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Japchae (잡채), pan fried bellflower root (더덕구이), Yukgejang (육개장)
“It’s so hard to perfect the seasoning, though.”
Convenience store food, including rice and side dishes, ramyun with dumplings, ramyun with blood sausage, snacks with melted cheese and corn, spicy rice cake risotto, affogato
“It’s good just eating it like this, too, but you can even turn convenience store food into something better.”
Episode Recap
Fast-talking insurance salesman, Dae Young is being yelled at by an irate customer. He apologetically promises to pay for her damaged car, and then lends her his own car to make up for it. When lonely investigator, Taek Soo wonders how Dae Young could have made such a mistake, he theorizes that all of Dae Young’s time has been sucked up by his deal with neighbour, Soo Ji. Taek Soo is happy that Dae Young’s failures will keep him in Sejong longer.
That evening, when Dae Young comes home with Taek Soo in tow, an excited Soo Ji is waiting to question him about her next steps to conquer her target, Sang Woo’s heart. Taek Soo rains remorselessly on her parade when he tells her that Dae Young is having trouble at work from spending too much time on her marriage plans. Abashed, Soo Ji reasonably agrees that she can handle things with Sang Woo from now on.
On her way upstairs, Soo Ji passes by old lady, Jeom Yi’s apartment to find the mysterious roof dweller, Joo Seung and Jeom Yi about to have dinner. Her drooling face gets her a dinner invite, and they dig in. After Soo Ji and Joo Seung leave, Barassi 2.0 drops by for his dinner as well.
At her next work meeting with Sang Woo, Soo Ji tries to recall of their weekend outing, but is shut down by both Sang Woo and co-worker, In Ah. She’s more successful when she asks Sang Woo for advice on a bike to buy, and he agrees to meet her at his regular bike shop after work.
At the bike shop, Soo Ji is so mesmerized by Sang Woo’s animated face that she agrees to buy a $1000 bike. To add insult to injury, she runs into the landlord, Mi Ran on her way home, who reminds her that rent is due the next day.
Back at the villa, Joo Seung happily eats black bean noodles, but when Dae Young comes along and tries to recommend a better restaurant, he brushes him off. Jeom Yi apologizes for Joo Seung’s rudeness, but Dae Young is nonplussed.
Soo Ji goes to Dae Young’s apartment to borrow money, but he has none to spare. But, upon noticing that he has a nicer apartment, she decides to negotiate a rent decrease with Mi Ran. When Soo Ji fails to convince Mi Ran, she tries to get Dae Young to boycott paying rent. He finds Soo Ji’s demands too troublesome, since he only intends to stay in Sejong as long as it takes him to become the king of insurance again.
Instead, Soo Ji ends up borrowing money from Joo Seung. Joo Seung, in turn, gets a break from Mi Ran when he goes to pay his rent. Mi Ran, meanwhile, has little to spare herself, as each dollar is allocated before she even gets it.
At another work meeting, Soo Ji gets a call from the bank, offering to issue her a new card. Soo Ji refuses, since she can’t afford it, but In Ah offers to help by calling her banker friend. Soo Ji still doesn’t meet the requirements for a new card, and In Ah pities Soo Ji’s poverty.
Dae Young borrows Sang Woo’s car to get to Seoul. When he offers to return it the next morning, Sang Woo tells him not to worry, since he can drive his spare car. It turns out they won’t be seeing much of each other on weekends, since Dae Young will be busy with weddings, and Sang Woo will be busy with blind dates. Instead, Sang Woo tells Dae Young to bring Soo Ji along the next time they have plans, since she just bought a bike. Dae Young is appalled to learn how much she paid for it.
Back at the villa, Soo Ji hides as Mi Ran knocks on her door, looking for the rent. When she sneaks outside, she finds Dae Young in Sang Woo’s car, and hops in to escape. Dae Young already knows she can’t pay rent, and counsels her to return the bike. Dae Young points out the futility of Soo Ji’s plan to ensnare Sang Woo in the first place, telling her that Cinderella stories only happen in dramas (lucky for Soo Ji, this is one). Of course, she knows this already, but storms away in a huff, regardless.
Dae Young goes off to the convenience store to cheer himself up with beer, and runs into store employee, Hye Rim while he’s there. For once, she’s not surrounded by admirers, and when he helps her move some water bottles, she assumes that he’s started to like her. Dae Young denies this, since he has no intention of dating, given his bad financial situation. Regardless, Hye Rim offers to buy Dae Young dinner from the convenience store. In return, he shows her a bunch of tricks on how make convenience store food delicious, and they eat orgasmically.
