ep 9 r88
i’m three episodes behind on my rewatch, but hopefully will catch up after tomorrow.

episode 9 is a decent episode, but i do think that it’s one of the weaker ones of the lot. i enjoyed episodes 7 and 8 a lot for how all the storylines seemed very intact, but to me, episode 9 is not extremely memorable, except for a few moments. (rare critique from me, i KNOW). i love watching sunwoo be persistent in chasing bora tho!

here’s the problem i have: while i love choi moosung and kim sunyoung’s relationship (that i guess ep 9 marks the beginning of), i found episode 9 to be a bit off in their pairing— specifically how taek’s dad barely ever talks before this episode. in episode 7, when he and sunwoo’s mom had a conversation, he seemed a bit comfortable with her, but not so comfortable for her to call him oppa! ep 9 tries to show that they’ve known each other longer than the other neighbors, but i found it a bit jarring for taek’s dad to be suddenly informal with sunwoo’s mom. it’s fine, but knowing how the writer has incorporated so many other elements so effortlessly into the show, i do think that she could’ve made this relationship transition smoother.

anyway, another thing that’s killing me is that as i continue watching, i see how taek and deoksun are meant for each other T_T maybe it’s because i’m trying my best not to be biased this watch, but i really do feel so bad for junghwan despite everything. you can see the differences in the pictures they take— deoksun seems more stunned and quiet in JH’s picture (look at his smile, he must’ve been so excited tho 🥺) whereas in the one with taek, she’s almost smiling. i don’t think she liked either of them yet, but i think she feels more comfortable around taek than junghwan for sure. ugh, i’m excited but also dreading watching ep 10 for this.

i also noted a lot of musical easter eggs/fun things to keep an eye out for!
when sunwoo’s mom first receives note of the foreclosure on her house and starts to panic on how she’ll repay the debt, the song “together” by noeul from the ost starts playing. and when taek’s dad gives her the money to pay the debt and her problems are solved, the original version of “together”, sung by park kwanghyun plays— thought this was kinda neat.

and for some reason, the netflix version doesn’t play it for junghwan, but both times when deoksun takes* her picture with a boy, the song “the only thing i can give you is love” by december starts playing!

and i noticed the kids talk about lee sooman, the bassist of the masam trio, so i found myself thinking “… like the SM entertainment founder?” did some research and found that yes, they are the same lee soo man! quite interesting, love how r88 continues to teach me about korean culture.

*the word “take” autocorrected to “taek” as i typed LMAOSJHDFJO