49 Days: Episode 6

by girlfriday

This episode is a nice set of revelations, confessions, and change-ups, as all the characters reveal a little something about themselves, get further entangled in each other’s lives, and end up face to face with some of those pesky feelings. Yeah, that leads to exactly what you’d expect: it’s called Denial Land, and we all live here, because who needs the truth when you can repress and shout instead?

 
EPISODE 6 RECAP

Min-ho grabs Ji-hyun (in Yi-kyung’s body), his anger and curiosity getting the best of him. He tells her not to look at him with those eyes anymore, accusing her of trying to ensnare him with the impression that she knows him. Well, it’s not totally off base, what you’re picking up on, but from the point of view that she IS a perfect stranger, you are one egomaniacal dude.

Both In-jung and Kang walk up and see the display, feeling the tension. Min-ho refuses to let go of Ji-hyun’s arm until In-jung finally interrupts and makes her presence known. Ji-hyun apologizes and walks away, realizing that she should heed the Scheduler’s warning and be more careful about being Ji-hyun-esque in front of her friends. Well, I use the term ‘friends’ loosely. Backstabbity-ex-friends included.

Over dinner, Kang tells Min-ho that he won’t be doing the Haemido project anymore, and tries to hand over the sketches he’s made so far. Min-ho doesn’t accept the decision, and says that he’s the only one to do it. Selfishly, I want Kang to wash his hands of the nasty scheme, but I suppose the characters’ relationships have to be crisscrossed thusly.

He takes Ji-hyun downstairs and gives her a lecture about customer service, declaring that Min-ho is his friend’s fiancé. Ji-hyun pouts to herself, thinking that Kang is so nice to Min-ho, when he was always so mean to her. Oh, sweet, dim-witted girl.

In-jung is dying of curiosity about how Min-ho took care of the land deal, and asks him to drive her home, feigning sickness. He takes issue with her boldness, both with the ride and with her repeatedly calling him oppa in public, but she insists they’re in the clear.

He tells her about the plan to declare Ji-hyun non compos mentis, and asks her to be patient, because it’s going to take time for Dad to come to terms with the decision. She complains that it’s been two years of sneaking around in hotel rooms and such, and the wedding day was supposed to be the end of it.

Oh, wah, poor cheating princess. Are you tired of all the sneaking around and lying with your boyfriend? Let me get you a tissue.

Min-ho feeds her a few smooth lines about how “location doesn’t matter if they can be comfortable around each other,” (Blech) and that they’re “going to be together for the rest of their lives” anyway (Double blech). That’d be Cheater Line #1 and Cheater Line #2.

She’s reassured, that is until she goes to reach for his hand and he turns away unwittingly. Despite her being a cheater, I do feel sorry for her in that she went this far because she loves him, only to get the cold shoulder after she’s neck-deep in lies.

At the same time, Ji-hyun takes the bus home and deletes all the pictures of her and Min-ho on her camera. But when she gets to pictures of her girlfriends, she can’t bring herself to delete them. She cries, asking In-jung when she stopped being a friend to her. Sad.

She notices her own tears and a lightbulb goes off. She calls the Scheduler and asks if this phone can be used to talk to not-dead people too. He gives the phone a you’re-kidding-me-right-right look, and basically calls her an idiot for not using it until now.

She makes some calls to the people on her list on her way home, and gets spotted by the landlady. She makes a run for it to avoid another encounter, and rushes to go to sleep. Ji-hyun’s soul pops out and Yi-kyung wakes up to the landlady pounding on the door, demanding rent.

Yi-kyung starts to suspect something really is going on, when the landlady tells her she saw her outside, and then reminds her that she was here yesterday. She looks in the mirror, staring at her hair, wondering what the hell is going on.

Ji-hyun watches in fear, and immediately pushes her Scheduler panic button. This time she gets a video greeting in reply, from Scheduler-nim: “This is not an emergency situation,” and he wags his finger at her. Hahahaha. Yi-kyung is suspicious, but lets it rest for now, and Ji-hyun breathes a sigh of relief.

