“Emergency Couple” episode 10 recap

Chang Min is hungry. Feed Chang Min.

Side dish: When Jin Hee can’t even find food in her own house, her mom’s kindly business partner takes it upon herself to feed her some comforting bibimbap. A good place to eat bibimbap is Song Cook’s. Have it in a hot stone bowl while you’re at it, because crunchy rice is the best rice.

Episode Recap

We’re right back at the rooftop argument from the last episode, with Oh Chang Min (Choi Jin Hyuk) telling his ex-wife and fellow intern, Oh Jin Hee (Song Ji Hyo) to stop making eyes at the ER supervisor, Kook Cheon Soo (Lee Pil Mo). She’s falling for Cheon Soo, he says; he can tell just by looking at her. She tells him to back off, since they’re divorced. She wrenches her hand away and stalks off. Chang Min, who could have handled that better, breathes out heavily as she goes.

Jin Hee goes into the stairwell and flashes back to her conversation with Cheon Soo, where he told her that Chang Min was responsible for saving her from dismissal, so she should take his gift back. She tells him that she meant it as a gift of respect for him, because she has a lot to be thankful for.

Chang Min is in the interns’ office, doing research and making notes. The other male intern, Im Yong Kyu (Yoon Jong Hoon) comes in, and asks what he’s doing, but Chang Min hides his work. Since he has no boundaries, Yong Kyu reads off Chang Min’s smart phone that he’s searching for the after effects and treatment of meningitis. When Yong Kyu asks who has meningitis, Chang Min says his nephew, but takes it back when he realizes he doesn’t have a nephew. When Yong Kyu asks why he doesn’t just print it out, Chang Min points out that a printout doesn’t show effort, then refuses to tell him who it’s for.

Walking into the ER, Chang Min spots Jin Hee treating a patient. Before he can approach her, he’s cut off by the arrival of Cheon Soo, who hands her a prescription for the same pills that Chang Min already got her to protect her family from meningitis. Outmaneuvered, Chang Min leaves when he’s called away by a nurse, throwing the note and pills in the garbage on the way.

Jin Hee comes home to find her house colonized by her sister, Oh Jin Ae’s (Jun Soo Jin) family. Jin Ae’s husband, Kim Kwang Soo (Park Doo Shik) is cheering on a mixed martial arts fight on TV. Before Jin Hee can complain, the baby starts crying in the other room. When Kwang Soo goes to check on the baby, Jin Ae drops a formula bottle, covering Jin Hee’s foot in boiling water. Jin Hee escapes to her mom’s spa next door, limping from her burn. Her mom and mom’s business partner fuss over Jin Hee while she complains about the takeover of the house. Jin Hee’s mom points out that the young family have nowhere else to go, and asks if she’s had dinner. Jin Hee whines that there was no rice left. Mom’s business partner scurries off to make her some bibimbap.

Jin Hee hands her mom the meningitis pills from Cheon Soo. Her mom tells her to be nice to Cheon Soo, because he’s obviously a kind and caring person. When they figure out that Jin Hee has no place to sleep, Jin Hee gets angry. Back in Jin Hee’s bedroom, Jin Ae and Kwang Soo are about to go at it (next to a wide awake baby, no less), when Jin Hee phones her to have her come out.

Jin Hee yells at Jin Ae who plays hardball, promising that she’ll tell everyone about Chang Min. Their mom comes in and starts talking about Jin Ae’s wedding, and meeting Kwang Soo’s family. An appalled Jin Hee yells about how Jin Ae had a baby outside of marriage. Jin Ae says it’s love; at least she won’t get divorced like Jin Hee. Jin Ae walks away, as her mother and sister look frustrated.

Chang Min drinks by himself, looking sad. Jin Hee lies in bed with her mom, also looking sad. She flashes back to her sister’s divorce comment. Her mom asks if she’s not sleeping, because of what Jin Ae said, and tells her to forget about it.

Jin Hee sleeps and dreams of the time she first met Chang Min. They both stopped to help when a student suddenly had breathing problems. Chang Min positions her for an asthma attack, but it doesn’t seem to help. Jin Hee asks if she ate at the cafeteria, because she might have a food allergy, so they position her in reverse. A doctor comes running up and figures out that it’s anaphylactic shock, so they did the right thing. The two of them introduce themselves; Jin Hee is a dietician, and Chang Min is a med student. They laugh over having the same last name.

A wide awake Chang Min is obviously flashing back to the same thing, remembering the face that he fell for (well, he couldn’t have fallen for Jin Hee’s hair, because it’s awful).

