Heart to Heart Episode 8 recap

Side dish: If the sight of seafood congee on the table when Hong Do and Yi Seok went for lunch got your juices flowing, here’s a recipe from Burp! Appetit. Lucky for me, I pretty much live on top of Chinatown and will never have to make this myself.

Episode Recap

Severe anthrophobe Cha Hong Do (Choi Kang Hee) runs, smiling, to the clinic of obnoxious psychiatrist, Ko Yi Seok (Chun Jung Myung), but just as she arrives, his ex-girlfriend falls into his arms, and he holds her close. A shocked Hong Do is dragged away by policeman, Jang Doo Soo (Lee Jae Yoon).

Are we in the future? I don’t know, but we’re back to Yi Seok at a pharmacy buying cold medicine for Hong Do, and flashing back to her moment of confession in order to assess her symptoms. He giggles as he realizes that she may just be lovesick.

Meanwhile, Hong Do is in the car, on the phone with Doo Soo, telling him to eat a good meal. They make a conversation date for the next day, but before she can hang up, Yi Seok comes back to the car, and loudly asks what she wants for dinner. Doo Soo is taken aback to hear his voice, but not as much as Yi Seok, who accuses her of brazenly two-timing.

Yi Seok takes Hong Do out for Chinese food, where the two of them start out bickering, but then honestly confess that they like each other, though they don’t know why. On the way back, Hong Do still won’t tell Yi Seok where she lives, so he drops her in the neighbourhood, but takes away her helmet. As an exercise, he shows her pictures of Mona Lisa and Napoleon to prove that nobody only has bad points. Yi Seok takes a picture of Hong Do on his phone, and points out that despite looking ugly in it, she has pretty eyes. He tell her to go home and write ten good things about herself. As Hong Do leaves the car, Yi Seok thanks her, while my head explodes from how sweet this scene is.

The sweetness doesn’t end, since Hong Do doesn’t make it to her apartment before Yi Seok comes running after her to give her a last hug. They’re both smiling euphorically, even as he warns her that their relationship might not end well.

The next morning, Hong Do can’t think of ten good things about herself, and she’s terrified to go out without her helmet. In the end, she wraps her face with the scarf that Doo Soo gave her, and takes off running, not realizing that Yi Seok is eating strawberries around the corner from her home. Hong Do stumbles on the way to the hospital, but Yi Seok surreptitiously follows her, and offers encouragement over the phone to get her there.

Stalking must run in the family, because Yi Seok’s sister, Ko Se Ro is waiting for her newfound crush, Doo Soo outside of the police station. She ambushes him with a list of questions to help her confirm her feelings for him. Doo Soo looks unimpressed as she forces him to take the list of questions, and leaves.

When Hong Do arrives, they immediately go to the house of Yi Seok’s teenaged patient, Eun Ho, who has gone suddenly blind. Yi Seok is characteristically insensitive as it comes out that Eun Ho is not only jealous of the attention her twin sister gets from their mom, but also has a lingering trauma from a drowning incident, during which her mother saved her sister first. Later, Hong Do asks Yi Seok point blank if he was harsh with Eun Ho, because it reminded him of the situation with his own brother. Yi Seok is angry at her amateur psychologizing (because he’s a professional, ha!), but when he talks to Eun Ho, he honestly tells her that he doesn’t want her to turn out like he did, constantly worried that the wrong sibling lived.

On the way back, Yi Seok gets an update on his suicidal mom, but refuses to tell Hong Do more about it (not knowing that she already knows, because she’s his grandfather’s elderly secretary, Young Rae). Hong Do expresses her confusion about what to do in the situation where both Doo Soo and Yi Seok like her, but Yi Seok tells her that his interest usually lasts three months, so she should tell Doo Soo to wait three months, and see what happens. Hong Do is taken aback by his bluntness, but says nothing.

Back at the office, Hong Do gets a call from Doo Soo, but Yi Seok won’t stop bothering her enough to have a conversation. Finally, Hong Do and Doo Soo agree to meet for dinner.

In the meantime, Yi Seok wanders into the office of his mentor, Uhm Gi Choon (Seo Yi Sook), where she reassures him that his mother is doing better. He admits that Hong Do was correct in that he was seeing himself in Eun Ho, but when he mentions that he’s a bit scared of being with Hong Do, Gi Choon laughs at him, and then shoots him down when he asks her to go out to dinner.