Later, Dae Young passes by the bike store, and sees Soo Ji unsuccessfully attempting to return the bike. He shrugs and continues on his way.
Back at the office, In Ah is busy drooling over a guy at the library, when she’s interrupted by the arrival of Sang Woo. She tries to play off her obvious interest in the young man, but Sang Woo doesn’t care anyway. He idly picks a book off the pile, and suddenly his eyes widen in surprise.
Back at the villa, Soo Ji narrowly dodges Mi Ran, who’s come looking for her rent. In a bind, Mi Ran goes to Jeom Yi to borrow money to make up for her own shortfall, as Soo Ji sneaks away.
Joo Seung drops by Mi Ran’s office, and runs into Mi Ran’s son. Mi Ran’s son is disrespectful to him, so Joo Seung scares him by telling him he’s killed people.
Soo Ji runs into Sang Woo outside of the government building, and is shocked that he remembers her name. It turns out that the book he picked off the pile in the library was her novel, and he’s now a fan of her work. Soo Ji is beside herself, as Sang Woo compliments her on constantly surprising him despite her calm exterior, then asks her to sign his book.
Dae Young is peeing when he’s joined in the washroom by Taek Soo. Dae Young points out that Taek Soo can’t pee like he used to, due to lack of exercise. In the end, he convinces Taek Soo to buy Soo Ji’s bike, but he has to give up his apartment entry code in order to seal the deal.
Later, when he meets up with Soo Ji, she’s too excited over Sang Woo to care much about Dae Young having saved her from financial disaster. He’s nonplussed as she even borrows money to pay back Joo Seung. Soo Ji chases Joo Seung up to the rooftop, and even gives him an extra $10 to apologize for borrowing money from a poor student. Joo Seung goes back into his rooftop container hovel, and throws the money onto a surprisingly large stash of cash. Oooooooooh.
Fired up by Sang Woo’s enthusiasm for her novel, Soo Ji sits down to complete her new book. Dae Young, meanwhile, goes to a used bookstore and asks for Soo Ji’s novel. When the bookstore owner shows him a huge room full of books to search through, Dae Young gives up and leaves. But, in our parting scene we see Dae Young sitting in the bookstore, reading Soo Ji’s book.
Comments
Well, I guess we can see where this is going: Soo Ji and Sang Woo start interacting with each other based on their fake personalities, and then at some point, we’ll get a big reveal. Ironically, enthusiastic Soo Ji isn’t that bad of a match for the rowdy Sang Woo, aside from the fact that they have few interests in common.
Not that it matters. Even though, in my head, this whole show is a setup for Dae Young to return to Seoul and reunite with Soo Kyung, chances are better that Dae Young and Soo Ji are going to end up together. On the upside, at least Sang Woo seems like a real contender so far, as opposed to a stalking horse.
I have to admit it: I’m still not a huge fan of Soo Ji. Buying a $1000 bike to impress a guy is insane, especially in a situation where she had any number of easy outs. And, her first thought is to borrow money from people she knows are as broke as she is, rather than return the bike. Dae Young’s attempt to pop her bubble may have been overly harsh, but he had a point.
But, let’s move on to the more important things: the food.
Japchae (잡채), pan fried bellflower root (더덕구이), Yukgejang (육개장)
I want halmeoni to cook for me too!
Convenience store food, including rice and side dishes, ramyun with dumplings, ramyun with blood sausage, snacks with melted cheese and corn, spicy rice cake risotto, affogato
I’m not going to lie, this looks like the kind of food I would eat at 4am, when experimenting with convenience store food seems like a good idea. Except for the rice and side dishes, which look pretty impressive.
I feel bad for Sooji. Women are always being cheated financially. If she’d been a guy, the landlady would’ve gotten her placed remodeled. And if she’d been a guy, that bike would’ve been returned.
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That’s a good point, actually. If Dae Young had gone in, they would have taken the bike back.
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I wish I could believe they will get back together in the end. *sob* I do NOT support him with annoying exercise girl. Still not sure why I keep watching this drama, even.
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Agreed. This Soo Ji character sets feminism back 50 years. Obsessed with weight and getting married, whiny, flaky, self centered. Everything that Soo Kyung from the first series was NOT.
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I understand the frustrations with the female character but honestly I really like her cause she is so flawed in this drama and Seo Hyun jin is doing a good job playing a vulnerable character plus the adorable chemistry she has with Dojoon is working for me. I dunno. maybe thats just my bias here but I am enjoying the show.
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