Episode Recap
Little Mi Mo and little Soo Hyuk bicker, but walk home and admire the night sky together. Soo Hyuk focuses on the stars, whereas Mi Mo thinks of snow. Soo Hyuk connects the two by claiming that snow is the tears of the stars. Later, little Soo Hyuk uses practically all the coins in his piggy bank to play a game until he wins a payout that allows him buy her a jewelry box.
In the present day, Soo Hyuk (Jung Kyung Ho) regards both the jewelry box, and Mi Mo’s (Jang Na Ra) wedding ring from their drunken attempt at matrimony, then places one inside the other. He returns to Mi Mo, unaware that she is actually awake, and decides to treat the cut on her forehead. He then adds his own bed roll to the blanket covering Mi Mo. Soo Hyuk sleeps on the bare floor, with only his coat covering him, then unknowingly kicks the jewelry box under a dresser.
The next morning, Soo Hyuk wakes up to find Mi Mo lying still, but wide awake (and he is not creeped out. Huh). As they leave, the teacher invites them to return for the children’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet, and tells them that breakfast has been prepared for them. Hae Joon (Kwon Yool) arrives at that moment, having driven all night, and ends up dining with Soo Hyuk and Mi Mo.
It is a tense meal with Hae Joon bristling as Soo Hyuk repeatedly volunteers information about Mi Mo before she has a chance to answer. Mi Mo tries to smooth things over by speaking as normal, but looks uneasy. After breakfast, Soo Hyuk drives home alone as Mi Mo rides back to Seoul with Hae Joon, but the couple are as silent as Soo Hyuk’s car.
Da Jung (Yoo Da In) comes to terms with her mastectomy alone in the hospital bathroom then can’t help but start crying as she eats. The patient in the next bed shares some of her homemade banchan, and reminds her that she is lucky to avoid having to undergo chemotherapy. When Da Jung claims not to feel like a woman, the patient tells her to get breast implants, then says she is a woman regardless. Da Jung’s husband, Gun Hak (Kim Tae Hoon) watches from a crack in the door, still unable to find the courage to enter.
In Mi Mo’s living room, Hae Joon takes issue with being kept in the dark about her activities, and catching her in Soo Hyuk’s company too many times for his liking. He asks Mi Mo why she doesn’t keep her distance from Soo Hyuk, despite knowing how uncomfortable it makes him. Mi Mo points out that it is impossible since Soo Hyuk is his best friend and her former classmate.
Mi Mo asks Hae Joon to state plainly how far he would like her to stay away Soo Hyuk. This angers Hae Joon, because it makes him feel like the bad guy. He reveals that he is scared to commit to her for fear of getting hurt. Mi Mo is disappointed, since she has already fearlessly given her heart to him. Hae Joon challenges her to confirm that he is the only one that she has given her heart to, and Mi Mo has no response. After Hae Joon departs, Mi Mo can only think of Soo Hyuk’s secret confession.
Meanwhile, Soo Hyuk realizes that he is missing the jewelry box, just as his colleague informs him that Ah Ni (Lee Chae Eun) has resigned from Mass Punch, and asks him to hurry to work. Still, Soo Hyuk pauses to stare at Mi Mo’s door, and thus, comes face to face with a departing Hae Joon. Soo Hyuk is about to explain his outing with Mi Mo to the school, but Hae Joon has no interest in hearing him out.
As he drives, Hae Joon remembers confessing his feelings to Soo Hyuk’s girlfriend, Seon Soo. Seon Soo was annoyed by Hae Joon’s confession, because he had mistaken her friendliness for attraction, and ignored her relationship with Soo Hyuk. She decides to pretend their conversation never happened.
Soo Hyuk asks Ah Ni why she is quitting, and she admits that her only interest in the job was to be with him, and she is now embarrassed by the immaturity of her career decision. When Soo Hyuk asks her what she intends to do next, Ah Ni wryly notes that he is not even going to dissuade her from leaving.
Soo Hyuk’s son, Min Woo decides to give Mi Mo a gift of movie passes to thank her for helping him with his school organized volunteer event. He encourages her to take Soo Hyuk with her, but Mi Mo declines the gift, saying that she cannot be who Min Woo wants her to be. Min Woo apologizes for jumping the gun, and leaves behind an abashed Mi Mo.
At her desk, Ah Ni sighs and deletes the article about Mi Mo publicly confronting her boyfriend and Seul Ah, the Angels bandmate he knocked up. Yet, when her replacement is going through her files, she finds the photos of Mi Mo’s low moment, and shows the boss.
Mi Mo is visiting Da Jung in the hospital, but looks gloomy like she herself underwent the surgery. She refuses to reveal to Da Jung what is wrong, so Da Jung decides to focus on an upcoming dating event, where Mi Mo will fill in for Da Jung.
In the hospital lobby, Mi Mo runs into Gun Hak, and over coffee, he reveals that he has met with Da Jung’s doctor, and knows what he must do to support her. She readily agrees to support Gun Hak whenever he needs to talk to someone.
Soo Hyuk arrives at the dating event with dapper hair, and jokes with Mi Mo about attracting all the women who will be attending. Mi Mo promises a new and exciting experience, but what Soo Hyuk gets a table full of women who vary from indifferent to predatory. Even Mi Mo has to concede that the female candidates are less than ideal.
An irate ex-husband crashes the event, accusing Mi Mo of conspiring to introduce gigolos to women like his ex-wife. He grabs a hold of Mi Mo and threatens to start a smear campaign against her in the media, when Soo Hyuk forcibly intervenes, and intimidates the man into having second thoughts.