Hong Do, for her part, goes to meet Doo Soo in front of his apartment building. Secondhand embarrassment forced me to watch this scene through my fingers, but I think she told him that she was going to reject his heart.

The next morning, Doo Soo appears at her front door as she comes out to go to work as Young Rae, her old lady persona. He returns the scarf he got her, and tells her that just like she’s following her heart, he’ll continue to follow his own. He’ll wait until she’s tried everything she wants to try, and comes back to him.

Doo Soo drives Young Rae to work, and when he drops her off, he realizes that they’re in front of Yi Seok’s family’s house. He looks worried as she explains the situation, but as he drives off, he runs into Se Ro, who is out running. Believing that he’s there to give her the answers to his questions, Se Ro pesters him until he tells her that he has someone he likes, and drives off. Undeterred, she puts his rejection down to shyness, and continues her run.

Back at the house, Young Rae helps Yi Seok’s grandfather, the Chairman do something on the computer. Somehow the conversation turns to his looks, and he agrees to let Young Rae dye his hair. In the middle of it, the housekeeper comes in and throws a fit, glaring daggers at Young Rae, but the Chairman is not put off. He’s so impressed by his own handsomeness that he asks Young Rae out for a walk.

Yi Seok, meanwhile, is out shopping for helmets, using Hong Do’s picture on his phone to pick the right one. The next morning, Yi Seok comes to Hong Do’s house to give her a new helmet that doesn’t have a face shield.

At the police station, Doo Soo’s partner wonders what to eat. Doo Soo suddenly comes to the conclusion that he’s going to eat Hong Do’s home cooking from now on, and takes off.

Back at the clinic, Gi Choon is in a fantastic outfit as she asks Yi Seok why he’s still working. It turns out that Yi Seok suspects Hong Do’s rapid improvement to be temporary, and is studying up on what to do about it. Gi Choon leaves, impressed at his sudden work ethic. In the meantime, he gets a call from a freshly showered Hong Do, who is so excited by hearing that he misses her that she packs him some food, and runs to bring it over (in her new helmet, no less).

The situation seems headed for disaster, as Doo Soo is also driving to the clinic to talk to Yi Seok. As expected from the preview, Hong Do walks in to see Yi Seok comforting his weeping ex-girlfriend. Doo Soo arrives shortly after, and drags a hiding Hong Do away, as Yi Seok notices their presence for the first time.

Comments

This episode had an air of the calm before the storm, with the two lovebirds being ridiculously cute as dark clouds gathered. The situation at the end of the episode is the least of their worries, as Doo Soo decides that he’s not giving up, Yi Seok still hasn’t found out about Young Rae or the missing suicide note, and the Chairman looks like he’s developing feelings for his secretary. Though, in fact, their biggest worry is something Yi Seok pointed out (with surprising calmness) to Gi Choon, that Hong Do’s near-instant recovery is probably only temporary, and there’s a good chance that she’ll relapse. Though, I mean, let’s be honest; the real reason I know that something is going to go wrong is that it’s episode 8. If all of their problems were solved already, the next eight episodes would be crazy boring.

That said, I hope the situation at the end doesn’t turn into one of those long-winded misunderstandings that could be solved with one conversation. My hopes are too high for this show!

But, back to Hong Do and Yi Seok. Since we’re watching a show about mental illness, I, too, am going to indulge in some amateur psychology, and guess that there’s something about being needed that is appealing to both of them. That’s obviously not all, in that these two seem to see each other very clearly, and regardless, like each other. And, let’s not forget their crazy chemistry.

As for Doo Soo, and his announcement that he’s going to do what he likes and continue to like her, well, I can’t say I’m on board. He equated his pursuit of Hong Do with her interest in Yi Seok, but the two situations are patently different; Yi Seok returns Hong Do’s feelings, while Hong Do has clearly rejected Doo Soo (I still can’t believe she said she rejected his heart. Brutal.)

Anyway. As a final note, Gi Choon is awesome. More Gi Choon!

Here’s a bonus shot of their meal, because I’m hungry:

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Heart to Heart (하트 투 하트)

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