through the euphemism of unpredictable weather, which I totally dig.

The charm of this drama is most definitely the side characters. Even the lady with the husband being scolded gave me more feels than the leads. Also Dong Han is a sweetheart who needs more love than his family can give him.

Despite the casting issue I can appreciate the way the writer is manoeuvring their relationship even though they started them off strongly in the opening week aka one night stand. If they keep up the KMA teamwork stuff then we can have one happy drama.

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I don't know what this drama has that made me stick with it until ep.6. It's not a drama that will make you go "wow", but it is a refreshingly comfort watch. The comfy feeling is there, but they have also added many refreshing twists here and there, and I totally dig the honest but considerate and polite convos anywhere they happened in the stories. Many characters are relatable. It feels a little bit like Dali and Gamjatang but with less caricature characters and not so memorable music choices.

Now, there is sth I don't understand about the FL character. I understand that she might have thought they lied to her when her sister told her their mother got very sick and she was needed at home, but when I already knew that her mother was sent to the hospital and she still said she had to monitor the weather because she was the head, I was so confused. What was wrong with her? Your mother was at the hospital, she could assign someone trustable and just went there. I thought she was a capable woman, but tbh that moment made me question the character of the FL.

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"While Yoo-jin is wavering as the pair are set to register their marriage, Ki-joon just proves again that he’s a feckless and immature man that can’t really do anything without Ha-kyung."

Entirely unimpressed by either of them. Though at least Ki-joon had the decency of apologizing for betraying his partner (not that it meant anything or did any good). Ki-joon betrayed his partner physically, emotionally and even financially, and is now exhibiting stalkerish and jealous sides. I really cannot take him (or his wife) seriously when they talk about her living with another guy as if that was the worst thing she (they) did. How about sleeping with each other when they had other partner (and they meant to split up with them anyway)? For what? Because he couldn't put up with his almost-wife having a career of her own (please, if she had been a man would we be crying over her missing out on a dinner with his classmates -and apologizing for it-?). Filth, the both of them.

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I'm starting to get into the story now. I'm enjoying Shi-woo for his character, enough that I can forget the baby face. All of the characters are getting a bit more rounded in fact. Getting into a new relationship so quickly seemed unlikely, but now the characters are realising that as well- they aren't ready yet. It's a drama of course, they will resolve it much more quickly than real life, but its great to have the narrative acknowledge it.

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