Inexplicably, while sitting at her office, Mi Mo starts seeing Soo Hyuk and Conan O’Brien’s heads on goldfish (and that was the extent of Conan O’Brien’s cameo during his tour of Korea). She jumps at the taiyaki that her coworker proffers, and starts seeing hallucinations of Soo Hyuk.
While having dinner with Min Woo, Soo Hyuk receives a call from a former blind date. He bluntly tells her he does not wish to see her, and she reveals that Soo Hyuk is suspected of working for Mi Mo’s company, since he goes on first dates but never agrees to a second one. When the woman appears to be turning her rage towards Mi Mo’s company, Soo Hyuk hurriedly agrees to meet with her.
Soo Hyuk exits his apartment to find another belligerent woman waiting for him outside: Mi Mo. He thinks she is angry about him passing on so many women, and she does not bother to correct him. After glaring at him, Mi Mo turns and enters her apartment without saying a word.
Mi Mo sets about filling her bedroom with photos of Hae Joon, then attempts to relax to classical music. When she hallucinates Soo Hyuk’s voice, Mi Mo calls up Hae Joon to block it out and discovers that Hae Joon is sick. Mi Mo goes over to cook porridge for Hae Joon, and he is loving and grateful that she came over. Yet, Mi Mo is distracted by his failure to notice the bandage on her hand, which she put on when she cut herself making him porridge.
Hae Joon is well enough to go back to work the next day, but Mi Mo only finds out when she is waiting outside his apartment. An apologetic Hae Joon gives her his pass code so that she can enter to drop off prepared food. In the kitchen sink, Mi Mo discovers that Hae Joon did not eat her porridge, letting it go to waste. Later, her painful high heels remind her of the time Hae Joon was oblivious to her hobbling.
Mi Mo runs into Soo Hyuk at the elevators of their apartment. In direct contrast with Hae Joon, Soo Hyuk notices the bandage on her finger, and her uncomfortable footwear.
Soo Hyuk finds out that Seul Ah has miscarried the baby she had with Mi Mo’s ex-boyfriend. His primary response is irritation at the prospect of having to camp outside of the hospital for an indeterminate amount of time.
At work, Dong Mi (Yoo In Na) is busy writing pretty prose in her head about her heartache rather than paying any attention to her students. At home, she commiserates with Ae Ran (Seo In Young), while Ae Ran wonders whether she should settle for her husband. Dong Mi is despondent about being lonely, and Ae Ran’s solution is to take her to a nightclub. Indeed, Dong Mi is no longer alone, but surrounded by boorish men who jeer at her then at Ae Ran when she decides to do a pole dance. An embarrassed Dong Mi is attempting to escape when she slips, but she is caught by a flower boy. Dong Mi does not know what to make of the young man when he treats the wound on her head.
Dong Mi makes a date with the 28 year old man, but having told him that she is 31, she is afraid that light of day will not be forgiving. Neither Mi Mo nor Da Jung can offer any advice, since they have never dated anyone younger. Ae Ran reassures Dong Mi that she has picked a younger man of the right age.
Mi Mo receives a call from Soo Hyuk asking frantically where she is. He hangs up before she can explain that she is in the hospital visiting Da Jung, which also happens to be where Seul Ah is being treated. Mi Mo’s friends then discover the reason why there are reporters camped outside: Seul Ah’s miscarriage. Worse yet, the photos of Mi Mo confronting her ex-boyfriend and Seul Ah have been printed alongside an indictment of Mi Mo for causing the miscarriage.
Mi Mo seems determined to leave the hospital regardless of the reporters, since she has done nothing wrong. When Ae Ran fails to deter her, Soo Hyuk swoops in to grab Mi Mo’s arm. He lambastes her for her lack of media savvy. He is about to take her to his car when she yanks her arm away and insists that she can take care of herself, since she has gone through a scandal before. Soo Hyuk can only look exasperated as she walks away.
Hae Joon is making the rounds at the hospital when he overhears the brewing scandal involving Mi Mo. Meanwhile, Soo Hyuk passes the crowd of Seul Ah fans outside just as they find out that Mi Mo is at the hospital and decide to hunt her down as an angry mob. They quickly find Mi Mo in the parking garage, and launch an assault of raw eggs and other food items. Soo Hyuk dashes in, just in time, to take Mi Mo into his arms and shield her from the food onslaught.
Comments
There are at least two points of the main love triangle that were made extremely unappealing in this episode. First, there was Hae Joon who browbeats Mi Mo for spending time with Soo Hyuk, then refuses to be clear on his boundaries. Then, they highlight the fact that Hae Joon is oblivious to Mi Mo’s injuries and discomfort. I am convinced the writers are trying their best to test the limits of Kwon Yool’s attractiveness.
Then, there is Mi Mo who needed to be rescued by Soo Hyuk twice. The second time was especially frustrating, because she walked right into a tempest with a false sense of self-confidence, failing to remember that her previous public scandal had destroyed her K-pop career.
Soo Hyuk came across as passable only in the context of Hae Joon’s crazy jealousy and Mi Mo’s shortsightedness. I am disappointed by how muted and sad he has become. After all, a big part of why I enjoyed Soo Hyuk and Mi Mo together was their ludicrous comedic interactions. Of course, that’s all out the window during mid-series drama and angst.
One final disappointment to mention; I had heard that Conan O’Brien would be making a cameo on “One More Happy Ending” during his visit to Korea. My imagination ran wild with scenarios like Conan O’Brien as a crazed Angels fan, or playing himself caught up in a scandal that Soo Hyuk is covering. Instead, they just decided to stick Conan O’Brien’s head on a goldfish in a throwaway sequence that was jarringly out of place.
I just hope the next episode shines a better light on everyone.
One More Happy Ending (한번 더 해피엔딩)
Noonas Over Forks 