They both flash back to their second meeting, when Chang Min threw up in a water fountain while Jin Hee was walking past. She stops to help him, and asks if he ate something bad. It was anatomy class, he says. In voiceover, Chang Min wonders if only it hadn’t been anatomy class. Jin Hee hands him some dried pollock to chew on, followed by cabbage to cleanse his palate. He does it and feels better (really?). Jin Hee wonders in voiceover if only she didn’t happen to have those things on hand at the time. They both watch as a cadaver is wheeled out of the room Chang Min was just in, and as it goes by, the cadaver’s arm falls off the gurney, whacking Jin Hee. She leaps onto Chang Min in fright, then backs away as she calms down. They both wonder in voiceover what their fate would have been like if things had been different. Back in their respective beds, they smile.

Next morning, Jin Hee berates herself for having nice dreams about Chang Min, while Chang Min wakes up unhappily. They run into each other at the hospital elevators, and end up on the same one. The already crowded elevator gets packed full on the next floor, and Chang Min gets pushed up against Jin Hee. It’s awkward, and as other people get off, he gets shoved straight into Jin Hee. They stare at each other. Chang Min walks off the elevator, bent over double with his lab coat pulled over his front, trying to hide an erection (I guess? I can’t think of another explanation).

He runs into fellow intern, and his mom’s favourite candidate for his new wife, Han Ah Reum (Clara) who points out that he has a kiss mark on his lab coat. He covers it up, looking confused, then he figures out that it happened on the elevator. Ah Reum says she can figure out who did it right away just from looking at the colour. Just kidding, she laughs, and walks off. Chang Min’s erection problem seems solved by this encounter (which doesn’t bode well for his mom’s plans to get him together with Ah Reum), and he walks into the ER covering up the kiss mark instead. He runs into Jin Hee immediately, and they’re both awkward until Nurse Choi tells them to prep a room because there’s a “fall-down” patient coming. The patient arrives, followed shortly by Cheon Soo and Ji Hye. Some medical stuff happens and the fall-down patient is saved.

Jin Hee goes to throw something in the garbage, and spots the pills with the note Chang Min wrote for her. She pulls them out just as Yong Kyu comes up. He’s surprised to find that it’s for her, and tells her Chang Min went to a lot of trouble to write that note. She looks back at the note, surprised; he does have very nice handwriting for a doctor.

Jin Hee spots Chang Min walking in the ER, and asks him if the CT scan for the patient came back okay. He says yes and they’re about to have an awkward conversation when Ah Reum shows up. She spots the kiss mark on his lab coat, and scrubs it off with alcohol. Chang Min looks nervously over at Jin Hee. Jin Hee has a coughing fit, and pushes past both of them to walk away, obviously annoyed. Chang Min chases her, much to the consternation of Ah Reum. He asks why she left, and she lays into him, saying sarcastically how Ah Reum was acting like his wife. He laughs it off, and she gets more annoyed. He says he thought she didn’t care. She tries to walk away, and a smiling Chang Min points out that it would be weird if it didn’t bother her. He laughs as she works herself into a lather.

Ah Reum, Yong Kyu and the married interns go out for lunch. Yong Kyu orders the same thing as Ah Reum, to the mockery of the married interns. Before they can eat, Ah Reum gets a phone call from someone she calls “Mother”. A shocked Yong Kyu stares at her.

On the other end of the line was Chang Min’s Evil Mom (Park Joon Geum) who hangs up the phone as Absent Dad (Kang Shin Il) arrives at a restaurant. He asks who she was talking to, and Evil Mom answers that it was their future daughter-in-law. Evil Mom has just made plans to have dinner with her and Chang Min this weekend, and tells Absent Dad to come, too. He refuses, saying he’s too busy. She asks him what he’s doing, and he points out that she’s the one who wanted a divorce so why does she expect cooperation?

She puts Jin Hee’s note on the table and asks him what it is. He accuses her of going through his desk to which she agrees. She asks why Jin Hee is thanking him for her internship.

Ji Hye and Chang Min are working on the fall-down patient when Jin Hee comes in with test results. Chang Min stitches up the wound in the patient’s leg, and Ji Hye tells Jin Hee to wrap up. Left alone together, Jin Hee and Chang Min discuss how the patient has no family, friends or guardian, and is going to have a hard time. This seems like an inappropriate discussion to have with the unconscious patient right there, but what do I know? I’m not a doctor.

Back at the restaurant, Evil Mom continues to berate Absent Dad for meeting with Jin Hee. He explains that they only met once, and that it won’t happen again. She decides to forget about it after some more questioning, and moves on to the topic of setting a date for Chang Min’s wedding, so she and Absent Dad can get a divorce.

Chang Min and Jin Hee come out of the patient’s room, and he acts cute to get Jin Hee to eat with him. As they eat, he tells her to slow down or she’ll get indigestion, as she frequently did when they were married. She can’t believe he remembers that, and he reminds her that he used to prick her finger all the time. She chokes on her food, and he hands her a drink, telling her to take a sip. The nurse who targeted Chang Min walks in and notices the two of them acting couple-like.

