Coffee Prince Chapter 4: “What Happened in Room S11”

by javabeans

(Random) SONG OF THE DAY

Soulstar – “입술” (Lips) [ zShare download ]

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Question: Do people want the post titles to include the chapter title or not? If there are some spoilerphobes who don’t want to see them (who would prefer I keep the title under the “read more” cut), speak now or forever hold your peace. Danke!

Like I mentioned, I wanted to rush through Chapter 3 because Chapter 4 was where it starts getting interesting. Granted, this is mainly stuff we’ve seen, but it’s still fun to see the characters’ thoughts explored in more depth, such as the attraction between the two leads. It starts in the novel a bit earlier than I felt it in the drama, but in any case, I think the drama has done a great job preserving the nuances of the book, even though naturally it can’t squeeze every little detail into the TV series.

 
CHAPTER 4: “What Happened in Room S11”

Han Gyul resumes his assholery right away as Eun Chan arrives at his VIP hotel room. The instant she steps inside, he tells her (sarcastically):

“Killer fashion sense you’ve got.”

Really? Eun Chan looked down at her clothes in puzzlement.

“Are those cleaning rags, or old scraps?”

Damn him!

At Han Gyul’s cold treatment, Eun Chan starts to think she made a mistake coming and makes a note of his physical appearance:

His eyes stretched sideways to look like Mashimaro [to your right], and they made an even triangle with the high bridge of his nose, while his upturned lips looked like Angelina Jolie’s. Whether it was from suntanning, his skin color all over was like a nicely broiled fish… Ah! Some broiled mackerel would be great. In any case, on the whole, he looked kind of slick, and irritating. He must’ve been about 5 foot 11 or so.

 
But still, she isn’t immune to his half-naked state of dress, as we can all imagine Mr. Gong Yoo similarly attired, even if she couches her reaction in annoyance:

What’s with him going topless? If he’s going to dress himself, he ought to do it fully. Not like this with only his jeans, and even then they were hanging perilously loosely to reveal his pelvis. Did he want to freeze to death? What kind of fashion is this?

Han Gyul does catch Eun Chan in an incriminating slip of the tongue when he asks how old the escaped criminal was (Min Yub), and she automatically answers that he’s twenty. Realizing she shouldn�t know that, she backtracks and says he looked like he was twenty, but that only confirms Han Gyul’s suspicions. He threatens to send her to the police station, and because Eun Chan is so insulted by him in general, she makes it a point not to correct his misconception that she’s male. It’s like her own little rebellion.

Eun Chan decides she’s had enough and turns to leave, but accidentally knocks into him with her shoulder as he’s taking a sip of water. The cup overturns and water spills all over Han Gyul:

Eun Chan stretched out her hand. Her intention was to dry the water from his chest. So without even realizing, she found her hand reaching out to wipe the water. However, the moment her fingers touched his skin, the strangeness of their pose struck her. The man looked at her, startled, and at the same time Eun Chan stiffened. At that moment, a shriek sounded.

“Oh my god! What in the world…?”

With her hand touching the man’s chest, Eun Chan turned her head. There stood a woman with a dumbfounded expression, with her two hands raised to her mouth.

“Wh…what are you doing? A-a-and… with a man!”

 
We then jump straight to Han Gyul’s matchmaking date with a perfectly proper but oh-so-dull woman. As planned, Eun Chan arrives and sits nearby, and Han Gyul makes it a point to stare fixedly at Eun Chan, to discomfit his date. But in doing so, he notices Eun Chan’s features……

He couldn’t be more than about 5 foot 8 or 9. White skin, round eyes, unusually red lips. He looked like the lead singer of a pop idol group he’d seen somewhere. These days, guys who were so pretty they could be mistaken for girls at first glance were all the rage. Go Eun Chan was that type. If he’d only sit still and keep his mouth shut, he’d have a splendid air about him. What a waste of his good looks. Dick would drool if he saw him.

It seems Dick is a gay friend of Han Gyul from the States (all inferred, not explained as of yet), and hello, Obviously Suggestive Name!

Han Gyul’s date finally asks the question, wondering who Eun Chan is, and Han Gyul excuses himself to say hello. Although the twosome appear to meet on friendly terms, underneath the show, Eun Chan and Han Gyul bicker, as Han Gyul initiates Step 1. Eun Chan prepares herself and puts on her game face:

Han Gyul placed his hand on Eun Chan’s arm, resting atop the table. Just like affectionate lovers.

“Smile, man.”

“This isn’t something to smile about.”

Han Gyul smiled weakly. As he moved his torso forward a bit to close the distance between them, Eun Chan’s crooked smile distorted even more.

“Are you a pervert?”

“Are you fooling around?”

Despite their bickering, they keep up the act, and Han Gyul gives Eun Chan instructions about Step 2, and gets ready to leave.

Before standing, Han Gyul reached over with his hand to stroke Eun Chan’s hair. In an instant, he stopped. That wasn’t in the plan……

Han Gyul returns to his date, who’s clearly unsettled but too polite to say anything. Strangely, his hand feels an odd sensation from touching Eun Chan on the head, and thinks how black and smooth and soft his hair was. But why did he touch Eun Chan’s head? He tries to convince himself it was to keep up appearances. Yeah. That’s it.

Han Gyul also watches Eun Chan eating away enthusiastically, with a happy smile as she packs it away:

Thanks to him [Eun Chan], it was even more tedious watching his date eat. She’d cut up her tiny steak, much smaller than the size of her fist, into 2-percent pieces.

At an appointed time, Eun Chan rises, knocking over a water glass loudly in the process. Han Gyul races to her side to ask with concern if she’s okay. With effort, the two “act” their way through the lovers’ quarrel, and Eun Chan bursts out:

“Go, get lost! You don’t have to worry about me anymore. We…we’re over, you jerk!”

She pushes him aside and walks off, leaving Han Gyul calling after her with sadness, “Chan! Chan!”

 
After this incident, Eun Chan returns to her normal activities, like teaching Taekwondo. She even receives an entire stash of chocolates from high school girls on Valentine’s Day. I think her student Seung Kyung has a crush on her, because when Eun Chan asks who the girls were who brought the chocolates, she tells her: “I don�t know, but they were really ugly, fat, and probably stupid.”

Eun Chan gets a call from Eun Sae’s teacher informing her that her sister’s once again gotten into trouble, and Eun Chan readies to find (and kill) Eun Sae, turning down offers of free meat (to her everlasting dismay) because her female admirers want to take her out. However, she’s interrupted by a phone call from Han Gyul. Without preamble or explanation, Han Gyul orders Eun Chan to meet him (he’s on another date) in ten minutes flat. Eun Chan tries to turn him down, saying she’s in an urgent situation, but he doesn’t care and orders her to come. Now.

Pissed off at his cavalier attitude, Eun Chan fumes as she storms out, muttering how she’ll go, but he’d better watch out! On her way out, she gives a few furious kicks to the brick wall. Her exit leaves her admirers sighing in her wake:

“Did you see, did you see? Wow, he’s so cool!”

“He’s awesome. He’s so tough. Such charisma!”

“Oh, our Chan! My love Chan!”

/end Chapter 4.

Wasn’t that a fun one? 😉

Phew! Now I’ve got to decide whether to put aside Coffee Prince for Harry Potter or not. I’m not in a frenzy to read Harry Potter, but I’m just worried that if I don’t read it right away, somehow the ending will inadvertently be spoiled. And I hate that. To think, I almost read that Michiko Kakutani review. From what I hear, it’s a damn good thing I didn’t. Sigh.