The next day, she comes bounding in to work, and asks Kang to sign her in-time in her notebook, so she can calculate her freelance part-time pay properly. He agrees with a smile, and she thanks him brightly, calling him “ssa-jang-nim,” an exaggerated pronunciation of “Boss.”

He tells her to quit calling him that, but she asks what she’s supposed to call him instead then: “Han Kang-sshi? Or…Han Kang? How about that? Can’t I just call you Han Kang? They do it in America. Jenny, John, Brad, Kang. Hey, Kang!”

Ha. He does NOT look pleased at that, so she puts her hand down sheepishly. I love that as Ji-hyun, she desperately wants to call her friend the way she’s always called him, but she can’t, not in Yi-kyung’s body. Still, he can’t help but smile as he watches her bounce away.

Mom thinks over Ji-hyun’s words that she wants to become a mother like her, and heads to the hospital with a thermos full of ox bone soup (something that she doesn’t eat) because it’s Ji-hyun and Dad’s favorite.

At the same time, Manager Oh’s wife shows up at the restaurant with a pot full of the same soup for the staff. Ji-hyun eats her share to the last drop, and when Kang sees her eating so well, he gives up his rice for her to have more.

Aw, I love his little gesture, and also the connection between Ji-hyun and her mother through this motif, because ox bone soup is honestly synonymous with “mom” for me. It’s a Korean thing. The smell of that soup makes me think of my mother, without fail.

Outside, a little kid breaks a glass and cries, and Ji-hyun goes outside to clean up the mess. The kid throws a tantrum, so Ji-hyun shows him a magic trick with the tissue, making him smile and wipe his tears.

Kang watches, stunned. It triggers a memory of high school, when he joined the magic club because he “had to,” (yeah, right) and Ji-hyun showed him that same trick, over and over again.

He watches her smiling back at the kid, and he actually starts to see her as Ji-hyun, with that same smile. He asks her if she knows magic tricks, and Ji-hyun just says she learned it from a friend and heads inside.

Kang sits down with Manager Oh and starts naming all the similarities between Ji-hyun and Yi-kyung: her eating habits, her nervous habits, her word choice, and now magic tricks too. He adds, “and by feelings too…” which means that she feels like Ji-hyun, but we can read into it another layer: that his romantic feelings for both are being confused.

Ji-hyun goes on her first tear-gathering mission, and goes to see an old high school friend at a gallery. She introduces herself as Ji-hyun’s friend, and asks to film a video message, to provide Ji-hyun a connection to her friends and encourage her to wake up.

She asks for a tearjerker story, and the friend obliges, but there are no tears to be seen. Instead she states quite matter-of-factly that it’s not like Ji-hyun is dead or anything, and asks about what happened with her engagement.

Ji-hyun leaves, realizing that this is going to be harder than she thought. I don’t know why she’s starting with satellite friends instead of at least starting with Seo-woo. I mean, even if you don’t believe that Kang would cry for you, why wouldn’t you start with one of your best friends?

Meanwhile, Kang visits Ji-hyun in the hospital, bearing her favorite roses because he’s perfect. Gah. He sees her toes sticking out from under the blanket and covers them, and says aloud that she’s here…so why does he keep seeing her elsewhere?

He smiles and tells her that she’s supposed to say that he’s crazy. He says it again, that he’s the crazy one, as if trying to convince himself.

Ji-hyun heads to Seo-woo’s bakery, reminding me why it’s harder to gather tears from her closest friends—because they already know her as Kang’s employee, so she can’t double as Ji-hyun’s friend. This is going to get tricky when worlds collide.

She tries to ask about the friend that Seo-woo is thinking about a little too eagerly, scaring her off (with the misinterpreted implication that she’s got romantic feelings for her, no less). She buys some of her favorite pastries, and heads back to work.