Cheon Soo decides to try on Jin Hee’s gift. Ji Hye walks in as he does, and he looks at her guiltily. Ji Hye pauses and apologizes for coming in without knocking. She makes to leave and he calls her back in. She tells him the jacket looks good, but he takes it off anyway. She asks him why he looks guilty for trying it on. He tells her to stop making fun of him, and she laughs at him for getting mad. He takes the chart she came in with and gives her some instructions. They flirt some more. Why won’t these two get together?!!??! WHY??!?

Chang Min gets changed as Yong Kyu comes in, looking miserable. He tells Chang Min to buy him a drink, because he has something so shocking to say that he can’t say it sober.

Jin Hee, meanwhile, fixes her lipstick at her locker. Ah Reum spots the colour from across the room and asks her if she was on an elevator with Chang Min in the morning. Jin Hee admits to it and asks why. Ah Reum, who is beginning to remind me of Evil Mom, mentions the kiss mark on Chang Min’s lab coat. She grabs the lip colour out of Jin Hee’s hand, and demands an explanation of what happened in the elevator.

Instead of answering, Jin Hee asks Ah Reum what she likes about Chang Min. Ah Reum says that she likes everything, because he’s a man, but he has a cute side. She can see pain and scars in his eyes as well. Jin Hee asks if she’s thinking of marrying him, and Ah Reum responds, somewhat disingenuously, that if it’s fate, they will.

Jin Hee, annoyed, asks her if she’ll make it happen, since she can do anything as a minister’s daughter. Ah Reum loses her temper and backs Jin Hee into the wall, wanting to know if it was Chang Min who told her. Not wanting to admit that she heard it eavesdropping, Jin Hee says she found out by chance.

Ah Reum demands to know what Jin Hee’s relationship is with Chang Min. Instead of answering, Jin Hee asks if she just talked down to her. Ah Reum gets in her face and asks again.

Chang Min and Yong Kyu are at the bar they always go to, and Yong Kyu has just told Chang Min that Ah Reum is married. Yong Kyu explains that he overheard her on the phone calling someone “Mother”. And, since she wouldn’t call her own mom “Mother”, it must be her mother-in-law. Chang Min clues in that she was talking to Evil Mom, but doesn’t explain to the tormented Yong Kyu. Instead, Chang Min reassures him that Ah Reum is neiher divorced nor married. When Yong Kyu asks how he can be sure, he explains that his blind date was supposed to be with Ah Reum, but she sent a substitute. Yong Kyu assumes she has a boyfriend, and a flabbergasted Chang Min asks Yong Kyu if he likes Ah Reum enough to want to marry her. Yong Kyu sadly nods yes. Yong Kyu asks him what he should do, and Chang Min has no idea; he’s forgotten how to seduce women.

This unlikely pity party of two young, attractive doctors is cut short by the entrance of Ji Hye and Cheon Soo into the bar. Chang Min notices that Cheon Soo is finally wearing the jacket that Jin Hee got for him. Cheon Soo puts the jacket down on the chair as they sit down and order the usual. When Cheon Soo goes to the washroom, Chang Min gets up and greets Ji Hye, his eye on the jacket all the while. After confirming that it’s the jacket that Jin Hee got Cheon Soo as a gift, Chang Min purposely spills a drink on it.

Back at the hospital, the resident comes in to check on the fall-down patient from earlier. Jin Hee tells him that his vitals are normal, and it’s okay to move him out of the room. The resident tells her to move the patient and go home.

Back at the bar, Ji Hye has something to say to Cheon Soo, but is cut off by a phone call that she takes outside. Out in the stairwell, Ji Hye tells someone that she’ll do her blood test and send it by fax. Cheon Soo comes out to check on her, and she says she has to leave.

Inside, Chang Min is so focused on Cheon Soo’s jacket that he ignores Yong Kyu, who is drunk texting Ah Reum. Since both Cheon Soo and Ji Hye are outside, Chang Min gets up and steals the jacket, and then starts beating it. Cheon Soo comes back into the bar and notices that it is missing. Chang Min, rather than come up with a plausible explanation, hides the jacket in his bag, laughing like a lunatic the whole time.

Cheon Soo comes over to ask about the jacket, but Chang Min plays it cool. He offers his own jacket to Cheon Soo, who gets a call to go back to the hospital. Chang Min laughs some more as he turns away (WTF).

The fall-down patient is having convulsions as Cheon Soo gets back to the ER. They move him back to the room for treatment. Outside the hospital, Chang Min drives up just as Jin Hee is leaving. He asks her to get in the car so he can tell her something, and she does. As they drive, she asks where he’s going and he says he’s kidnapping her, since they never get to talk at the hospital. She asks what they have to talk about. He doesn’t get to answer, because she gets a phone call from Cheon Soo, who asks her about the fall-down patient. She tells him that everything was normal when she left, and he tells her that his convulsions won’t stop. She offers to come back, but he tells her not to. I’m not sure why he called her in the first place since he had the chart and the other resident there, but whatevs; maybe he wanted to hear her voice.

She tells Chang Min to turn the car around and he refuses, saying she has no reason to go back. He drives as they argue, but the light in front of him turns red and he brakes suddenly. Jin Hee goes flying forward.

Chang Min pulls the car over and sees that Jin Hee has a big bruise on her collarbone. He’s upset because he hurt her, but she wants to go back to the patient. He yells that she’s in no condition to go anywhere, and she tells him not to get mad at her. He apologizes and tries to get her to lift her arm. She can’t without pain, which means it’s a collarbone fracture. He finds a ribbon and a piece of wood in his trunk and makes her a sling out of it and his scarf. He tells her not to move, that they’re going to the hospital. He makes a cryptic comment about how she gets to see Cheon Soo tonight anyway.

The resident comes running into the treatment room with the blood test results: something is wrong with the patient’s kidneys. They send the nurse to check his records at other hospitals.

Chang Min drives up with Jin Hee, and gets her into the ER. She tells him to go check on the fall-down patient. Cheon Soo spots them and comes to see what happened. He yells at her for getting hurt and sends Chang Min for ice and pain relievers. Chang Min goes, and Jin Hee asks Cheon Soo about the fall-down patient. He tells her to worry about herself first. As he unwraps the makeshift sling, he confirms that it’s a collarbone fracture. A hostile Chang Min comes back and asks him to move aside. Cheon Soo tells Chang Min to get an x-ray, and Chang Min responds with more hostility. A perplexed Cheon Soo leaves.

Chang Min blames Cheon Soo for the accident, because he believes that Cheon Soo told Jin Hee to come back. She denies that Cheon Soo ever said that, that she wanted to come back herself. Jin Hee winces in pain and Chang Min gets the pain reliever. Post x-ray, she giggles as he puts on a bandage. Cheon Soo comes in and asks how she’s doing. She’s better now that she’s had a pain reliever, and he confirms that she has no other fractures. Chang Min tells her to go home, and Cheon Soo tells her to get better so she can come back to work sooner. She looks at Cheon Soo worshipfully, while Chang Min gets angry at the mention of work.

Cheon Soo finally reacts to Chang Min’s hostility, but Jin Hee distracts him. Cheon Soo leaves, and Jin Hee tells Chang Min to go home. He refuses since her broken collarbone was his fault. She asks where he was taking her, and he says it doesn’t matter since they’ll never escape the hospital. Chang Min tucks Jin Hee in as she falls asleep. He leaves to get something, and Cheon Soo comes in directly after. He checks her chart, just as Chang Min returns. Cheon Soo tells him to stop administering the pain reliever, and Chang Min argues that she should have some so she can sleep. Cheon Soo responds that he should have driven better if he was so worried about her and calls him a punk. Chang Min asks if he’s interested in Jin Hee. They decide to finish their conversation in a stairwell. It’s on, baby!

It’s a standoff in the stairwell, as they both confirm that they have feelings for her and try to stare each other down.

It looks like Cheon Soo backs off first, because he goes back to his office to brood. The junior resident comes by shortly after, holding Ji Hye’s test results, which she needs to send to the States. Cheon Soo takes them and sends him away. What are these mysterious test results?

Chang Min stares at the sleeping Jin Hee, then flashes back to when he was a med student and Jin Hee came to visit him in an empty lecture hall with coffee. It’s a cute moment as he burns his tongue and they end up kissing. Back in the present, Chang Min sighs for his lost love. He spots the note that he wrote for her with the pills in her pocket and pulls it out (does no one on this show have boundaries?). He wonders what he should do, whether he should start again from the beginning. She’s unconscious, but I guess he hears a “yes” from somewhere, because he kisses her.

Comments

If someone is asleep, I think a good general rule of thumb is that unless you have prior consent, you should not be kissing them. That said, this is K-drama-land, where all bets are off with kissing, consent and wakefulness, so for my own sanity, I’ll pretend that last kiss didn’t happen. Let’s just go to the flashback kiss before it, which had two active and wakeful participants, and was pretty awesome.

That aside, I’m glad we got to see some flashbacks to the beginning of their relationship, with a sweet Chang Min, and a wide-eyed Jin Hee. It’s a nice change from the almost entirely combative relationship we’ve seen so far, especially with Chang Min falling for her all over again. Maybe somewhere in the next 10 episodes, he can learn to express his feelings like a normal person, instead of going around stealing other people’s jackets.

More importantly, Cheon Soo and Ji Hye… why won’t you get together? WHY?!?