Kang sees her on his way back from the hospital, but decides to ignore her. He drives past, leaving Ji-hyun waving after him. She runs to catch up with him, asking why he drove past, and he just brushes her off gruffly, pretending not to have seen her.

She appears downstairs with a pastry for him (his favorite kind), and he has an outburst in response, because he’s a grumpypants, trying not to feel feelings. He yells at her and tells her to get out and stop bugging him, bringing her near tears. Le sigh, if only you’d take your own advice, sir, and realize why you’re being such a hot-and-cold ass.

In-jung gets the cold shoulder from Min-ho, so she asks Seo-woo to dinner. They head to Kang’s, where they run into Ji-hyun briefly. Manager Oh sends her home because she doesn’t look well, and In-jung asks the other waitress if “Yi-kyung” is a good worker, since she gets treated so well. She replies that it’s because the boss likes her—she comes and goes as she pleases.

Ji-hyun heads home, exhausted, and calls the Scheduler to come and get the money that she owes him—the 49 dollars he loaned her in the beginning. He looks rather surprised that she’s already paying him back, but he’s mid-songwriting session, and feeling inspired, so he tells her to come to him, since she’s the lendee.

She reminds him that she won’t be able to touch the money once she’s out of Yi-kyung’s body, but he lays a new rule on her: if it’s intended for him, she’ll be able to. I do love these arbitrary rules. But that means that she can touch HIM, yeah? What? Just checking the rules.

She shows up to the club (And how much do I love that Reaper Boy is a Hongdae club rat?) where he’s singing his latest creation, “Scarecrow.” Ji-hyun listens, entranced, and claps cheerily afterwards. He plays it cool, but totally basks in the praise.

She tinkers with the piano and wistfully says that being a singer was once her dream, prompting a huge laugh out of the Scheduler. She puts on a pouty face and sings a line from the song he just sang, making him eat his words. Surprised, he asks why she never pursued it. She says that Daddy didn’t let her, ’cause he wanted her to get married instead. Yeah, that turned out nicely for you.

She tells him that she made her first attempt at tear-gathering today, and felt totally pathetic. He tells her that it’s a given for a 49er, and reminds her that humans are complicated. He adds, “But you’re better off than a Scheduler…because you have the hope of coming back to life.”

She asks how he became a Scheduler in the first place. He volunteered. She asks why.

Scheduler: I don’t know what it is, but I think I died with something sincerely important left to do. That’s why I volunteered. If I finish my five-year term without incident, I can do that thing. That’s the reason why I live as a scheduler.

She asks what that thing is. Scheduler: “If I KNEW, why would I be scheduler?!” She realizes that it was a dumb question, and adds that he’s got it pretty rough, for being such a young kid. Heh.

Meanwhile, Yi-kyung never made it out to work that night because she got sick from something that Ji-hyun ate. Kyung-bin (the doc) comes by the store asking after her, and the boss says she never showed up or called that night.

Ji-hyun waits outside, wondering why Yi-kyung isn’t coming home from work, and calls the Scheduler, insisting that it’s really an emergency this time. They go inside and find Yi-kyung writhing in pain, and he tells her to go to the hospital, and shoves Ji-hyun in.

She recounts all the stuff she ate to the doctor, who reels in shock and asks if she didn’t throw up. Meanwhile Kang waits at work, wondering if maybe he was too harsh on her yesterday.

Min-ho presents Dad with the Haemido land deal, with the financial backup plan/loophole/hostile takeover soft spot in play. At the same time, Dad starts throwing up. What the? How can dad and daughter have the same food poisoning from different batches of the same soup?

Ji-hyun realizes how late she is for work, and heads to the drugstore to pick up her medicine, and runs to the bus stop. Min-ho happens to be driving out of the hospital just then, and spots her, right when she crosses the street and trips. He instinctively jerks out of his seat wanting to help her, but stops himself.

He watches as she limps to the bus stop and takes her medication, and then decides to offer her a ride. She turns him down with a sneer, refusing to go with him. He tells her that he’s headed to Kang’s anyway, and asks why she won’t take the ride.

Ji-hyun: “Because I don’t like you.” He asks why, and she responds that there’s no reason; she just dislikes him. She muses that he wouldn’t understand because he probably needs a reason for everything—to like or dislike someone.

He can’t let it go, for whatever reason, and literally drags her into the car. Geez, what the hell, dude? This is why people are calling you out on your weird behavior. In the car she notes the picture of him and well, herself, and says without thinking, “She looks stupid.” She quickly corrects it, saying that she seems trusting and gullible.

Kang is of course waiting outside for her to arrive, and freaks out when he sees her getting out of Min-ho’s car. Is it wrong that I’m giddy over the jealous feud that’s about to break out?

By the time Min-ho comes downstairs into his office, Kang is already fuming mad, and he asks why Yi-kyung arrived in his car. Where did they meet? Why did he give her a ride? What’s he doing, when Ji-hyun is lying there like that? Has he already given up on Ji-hyun?

Min-ho just argues right back, asking why they’re talking about Ji-hyun (whom he thinks Kang dislikes) when this is really about his feelings for Yi-kyung. Kang denies it, and then so does Min-ho, shouting that he has no interest in Yi-kyung.

And round and round they go. I love that either way you go in that conversation, they’re both interested in BOTH girls, making for a whole world of confusion and lots of posturing about how they’re TOTALLY uninterested, and yet, with the shouty.

Min-ho leaves and Kang calls Yi-kyung/Ji-hyun down, and fires her for the last time. He tells her that Min-ho is his friend’s fiancé, and that he has a job to protect her. Ji-hyun realizes that he’s doing all this for her, although she’s missing the part where he’s also totally jealous but refusing to admit it.

He throws down an envelope of money, and she tells him that he knows she won’t take it. With tears in her eyes, she thanks him, and says that she’ll consider it hers, all the care he’s giving to his friend. And with quiet goodbyes to the staff, she leaves.

Outside, Min-ho overhears that she’s been fired, and waits for her to come out. He asks what she’ll do now, and then offers her a job as his housekeeper. Raaargh. I hate the idea that she’s going to leave Kang’s to go work for him, but then I see why she jumps at the opportunity to spy on his secret life.

She asks how much he’ll pay, and takes the job.

 
COMMENTS

That’s going to be an interesting twist to the daily affairs. I can’t say I’m happy about it for Kang’s sake (because his growing crush on her is ADORABLE), but it should make it easier for Ji-hyun to thwart Min-ho’s scheme from the inside. And I do like seeing him squirm around her. I just hope it’s not the end of the cute antics between Kang and Ji-hyun, especially when he’s just starting to put two and two together about all the similarities between Yi-kyung and Ji-hyun.

I like that Ji-hyun for once has the upper hand, as the soul-in-Yi-kyung’s-body, since she’s got the ability to move about in Ji-hyun’s world without anyone knowing who she is. Despite her frustrations, it is a kind of wish fulfillment, to find out what people really think of you. I am kind of concerned at how far the revenge plot might go (giving Kang the wrong idea or even worse, making her bitter and jaded) though I don’t think she’s got it in her to be quite the vengeful ghost.

I also appreciate that there are consequences to using Yi-kyung’s body, and that not resting or overeating is taking a toll on her physically. It’ll be interesting to see if her suspicions will lead her closer to the doctor, since he’s a shrink and she might be crazy. Well, inhabited by a ghost twelve hours a day, so…same thing.

Yay for more backstory on Reaper Boy, who now has a task and a journey all his own. His connection to Yi-kyung is a given (the puzzle pieces are laid out and as he said himself, nothing in his town is a coincidence), but the interesting part will be in his discovery of that fact. And of course the real fun (and drama) will be when it all comes to a head: can he finish his term without breaking any more rules for Ji-hyun, or will helping her eventually keep him from his “reason for being a scheduler”?

Also, is god-lighting one of the perks of being undead, or is that just a side effect of wearing Jung Il-woo?

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